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Only one sixth of the original Caribbean corals remain, but damage can be reversed

It’s estimated that only a sixth of the original coral reef that covered the Caribbean waters is still alive today, according to a recent report released by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). If no major interference occurs, most […]

High tech sniper rifle can tag victims and helps shoot around corners

Guns today are looking more and more like they’re from a video game or something. Take TrackingPoint’s latest Precision-Guided Firearm (PGF) – a sniper rifle that allows the user to tag targets so that the gun will come off only when the tag is in scope. Actually, considering the rifle doesn’t actually have an optical scope, […]

Ballistic test on Kevlar shows what could happen to the ISS from space debris impacts

We’ve mentioned on numerous occasions the growing problem of space debris and voiced our concerns that, if left unchecked, the thousands of metal junk fragments currently out there could seriously affect space missions and even threaten lives. In Earth’s orbit, even a tiny metal fragment could potentially wreak havoc upon impact with a spacecraft or satellite because of […]

This sweet shrew looks like a mouse but is more related to elephants

A new mammalian species has been discovered among the ancient volcanic formation in Namibia that resembles a long-nosed mouse, but which as it turns out is more genetically related to elephants. Further analysis found that the tiny mouse-like creature is the smallest of a group of animals called elephant shrews. Named Macroscelides micus, the creature […]

The elephant bird: the largest bird to have ever lived

Once one of Madagascar’s crown inhabitants, the elephant bird (Aepyornis maximus) is considered the largest bird to have ever lived. The first records of the bird are from the 9th century when Saracen and Indian traders visited Madagascar and spoke of legends of the the giant roc (rukh). The elephant bird became rarer and rarer once […]

Americans are convinced of global warming by changing temperatures, not by climate scientists

The Stanford News Service recently made an interview with Jon Krosnick, a Stanford professor of communication and of political science who conducts survey research on how people view climate change. It’s a most compelling read, one I advise those of you interested in the subject of climate change and the politics behind it to go through it. Some of […]

Foldscope - the origami microscope that aims to carry science in every pocket

The Foldscope is one of those innovative instruments that could potentially turn science communication and education en mass upside down. Developed by researchers from  PrakashLab at Stanford University, the Foldscope is essentially a single flat sheet of paper, equipped with a lens, battery and LED, which can be folded akin to an origami to form a […]

Super-stretchable yarn made from graphene could change the industry

Chemical researchers at Penn State and Shinshu University report they’ve managed to isolate strong, stretchable graphene oxide fibers that are easily scrolled into yarns and have strengths approaching that of Kevlar. The fiber can be then further refined to act as a powerful and lightweight electrical conductor or can be directly used as a higher […]

Germany produces more than half its energy from solar

Germany has reached a new renewable energy milestone recently after the country announced that on a given day an impressive 50.6% of its energy demand was covered by solar energy alone. Breaching this important psychological barrier means a lot of for renewable energy efforts in Germany, and worldwide as well serving as an example. According to […]

X-rays image atoms during chemical reactions for the first time

Since its advent some 100 years ago, crystallography has become one of the most important processes in chemical research and development. It involves bombarding a material with X-rays to produce a diffraction pattern as they reflect off the sample. The pattern can be used then to directly determine the atomic structure of the crystal. Using […]

Dr. Oz Admits ‘Miracle’ Diet Products He Advocates Are Pseudoscience

A senate panel interviewed Dr. Mehmet Oz on Tuesday regarding his claims of various ‘miracle’ weight loss cures; as a result of lack of any scientific evidence and a big cloud of suspicion was floating above his head, Oz admitted that there is no actual evidence behind his proposed products. Obesity is the biggest health […]

Bees build mental maps to get home

When I was a kid, I asked, like many others, how do bees know how to make their way back to the hive – and I was told they use the Sun for guidance. But I was lied! A new study has now finally solved my childhoold dilemma: while they do use the Sun as […]

Will the world's strongest brakes stop the Bloodhound after it tops the 1,000MPH land record?

