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It could be water, and not air pollution that’s China’s biggest problem. The Chinese government has published some extremely worrying statistics about the water quality in rural areas, showing that over 80% of it is not drinkable due to contamination from industry and farming. Considering the government’s tendency to underestimate pollution levels, it seems safe to […]
Designer/molecular biologist Eleanor Lutz is back with yet another awesome science feature: virus trading cards.
It took a while, but scientists have finally imaged the brains of people on LSD -- a psychedelic used recreationally by millions, but whose therapeutic potential is only recently beginning to be recognized. Judging from the scans, it seems like Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) "completes the brain". Essentially, the brain functions less like a compartmentalized entity and more like a whole, very much akin to how the brain of an infant works.
Fresh from the GE Global Research lab is this tiny monster: a turbine small enough you can hold in your hands, but powerful enough to provide energy to a whole town. It's secret lies in a couple of design features, but also the power agent. Instead of steam, the "minirotor" as it's been nicknamed is driven by supercritical carbon dioxide.
Most of the life we see around us -- plants, animals, humans and other so-called eukaryotes -- actually comprise a tiny minority of the planet's biodiversity. The rulers of this planet are actually bacteria and Archaea. A new research which includes genome sequencing data from over 1,000 new organisms has produced a refined tree of life that better matches reality. In this expanded tree of life two-thirds of all diversity on Earth is bacterial, while nearly a third is Archaea.
In Europe and the United States, an increasing number of employers have adopted a smoke-free policy and may not hire people who smoke. This is because of the negative perception of smoking. Stanford researchers wanted to quantify just how large the economic burden of tobacco use is on the labour market. Their analysis suggests that nonsmokers are twice as likely to get hired than smokers. Tobacco users also earn $5 less per hour on average than nonsmokers.
Antarctic researchers are in need of help - specifically, they need people to study photos of penguins to help them understand how the birds are dealing with climate change.
Acetaminophen, commonly sold as Tylenol or Paracetamol may affect our ability to solve errors, a new study has found. The impairment is minor, but noticeable.
The Environmental Defense Fund’s Oil and Gas program has released a new nation-wide report of the most common sites of methane leaks at oil and gas pads. Surprisingly, most of the leaks were traced back to faulty piping, vents or doors on gas tanks in newer, not older, wells.
Astrophysicists have discovered a new class of exoplanets whose atmospheres and volatile elements have been blown away by the star they're orbiting. Their findings help cover a previously uncharted gap in planetary populations, and offers valuable insight for locating new worlds to colonize.
One new research on rats suggests that the magic brew could be very potent against anxiety if ingested over a prolonged time.
For archiving purposes, at least, DNA -- the blueprint or genetic recipe that codes all life -- might be worth considering. One team, for instance, coded digital images into synthetic DNA using a novel method, then decoded and read this data.
The great physicist who invented Calculus in his 20s and gave the world the universal law of gravity transcribed countless pages from a famous alchemy manuscript which describes how to manufacture a key element for the Philosopher's Stone.
For the first time in over one hundred years worldwide tiger numbers have increased, but there are still only 3,900 specimens in the wild.
The best public speakers have mastered these key factors.
A team of NASA researchers has developed the first ever method for identifying and studying underground forest fungi from outer space, providing information that will help us better understand how forests will develop. Mycorrhizal fungi (underground fungus) are more similar to a city network than to individual organisms. They are complex intertwined networks that can […]
They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and unfortunately, that seems to be the case for HIV viruses.
A new solar cell prototype developed by Chinese researchers may change the way we use solar panels.
Curiosity is probably the single most powerful force behind our species' scientific discoveries. It can drive us to explore and discover even if the outcome might be painful or harmful. But this need to discover and learn can also become a curse; a new study found that people are willing to face unpleasant outcomes with no apparent benefits just to sate their curiosity.
People frequently overindulge, sometimes to the point of developing sugar addictions. There has been a lot of interest in the pharmaceutical industry in finding treatments that can combat this effect, with little results up to now. But, a world-first study led by QUT might change that.
Adding extra-salt may make food tastier, but it can also has a negative effect on your health. With that in mind, Japanese researchers have invented a fork that creates a salty taste in your mouth at the press of a button, by releasing an electrical current which stimulates the tongue. Salt has long been associated with blood […]
Scotland has met and overcome its objective for green energy in 2015
Portable data storage, such as USB drives, might not be quite as useful or sought after as they once were but they remain an undeniably handy method to carry your data around.
