homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Tape worm eggs found in 270 million year fossilized shark poop

If you think intestinal parasites are a recent problem, you’d better think again. Ancient tapeworm eggs found in 270-million-year-old shark poop suggests these parasites may have plagued animals for much longer than previously believed. Tapeworm are nasty parasites that clink to the walls of the intestines of virtually all vertebrates (animals that have a backbone); […]

New 'Habitable Zone' for alien planets redefined

As our search for alien planets improves and intensifies, astronomers are starting to pay more and more attention to one crucial aspect of alien planets:  whether they fit into the ‘habitable zone‘ – the so-called Goldilocks area in which a planet is not too close and not too far from its star – just perfectly […]

First graffiti found on Roman Colosseum - but what does it say?

A facelift of the Colosseum brought to light centuries of markings and inscriptions on its walls, but archaeologists have little idea to what they mean. Removing the accumulated grime and calcification, experts discovered layers of inscriptions on the section of a wall depicted above, ancient designs in red and fade grey blended with black left […]

Why are Japanese cartoons such a global hit?

You’ve got me, I’m love watching anime. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan or that I have enough time to watch as much as I’d like, but some series definitely sparked my interest – and there’s millions of others like me out there. So what made these atypical Japanese cartoons so loved throughout the […]

Asteroid to make close fly-by on Feb 15, no reason to worry

Close, but not too close – an asteroid like that can crash on our planet every 1200 years, but there’s no reason to worry, even though it will make a flyby on February 15, passing at a distance of only 26.780 km. For comparison, the distance to the Moon varies from around 356,400 km to […]

Small changes in your bathroom bring big benefits to the environment - and why Cameron diaz advocates urinating outside or in the shower

Usually, whenever celebrities advocate some cooky thing that supposedly does a whole lot of good, it’s just a trend or a cooky idea — but Cameron Diaz is really on to something here: she wants you to stop flushing every time after you pee. Every flush takes somewhere between 4 and 10 liters of water […]

China braces for intensifying smog

Remember how a few days ago, the entire media and popullation of China was outraged by the smog covering a significant part of China, including Beijing ? The extent of the smog was so big you could easily see it from outer space. Well, predictions claimed the smog will dissipate in a few days, but […]

Surfer sets new record - rides 30 meter wave [w/ video]

Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara has nerves (and other body parts) of steel! According to all reports, he broke his own Guinness world record with a ride on a wave that was about 30 meters (about 100 feet). The stage was set in Nazare, Portugal, as a jetski towed him to a monstruous setting, with constant […]

Cats not so cuddly after all - kill billions of animals in the US alone

We love cats so much, with their fluffy fur and cuddly personality, that we sometimes forget just how deadly of a predator they really are. According to a new study, they are responsible for the deaths of between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds and 6.9-20.7 billion mammals annually. The study, which was published in Nature […]

Doctors perform double-arm transplant on Iraq soldier

A former soldier who sadly became a quadruple amputee during his time in Iraq after an explosion three years ago has undergone a very rare double arm transplant at John Hopkins Hospital. Brendan Marrocco, 26, of Staten Island, who underwent the marathon surgery last month has gone through a lot; he was the first first […]

GeoPicture of the week: Langisjor, highlands of Iceland

My apologies, ladies and gents! I’ve been neglecting this section of our site, as some of you have told me via email (feedback is always welcome, by the way). So after a short pause, we’re bringing it back, stronger than ever: Here’s the GeoPicture of the week: This is a lake called Langisjór, covering an […]

Yoga helps reduce symptoms of most major psychiatric diseases

It’s a well known fact that yoga does good to the mind and body, but the extent of that benefit is something still debated. Now, yoga supporters have just gotten a big hand from a study conducted by psychiatrists. “Yoga has also become such a cultural phenomenon that it has become difficult for physicians and […]

More humane than humans - dolphins form life raft to try and save the life of a friend [with video]

