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A study conducted by professor Joseph Forgas at the University of New South Wales showed that bad moods can actually turn out good for you, as it makes people less gullible by increasing their ability to judge and also is a big memory boost. The study proved that people who were experiencing bad moods were […]
The first experiments with this laser (Linac Coherent Light Source) have been given the green light at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The illuminating of objects and processing speed will take place at an unprecedented scale, promising groundbreaking research in physics, chemistry, biology and numerous other fields. “No one has ever had […]
In 2005, a huge 35 mile rift broke the Ethiopian desert apart and immediately led to geological claims that a new ocean was appearing there because two parts of the African continent were being pulled apart. However, the claims were quickly dismissed as being too controversial. However, a new study published in the latest issue […]
It may seem hard to believe, but even smoking a single cigarette has really bad effects on you, especially if you’re a young adult, according to a study conducted by Dr. Stella Daskalopoulou. Her study found that smoking one cigarette increases the stiffness of the arteries by 25 percent in adults of ages from 18 […]
Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa was doing some research on the ancient port and shipwrecks of the place, when she stumbled upon information that led her to this conclusion. “There is a likely chance of tsunami waves reaching the shores of Israel. Tsunami […]
When it’s really hot and sunny outside, a black roof gets really hot, while a white roof reflects rays from the sun and keeps the house cooler. During the wintertime, a black roof absorbs more heat and helps you save more energy, but in the summer, that can be a really pain. Luckily enough, some […]
An international team of researchers from the University of Leicester (UK), and the Geological Institute, Beijing (China) managed to identify a new type of a flying reptile that can prove to be a crucial step in understanding evolution, or at least a big part of it. Pterosauria was the general name given for flying or […]
Out of the 40.000 or more species of spiders found up to date, every single one of them is a predator, capturing their prey using a complicated web, hunting them directly, or using other creative methods; all except one, that is. Bagheera kiplingi (odd choice for a veggie spider) is the first species that primarily […]
It’s quite obvious that genetics is the most important step in our evolution that we have to take and although the molecular structure of DNA has been discovered more than half a century ago, its three dimensional structure remained a mystery. However, recently a team led by researchers from Harvard University, the Broad Institute of […]
In 1980, Luis Alvarez and his team shocked the whole world when they announced their theory that an asteroid impact that took place 65 millions years ago was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs and much of that time’s living organisms. Despite the fact that they delivered substantial evidence, there are still some minor […]
History is just teeming with examples of brilliant artists that acted in very peculiar ways – to put it lightly. They were absolutely brilliant, and they were absolutely mad; how can this be? Well, according to a new study published in Psychological Science the two traits often go hand in hand. In order to gather […]
AIDS is one of the most dangerous diseases nowadays, being a pandemic for many years now, and there’s been quite little development for a cure or a vaccine. However in the past few years researchers have been getting closer and closer to pinning down a solution. Yesterday, a team formed of Thai and US scientists […]
You're not going to power too many devices with electricity from trees. But it is a very interesting phenomenon.
