Tibi Puiu -- author profile on ZME Science

Star Trek walking cane lends virtual touch to the blind

The walking cane has helped the blind navigate obstacles for thousands of years, and its design has remained largely unchanged since - a sophisticated stick. What looks like a combination between a TV remote and a Star Trek tricorder, the Enactive Torch aims to help all the aging baby boomers, injured veterans, diabetics and white-cane-wielding pedestrians navigate their surroundings using 21st century tech.

The road to happiness is paved with many surprises

Sometimes, we go through situations thinking when we reach the end of the road the outcome will feel gloom. But sometimes, the exact opposite happens and we're flooded with absolute joy, the kind of which we couldn't have experienced were we to expect that outcome. In a word, this is called surprise.

Eight planets and a dwarf in one

This magnificent painting by Steve Gildea combines the planets of our solar system in one beautiful planetary mosaic. It’s a celebration of the geological diversity our solar system possess, illustrating each planet’s surface in the order they orbit the sun, starting from the battered Mercury to lonely Pluto. Speaking of which, Pluto is of course […]

Ebola outbreak moving faster than we can control: WHO declares international emergency

As reported earlier, 2014 has seen the worst Ebola outbursts in history. Recent escalations of the outbreaks and spread to other countries like Nigeria has finally prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the Ebola situation a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The report is meant to raise more awareness to the deadly threats […]

Whales and sharks sightings increase around NY waters, in response to cleaner waters

After cleaning the Hudson River, which spills into New York harbor, marine biologists report increased sightings of whales and sharks around the Big Apple’s waters. The cleaner waters now harbor more fish and nutrients, which in turn has led to a surge in numbers. Dolphins and seals are also on the rise. The Hudson River used […]

The brain judges face trustworthiness even when we can't consciously see it

A new study adds to a body of evidence that suggests the brain is involved in a unconscious process of screening human faces for patterns that suggest trustworthiness or otherwise. Namely, our brains are busy judging other people based on their physical features even when we aren’t even get the chance to properly see those […]

Breakthrough in computing: brain-like chip features 4096 cores, 1 million neurons, 5.4 billion transistors

The brain of complex organisms, such as humans but just as well other primates or even mice, is very difficult to emulate with today’s technology. IBM is moving things further in this direction after it announced the whooping features of its new brain-like chip: one million programmable neurons and 256 million programmable synapses across 4096 individual […]

Energy and sports drinks advertised as healthy are nothing but otherwise

Disguised under a ‘health halo’, manufacturers selling energy and sports drinks advertise their products as being a healthy alternative to soda. A report filed by researchers at the Atkins Center for Weight and Health at UC Berkeley found that not only did most popular drinks contain just as much sugar as sodas, but the added […]

Sharks may confuse kitesurfers with birds and attack them

A new study investigated the circumstances under which a 15-year-old kitesurfing male died after a tiger shark attacked him in the South Pacific. Their analysis suggests that attack took place mostly likely because the kitesurfer's motion was confused by the shark with a bird overtaking the water. In light of other similar shark attack cases, the researchers advise any kitesurfing in waters known to harbor sharks should be made with extreme care.

New lithium-ion battery cathode can withstand 25,000 cycles. Your laptop battery only has 300

This wasn't an easy tasks since the researchers identified hundreds of potential candidate compounds.

Biologists witness the birth of a new species before their very eyes

An exceptional Biologists duo who have studying an ecosystem from the Galapagos Islands for the past 40 years have made one of the most important discoveries in evolutionary biology - the birth of a new species!

Spray-coated solar cells bring solar power to every corner

Researchers at University of Sheffield demonstrate a perovskite spray-on solar cell for the first time. Also, this is the first time rated efficiency for a spray-on solar cell tops two figures in efficiency, marking an important milestone and breakthrough in the field.

In Denmark, a zoo will keep animals outside and humans captive

One can argue that zoos have no place in a civilized society; cheap entertainment with little educational value at the expense and suffering of countless animals. But let’s face it – they’re not going away any soon. So instead of abolishing them altogether how about radically transforming them? Bjarke Ingels is set on doing just that. […]

'Risking' your life for the love of physics [a fantastic video lecture]

Some people become in love with physics because they’re secretly in love with the truth. Physics never lies, if you care to think in absolute terms, so there must be a great deal of comfort. The reason modern civilization works they it does today is because of our faith in physics and other sciences. If […]

Aboriginals boost kangaroo populations when hunting with fire

The Aboriginal Martu people have been hunting kangaroos and sand monitor lizards for over 2,000 years. During this time, the natives have not only lived sustainably, but also became unwilling conservationists helping kangaroo populations grow by sparking wild fires that help them catch lizards, a study by researchers at University of Utah found. In other remote areas […]

There's more to excellence than just practice, study finds

The old adage goes ‘practice makes perfect’, and while we all know there is truth in it, at some point practice ceases to become the driving factor towards excellence, at least if we’re to judge from the recent findings of a group of psychologists who studied how people acquire skills and become experts at what […]

Active learning greatly outperforms passive lecturing in classrooms

Most University professors still rely on passive lectures to get their subject across. A meta-study which analyzed 225 studies found that active teaching – lectures that actively engage students and make the learning experience two-way – improves grades and significantly reduces fail rates. The findings add to an already body of literature that suggests the […]

Allan Savory's livestock solution for saving the world is all baloney

Allan Savory's holistic management solution seems too good to be true. Hint: it's not.

