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Man I tell you, you can never have enough mushrooms… it’s really hard to put my finger on it, but for some reason they’re just really awesome; and glow in the dark mushrooms, that’s even more awesome. Not one, but seven of these new species were discovered, increasing the number of luminescent fungi from 64 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Komodo dragon is definitely one of the most impressive and dangerous creatures to roam the Earth. Reaching 3 metres and more than 70 kilos and delivering one of the most fatal bites in the reptilian world, it’s no wonder that it inspired so many legends and fears. However, it does not all end here: […]
Every year, the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists announce the top 10 new species described in the past year, and this year was a good one. We have among others the bacteria that lives in hairspray, the oldest known vertebrate (fossilized), an insect 56 cm […]
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 […]
The researchers who have just returned from the underwater volcano eruption report that the volcano is still active and it has grown considerably in size in these past three years. It supports a unique ecosystem thrives despite the constant eruptions. “This research allows us, for the first time, to study undersea volcanoes in detail and […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
And when I say that snake was big that’s how it was- really BIG. It had the length of a regular school bus and weighed about as much as your family car. Fortunately for us though, this prehistoric “dragon” lived long time ago, about 6 million years after another teethed nightmare became extinct- the T-Rex. […]
Apparently, scientists have finally found the answer (or, at least part of it) to the QUESTION: what is it that makes women cheat on their partners? Before starting to call names if it has already happened to you, find out that it’s not a more expensive car or a bigger account, but something else: a […]
You’ve grown tired of hearing one of your friends telling you he’s got the music in his blood since the day he was born and you sigh. You’d probably be surprised to find out that a new study proves he is totally right. Unfortunately for him though, there’s nothing special about that: every 2 or […]
You feel a fantastic flavor and are eager to find the source of it. You let your nostrils direct you but oddly, a little mouse seems to have got there first and seems to enjoy it just as much as you do. Didn’t happen? Well, it’s not the beginning of a Stephen King novel, or […]
According to a report launched by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), more than a thousand species were discovered just in the last decade in that particular area. A rat thought extinct for 11 million years and a hot pink, dragon millipede that produces cyanide are just two of the amazing species found there. If you’re […]
If you’re thinking McLeod, you couldn’t be further from the truth. What you have to do is think small; not microscopic, just big enough to see with your naked eye. Turritopsis nutricula is a hydrozoan, and it’s considered by scientists to be the only animal that cheated death. Solitary organisms are (according to current belief) […]
People are faced with making decisions everyday and more than that they find themselves in the situation of trusting a group in jury trials, elections or even when it comes to TV shows such as American Idol. Fish have to face the same situation when gathered in schools as the decision they have to make […]
Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA for short) is a thermoplastic and transparent plastic that’s called acrylic glass for short. In the not so distant future it could be made from natural products such as sugars, alcohols or fatty acids. This process is much more environmentally friendly than the process used now. PMMA is manufactured by polymerising methyl […]
Every once in a while you hear about such a good idea that you just know it deserves a prize. Such is the idea of a few students from Rice University, who are taking drinking beer to a whole new level; the genetically engineering level. They are entering it in the International Genetically Engineered Machine […]
Nearly five miles below sea level, at 7700 metres to be more exact, in the Pacific oceans, scientists found fish living in the world’s deepest ocean trenches and filmed them. This is the first time a camera has been sent to such a depth. ‘We got some absolutely amazing footage from 7700 metres. More fish […]
Most fish can’t even recognize the color red – let alone use it for some precise purpose. However, the exception here are some deep sea fish, yet Enneapterygius pusillus found a really interesting way of communicating. It literally glows in a deep red color, signaling different forms of intent. According to a study conducted in […]
An African animal so rare that people used to believe it is the mythic ‘unicorn’ has been caught on camera in the wild, for the first time. The okapi is a mammal similar to a deer in the front and to a zebra in the back and with the blue tongue of a giraffe. It […]
If you ever visited a neighboring country and found that the people there had little or no connection to your own country’s culture, language or even physical appearance, it’s only natural that you wonder how this can be; after all, if the countries share a border, they have to resemble many traits?? Not really. It […]
The Yale School of Medicine researchers conducted a study in 13 countries which lead to the conclusion that there may be a connection between school bullying and children who resort to suicide. The lead author, Young-Shin Kim, part of the Yale research team, and her colleague, Bennett Leventhal, claim that the exact causality between the […]
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but according to a study led by Andrei Sommer, Dan Zhu, and Hans-Joerg Fecht, diamonds are life’s best friend too. According to them, billions of years ago the surface of these precious gems made it possible for life to rise, by providing just the right chemical conditions. It is […]
