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Judging by the emails we get, lots of our readers take Tylenol on a (mostly) regular basis, and lots of you are worried about its effects. As I already discussed how to take it responsibly in a previous post, now I’ll talk about using it with infants. Tylenol (which is also paracetamol or acetaminophen depending […]
I’ve received lots of questions about this picture which we posted on our Facebook a few days ago (we sometimes post things only there, so be sure to follow us for the full ZME experience). The picture describes the ‘Before and after’ stages of bioremediation in Manila, the capital of Philippines; in this article, I’ll […]
Residents in China’s northeast region of Harbin are experiencing severe levels of smog pollution, which reduced the visibility to just 10 meters and virtually paralyzed all activities. Today (Monday morning), all schools and airports were closed and public transportation is limited. This is certainly not the first time in recent years when China was faced […]
Researchers from the University of Washington have come up with a software program that helps blind people (and not only) make accurate yoga poses. The software watches the user’s movements and gives spoken, simple and easy to understand feedback on what to change to complete a yoga pose. “My hope for this technology is for […]
Observations from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft have for the first time uncovered a ’tilted’ solar system, with two planets orbiting a star at a 45-degree angle. Did you ever wonder why the planets from our Solar System are all in the same plane? They formed from a flat disc of gas and dust revolving around the […]
A new, controversial analysis of a skull suggests that Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis and Homo erectus were in fact the same species, something which would force scientists rewrite a big page of anthropology. Researchers compared the anatomical features of the of a 1.8-million-year-old fossil skull with those of four other skulls from the same excavation […]
Just 1 out of 5 children in Britain are still connected to nature, and there’s no reason to believe that things lie any differently in the western world. What does ‘connected to nature’ mean? Saying that someone is or isn’t connected to nature, at an intuitive level, is often times fairly simple. But making that […]
A drug treated with a special dye allows doctors to monitor real-time bacterial growth. Despite advancements in technology and despite all the effort put in by doctors, bacteria often manage to sneak onto medical implants such as bone screws, where they cause severe, possibly life-threatening infections. A new research published in Nature Communications suggests using […]
Lots of children have imaginary friends, something which is generally frowned upon by adults and seen as a bad thing. But now, a study published in Experimental Child Psychology has shown that young children’s habit of talking to imaginary friends develops their inner dialogue that helps them to deal with challenging tasks now and later […]
A British company has developed colored but transparent solar cells which add just 10% to the price of the glass they are attached to. Glass and sunlight Oxford Photovoltaics, a spin-off from the University of Oxford, was able to “print” colourful glass that can generate electricity from the sun’s energy; they reported a £2m funding […]
The best way to send much-needed supplies to isolated communities following a natural disaster such as an earthquake, tsunami or volcano eruption would be to send them via converted intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), one researcher says. Usually, it’s the military “borrowing” technologies used in other fields (dynamite and the nuclear bomb, to name just two […]
A recent study was picked up a lot by the media, claiming that “Oreos are as addictive as drugs“. Just to get that out of the way as soon as possible, this headline, as flashy and attractive it is, is flawed. I’ll explain why in this post. The Study The first paragraph from their press […]
In the heart of Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, green spaces are a rarity. With the idea of creating an escape from the congested streets of Bangkok, Somdoon Architects came up with this design of two towers, each tailored for a specific type of customers, but also eco-friendly. A “green skin” covers the building providing temperature control […]
Not as unique as we thought An “emotionally competent” young ape rushes to hug another juvenile that has just been attacked. I think the idea of animals doing something “like humans” is pretty outdated as it is – so many things that we thought were unique to us have been proven to be if not […]
It almost seems too good to be true – a novel device that uses only sunlight and wastewater to produce hydrogen gas could provide a sustainable energy source, while also improving the efficiency of the waste water system. A sustainable, self-driven system In a paper published in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano, a […]
We’ve already written novels on how much 3D printing has evolved and what magnificent things we can accomplish through it: from printing bacteria to printing baroc rooms, from saving babies’ lives to rocket engines and from ears and cartilages to nanoscale objects, 3D printing promises to revolutionize the world we live in. Now, the European […]
