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One landmark study suggests that the tundras are shifting their role as a result of climate change turning into carbon sources, with a net positive release of carbon into the atmosphere.
British researchers at the University College London set the record for the fastest data transfer rate: a mind-boggling 1.225 Tbps/second. That's 50,000 faster than the average UK broadband (24 MBs/s) or just fast enough to download the entire Game of Thrones series in HD in just one freaking second.
This polymer can change shape and release tremendous amounts of stored elastic energy relative to its weight simply by being exposed to a temperature change. This in itself isn't exactly new, but the team led by Chemical Engineering Professor Mitch Anthamatten at the University of Rochester innovated by making the polymer react to room temperature -- a first.
While around 97% of active climate change researchers (the most qualified) agree that global warming is real and caused by humans, the same can't be said about the general populace. One study surveyed 1,500 middle school and high school teachers across all 50 states and found only 67 percent agreed that "global warming is caused mostly by human activities," which is strikingly similar to how the average American feels. You'd think school teachers should know better, though.
It's easy to understand why human societies throughout history were vastly religious. So many things left unexplained, the most annoying of all being our own existence. Consciousness -- a gift and curse at the same time --- had to come to terms with all the overwhelming things life and nature threw at people, so religion was invented to create a more manageable framework. It certainly has its ups and downs. Personally, I'm a firm believer that religion has been largely a driving force for good -- at least if we're to judge common people, ancient or contemporary. One study seems to confirm this hypothesis as it found belief in a super deity promotes cooperation among strangers, something anthropologists believe paramount to the development of civilization as we know it.
In one scenario, parts would spiral farther than the moon!
Police departments all over the world use tasers to pacify aggressive criminals. The stun gun ejects two wires at high speed that hook to the body of a person and send a 50,000 volt current, stunning the target. It certainly hurts, and the physical damage might take a while to heal. Researchers investigated, however, the psychological and cognitive effects of getting stunned with a taser. Their findings suggest those who get tasered experience short-term cognitive decline to the point of borderline dementia. This can last for a full hour, during which the victim might be unable to understand questioning by police properly and could interfere with their Miranda Rights, the "right to remain silent".
Vaccines are arguably one of the most impactful medical developments ever. According to the CDC, vaccines given to infants and young children over the past two decades will prevent 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths over the course of their lifetimes. If that's not impressive, a group of researchers put this into another perspective that almost all people seem to appreciate: money. Their findings suggest that though it costs a lot to research new vaccines, manufacture and implement them, the return of investment is absolutely stunning. Pharmaceutical companies make a nice profit, but the bulk goes to society.
A team of researchers performed the most extensive study of howling made by canid species. This includes wolves, jackals and familiar domesticated dogs. The findings suggest that each species and subspecies has its distinct vocal fingerprint, with a specific pitch, fluctuation and timbre.
It's hard not to love video mapping, especially if you've seen a show up close and personal.
In the wake of calamities like hurricanes or tornadoes, you'll find trees leveled to the ground. But observations suggest that all trees seem to break at the same wind speed, with parameters like the type of tree, height or diameter barely affecting the outcome.
Sighing is a fundamental biological reflex that's a lot more important than most people care to think. We don't just sigh when we're in a position of weariness or relief, but quite regularly for no particular reason -- about 12 times an hour.
CO2 interferes with neuroreceptors in the brain of fish, causing them to behave as if drunk. By 2100, fish in half of the world's water might be intoxicated in this way.
These bizarre creatures are called Xenoturbella, and can be found at the bottom of the ocean. For years scientists have being trying to figure out which proverbial foot these fit in. Now, it seems like their place in the tree of life has been established. Not surprisingly, these are found near the base of the tree of bilaterally symmetrical animals. A fancy way of saying one half matches the other half. That's at least one thing these deep-sea sock creatures have in common with humans.
Once any ice age is over, the increased surface temperature causes the ice caps to melt which lessens the pressure on the mantle and causing increased volcanic activity. A paper published by a team from the University of Cambridge found that erosion also plays a major role and can be just as important as melting ice caps. Since erosion is largely ignored by climate models, it may be that scientists underestimated CO2 levels following ice ages.
It's all about the topography of the terrain, and whether or not it allows for niches to become connected, researchers found when they tried to explain what drives the most biodiversity. The findings could prove extremely important in gauging the future impact of migrating species to higher elevation as a result of climate change.
Discovered in ancient lake deposits in northeastern China and eastern Kazakhstan, this ancient insect looks and exhibits behavior closely mimicking the modern butterfly. The Jurassic age insect entered the fossil record 165 million years ago, while butterflies as we know them first appeared 80 to 90 million years ago. Though these are set apart by many millions of years, researchers found numerous morphological and ecological features in these two, unrelated clades.
