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The most complex computer simulation of its kind to date suggests that melting Arctic ice is significantly contributing to extreme cold weather in the Northern Hemisphere, with last winter’s Polar Vortex that swept the North American east coast serving as an example. Moreover, the analysis suggests that global warming has actually doubled the risk that […]
Here’s something you don’t see everyday – for the first time, astronomers witnessed how a nova is formed right from the onset, capturing and detailing its expansion. The white dwarf turned nova is located some 14,800 light-years away and its study is set to reveal many things about how novas form. The star is dead, long […]
Topping conventional thinking, a new study found that making mistakes while learning can benefit memory, but only when the wrong answer is close to the right one. Random guesses can actually harm memory of the subject, the study found. The result held true for both young and old adults alike, with profound implications for clinical […]
A notebook that laid under the cover of Antarctic ice for the past 100 years was discovered by Newzealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust. The notebook belonged to one of the members of Robert Scott’s scientific crew, an English explorer who raced against Roald Amundsen to be the first to reach the South Pole. While Scott eventually […]
Friday morning, EU leaders finally reached an agreement for its 2030 energy target – member states have all agreed to reduce their green house gas emissions by 40%. Following the announcement, industry representatives voiced concerns that the decisions will affect the EU’s economy and competitiveness, while environmental groups on the other hand criticized the terms […]
Climate Matters is a fabulous and short read that tries to tackle an extremely complex subject, bringing focus and much needed fresh air into the discussion.
Ever heard of “tears of wine” or the phrase “the wine caught legs”? It’s common when you pour wine in a glass to see a ring of clear liquid that forms near the top the glass above the surface of wine. These drops continuously form and fall in rivulets back into the liquid and are influenced […]
European Union leaders are currently meeting in Brussels to discuss the terms under which the Union will set its 2030 energy targets. Right now on the table, the plan is to cut CO2 emissions by 40% from 1990 levels by raising energy efficiency and the renewable energy slice. Such a convention is never without compromise, however. […]
A team at MIT has developed a prediction algorithm that allows them to determine when the price of the infamous volatile cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, will drop or rise. Using this method, the researchers managed to double their initial investment in 50 days, all through an automated process that involved more than 2,800 transactions. Money forecast Since the […]
Life on Earth has so far passed through five distinct crises that threatened to wipe it out, typically referred to as mass extinctions. The direst one was some 252 million years ago when 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of life on land became extinct following a yet unconfirmed series of cataclysmic events known […]
Suni, a 37-year-old northern white rhino and only the second male of his kind left in the world, died recently of natural causes in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy reserve in Kenya. After his death merely six other specimens are now alive that still carry the legacy of this subspecies. Conservation efforts were heavily direct towards Suni, but now that the […]
Regeneration of the spinal chord following a paralyzing injury was thought to be impossible, but groundbreaking efforts stirred by surgeons in Poland and Britain have turned this paradigm upside down. A team of dedicated surgeons and scientists transplanted cells from the nasal cavity of a patient who had been paralyzed from the waist down for […]
What does the environment mean to you? The European Environment Agency asked this question and invited photographers to have their take through a visual essay. Ducks floating along garbage; a lone, yet dominant windmill set on a twilight background; a small frog resting by the petals of a beautifully colored flower. Each artist shared an unique […]
A highly fascinating and, surprisingly for some, practical new line of research is concerned with programmable materials; composites designed to become highly dynamic in form and function. When subjected to certain environmental ques, like temperature or pressure, these smart materials can morph and adapt to new conditions. MIT, for instance, is working with self-transforming carbon fiber, […]
Paleontologists have identified the first known animals that used internal fertilization instead of spawning – armor-coated swimmers, called antiarchs, which lived around 385 million years ago in lakes in what is now Scotland. The discovery is truly monumental since its the earliest known example of sexual dimorphism or differences in appearance between the sexes in the […]
Researchers at the University of Bristol used a complex computer simulation to determine how enzymes in bacteria breakdown antibiotics, rendering them useless. The same simulation could be used to see how certain drugs respond to various bacteria, predicting their resistance and efficacy. This way, doctors will be able to prescribe the best antibiotics for a […]