Improved disaster preparedness and early warning systems in the region greatly reduced the number of casualties caused by “Super Cyclone” Phailin – no less than 800.000 people were evacuated to shelters set up in temples, schools and government buildings to avoid the path of the 140mph cyclone. Phailin resulted in 23 casualties; a comparable cyclone, […]
France’s ban on hydraulic fracking was completed, with the court upholding a 2011 law which prohibited the practice and cancelled all exploration permits. The decision posted on the court’s website said the ban “conforms to the constitution” and is not “disproportionate,” effectively protecting it from any future legal challenge. In other words, the decision is […]
What tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active hallucinogen in marijuana can do in several diseases has been researched for decades, but now, a new study has shown that the non-hallucinogenic components of cannabis act as effective anti-cancer agents. The team from St George’s University of London was led by Dr Wai Liu; they used a number of […]
Ötzi the Iceman goes by lots of names – the Similaun Man, the Man from Hauslabjoch, the Hauslabjoch mummy, etc – but most people just call him Ötzi; he’s a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived about 3,300 BCE, found in the Ötztal Alps (hence the name) near the border of Austria and […]
Finding mosquitoes trapped in amber is truly exciting, but it’s not really unique – there have been several reported cases all around the world, and some people are even selling such samples (which I don’t think is a good thing, but that’s another discussion). But finding a fossilized mosquito in sediment… now that’s unique! It […]
A new, non-invasive test for Down Syndrome would allow women with high-risk pregnancies to avoid amniocentesis and in the future may provide detection early enough for treatment to improve some babies’ cognitive function, a Tufts University neonatal genetics expert told a symposium at Harvard Medical School on Tuesday. Nowadays, physicians recommend all pregnant women to […]
Urine isn’t exactly the first place you want to start looking for eye diseases – but according to a new Duke University study a patient’s urine can be linked to gene mutations that cause Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), an inherited, degenerative disease that results in severe vision impairment and often blindness. “My collaborators, Dr. Rong Wen […]
It’s actually happening Good news – encouraging results from the longest and largest trial of a malaria vaccine could see the world’s first anti-malaria jab approved by 2015; malaria is one of the most dangerous diseases in the world, affecting over 220 million people every year (some say 300 million). The vaccine could be used […]
An international discovered a young, exotic, rogue planet – PSO J318.5-22, is just 80 light-years away from Earth and has a mass six times that of Jupiter; it was formed apporximately 12 million years ago – which makes it a newborn in terms of planets (the Earth was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago. “We […]
It was a result so unexpected that MIT researchers first thought there was some kind of mistake – under certain conditions, putting a cracked piece of metal under tension (pulling it apart) has the reverse effect – causing the edge of the cracks to fuse together. The surprising, counterintuitive find paves the way towards self […]
A lost moon of Neptune has not been seen since its discovery in the late 1980s – until now, that is. A new announcement from the 45th Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society revealed the rediscovery of the moon of Neptune which was only glimpsed briefly back in the […]
Improve your memory, improve your reasoning and observational skills, and many more – brain training games are becoming more and more popular, and it’s not hard to see why – many people want to go to the “brain gym”, giving their mental abilities a boost. But now, a Georgia Tech research suggests that brain training […]
Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel won the 2013 Nobel Prize For Chemistry on Wednesday “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems.” Chemists used to create atomic models using balls and sticks. Some 40 years ago, Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel laid the foundation for the powerful programs that […]
For the first time, researchers have found evidence of a comet entering Earth’s atmosphere and exploding, obliterating everything in its path before ultimately crashing down into the Sahara. Comets and asteroids Many people will probably be asking themselves “Didn’t we find comet evidence on Earth before?”. No, not really – if you did wondeer that, […]
It may not look like much, but this weird looking coal-like thing is actually a 4.000 year old preserved brain, which was “scorched and boiled in its own juices.” “The level of preservation in combination with the age is remarkable,” Frank Rühli at the University of Zurich, Switzerland explained, adding that most archaeologists simply don’t […]
A lump of peanut butter and a ruler are sufficient to confirm an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, even in its early stages, researchers claim. Jennifer Stamps, a graduate student in the McKnight Brain Institute Center for Smell and Taste and the University of Florida came up with the idea of using peanut butter as a testing method, […]
