gear Push settings
The Netherlands has joined the list of European countries that have banned wild animals from their circuses. The Netherlands will be prohibiting the use of all wild animals for performance (except performance zoos).
As a new investigation showed today, the scientists of the biggest oil company in the world, Exxon Mobil knew about climate change back in the 70s - but they still helped block the Kyoto protocol in the 90s, and invest massive amounts of money into climate skepticism propaganda. Today, 9 out of 10 funded climate change deniers can be linked to Exxon.
The humble bean is the first thing some of us reach for in the mornings, it's our companion during breaks and comes to warm us up on cold winter days. We've come to rely on coffee, due to the caffeine it contains, to wake us up when the night is short and full of terrors, and keep us going when the going gets rough. A new study from the University of New Mexico's researchers however shows how the people of the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico were drinking caffeinated beverages as early as 750 AD, over 1,200 years ago.
While the name might fool you at first glace, black holes are anything but empty.
New research has found evidence of emotional burden sharing (also known as load sharing) between partners in a close relationship. The study, co-authored by Queen's University PhD candidate Jessica Lougheed, found that a strong personal relationship can help ease stress when placed in difficult situations.
By 'tickling' select membrane channels you can effectively control neurons, by activating or deactivating cells. You can do this using electrical currents, like we see very well illustrated in brain-computer interfaces; light (the field of optogenetics); and sound (sonogenetics). Yes, sound. This was only recently demonstrated by researchers at Salk's Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory who used ultrasounds to control neurons in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
According to a new report by the WWF, we're very close to losing fish species that are not only important for their ecosystems, but that are vital to our food security. The main culprit, as it usually happens, is humans: we've almost wiped out tuna and mackerel through overfishing.
A team of Dutch and Belgian researchers demonstrated an electric circuit coupled with a magnetic insulator. The circuit uses so-called 'spin waves' instead of electrons to transmit information, something that was considered unpractical until not too long ago. The findings could help lead to a new class of electronics which are far more efficient since there's less heat loss.
Corn farmers around the world owe bats at least $1 billion, seeing how they ward off pests like insects. The findings were made by a group at Southern Illinois University who devised an experimental exclosure in order to estimate bats' contribution to pest control.
Bee numbers have been dropping at alarming rates, and the growing consensus seem to be that only limiting pesticide use (especially for some pesticides) can save them. Now, a US court overturned federal approval for a new formulation called sulfoxaflor, basically banning the pesticide.
Saturn's moon, Enceladus, is covered in a thick icy crust, but beneath it might lie an ocean of liquid water despite there are minus 201 degrees Celsius on the surface. This is a theoretical assumption, which is however backed by very solid indirect evidence. Gushing plums of water from the moon's south pole also point to this conclusion. If this is true, Enceladus can be envisioned like a gourmet candy: a hot core (maybe chocolate?), surrounded by a layer or water, and all covered in a crunchy crust of ice.
Scientists have genetically modified yeast to produce the main psychoactive substance in marijuana, THC. Responsible for most of weed's effects (including the high), THC can also be used for medical purposes, to treat symptoms of HIV infection and chemotherapy.
Researchers at Purdue University in the US have developed a new tool for Android users that could increase your battery life by 16%.
Reconstructive surgery just got an upgrade after a patient who had lost four ribs and part of his sternum had a 3-D printed titanium replica fitted instead. This was the first such procedure. Although the operation was a sound success with the replica matching like a glove, doctors say that this sort of intervention is only for really extreme cases. You can't become Wolverine overnight, not exactly at least.
Hydrogen is a great medium for storing energy. It can be used as an alternative to batteries to store the excess energy from renewable energy systems like solar panels or wind turbines, and can be released from a tank to power a vehicle equipped with fuel cells. More than a decade ago, these prospects hyped the so called "hydrogen economy". Governments and funding agencies drew up ambitious plans to develop cheaper fuel cells and to enable cars to store practicable quantities of hydrogen. In 2003, President George Bush committed $720 million to the research effort. But eventually... it all turned out to be a pipeline dream mostly because of two shortcomings: hydrogen is very expensive to store and make; from renewable sources at least.
Love is complicated enough, even without intense scrutiny from scientists. Do we fall in love with someone because we find our partner's genetic makeup to be satisfying and thus improve the chance of having better offspring? Or is it a bit more mysterious than this - a lot more personal? For humans, the latter looks like the case, but we're far from being alone. Zebra finches, which are also monogamous, choose their mates for idiosyncratic reasons as shown by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. The finches who chose their partners based on behavioral compatibility were less likely to shrug from their parental duties and had offspring which had the best chance of reaching adulthood. This elegant experiment proves that choosing a mate isn't all about who has the brightest plumage or the biggest stomach - love has a huge part to play as well. The similarities to humans are uncanny.
