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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.
Despite solar cells made with perovskite recently crossed the 20 percent efficiency mark, researchers say there's still room to improve if only they knew how charge flows at the nanometer scale. They just had to ask.
Exactly six decades ago, an amateur fossil hunter called Francis Tully came across an usual find some 50 miles south of Chicago. Only recently was this peculiar creature been thoroughly described and given its rightful place in the evolutionary tree.
A lot of company nowadays offer genetic kits directly to consumers who can then have their genome sequenced on the cheap and get informed about any risk of contacting a genetic disease. If a person's genome suggests a risk of developing diabetes, would that person change his diet to reduce this risk? Oppositely, would that person think there's no use in changing behaviour since it's all 'written in stone'? University of Cambridge surveyed all the relevant studies they could find on the matter and found personal genetic information does little to nothing to alter behaviour.
What's the most important resource on the planet? Water of course.
Evidence suggests mindfulness meditation reduces both emotional and physical pain. Concerning the latter, we still don't know the underlying mechanisms that cause meditation to have painkiller-like effects, but we're getting there.
The machine uses a high-velocity beam of electrons to cut through virtually any metal at least 15 times faster than any technique.
. University of East Anglia researchers say storks prefer to live in Spain and Portugal because there's plenty of junk food lying around landfill sites. The latest surveys suggests the birds now live and nest there all year long.
The health benefits of beer are well documented, and much of these are owed to the properties of hops.
T. Rex grew its way to the top of the food chain. To get there though, the dinosaur first had to evolve a big brain with keen senses, a new research suggests.
Lithium, the stuff the battery in your smartphone or notebook are made of, is a toxic substance and in short supply. It's pretty clear it's not a sustainable solution to our mobile power generation needs. One alternative explored by researchers at MIT uses carbon nanotubes, which are non-toxic and non-metallic.
Inspired by ants, researchers mimicked the insects' individual super strength and collective hive mind in tiny robots. Each weighs only 0.2 pounds, but six were enough to tow a 3,900 pound-car, with one of the researchers seated as well.
Kannan Soundararajan and Robert Lemke Oliver of Stanford University published a paper recently that is leaving mathematicians scratching their heads. Their work exposed a mathematical bias of prime numbers in which a prime repels other would-be primes that end in the same digit. The researchers found some digits are 'preferred' in the detriment of others with various predilections. For instance, a prime ending in 9 is 65 percent likelier to be followed by a prime ending in 1 than one ending in 9.
A wind or Aeolian harp is exactly what the name implies: the only musical instrument played by the wind.
Japanese researchers found a novel way to grow corneas in a dish starting from skin cells. The corneas were implanted in the eyes of blind rabbits, which could then see.
Close to the dwarf planet's equator liies a roughly 4,000 square miles plateau called Piri Planitia, which particularly stands out. Unlike the rest of Pluto, the plateau is pretty smooth, unmarked by the characteristic craters and jagged. Aided by New Horizons' sensitive imaging instruments, scientists now think they know what's been eating Pluto so long: sublimation at the hand of methane-rich deposits.
A new approach to removing ice could make driving during winter less annoying, and flying a lot less dangerous. It relies on a rubbery coating that exploits the mechanics between rigid surfaces, instead of attempting to chemically repel the water in ice like other coatings.
Inspired to 'make tomorrow now', an industrious team of Saudi researchers baffled everyone by demonstrating an artificial skin made with household items.
Familiar terrorist footage includes masked murders proudly posing with two 'V' shaped fingers over the corpse of their victims. Many times, this is the only thing investigators have at their disposal to identify the terrorist.
Japanese researchers have identified a bacteria that eats PET, a kind of plastic widely employed for bottles. This is the first time such an organism has been found, and others like it -- maybe more versatile in their preference for plastic -- might be found.
In just 7 years, a disease called white-nose syndrome has killed more than 5 million North American bats, almost wiping out entire colonies across 25 states. In Asia however, bats that are exposed to the same disease-carrying fungus are infected in far lesser numbers.
Making bottles to meet America’s demand for bottled water uses more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year. Instead of petroleum, Stanford researchers have found a creative way to make plastic for bottles sourced from CO2 and inedible plants like waste agriculture or grasses.
Imagine spending half of your day chewing food like our cousins, the chimpanzees. You'd never get anything done. Strikingly, human teeth have evolved to become smaller over the past million years or so. This begs the question: how did we become such efficient eaters? There are two answers. For one, human ancestors started eating higher quality food (meat) and, secondly, they employed food processing. By applying tool use to anything outside slicing and cutting meat, these early ancestors may have opened the flood gates of innovation.
It's common for species to be named after a person, most often the scientist who first discovered them. Recently, many biologists have resorted to naming new species to science after celebrities to spark interest among laymen, especially if the new species is endangered.
