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Although astronomers have identified less than a dozen potentially habitable planets so far, a new study suggests that our galaxy may be teeming with planets actually capable of hosting life. Based on data from NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft, researchers had previously predicted that there should be one Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of each red […]
Power outages Every summer, when power grids are pushed to the limits by air conditioning, there’s millions or possibly billions of failures which can occur. A single failure in the system can cause massive power outages throughout entire neighborhoods – or even cities. To be honest, usually, a single failure doesn’t really cause this kind […]
Idaho State University researchers have created uranium crystals by crushing nuclear fuel pellets and heating them in a furnace. This was made with the purpose of studying a single uranium crystal, understanding how heat would flow through it, and ultimately develop safer fuels for nuclear reactors. Uranium crystal. Credit: INL Eric Burgett, a professor at […]
Scientists from Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford have analyzed the compositions of Martian meteorites found on Earth and data from NASA’s rovers, and they reached the conclusion that the Red Planet had an atmosphere pretty rich in oxygen 4 billion years ago. They compared Martian rocks with meteorites, and the fact […]
Rock permeability in the geologic fault that unleashed China’s 2008 quake shows that fractures mend quicker than was thought. A devastating earthquake The 2008 Sichuan earthquake struck at 02:28:01 PM China Standard Time, with a magnitude of 8. It came as quite a surprise, as the area is not particularly active from a seismic point […]
The Voyager 1 has truly gone where no man has gone before – the brave shuttle is now more than 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun, closer and closer to becoming the first man-made object to reach interstellar space. To me, it’s just baffling that we sent something 18 billion kilometers from […]
A near-Earth object (NEO) is a Solar System object whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth; now, the 10.000th near-Earth object, asteroid 2013 MZ5 was discovered, on the night of June 18, 2013, by the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope located on the summit of the Haleakala crater on Maui. Out of the 10.000 discovered NEOs, over […]
Mammals can naturally regenerate the very top of their fingers and toes after amputation; starting from this idea, researchers have demonstrated the mechanism that describes this process, and explain how stem cells from nails could play a pivotal role in future regeneration of entire fingers. A study conducted on mice showed that the chemical signal […]
Is there something that graphene can’t do? It’s the world’s strongest material, even when it has flaws, a graphene aerogel is also the lightest material known, it’s great for sensors, for headphones, it repairs itself, and boasts a swarm of other features and capabilities. Now, researchers from Manchester University have shown that they can create […]
Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease (HD), is a chronic infection caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. It was quite a common disease in Europe until the 16th century. Now, researchers have extracted DNA from skeletons that were 1,000 years old, analyzing the disease genetic code and comparing it to that of new strains, […]
Scientists at The University of Nottingham have come across what can be a monumental discovery, demonstrating for the first time a new layer of the human cornea. The layer, which was described in a paper in Ophthalmology, could help surgeons to dramatically improve outcomes for patients with severe cornea affections and those undergoing surgery. The […]
More and more discoveries seem to hint at a watery past for Mars. Now, NASA research shows that hunks of frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) may glide down some Martian sand dunes on cushions of gas similar to miniature hovercraft, plowing away as they go down. This study could explain one of the mysteries of […]
Typically on Earth, days usually have a temperature maximum somewhere after lunch, and a minimum during the night. But for Mars, things are pretty different: “We see a temperature maximum in the middle of the day, but we also see a temperature maximum a little after midnight,” said Armin Kleinboehl of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory […]
Astronomers have discovered 26 likely black holes in the Andromea Galaxy – the biggest number of black holes ever found in a galaxy except for our own. Black holes are pretty difficult to detect, because they emit no light of their own – they are only observed by light given off by material which falls […]
Hours and hours spent at computers or gaming consoles do have their advantages – not only do they train reaction times and adaptation, but they also train the brain to make better and faster use of visual input, according to Duke University researchers. “Gamers see the world differently,” said Greg Appelbaum, an assistant professor of […]
A new study conducted by researchers from Ohio University concluded that both men and women will lie about their behavior to match cultural expectations. Well now, this is a new one – who would have thought people actually lie to have sex? But it gets even better – they used student behavior for this study. […]
