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Between Oct. 28 and Oct. 30, NASA‘s Deep Space Network antenna in California was directed on “2007 PA8“, a one mile wide asteroid. In these few days the asteroid came the closest it will ever get to Earth in 200 years, which was still a few million miles away. Nevertheless, NASA released composite images of […]
For many of us, mathematics comes with a feeling of anxiety, not while actually performing math, but beforehand in anticipation. Why some people dread math is an interesting question that deserves a systematic, scientific answer – some other time, however. Recently, I came about an equally interesting study, that analyzed how the brain perceives the […]
Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease for both patients and their families that typically affects the elderly in large proportions. Detecting the disease in its early phase gives the best chances for effective treatment. A team of scientists recently performed an extensive survey in a group of 20-somethings, marking the earliest ever detection of early-onset dementia warning signs and […]
The first recollection of the spade-toothed whale came in 1872, but no actual proof of its existence has been found ever since. Recently, biologists were dumbstruck when they heard not one, but two specimens of the highly elusive whale species beached on the shores of New Zealand. Unfortunately the two whales, mother and cub, died […]
Some 12,900 years ago, a massive flood of melted freshwater in the Arctic caused a 1,200-year-long chill nicknamed the “Big Freeze.” During this time much of the Northern Hemisphere was engulfed by centuries of cold, which caused the extinction of most great mammals, like mammoths, as well as the Clovis people. For decades, scientists have […]
A team of dutch researchers have devised a window into metastasis, literary. The scientists implanted a glass window in the abdomen of a mouse through a surgical procedure, allowing them to perform high-resolution imaging of cancer metastasis. “Visualization of the formation of metastasis [spread of cancer cells] has been hampered by the lack of long-term […]
Elections in the States are currently topping headlines all over the world, as people debate over their favorite candidate and the direction this country is heading towards. Still, as always, elections seemed to be plagued by scandals, lies or manipulation. Yes, democracy is far from being perfect, the alternatives aren’t any better either. I don’t […]
When you think of asteroid impacts, the last thing that might come to mind is life. Contrary to popular belief, a team of researchers have recently presented their theory that holds intelligent life on our planet spurred with the help of asteroid impacts. As cosmic cold rock hit Earth, the impacts allowed for a shift […]
Scientists at Stanford University have successfully devised the world’s first solar cell made entirely out of carbon. This alternative to typical silicon solar panels is not only a lot cheaper to produce, but also a lot less simpler to use. Such carbon cells can be coated on any surface and turn it into a solar […]
Photons are slippery fellas. Since they don’t have any electrons, they’re free to run through any matter, no matter how intense an electric field may be. Scientists at Stanford, however, have come by a monumental breakthrough after they devised a way to exert virtual force on photons using synthetic magnetism similar to the effect of […]
I swear this isn’t some practical joke for Halloween. Massachusetts fisherman recently caught a highly peculiar lobster with a genetic anomaly which caused it to have one half colored in black, and the other in orange. According to the New England Aquarium, this kind of coloring isn’t entirely unheard of, but it happens once in every 50 […]
Alan Kingstone, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia, has been debating with peers for many years what exactly comprise the gaze mechanisms. Do humans first look for the eyes or face when surveying another person or animal? Many scientists believed this is a question impossible to answer since the two are indistinguishable. Capitalizing on […]
Do you remember Carl Sagan’s Voyager Golden Records? When the now iconic first Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977, a series of phonograph records containing 116 sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth were also attached onboard. These were inserted with the idea in mind that some alien race […]
In the wake of the Sandy hurricane, which is currently still sweeping through North America’s east coast, weather forecasting has suddenly become a subject of major interest. It shouldn’t take natural disasters, which are getting more and more frequent unfortunately, to spark interest in this matter of grave importance. Despite this, funding for space geosciences, […]
After Curiosity had a bite of Martian turf at the site of Rocknest a few days earlier, soil analysis results have finally come in. According to scientists at NASA, the Martian sand in the rover’s vicinity is very much akin to volcanic soils found on Earth such as those of Hawaii. Though Mars is far from being […]
