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The sun goes through quasi-seasonal changes, a find that could help protect power grids back on Earth

Just like our own planet, the sun goes through seasonal changes in its activity, waxing and waning over the course of nearly two years driven by changes in newly discovered bands of strong magnetic fields. This variability helps shape the sun's long-term 11 year cycle, yet again part of a longer cycle that lasts 22 days. Largely unpredictable, the sun constantly spews highly charged particles known as coronal mass ejections which can severely affect power grids, satellites and even airplane passengers. During its seasonal peaks, however, the sun is much more prone to solar storms, so understanding how this cyclic variability happens is key to averting a potential disaster.

Shorter people are more likely to get heart disease - every inch counts

The same genes that are responsible for height have been linked to heart disease as well, according to British researchers who found shorter people are at a greater risk. For every 2.5 inch difference in height, the chance of contracting a heart disease increases by 13.5 percent. In other words, a 5-foot-tall person has an average 32 percent higher risk of heart disease than a person who's 5-foot 6-inches tall, according to the researchers.

New Aluminum-ion battery fully charges in under a minute - 100 times faster than your laptop

Renewable energy and electric vehicles not only need high density storage mediums to become successful, but ones that can be replenished fast as well. A new battery, very similar to the popular lithium-ion variety used to power your smartphone, charges in under a minute and still works perfectly after 7000 cycles. Moreover, the battery is based on aluminium making it both easier and cheaper to manufacture.

Presenting the first brain-gene interface: thought-controlled protein production

You've heard all about controlling robotic arms or prosthesis with thoughts, but what about genes? In a deceptively simple experiment, bioengineers in Switzerland combined a classical brain-computer interface with a biological implant, which effectively allowed a genetic switch to be operated by brain activity. Imagine wearing a "funny" cap fitted with electrodes and a tiny implant, then controlling your mood by thinking the perfect "pure" thoughts that would cause a cascade of feel good chemicals. The same could be made for painkillers, so you can deliver just the right amount. Really, there's a lot of potential floating around this thing.

The ultimate bandaid: synthetic spider silk

There aren't blood vessels you're seeing, but itsy bitsy strands of artificial spider silk. For some years, researchers have been investigating synthesizing spider silk for a variety of very good reasons. Spider silk is the toughest known natural material, and has been explored in its synthetic variety for use as bulletproof vests, synthetic skin, biodegradable water bottles and even computer electronics. These strands presented above, however, serve a different purpose: as a bandaid meant to help regenerate skin and heal wounds.

Map compiled by NASA shows how lightning strikes the Earth

By the time you've finished reading this sentence, thousands of lightning bolts had already discharged enormous amounts of energy onto Earth's surface. Now, a map compiled by NASA using two decades worth of measurements shows which places are hit most often. For instance, land is hit more frequently than the ocean, as is the equatorial region compared to other regions of the globe.

Blind rats 'sense' their location after a geomagnetic compass was strapped to their brains

Blind rats learned to navigate mazes just as well as those that could see, after scientists strapped a simple geomagnetic compass - the kind that's found in your smartphone - fitted with electrodes directly onto their brains. Though they're not naturally equipped to sense magnetic fields, the rats' brains demonstrated tremendous plasticity and effectively incorporated a new sense! We can only presume this is possible in the case of humans as well, so the team from Japan which made the study believes blind people could incorporate a similar device - minus the brain hack. There are other alternatives after all, like say an iPhone app that acoustically alerts the blind person which way to turn or a sensor directly fitted into a walking cane.

City ants LOVE junk food

If you ever dropped food on the pavement, don't feel too bad. It'll get scrapped bit by bit by the ever resourceful ants, so you're actually doing a favor to these swarms of critters. But have you ever wondered why ants can eat ice cream, hot dogs or just about every kind of junk food we unwittingly throw at them? Some researchers looked at this question and found that some particular ant species have seemingly adapted to consume junk food.

Frustrated magnets really do exhibit Hall's effect, but only near absolute zero temperature

Settling a long debate, Princeton University researchers found that a class of materials called frustrated magnets - called so because they're not magnetic, though they should be - can exhibit the Hall effect. This happens only at very, very low temperatures close to absolute zero, when physics transcends familiar, classical behavior into the quantum domain. First observed in 1879 by E.H. Hall, the effect describes how current deflects to one side of the ribbon when an electrically charged conductor is subjected to a magnetic field. It has since been exploited for use in in sensors for devices such as computer printers and automobile anti-lock braking systems. The current study is particularly important since it may reveal more about how transmission of frictionless electricity works (superconductivity), while also offering hints and clues that may help researchers devise the oh-so heralded quantum computers of the future.

