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Agriculture is a big driver of climate change, with the meat industry standing out among the rest as a source of CO2 emissions and environmental damage; lowering demand for meat or ensuring that farms have as little environmental impact is possible, but costly. Would you be willing to eat less, if it was for the good of the planet? Pay more for your meat? A new study suggests that the idea isn't as controversial as you may believe on first glance.
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have never been higher: the average global CO2 levels have reached the 400 parts per million (ppm) milestone in the spring of 2015, The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced in the first week of November. Secretary-General Michel Jarraud warns that it won't be long before even higher levels of the gas become a "permanent reality."
Earlier this year, the New Democratic Party took power after 44-years of Conservative rule. Canadians have lot of emotions and hopes invested in the new government, and so far so good. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley recently announced a series of environmental measures which will see the country drastically lower its carbon footprint, expand the renewable energy sector and lower its reliance on fossil fuels.
Google’s Rachel Potvin took the stage @scale and hinted on just how many lines of code Google uses: a staggering 2 billion.
The Danish capital of Copenhagen is known for its bike friendly culture but this time they’re taking it to the next level. Work is set to start on the new bike lane which will join two skyscrapers, 213 feet in the air (65 meters). The design was the winner of a competition to reinvigorate the […]
An University of Queensland study of mantis shrimp discovered a new form of light communication employed by the animals, the findings having potential applications in satellite remote sensing, biomedical imaging, cancer detection, and computer data storage.
Also known as the water bear, the tardigrade has a lot to be proud of -- this tiny organism is nigh-indestructible, known to have survived in extreme temperatures ( -272C to +151C / -457.6F to 303.8F) and to be the only animal that can brave the vacuum of space unprotected and live to tell the tale.
There’s a good chance that what you know about Crime Scene Investigation comes from movie – but there are actually quite many differences between the two. Many of the things you see in the series are not done at all in real life, and sometimes, real life science goes one step ahead of the movies. […]
Amber Rudd, the UK's Secretary of Energy and Climate Change, announced the government's new plan to generate clean and cheap energy. Rudd says the Britain will add more nuclear power, explore for shale and, most strikingly, replace all coal fired plants with gas.
Jeff Bezos just announced a historical feat: Blue Origin, his space company, successfully launched its New Shepard rocket to 329,839 feet — or sub-orbital space — then safely landed the used rocket just a feet away from the launch pad. This is the first time a controlled landing was demonstrated for a rocket, beating Elon Musk's similar efforts to safely land his Falcon 9 rocket. This monumental milestone suggests reusable rockets will shortly become a reality, revolutionizing space flight in the process.
Once with the advent of agriculture, and its spread to Europe from the Near East, human society was transformed forever. Resources became more plentiful, communities could stay in one place and develop, and humans were free to pursue other activities. Agriculture turbo boosted the division of labor, an essential prerequisite to any civilization. Agriculture not only transformed human society, it also modified our DNA. A first of its kind study compared the DNA of ancient humans who lived between 8,500 and 2,300 years ago. The analysis revealed that humans underwent widespread genetic changes that influence height, immune system, digestion and skin colour once agriculture was introduced.
A beautiful simulation of two planets colliding. What happens next?
Starting November 30, the world's leaders will meet in Paris at the UN summit for climate change to discuss a common framework to reduce carbon emissions at a global level. Most countries already have plans set in motion to reduce emissions, either by using energy efficiency and new technology to lower the carbon footprint of their own operations, or use legislation to compel residents and companies to do the same. A lot of big and sizable corporations in the United States have taken matters into their own hands, however, by buying more clean energy and less fossil fuel derived energy, regardless of what the government suggests or coerces.
In many the vast steppes of Mongolia, some things have remained unchanged for centuries. But some things have changed, and big time: according to a new report, almost 3 out of 4 Mongolian nomads are now using solar power. Even if your lifestyle is pretty much Medieval, you can still benefit from advanced technology – that’s […]
While wind and solar are offering more energy than ever to global grids, there is still much work to be done if we want to properly integrate them; one question that always arise is that of energy storage. Sure, you can harvest a lot of sun during the day, but you need to store it for later usage, and that's quite a problem. Now, a Canadian start-up believe they may have found a solution for that, and it's just crazy enough to work: underwater balloons.
Improvements in aircraft design, air traffic management and changes to airline operations could effectively slash US airline emissions by as much as 50%.
