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Seems like there’s always a study that comes along once in a while describing yet another peculiar squid ability. The latest was discovered by postdoctoral researcher at the University of Rhode Island who discovered a never before seen defensive tactic in any other type of squid species which involved jettisoning parts of its arm when attacked. Just […]
Scientists who studied sediment cores drilled from the ocean floor off the Antarctic coast, have found on subsequent analysis fossil pollens that came from a tropical forest. Most likely, the continent was covered by rainforest some 52 million years ago. The researchers involved warn however that by the end of the century, ice from the […]
Arguably one of the most recognized landmarks in the world, London’s Tower Bridge received a full relamping in celebration for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. For the first time in its 118-year history, the bridge will be fully visible at night in all its stunning beauty, pulling the architectural wonder into the third millennium. […]
Someone whose been driving for 20 years, let’s say, in the United States and somehow ends up driving a car in the UK will be in a lot of trouble. Going from right side driving to left side driving, or vice versa, will bewilder just about anyone, and if you’ve gone through such an experience […]
Ok, it’s not actually blue, but this is what two full moons occurring in the same calendar month are commonly referred to. This month of August, the skies will be blessed with not one, but two full moons, the first on Aug. 1 and the second on Aug. 31 – don’t mean burst your bubble […]
China is set on covering a lot of lost ground in its race of becoming a full fledged space super power, and its progress so far has been phenomenal. The latest news from the Chinese space agency comes in the wake of a successful test for a super-rocket engine, which will be deployed in the […]
New, more precise carbon dating of artifacts found in South Africa, such as poison-tipped arrows or ostrich eggs, have been found to be 44,000-year-old. The technology and social behavior at play suggest that modern human culture in the area may have emerged some 20,000 years earlier than previously thought and supports the theory that all modern […]
Just last week, man’s first step on the moon turned 43 years. Uncoincidently, maybe, NASA announced recently that its Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter (LRO) has captured conclusive images to show that almost all American flags hung by astronauts on the moon are still in their rightful place, undisturbed. Maybe only withered. The images aren’t very clear, […]
Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with colleagues in Taiwan and China, have developed what’s considered to be the world’s smallest laser; a device so tiny, that it’s invisible to the naked eye. The laser is heralded as a breakthrough in the emerging photonic technology with applications from computing to medicine. […]
Touchscreen technology has been in use for many years, but when the first iPhone came out some six years ago, it totally changed front end design and user interface, because it brought the technology to the people, the common folk. You didn’t have to be a scientist to own or use a touchscreen device – […]
It seems scientists have yet to draw the line on where graphene, man’s greatest material ever discovered, ceases to amazes with its new abilities, since apparently new properties and uses for the carbon allotrope are found constantly. Most of the contributions come from University of Manchester, where the material has been recognized for its true history-shaping […]
Planetary scientist Kelsi Singer initially studied satellite photographs of Saturn’s icy moon Iapetus’ surface looking for stress fractures in the moon’s ice, what she found in process however was far more interesting. Huge landslides, stretching across tens of miles across the moon’s surface were observed, not in one, but multiple locations, hinting this is a common phenomenon […]
If you’re reading ZME Science from home, chances are that you’ve got a can of beer or soda in someplace handy, and you’ll probably throw the can away after you finish your drink, hopefully in a designated recycling bin. What if I told you that the aluminum from your soda can could be used to power your […]
A new research has found that the massively powerful O-type stars, which can be up to 90 times more powerful than our own sun, actually come in pairs most of the time, as a binary system. The two stars wrapper in this dance have a special kind of relationship developed with one another. Thus, one […]
Scientists from Britain have found a remote ice rift valley, up to one mile deep, under the ice in Antarctica. The rift is similar in size and depth to the Grand Canyon and because it is direct contact with the warming ocean, it’s been found that it has a significant contribution to the unusual ice sheet melting […]
Defense, like offence, is expensive for any animal. It takes resources and a lot of energy, and for some, it even comes at an ultimate sacrifice. Such is the case of a species of termite found in the rainforests of French Guiana. There, worker termites, after they age and are no longer capable of serving the […]
Alright, the analogy might not be the best. The Large Hadron Collider is a high energy particle accelerator, while the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is a state of the art particle detector, which traps high-energy charged particles called cosmic rays and analyzes them. You see, the AMS can practically perform the same functions as the LHC, only the high […]
