Features on ZME Science

Fantastic Fungi: Mind Blowing Mushroom Diversity Photographed by Steve Axford

These truly wonderful photographs were taken by Steve Axford. Let’s leave Steve describe himself: I live in the Northern Rivers area of NSW and I am doing essentially what I like. What I like is photography and exploring the world. The world, for me, is dominated by living things and the planet we live on . […]

12 Amazing Detailed Close-Ups of Animal Eyes

Photographer Suren Manevlyan is back with a new set of magnificent images of animal eyes. I say ‘back’ because even though we haven’t featured his images on ZME Science, there’s a good chance you may have seen them before on his personal page or on websites such as Twisted Sifter. These amazing photos provide a fantastic […]

The Perfect Wake-up Call: This Clock Wakes You up with a Tea or Coffee Cup

Ernest Hemingway woke at dawn. Benjamin Franklin sat naked each morning. Beethoven counted sixty coffee beans. Everyone has their own morning rituals, but for some, waking up is more of an ordeal than a ritual. British creative designer Josh Renouf came up with an elegant solution to that problem. He has created a concept alarm […]

Felix Salazar's amazing pictures of aquarium corals

Felix Salazar is a very talented photographer currently working in Los Angeles — doubling as a guitarist and composer. Among his favorite themes are corals, like these ones he photographed in salt water aquariums. The shocking variety of color almost makes it look like they’re enhanced in Photoshop, but Salazar ensures that his pictures are 100% real, […]

Hilarious stories from the doctors of reddit

In a lifetime of seeing thousands of patients, a doctor will hear all sorts of crazy stories and bizarre cases. A recent thread on reddit asked doctors from the community to share some of their wackiest stories and boy were there some. Here are just a few of them: Aaaaand some bonus stories without captioned images: […]

The Weird Wold of Parasitic Twins & Twin Chimerism

So you perhaps thought that twins could be either identical or fraternal? But did you know that there are actually other types of twins besides these two mentioned? Of course, identical and fraternal twins are the ones we are more aware of because they are the ones we hear about most and are most likely […]

Featured Researchers: This Week in Science

We talk a lot about science and research, but we don’t spend enough time talking about the people who actually do the research. In case you haven’t followed our previous feature, here is where we share some of the most interesting studies from the week, and share a bit of information about the scientists who […]

Stunning paper art drawn with lasers

Eric Standley is an usual artist who makes some of the most dazzling Islamic and Gothic inspired art out there. However, hile the old masters used chisel and hammer, Standley uses lasers. Eric’s work consists of successive layers of intricately cut paper sheets, which when assembled together turn into a piece that is a marvel to behold. The […]

Eight planets and a dwarf in one

This magnificent painting by Steve Gildea combines the planets of our solar system in one beautiful planetary mosaic. It’s a celebration of the geological diversity our solar system possess, illustrating each planet’s surface in the order they orbit the sun, starting from the battered Mercury to lonely Pluto. Speaking of which, Pluto is of course […]

How The Jetsons predicted the future

I remember watching The Jetsons out of sheer admiration for the future. The plot was kind of meh, some episodes were good, some episodes were so-so, but to the child I was at the time, The Jetsons was the future. So here we are now, in 2014… it’s the future – where’s my flying car […]

Why tattoos are permanent - it's not what you think

Here's a scientific explanation that will show you what happens when you get a tattoo and why the ink will forever show on you body. Hint: it's not because of how deep the ink is.

A Child is Born: Lennart Nilsson's iconic photo book [PHOTO GALLERY]

In 1965, Swedish photojournalist Lennart Nilsson published what was to become one of the most successful photographic book of all time – A Child is Born. From the first ovary fecundation to the last stage of fetal development, the book documents the birth of a new human being in beautiful detail. With millions of copies […]

Our little study: No, 9 out of 10 people don't see the same word

Look at this image – what’s the first word you see? According to some (unscientific) sources, 9 out of 10 people see the same word. This has been spammed all over the internet and even snuck its way into some medical and psychological cabinets, but I had a feeling it’s hogwash – and you (yes, […]

Awesome Animals: The Piglet Squid

The piglet squid measures only a few centimeters across, and it’s one of the cutest animals out there! It can be found in virtually all oceans in the deep water, over 100 meters deep. Due to its tiny size and deep water habitat, the piglet squid is actually not that well studied and understood. […]

Roland le Fartere - a medieval flatulist from the 12th century

Roland le Fartere (also known as Roland the Farter) was a medieval flatulist who lived in 12th century England. He served as a jester for King Henry II, and apparently, he was so good at his job that he was rewarded for his services with a manor in Suffolk and 30 acres (120,000 square meters)! […]

Some penguins commit suicide, walking away from the sea, alone, towards their demise

