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On the desk of Seokheun "Sean" Choi sits a 3x3 array that at first glance looks like a lemon squeezer. It is, in fact, a solar panel but not like any you've seen or heard about before. Instead of using semiconductors like silicon crystals to convert sunlight into electricity, the array employs a complex system that nurtures cyanobacteria -- beings whose metabolism create free electrons which can be harnessed.
Designer/molecular biologist Eleanor Lutz is back with yet another awesome science feature: virus trading cards.
It took a while, but scientists have finally imaged the brains of people on LSD -- a psychedelic used recreationally by millions, but whose therapeutic potential is only recently beginning to be recognized. Judging from the scans, it seems like Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) "completes the brain". Essentially, the brain functions less like a compartmentalized entity and more like a whole, very much akin to how the brain of an infant works.
Fresh from the GE Global Research lab is this tiny monster: a turbine small enough you can hold in your hands, but powerful enough to provide energy to a whole town. It's secret lies in a couple of design features, but also the power agent. Instead of steam, the "minirotor" as it's been nicknamed is driven by supercritical carbon dioxide.
Most of the life we see around us -- plants, animals, humans and other so-called eukaryotes -- actually comprise a tiny minority of the planet's biodiversity. The rulers of this planet are actually bacteria and Archaea. A new research which includes genome sequencing data from over 1,000 new organisms has produced a refined tree of life that better matches reality. In this expanded tree of life two-thirds of all diversity on Earth is bacterial, while nearly a third is Archaea.
In Europe and the United States, an increasing number of employers have adopted a smoke-free policy and may not hire people who smoke. This is because of the negative perception of smoking. Stanford researchers wanted to quantify just how large the economic burden of tobacco use is on the labour market. Their analysis suggests that nonsmokers are twice as likely to get hired than smokers. Tobacco users also earn $5 less per hour on average than nonsmokers.
One new research on rats suggests that the magic brew could be very potent against anxiety if ingested over a prolonged time.
For archiving purposes, at least, DNA -- the blueprint or genetic recipe that codes all life -- might be worth considering. One team, for instance, coded digital images into synthetic DNA using a novel method, then decoded and read this data.
The great physicist who invented Calculus in his 20s and gave the world the universal law of gravity transcribed countless pages from a famous alchemy manuscript which describes how to manufacture a key element for the Philosopher's Stone.
The best public speakers have mastered these key factors.
Though minute, these are far from insignificant as their pray have learned the hard way. In fact, it's their small body that allowed them to become the fastest snapping spiders in the world!
People of European descent carry as much as 4 percent Neanderthal DNA, but the Y chromosome passed down from father to sons is entirely missing in the modern population. Scientists now think they know why.
Those who take too much offence of improper grammar and typos in an informal situations were found have "less agreeable" personalities.
. A team at Purdue University in West Lafayette finally cracked the code, revealing a virus very much akin to the dengue and West Nile viruses.
Drastically reducing body size and, maybe most importantly, lifespan may have been the most important course of action evolution undertook to preserve some species, paleontologists argue.
The Sunny State is going through its worst drought in the last couple thousand years. Unfortunately, these events will happen more frequently in the future.
Finally, a team of researchers have bridged the gap and found an accurate mathematical equation that can determine the "spectral radiative heat transfer rate between two closely spaced bodies, generalizing the concept of a blackbody to the case of near-field energy transfer."
Five baboons were each hooked up with a pig heart alongside their own hearts. Essentially, these baboons lived with two hearts and the pig one still functioned two years on average after the grafting, marking a marvelous breakthrough in xenografting.
The exact path Hannibal took in this epic voyage across the Alps has been a matter of debate among scholars, but now scientists think they've finally found it by following some unlikely bread crumbs: ancient horse dung still teeming with preserved bacteria left by Hannibal's cavalry.
Here's a great way to spend science dollars: see if humans literally find robots sexy. They do sort of, or so conclude Stanford researchers who asked volunteers to touch an anthropomorphic robot in various body parts.
Depression can be exhausting. Here's why.
Photosynthesis is maybe the most important chemical process on Earth, turning sunlight and CO2 into the oxygen we breath and the food we eat. This process can be reversed, however.