Alan Turing's 1952 mathematical model that explains finger formation confirmed

A group from the Multicellular Systems Biology lab at the Center for Genomic Regulation confirmed one of Turing's findings from a biology paper published in 1952, which discusses how fingers are formed.

How culture migrated and expanded from city to city in the past 2,000 years

Using nothing but birth and death records, sociologists at Northeastern University developed a working framework that details the migration patterns of some of humanity's most notable intellectuals in North America and Europe in the past 2,000 years. The data allowed the researchers to identify the major cultural centers on the two continents over two millennia. Rome, Paris, London and New York are some of the world's prolific cultural centers in history.

Frack now, ask questions later: bio impact of fracking still largely unknown

Since 2007, shale gas has boomed by 700% in the US and is projected to rise for the next 30 years. While there are states where well fields span across hundreds of hectares, you'd think that the effects of exploitation of this caliber are well researched and documented. In reality, the bio impact of fracking remains largely unknown.

General intelligence is rooted in social functions

Recent findings suggest that our general cognitive abilities are heavily influenced by key regions of the brain involved in social functions, further strengthening the hypothesis that social abilities are primary to general intelligence and not the other way around.

Organ on a chip might end animal testing and improve drug research

Here at ZME Science we often report on cutting edge developments and various medical breakthroughs that offer novel treatments and such. Most of these drugs or techniques are first studied on animal models, and while they hold great promise, it’s most often than not that the desired response isn’t replicated in humans. This translates in […]

E-cigarettes are less harmful than tobacco variety, yet debate still lingers

A new study that shifted through 81 e-cig related studies found that these are less harmful than conventional cigarettes. Policymakers, however, are inclined to introduce strict regulations for e-cigs, citing unsubstantial evidence that e-cigs do not pose health risks.

Why tattoos are permanent - it's not what you think

Here's a scientific explanation that will show you what happens when you get a tattoo and why the ink will forever show on you body. Hint: it's not because of how deep the ink is.

Gecko sex in space, and why this is good for science

Ruscosmos, the Russian space agency, recently launched geckos in space to see how zero gravity affects mating. The findings have much broader implications that extend humanity's ultimate goal of reaching for the stars.

Sewing an invisible cloak with lasers

A newly developed technique by researchers at University of Cambridge might revolutionize metamaterial manufacturing and help make a complete invisibility cloak.

We are dealing with the worst Ebola outburst in history

The Ebola virus causes a highly infectious disease that can reach fatality rates of up to 90%. It causes a great deal of suffering, spreads really easily and if it’s not treated very early on can kill most people. It’s darn scary , but ever since it surfaced in 1976, when the first outbreaks in […]

Potential HIV-1 cure works by deleting the virus' DNA from the genome

HIV is maybe one of the most resilient and tenacious viral infections known to medical science. Unlike other infections, even if all traces of HIV are gone from the body – the virus itself – it can still resurface and infect the patient later on. That’s because HIV inserts itself permanently into the patient’s genome, […]

China plans to build world's first super collider

A group of Chinese physicists, working with international collaborators, have announced their plans of building a 52-kilometre underground particle accelerator that would smash together electrons and positrons to unravel the fundamental building blocks of life. The project would offer means of probing these sort of fundamental questions that are unavailable to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, an oval-shaped […]

Members of a previously uncontacted Amazonian tribe become infected with influenza

A few months ago, I reported how Google is using its drones and Google Earth technology to monitor an uncontacted Amazonian tribe. Now, there’s convincing evidence that the same tribe has come in contact with non-indigenous locals, then with western researchers in the most unfortunate of circumstances. One, the contact was initiated by criminals operating illegal […]

When Rhode Island accidentally legalized prostitution rapes and STDs dramatically fell

In the 1980s, concerned that the state statute on prostitution was too broad and could potentially infringe on First Amendment freedoms, lawmakers in Rhode Island decided to make it more explicit by cutting some articles. They went a bit too far, though, and accidentally removed the section defining the act itself as a crime. It […]

Win or flop: Taiwanese invents cat face recognition

If you’ve ever been to London, you might have noticed the city is packed with CCTV cameras even in the least crowded street crossings. Besides 24/7 monitoring, these cameras feed images to a highly complex system that automagically runs face recognition, checks the mugs of pedestrians and runs a check if there’s anything on file […]

Regularly exercising reduces risk of dementia by 40%

We’ve all read and heard about how exercise can dramatically boost our quality of living, but how many people actually take action? Very few. Less than 20% of Americans over the age of 18 meet the official recommended guidelines. This is really alarming, because what most people don’t know is that mild exercising has fantastic returns, […]

