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What the SPF number on your sunscreen means

Most people don't know what SPF is and many companies exploit this ignorance.

Why corn is a fruit, tomatoes are berries, rhubarb is a vegetable, and strawberries are neither

Fruits and vegetables – they’re tasty and they’re healthy… but do you know what they really are? Hank Green, which we know for developing EcoGeek, explained on Youtube why some things are fruits, some things are vegetables, and some things are neither. Prepare to have your mind blown: We generally consider vegetables as a side dish […]

Historical pistols: a WWII anatomy project

WWII was the largest conflict known to mankind, responsible for 50 to 80 million fatalities, involving most of the countries in the world. Historians are still fascinated by this tragic event to this day, and while we here at ZME Science are not big gun fans nor do we support technology that’s built to kill, we […]

Even More Spectacular Fungi Photos by Steve Axford

In September 2014, we were telling you about Steve Axford’s spectacular mushroom photography. I was truly fascinated by the art and the insight he provides into this tiny and mysterious world. Most of his work is done on Australian fungus, and he says he likes to take pictures of things that are close to home. “My […]

They did the math - things you won't believe people on the internet calculated

Every once in a while, you stumble upon a statement or question so preposterous that you don’t even bother thinking  about it – but somewhere, someone on the internet did the math. This is a list of that kind of things – crazy things that someone actually calculated. This is not real science though, so […]

A Spectacular Pie Chart of the World's Most Spoken Languages

“A world of languages” is a fascinating infographic created by Alberto Lucas Lopéz for the South China Morning Post. It highlights the most spoken languages in the world, and what countries actually speak them. The results may surprise you, so have a look: Lopez explains: “There are at least 7,102 known languages alive in the […]

If you fold an A4 sheet of paper 103 times its thickness will roughly be the size of the Universe

Whaaaat? It’s just a matter of math, really. Fold an A4 once and it will be twice as thick, fold it again and it will be four times as thick as it initially was. Turns out, according to Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, if you do this 103 times the sheet’s thickness will be larger than the observable Universe: […]

Tanktastic: a brief overview of the modern-day knight in shining armour

Here at ZME Science we aren't very fond of war, but I think tanks are really awesome.

How would the world look like without ice?

There are more than five million cubic miles of ice on Earth, and throughout our planet’s history, there have been periods with both more, and less ice. We tend to think of ice as an immovable reality but in truth, planetary ice is quite volatile. With continuously rising temperatures, melting ice and rising sea levels […]

Artist Transforms Junk Into Beautiful Street Art to Remind us of Pollution

Portuguese artist Artur Bordalo’s (aka Bordalo II) creates artwork from junk, but that doesn’t make it any less cute! He uses only junk to bring these animals to life, each of them a larger-than-life version of their biological versions. Each statue carries with it a powerful message, because each animal is built from materials responsible for its […]

When science meets art: a sensor-based mirror made of fur

Artist Daniel Rozin has designed a surprising mirror-like device from… fur. Dubbed the PomPom Mirror, it relies on  motion sensors and 928 faux fur pom poms manipulated by 464 motors to create a mirror reflection of the viewer in real-time. Sure, the mirror only works in black and white, but the effect is surprising and spectacular. This […]

Why Nestle is one of the most hated companies in the world

Child labor, unethical promotion, manipulating uneducated mothers, pollution, price fixing and mislabeling – those are not words you want to see associated with your company. Nestle is the world’s largest foodstuff company, and it has a history that would make even hardcore industrialists shiver. We’re gonna look at why Nestle has such a bad reputation […]

5 Ways Louis Pasteur Changed the World

Widely considered one of the most brilliant scientists in history, Louis Pasteur basically revolutionized the world as we know it.

The surreal practice of honey hunting in Nepal

The life of a beekeeper is not an easy one, but for bee hunters, it’s an entirely different world. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, bee hunting is an ancient art practiced by some Himalayan civilizations in one way or another in the past 10,000 years. It’s been done in 8,000 BC, it’s […]

9 Foods to Make Sure You're Eating Enough Potassium

Potassium is one of the more important nutrients in our diet, and the recommended daily dietary intake is 4700mg – but few of us actually get even close to that figure (you may need more or less potassium depending on your body and if you have certain medical conditions). Sure, you can take dietary supplements, but […]

Beautiful winged insects built from computer and video game components

I just love it when stuff that’s thrown away becomes a part of something new and valuable – upcycling, as many people call it. For UK-based artist Julie Alice Chappell (Facebook), it’s about turning technology into art. She takes thrown away computer and video game parts and assembles them into pieces of art, which she then sells […]