It seems to me that we’ve just began to scratch the surface of what we know about autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). It’s been recently shown that autism is linked with child prodigies and that for some reason, autism rates continue to increase, especially in male population. Now, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University and the […]
As we told you on ZME Science a while ago, we are nearing a global coffee crisis – if today’s trends continue, computer models show that Arabica coffee will become extinct in 70 years. Still, the taste for the drink increases more and more, even as more and more shadow is cast on its supposed […]
For more and more people, ageing and clumsiness seem to go hand in hand – difficulties when handling a plate, fumbling with keys or even dialing a phone – new research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that some of these day-to-day reaching-and-grasping difficulties may be be caused by changes in the mental frame […]
The first known case of a bone tumor has been discovered in a Neanderthal who lived about 120,000 years ago in what is now present-day Croatia. The bone samples come from the already famous cave/archaeological site Krapina, which now hosts a Neanderthal Museum. Bone tumors are exceptionally rare finds in fossils and archaeological records, with […]
Living fossils, fast adapters Sturgeons have been conserved as fossils ever since the early Cretaceous – some 130 million years ago; they are what we call ‘living fossils’. But a new study by University of Michigan researchers revealed that in some aspects, sturgeons are one of the fastest-evolving fish on the planet. “Sturgeon are thought […]
It’s not a well known problem by most, but those who work in the field are very aware of it – medical isotopes are a very valuable commodity. But now, a Canadian team may have very well found a way to end the shortage, developing and upgrade that allows hospital cyclotrons to make a much-needed […]
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is one mean, hard, disease. It’s an autoimmune disease – your body basically fails to identify itself, and starts attacking itself, and treatment is very difficult. In MS, the immune system attacks and destroys myelin, the insulating layer that forms around nerves in the spinal cord, brain and optic nerve. When the […]
It’s a staple of classic science fiction – controlling stuff with your mind. But researchers working at the University of Minnesota made it reality. From sci-fi to the lab In the lab of biomedical engineering professor Bin He, several people have already learned to use their thoughts to drive a flying robot around – making […]
If you’ve ever visited a cave, you probably know the golden rules: Watch you’re head, stay on the track, and keep your grase paws off the formations! Why the last one? Well, because the hands and dirt you have on your hands can impede their growth. But when you go inside a cave as a […]
Early galaxies were very different from those we see today – it was overgrown black holes, and not stars that lit them up, claims a new study; in it, it is suggested that these obese black holes were numerous and bright enough that we should be able to detect them now, billions of years […]
Stars have a pull on all planets, but they exhibit a special kind of attraction towards a class of planets called ‘Hot Jupiters‘. Hot Jupiters, also called roaster planets or pegadisds are a class of extrasolar planets very similar to Jupiter, but which have very high temperatures because they orbit very close to the Sun. […]
Towering thunderstorms are a bad sign, often announcing a strong tropical cyclone – and NASA’s satellites observed just that. The TRMM satellite spotted thunderstorms reaching heights of almost 9 miles high within Tropical Storm Andrea, while the Aqua satellite provided an infrared view that revealed very cold cloud top temperatures that coincided with the towering […]
What do Australian researchers do when they don’t want to do their homework? They make a study in which they prove homeworks aren’t useful. But jokes aside, Australian academics Richard Walker and Mike Horsley’s new book – Reforming Homework – claims homework for young primary school children is of little or no value when it […]
The case of birds missing out on a proper penis has been a longstanding mystery in evolutionary biology. Roughly 97% of avian species sport little or nothing like a real phallus, yet they still reproduce via internal fertilization. A new study, conducted by Martin Cohn, a developmental biologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville […]
A new study suggests that U.S. businesses pay almost $6,000 per year extra for each employee who smokes, compared to an employee which doesn’t smoke. Researchers claim this is the first study to focus on the cost of employing smokers vs non-smokers. So why does this happen? By drawing data from previous researches, focusing on […]
Yoga supporters have long claimed the benefits of the practice, both on the mind and the soul, but many skeptics underlined the lack of scientific studies in the field. Now, a team from Illinois University have shown that even a singulary, 20 minute session of Hatha yoga significantly improved participants’ speed and accuracy on tests […]
Ah, Playa del Amor – the beach of love! Such a sweet, classic name for such a weird, hidden beach! Located several meters inland on one of the Marieta Islands, the Hidden Beach is one of those unique natural wonders you just don’t want to miss. But as our Facebook fans know, I asked you […]