Book review: 'Higher Education in the Digital Age'

Higher education is facing a crisis, and professor Bowen offers some solutions.

What overpopulation looks like, in PHOTOS

Some might argue that 7 billion people, while a lot in itself, isn’t necessarily a cause of concern, not even when this is expected to sour to 10 billion by 2100. After all, 7 billion people can be squeezed in an area the size of Texas, but I think that’s besides the point. Yes, the […]

Homes cleaned with bleach linked to higher rate of infection in children

Homes cleaned at least once a week with bleach might provide an environment that puts children at a higher risk of catching viral infections. The observational study suggests the modest, yet significant higher risk of infection may be due to a suppression of the immune system. Also, it might very well be due to the irritant properties of volatile or airborne compounds generated during the cleaning process that can damage the lining of lung cells, sparking inflammation and making it easier for infections to take hold.

Biotech used to build plant tolerance to water shortage - one way to beat California's worst drought in history

Exploiting plants' natural response to stress caused by drought, researchers have engineered crops that build tolerance and can withstand longer without water, while also extending the point of no return when no amount of water can save the withered plant. This "buy more" time method might hopefully help vulnerable crops fare better during long periods of drought - like the one currently in full swing in California, which is experiencing its worst drought in recorded history - and increase yields.

DNA blood test can detect Down Syndrome more accurately than standard tests

A new test analyzes the free DNA inside the blood of pregnant women to detect Down Syndrome in fetuses with a greater accuracy than standard tests. The test can be made by women between 10 and 14 weeks pregnant.

Over 100 child paralysis cases linked to new Enterovirus strain

Most of the 100 children hospitalized with acute flaccid myelitis haven't recovered from paralysis and weak limbs. CC BY-NC 2.0

As Arctic ice goes, so do the polar bears. Study finds land food is inadequate to keep them fed

After carefully calculating the net nutritional gain polar bears have from land-based food like caribou, berries or bird eggs, researchers found this is far from enough to compensate their typical fat-rich diet based on marine mammals. In consequence, as ice retreats and spring hunting season shortens polar bear populations are expected to fall dramatically. According to the study, two-third of the world's polar bears will disappear by mid-century and by the end of the century the could follow, if the issue is not addressed.

Awesome tiny birds cross the Atlantic in one go without stopping

More than half a century in question, scientists now confirm that the tiny blackpoll warbler flies nonstop over the North Atlantic Ocean each autumn from New England to South America. The trip takes three days, during which the bird foregoes any rest, sleep or meal. It also absorbs its own intestines.

Ignoring the dress code can actually enhance status, but only if other people think you're elite

There's a fine line between being seen as a non-conformist (higher status) and sloppy dresser (lower status). But what sets apart people like Zuckerberg from regular people like you or me (apart from money, of course...)? Well, to get to the root of this silver line, the Harvard researchers studied the observers themselves to understand what are the boundary conditions and signals that make people confer higher status to nonconforming individuals over conforming ones.

Book review: 'On Sacrifice'

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the biblical sacrifice, but also the psychoanalytical reasoning behind sacrifice. Quite brilliant.

The Colugo (flying lemur): the cutest mammalian glider

The flying lemur is the most accomplished mammalian glider.

Sandwiching water between graphene makes square ice crystals at room temperature

In a most unexpected find, the same University of Manchester team that isolated graphene for the first time in 2003 found that water flattens into square crystals - a never encountered lattice configuration - when squeezed between two layers of graphene. The square ice qualifies as a new crystalline phase of ice, joining 17 others previously discovered. The finding could potentially improve filtration, distillation and desalination processes.

First 3D mini lungs grow in the lab help end animal testing

Stem cells were coaxed to grow into 3D dimensional mini lungs, or organoids, for the first time. These survived for more than 100 days. These pioneering efforts will serve to deepen our understanding of how lungs grow, as well as prove very useful for testing new drugs' responses to human tissue. Hopefully, once human tissue grown in the lab becomes closer and close to the real deal (cultured hearts, lungs, kidneys etc.), animal testing might become a thing of the past.