Lake Michigan is so clear right now you can see its shipwrecks from air

A coast guard patrol reported that Lake Michigan’s shallow waters are so clear that  you can actually see the shipwrecks on the bottom of the lake, until sediments stir up the water and algae blooms develop. Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, and the only one that’s completely on […]

Nobuo Okano and the forgotten art of restoring old books

  While many people today aren’t even considering reading paper books, Japanese craftsman Okano Nobuo has been repairing old, tattered books and making them look brand new. Using simple tools like a wooden press, chisel, water and glue, Okano can make even incredibly, centuries old books look like they just came out of the press. He and […]

The Mind Bending Types of Geological Folds

Folds are some of the most common geological phenomena you see in the world – a geological fold occurs when planar (usually sedimentary) layers are curved and/or bent, permanently deformed due to outside pressure. Folds’ sizes can vary from microscopic to mountain-sized, as you can see above. Despite being a fairly simple process (in principle), […]

Why do we have chins?

Chins are weird and make little evolutionary sense.

7 scientific reasons to read books

I know, I know — reading is fun, it’s hip, and it’s good for you. There’s plenty of reasons why you should read, but here, I’ll focus only on the ones backed by science. 1. Reading makes you a better person. Seriously, it’s not a figure of speech. Not one, but two (parallel) studies found that […]

Mankind and its Relatives - Modern Homo Species

Homo is the genus of hominids that includes modern humans, as well as other species closely related to them… I mean us. The genus is estimated to be about 2.3 to 2.4 million years old and it features several species (though it’s still not clear how many). Here are the modern (<0.6 million years) Homo species […]

Spring is the season for citizen science - what you can do to have fun and help science!

The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and citizen scientists… do citizen science! In case you’re not familiar with the concept, citizen science are activities supported (or sponsored) by universities, organizations, institutes or governments through which everyone can provide meaningful scientific contributions. Activities can vary greatly (from counting birds to analyzing galaxy clusters), and […]

The Colugo (flying lemur): the cutest mammalian glider

The flying lemur is the most accomplished mammalian glider.

Repeat Photography From the 1920s and Now Shows Incredible Glacier Retreat

Repeat photography (or rephotography) is a technique in which photographs are taken repeatedly at a site to see how it evolves. It’s especially useful for glaciers, particularly because other remote ways of estimating glacial mass, depth, and rate of retreat are imperfect. These photos depict how this technique was used at a number of locations […]

What is Cat-Eye Syndrome -- here's what the science says

It might look cool, but this genetic condition can cause some very serious health problems.

The amazing 32,000 year old drawings in the Chauvet Cave

In December 1994, three explorers made a surprising discovery in southern France - a rumble of stones blocking the entrance to a spectacular cave, over 400 meters long and covered with archaeological and palaeontological remains, including the skulls and bones of cave bears, which hibernated there, along with the skulls of an ibex and two wolves. But it was the human traces that were most interesting...

Why some tropical mushrooms glow in the dark

The tropical forests of Northeaster Brazil have their own nightlight: a peculiar mushroom called Neonothopanus gardneri that glows in the dark. Like a street light, it's tuned to activate its bioluminescence only in the dark, first in the twilight then peaking at about 10 PM. Researchers at Dartmouth College in the US and the University of São Paulo in Brazil have now fond out what this strange behavior is all about: 'candy' for insects.

Blind man plants 10,000 with his armless friend

It's about as unusual and heartwarming as it gets - Jia Haixia is completely blind and his best friend, Jia Wenqi, doesn’t have any arms, but in the past 10 years, they've planted over 10,000 trees!

Cannabis under the microscope: up close and personal

Scientists, in the lab at least, see marijuana differently from growers or users. Like other plants, once you dive into the microworld cannabis looks immensely different from the buds you see online. These amazing pictures which size up the planet’s crystals, trichomes or leafs were taken by Ford McCann and compiled in a book called  Cannabis […]

There's a sanctuary for orphaned kangaroos in Australia, and it's awesome

In 2005 Chris ‘Brolga’ Barns set up a baby kangaroo rescue centre in central Australia’s Alice Springs. The main goal was to help orphaned baby kangaroos, whose parents had been struck by vehicles in Australia. Often Chris would find the orphans at the side of the road still in their mother’s pouch – even if she […]

Beautiful map shows the mind-boggling extent of our underwater Internet cables

As we go around our daily lives with wireless internet and satellite smartphones, it's easy to forget that at the core of modern internet, there are hundreds of thousands of submarine cables lying on the ocean floor - sometimes at depths nearing 8,000 metres. Those cables help transmit 99 percent of all international data and without them, the world as we know it wouldn't exist - so let's give them a bit of credit.