A team at University of Cambridge have harvested so-called ‘dark’ spin-triplet excitons with close to 100% efficiency, a breakthrough achievement which could vastly improve the efficiency of hybrid solar cells that use both organic and inorganic semiconductor junctions. An exciting solar future Excitons are basically electrons coupled to a hole (they’re attracted to each other and […]
While robots today have become more adapted, they’re still essentially stupid – limited to a particular pre-programmed series of tasks, slow to respond to complex environments and unable to learn from past experience. The future belongs to machine learning and cognitive computing, a new field that’s set to have a great impact on our lives, […]
We rarely get to showcase talent such as Agnes Denes, a visionary who blends mathematics, philosophy and art. Today, you’re in for a treat! Denes first gained worldwide recognition in 1982 when she single-handedly planted 1,000 wheat seeds on a four-acre empty lot, right next to the World Trade Center. The grains grew to yield […]
It’s common knowledge that babies born out of tall parents will most likely grow to be just as tall, but it’s only recently that scientists report finding most of the genes responsible for height. Information like this could prove to be useful in diagnosing genetic growth deficiencies or, in the not so distant future, genetic manipulation to […]
The ocean abyss hasn’t warmed significantly since 2005, according to a new NASA study, further deepening the mystery of why global warming has apparently ground to halt in the past couple of years. The researchers stress, however, that the findings do not indicate that there isn’t any man-made climate change; sea levels are still rising, it’s […]
We talk a lot about science and research, but we don’t spend enough time talking about the people who actually do the research. In case you haven’t followed our previous feature, here is where we share some of the most interesting studies from the week, and share a bit of information about the scientists who […]
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has released a new map of the world’s seafloor – the first in nearly 20 years – which exposes new terrain, including thousands of mountains. The unprecedented detail was attained using radar satellites that captures gravity measurements of the ocean seafloor. Armed with this more precise understanding of […]
An innovative research posits that cancer may actually be a sort of 'safe mode' mechanism, akin to how a computer's operating system reverts back to safe settings to preserve itself, which evolved shortly following the first single celled organisms. The research was made by an unlikely team of scientists: an oncologist, an astrobiologist and a cosmologist. If the findings are right, then cancer may be fought off more effectively using oxygen treatments and infection with viral or bacterial agents.
Chimps, our closest relatives, can pass down knowledge and skills, like using a new tool for instance, and establish cultural communities, according to a recently study published in PLOS Biology. Communicating and passing down skills, inventions and knowledge is considering a pre-requisite to what we commonly refer to as human culture, and the findings suggest that […]
Researchers at MIT report they’ve developed a novel material that can absorb almost all incoming wavelengths of light and convert the energy into heat. The radiated heat emitted by the material can then be collected by photovoltaics for later conversion into electricity. The material is cheap to make using currently available manufacturing processes, can absorb […]
Every year, the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) in Copenhagen welcomes renowned designers and engineers to submit designs that integrates renewable energy in harmony with citizens, nature, and the urban environment. This year’s winning entry is a fantastic solar power array that takes the form of a hourglass, unveiled by Argentina-based designer Santiago Muros Cortés. The project, if […]
New research suggests that plankton, like this adult brine shrimp, could play an important role in mixing oceans.
Some people tend to believe that today’s society is excessively being eaten up by cancer, which is true to a certain degree. A lot more people are dying of cancer today than 100 years ago, but not because of GMO foods or chemtrails. The main reason people are dying of cancer is old age. In […]
Some 100,000 people die each year from venomous snakes bites. Most die because there's not enough antivenom.
A breakthrough finding in Armenia where thousands of ancient cutting tools were found beautifully preserved casts doubt on a currently prevailing hypothesis that these were solely invented in Africa. The tools discovered are between 325,000 and 335,000 years old. The age suggests the ancient paleolithic cultures of the time that inhabited the region independently developed the […]
Astronomers have discovered water vapor in the atmosphere of a new exoplanet - a planet from outside our solar system - roughly the size of Neptune, orbiting a star 124 light-years away. This is the first time water vapor has been found on an alien planet smaller than Jupiter. The discovery is set to improve scientists' understanding of how planet forms and which planets may be best suited to support alien life.
