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The Vatican have entered an unusual partnership with a relatively small U.S. biotech company (NeoStem) to promote using adult stem cells for treating diseases, instead of focusing on embryonic stem cell research. The Vatican are perhaps the loudest advocates of not using embryonic stem cells; the Christian teaching holds that the life begins at conception, […]
Just yesterday I was telling you about an extremely ambitious and admirable mission planned by the Russian, which has the purpose of extracting samples from Phobos, a moon of Mars. However, the mission seems to face some serious problems right after launch. According to Russian officials, the probe is currently stuck in orbit and engineers […]
The privately built SpaceX shuttle is only a few weeks away from its first space flight towards the International Space Station, but NASA already has big dreams for the Dragon; in a presentation held last week, SpaceX and space agency officials discussed sending Dragon to Mars in a revolutionary mission astronomers have called the ‘Red […]
Seriously, just stare at this picture for some 10-20 seconds – blinking is ok; you’ll see it vanish, bit by bit. This is called the Troxler effect, after the man who discovered it: Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler, in 1804. What happens here is that your visual system constantly adapts to all the external stimuli. This is […]
In these past few decades, the US space program seemed to have significantly overcome the Russian one, with all sort of missions and studies, but more recently, the balance seems to have turned once again, as NASA is undergoing numerous problems, while the Russians are planning an ambitious mission which is aimed at the Mars […]
The black and white spotted horses found on cave paintings existed during the last ice age, some 25.000 years ago, according to a new research published by scientists from the University of York. The ancient Dalmatian style painted horses have puzzled archaeologists and paleontologists for years now, as they were unable to figure out just […]
In a bold and unconventional move, a critically endangered black rhino has been carried via helicopter over dangerous and rugged terrain, as part of the WWF‘s Black Rhino Range Expansion Project in South Africa. The helicopter flight took around 10 minutes, and the animal didn’t suffer any physical damage during this whole operation, according […]
The RRS James Cook, an UK research vessel, will spend six weeks studying the deep sea mountains of the Indian Ocean, as well as the animals located several thousands of meters below sea level. The purpose of this mission quite challenging. This year, a report published in the journal of Marine Policyfound that trawling is […]
Amid all the talk about Asia’s economic growth and their stable financial future, two major problem arise to cloud their bright dawn: climate change and pollution. With way more than half of the world’s population, Asia has more to lose than any other continent; and considering the ways adopted by some of the most developed […]
According to NASA, a large asteroid called 2005 YU55 is expected to pass at some 201,700 miles of Earth on Tuesday – closer than the Moon, and definitely closer than the Elenin comet. Now, before people start going all 2012 armageddon on me, let it be said that asteroids often pass at this distance from […]
There is still a good chance we might find life on Mars, but if we really want to do this, we’re going to have to dig a little deeper – literally. A new study conducted by NASA claims that if there ever was any life on the red planet, then it probably thrived below the […]
A fresh look at some already known fossilized remains revealed quite a surprise: they turned out to be the earliest people in Europe. From analyzing stone tools and other such artifacts, researchers have long believed the earliest Homo Sapiens to settle on the continent some 42-44.000 years ago; the only problem is, there were no […]
If the Americans and NASA are having some issues regarding their space program at the moment, the Russians are doing just fine; recently an unmanned Russian Progress cargo ship loaded with 2.9 tons of supplies and equipment traveled and docked the International Space Station without any notable incidents or accidents. “Capture. We have indicator mode,” […]
As it turns out, zombies are not really only science fiction. Just a while ago I was telling you about a species of fungus that can turn ants into zombies, and how life on Earth may have actually originated from some ‘zombie aliens‘. Recently, researchers from the Natural History Museum in London have found evidence […]
Right now, you’re probably asking ‘how does an earthquake look like in 3D ? What does that even mean?’; well, brilliant artist Luke Jerram created the small piece you see below to contemplate the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. He did this by taking a seismograph recording of the event and rotating it in 3D. The piece […]
In the aftermath of September’s highly controversial announcement, that a particle with a speed larger than that of the light was recorded, CERN has announced that it has been re-running the experiment, in order to test the validity of the first. Now of course, when you claim you have a neutrino going faster than the […]
In a landmark decision that will mark the future of commercial space flight, Boeing announced an agreement with Space Florida on Monday to lease the hangar that housed the space shuttles to bring similar spacecrafts and take people into outer space. In an area that has lost numerous specialized jobs, this move will create 140 […]
Black holes are perhaps the most fascinating and staggering objects in the known Universe, and we are just now beginning to uncover their secrets. Dr. Sergei Nayakshin of the University of Leicester and his team found that doughnut-shaped dust shrouds that cover about half of supermassive black holes may very well be the result of […]