A 28-year old who has been paralyzed for more than a decade following a spinal cord injury has become the first person to be able to “feel” physical sensations, through a special prosthetic developed by DARPA – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a US agency responsible for the development of emerging technologies, mostly for military purposes. The […]
A new report created by Dr Carl Benedikt Frey and Associate Professor Michael Osborne from the University of Oxford assesses the probability of jobs being taken over by robots in the next 20 years.
Leafcutter ants in South America grow fungus as crops, this has been known for quite a while. But their crops show clear signs of domestication, which means that when it comes to farming, the ants might have beaten us by some 50 million years. Ant farmers When people started growing crops, they unwittingly made changes […]
We all need a bit of quiet in our lives sometimes, but have you ever took a minute to ponder what 'total silence' might feel like? It's scary. Every bodily function, otherwise unnoticed, now sounds like a freight train. Feels like it, anyway. You can even hear your heart beats. Though not exactly 'perfect silence', a team of researchers at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have come mighty close. They report 99.7% absorption of low frequency pressure waves (sound) using subwavelength structures or materials.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the slumping price of oil - the lowest in six years - and what this entails for the industry: half a trillion in debt collectively owed by 168 companies, more than $200 billion in shelved exploration and research projects, and hundreds of thousands of jobs sacked. You'd think that producers, pressured by these tough times, would cut production. The laughing matter is that, in fact, the whole ordeal is caused by producers (*cough Saudis) who have flooded the market with oil. In the short run, everybody is bound to lose money. On the long run.. well, we might be in for some dramatic shifts no sooner than two or three years from now. There will definitely be some sore losers.
They say that if you want to conquer a woman's heart, you first have to make her laugh, and the science seems to agree with that. A new study found that the more a man makes a woman laugh, the more the chances of a long term relationship grew.
An English historian has come across the "F word" in a court case dating back to 1310, making it the earliest reference to the swear word. Dr Paul Booth of Keele University found the name ‘Roger Fuckebythenavele’ as he was documenting the trial.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who religiously make their bed every day in cleanliness and order... and the rest of us. If you're in the latter group, then I've got some good news: keeping your bed messy might be good for your health.
Humans are naturally lazy, as they'll always find a way to execute a movement, even a simple act like walking, with the least expenditure of energy. Our nervous system, it seems, is hot-hired to find the optimal energy balance for any movement. It's so good at it, that it adapts to a new gait or environment within a matter of minutes.
According to a new study published in Nature Climate Change, the snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains has reached the lowest levels in the past 500 years, underscoring the severe drought that is already affecting the state.
NASA recently uploaded a strikingly beautiful photograph on their website showing a petrified sand dune on Mars. The image was actually pieced together from several shots taken using Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on August 27th. From end to end, the panorama spans a full 135 degrees of other-worldly awesomeness, with east to the left and southwest to the right.
A number of approximately 300 Chinese men and women who live in one of the country’s most polluted areas were involved in a clinical trial, which reports that daily consumption of a half cup of broccoli sprout beverage produces rapid, significant and sustained levels of benzene excretion, one of the most dangerous carcinogens and a lung irritant.
Is there anything you can't buy in today's shopping malls? The list must be pretty short already, but now we can cut artifacts off it. Archaeologists in Redmond US., working on a routine survey to get the green light for a construction site near a mall in the area, found thousands of stone tools estimated to be at least 10,000 years old, "The Seattle Times" reported.
Temari (手まり?) balls are an ancient form of art that originated in China and got was introduced to Japan around the 7th century A.D., where it became very popular.
Two researchers at Baylor University looked into how breaks during the workday improve employee health and efficiency, and found that yes - there are a few constants that seem to make a break great. Their findings offer some surprising suggestions on when, where and how to plan the best moments of relaxation, while also debunking some common break-time myths.
According to a report issued by the Pew Research Center, American adults have a sub-par knowledge of basic science. The organization surveyed 3,278 Americans of various social, racial and academic backgrounds. The questionnaire involved a simple set of 12 questions that assessed basic science competencies. Despite the quiz was far from demanding, most test-takers answered only 7.9 questions out of 12 correctly. That's 66% or a big fat 'D'.
The world is heating up, that's no longer up for debate, but there are many ways through which we can discuss how much the planet has warmed. You can calculate global averages, chart rising levels, discuss freak weather events, but that's all difficult to understand and sometimes debatable.
Motivated by the love for their native lands and armed with bows, arrows, GPS trackers and camera traps, an indigenous community in northern Brazil is fighting to achieve what officials couldn't - stop illegal logging in their part of the Amazon.