Often called a “Digital Age Leonardo da Vinci”, Alexander Tsiaras is a digital innovator, technologist and artist. You might know him from his work that showcases beautiful digital images of the human body, made using cutting edge imaging software along with artsy tweaks. Guided by a passion for the human form and insides, Tsiaras founded the TheVisualMD, an […]
Smaller, yet heavier then their legendary brethren, the giant squid, the colossal squid is an elusive animal that lives deep in the Antarctic waters. Scientists have known of their existence since the 1920s, judging from scraps found inside whales and sucker imprints on whale skin. It wasn’t until 2007 that the first complete specimen was found, […]
For the first time, scientists at Penn State University have coaxed carbon-containing molecules to form a strong tetrahedron shape, then linked each tetrahedron end to end to form a long, thin nanothread. The resulting materials is stronger than carbon nanotubes, while the thread is only a few atoms across thick, hundreds of thousands of times smaller than […]
Our gut hosts an enormous population of bacteria, each species with its own niche (they feed on certain foods), which outnumbers our own cells 100-fold. Most of these bacteria are good bacteria, though. In fact, you couldn’t survive without most of them! They’re among the best decomposers, breaking down dead and organic matter otherwise impossible […]
A new sign language that's only recently emerged in an isolated community is unlike anything linguistics have been used to.
Scientists have discovered a new dinosaur that possibly had the largest nose in prehistory. Ironically, it didn't have a keen sense of smell.
Environmental groups were outraged when Google announced in 2013 that it would fund the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a well known anti-global warming organization who’s on a mission to kill renewable energy projects and introduce climate change denial literature in schools. Now, Eric Schmidt, former CEO and current Executive Chairman of Google, says that funding […]
Ever in expansion, the universe is always acting on matter in an endless tug of transformations. Colliding matter is a natural part of the universe, but when our own Milky Way is at stake, things get personal. Scientists have known for a long time that our very own galaxy, the Milky Way, is destined to collide […]
Taking inspiration from nature, scientists at MIT have engineered a new sort of glue that acts like a powerful adhesive even in underwater conditions and can cling on to virtually any surface, be it metal or organic. The glue might prove to be useful to repair ships or seal wounds and surgical incisions. The strongest […]
A brief incursion into the world of cognitive machines, authored by IBM's head of research.
Though betavoltaics – battery technology that employs radiation as a means of power generation – has been around since the 1950s, developments thus far haven’t been the most promising. This may set to change after researchers at University of Missouri reported they’ve devised a nuclear-assisted battery, which works in a watery environment, that both lasts longer […]
Neuroscientists at University of Western Ontario in London, Canada found that a man who was thought to be living in a vegetative state for almost twenty years showed response when an Alfred Hitchhock movie was played in the background. The findings suggest that doctors might want to explore more methods to determine whether or not a […]
About 1.4% of the world’s population today is speech impaired, due to conditions such as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), locked-in syndrome (LIS), Encephalopathy (SEM),Parkinson’s disease, and paralysis. Imagine all the people living in Germany today were unable to speak and you’ll come to realize just how far reaching this condition is. So, aside for those being […]
Researchers at the University of Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley just presented a tiny radio, so small it’s the size of an ant, that could very well change the way we interact with technology in the future. What makes the device truly incredible is its ability to power itself without using an external power […]
People who frequently smoke marijuana may use the drug to cope with negative emotions. This sort of association makes people more inclined to abuse marijuana and makes it harder to quit, according to a new study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Lighting up to fight bad vibes, but is it worth it? […]
In the 1950s rainforests covered 14% of the earth’s land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. It’s believed that deforestation accounts for about 20% of global emissions of CO2, because of the a reduced carbon storage capacity. Yet there […]
Stanford researchers traced back methane leaks from contaminated drinking water in Pennsylvania and Texas to shale gas wells. However, they note that they did not find a link between the contamination and the technique used to drill for shale gas itself, called hydraulic fracturing or more commonly known as fracking. Instead, the researchers concluded that […]
The world is currently on a downward spiral, risking reaching a point of no return where global warming can no longer be reversed – not in due time at least. We’re already 50ppm of CO2 (parts per million) over the 350ppm average atmospheric CO2 concentration, considered by leading experts the carbon stabilizing threshold. It’s increasingly […]