Forget meadows. Forget grass. Forget sterile, monotone parks with no plant diversity. Seattle’s vision of an urban oasis is becoming more and more a reality: a seven-acre plot of land will be covered with hundreds of different kinds of edible plants: walnut and chestnut trees, blueberry and raspberry shrubs, apples, pears, yuzu citrus, guava, persimmons, […]
At 55 million years old, it represents the earliest known member of this broad group of animals that includes humans. It may be no bigger than a mouse, but it is a primate, and a very valuable one at that; paleontologists have named it Archicebus, which roughly translates as “ancient monkey”. The team which described […]
Benjamin Wegener, a researcher at Monash University’s School of Biological Sciences and his team has shown that for squids, it’s really a dog eat dog out there: certain females consume male ejaculate and sperm as if they were foods, providing more energy for both themselves and future eggs. For females, it’s really a big win […]
As bad as earthquakes can be, and we’ve recently had our fair share of earthquakes around the world, the tsunamis they generate can be even worse. When an earthquake has a significant effect in a body of water, it displaces large quantities of water – and it is that displacement which causes the huge waves […]
The French didn’t invent wine, no more than Colombians invented coffee or the Italians discovered tomatoes. But… who did? What is the actual homeland of this wonderful drink? After analyzing some limestone residue, archaeologists working at University of Pennsylvania claims to have found the earliest evidence of European winemaking. The 2,400-year-old stone is apparently a […]
Hydrogen is the most common element in the Universe. It’s the first element in the periodic table, and it has but one proton and one electron. Understanding how it behaves at very large pressures is crucial to our understanding of matter and the nature of hydrogen-rich planets. Under typical conditions, Hydrogen is a diatomic molecule […]
Just yesterday we were telling you about a change in diet 3.5 million years ago, modifying the way our hominid ancestors evolved and, in turn, how we evolved. Now, we’re moving a little closer to the present day – researchers calculating the barium levels in fossil teeth claim that they’ve found a difference in the […]
In a quest to make concrete not only more durable but also more sustainable, a group of geologists and engineers have found inspiration in the ancient Romans – whose imposing buildings have passed the test of time, surviving two millennia. Geology and the Romans Using classic microscopy, as well as the Advanced Light Source at […]
A team of researchers from Cologne, Munich and Dresden have managed to create artificial magnetic monopoles, similar in many ways to a fundamental particle postulated by Paul Dirac in 1931. Monopoles and Dipoles Until now, a magnetic monopole, the magnetic analogue to an electric charge has never been observed – all we had until now […]
It’s not quite what scientists expected – the width of blood vessels in the eye, at the back of the retina, may indicate brain health risks, such as dementia and alzheimers years before they actually set in according to a new study published in Psychological Science. It is already well known that young people who […]
To fully understand the processes and mechanisms that work at a cellular level, biologists should study them in their native, watery environments. But how would you go on doing this? Well, leave it to engineers to solve everyone’s problems – they have now deviced a kind of atomic force microscopy that works on samples sitting […]
Eggs, drugs and human lives For the standards of the criminals who poach and smuggle animals in Central America, it was just another day. But for the rest of the world, the murder of conservationist Jairo Mora Sandoval is a tragedy – a tragedy highlighting the risks faced by biologists whose passion for nature puts […]
The reemergence of the critically endangered population of Huemul deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus) marks a fantastic achievement by local governments and conservationists worldwide. Brought back from the brink of extinction, when populations measured less than 1% of original numbers, the Huemul populations have not only stabilized – but have started increasing, according to a new study. […]
New analysis of fossil teeth from extinct fossils has shown that human ancestors greatly expanded their diets 3.5 million years ago, moving on to eat grasses and also other animals. Before this, the humanlike creatures (hominis) ate a forest based diet, pretty similar to what chimps and apes eat today. Researchers from the California Academy […]
Despite the fact that triceratops are some of the most well known dinosaurs, finding a complete skeletons is an extremely rare treat. It was one of the last non-avian dinosaur genera to appear before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event – the extinction which caused the end of dinosaurs and the Mesozoic. The scientists from the Black […]
The only two (significant) places in our solar system, that we know of, which can create opals are Central Australia and Mars, so by studying the geologic processes which led to the creation of these minerals in the first place, we can perhaps find out more about the Red Planet. As a geologist, I was […]
Soil is becoming endangered – this is the reality a meeting between experts in Reykjavik has reached. They explain that this has to receive public awareness if we want to feed 9 billion by 2050. Soil degradation is life degradation The main culprit is the one also responsible for global warming: Carbon. “Keeping and […]