One of Saturn's ring, which is very opaque and bright seems to have played an optical illusions all along. It is in fact much lighter than previously though -- as little as a seventh of the mass it appears to have.
If you can see a person or an animal, then it is possible to be seen back. It's a basic caveat they train in the military when discussing camouflage. What's more, if you suspect you're being seen, you must minimize your movements. This level of abstraction was thought to be unique to humans. It's been recently shown that ravens too are capable of imagining someone is spying on them and take greater care hiding their food, as reported in Nature Communications.
Most people don't have that much of an issue with dying, like they do with being freaking old. Being old is a drag. You gain weight, the skin gets wrinkled, the mind and body weakens -- and it all gets gradually worse until you expire. Ants don't seem to share this human tragedy. By all accounts these particular ants don't seem to age and die in youthful bodies.
Researchers looked at the long-term exposure of marijuana on cognitive skills. Current users showed poorer cognitive ability across all the mediums the researchers tested. What was interesting is that among those who reported not using marijuana anymore, but used to, there was a pattern that suggested poorer verbal memory, which the ability to remember words. For every five year of cumulative marijuana use (365 days of smoking pot x 5), one in two people on average remembered one word fewer out of a list of fifteen.
Some people have no trouble rising early and being productive, while others are most active during the evenings. This begs the question: are morning persons and night owls set apart by habit or biology? Habits certainly play a leading role, but all things being equal your genes might have a strong word to say in the matter.
Augmenting the simple bow and arrow marked a significant shift in human cognitive abilities.
After shutting down its nuclear reactors, Japan needs to look elsewhere to generate energy. Problem is Japan is kinda crowded, so one ingenious company proposed a creative idea: install solar panels on water.
"Unless you've been in a wheelchair, it's very difficult to see all the various small details - what a person would actually need within an exoframe," said one Phoenix exoskeleton user. Developed by California robotics startup SuitX, this exoskeleton is the lightest on the market today. It's aim is to eventually become so cheap, durable and practical that it will make the wheelchair obsolete and the lives of millions of paraplegics a lot less daunting.
To the romantic eye, a tree swaying in the wind is a testimony of nature's heart beat. An engineer might be moved by the same feeling, but he might also add: "well, that looks like a lot of wasted energy."
The size of the brain isn't essential to superior cognitive abilities -- its shape and packing mechanism matter a lot, too. But while bran folding function is well established, 'the how' has been more elusive to determine. Now, researchers in the US and Europe claim they know what wrinkles the brain: basic physics.
In Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park poachers set thousands of snares to trap wildlife for meat. Inadvertently mountain gorillas -- listed as critically endangered -- get caught in the traps, and the young often die due to wounds or starvation. These sort of scenes are commonly witnessed by trackers working in the area to dismantle the snares, an uphill battle most of the time. What was startling though was a display of ingeniousness few cared to think was possible. Days after a young mountain gorilla was killed by a trap, trackers saw how a pair of four-year old gorillas worked together in coordination to dismantle a trap from the same area.
Using estimates of how many people are involved in some of the major alleged conspiracies, one scientist modeled how long it would take for them to be revealed to the public.
Some 2,000 years ago, there were only 170 million people in the whole planet. How did we get to 7 billion?
A general trend was found: those animals with the highest brain/body size ratio were better at solving a problem they had never seen before.
Researchers at European Space Agency (ESA) collected fungi that live in one of the harshest places on Earth -- McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica -- then shipped some to the ISS. Here, populations were subjected to both a Martian environment and directly exposed to space. In both situations, fungi survived after 18 months though those breeding in the Martian environment proved to be far better adapted. Lichen were also tested under the same circumstances. These too survived, which gives hope that there might be a chance for life on Mars to exist.
A German astrophysicist decoded ancient Babylonian tablets stuffed with computations. His analysis reveals that these were used by the ancient scholars to predict where and when Jupiter would show up in the night's sky based on abstract computations so advanced they're indispensable to modern science. It's thought analytical geometry was invented at Oxford in the 14th century, but it seems the Babylonians had it covered more than 1,400 years earlier.
Considering how inhospitable Mars is, given there's no air, -55C temperatures, radiation and all, you might think the quality of sleep on Mars is our last concern. A new study suggests that a permanent jet lag on Mars might come with some serious health risks, so maybe we should take this more seriously.
Here we go again. A new study which investigated so-called addictive effects of food got picked up by the media with moronic headlines. The study in question found similar pharmacokinetic properties (e.g. concentrated dose, rapid rate of absorption) between highly processed foods and drug of abuse. The most rewarding food was found to be pizza, but in fact the researchers found cheese is actually the proxy. Apparently, cheese contains a concentrated amount of a protein known to bind to opiate receptors in the brain. Unsurprisingly, here are some of the headlines we've seen since: "Cheese really is like crack: Study reveals the food triggers the same part of the brain as drugs" (Daily Mail) or "Cheese really is crack. Study reveals cheese is as addictive as drugs" (LA Times). It goes without saying that cheese is not crack, and such headlines could be actually demeaning to crack addicts.