According to the Fluoride Action Network there are at present 24 independent studies which have a direct link between fluoride contamination from city tap water and reduced IQ, especially in children who are more vulnerable due to developing brains. The most recent one comes from Harvard University, which also came to the same conclusion, namely that […]
Researchers at MIT, the University of California at Santa Cruz and other institutions have come across the first exoplanetary system, whose planets exhibit a regularly aligned orbit, after analyzing data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope. So far, other discovered exoplanetary systems had planets, particularly hot-Jupiters, which presented far more eccentric orbits. Our solar system is comprised of eight […]
Biodiversity helps keep the world’s ecosystem in balance, and if threatened, it could bring forth destabilization leading to a chain reaction of events, mostly irreversible. Crops would fail, pests and viral infections might surface, CO2 retention might decrease and more – basically, the Earth will have a tougher time fending for itself if its biodiversity […]
The 3D printing revolution is right around the corner. While we might still be a few years away from seeing such printers for home users at an affordable price, the technology has so far proven itself marvelously, whether we’re talking about jawbone implants, scale on scale mechanized dinosaur parts or extremely fine nanoscale objects. Yes, 3D printing […]
When you first see this magnificent painting by Ukranian painter Oleg Shuplyak, your brain perceives the portrait of the famous Beatles frontman John Lenon. However, on a closer look, one will immediately notice that the portrait is actually made out of a sum of parts – a table and a troubadour make for the mouth, two men […]
Deep in the dense Guatemalan jungle, archaeologists have come across a veritable jewel of their trade. An 1600-year old Mayan temple, almost in mint condition, going by the of name Temple of the Night Sun, beautifully or frighting decorated, as you prefer, with giant masks of the Maya sun god. The find was made at the El Zotz […]
During just four days, from July 8 to July 12, Greenland’s total ice sheet surface subjected to melting rose from 40% to a whooping 97%. Basically the whole Greenland ice sheet was melting during this time frame. According to NASA, a situation similar to this mid-July phenomenon hasn’t been ever recorded in the three decades […]
In this amazing slow-motion video, the folks from ZT Research used a high resolution camera to capture a full lightning bolt from inception to it striking the ground. NASA‘s APOD serves a scientific explanation of the phenomenon: “The above lightning bolt starts with many simultaneously creating ionized channels branching out from an negatively charged pool […]
You just got out of the office, looking to head home to a soothing dinner, only to find that it’s raining cats and dogs outside – and you forgot your umbrella of course. Do you walk or run to your car to stay as dry as possible? It might sound trivial, but this is a […]
A new research has found after analyzing the genomes of polar bears and brown bears that the two species interbred, after the two species split some 5 million years ago, during periods of warmer climate. Recent evidence suggests this is happening today as well, as an effect of global warming. The team of scientists from Pennsylvania […]
For the past couple of years NASA has been testing a new atmospheric re-entry system, designed to offer pods and capsules more stability and better degree of safety upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. Just yesterday, the latest, the Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3), was launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia for its 20-minute test, which […]
In what can only be described as a milestone in biological and genetic engineering, scientists at Stanford University have, for the first time ever, simulated a complete bacterium. With the organism completely in virtual form, the scientists can perform any kind of modification on its genome and observe extremely quickly what kind of changes would […]
A team led by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Harvard University have built this remarkable display of modern bioengineering – a completely engineered jellyfish that blends both living and non-living parts, masterfully fitted together. Called the medusoid, this cyborg jellyfish was created using silicone and muscle cells from a rat’s heart, […]
Hey, guys! We’ve received some great feedback from our previous contest, when we offered an awesome DNA portrait to one of our readers. Naturally, we’d like to follow with yet another giveaway and hopefully turn this into a frequent feature on ZME Science. It’s the least we can do for all your generous support you’ve […]
In a remarkable discovery, astronomers have found the oldest spiral galaxy to our knowledge – a three-armed spiral galaxy dating back nearly 11 billion years. It precedes any other previous record holder by about 2 billion years, basically sweeping away the competition. The spiral galaxy is so amazing that it caught astronomers completely by surprise, and […]
Squids and cephalopods, in general, might not be the sexiest animals out there, but their mating systems are quite interesting,
Researchers at the University of Delaware and the Canadian Ice Service recently reported that an ice island, whose surface is twice that of Manhattan, broke off from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier, one of the two largest glaciers left in Greenland connecting the great Greenland ice sheet with the ocean via a floating ice shelf. The 46-square-mile giant iceberg broke […]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently gave its seal of approval for the introduction of Truvada on the pharmaceutical market, a drug which allegedly can prevent HIV infection with an effectiveness rate as high as 75 percent when used in combination with safe sex practices. The Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which is largest Aids support organisation in […]