According to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine, human cellular development appears to depend on the actions of genetic material left over from ancient viral infections.
Until the advent of calculus and computing infinite series, not that many digits were added to the ones found by Archimedes for more than a 1,500 years.
You'd think there's not much a little fish can do to hide from predators in open waters. But when rocks, algae and other marine nooks and crannies are nowhere to be found, fish turn to manipulate the physical interactions of light to balance the scale. For instance, some open ocean fish species employ specialized skin cells that reflect polarized light. This reflection is most effective, not coincidentally, at the 'chase angle' or from the predator's point of view. It's so effective that the US Navy is funding work that might shed light how exactly some fish do this and how this can be applied to make submersibles equally inconspicuous.
The Amazon basin is home to the world's great biodiversity. You'll find more plant and animal species per square foot than anywhere else in the world. It's truly one of the wildest and life teeming places in the universe, which given humans' habit of meddling makes it one of the most vulnerable as well. The huge 6-million-square-kilometer rainforest area remains mostly unstudied, due to the roughness and inaccessibility of the land. But making their way through the outskirts are the chainsaws and sawmills; and they're moving fast. Since 2000 an area equal to 50 football pitches has been destroyed every minute in the Amazon rainforest, satellite imagery revealed.
As more Millennials are leaving religion in droves, or choosing not to identify with any faith, acceptance of evolution among the public strengthens.
When is a rose not a rose? When it’s a transistorized electronic circuit, of course. Scientists at Sweden’s Linköping University have implanted a rose with conductive polymers and arranged the resulting circuitry into a real transistor system – complete with a digital switch. Here’s how materials scientist Magnus Berggren turned a rose into a piece […]
A few days ago, the FDA approved the genetic engineering of modified Atlantic salmon variety. This is the first food animal that was genetically modified that the FDA approved for human consumption and farming; the gene alteration would make it grow much faster. Public reactions have been mixed, as expected. This could be a very good move, greatly reducing the stress on wild populations, but people are always reluctant when it comes to GMOs - especially animals.
The little things we do matter: being more responsible with the resources we use, walking that extra stop, even speaking our voice out, it all matters.
Universal diets don’t work because “healthy food” varies from person to person, a new study has found. Sadly, only a fraction of all people truly eat healthily these days – we all have our own struggles with food, either because we eat too much, or we eat things that are bad for us, or we don’t […]
A simple yet efficient solution could not only make life easier for millions of refugees worldwide, but also reduce CO2 emissions by 6.85 million tons every year and save a lot of money in the long run: installing solar panels in camps. A consortium of think tanks and NGOs has released a report highlighting that […]
If you ever wanted to become a firefighter in an exotic location, now you have the perfect extra motivation: jetpacks. As if Dubai didn’t have enough hi-tech with all the awesome cars and helicopters and all, firefighters will receive jetpacks as part of the new year’s city budget – this is considered a “practical” solution […]
After five years long of pondering, the FDA finally gave the green light for a genetically modified Atlantic salmon variety. This is the first food animal that was genetically modified that the FDA approved for human consumption and farming. The salmon has genes from another salmon species, as well as an eel-like fish, which allows it to grow to market size in half the time it would usually take. This means it saves twice as much time and resources as conventional salmon, with no nutritional or health drawbacks, the FDA says.
With robots taking up all the factory jobs and CEO's outsourcing each and any position they can to China, it's harder and harder for the common bloke to find a job these days. And it's only about to get worse as pigeons are now poised to take over the health industry positions for the price of bread crumbs.
Some 400 million years ago, during what's called the late Devonian period, the planet went through a dramatic shift in climate. Over just a few million years, the CO2 levels in the atmosphere dropped 15-fold. Partially or mostly responsible for this phenomenal climate change event were the very first forests which evolved and started claiming the Earth. Until then, plants were less specialized and smaller. We know little of these troublesome times, but we're learning along the way. The discovery of an ancient 380 million years forest in Norway will definitely help in this endeavor.
Biologists have recently identified a new species of harvestman (daddy longlegs spider) near the town of Monjolos in Minas Gerais, southern Brazil, and gave the precious new discovery an accurate but tongue in cheek name: Iandumoema smeagol
The cordon-bleus are unique animals that both sing and tap-dance to attract mates.
