Arctic tundras might shift to carbon emitters, driving more warming
One landmark study suggests that the tundras are shifting their role as a result of climate change turning into carbon...
Scientists shuttle data at 1.125 Tbps or 50,000 more than your average UK broadband
British researchers at the University College London set the record for the fastest data transfer rate: a mind-boggling 1.225 Tbps/second....
Novel polymer changes shape just by touching with a finger — lifts 1,000 times its own weight doing so
This polymer can change shape and release tremendous amounts of stored elastic energy relative to its weight simply by being...
U.S. teachers often misinform school children about climate change
While around 97% of active climate change researchers (the most qualified) agree that global warming is real and caused by...
Belief in omnipotent, punitive gods may have shaped civilization
It's easy to understand why human societies throughout history were vastly religious. So many things left unexplained, the most annoying...
What would happen to a space elevator if it’d broke
In one scenario, parts would spiral farther than the moon!
Getting tasered impairs cognition, and might violate “right to remain silent”
Police departments all over the world use tasers to pacify aggressive criminals. The stun gun ejects two wires at high...
For every dollar spent, vaccines offer a return of 44$
Vaccines are arguably one of the most impactful medical developments ever. According to the CDC, vaccines given to infants and...
Wolves seem to have howl ‘dialects’ — might help unravel origin of human speech
A team of researchers performed the most extensive study of howling made by canid species. This includes wolves, jackals and...
Artists literally shine a mask on a Japanese beauty’s face using projection mapping
It's hard not to love video mapping, especially if you've seen a show up close and personal.
Oddly enough, all trees regardless of size break at the same wind speed
In the wake of calamities like hurricanes or tornadoes, you'll find trees leveled to the ground. But observations suggest that...
This is how the brain makes you sigh every 5 minutes
Sighing is a fundamental biological reflex that's a lot more important than most people care to think. We don't just...
Up to Half of All Fish in the Ocean might get ‘Drunk’ on CO2 by 2100
CO2 interferes with neuroreceptors in the brain of fish, causing them to behave as if drunk. By 2100, fish in...
We finally know what to make of these ‘purple sock’ creatures that litter the sea floor
These bizarre creatures are called Xenoturbella, and can be found at the bottom of the ocean. For years scientists have...
Erosion and glacial melt equally explain massive volcanic activity at end of ice age
Once any ice age is over, the increased surface temperature causes the ice caps to melt which lessens the pressure...
Mid-altitude biodiversity most influenced by topography, but why is this important?
It's all about the topography of the terrain, and whether or not it allows for niches to become connected, researchers...
Jurassic insect resembles modern butterfly, though it predates it by 40 million yeras
Discovered in ancient lake deposits in northeastern China and eastern Kazakhstan, this ancient insect looks and exhibits behavior closely mimicking...
One of Saturn’s ring has played tricks on astronomers for years
One of Saturn's ring, which is very opaque and bright seems to have played an optical illusions all along. It...
Ravens can tell if someone is watching even though they don’t see them
If you can see a person or an animal, then it is possible to be seen back. It's a basic...
Forever young: ants don’t seem to age
Most people don't have that much of an issue with dying, like they do with being freaking old. Being old...
Years-worth of smoking pot might make you forget words in middle age
Researchers looked at the long-term exposure of marijuana on cognitive skills. Current users showed poorer cognitive ability across all the...
Being a morning person might be coded in your genes
Some people have no trouble rising early and being productive, while others are most active during the evenings. This begs...
Bushmen’s poisoned arrows improved hunting but also marked shift in cognition
Augmenting the simple bow and arrow marked a significant shift in human cognitive abilities.
World’s largest floating solar farm to be built in Japan
After shutting down its nuclear reactors, Japan needs to look elsewhere to generate energy. Problem is Japan is kinda crowded,...
Pheonix exoskeleton wants to make wheelchairs obsolete
"Unless you've been in a wheelchair, it's very difficult to see all the various small details - what a person...
