Andrei Mihai ZME Science

Timelapse reveals the hidden dance of roots -- and how mutant plants do it differently

Turns out, watching plants grow is actually quite interesting.

Researchers track zipping solar particles all the way to the Sun

They swooshed from the Sun, but they left a track behind.

Trickle-down economics just doesn't work, and this study shows it

Fifty years of tax cuts didn't really trickle down.

Want people to stop sharing fake news? Just make them reflect on what they're sharing

Social media is riddled with misleading stories. Researchers are zooming in on ways to address that.

Artificial Intelligence can debate and it's pretty good at it (but not as good as the best humans)

AI is ready to stop playing games and move on to other challenges.

Computation pioneers awarded 'Nobel of Mathematics'

The two mathematicians are true pioneers in their fields.

Ancient lightning could have sparked life on Earth

Lightning -- and not meteorites -- may have seeded life on Earth.

Some mushrooms can squeeze through tiny spaces, but they need to make sacrifices

The fastest-growing mushrooms can't do it, just the more resilient ones.

Researchers have just taught cyborg brains how to play Pong

The mini-brains were able to learn how to play the game faster than an AI.

Urban development and climate change to trigger severe urban floods

Urban floods are about to become that much worse.

Cheap plastics could soon be turned into sustainable fabrics

We need as many ways to get rid of plastic as possible.

"What is a bird" -- an entire museum captured inside a book

A rare mix of science and eye candy that will make you go "huh, I didn't know that" every other page.

Ten years after the earthquake that caused the Fukushima disaster, both Japan and the world are still reeling

What have we learned since the 2011 tragedy?

The oldest meteorite ever found is older than the Earth itself

It's so ancient it could help us understand the building blocks of planets.

Genetic analysis of ancient massacre shows people were killed indiscriminately

It's a dark episode in human history.

Scythians weren't the nomadic warriors many portray them as -- they also settled down

The study helps combat romantic ideas about this ancient population.

The earliest coastal wall shows humans were battling sea level rise in the Neolithic era

This ancient village fought against the sea.

That 'memory palace' thing? It actually works, a new study finds

The method used on 'Sherlock' has actually been used since Roman times, with great success.

Otters maintain patches of healthy kelp forests even when surrounded by "urchin barrens"

Sea otters hadn't been seen on the North California Coast since the 1880s -- but they're back to help protect the kelp forests.

No body required: sea slugs can regenerate new bodies from their severed heads alone

It's unlike anything that's been seen before.

How many people need to get vaccinated for COVID-19 herd immunity?

While still far away, herd immunity is now at least in sight.

A deep look at carbon capture and storage (CCS) and its role in the climate crisis

CCS (or carbon capture and storage) is one of the terms that often pops up in the climate debate -- and for good reason.

Puppy paws on the walls: ancient house featured unusual decorations

Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Sardis found a 1,500 year-old-house in fantastic shape. Not only is the house excellently preserved, but its tiles were decorated with puppy prints and chicken decorations. It’s not as well-known as the likes of Athens or Rome, but in its heyday, the ancient city of Sardis would have rivalled […]

The invisible border that keeps vultures in Spain, not Portugal

"The Spanish-Portuguese border acts as a quasi-impermeable barrier", researchers note.

Climate change is making allergy season worse

Bad news for allergy sufferers: it's getting worse.

Atheists are just as ethical as believers, study shows -- they just prioritize different things

Believers value group cohesion, while atheists focus on the effects of their actions.

Pirate attacks are more frequent in areas with harmful fishing practices

Yes, piracy is still a problem -- and it goes hand in hand with bad or illegal fishing practices.

The longest known exposure photograph ever was captured using a beer can

It has an exposure time of 8 years.

Climate change brings multiple threats for European forests

The same is likely true for forests all around the world.

Australia's oldest cave painting is 17,000-year-old kangaroo art

I mean, what else could it be?

Microbial earthly life could survive on Mars, at least for a time

Human visitors to Mars could bring along numerous microscopic colonizers. That's both good and bad.

Quartz in ancient bird stomach sheds new light on what it would have eaten

A bizzare, never-before-seen form of preservation could shed new light on a primeval type of bird.

Boys who play video games seem to have lower depression risk -- but not girls

The relationship between video games and mental health is more complex than you thought.

Russian researchers want to study ancient viruses from the Siberian permafrost

A former Soviet bioware lab is investigating ancient permafrost viruses.

Trillions of cicadas emerge once in 17 years. This is that year

Things are about to get crowded.

Norway's stave churches are much older than thought

The emblematic Norwegian stave churches are being measured using new technology.

The rich really do get richer, study shows. Here's why

It's all about taking risks: you don't need to take them when you're rich.

Animal coronaviruses are roaming much more than we thought

A new study suggests our troubles with coronaviruses may only be beginning.

After 18 million mRNA vaccinations, allergic shocks remain exceedingly rare

Just 66 cases of anaphylaxis (0.0003%) were reported. All but one happened in the first 11 minutes. None were fatal.

Researchers discover unexpected creatures beneath Antarctica's ice shelves

There's more life than we expected in the Antarctic.

Neanderthals and humans used the Levallois technology, a new study shows

Neanderthals were every bit as smart and creative as humans.

Researchers want to use whale song for seismic imaging of the Earth's crust

If we'd listen to whales more carefully, we could learn more about the oceans' geology.

How many people live in Antarctica -- and other things you wish you knew about the frozen continent

Antarctica's a weird place. It has a Burger King, a few coffee shops, but no real inhabitants.

Stonehenge? It's probably built from second-hand materials

As if Stonehenge wasn't impressive enough, it appears to have been carried for almost 200 miles.

This minimalistic chart shows how hot 2020 and the past few years have really been

It’s easy to forget, in the current situation, that the world is still heating up severely. If the COVID-19 pandemic is a wave sweeping through the world, then climate change is a tsunami looming darkly on the horizon and already starting to strike. Yes, climate change is hitting us already, probably in more ways than […]