According to two new studies, after smoking is banned indoors the number of people suffering from heart attacks considerably drops within months. Some of the researchers believe this data offer substantial evidence to the claim that second-hand smoke does in fact affect people’s health. Besides the obvious health benefit, the researchers argue that preventing second-hand […]
When left in scarcity, the human mind has always been pressured to find a solution. In the past decade or so, the demand for rare earth metals has soured as ever expansive green technology required it. The problem however, is that not only do these metals come in short supply, but they’re actually controlled in their […]
Honeybees are among the most well armed insects, remarkably enough however it seems that we’ve only seen one side of their undercoat. Apparently, according to a recent discovery by Greek scientists, honeybees use a biting attack to ward off intruders. The bite delivers a toxin that paralyzes their victims, don’t worry though, they can’t bite […]
The origins of vision is a widely debated subject, since genetic relationships between early animals capable of sight are inconsistent. A team of researchers has conducted an extensive computer analysis that tests every proposed hypothesis on the origin of vision to date, and found a common ancestor dating from 700 million years ago. Their findings […]
Silver nanoparticles are often used for extensive medical treatments or antimicrobial health tonics. They’re even used in skin care products, which is rather ironic considering they’ve been linked with argyria, a condition in which the skin turns grayish-blue. Although scientists have known for quite a while that too much silver can cause this condition, the exact mechanisms […]
With Halloween just around the corner, preparations in light of the impending artificial ghoul frenzy run amok through each neighborhood. Haunted houses, wild theme parties, trick or treating and as always an onslaught of horror flicks releases from Hollywood. Despite Halloween being considered an idle release time, horror movies have always found an audience no matter […]
There are around 800 hermit crab species living in the ocean. These crustaceans like to mind their own business and are rarely seen alongside one another, hence their species’ name. The dozen or so terrestrial hermit crab species, however, are forced to engage socially in order to survive. Their social pattern reveals a selfish agenda, […]
No, this isn’t one of those misleading headlines. A MIT graduate student has recently proposed that bombarding an asteroid’s surface with paintballs could throw it off course from a possible collision orbit with our planet, by harnessing solar pressure. The paintball cloud would hit the targeted asteroid and cover it in paint – white paint to […]
In yet another breakthrough archaeological find, the tomb of what’s considered by many the founder of the Mayan civilization has been found at the pre-Columbian archaeological site of Tak’alik Ab’aj in western Guatemala’s Retalhuleu region, about 45km from the border of Mexican state of Chiapas. The tomb was built between 700 and 400 BC, according to carbon-dating […]
Scientists have found hints that methane deposits, tucked away in seabed sediments, have began to breakdown from their frozen state. The shifting of the Gulf Stream from colder to warmer waters is to blame, the researchers note. While a significant greenhouse gas influx into the atmosphere might occur, the researchers conclude, based on their models and […]
Detecting the extent of soft-tissue diseases, such as breast cancer, typically requires invasive medical procedures, like a biopsy. A team of researchers at the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering has developed a new self-assembled nanoparticle which acts as a safe fluorescent probe, used to generate 3-D pictures of cancer cell structures in living tissue. Two-photon microscopy (TPM) uses […]
In an extremely exciting find, scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark found a type of bacteria that creates electrical currents on the sea floor. Despite the lack of air or sun light, these tiny bacteria flourish and form vast swaths of electrically pulsating multi-cellular organisms. The researchers found that the bacteria breaks down substances in deeper sediments […]
Though this might sound like an oxymoron, this is possible the best term to describe one of the most interesting recent astronomical finds – the lowest mass supermassive black hole discovered so far. The black hole was detected at the center of a late-spiral galaxy, which astronomers at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory initially believed it […]
Attempts to decipher the 5000 year-old proto-Elamite writing system have so far rendered little results, much of it still consisting a troublesome puzzle for the scientists studying it. After using a high-tech imaging technique that has rendered the symbols in incredible details, scientists are now finally confident they’re nearing a breakthrough. The Elamite civilization spanned […]
How many times did you find yourself anticipating a certain event shortly before it happened?