There’s recently been a lot of fuss regarding the world population reaching the 7.000.000.000 mark; now, the truth is we’ve probably reached that number quite a while ago, but just didn’t know it. Anyway, in countries all over the world, hospitals and clinics marked the world’s population reaching 7 billion Monday with lavish ceremonies and […]
The sonic hedgehog gene got its name after researchers did some testing on fruit flies embryos, and found that the specimens which were modified to lack the gene developed spine-like projections. The gene itself is crucial to body development; to put it in layman terms, the sonic hedgehog gene makes sure that all your limbs […]
A new report claims that the US satellites were compromised at least four times in 2007 and 2008, possibly at the hands of Chinese computer hackers with ties to the country’s military, according to a new report. The attack was conducted through a ground station in Norway, according to a congressional commission, as mentioned by […]
Eris is a dwarf planet, observed in 2005 for the first time, whose discovery led to Pluto losing its planet status, even though a new moon was found orbiting it; recently, Eris passed in front of a planet, giving astrophysicists a clear view for the first time. Until now, the general scientific idea regarding it […]
A team of Swedish scientists paired with a USC researcher to crack the Copiale Cipher, thus revealing secret rituals and beliefs of a secret German society that had a fascination for ophtalmology. Thousands of old and obscure symbols filled over 100 pages of text which was found in Berlin towards the end of the Cold […]
A new massive research from SMU’s Geothermal Laboratory, funded by a grant from Google.org has documented significant geothermal resources across the US (especially in the West), a resource that has the potential, with today’s technology, to produce over three million megawatts of green power – that’s 10 times more than coal plants currently produce. Sophisticated […]
But only the stomach! Just so we’re clear from square one. Also, so far, this has only been confirmed on a rats trial. A team of researchers from Italy, Serbia, and Spain has confirmed a protective effect that strawberries have in a mammal stomach deranged by alcohol. Scientists gave fed some of the rats strawberries; […]
We all know coal energy is bad, but at least if you ask me, I would say that it’s used because it’s cheap. However, economists from the prestigious American Economic Review claim that coal plants cause twice as much damage than the coal they produce. After doing the math, they concluded that coal-fired electrical plants […]
The little carnivorous animal has suffered one of the steepest population declines ever to be documented. In just 15 years, it went from being a common animal to the brink of extinction; and the cause is an unusual one: an infectious tumor. “Devil facial tumor disease has been a devastating, ongoing problem,” said Menna Jones […]
Scientists who observed an underwater eruption in 2009 concluded they observed a tear in the planetary crust that mimicks the birth of a subduction zone. Subduction takes place at convergent tectonic plate boundaries; basically, one plate slides below the other – an extremely complicated and complex process that drives along a series of other processes, […]
Deep in the Mariana Trench, about seven miles below the surface, researchers found huge single celled amoebas, making them not only completely surprisng and amazing, but also the creatures living at the biggest depth found so far. The team from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego studied and catalogued these xenophyophores, single-celled animals […]
Portability is one of the best things brought by technology, but sometimes it just seems a little over the top, doesn’t it? I mean, now we can carry a computer with us at all time, a phone that is also a small computer, music on mp3 players, audiobooks, and so much more! You’d think that’s […]
Another powerful seismic event has taken place, this time in Turkey; the 7.2 earthquake in case struck eastern Turkey on Sunday, killing at least 60 people and turning most buildings into big chunks of concrete and metal. However, Turkish scientists grimly predict that the victim count could easily go above 1000, as housing conditions are […]
The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature team has concluded its study, which had the objective of analyzing global temperatures ever since the 1950s. Their conclusion – since then, global average temperatures have risen by almost two Fahrenheit degrees, which is a lot. Yeah sure we’ve heard this a million times before, but why is this time […]
Using a pair of satellites that monitor the Earth, NASA recorded over 10.000.000 fires throughout the planet; they then took the recorded material and created an animation with it, as can be seen below. The animation also includes vegetation, snow cover, cloud cover, surface temperatures, and more. Africa was by far the ‘hottest’ continent, being […]
Another game of solar system monopoly is being played at the moment, and so far, the United States are losing it, according to commercial space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow. The first prize, ownership of the Moon, is up for grabs, and while Americans are still basking in the glory they had some 40 years ago, China […]
Water is everywhere on Earth – that’s easy to see for anybody. But why and how it got here, that’s a dilemma that until now, hasn’t been fully answered. A new comet study has shown how a ring of cold water vapor can encircle a young planet, while another related one explains a hailstorm of […]
The Sword of Goujian is a masterpiece of craftsmanship.