How a new generation of climate change resistant beans could save millions

Some 30 new bean varieties have been cross-bred by researchers in order to make these more resistant to rising temperatures. Often called the 'meat of the poor', more than 400 million people around the world depend on beans for their daily protein intake. Being particularly vulnerable to temperature means that bean farms, whether large or home subsistence gardens, could be obliterated by climate change this century. The new beans can withstand temperatures three to four degrees Celsius greater than those currently grown by farmers, enough, the researchers say, to keep yield losses to a minimum.

50 years ago today, an astronaut smuggled the first sandwich to space

When you gotta eat... well you gotta eat, even in space. On March 23, 1965 astronaut John Young launched to Earths' orbit aboard the Gemini 3. With him was crewmate Gus Grissom and a two days old corn beef sandwich, smuggled without permission on the spacecraft.

Boeing develops force field reminiscent of Star Trek

Boeing, a major aircraft and military manufacturer, just secured a patent that describes a Star Trek-like force shield, meant to protect vehicles operating in war zones. I love it when engineers are inspired by science fiction - it means that the authors really did a great job, not only at foreseeing the future, but also in offering the incentive to bring these sort of contraptions to real life.

Humidity-powered seed drills itself in the ground

The Stork’s Bill (Erodium circutarium) is a incredible plant which evolved its own seed drilling mechanism. The  vitamin K rich seeds have little tails that coil and uncoil with changes in humidity, burying the seed. When there's high humidity, the seeds turn clockwise. When it's dry, they turn counter-clockwise. This makes it particularly brilliant since no matter how wet it is outside, the seeds will still drill in the ground like a screw, thereby increasing the chance of sprouting.

Parents' second-hand smoke might clog children's arteries

A longitudinal study that spanned 26 years found that kids exposed to their Finish parents cigarette smoke are at risk of developing plaque in their carotid arteries as they grow into young adults. Previously, second-hand smoke exposure at a young age was linked to later breast cancer and a predisposition to nicotine addiction. Psychologically, having parent smokers may influence children to become smokers themselves when they grow up, triggering a cascade of other health risks.

Kept in the dark: half of Alzheimer's diagnoses aren't disclosed by doctors

For its annual report, the The Alzheimer’s Association in the US claims that more than half of all reported early Alzheimer's diagnoses aren't disclosed to the patient by doctors. This is a situation reminiscent of the 1960s and 1970s when cancer diagnoses were rarely disclosed to patients as the disease was generally seen as incurable. Like in the case of the long-gone cancer stigma, doctors may be doing more harm than good. They don't want patients to lose hope, but being kept in the dark as to their suffering can be equally bad, if not worse.

Why insulin is so prohibitively expensive to the 29 million diabetes patients in the US

Even if it was first discovered more than 90 years ago, insulin is still out of reach for a shocking 29 million diabetes patients in the United States. Yes, this is the 21st century, but even so a staggering number of human beings are forced to live in life threatening conditions. But why is insulin so prohibitively expensive? According to Jeremy Greene, M.D., Ph.D., and Kevin Riggs, M.D., M.P.H., it's all because of a series of perverse updates to insulin treatments. While insulin made today is more effective in some instances, previous versions weren't that bad. In fact, they saved lives. Yet, these were replaced with very expensive versions, while the older, much cheaper versions are nowhere to be found on the market anymore. The two authors explore all that's wrong with today's insulin big pharma.

Woolly mammoth and modern elephant DNA merged. Next, cloning

Cloning the woolly mammoth is a life long dream for many geneticists and biologists, but the challenges are numerous. Now, we've come a step closer after researchers replaced snips of elephant DNA with those from the woolly mammoth. The changes they've made so far are stable, and even though there's still much work ahead, little by little scientists are building the mammoth's genome one piece at a time. Next stop: actually cloning the mammoth, effectively resurrecting the species back from the dead.

You're flushing a goldmine down the toilet, literally

At a recent meeting of the of the American Chemical Society, researchers proposed a novel source of valuable metals: waste water. They proposed a method that could be used to extract valuable metals like gold, silver or titanium which end up in waste water plants via the city's sewage.

Bioelectricity vital to brain and tissue development, tadpole experiment shows

Biologists at Tufts Universityand University of Minnesota showed for the first time that bioelectricity signaling between cells guides embryonic brain development in tadpoles. When bioelectricity signaling was hampered, the frog embryos developed abnormal brains. By using drugs that target specific ion channels, the researchers could restore normal patterns to ensure healthy brain growth. This means that careful manipulation of electricity inside the tissue can repair abnormalities caused by genetic defects. It can also be used to grow all sorts of wacky stuff.