Perovskite solar cells might help the solar market grow to new heights

A crystal known to science for more than a century has only in recent years become recognized for its use in harvesting solar power. Since the first successful usage of perovskite in solar cells in 2009, the advances in the field have grown exponentially over time, making it a potential candidate for revamping the solar […]

Why people love it when the bass drops

Rave parties go crazy when the bass drops, no doubt about it, but what makes people click so well with low frequencies? Canadian scientists at the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind investigated how our brains react to low-freq pitches and found our affinity has to do with how humans detect rhythm. Basically, the bass is […]

The family that walks on all-fours does not constitute reverse evolution

In 2006 , the BBC aired a fascinating documentary that featured that featured a family of five siblings from a remote corner of Turkey that remarkably solely moved about by walking on all fours. Many anthropologists of the time saw this behavior as evidence of reverse evolution and sought to extensively study the phenomenon in […]

Who talks more, men or women? It all depends on the context, study finds

“We women talk too much, nevertheless we only say half of what we know.” Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess There’s a deeply entrenched stereotype that portrays women as extremely talkative or, at least, much much chatty than men. Ask most people, both men and women, they will agree, but is this merely a subjective facet or […]

Energy drinks mixed with alcohol makes you want to drink more

Whether studying late or partying until dawn, more and more people now turn to energy drinks to keep them up and running. The detrimental effects to health resulting from prolonged energy drink use have been well documented, yet this hasn’t stopped sales one bit. Moreover, researchers in Australia claim that adding energy drinks in alcohol cocktails […]

Smallest Swiss cross made of only 20 atoms demonstrates atom manipulation at room temp

Some applications require such a degree of precision that everything needs to be in exact order at the atom-scale. In an awesome feat of atomic manipulation, physicists from the University of Basel, in cooperation with team from Japan and Finland, have placed 20 atoms atop an insulated surface in the shape of a Swiss cross. Such […]

Meet Jibo, the family robot or the HAL 9000 you always wished for

Designed by the world’s foremost social robotics expert, MIT’s Cynthia Breazeal, Jibo looks like a cross between HAL 9000 and Eve from Wall-E. The robot seeks to become the first in a line of truly intelligent robot helpers that not only assist the family with chores, but become part of it as well. Is this cute, […]

Mutated cat poop parasite treats cancer

Right now, I’m the happy caregiver of seven cats (five kittens. Yey!) which in most people’s books makes me socially challenged and insane. I do take special notice of my pets, and this means looking after them so they don’t get infected by parasites. Cats are typically clean animals, but when infested can spell trouble […]

Mutant worm that doesn't get drunk could help end alcoholism

An unlikely worm might help millions of people fighting alcohol addiction. No, you won’t find it in tequila, but in the labs of neuroscientists at University of Texas at Austin who have engineered Caenorhabditis elegans – one of the most popular animal models in science – to become insensitive to alcohol intoxication. The findings, if replicated on […]

Amazing bacteria live on pure energy alone by feeding on electricity directly

Most living beings on this planet need to go through at least several stages before they can extract the pure energy found in food. More and more convincing evidence suggests, however, that there are numerous bacterial species that consume electricity, thus feeding on energy directly. No oxygen, no ATP, nada. There are many things we can learn […]

Dubai plans to build an entire city under a glass dome

The Simpsons Movie’s plot starts off with Homer adopting a messy piglet he names “Spider Pig”. The pig, helped a great deal by Homer, made enough waste to fill a silo in just two days, so how does Homer decide to solve this problem? Naturally, being Homer (doh!), he throws away the silo into the […]

Friends are family: study shows we share more genes with friends than strangers

We often cherish our closest friends as if they were family. Well, this isn’t actually too far from the truth, considering a new study from the University of California, San Diego, and Yale University found friends who aren’t biologically related resemble each other genetically. In fact, on average friends are as “related” as fourth cousins […]

A Child is Born: Lennart Nilsson's iconic photo book [PHOTO GALLERY]

In 1965, Swedish photojournalist Lennart Nilsson published what was to become one of the most successful photographic book of all time – A Child is Born. From the first ovary fecundation to the last stage of fetal development, the book documents the birth of a new human being in beautiful detail. With millions of copies […]

Sand-based batteries last three times longer than conventional ones

Expect the price of sand to skyrocket! Researchers at University of California, Riverside have devised a coin-sized battery that uses silicone at its anode (negative side), instead of the over-used graphite, that lasts up to three times longer than conventional lithium-ion batteries. The key of the research is the silicon extraction method which uses quartz-rich […]

Heavy marijuana users might damage their brain's pleasure center

While marijuana use is becoming less of a tabu, in light of medical legalization in places like Colorado, California or Uruguay, the same can’t be said about marijuana research. A while ago, I mentioned how only 6% of marijuana research studies the benefits, which is completely biased and absurd to begin with, considering policymakers have […]

Why you feel the urge to jump off a ledge. No, you're not suicidal

A few months ago I went hiking with some of my friends in an absolutely stunning mountain setting. We climbed a country road for half an hour or so on foot, then reached a chalet right in the middle of a pine tree clearing and had a few beers with the keeper there, who was […]

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