The first Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite called Terra (previously AM-1) was launched on December 18, 1999. ASTER data contributes to a wide array of global change-related application areas including vegetation and ecosystem dynamics, hazard monitoring, geology and soils, hydrology, and land cover change. It’s also perfect background material for your home PC. But it’s not […]
Creating artificial skin may sound weird, but it can be extremely useful (or even life saving) for people who suffered from burns or any type of similar accident; it is also useful for testing drugs or cosmetic products. Skin transplants are a growing need, and many teams from across the world hope to one day […]
Though minute, these are far from insignificant as their pray have learned the hard way. In fact, it's their small body that allowed them to become the fastest snapping spiders in the world!
Mouth microbes may be connected to a variety of illnesses, more and more studies are showing. Dental care has been disconnected from general health care for many years now, but the more you start to think about it, the stranger it seems. After all, you don’t really separate any other branch of medicine so… why […]
People of European descent carry as much as 4 percent Neanderthal DNA, but the Y chromosome passed down from father to sons is entirely missing in the modern population. Scientists now think they know why.
Astronomers have found a supermassive black hole in a completely unexpected area of space, a sparse area where massive galaxies are few and far between.
Those who take too much offence of improper grammar and typos in an informal situations were found have "less agreeable" personalities.
. A team at Purdue University in West Lafayette finally cracked the code, revealing a virus very much akin to the dengue and West Nile viruses.
Drastically reducing body size and, maybe most importantly, lifespan may have been the most important course of action evolution undertook to preserve some species, paleontologists argue.
The Sunny State is going through its worst drought in the last couple thousand years. Unfortunately, these events will happen more frequently in the future.
Composite metal foam (CMF) is light, but strong -- it can even stop bullets!
Finally, a team of researchers have bridged the gap and found an accurate mathematical equation that can determine the "spectral radiative heat transfer rate between two closely spaced bodies, generalizing the concept of a blackbody to the case of near-field energy transfer."
Five baboons were each hooked up with a pig heart alongside their own hearts. Essentially, these baboons lived with two hearts and the pig one still functioned two years on average after the grafting, marking a marvelous breakthrough in xenografting.
The first case of white nose syndrome, a disease that has wreaked havoc on bat populations in the eastern U.S. has been identified west of the Rockies. The disease's spread threatens to drastically impact bat populations there, altering ecosystems throughout the country.
The exact path Hannibal took in this epic voyage across the Alps has been a matter of debate among scholars, but now scientists think they've finally found it by following some unlikely bread crumbs: ancient horse dung still teeming with preserved bacteria left by Hannibal's cavalry.
It always baffles me how some publish completely misleading clickbait titles.
The population dropped sharply from over 5,000 individuals fifty years ago to less than 150 cats ten years ago. However, thanks to recent efforts, the population has grown to 400 individuals, and there are good signs for the species.
NASA plans to improve today's planes with a blast from the past -- re-implementing a structure known as a wing truss would reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions of common commercial aircraft by as much as 50%, according to computational models.
Here's a great way to spend science dollars: see if humans literally find robots sexy. They do sort of, or so conclude Stanford researchers who asked volunteers to touch an anthropomorphic robot in various body parts.
Depression can be exhausting. Here's why.
Photosynthesis is maybe the most important chemical process on Earth, turning sunlight and CO2 into the oxygen we breath and the food we eat. This process can be reversed, however.
A federal judge has approved the $20.8 bn settlement for BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This fine will account for civil claims against the company set forth by the Department of Justice and five Gulf states. US Attorney General Loretta Lynch previously called the settlement “the largest with a single entity in American […]
The ritual of sacrifice is ubiquitous in all religions, be it self-offered or undertaken by a higher religious figures. Scholars are still investigating the object of sacrifice, and its role in shaping culture and society. One study makes an interesting hypothesis based on historical records: human sacrifice has repeatedly worked in favor of the ruling elite to consolidate their position in stratified societies. In egalitarian societies, human sacrifice was less wide spread and also less impactful.
British paleontologists have identified a tiny, ancient animal that carried around its young tethered in capsules around its body, like kites.
Biological engineers have created a programming language that allows them to rapidly and efficiently program and design DNA-encoded circuits, giving new functions to living cells. There are already a myriad of programming languages. Fortran and C++ allow for rapid computations, PHP is a scripting language for web development, Ruby is a popular object-oriented language – […]
For centuries, chocolatiers have been trying to develop the perfect chocolate coating for bonbons, honing their skill to the point of artistic performance. But scientists believe they can take things even further.
It is my personal belief that education (including higher education) should be free — or at least heavily subsidized. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in many parts of the world, where people pay exorbitant sums for university studies. But no matter where you are, there’s no excuse for not learning science. With MIT’s Open CourseWare […]
