Rats rescue their friends from drowning out of empathy (and kindness)
We use the word "humane" to describe kind behavior and sympathy towards others, but the term might falsely lend some...
Early human societies were egalitarian – male dominance emerges only with agriculture and more resources
Sexual equality might be the mark of a civilized society, but it's definitely not a new thing. In fact, there's...
Meet the first fully warm-blooded fish: the opah
Though it's a deep ocean fish, the slender opah is actually fully warm blooded - the first of its kind...
Making computers ‘tick’ like the human brain: a breakthrough moment
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara made a simple neural circuit comprised of 100 artificial synapses, which they used to classify...
A lung cancer vaccine made in Cuba will begin clinical trials in the US
Cuba, famous for its rum and cigars, might be one of the unlikeliest places people think of when cutting-edge biotech...
GE engineers 3D print mini jet engine, then power it to 33,000 RPMs
Printing your own mechanical parts or toys is really easy, not to mention fun, using a 3-D printer. But things...
How should space mining be regulated? Tough question, maybe for our future overlords to decide
At the Canadian Institute of Mining's annual convention, NASA scientists said exploration and prospecting of celestial bodies like the moon...
Bird’s beak reversed engineered into Dinosaur-like snout
Most evolutionary biologists seem to agree, based on fossil record, that the birds of today are direct descendants of dinosaurs,...
This computer is worth 9$ and it’s not as bad as you might think. No, seriously
Next Thing Co, a fledgling company started by three budding hardware enthusiasts, just released a KickStarter campaign in which they...
Carl Sagans’ solar sail will be put to the test next week: our shot at interplanetary travel
In 1976, Carl Sagan went on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson along with a strange contraption, that looked like...
Autonomous underwater gliders plan missions and coordinate by themselves
Climate models and environmental monitoring missions are ever more reliant on autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to scour the ocean depths...
World’s first solar road works better than expected
Only six months ago, a 230-foot strip of road was covered in solar panels in the Netherlands. Since then, some...
A trip to Mars might incur permanent brain damage from cosmic rays
Researchers at University of California Irvine exposed mice to radiation similar to the cosmic rays that permeate space and found...
A sunrise literally painted in life by glowing bacteria on an agar plate
This "drawing" might look like it was made by a kid in grade school, but make no mistake it symbolizes...
Spiders weave graphene-infused silk: the strongest of both worlds
Graphene - the one atom thick sheet of carbon arranged in a hexagon lattice - is the strongest material known...
The tooth-lined ‘penis worm’ now gets a dentist’s handbook
One of the perks of being a writer for ZME Science is that I frequently get to feature some really...
There may not be such a thing as autism epidemic – the explanation might lie in the diagnosis
Over the last couple of years, cases of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) increased by 30%, according to...
Free choice and monkeys: researchers record the moment a mind is changed
Free will is considered the domain of philosophers, but this long lasting question might actually be put to rest by...
This is what thunder looks like (kind of)
What does lightning sound like? Thunder. Well, what does thunder look like then? It's no trick question. Like all acoustic...
Scientists make muscles out of gold plated onions
When it comes to artificial muscles, researchers at from National Taiwan University really know their onions. The team applied an...
Oldest avian ancestor of modern day birds found in Chinese siltstone slabs
A group of paleontologists have unearthed fossils preserved in pristine condition belonging to a new ancient avian species that lived...
Is sleepwalking genetic? Study suggests it runs in the family
Canadian researchers found that kids born out of parents with a history of sleepwalking are more likely to experience somnambulism....
Book review: ‘Great Principles of Computing’
Computer science and the major principles behind it.
Of beards, feces and clickbait
Some news outlets were quick to label beards as toilets. I disagree.
What the first cup of coffee in space means for space travel in the future
Yesterday, Samantha Cristoforetti sipped the first coffee brewed in space using the newly delivered micro-gravity espresso machine. How befitting that...
Tiny hairs on bats’ wings act like airflow sensors – is this why they’re such great flyers?
Apart from echolocation, bats have another ace up their sleeve that makes them formidable flying animals: tiny hairs that sense...
Creative agency makes ink from smokers’ lungs; increases interest in quitting by 500%
For most smokers, the message that cigarettes are fatally bad for their health often doesn't come across. But if that...
3D map of the Pillars of Creation shows the same shaping forces will also destroy them
Using the MUSE instrument aboard ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have made a three dimensional view of the famous...
After cancer ate out his face, this 74-year-old now uses a 3-D printed mask. Photos speak for themselves
Since 1990, Keith Londsdale went through no less than 45 different surgical procedures to remove basal cell carcinoma tumors, one...
HSBC advises caution when investing in fossil fuels, according to private note to clients
Amid crashing oil prices and a divestment movement from fossil fuels, one of the most important banks in the world,...
Genetically modifying human embryos: ‘a line that should not be crossed,’ NIH says
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has reiterated its stance against modifying human embryos, after a paper published last...
Just one billion years following the Big Bang, water may had been as abundant as it is today
Water may have been plentiful in some parts of the universe as early as one billion years after the Big...
Newly discovered dinosaur had bat-like wings… but could it fly?
Each year, hundreds of millions people fly by plane to meet family, do business or travel for leisure. Quite a...
Automated process finds three super-Earths in our neighborhood – a new way to hunt for alien planets
Using three state of the art ground-based telescopes, a team of astronomers has identified three super-Earth exoplanets that are seven...
There’s a reset trigger for your biological clock – bye, bye jet lag, insomnia and exhaustion
While humans have invented a convention called time keeping to make society work, our bodies themselves also have a sort...
Lowest science spending since WWII threatens US economy and security, MIT says
A report issued by a committee at MIT concludes that the decline in science funding will have drastic consequences for...
Courtship in the animal kingdom: the amazing blue-eyed satin bowerbird
Endemic to Australia and New Zealand, the satin bowerbird is considered one of the most intelligent birds found in nature....
Why you have floating things in your eyes
If you ever stared into the blue sky or even a blank computer screen, you might have noticed there are...
NASA can only make three more Plutonium batteries to power spacecraft in space
According to the Department of Energy, the plutonium-238 stockpile is enough to make only three more nuclear batteries. These are...
Book review: ‘Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet’
A sobering wake-up call: tax carbon!
Could you balance a pencil on a one-atom thick tip?
It's Saturday, so time for some fun physics. This non-trivial question is often asked in international physics contests and requires...
The seemingly chaotic, but elegant movement of the octopus: how it pulls it off
Despite lacking a rigid skeleton, octopuses have a remarkable coordinated locomotion. Using high-speed cameras, a group at the Hebrew University...
Blowing vapor: cigarette use plummets among youth in schools, but e-cigs take their place
Electronic cigarettes have soared in use among high school and middle school kids, tripling relative in 2014, while cigarettes have...
Why do we have chins?
Chins are weird and make little evolutionary sense.
Pluto – now in color, courtesy of New Horizon
These two dim dots are none other than Pluto, the dwarf plant, and Charon, its largest moon. Though it might...
SpaceX misses rocket landing by a hair’s breath – Dragon successfully launched, though
Today, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 4:10 p.m. EDT (2010 GMT) carrying...
Dutch citizens sue the government over human rights for lack of action against climate change
Some 900 Dutch citizens have banded together and filled a lawsuit against the Dutch government over human rights, citing the...
First dark matter map spots the invisible substance that might help form galaxies
This is the first map in a series of maps that will be stitched together to form a grand picture...
A ‘warm blob’ in the Pacific is linked to California’s drought and East Coast snow storms
Strange weather in the East Coast and California's worst drought in history have been linked to a peculiar warm mass...