The current world land speed record stands at 763.035 mph, as set in October 1997 by British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green driving the jet-powered Thrust SSC. Green is looking to break his own record and has a new team and a new car behind him, however, called Bloodhound SSC. Green wants to top […]

The future's children of the stars will forget about Earth, but it's all for the better

If it weren’t for man’s innate drive for exploration and curiosity, humanity might have never made it farther than its African cradle. There’s a reason why humans are the dominant race on Earth and why there are only a few pristine places left, unscathed by man’s touch. Some have liken this expansion with the familiar […]

Ant biomechanics might inspire the super robots of the future

Ants are one of the most fascinating and extraordinary organisms on Earth. The ant society is extremely stable, compact and adaptable, but while ants can only survive as a colony, taken individually each ant is extremely remarkable by itself, too. Body size considered, ants are among the strongest beings in the world, capable of lifting […]

Why octupus arms never get entangled

Roboticists and mechanical engineers hold octopuses to great respect and admiration because of their many skills, like great water propulsion, camouflage and independent limbs. Each octopus tentacle is equipped with numerous suckers that allows it to easily cling to most surfaces, no matter how smooth they may be. Whether the octopus needs to attach itself […]

3D Bioprinted liver-inspired device traps toxins and detoxifies blood

Inspired by the healing properties of the human liver, researchers at University of California, San Diego created a 3D-printed biodevice which mimics the liver and removes dangerous toxins from the blood. Used outside the body, like a dialysis machine, the device employs nanoparticles to trap pore-forming toxins that can damage cellular membranes. These toxins often result from […]

Silly Putty ingredient helps improve batteries

When you think about Silly Putty toys, the last thing that comes to mind is high-tech. A group of researchers, however, used a novel trick to incorporate  an ingredient in Silly Putty to improve lithium-ion battery life between charges by three times the industry standard. For what’s it worth, Silly Putty is actually one of the […]

Moving snails at least 20m away reverses homing instinct

For the casual nature enthusiasts, snails are a infinite source of joy whenever people come across them. People like to study them and revere how beautiful they are in their own microcosmos – for a while at least, until they get bored that is; it’s a slow paced microcosmos after all. For others, snails are […]

Mice with multiple sclerosis walk and run again after human stem cell treatment

In a feat that surprised even the scientists who made the experiment, mice disabled by a condition similar to multiple sclerosis (MS) began to walk and even run again after human stem cells had been transplanted. The findings could potentially offer new means of treating MS, a terribly disease which plagues some 2.3 million people worldwide. Growing […]

Who's got the most efficient muscle engine : the tuna or the grey whale?

The humongous grey whale and the skipjack tuna, though of contradicting sizes, both employ similar propelling mechanisms through water. Pound per pound, however, which of the two animals is most energy efficient? Engineers at Northwestern University have developed a new metric for analyzing such problems and found that the two marine animals are almost just as […]

Russia will deny the US access to the ISS come 2020 over Ukraine sactions

I’ve expressed my fears that something like this might happen a few weeks ago when the first US sanctions hit the Russian government and its oligarchs, but all this time I was hoping that any political feuds may spare interfering with the International Space Station. Following the US government’s recent denial of export licences for hi-tech […]

Brawls for colony domination transforms winning worker ants into queens without DNA changes

In the animal kingdom, especially among those that are social, you’ll see a number of strategies employed to help the group’s chances of surviving. To each his own. For instance most ant colonies employ a social hierarchy where most members, like the worker ants, are rendered functionally sterile and only the absolute top of the […]

Lucid dreaming easily triggered by zapping the brain at 40 Hz

Some people have very vivid dreams, others can’t remember a thing when they wake up about what they’ve dreamed the night before. It’s said that by studying your dreams, you in fact learn more about your true inner self since dreams are your subconscious’ projections, genuine and unaltered. What happens when you’re fully aware you’re dreaming […]

Desert spider flic-flacs through the sand like a gymnast

A most peculiar spider has been discovered by entomologists in the sandy dunes of Morocco’s southeastern desert, Erg Chebbi. Called Cebrennus rechenbergi, the spider can perform flic-flac jumps at almost 2 m/sec, allowing it to swiftly cross the desert. In fact, the common name of the species is the Moroccan flic-flac spider. “Like a gymnast, it propels […]