A study of 986 Bolivian women found that on average, a lifetime infection with a type of roundworm named Ascarius lumbricoides led to an extra two children in the family. Their paper, published in the journal Science, suggests that the worm is altering the host's immune system, making it easier to become pregnant -- in effect, the parasite increases female fertility. The researchers hope this discovery will lead to "novel fertility enhancing drugs."
Every once in a while, someone creates something so incredible that it probably wouldn't even pass the Hollywood standard, being deemed to unrealistic.
Archaeological diggings at the First Nations in Canada unearthed, among others, a small, 800 year old pot - and inside it, squash seeds!
Start-up company Deepfield Robotics has developed a field vehicle that can distinguish weeds from useful crops and eliminate them.
The problem is still unsolved.
The small Central American nation got rid of its armed forced 65 years ago, and the Ticos are a happier people for it. Now, Costa Rica - home to four and a half million people - is setting the world a new example in human values: for 255 days it has managed its resident's energy needs with little fossil fuel use.
A University of Nevada team, led by anthropologist Peter Gray, tested several hypotheses about pets and contemporary courtship or dating rituals. Their study will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal Anthrozoös.
This may be the first known case of simplification from a macro to a microorganism, a cheap trick which evolution likely used more than once though.
Weeding out bad science is an extremely complicated and delicate process, and short of peer review there's little left to do; even peer review is flawed, or at the very least imperfect.
We all know that men like to impress the fairer members of our species, and this permeates into almost everything we do: we want to drive the shiniest car on the block, crack the funniest jokes 24/7 and write for ZMEScience so we can impress the ladies at parties. In essence, no matter how unlikely it is to actually impress, if a man has a choice between doing something and doing that something over the top so he can show off to women, you can bet your right arm he's gonna do the latter.
About 20 million people in the United States suffer from temporary or permanent voice impairment. Life can sound like a nightmare, even though we don't hear our own voice - but we do feel the attention. Then, those are those rare cases which basically render people mute. While there are various medical interventions that can improve one's voice, it's still far from the real deal. What these people need is not a patch here and there, but a whole new set of vocal cords, and a group of researchers has set out to grow it in the lab. Starting from a couple of human cells, they've grown a critical tissue involved in vocalizing. It's basically indistinguishable from the real deal (it's still biological tissue after all) and biocompatible.
Ever wondered how Google Maps can predict traffic jams?
It seems like evolution has fostered us humans all along for us to become the dominant species on planet Earth. We owe so many gifts to the tender processes that began millions of years ago and shaped us the way we are today. Gripping dexterous hands, remarkable social behavior and lets not forget about those big brains. It's not enough to have a big brain, though. What makes us humans particularly successful is our ability to adapt constantly to our environment. Humans fair well in luxurious plains, but they seem to survive in the desert as well. Then look at the times we're living in. Technology, networking, all our cultural heritage. It takes a lot to adapt to such changing times, and no other species seems to be this good at it. While we owe a great deal to genetics, it's brain plasticity - an inherent ability to mold our cerebral connections to fit our environment - that took us the extra mile.
Behind all the glitz and glamour, there's little substance to cosmetic products.
Florida Researchers have developed a new class of LEDs that may change the lighting and display industry of the future.
A paper published recently in Nature Communications details how a team lead by Dr. Ben Wilson and Professor Chris Petkov used a brain imaging technique to identify the neuronal evolutionary origins of language. Their findings help us understand how we learn to speak, and could allow new treatments for those who lose this ability from aphasia after a stroke or dementia.
Cardiff University public health experts have discovered a powerful link between a pupil's breakfast quality and their performance at school. The study – the largest to date looking at how nutrition influences school performance -- recorded the breakfast habits of 5000 pupils aged 9 through 11, and their results in the Key Stage 2 Teacher Assessments 6-18 months later.
The FDA, Department of Justice and other government agencies, today presented the results of a yearlong sweep of dietary supplements which are thought to contain unsafe compounds. Following a slew of illnesses and law suits as a results of dietary supplement intake, the combined government effort vowed to crack down on the industry - at least the part that mislabels its products and poses a significant hazard to the population. You'd think drugs - what a lot of supplements contain - would be regulated by the FDA, but dietary supplements are entirely unregulated. This has allowed a $40 billion industry of "snake oil" products to flourish. Not anymore, everyone hopes.