Scientists at London’s Imperial College have successfully managed to create biological logic gates, indispensible for the production of electronical devices, simply our of bacteria and DNA. Though the research detailed in a recently published study in the journal Nature Communications was anything but simple, it provides an incredible advancement in the field of biotechnology. “Logic […]
A recent study conducted by researchers from Zurich found that a ‘super entity’ of 147 companies controls 40% of the entire corporate network. As protests against unbalanced financial power sweep from Wall Street to the rest of the world, an analysis of over 43.000 transnational corporations found that a relatively small group of companies (mainly […]
An astronomer working at the University of Hawaii captured the first ever pictures of a planet forming around a star. In order to do it, he used the 10-metre Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea and a system of mirrors; the main problem with taking pictures such as these ones is that the planet’s star usually […]
Let’s face it: great sex is great sex; but can it be so good that it blows your mind, literally? Yep, sad but true – this was the case for a 54-year-old female patient brought to the emergency room at Georgetown University Hospital with memory loss that followed a sexual encounter with her husband. The […]
Archaeologists have uncovered fully intact Viking boat burial site in the United Kingdom, in the west Highlands. Artefacts buried along the viking suggest he was a high ranking warrior, revered and respected. According to Dr. Hannah Cobb, the “artefacts and preservation make this one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain”. The […]
Another meteor shower draws nearer, as scientists expect it to peak this Friday and Saturday – just before dawn on Oct. 21 and 22. Each October, the Earth passes through a trail of dust left behind by the Halley comet; when some of these particles, most no bigger than grains of sand get caught in […]
If you ask me, the Greeks are by far the most remarkable ancient people, laying the base for science, philosophy and even art as we know it today. They also loved to trade, in order to achieve the means for the life they desired. However, we are only learning how and what they used to […]
During these past months, I’ve been receiving some questions regarding the whole doomsday-Elenin comet matter. In case you’re unfamiliar with the topic, the comet in case, discovered in December 2010, has a trajectory that passes quite close to Earth, and so of course, some people started panicking and claiming that the comet will hit us […]
NASA’s troubles are other companies good luck charm: Virgin has just struck a deal with NASA worth up to $4.5 million for research flights using the company’s new spaceship. NASA, who is just out of space orbiters, has to sign up several of these deals in order to continue their regular activity, and SpaceShipTwo, a […]
Scientists have made another step closer to the bionic man, after creating nanotubes out of carbon straws that can contract in a similar fashion to real muscles. The team from the University of British Columbia have created the strong and flexible artificial muscles that could also be used to propel nanobots through the body to […]
If you think that T-Rex had laughable front limbs, you’re in for a treat: even he would be amused by upon such puny arms. However, the shortcomings Carnotaurus had more than made up for its very muscular and powerful tail, which made it one of the fastest hunters to ever walk the face of the […]
A dramatic overnight increase in seismic activity near the Katla volcano in southern Iceland has brought fears of a dramatic eruption, one that would make last year’s massive air-traffic disruption seem like a walk in the park. “It is definitely showing signs of restlessness,” commented Pall Einarsson, a professor of geophysics at the University of […]
Ever since the physics experiment which recorded neutrinos traveling slightly faster than light have set the scientific world ablaze, and since then, over 80 possible explanations have emerged. While some claim that these results pave the way for a totally different set of laws of physics, many offer less revolutionary solutions to the problem. The […]
A day or two ago, a whole lot of science websites (including ourselves, let’s be fair), wrote about the big Triassic ‘kraken’; basically, everyone was talking about a super intelligent predatory squid which fed on ichtyosaurs. Funny enough, but when I asked the paleontologists working at my University, they all smiled ironically. Why, you may […]