We’ve all endured some kind of physical pain, more or less intense. When you hit your finger while hammering, for example, the pain is really intense, but passes away (at least mostly) in just a few moments. So scientists were trying to find out why is it that some intense pains pass so quickly and […]
The paradox of water is that everybody knows it, but no one really understands it. It’s the most fascinating substance we have come across so far, and it still has many secrets for us. For example, the molecular structure of water still eludes scientists, and as a result, water still has many properties which we […]
Researchers from Arizona State University and Princeton University conducted a study that goes to show that our ‘multimodal, egg-headed, tool-using, bipedal, opposing-thumbed‘ selves come way behind ants when it comes to ration. That doesn’t actually mean that we are dumber than ants, but rather that we sometimes make irrational decisions, especially when faced with very […]
The surface waves. Not the Love wave you want to be in.Researchers from the University of Liverpool conducted a study that shows it is possible to create what they have called an ‘invisibility cloak’ that would in fact protect buildings from earthquakes. This would come just in time, as a major earthquake threat seems more […]
Wonderful companions. Check. Reliable and intelligent. Check. A cure for loneliness. Check. Wonderful reading tutors? Acoording to recent research all these are perfectly true about dogs. Not only do these pets enrich or lives and teach us what responsibility is but they also prove to help young students improve their reading skills, or at least […]
As much as technology has improved, the blind still struggle with many of the problems they faced say, 1000 years ago. However, as researchers from the the University of Alcalá de Henares (UAH) have discovered, the solution may be provided by nature, or more exactly by other inhabitants of our planet: dolphins and bats. It […]
Each of us can easily feel the effects of global warming especially now when we practically melt in our homes. However, it seems that there are some more… peculiar effects. Scientists have discovered that a wild species of sheep from the island of St. Kilda has begun to reduce their size as a result of […]
Were you one of those students who used to complain about all those chemical elements you had to study at school? Well, I guess this particular piece of news will not exactly make you celebrate. It seems that chemistry has yet a lot more to offer as the element 112 has just been recognised by […]
They could get as long as 40 metres and as heavy as 100 tons, making the earth shake literally as they walked. These were the sauropods: the gentle giants that were believed to have sticked their necks out in front of them. Even though we’ve seen them this way in museums and documentaries such as […]
Music has traditionally been something scientists have found hard to characterize – it is basically a form of social communication between individuals, and whether you’re humming the song from a commercial or soloing around Hendrix style you are communicating, expressing something. If done by parents around infants, it attaches the little ones to them and […]
Have you ever felt insignificant because someone didn’t remember your face (not to mention your name)? Have you ever freaked out because someone else remembered the exact time and date of your first meeting…three years earlier? Well, you’re not so unimpressive so as not to be recognized later and neither are the ones around you […]
It’s quite impossible not to be aware of the fact that someone is smoking marijuana somewhere around you because of its particular smell. However, who would have suspected that the air people breathe in a certain area of a city could in fact hide traces of 5 powerful drugs in it? This is what researchers […]
So here it is: a new study comes to show that the way we feel throughout our lives may determine our children’s development. It’s all a problem of chemistry: the “chemistry” of happiness or sadness. However, don’t think that the fact that one’s parents had a bad day at work turned him or her into […]
Even among some scientific circles, Neanderthals are considered to be the ‘stupid’ cousins of the modern humans (although some claim that’s the hobbit). However, new research shows they were able to hunt really large animals which required more than power to be taken down, pointing that neanderthals were far from stupid (as hobbits were too, […]
Remember when we were kids and everyone picked on the ones who looked peculiar in a way or another starting from their hair color and ending with their height? Well, whether you were a “victim” or a “predator” find out that there is a reason why some individuals of a species look at least a […]
Once the first transplant was conducted the entire history stated to change and since then science has broken a lot of barriers. Now scientists are preparing to create synthetic life forms (don’t think about badass creatures half robots half reptiles, it’s all about bacteria) in order to stop our dependence on fuels (so in a […]
If I were to guess, I'd say each and every one of us suffered at least an ankle sprain and we all know how much they suck, basically. They're very common at all ages, in every environment. Also, approximately 40 percent of those who suffer ankle sprains experience chronic pain even after being treated for the condition.