Electro-magnetic helmet proves great benefits for fighting depression

Danish researchers have developed a special helmet that shoots electro-magnetic waves in target brain regions and treats patients suffering from depression. The results so far have been extremely promising, especially since it seems to work very well for patients suffering from extreme forms of depressions where conventional medicine doesn’t seem to work. According to the World […]

Protein Dracula: transferring young mice blood to older mice reverses aging

This Sunday a trio of landmark studies were published each discussing an aspect of a wider picture:  reversing aging in the muscles and brains of old mice simply by transfusing blood coming from younger mice. The effect is credited to a key protein found in much higher concentration in the blood of younger mice. So far, the findings […]

Bioplastic made from shrimp shell could help curb plastic pollution

In the US alone, some 34 million tons of plastic waste is generated every year, of which only seven percent gets recycled. The good thing about plastic is that it’s sturdy, cheap and easy to make – these are also its biggest downsides. Plastic is so well built that it can last up to 1,000 years […]

Tree rings reveal worst droughts in the West's history happened during Christopher Columbus' lifetime

Modern climate tracking and water flow records go back only 100 years, but to prepare for the worse, scientists and policy makers alike need to understand how the weather was like in the world many more years prior. A solution is to study the tree rings of certain tree species which bear telltale signs of water […]

Mars could become colonized by stowaway Earthling tiny space travelers

Whenever alien invasions are concerned, most people tend to image extraterrestrial spaceships landing on Earth, not the other way around. In reality, this alien invasion most likely will happen or already has happen in reverse, as Earth-based life forms could reach distant asteroids or planets, like Mars, hitching rides on human spaceship. To assess this […]

New circuitboard is 9,000 times faster and more energy efficient at simulating the human brain than PC

A mouse might not look like the smartest animal, but however modest its cortex may seem it’s still 9,000 times faster than a personal computer simulation of its functions. Not only that, but it takes 40,000 times more power to run – energy efficiency being, in fact, the true benchmark that needs to be considered when […]

Small mite is world's fastest land animal, relative to size

Cheetahs are the world’s fastest land animals in the world, able to run as fast as 75 mph. It’s their acute agility that allows them to survive, however, catching prey by making huge leaps at four times the acceleration human leg muscles are capable of producing. No doubt about it, this is one of the […]

Bionic prosthetic allows disabled to run, climb and even dance - watch this TED talk!

Hugh Herr, head of the Lab’s Biomechatronics research group, spoke at TED 2014 on March 19 about his group’s work in creating bionic prosthetic limbs, and their goal to eliminate human disability through technology.  For Herr, his work and involvement is deeply personal, having lost both his lower limbs in a climbing accident 30 years […]

Google Earth used to track uncontacted Amazonian tribe

The so-called developing world is riddled with isolated communities that hear little or any news from the outside world. It takes a lot of imagination, however, to understand how the few people, part of the last remaining, truly pure indigenous tribes of the Amazon basin,  must live like. Located deep in the Amazon rainforest, members […]

Study of HIV evolution shows the virus is adapting to human hosts

One of the most threatening modern pandemics, HIV/AIDS, has been thoroughly studied in the past few decades, with billions awarded to research seeking out a cure. Progress has been slow, but today doctors have a number of tools at their disposal to curve HIV development, spreading and ail patients, despite a cure has yet to […]

Taking a walk encourages creativity more than sitting

If you’ve ever read the biographies of some of the world’s greatest thinkers, you may have noticed that one of their favorite pastimes was taking long and relaxing walks. For instance, Charles Darwin had a fixed schedule that demanded he begins his morning rituals with a walk upon waking at 7:00, and only after take […]

Environmental rule regulating mercury emissions saves lives (and $90 billion)

Can you put a cost on pollution? Policy makers, not matter how some may deny it, are more astute than they were a few decades ago about subjects like climate change or global warming. Few can deny the adverse effects of immediate particle pollution on health, but whenever environmental regulations were put forth on the […]