Watch: The surprising chemical reaction between Coke and Milk

Watch the video all to the end – it starts off a bit slow, but it gets pretty rad towards the end. I’m not sure what I was expecting to happen… but it clearly wasn’t this: So what’s happening here? Well, it’s plain to see that a bunch of dark particles precipitate at the bottom […]

Featured Researchers: This Week in Science

See: Previous Week’s Featured Researchers This is where we take a look back at the past week, discussing not only the most interesting recent studies, but also the men and women behind them. Lost City Belonging to Mysterious Culture Discovered in the Honduran Rain Forest   Article Featured Researchers: Christopher Fisher; Mark Plotkin  Affiliation: Colorado State University; Old […]

These 'Fabergé Fractals' Will Blow Your Mind

Whether we see them in math or in real life biology (or architecture, or art), fractals are just awesome. In case you don’t know, a fractal is a repeating pattern that displays at every scale. Basically, a fractal is a similar, never-ending pattern. No matteer how you zoom in or out, you end up with a […]

Why we need to publish negative science - the perils of publication bias

Science journal today seem to be dominated by positive results - that is those that are statistically significant and lead to a dramatic finding. The devil's in the details they say, and the same hold true for the advances of science. While it's true that groundbreaking research is what leads to leaps, these jumps are often ambiguous. Hundreds of other papers - some which control tidbits, other that replicate past findings - are paramount to filling in the blanks.

The tragic story of Tanzanian Albinos - hunted for body parts for witchcraft

Most of the time, the so-called civilized world would just rather turn a blind eye towards what is happening in Africa; right now, I'd like to shed some light on what it's like to be an albino in Africa, and more specific, Tanzania.

Places on Earth that actually look like Hell

The orange molten rocks beneath Kamchatka’s volcanic landscape looks surreally out of this world. It looks like a gateway to hell, or even yet, like Mordor. The Kamchatka peninsula, located in eastern Russia, is riddled with 160 volcanoes, including 29 active ones. The highest volcano is Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4,750 m or 15,584 ft), the largest active volcano in the […]

Company wants to ressurect gladiators - with a modern twist

Imagine for a moment how it would be like to recreate a gladiator fight. I’m not talking about martial arts or wrestling or something like this – I’m talking about full on, man versus man gladiator fights. An Australian company wants to revive the tradition, while using futuristic carbon fiber costumes to avoid any real bloodshed. Neo-gladiators […]

Why Viagra makes you see everything blue-tinted

A lesser known side effect of a famous blue pill.

Why Stradivarius violins sound so good. Hint: It's the f-shape

New research offers new insight into the golden sound of Stradivarius violins.

What's Inside a Flu Shot - And Why There's Nothing to Fear

The science of flu vaccines.

Are Birds Really Dinosaurs -- according to scientists, they are

It's remarkable what evolution can do in millions of years.

The Heaviest Living Organism in the World

What is the heaviest living creature in the world? It’s not an elephant or a blue whale, the heaviest organism is actually an Aspen. Pando, as it is called, is a clonal colony of a single male quaking aspen; basically, it looks like more trees, but it’s actually just one living creature with one massive underground […]

The largest organism in the world

If you want to know what the biggest organism in the world is, then you’re in for a big surprise – it’s not an elephant or a tree, it’s not even a blue whale! It’s 2 miles across, and you don’t even see most of it – because it’s a mushroom. That’s right, the largest living […]

Doggerland -- the land that connected Europe and the UK 8000 years ago

We all know that Earth used to look very different in the geological past, but few would imagine that Europe was such a different place just 8,000 years ago. Back then, continental Europe was connected to the UK with a land mass called Doggerland. The area had a thriving history both for wildlife or for […]

The oldest living animal

So, we’ve already discussed about the largest and heaviest organisms in the world, now it’s time to see what the world’s oldest animal is – spoiler alert, this one is also a surprise. If you’re thinking it’s a turtle or an elephant… you’re way off. If you think it’s a whale, you’re a bit closer, […]

Icelandic turf houses are cute and surprisingly cozy

They're cozy, beautiful, and surprisingly efficient!

The history of a picture that changed the world

National Geographic chose this as the best picture of 1987, and for good reason.

What gives coffee its distinctive color and flavor?

Coffee beans undergo several processes before they become the delicious brew we all know. The coffee beans we’re used to seeing, the brown ones with a delightful flavor, are roasted. Raw coffee beans have a different color and smell very differently. So what makes roasted coffee look, smell, and taste so different from raw coffee? The […]
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