ESO’s Very Large Telescope has shown something that scientists concluded is the signature of the explosion of the object furthest away from Earth we have found so far, a redshift of 8.2; it’s estimated that the explosion took place more than 13 billion years ago (!!), just 600 million years after the Big Bang. They […]
For some reason, many people believed the current flu vaccine will be effective against this swine flu that’s already expanding and very difficult to control. Still, even some researchers claimed that it will be at least somewhat effective. Guess what – it won’t. Or at least the vast majority of scientists claim it won’t. The […]
There has been a lot of debate around the whole ‘hobbit issue‘ and I’ve been watching that pretty closely. It was especially interesting to see how creationists adapted to the situation. The thing is every answer raises even more questions. Recently, researchers discovered thousands of small, sharp-edged objects made from volcanic tuff or chert in […]
Seeing all the available houses in the neighborhood and then choosing is not necessarily the best option, at least if you’re an ant. These house-hunting rock ants manage to make a decision together even without going through the options they have. In this recent study conducted by Dr Elva Robinson and colleagues from the Bristol […]
What you see may be very much related to what you’ve just felt. Even though we were taught at school that each sense is processed in another area of the brain it seems that this theory may be wrong and that there is a lot more to understand about the way human brain works. As […]
Disinfectants, all kinds of shampoos, fabric softeners…we love them , we use them and then they go down the drain. Nothing bad about cleanliness, isn’t it? Unfortunately, our foamy friends can prove to be a timebomb as they can create invisible monsters: bugs that are not affected by antibiotics. Researchers from England have discovered this […]
In the past the sea was considered a truly miraculous place especially as many phenomena seemed to have no logical explanation. Sea creatures have also troubled the sailors as they were like nothing else they had ever seen. Now science proved that most of our fears are not justified, but also that miracles can have […]
Don’t imagine a yellow, puffy golden chick doing complicated equations (as awesome as that would be) as it would be far from the truth. However, the scientific fact is very interesting in itself as the little birds are able to do some adding and subtracting, in an animal version, of course. The experiment used on […]
Probably the first thing to come to your mind when you hear about crabs is “tasty”. However, a study comes to show that these sea creatures are far more complex than previously thought; it seems that the little guys can feel pain and more than that, keep a memory of it. This means that the […]
Everyone having children or who has ever babysat at least for a couple of hours knows what an impossible task it is to determine a child to do something. According to a new study this doesn’t happen because the little fellows have decided to take over the world by bringing adults to the edge of […]
The war on cancer is more intense than ever, and it’s taking place on many, many fronts. We’ve seen the anticancer minisubmarine, the anticancer trojan horse, and even the anticancer beer. In a study published in the first issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine, Canadian researchers showed there is yet another way to tackle cancer: re-engineering […]
When Oscar was diagnosed with a very aggresive form of cancer called anal sac adenocarcinoma, his days seemed numbered – literally. Doctors gave him very little to no chance of living 100 days when they noticed he was unresponsive to chemotherapy and radiation. But things took an unexpected turn, and in two weeks, Oscar was […]
Nietzsche once said that “Without music, life would be an error” and he was definitely right as there are not many of us who can stay for an entire day without listening to their favorite tracks especially as just a few tunes are enough to change our mood in a second. However, the story doesn’t […]
An exquisite fragrance has always been considered to be a status symbol especially because of the difficulties encountered in order to create a good one. However, this is far from being a characteristic of our times; in ancient Egypt, this was taken to an entirely higher level: wearing a certain perfume was the sign of […]
Scientists that analyzed meteorite dust made some discoveries that gave them clues about the ever standing mystery of how life works at its most basic, molecular level. This question has puzzled researchers for quite a while now and definitive answers are yet to be found. “We found more support for the idea that biological molecules, […]
Well, that’s a bit of a stretch, but according to scientists, this giant fossil sea creature known currently just as “Predator X” had a bite that makes T-Rex seem “feeble”. This 15 meter long dinosaur had a crushing 33,000 lbs (15 tonnes) per square inch bite force. “With a skull that’s more than 10 feet […]
The simple thought of being caught in a horn-honking traffic jam for a couple of hours is definitely a scary one, which would definitely increase the rate of your heartbeat. But, unfortunately, traffic can have much more serious effects on one’s heart, especially now, when a simple drive around the town has become an endurance […]
As you probably know (but may very well choose to ignore), ageism is going rampant throughout virtually every civilized country in the world, and this is by no means a casual thing, but it’s quite systematic, regardless of sex. What’s even worse, even old people think the least about themselves in terms of intelligence, competence […]
Since early childhood we’ve been told that if we are afraid of a dog which has turned violent, our furry buddy will “smell” our fear and we will eventually end up bitten. Not the most comfortable feeling ever…but as long as only animals can do it… Many species are known to release a chemical signal […]
This is what researchers believe to be the first true comeback of a gene in the human/great ape lineage; the study was led by Evan Eichler’s genome science laboratory at the University of Washington and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and they pointed out that the infection-fighting human IRGM is (as far as we know) […]