Every year, spring is 30 seconds shorter

Spring officially began in the northern hemisphere Friday on 22:45 GMT, around 30 seconds later than last year. As it so happens, every year spring gets shorter by 30 seconds to a minute, losing the time to summer which gets longer by the same amount. Whose to blame for the later bloom? Why, that wretched tilted axis of course.

Book review: 'The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis'

The 2008 financial crisis explained by the Federal Reserve chairman.

Darwin's 'strangest animals' finally classified thanks to protein sequencing

While in South American during his 1830 expedition with the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin came across the fossils of two peculiar hoofed species which he was unable to classify properly. One was Macrauchenia, which looked like a camel with the head of an ant eater, and the other was Toxodon which had the body of rhino, the head of a hippo and the teeth of a rodent. So, was the Macrauchenia related to the camel or the ant eater? Who was Toxodon's closet cousin, the hippo or the rhino? Darwin was puzzled and to no avail concluded these were “perhaps one of the strangest animals ever discovered”. But Darwin didn't have the tools we have today. Now, using a ground breaking technique researchers have sequenced the collagen of a myriad of South American mammals, including Darwin's 'strangest animals' and finally found their real taxonomy.

Florida employee forced to leave of absence and called a 'nut' for mentioning 'climate change'

Barton Bibler, a long time employee of Florida's environmental protection department, was forced by his boss to take a leave of absence after mentioning 'climate change' in a public hearing. He was told not to come back at the office until he had sought mental health examination. This was in response to a violation of an unwritten policy that came into effect after Governor Rick Scott came to office, a notorious climate change denier and controversial figure, which bans employees from using 'climate change', 'global warming', 'rising sea level' and such from public communication. If you find this hilarious, you can stop laughing now. This not the Onion. This is Scott's Florida - the land of ignorance and denial, or so he would like us to believe.

Croc ancestor was the top two-legged predator on Earth, long before T. Rex and other dinosaurs

Long before T-rex claimed the top dog spot among terrestrial predators, a vicious crocodile ancestor that walked on its hind legs was at the top of the food chain during the Triassic. The fossils of the Carnufex carolinensis, also known as the the “Carolina Butcher,” were discovered decades ago in the Pekin Formation, a geological formation in North Carolina's Chatham County. It was only recently that researchers reanalyzed the fossils and concluded they were dealing with an all new predator that roamed the Earth several million years before dinosaurs were even around.

Why some tropical mushrooms glow in the dark

The tropical forests of Northeaster Brazil have their own nightlight: a peculiar mushroom called Neonothopanus gardneri that glows in the dark. Like a street light, it's tuned to activate its bioluminescence only in the dark, first in the twilight then peaking at about 10 PM. Researchers at Dartmouth College in the US and the University of São Paulo in Brazil have now fond out what this strange behavior is all about: 'candy' for insects.

Q&A with Dr. Ijad Madisch (ResearchGate founder)

Ijad Madisch a Harvard trained virologist and computer scientist was on his way to becoming a medical professor, but in 2008 he put a halt to his career as a medical researcher to embark on an even greater challenge: changing the way scientists connect.

Cannabis under the microscope: up close and personal

Scientists, in the lab at least, see marijuana differently from growers or users. Like other plants, once you dive into the microworld cannabis looks immensely different from the buds you see online. These amazing pictures which size up the planet’s crystals, trichomes or leafs were taken by Ford McCann and compiled in a book called  Cannabis […]

Workplace suicides on the rise - doctors, law enforcement workers and soldiers most vulnerable

Each year worldwide about one million people decide to take their own lives. Overriding your conservation instincts isn't easy, let's say, and this typically happens on the onset of mental illness. In a society where people lives get ever more confused with their occupation, stress at work can sometimes trigger a tragedy. The numbers don't lie. According to researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 1,700 people died by suicide on the job between 2003 to 2010.

Buzz Aldrin in Stonehenge photoshoot: 'Get your a** to Mars'

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, is no stranger to staggering photos. His most famous shot includes the first ever selfie in space. Now, while visiting Stonehenge, Aldrin posted on Twitter a photo of him sporting a t-shirt with a stylized Mars logo a la NASA, which read "Get your ass to Mars". A long time supporter of inter-planetary exploration, both publicly during his numerous TV appearances or press editorials and institutionally during his stints in front of Congress, this latest publicity shot aims to inspire the public and garner support for a manned mission to Mars.