Is someone chopping onions? Common dolphins have been seen to aid a dying companion, trying as hard as they could to support him and help him breathe. This is the first time that a group of dolphins has been observed trying to aid a dying companion; five individual dolphins formed a raft with their bodies […]

NASA teams up with ESA to discover dark matter

The American (NASA) and European (ESA) space agency have teamed up to create a new spacecraft that will hold a groundbreaking telescope. The mission, Euclid, will look at billions of galaxies, create a more accurate map of the Universe, and also map out the mysterious dark matter and dark energy. Dark Matter and Dark Energy […]

Microbes thrive in high altitude stormy clouds - could play role in global climate

It’s a bird! No, it’s a plane! No, it’s… microbes ?! High up in the atmosphere, 10.000 meters above ground, researchers have found over 100 species of bacteria doing just fine in stormy clouds. Each year, hundreds of millions of tons of dust, water and man-maned pollutans make their way into the atmosphere, often traveling […]

American team drills through Antarctic lake

A historic expedition that took over 10 years of planning and 3 years of preparation, a national effort from both researchers and students, finally concluded today. The team from Montana State University managed to drill into a lake that has been frozen for hundreds of thousands of years. After hauling equipment hundreds of miles across […]

Scientists use lasers to unravel mysterious spider silk strength

Pound for pound, spider silk is one of the strongest materials in the world; it’s about five times stronger than a piano wire – and a piano wire has to put up with a lot of pressure. Researchers have long tried to develop materials which mimic the remarkable properties of spider silk, but only now […]

Population density - in 1918 and now

I recently came across a map of the population density done in 1918, and I’d really like to share it with you, as well as discuss some aspects. Here it is: Also, here is a map of the population density now. At a first glance, they seem strikingly similar, the same yellow (low density) areas, […]

Pulsar with "multiple personality disorder" challenges our current cosmological models

Astronomers are baffled by a pulsar heavier than the Sun and smaller than New York which alternatively switches on and off between radio and X-ray emissions. Small and heavy Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars, with a radius in the order of about 10 km, made up of neutrons. It is the result of […]

Dung Beetles navigate using the Milky Way

Dung beetles just climbed another ladder on the animal coolness scale – they are the only known species to navigate via the Milky Way. The tiny insects can orient themselves to the bright stripe of light generated by our galaxy, and move in a line relative to it, according to experiments conducted in South Africa. […]

Science ABC: Allergies - how they work, and what works against them

We’ve been getting lots and lots of questions regarding allergies, so here I will try to shed light on the issue as much as possible. Here’s the basics on how things work. How allergies work Your body has a fantastic immune system; the immune system protects you against all sorts of nasty things, identifying and […]

Using DNA as a storage device - 100 million hours of HD video in every cup

I remember years ago, when I got my first computer – it had a storage capacity of 40 MB. A few years after that, I got a 1 GB hard drive, and nowadays, 1 TB is quite the standard – that’s a growth by a factor of about 250.000. However, data storage capacity has slowed […]

Starchy genes made wolves man's best friend

A genetic change allowed wolves to make the transition from wild beasts to domesticated animals, with a starch-rich diet and less meat. Researchers from Sweden, Norway and the United States compared the DNA code of wolves to that of domesticated dogs. “Our findings show that the digestive system of dogs have adapted to be able […]

Gold nanoparticles show new way to annihilate lymphoma cells without chemotherapy

How do you annihilate lymphoma cells without any chemotherapy or drugs at all? Simply by starving it of the thing it needs most – High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Northwestern Medicine researchers discovered a method of treating lymphoma with a new nanoparticle that works as a double agent – it appears to the cancerous cells as […]

New type of volcanic eruption described

The general classification splits volcanic eruptions in two: explosive or effusive. An explosive eruption is, well, explosive and violent (think Mount Helens), while an effusive eruption is associated with lava flows (think Hawaii). However, in a new study conducted by New Zealand and UK researchers described another, new type of eruption. Inside volcanoes, magma often […]