Right now coal accounts for 39% of all the world's generated electricity, with gas coming in second but still trailing behind at 22%. King coal is dying though, as ZME Science reported earlier. In less than 15 years, the International Energy Agency estimates renewable energy will become the dominant energy source in the world. Moreover, these estimates are conservative since the report assumes many coal plants will still be online in 2030, which is unlikely.
Marine biologists study microbes in the waters above natural oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico stumbled upon something unexpected. They found phytoplankton, tiny organisms that comprise the bottom of the marine food chain, thrive in waters with low concentration oil. In some cases, the population is double that a couple miles off the oil seep sites.
Astronomers find the parent of an orphan planet. The finding makes the solar system the biggest in the galaxy.
A team at University of British Columbia claims that a type of clay found northwest of Vancouver is effective against a dangerous class of drug-resistant bacteria. The clay investigated by the Canadian researchers destroyed the ESKAPE germs, in some instances in less than 5 hours. Furthermore, the clay is completely natural and no toxic side-effects have been reported thus far.
Water pollution is a big issue, and so far there isn't one single system capable of reliably filtering toxic heavy metals. These are either too small, or selectively filter certain metals when polluted water often contains a mix. Researchers at ETH Zurich claim they've hit a breakthrough. Using cheap, readily available materials they designed a filter that can retain over 99% concentration of mercury, gold cyanide or toxic potassium, to name a few. It can also absorb radioactive waste and help recycle gold.
'Don't judge a book by its cover' right about sums up the Human Library Project. The concept is simple, but very powerful: instead of checking out books, you sit with a random stranger for half an hour and listen to his life story. Titles include Child Of The Holocaust Survivors, The Gypsy Tale, Iraq War Veteran, or Orphanage Boy. Just like a book, you'll be exposed to a unique experience, only you'll also interact with the author, ask questions and learn much more.
Before WWII, there weren't that many plastics around. Today, we use so much that we could literally plaster the planet in one giant clingfilm. A paper published in the journal Anthropocene reviews the state of plastic production, use and pollution and concludes that no place on Earth has been spared.
In a time when a barrel of oil can cost less than a ... barrel, the EV market suffers. Market leader Tesla Motors saw its shares take a dive this month after it reported sales in the bottom range of its forecast for the 2015 fourth quarter. So, how can Tesla, Nissan or any other player in the EV space right now protect themselves against fluctuating oil prices. When the price is high, the EV market flourishes and, conversely, goes down with oil that sells for pennies. Tesla's boss, Elon Musk, has this covered: he wants to make electric cars that are so exceptional that you won't care anymore about how much a full tank costs.
When the researchers analyzed some of the most cited contrarian climate change papers -- by other scientists or in the media -- they found these were riddled with methodological errors and not one one of them stood to scrutiny.
Researchers found a way to manipulate single cells in three dimensions using sound waves. They devised acoustic tweezers that can position minute particles or cells anywhere within the fluid enclosure without touching, altering, deforming or labeling the particles in any way. The resolution or accuracy is between 1-2 micrometers. Work like this might enable us to design tissue implants which faithfully mimic the human tissues or organs destined to be replaced. Other methods, like 3D biological printing, alter or even destroy cells keeping them from functioning the way they ought to.
Oddly enough, one study found being more lenient with return deadlines actually reduced returns, not increased them. With this in mind, 90 days returns might be a lot more productive for retailers than the standard 30 or 60 most use.
An altered periodic table that shows how each elements was forged.
The Namib Desert Beetle lives in one of the most inhospitable and driest places on Earth, in the southwest coast of Africa. The beetle, however, employs a nifty trick: it can virtually make water out of thin air, thanks to its body whose geometry collects water droplets and directs them right into the insect's mouth. Now, engineers have adapted this design to keep ice bridges from forming and keep critical aircraft components freeze-free.
A new study by Oxford researchers suggests that we all would like to maximize our profits, it's just that some simply don't understand the rules of the game. In other words, they act altruistic because they don't know how to be selfish, which in effect doesn't make them altruistic at all.
A groundbreaking research out of the Salk Institute suggests synapses are 10 times bigger in the hippocampus. Conversely, this means the memory capacity is 10 times larger than previously thought, given synapse size is directly related to memory. Moreover, the team found these synapses adjust in size constantly. Ever 20 minutes, synapses grow bigger or smaller adjusting themselves for optimal neural connectivity. The clues could prove paramount to developing artificial intelligence or computers that are more akin to the human brain: phenomenal computing power using minimal energy input.