Artificial trees capture wasted kinetic energy, power sensors
To the romantic eye, a tree swaying in the wind is a testimony of nature's heart beat. An engineer might...
How the human brain gets so wrinkled: basic physics
The size of the brain isn't essential to superior cognitive abilities -- its shape and packing mechanism matter a lot,...
Young gorillas learn to dismantle poachers’ traps
In Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park poachers set thousands of snares to trap wildlife for meat. Inadvertently mountain gorillas -- listed...
Fake moon landings would have been uncovered within a few years, same as other conspiracies
Using estimates of how many people are involved in some of the major alleged conspiracies, one scientist modeled how long...
Our species’ journey to 7 billion people, in one map
Some 2,000 years ago, there were only 170 million people in the whole planet. How did we get to 7...
Relative brain size predicts intelligent behavior in carnivores
A general trend was found: those animals with the highest brain/body size ratio were better at solving a problem they...
Extreme Antarctic fungi survives in Martian habitat, as well as space
Researchers at European Space Agency (ESA) collected fungi that live in one of the harshest places on Earth -- McMurdo...
Babylonians used advanced geometry 1,400 years before Oxford
A German astrophysicist decoded ancient Babylonian tablets stuffed with computations. His analysis reveals that these were used by the ancient...
Martian settlers might have serious problems sleeping
Considering how inhospitable Mars is, given there's no air, -55C temperatures, radiation and all, you might think the quality of...
Is pizza really like crack? A rhetorical question for the media
Here we go again. A new study which investigated so-called addictive effects of food got picked up by the media...
World’s primary energy source will be renewable energy by 2030
Right now coal accounts for 39% of all the world's generated electricity, with gas coming in second but still trailing...
Oddly enough, phytoplankton thrive above natural oil seeps
Marine biologists study microbes in the waters above natural oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico stumbled upon something unexpected....
Lonely planet is actually part of the largest planetary system in the Milky Way
Astronomers find the parent of an orphan planet. The finding makes the solar system the biggest in the galaxy.
Clay used by the First Nations people destroys fatal drug-resistant pathogens
A team at University of British Columbia claims that a type of clay found northwest of Vancouver is effective against...
Cheap water filter is fantastically efficient: absorbs heavy toxic metals and can recover gold
Water pollution is a big issue, and so far there isn't one single system capable of reliably filtering toxic heavy...
The Human Library lets you check out people, not books
'Don't judge a book by its cover' right about sums up the Human Library Project. The concept is simple, but...
If there’s anything that marks humanity’s brief time on Earth, it’s plastic
Before WWII, there weren't that many plastics around. Today, we use so much that we could literally plaster the planet...
Tesla want to make cars so good you won’t ever care about oil prices
In a time when a barrel of oil can cost less than a ... barrel, the EV market suffers. Market...
Scientists try to replicate findings that dispute climate change: they fail
When the researchers analyzed some of the most cited contrarian climate change papers -- by other scientists or in the...
Acoustic tweezers levitate single cells using sound waves
Researchers found a way to manipulate single cells in three dimensions using sound waves. They devised acoustic tweezers that can...
30 days past Christmas: surprisingly, retailers sell more with longer return policies
Oddly enough, one study found being more lenient with return deadlines actually reduced returns, not increased them. With this in...
Where elements come from: this periodic table explains it all
An altered periodic table that shows how each elements was forged.
Desert beetles inspire aircraft design that doesn’t freeze
The Namib Desert Beetle lives in one of the most inhospitable and driest places on Earth, in the southwest coast...
Are some people pro-social because they don’t know how to selfishly help themselves?
A new study by Oxford researchers suggests that we all would like to maximize our profits, it's just that some...
Brain’s memory may be 10 times larger than previously thought
A groundbreaking research out of the Salk Institute suggests synapses are 10 times bigger in the hippocampus. Conversely, this means...