A new report released by the Energy Information Administration showed that the US will end 2013 as the largest producer of oil and gas in the world, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia; the US reachged a combined production of 25 million barrels of oil a day (crude oil, natural gas liquid condensates, and biofuels). Interestingly […]
Even an area so studied as Hawaii sometimes yields surprises – a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and the University of Rhode Island (URI) changes the very foundation of how the Hawaii islands were formed: it is the eruptions […]
Researchers at MIT have recreated Mars-like conditions within a three-story-tall cloud chamber in Germany, adjusting the temperature and humidity to match those on Mars – basically creating Martian clouds. Judging by the images Curiosity has sent us, Martian clouds look quite similar to ours – the gauzy, high-altitude wisps look a lot like the cirrus […]
Faeces based treatment halts the advance of Clostridium difficile bacteria, but a commercial treatment is still far away. Using a faeces in the treatment of the gut infections and diarrhea is not a new idea, though it’s still in its initial stages. In 2010, we told you about a woman who had a life threatening […]
Jellyfish are really impressive creatures, for all their simplicity; now, a new research has shown that the elastic body allows moon jellyfish to travel extra distance at no energy cost. The sockeye salmon is a sleek, muscular torpedo which rams up waterfalls. The jellyfish is a blob, drifting on aimlessly in the oceans. Obviously, the […]
Has it already been a year? It’s Nobel Prize season once again, and the first award has been given in “Physiology or Medicine“. James E Rothman, Randy W Schekman and Thomas C Südhof took the prize for their work on the mechanism that controls the transport of membrane-bound parcels or ‘vesicles’ through cells. The American […]
Out of 512 brands endorsed by 100 top athletes, nearly a quarter of them (122) were for food and beverages – 44 different brands in 2010 (some brands had more products). A study conducted by researchers from Yale, Stanford, Duke and Harvard universities showed that almost 80% of all the 49 food products were “energy-dense […]
3D printing took the world by storm, and there’s almost no limit to what you can create: from ears and organs to rocket engines and dinosaur skeletons. This technology is so efficient and advanced that in fact, a study concluded that the average American could save money each year by printing household items. Now, two […]
Astronomers have created the first cloud map of a planet outside our solar system, a sizzling, Jupiter-like world known as Kepler-7b. NASA’s Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes found patchy clouds on this hot Jupiter which was discovered in January 2010. Hot Jupiters are some of the most common planets from what we know so far; […]
A black hole is simple and clear, at least according to the model proposed in 1963 by Roy Kerr; his model of a clear, smooth black hole is now the currently accepted paradigm. But a group of scientists led by Thomas Sotiriou, a physicist of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste claims […]
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has detected propylene, a chemical used greatly in everyday life, in things like food-storage containers, car bumpers and other consumer products, on Saturn’s Moon Titan. I really recommend watching the video below, as it explains the situation in great detail: A small amount of propylene was identified in Titan’s lower atmosphere by […]
Scientists have, for the first time, obtained actual images of one of the most important interactions in the world – the special type of chemical bond called the hydrogen bond, which keeps our DNA together and gives water its unique properties. Using a technique called high-resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM), researchers in China have managed […]
A new government report by the UK’s Department of Energy And Climate Change shows that the country has reached record rates in terms of the energy it derives from renewable sources, for the second consecutive quarter: 15.5% of the country’s electricity came from renewables, a jump of 5.8% compared to the last period. About half […]
Human hair found in fossilized hyena poop suggests that ancient humans were sometimes on the menu of other animals. The fossilized dung, part of a “hyena latrine,” will be described in the upcoming October issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science; the sample has been subjected to a number of tests. The sample is about […]
The beginning of autumn brings cold weather, and with it, another type of flu. We here at ZME have already all gone down with a bad case of the flu, and of course, we’re not nearly the only ones. Each year seems to bring the threat of a new flu virus; first it was the […]
A tiny chip already used in smartphones for the orientation of your screen could serve to create a real-time urban seismic network, easily increasing the amount of strong motion data collected during a large earthquake, helping responders know where the most damage has been done and where the strongest intervention is needed. Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) […]
The pomato is produced by grafting a tomato plant and a potato plant.
Nauclea latifolia (also know as the pin cushion tree) is a small shrub, relatively common, used in traditional medicine throughout the sub-Saharan regions. Of course, African traditional medicine is not often your first choice when it comes to a treatment, but what if I told you that this plant produces large quantities of molecules – […]
