gear Push settings
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 […]
We’ve written about some bizarre animals in the past, but just when you think nothing can come as a surprise… well, meet the Chinese soft-shelled turtle, an animal that has an unique ability, never before encountered in the animal kingdom – it can urinate through its mouth. This is definitely not your typical turtle, even its […]
Paleontologists have uncovered the fossil remains of a 3-inch-long extinct arthropod in Yunnan Province, China, dating from the Cambrian period. What makes it particularly special is the fact that it provides an unusual example of preservation of the brain and nervous system, atypical for fossil records this old, but most interestingly it suggests that complex […]
Astronomers have come across a peculiar phenomenon after observing a distant dying star that sheds matter in a three-dimensional spirally pattern due to pulsations at its core. This is a totally atypical behavior, which scientists have yet to encounter before, one that might shed new light on star evolution. The red star called R Sculptoris, […]
Researchers at MIT have developed a novel technique of creating cheap and reliable sensors for toxic gases by simply etching carbon nanotubes with a mechanical pen on a special paper, fitted with electrodes. The method allows for easy to make, cheap and reliable sensors that detect noxious gases in the environment, without the hassle that […]
When last year scientists at CERN reported how neutrinos traveled a few tens of nanoseconds faster than the speed of light, the whole scientific community was left in shock, since it defied even the most elemental restriction of modern-day physics, a cornerstone without which physicists would have to rebuild the Standard Model. Still, some researchers, […]
There were 5.4 million automobile crashes on U.S. roads in 2010, killing 33 000 people and injuring more than 2.2 million, according to survey released by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The death toll around the world is much higher. While cars have been designed to be a lot safer by making them more crash […]
Oil spills are one of the most devastating man-made ecological disasters out there. During such an outbreak, millions of gallons of oil can end up in the ocean, killing countless marine life, as well as harming the ecosystem. Handling such disasters, beyond pointing fingers which comes to no avail to the marine life, has become […]
Trapped in the web, the wasp knows it’s done for, as it counts the seconds to its impending doom. The spider snatches its prey, and is prepared to act its revenge upon the ancient wasp, which is a parasite of spider eggs. But just as the final killing blow is imminent, resin oozes from a tree […]
Scientists at University of Sydney have been studying for the past few years one of the most peculiar events in nature. It seems that a living slime, no less, no more, is capable of reading information and remembering its past “steps” acting on some sort of external memory, this despite the fact that it has no […]
It may look like an ordinary cup of sand, but for NASA scientists this is a milestone almost as important as the rover’s landing on Mars itself. Yesterday, Curiosity finally scooped a patch of martian soil and shook it for refinement, a moment which was being observed with anxiety from back on Earth. “There was a […]
There’s a general belief, most likely resulting from extensive marketing ploys, that electric cars are the cleanest mean of transportation, and an adoption should be hastily made in order to save our planet. While it’s true that electric cars have virtually zero emissions and not even one part per million of CO2 is released during operation, a […]
A curious specimen which bares a resemblance to the iconic Jedi master Yoda, due to its large lips on either side of the creature’s head reminiscent of the Jedi’s ears, has been recently collected from far, far away in the ocean depths. Upon closer inspection it along with two other creatures have been recognized as distinct […]
Astronomers at UCLA university have made a remarkable discovery, after they’ve confirmed the presence of a star orbiting the black hole at the center of our galaxy in a mere 11-and-a-half years – that’s the shortest known orbit of any star near this black hole. The researchers involved in the paper describing the find claim that […]
Be tall, be thin, be beautiful. The media has made sure we’re constantly bombarded by such imperatives, and aside from frustrations, some people have gone to such extremes to fit popular media expectations that they end up hurting themselves. This is, sadly, most evident in the case of women, where eating disorders or anorexia are frequently […]
Kyoto University researchers have produced normal, healthy mouse pups after inseminating a foster mother with eggs and sperm derived from stem cells, exclusively grown in a petri dish. This remarkable accomplishment came after last year scientists produced mouse pups from stem cell grown sperm. Their research might lead to the development of novel techniques through […]
No, this is not the prologue for a Steven Spielberg movie. Yevgeny Salinde, a 11 year old boy, found what’s been later identified as a 30,000 year-old perfectly preserved mammoth carcass while strolling near his home in Russia’s far north, some 3,000 kilometers away from Moscow. The boy told his parents, who work at the […]
A while ago I told you a bit about one of the most anticipated international scientific joint effort in recent history – the Square Kilometer Array. When ready, the SKA will cover one square kilometer of South African or Australian soil, hence the name, with thousands of radio dishes that combine and work as one, […]
Precisely today, October 4, 55 years ago one of the most important milestones in human spaceflight took place. Then, the first ever artificial satellite, the soviet Sputnik, was launched into space and into Earth’s orbit, signaling the start of the space race, while also sparking an unprecedented support for sciences in American schools. As the […]
A group of researchers have successfully tested a novel nanodevice treatment, in which intelligent nanoparticles selectively open and release drugs which target aging cells. The approach could render results when treating patients suffering from diseases involving tissue or cellular degeneration such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, accelerated aging disorders (progeria). It could also boosts results in the cosmetic industry, […]
Graphene is the strongest material ever discovered by man, and naturally its applications has been extended to a variety of fields – most recently genetics. University of Texas at Dallas scientists have used advanced manipulation techniques to shrink a sheet of graphene to the point that it’s small enough to read DNA. This successful attempt now opens […]
A lot of the climate change models today are based under the assumption that greenhouse gas emissions weren’t that significant pre-1850, when the industrial age boom began. A new study from scientists at Utrecht University in the Netherlands found otherwise, and reported that human activity was responsible for plenty of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere […]
Black holes are simply the worst neighbors to have around, as they wreck havoc in their vicinity. Scientific belief states, however, that in a globular cluster, which is a massive spherical conglomeration of thousands of thousands of stars, you can’t have more than one black hole, if any. New findings however show that there’s no safe neighborhood, […]
Interestingly enough, a group of cognitive psychologists at Japan’s Hiroshima University found that browsing through cute photos, such as those of baby animals like kittens, serves as a productivity booster. Although the lolcats peak is long gone, there’s still a significant wave of viral enthusiasm for sharing and collecting photos of cute animals – a […]
A group of paleontologists recently authored a monograph dedicated to a group of puny herbivore dinosaurs, discovered in the 1960s but only identified as a distinct new species in the past few years. Basically a two-legged porcupine, the Pegomastax africanus puzzled scientists with its distinctly long and sharp fangs, and extremely curious fact for a […]
Surrounding our planet are rings of plasma, part of Earth’s magnetosphere, which are pulsing with radio waves. These aren’t audible to the human ear, but radio dishes and antennas always pick them up. Recently, NASA scientists recorded some of the Earth’s pulses and transformed them into acoustic waves – the end result is a short song […]
The Russian space program’s Mission Control Center recently announced that the International Space Station will adjust its orbit to prevent a possible collision with a debris cloud from a Japanese satellite. The dodge is provisionally planned for 10.22am BST (9.22 GMT, 00.01 PST), time at which the Russian Zvevda module will fire its booster rockets and move […]