After SpaceX’s recent successful docking with the ISS, when it brought critical mission cargo to the space station, another important milestone for private space exploration has been attained, this time on part of another space company. Jeff Bezos’ (Amazon) private space venture, Blue Origin, recently successfully tested its emergency crew escape system – a key pre-requirement for getting […]
The pyramids, art, all of the world’s great inventions, literary works, just about any valuable intellectual work can be traced back to food – cooked food. If you care to go as far back as our very roots, that is. Previous research showed that cooked food made it easier and more efficient for our guts to […]
The Great Gray Owls of Yosemite are a unique species, after they separated from their cousins some 30,000 years ago when an ice age forced them into isolation. Though similar to the Great Gray Owls, commonly encountered through out North America and the Asian taiga forests, the Yosemite branch is genetically distinct, but unfortunately also […]
The dung beetle is an extreme survivor. Not only does it feed on poop, but it also fashions a hefty ball out of it, up to 50 times its own mass, that it rolls through the scorching desert. We’re talking 60 degrees Celsius here. A new study that has closely followed this truly remarkable creature […]
This Friday, a solar eruption of spectacular proportions took place. The ensuing plasma wave, measuring millions of degrees in temperature, lasted for several hours, which is atypical for such events, and was several times the size of the Earth. It’s not the eruption’s sheer enormity that’s impressive, but it’s beauty as well, and for this […]
Fusing ancient, medieval, renascent and modern influences, the city of Rome is truly relic of time. It’s actually so old, that many construction projects in Rome have to go through a tiresome process before they can even start work, since there’s always the chance some forgotten tomb or catacomb of some sort might lie underneath. If you’re wondering what are the […]
Like I mentioned last week, this past weekend was light struck by Halley’s comet offsprings in a dazzling feast for the eyes and spirit. The debris from the famed comet, which last visited Earth in 1986, helps produce up to 25 meteors per hour during the Orionid meteor shower. Thus, those lucky enough to be out […]
As the topic of climate change is frantically being discussed in every government office nowadays, a burst of solutions, some contradictory, are being constantly proposed. Sitting on the desk for a while is the solar geoengineering proposition – hailed by many, heavily criticized by others. A new study claims that solar engineering could be undertaken more […]
For scientists, the most common method of assessing an animal’s intelligence is by looking at its relative brain size, with respect to its body size. The human brain, for instance, is small compared to other animal’s brain, however it’s exceptionally large when considering our body mass. A new study, which analyzed the relative brain size […]
A while ago I reported about one of the most astonishing medical stories, when Richard Lee Norris, a terribly disfigured young male, received the most comprehensive face transplant in history. During the procedure, both jaws, teeth, facial soft tissue from the scalp to the neck and sensory muscles indispensable to facial expression were replaced. After seven […]
Between 247 to 252 million years ago, Earth life was going through quite possibly its most dire time. During this period some 90% of world’s species were wiped out, but what puzzled scientists for so long is the fact that it took five million years for life to recover after this apocalypse. A new study […]
The most detailed observations of the icy world of Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, show complex weather patterns and other features that scientists have yet to fully describe. Popular belief had Uranus depicted as a bland, pale green world based on the now iconic observations from Voyager’s 1986 flyby of the planet. Its […]
You just invested a lot of time, ingredients and love in that perfect sandwich, only for it land on the kitchen floor. Darn it! The 5 second rule immediately pops in your head and you confidently retrieve it, comforting your despair. A team of researchers at San Diego State University, however, has found that the germs do indeed attach themselves […]
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is currently seven years into its nine-and-a-half-year journey across the Solar System to explore Pluto. Since its launch in 2006, however, astronomers have discovered two more moons orbiting the dwarf-planet, which now pose a grave threat to the spacecraft’s initial navigation course because of space debris orbiting them. “We’ve found more and […]
The search for extraterrestrial life has always been a fascinating thought, one that has entertained the human mind for generations, sparked by the life-long question “are we alone in the Universe?” Existentialism aside, in the past decades intense efforts have been made in order to find life beyond our blue marble, the most recent of […]
After staying awake for many hours or days at time, humans and other mammals alike are forced to sleep, not because the body asks it, but because the brain inevitably calls for a shut down of the conscious psyche, in order to replenish and function properly when awake. Dolphins, however, have been found to have […]
Barley is a key ingredient in beer, the third most popular drink in the world after water and tea, an industry which currently amounts to $300 billion a year. The quality of the barley greatly influences the savor of beer, so by growing better quality barley we might be able to brew a beer that’s […]
In a fantastic breakthrough in solar energy, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have devised solar cells using nanotechnology which have had a recorded efficiency as high as 18.2%. Now, this alone is far from being deemed impressive, considering the current most efficient solar cells are 35% plus. What […]
While climate change may be a subject of intense debate with equally enthusiastic supports on both sides of the fence, one thing anyone, no matter their side, shouldn’t argue is allocating resources for its study. Just recently, one of the most powerful tools for studying the planet’s climate in great detail has been powered up […]
Since last Sunday, Halley’s comet offspring have been swirling through the night sky delighting star gazers all around the world. This coming weekend, however, the Orionids will be at their peak and full splendor – your definitely don’t want to miss it! This time of year, the moon sets at about midnight, which offers more time for […]