Penguins are amazing creatures, living in some of the harshest conditions in the world. They have an extremely sociable behavior for birds, they have big egos, busy sex lives, and they also commit suicide. We don’t know why this happens. Sometimes, some penguins just head on to the middle of the icy desert, far away […]

The Blanket Octopus rips off poisonous tentacles from the Portuguese Man o'War and uses them as weapons

The blanket octopus is truly a remarkable creature. It exhibits extreme sexual dimorphism – while the males are only a few centimeters long, the females grow up to a whopping 2 meters. Unfortunately, they’re rarely seen and studied, so there’s still some mystery about the evolution of this dimorphism, but it’s known that males have […]

Ilha da Queimada Grande: The island with 1 snake per square meter

Snake Island – or as it’s known by its official name, Ilha da Queimada Grande is a 430,000-square-metre island some 30 km off the coast of São Paulo, Brazil. It’s famous for (you’ve guessed it) snakes! But this is not your average snake population, this is off the charts – it’s estimated that there’s over one snake per […]

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 […]

Grüner Lake: The Austrian Underwater Park

Grüner See (Green Lake) is a lake in Styria, Austria in a village named Tragöß. During the winter, Grüner lake is just like any other lake, nice and calm, surrounded by a county park. However, it is surrounded by mountains, and during the spring, when the temperature rises and the snow melts, the basin of land below […]

The World's Deepest Hole Lies Beneath this Rusty Metal Cap - The Kola Superdeep Borehole

Would you believe me if I told you that under this rusty, abandoned metal cap there lies the deepest hole ever dug by mankind? That beneath this metal seal, which measures only 9 inches in diameter, there are 12,262 meters (40,230 ft) of nothingness? You might have your doubts — but hear me out. A journey […]

Volcano in Ethiopia is spewing out blue lava... sort of

Blue lava? Not quite It’s a volcano, but not the kind of volcano we’re used to seeing. This is called a Cerulean eruption, and the blue tint that surrounds the lava comes from flames produced when escaping sulphuric gases burn. The volcano contains large amounts of pure sulfur, which emits an icy violet color as it burns, […]

Europe landscape still scarred by World War I

The impact of the first World War is felt everywhere – on a social level, an economic level, and even on the landscape (and don’t even get me started on WWII). The Smithsonian recently published a collection of some pictures depicting this damage, which we will be sharing here. You can see the full exhibition in […]

How many people did Genghis Khan kill? So many that it was good for the environment

The genocide had major consequences for the entire planet.

Correlation vs causation: a brilliant example of why one is not like the other

Things are not always as they seem.

The creative and (often times) dirty things Romans wrote on walls

Writing on walls is one of the oldest things humans did – people drew on walls in the stone age, and they still do so now (well, some do, anyway). But I’d dare say that no one has taken the art of writing on walls to the same level as romans – sometimes poetic, sometimes […]

The Oh-My-God-Particle

The Oh-My-God particle was an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (most likely a proton) detected on the evening of 15 October 1991 over Dugway Proving Ground, in Utah. The particle was 20 million times more energetic than the highest energy measured in radiation emitted by an extragalactic object – in other words, this subatomic particle had the energy of […]

Crazy ideas: The Phantom Time hypothesis

The phantom time hypothesis is a conspiracy theory developed in the 1980s and 1990s which claims that periods of history, specifically that of Europe during the Early Middle Ages (AD 614–911), are either wrongly dated, or did not occur at all – and there was a general conspiracy to cover that up. When Dr. Hans-Ulrich Niemitz introduces his […]

Cicada 3301: A puzzle for the brightest minds, posted by an unknown, mysterious organization

It’s perhaps the most enigmatic and intriguing thing on the internet, which promises an “epiphany” when you solve it. No one knows who sets it or what the prize is at the end, but Cicada 3301 has posted mysterious, extremely difficult puzzles for three years in a row, in an attempt to recruit and enlighten the […]

Photographing the oldest living things in the world

Rachel Sussman is a contemporary artist who focuses on photographing the oldest living things in the world. As part of her project “The Oldest Living Things in the World” (creative, I know), she researches and works with biologists, traveling all over the world to take pictures of things older than 2000 years old. Stewart Brand calls her […]

The science (or art?) of growing tree root bridges

In the depths of northeastern India, in one of the wettest places on earth, bridges aren’t built—they’re grown. India has over 1 billion people, and many of them live in poverty – 21% of all people in India fall below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 per day. In many parts of the country, especially in the north-east, it always seems […]

The man who gave up money and lives in a cave in Utah

A while ago, we were telling you about the Iranian man who lives alone in the desert and hasn’t washed in 60 years; today’s story is similar, but very different. New footage has revealed insight into the life of Daniel Suelo – the man who has chosen to live without money for the past 12 years […]

Everything you wanted to know about homeopathy but never asked

Last week we described a study which concluded that homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo effect — it was just one of the many scientific studies which found the same thing. But many people swear by homeopathy and, judging from what’s happening in the comment section and our inbox, they feel very strongly about it. So […]