The Chameleon vine: the only plant that morphs host plants near it

The animal kingdom is full of cons – shapeshifter who have learned that to survive, they need look different or mask their appearance altogether. Everyone’s heard of the chameleon, a distinct species of lizard with the  ability to change colours and easily blend to his environment. He’s not alone, though, and frankly he’s not even […]

Glass molecules jam to form fractal wells

Water is liquid, air is gaseous, but glass? For years at end, glass has perplexed scholars intending on fixing it under a state of matter. Neither liquid, nor solid, explaining glass is a lot harder than some might think. Researchers at Duke University have contributed to solving the puzzle after they performed numerical solutions and […]

Legalizing marijuana doesn't encourage consumption among teens

A common concern among the general public, parents especially, is that once a draft calling for legalizing marijuana goes through, this will have as an effect increased consumption among adolescents. A  new study at Rhode Island Hospital which compared 20 years worth of data from states with and without medical marijuana laws found, however, that there […]

Blood from world's oldest woman tells us why life reaches its limits

No matter how much some would like to avoid this prospect, death is inevitable for all living beings (or is it?). Yet, some people at least live longer than others. A great deal of attention has been drawn to longevity for obvious reasons, but any effort to prolong life needs to start with the very […]

3D printer used to build 10 homes in one day in China

Say what you will, but the Chinese are clearly the fastest builders in the world, though sometimes quick haste makes to waste. A while ago, I wrote about how a Chinese company wants to build the tallest skyscraper in the world in just 90 days. Really crazy stuff, but now another Chinese company, with many […]

Making graphene in a kitchen blender

A team led by Jonathan Coleman at Trinity College Dublin reports they’ve patented a technique that can easily produce large quantities of quality graphene. The method is so simple that the researchers have even been able to scale it down for use in a kitchen blender. The exact ‘recipe’ has yet to be disclosed, but nevertheless […]

Claws of meanest crustacean inspire supermaterial design

As the night covers the tropics, odd clicky sounds run about much to the annoyance of sailors stationed in harbors. These sounds are made by the punching mantis shrimp, a very small crustacean which doesn’t seem that much threatening but who definitely lives up to its name. Its claws are so powerful that it can […]

Condensing towers could make water from thin air in the driest places on Earth

The Namib desert is one of the vastest and driest deserts in the world. There is little water to be found here, so the few critters calling the desert home had to learn to adapt in order to survive. One particular beetle species stands out through the ingenuity with which it manages to quench its […]

Monkeys can do math, study proves

It’s long been supposed that monkeys are capable of mental arithmetics, but it was only recently that this was proven for a fact by neuroscientists at the Margaret Livingstone of Harvard Medical School in Boston. The researchers taught three rhesus macaques to identify symbols representing the numbers zero to 25, then when given the choice […]

Vitamin B may have come from space - what does this mean for origin of life?

After analyzing samples from eight different carbon-rich meteorites, researchers at Pennsylvania State Universities found these contained niacin, also known as vitamin B3 and the more pristine the meteorite, the higher the concentration. What this means is that the ancient Earth had a steady supply of vitamin B3 during its early years when it was frequently […]

China just admitted 20% of its farmland is polluted

The Chinese government sort of took everyone by surprise after it made a most unaccustomed  statement; it admitted the country isn’t fairing that well. Oh, no, don’t worry. They still got plenty of money and loads to collect still. What’s beginning to be revealed is the cost of China’s new found prosperity and accelerated industrialization: […]

Sleep aids and anxiety pills can kill

There’s no secret prescriptions drugs have taken off in the past few decades, amounting to a multi-billion dollar industry. Millions are hooked on them, despite this why are so many policymakers or key people of interest shutting an eye on the potential perils these drugs pose? In the quest to treat symptoms, not diseases, physicians […]

Artists have unique brain structure

A common brain myth is that creative people, like artists, use their right part of the brain more, while the left part of the brain is more active in rational people. This has been debunked many times, and a few searchers on Google will satisfy your curiosity, if you think otherwise. It’s true, however, that […]