Unsatisfied by their government's apathy, Canadian scientists propose their own climate policy

The conservative Canadian government headed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper has consistently moved the country away from sustainable practices and environmental accountability. In 2011, the government came under fire after it withdrew Canada from the Kyoto protocol, an international agreement which commits its parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets. It also disbanded the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy in 2012, a panel tasked with reporting to the government Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. While the government has also taken some measures aimed at curbing emissions, these have been largely insufficient. Disappointed, 71 Canadian scientists have authored their own climate policy recommendations for the nation.

Strongest geomagnetic storm this solar cycle sparks dazzling Northern Lights

A pair of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) emitted by the sun last Sunday have now triggered a severe geomagnetic storm around the globe. At first, only a mild geomagnetic storm was registered after the first wave hit our planet's magnetosphere. Quickly, however, the storm has intensified to G4 status, or only one notch below the highest level solar storm, according to the NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. This is the most severe solar storm of the current solar cycle.

Book review: 'The Quantum Moment'

How the quantum moment "overturned basic beliefs about space and time, causality and reality, and exposed as mistaken many fundamental cultural and philosophical assumptions."

Cyborg cockroaches might save human lives someday

Half cockroach, half machine, these peculiar insects were hijacked by researchers at Texas A&M University for science. Electrodes implanted in their tiny brains send electrical signals that stir the roaches left, right or makes them halt. Effectively, the researchers are controlling their bodies. This may sound despicable - it actually is in many ways - but the benefits to humanity are far reaching. The cyborgs would be our eyes and ears in places otherwise inaccessible, like disasters sites in the wake of earthquakes or other environmental calamities. Picking the cockroach brain might also help us learn more about how our own brain works. This in turn could spur the development of brain-computer interfaces or a new generation of prostheses that faithfully mimic real limbs.

Finally, a fully transparent solar energy harvester

University of Michigan researchers have devised what looks like the world's first fully transparent solar cell. Think of all of those tall glass buildings; wouldn't it be nice if all that incoming solar energy was harvested somehow? Likewise, why not let your smartphone charge up a bit while it's taking a tan. Of course this isn't a new idea, but previous attempts are rather unattractive because the compromise makes windows too shady or dark. After all, the purpose of a window is to let light in, not make energy. Ideally, you'd want them harness energy as well, complementary. The new system devised at UM is exciting because it offers exactly this: energy generation, with no compromise in visibility.

These birds evolutionary diverged on the same island - why this is very big news

While he was only 22 years of age, Charles Darwin sailed on the ship H.M.S. Beagle to the Galapagos Island on a trip that would later inspire him to write the theory of evolution. Paramount to his evolutionary theories was his study of finches. He identified 13 different species differentiated by beak size, and correctly concluded that the different beaks were adaptations to different diets available among the islands. This was a powerful example of divergent evolution - varieties which diverge from some original species. For instance, domestic dogs from wolves. One powerful driver of divergent evolution is physical isolation. Each left to its own island, Darwin's finches evolved specialized traits. On California's Santa Cruz Island, however, a most peculiar finding was made. Katie Langin, a biologist at Colorado State University, discovered two varieties belonging to the same species (Aphelocoma californica or the Scrub Jay) which diverged despite the absence of a physical barrier. Isolation drives speciation, but not in this case. Granted, the two Scrub Jay populations are essentially the same species. And yet, this is still definitely very, very weird. And we're only beginning to understand what's happening.

This 3D printer for small molecules might change organic chemistry forever

At his lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Martin Burke laid the foundation for what he simply calls "The Machine" - an automated small molecule synthesizer that's set to change the way chemists assemble chemicals forever. It's like a 3D printer, only for molecules. Starting with some basic chemicals, which Burke and colleagues separate into blocks, the machine assembles all sorts of molecules in a modular fashion, like pinning Lego bricks. Hours and hours of toiling in the lab might now be dedicated to more important business, and molecules yet to be synthesized can now be attempted. These small molecules hold tremendous potential in medicine, but technology is also sure to exploit the machine - anything from LEDs to solar cells.

Peruvian farmer forced to relocate because of climate change now demands compensation from German company

Saul Luciano Lliuya is a farmer from Peru whose home in the floodpath of the Palcacocha lake which has been swelling with glacial melt-water for the past few decades. Because Lliuya feels “acutely threatened” by the lake, the farmer is now prepared to take one of Germany's biggest producers of brown coal energy to court and demand compensation. This would make it the first such legal claim in Europe where a company is summoned to pay for its historical role in driving emissions.

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