Rare portraits of Roald Amundsen

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen – a famous Norwegian explorer, the first man to ever reach the South Pole. He used the skills he learned Netsilik people about Arctic survival skills, using sled dogs for transportation of goods and wearing animal skins in lieu of heavy, woolen parkas, which could not deter cold when wet (see below). In 1903, Amundsen led […]

These mind-boggling artifacts will change the way you see China

Throughout history, Chinese culture has rivaled and many times surpassed other, more famous empires — but many of their achievements are less known, at least in “the West”. You may very well be familiar with some of their achievements (for example papermaking, compass, gunpowder, printing, and many others) but these unusual artifacts will definitely change […]

Meet General Sherman

General Sherman is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in California. It is, by volume, the largest single stem tree on Earth. It has a height of 83.8 metres (275 ft), a diameter of 7.7 metres (25 ft), an estimated bole volume of 1,487 cubic metres (52,513 […]

Crania Americana: the most influential book on scientific racism

For men of simple means and upbringing, it’s easy to credit racism: the other fellow is different from me – his skin is of another color, his hair is weird, his language sounds stupid. Racism has had a wicked role to play in society since antiquity, fueling the murders and enslaving of millions of people […]

Meet the 80-year-old Iranian who hasn't washed in 60 years

Amou Haji, 80, believes that “cleanliness brings him sickness.” For that reason, he hasn’t bathed in the past 60 years, and he’s unofficially called the “dirtiest man in the world”. He lives in isolation in Dejgah village, in the Southern Iranian province of Fars. The man hates contact with water, and even the suggestion of […]

100 years past: remembering the Passenger Pigeon

It’s been over a hundred years since one of the most emblematic animal species in human history went extinct. Passenger pigeons numbered in the billions (literally), and yet humanity managed to bring them all down; on September 1st, 1914, scientists duly noted the disappearance of the species. It came as a shock (and a warning) […]

Drug Development: What it is, how it works, and why it matters

We’ve been receiving many messages from you guys, asking why exactly does it take so long to develop a new drug/treatment, especially when it appears to be extremely promising. So, in this article, I will explain what drug development is, how it works, why it takes so long (usually 10-15 years) and why it costs […]

The stoat: one of the most invasive animals in the world

The stoat may look cute, but it's one of the most invasive species in the world.

Tardigrades - the microscopic water bears that defy all odds

They’re small and cute, and while indeed these creatures are completely harmless, make no mistake – these are some tough ‘gummy bears’. Called tardigrades or water bears, these eight-legged invertebrates have evolved to survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth. Rightfully so, they’ve been classed by scientists as extremophiles – creatures that are […]

#Overly Honest Methods

So there’s this thing on Twitter (it’s been going on for a while now). So, is this the best science hashtag or what?

Do women prefer hairy men? Attraction, psychology, and cultural influence are tangled up

Are hairy men attractive to women? The answer can vary greatly depending on culture and personal preference.

Critically endangered animals: The Black Rhino

As we were telling you a while back, the Western Black Rhino is officially extinct. Poaching, the loss of habitat, war… it was too much for the rhino to handle, and now, the species is extinct. But things don’t look especially better for other rhino species, and if something drastic doesn’t happen soon, we’ll soon […]

Tomtato or Pomato? Half potato, half tomato plant increases crop efficiency

The pomato is produced by grafting a tomato plant and a potato plant.

In Memoriam: A Brief Look at Pre-Google Search Engines

On July 8, 2013, Yahoo!, Inc., officially shut down and sent AltaVista.com to the depths of the internet necropolis, along with other old services that could be treated as irrelevant in today’s technosphere. If you visit the site today, it will automatically redirect you to Yahoo!’s search site, Yahoo.com. Let’s take a look back to […]

From Pigeons to Email: How Sending Letters and Packages Evolved

Before mobile phones, pagers and computers were born, writing letters were one of the most basic forms of communication. Communication is a vital aspect of a person’s everyday living to be able to convey their thoughts and ideas, to answer queries and everything else that needs to be expressed. Just like every single thing existing […]

Three of Superman’s Powers that Science is Close to Replicating

Superman is the granddaddy of every single super-powered hero in comics. Say what you will about Batman’s stealth, Spider-Man’s agility, or Wolverine’s regenerative abilities and complete lack of personal hygiene (hey, maybe those two are related), but the Big Blue Boy Scout will always be the first and perhaps the best costumed crimefighter in the […]

Fun and Exciting Chemical Experiments for Teaching and Learning

There’s no better way to foster interest in science and chemistry than seeing it in full, dazzling action. Most of the time, kids and young people wouldn’t really be all that interested in how chemistry works. They wouldn’t be particularly bothered about the different reactions you can get out of two different chemicals interacting with […]

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