Everybody pondered at least once in their lives the possibility of being immortal, and this idea sparkled in the immagination of many people throughout history. Now, Stuart Kim, a PhD at Stanford and professor of developmental biology and genetics conducted a study that led to results that shocked pretty much everybody involved, contradicting the […]
Archaeopteryx has been the subject of many controversies, but it is now widely considered as the world’s oldest bird; however, reptiles were flying for 50 million years when it appeared, even before the world was roamed by dinosaurs. Now, paleontologists have unveiled an extraordinary prehistoric ‘flying’ reptile which lived 235 million years ago.It’s called kuehneosaurs […]
If you have a bug you want to identify and know everything about, there’s one place which will solve all your problems; the experts at the Natural History Museum in London are proud to say that they can identify species from around the globe, from birds and mammals to insects and snakes. Still, if you […]
For the first time, scientists have found fossilized burrows of tetrapods (four legged vertebrates) in Antarctica dating from the Early Triassic epoch, about 245 million years ago. They’ve been conducted research there since early 2006, and it’s the first time they’ve actually found something of this calibre. The fossils are created in a relatively simple […]
The Caribbean Monk seal (or West Indian seal) has been announced extinct on Friday. This comes as a shock (at least for me – and many others), as this is the first seal species announced extinct due to human activities; now, it will only be seen in drawings.After five years of futile efforts in which […]
A study conducted by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health showed that cat ownership probably has a very good effect on young children of ages up to 5 years. The study was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. […]
If we were to state the obvious, there are 2 sides: creationists and evolutionists. Creationists are mostly religious people, and they believe humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in their original form by a deity. Of course, evolutionists accept the scientific theory of biological evolution by natural selection or genetic […]
It’s still unclear how sleep deprivation affects us, as there are still so many things scientists have failed to understand about sleep itself. But now, neuroscientists at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore have shown for the first time what happens to the visual perceptions of healthy but sleep-deprived people who struggle […]
Just like when you lie certain things happen in your brain, the same thing happens when you think something about somebody. But what happens in our brain when we judge people or at least when we make an idea about someone? Those (and many other) questions have been tackled by MIT neuroscientist Rebecca Saxe. Her […]
Photo by ±‡ U a € ï ¥ a H ‡± Life has ups and downs, reminding more or less of an emotional rollercoaster; but some memories stay in your memory way longer than the others. Emotional memories of traumatic life events (physical or mental), especially cases of accidents or serious illnesses are stored […]
Photo by bocavermelha Sometimes, animals are better than humans. Quite a lot of times actually, but that’s not the point here. We’re going to take a look at some record holding animals that are (or do things that are) just unbelievable! The biggest – the blue whale. Photo by Dan Shapiro. Credit: NOAA via pingnews […]
Well this sure sounds like a good plan to me… Scientists found out that Ketamine (also called Special K if you hang out with the right people), which is used as a horse tranquilizer but also as a club drug could ease depression. Who would have guessed ? Ketamine, which can also cause […]
Well this is a bit of a stretch; the thing is an 87-million-year-old praying mantis was found encased in amber in Japan. Scientists believe it may prove to be very useful in establishing a connection between mantises from the Cretaceous period and modern-day insects.Researchers have been searching for this “missing link” for many […]
How can this be? Medicine has progressed… we have drugs for everything, surgery, etc. So how come people live less and less in a country that claims to be the most civilized in the world ? In fact, it decreased with more than six years for women between 1960 and 2000. Now, a new, long-term […]
University of Maryland researchers have managed to shed some light in an important matter which puzzled medical scientists and not only for ages: how iron carried in human blood is absorbed and transported into the body. Among the benefits of this discovery I’ll just name a better understanding of iron deficiency, the world’s number one […]
Bikini Atoll (also known as Pikinni Atoll) is an uninhabited 2.3-square-mile (6.0 km²) atoll in one of the Micronesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Its historical importance lies in the fact that along with more than 20 nuclear weapons tests between 1946 and 1958, the world’s first test of a practical dry fuel hydrogen bomb […]
What makes us different is not who we are, not what we think, but the decisions we make. That defines us, it’s what makes us different from others. But aside what you’d want to think, it turns out decision-making may be a process handled to a large extent by unconscious mental activity. A team of […]
The first lungless frog has been discovered lurking in the jungles of Borneo. This amphibian is totally enigmatic, at least until now, for scientists who haven’t been able to figure out how come it gets all its oxygen through its skin. Scientists first discovered these frogs about 30 years ago but because they’re so rare, […]
The threat that global warming is has definetly been underestimated, and if something doesn’t develop quite fast that could handle this problem or at least diminuate its effects (could it be iron fertilization?), the perspectives are quite dire. Everything and everybody is affected, and the effects include the melting of glaciers and the destruction of […]
A University of Washington fish expert claims to have discovered a whole new species of fish, that would rather crawl into crevices than swim, and that may be able to see in the same way that humans do. Well this is certainly something unexpected, and there is no species that does the same kind of […]