Magnificently beautiful, the elusive snow leopard is a large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia. Adapted to living in high altitudes, deep in the mountains, and preferring typically inaccessible areas for humans as their dens, has made snow leopards extremely hard to spot, and more importantly keep track off, since it’s an endangered […]
Scientists from U.S., Britain and Denmark have recently reported in a new study that conclusive evidence, in the form of stone tools and human DNA, attests the presence of a second stone age culture in North America, separate from the Clovis culture, the earliest human society discovered and confirmed thus far. The findings were made […]
Astronomers have surprised a blast of charged solar particles erupting from a massive solarspot, recently. The unleashed X-class solar flare is expected to reach Earth’s magnetic field on Saturday morning (2:52 p.m. EDT). Scientists warrant that there’s a chance temporary disruptions to GPS signals, radio communications and power grids might occur. Of greater interest for most of […]
A raging issue at the moment, in both government bureaus and bar chats alike, is global warming. Is it just a natural occurring event, part of the Earth’s climate cycle or, indeed, human-induced? Most scientists have repeatedly claimed, backed by scientific evidence, that the ever rising global temperature levels, along with various calamities sparked by a chain reaction, are […]
Graphene is one of the most phenomenal materials discovered in science. It’s so thin, it can be molded into sheets just 1 atom thick, yet despite this, it’s so strong that you can actually pick it up. It has the highest current density (a million times that of copper) at room temperature, the highest intrinsic mobility […]
Exactly 50 years ago, on July 12 1962, the the world’s first active communications satellite, Telstar 1, transmitted the first live television signal by satellite. During this historic day, a live television program was for the first time beamed across the Atlantic in Europe, an event saluted by the people of the time as a technological […]
Astronomers have discovered a new moon orbiting the dwarf planet of Pluto – its fifth – only a year after the former planet’s forth satellite was discovered. In the past decade alone, four out of Pluto’s five moons known thus far have been discovered. The latest addition, provisionally titled S/2012 (134340) 1 or P5, is only between 6 […]
In 2010, a NASA study published in the journal Science heralded the discovery of a bacteria, called GFAJ-1, which the authors at the time claimed it substitutes arsenic for phosphorus to survive. This contravened with the elemental recipe for life, where phosphorus is essential, stirring a wave of controversy within scientific community, as it would mandate a […]
An international team of astronomers may have come across the first sound evidence testifying the existence of dark galaxies – cosmic bodies from the early Universe long theorized by scientists in the past, but never before confirmed until now. Dark galaxies are small, gas-rich galaxies that are very inefficient at forming stars themselves. Their name comes […]
This week, rumors surrounding the imminent discovery of the Higgs boson actually came through, after CERN scientists officially announced during a press conference that, indeed, they have finally come at the end of their long and arduous search for the elusive God particle. The whole event has been heralded as a historical milestone, as the Higgs boson was one of the unproven, key […]
Researchers have analyzed the DNA from 7,000-year-old bones of two cavemen unearthed in Spain, and have managed to sequence fragments of their genomes, making them the oldest modern human specimens ever found thus far. Ironically, the researchers found that the cavemen bear little genetic resemblance to people living in the region today, instead sharing ancestry with current populations […]
There are millions of asteroids currently residing in our Solar System, of which some 500 thousand orbit in the inner solar system, where our planet also lies. Space agencies in the world have only mapped so far a mere 1% of these. Clearly, an asteroid impact with Earth poses a serious and realistic threat to […]
In today’s fast evolving world of tech, miniaturization is crucial. In most portable consumer electronics goods, like smartphones or tablets, the typical lithium-ion battery takes up quite its share of space, impending further sensible miniaturization of design. A new technique developed by scientists at Rice University might, however, render battery volume to a minimum, following the advent of a […]
In a fantastic discovery, a team of Chinese and US archaeologists have come across fragments belonging to a 20,000 year-old bowl in modern day China, confirmed as the earliest evidence of pottery. The findings push back the invention of pottery by 10,000 years and suggest that human were more socially advanced than previously thought. The pottery fragments […]
A newly published researchers by scientists at University of California Davis and Cornell University explains why beautiful, perfectly ripped tomatoes, that one can typically pick up from a local supermarket, are ironically less tastier than homegrown tomatoes, which look less appetizing. I had the good fortune of spending most of my early childhood in the […]