Geologists grant full access to details of every significant recorded volcanic eruption

Details of some 2000 volcanic eruptions that occurred in the past 1.8 million years are now available in a new open access database, complied by scientists at the University of Bristol with help from the UK, US, Colombia and Japan. Volcanic eruptions are among the most dangerous natural hazards, having the potential to take numerous […]

Study shows auroras also occur outside our solar system

Researchers from Leicester University have shown that auroras (similar to Earth’s aurora borealis) occur on other bodies outside our solar system. Aurora borealis Aurora borealis is a natural light display occuring in high latitude areas (both north and south), caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. Here’s […]

Do the math on PV efficiency

I recently came across a great article discussing solar photovoltaic (PV) efficiency. You can read it in its entirety on this website – here’s the gist. When people hear that the typical efficiency for solar power is somewhere around 15%, or even as low as 12% for organic photvoltaics, they scoff and start to mumble that […]

No, people, scientists are not searching for an 'adventurous woman to give birth to a Neanderthal baby'

Just write, don’t check This is again one of those which gets the media all hyped out, without checking the facts; yesterday’s headlines all sounded like this: ‘“Wanted: ‘Adventurous woman’ to give birth to Neanderthal man — Harvard professor seeks mother for cloned cave baby” – newspapers like the Daily Mail were all over it. […]

Asteroid Vesta is a lot like Earth, study shows

The cold, lifeless Vesta asteroid might be a lot more like our planet than astronomers believed – having a very active life in the early stages of the solar system evolution, a study of a Saharan meteorite shows. The planet that wasn’t Vesta might host a magmatic layer under its rocky exterior, allowing minerals to […]

Mars researchers find 'strongest evidence' that Mars supported life

Exobiologists have found what they believe to be the clearest evidence that Mars supported life – though it may not seem obvious at a first glance. The research published in Nature Geoscience shows all the needed ingredients for life in a huge crater that goes up to 5km below the planet’s surface. The McLaughlin crater, […]

NASA sends Mona Lisa to the Moon

NASA announced in a recent statement that they have beamed an image of the legendary painting to the Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter, a spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon, to test communication abilities with the satellite, using laser technology. The image was first converted to a suitable digital format, after which it traveled just less than 400.000 […]

Orion: a big step towards human space exploration

Space exploration is nowadays most often an international affair, and NASA‘s Orion project is not an exception. NASA signed an agreement in mid-December for the European Space Agency (ESA) to provide a service module for the Orion spacecraft’s Exploration Mission-1 in 2017. When the spacecraft will be launched, it will have attached the ESA-provided service […]

Global warming brings earliest flower bloom ever recorded

They say April showers bring blooming flowers - but the same could be said for global warming. A recent study conducted by scientists from Boston University, Harvard University, and the University of Wisconsin found that flowers are blooming faster and faster each year, with this year being the peak.

Australia could realistically go 100% renewable energy in 10 years

The only thing that stands between Australia and a future led entirely by renewable energy is the political will to make the change, a new report claims. Australia could be powered entirely by renewable energy in no more than 10 years, using solar and wind energy – two resources which Australia has a lot of. […]

Real life Avatar story: Ecuadorean tribe will 'die fighting' to defend their home against oil exploitation

In what looks to be one of the most one sided and saddening events in the Amazon rainforest history, an indigenous community of about 400 villagers is preparing to resist the Ecuadorean army and one of the biggest oil companies in South America – to protect their homes and the rainforest they live in. Pristine […]

Fantastic frog found flying in Vietnamese forests

Scientists have stumbled upon a new species of flying frog – on the ground. While hiking in 2009, not far from Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of Vietnam, “we came across a huge green frog, sitting on a log,” said Jodi Rowley, an amphibian biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney. Upon further inspection, […]

Spiders on drugs - see how they web

In 1995, scientists working at NASA took a break from the usual cosmic research to tackle a much different problem: getting spiders stoned. Their experiments have shown that common house spiders spin their webs in different ways according to the psychotropic drug they have been given; the more toxic the drug, the more deformed the […]