Enercon's E-126 turbine towers 125 meters high and can generate a staggering 7.58 MW of electricity.
The ritual of sacrifice is ubiquitous in all religions, be it self-offered or undertaken by a higher religious figures. Scholars are still investigating the object of sacrifice, and its role in shaping culture and society. One study makes an interesting hypothesis based on historical records: human sacrifice has repeatedly worked in favor of the ruling elite to consolidate their position in stratified societies. In egalitarian societies, human sacrifice was less wide spread and also less impactful.
Fake 3-D printed eggs packed with sensors help scientist learn how vultures incubate their eggs. This way, they might be one day able to incubate their own eggs, without having to rely on vultures.
A gas giant called KELT-4Ab revolves in a stable 3-day orbit around its parent star, flanked by another two.
If confirmed, the findings could rewrite history.
Divers stumbled across two pirate ships sunk fifteen miles off the island of Saint Lucia, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. What they found inside startled them.
VR company SecondHandLife unveiled a revolutionary new app that allows friends to immerse themselves together in a virtual bar, among others.
Sunny states like California, Texas and Florida topped the list of states where rooftop solar could generate the most energy.
A refined model based on equations which accurately reproduced sea level rise events from hundreds of thousands of years ago suggests this massive ice sheet is disintegrating faster then previously thought.
SpaceX will launch as early as April 8 an inflatable habitat module destined for the International Space Station.
The gentlest of all apes takes friendship very seriously. New research suggests bonobos can remember the voices of their friends and become highly excited once they hear them again, even after a long time had past since their last encounter.
As if living with a mental illness wasn't tough enough, many are stigmatized and discriminated by the rest of the 'mentally well' population.
A simple blood test can diagnose a concussion within a couple of hours from the injury, according to preliminary results. In the worlds of sports, these news might be a godsend as every day lost to recovery is precious.
A new research modeled thousands of fisheries from around the world and found that a straightforward economic reform will not only help fisheries recover in only ten years, but double production by 2050.
Russian paleontologists dated the fossil remains of a Elasmotherium sibiricum, a giant beast the size of a mammoth with a saber like horn, and found these were 35,000 years old. That places the closest resembling unicorn animal in the same place and time with humans migrating and settling Asia.
The largest and last coal-fired plant in operation in Scotland was officially shut down, marking an end to an 115-years-long history of burning coal in the country.
Found in only eight caves on the border of Thailand and Myanmar, this eyeless fish can walk.
Evolution is not kind to older dads, a new research suggests. University of Göttingen in Germany researchers found that older fathers end up having fewer grandchildren. Apparently, mutations that appear in old age are transferred to the offspring.
Prairie dogs aren't as innocent as they look. Researchers have documented as the animals slaughter ground squirrels for control over food. This is the first time this sort of behaviour was documented among omnivores.
GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump met with the The Washington Post’s editorial board on Monday. For a full hour he spilled all sorts of non-nonsensical gibberish in his typical fashion: dodging questions and roll-out.
Religious people were found to be more empathic, meaning they identified more with the feelings and struggles of other people. As such, the perceived divide between science and religion may be rooted in brain wiring.
Well, technically if you're not a space pirate, you'll be prosecuted by the laws governing your home country. On the International Space Station, that's another story.
"Beauty is the first test; there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics," G. H. Hardy (1877-1947)
Some stars go out with a bang -- a supernova explosion! Using optical images recorded by the now defunct Kepler telescope, astronomers witnessed for the very time the shockwave that follows a star's implosion once it runs out of fuel.
What does a weird tendon on your inner wrist have to do with evolution? This video explains.
Fungi were thought to have a minimal impact on minerals' bioweathering. A recent study suggests that fungi are a lot more aggressive than meets the eye. These use acid to access precious nutrients like iron and burrow deep into rocks using mechanical force to further their reach.
On the heels of the warmest winter on record, a Gallup poll found a record number of Americans perceive global warming as a serious threat. It doesn't sound like a coincidence.
The International Renewable Energy Agency claims doubling worldwide renewable energy capacity fifteen years from now would provide savings which far exceed the costs.