This fashionable triangle-shaped glassware isn't an office decoration, but a true vestige of the early analytical chemistry. It's called the kaliapparat, a hollow glass tubular device used to measure carbon content in substances in 1830 by German chemist Justus Liebig, widely considered the father of organic chemistry.After it first appeared, because it was so reliable, it spread throughout labs in Europe and North Africa within a matter of years. Look at this device again. Does it look familiar? It's none other than the American Chemical Society's logo - the same logo still in use today more than a century later. As such, the kaliapparat is one of the most important chemistry vessel and analytical tool in history. It's also one of the most obscure. Few chemists know about it. Most ACS members have no clue what it is or what the logo means for that matter.
A French court upheld on Thursday a 2012 ruling in which Monsanto was found guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer who suffered from neurological problems after inhaling the U.S. company’s Lasso weedkiller. Alachlor is an herbicide, the second most widely used herbicide in the United States; it’s been banned in Europe since 2006, but in 2004, […]
An ocean of magma could explain why Jupiter's moon Io has volcanoes in the "wrong place". This would also mean that Io has an ocean of liquid water beneath its surface and might be potentially habitable.
The gargantuan cluster is 9.8 billion light years away from us, houses at least 27 galaxies and has a combined mass equal to 400 trillion Suns.
A promising diagnosis test can accurately detect cancer in 7 out of 10 patients just by reading telltale genetic mutations found in the blood. While it will not replace invasive biopsies when the test runs negative, the procedure could help identify tumours earlier. When cancer is involved, the faster you find it, the better the chance of surviving it.
The Antarctic Ocean has been sucking more and more carbon dioxide - and this is both good news and bad news. For the Ocean's inhabitants, it's bad news because it increases acidity, which is extremely harmful; for everyone else, it's good news, because it mitigates the effects of climate change.
An innovative 'kirigami' design allows solar cells to flex and twist to follow the sun throughout the day. This means 20 to 40 percent more energy per year generate than cells stacked in fixed panels you see on rooftops. The design is based on origami, with the addition of cutting besides from folding.
Shipping cyanobacteria to Mars or dumping greenhouse gas into its thin atmosphere might be too slow. Elon Musk is in a hurry, considering he wants to see an 80,000 people colony on Mars during his lifetime. A more drastic, quick fix way of terraforming Mars might be nuking its poles, Musk suggested on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, this Wednesday. "You're a supervillain!" Colbert said. "That's what a supervillain does!"
New close-ups of Pluto’s surface have been revealed by NASA today, revealing a stunning variety of features on the frozen planetoid. A range of majestic mountains surrounds seemingly endless plains, and now, we get to see them all with unprecedented quality. It’s so spectacular that even NASA’s investigators were surprised. “Pluto is showing us a […]
Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owns among other things Fox News, also known as the most despicable garbage journalism outlet in the whole world, bought National Geographic.
Even though driving after drinking small amounts is legal, it's most definitely not safe, research from the University of Kentucky (UK) in the U.S. finds. Nicholas van Dyke and Mark Fillmore at UK reported that for intoxicated drivers, even those driving under the legally accepted alcohol limit, small distractions such as a text message or dashboard controls are just too much to handle safely. The study provides the first scientific evidence on the impact such distractions have on the ability of liquored drivers to safely control vehicles.
An isolated bay in the heart of East Africa offers scientists a glimpse into early Earth's iron-rich marine environment, and lends weight to the theory that microbial activity created some of the largest iron ore deposits billions of years ago.
A daring team of researchers squeezed themselves through a long vertical chute and descended some 40 meters beneath the surface. It was here inside the Rising Star cave, located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Johannesburg in South Africa, that the researchers discovered one of the most important collection of hominins in the world - 1,500 bone fragments belonging to 15 skeletons. The remains clearly belonged to a human ancestor, and the team involved claims we're talking, in fact, about a totally new hominin.
German researchers from the University of Tubingen have devised an algorithm that analyzes a painting and then applies that style of painting to any desired picture. The results were recently published in a paper entitled, A Neural Algorithm of Artistic Style by Leon A. Gatys, Alexander S. Ecker and Matthias Bethge, and the results are simply spectacular: […]
Three different ways to breathe: Mammals, birds and insects breathe in different ways, as exemplified above. Humans, as mammals, inhale by moving the diaphragm to lower the air pressure in the chest cavity and pull air into the lungs. The human chest cavity is always at a lower pressure than the outside environment. Birds on […]
While analysing starch grains on ancient stone grinding tools from southern Italy, Marta Mariotti Lippi at the University of Florence in Italy and her colleagues were able to date the earliest known human consumption of oats as far back as 32,000 years ago – way before farming took root.