Mechanical engineers at Brigham Young University are combining the versatility of origami with mechanical know-how to produce the smallest surgical tools.
The Japanese great tit, a bird closely related to the more familiar North American chickadee, uses complex calls in different contexts to convey different meaning. These "words" are stringed together to form compound messages -- evidence of a sophisticated communication system based on syntax. This is the first time syntax has been shown to occur in non-human animals.
It seems that while most of us do not like to behave like extortionists, we choose to elect those that are extortionists for us. What's more, this study seems to prove that Machiavellian cooperation works: all parties involved win at the end, it's just that extortionists benefit more, while fair parties benefit less. Chances are no one will ever win, though, in a room packed with extortionists.
You might be able to grip, grab and direct hand movements with a prosthesis as if it were your own biological hand, but without the exquisite sense of touch life is not only stale, but also challenging. We're coming close to a singularity in prosthetic research, however -- having bionic arms that sense pressure, texture, temperature and humidity just like their biological counterparts.
Mindset and learning go hand in hand. It's important to be confident in one's own abilities to learn new skills and meet goals. Overconfidence, however, can also hinder learning according to Washington State University researcher Joyce Ehrlinger.
Anxious people may be more prone to associate neutral environmental cues with emotional experiences. Psychologists call this over-generalization, and research into the matter might explain why a seemingly minor event can sometimes unleash a full blown anxiety episode. We might also learn more about the wiring of the anxious brain which fires in different patterns than the 'normal' brain.
A study made by researchers at Forida Atlantic University and Cleveland State University assessed the effects of paid sick leave, or lack thereof, had on employees' health. Those who didn't have this benefit were at a much greater risk of forgoing medical care, either to treat or prevent an illness or injury.
An artificial ‘skin’ can stretch up to 480 percent its original size, and can sense changes in pressure – a haptic feature that could lend both robots and human prostheses a sense of touch.
Around 65.5 million years ago a 10-km wide asteroid crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, suddenly altering all life on the planet.
Recently, a treasure trove of a dozen ancient lizards trapped in amber came to scientists' attention. Everyone was impressed by the pristine preservation, but what particularly caught their eyes was a chameleon-like creature that's 100 million years old. That's 78 million years older than the previous record holder.
Seals from colonies on the North Atlantic island of North Rona that had higher levels of the hormone oxytocin in their blood stay closer to pups. This suggests that the hormone, often called the love hormone because of its role in love and in female reproductive biological functions, is paramount to forming mother-child bond.
Mars was never the same after a monster volcano erupted on the Red Planet some 3.5 billion years ago. Before the massive eruption, its poles were in completely different locations, so where it rivers and ice sheets. Moreover, the crust buckled and twisted in alien ways, like the skin and flesh of a peach shifting in relation to its pit.
An early land lover, the Tortobu might have been a key part of the land ecosystem that eventually grew to foster complex land life.
Using only five atoms, a team of international researchers showed how to factor a prime, albeit a trivial one for demo purposes.
Up until now, there was no reliable way to measure the temperature of nanoscale objects, like viruses.
A revolutionary new supercomputer powered by Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy source for every living cell in your body, is ridiculously small and much more efficient than a traditional supercomputer. That's because instead of electricity, this computer is powered by biological agents. This means it needs little to any cooling, and can be scaled to the size of a book.
Wind gusts are so unforgiving that the trees themselves molded into weird and crooked shapes. There's an almost surreal beauty to their shape, though -- it brings harshness to life. You won't find anything like it anywhere else in the world.
Dammit, people!
Evidence points to the fact that Neanderthals used manganese dioxide, today commonly found in batteries, to light fires some 50,000 years ago.
This week Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio won his very first Academy award for best actor. Of course, he was there and took the stage for his acceptance speech. What happened next didn't surprise those familiar with DiCaprio's concerns outside the movie business: he spoke about the imminent threat of climate change, calling it ‘the most existential crisis our civilization has ever known.’
In neighborhoods with high crime rates, past research showed that women who perceive they are at risk will generally be attracted to physically formidable and dominant mates (PPFDM). Yes, I know, it's a hilarious classification. But while this finding isn't all that surprising, there's a new research by a team at University of Leicester, UK which suggests this is true even when there isn't much or any risk of physical confrontation at all. In other words, women who feel vulnerable or victimized no matter the circumstances will find comfort in dating PPFDM (now you have a new shorthand to call your meatier friends; enjoy!).
Many consumers now choose to exclusively buy products labeled with an eco-certificate which supposedly testifies that manufacturing was made in sustainable manner. Do these actually work? One of the few studies on the subject seems to suggest that the impact is positive, at least in Chile and related to deforestation.