Amazing pictures: Civil War shipwreck revealed by sonar

New 3D images have been revealed today, showing the the Civil War-era gunboat U.S.S Hatteras in exquisite detail. The ship sank exactly 150 years ago, on January 11, 1863. It was buried under lots of sand, but recent storms, most notably 2008’s Hurricane Ike have moved the sand off the shipwreck. Resting under 17 meters of […]

NASA Curiosity rover finds intriguing new evidence of water - prepares to drill

The first sample from underground Mars will come from a rockbed that showcases unexpected mineral veins of gypsum. A Martian candy store Astronomers and geologists are now in the equivalent of a Martian candy store of scientific objectives: the lowest point of Gale crater, called Yellowknife Bay is literally teeming with minerals that could only […]

Treating Autism with Umbilical Cord Blood

[This is a sponsored post by Sherry Lindbak] When a child is diagnosed with autism, families often embark on a lifelong quest to find answers, to seek treatment, and to maintain hope. Hope may now come in the form of a cure for autism if a new research study proves successful. Dr. Michael Chez, director […]

Parkinson treatment unlocks latent creativity

Many Parkinson experts across the world have been reporting a surprising, remarkable phenomenon: many patients treated with drugs that increase dopamine activity in the brain exhibit new creative talents, including painting, sculpting, writing, and many more. Prof. Rivka Inzelberg of Tel Aviv University‘s Sackler Faculty of Medicine first noticed something was weird when instead of […]

Got the flu? Tweet it!

The flu season has started, and it promises to be one of the worst in years; so far, over 2.200 people have been hospitalized due to influenza related issues just in the US. For example, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declared a citywide public health emergency, with some 700 declared influenza cases – 10 times more […]

Beijing pollution seen from outer space - before and after pics

A few days ago I was telling you about the drastic state of pollution taking place in China these days – pollution levels are so high that all newspapers, even communist ones started pressing the government into environmental protection. To see how much the Beijing pollution evolved – take a look at the picture of […]

Chimpanzees have a sense of fairness

Chimpanzees have the same sense of fair-play as humans do, explain researchers who played the Ultimatum game with them – it’s the first time such a trait was observed in a non-human species. Playing a fair game The Ultimatum game is a simple game often used in economy game theory in which the two players […]

China pollution reaches record levels, state media urges for action

Unusually straightforward discussions emerged from the Chinese state media in light of the dangerous levels of air pollution, which blanketed Beijing in acrid smog. The media joined forces with internet users and called for a re-evaluation in China’s modernization process – rapid urbanization and industrialization at the cost of the environment. A thick smog shrouded […]

California super-earthquake probably on its way

It should be no surprise for anybody that a major earthquake is way overdue in LA; a study has shown that the area has a 99% chance of a big earthquake in the next 30 years (well, 25 years, since the study was conducted in 2008). Even with what should have been a huge wake […]

Galaxy crash sparks large spiral - astronomers notice by accident

Astronomers have just spotted the biggest known spiral galaxy – by accident. A team was looking through data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex) satellite for star-forming regions around a galaxy called NGC 6872, only to be shocked noticing a vast swathe of ultraviolet light from young stars, indiacting that it also contains remnants of […]

First step to colonizing Mars? Dutch company offers one way trip to the Red Planet

If you’re like most people, the possibility of a colony on Mars seems a little far-fetched; but now, a nonprofit Dutch company plans to establish a colony on Mars by 2023 – and they’re looking for volunteers. Mars One, as they are called, have already release an advertisement announcing they are searching for pioneers, and […]

Understanding magma in the mantle: rocks melt at greater depth than previously thought

Magma forms much deeper than geologists previously believed, according to a new study conducted by Rice University. Magma and Crust   The group led by geologist Rajdeep Dasgupta put very small samples of peridotite under very large pressures, to find out if the rock can liquify, at least in small amounts, as deep as 250 […]