Science on ZME Science

New brain cells erase old memories

If you’re trying to hold on to old memories, then some new, fresh brain cells may be the last thing you need – a new research published in Science suggests that newly formed neurons in the hippocampus (an area in the brain responsible for memory formation) could remove previously stored information. This is perhaps the […]

Scientists engineer first living organism with unnatural DNA

The entire living world is “written” with just four DNA bases: A = adenine C = cytosine G = guanine T = thymine However, for the first time, researchers have now created a living cell with an added pair of DNA “letters,” or bases, not found in nature – the DNA alphabet just got some new letters! “Life on Earth […]

The Oh-My-God-Particle

The Oh-My-God particle was an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (most likely a proton) detected on the evening of 15 October 1991 over Dugway Proving Ground, in Utah. The particle was 20 million times more energetic than the highest energy measured in radiation emitted by an extragalactic object – in other words, this subatomic particle had the energy of […]

New bird flu infects Antarctic penguins

It’s so cold even penguins get the flu in the Antarctic. Seriously, researchers report in a paper published in the journal mBio how they identified a new strain of influenza that infects Adelie penguins which breed in huge colonies on the rocky Antarctic Peninsula. The virus itself seems to be dormant as the penguins don’t exhibit any visible flu […]

Dusty rovers and weather on Mars

Mark Lemmon is an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University and a camera operator for numerous Mars missions, especially those involving the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. These two rovers are considered nothing short of heroes by the men and women at mission control who were part of the projects. Spirit, for instance, […]

Meet 'Pinocchio rex' - the 9 meter long, ferocious cousin of Tyrannosaurus Rex

A new type of Tyrannosaur with a very long “nose” has been nicknamed “Pinocchio rex” – but this dinosaur was nothing to laugh about. It measured some 9 meters in length, was a ferocious carnivore, and had a long, distinctive snout – which possibly made it even more dangerous. Interestingly enough, the skeleton was found at […]

Dogs follow human voice direction to find hidden food

Dogs and puppies are really good at interpreting human vocal and visual cues, with previous studies already showing they can pick up even subtle hints, finding hidden food with just a slight look from a human. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have now studied for the first time whether dogs […]

Rising CO2 poses significant threat to human nutrition

If current trends continue, by 2050, the elevated levels of CO2 in the atmosphere will cause many crops around the world to produce a reduced amount of nutrients, especially zinc and iron. Considering that about almost 1 in 3 people in the world (2 billion people) suffer from iron or zinc deficiencies resulting in a loss of […]

Psilocybin, the active substance in magic mushrooms, inhibits the processing of negative emotions in the brain

Negative emotions like fear, sadness and anger evolved serving a purpose – enabling people to adapt to the changing conditions in the environment, reacting flexibly and efficiently to stress and strain. However, in modern society, in certain situations, we’d really like to avoid experiencing those feelings, as well as many others, like depression or anxiety. Researchers […]

Researchers create a remarkably accurate model of our Universe and its evolution

The Illustris project took 5 years of software development and 3 months running on 8000 processors – but it sure was worth it – the result is truly monumental! Now, researchers finally have an accurate model of the development of the universe, which even though is rough around some edges, still blends in well with today’s […]

Excition fission model could vastly improve solar cell efficiency

The most basic principle of a solar cell is that it works by transferring the energy from an incoming photon (light) to a molecule, which causes one or more electrons to become displaced until an electrical current is formed. That’s the absolute gist of it, only besides electricity, some of the incoming photon energy gets […]

Mysterious lines in Peru that predate the Nazca lines are directions to major fairs

Rock lines discovered in Peru predate the famous Nazca lines by over 300 years, a new study concludes. However, the purpose of these lines was very different – to direct people to big trading sites and fairs. The lines were developed by the Paracas culture, which inhabited the Andes area around 800 B.C. – 100 B.C. […]

Why birds survived the dinosaur apocalypse: they were small enough

Some 65 million years ago an asteroid impact caused countless species of land, marine and plant life to become extinct, including the mighty dinosaur which dominated the planet for millions of years. Not all species of the dinosaur group vanished, however. You’ve guess right: birds! Now, a new study sheds light on why birds were […]

Volvo’s first self-driving cars now being tested live on public roads in Sweden

Self driving cars are hitting the road in Sweden! Volvo Car Group’s “Drive Me” project involving 100 cars is now being tested in the streets in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. Apparently, everything is going out just fine: “The test cars are now able to handle lane following, speed adaption, and merging traffic all by themselves,” says Erik Coelingh, […]

New 3D printer allows you to print your own make-up at home

3D printing is the hot jazz nowadays, with applications varying from cranium and skin replacements to houses to nanoscale objects. Now, Grace Choi, a self proclaimed inventor has developed a way to 3D print makeup at home, in every color you want, as eye shadow, blush, lip gloss or whatever you need – reducing both waste […]

Middle Initials Make You Seem Smarter

Nobody really knows how middle names came to be – but it probably came from the aristocrats. They had lots of names, because of course, if you were related to someone famous, you wanted to highlight it. Also, when women got married, their maiden name turned into her middle name after marriage, and sometimes a middle […]

Climate Change is a Current Reality, lengthy US report concludes

Climate change is no longer a distant threat – it’s happening now, and it poses real, clear dangers in the US. Another report conducted by White House researchers confirms previous reports by IPCC and other scientific panels. A present problem The report is the latest update from the U.S. Global Change Research Program, and it shows […]

Electro-magnetic helmet proves great benefits for fighting depression

Danish researchers have developed a special helmet that shoots electro-magnetic waves in target brain regions and treats patients suffering from depression. The results so far have been extremely promising, especially since it seems to work very well for patients suffering from extreme forms of depressions where conventional medicine doesn’t seem to work. According to the World […]

China Officially Outlaws Eating Endangered Animals

China has finally clarified the legislation regarding the consumption of endangered species. It remains to be seen if the law will be enforced, but at least, it’s clear for everybody that it is illegal to eat endangered animals or take their body parts for trophies. Poaching, cruelty and endangered animals The phrasing of the legislation […]

Protein Dracula: transferring young mice blood to older mice reverses aging

This Sunday a trio of landmark studies were published each discussing an aspect of a wider picture: reversing aging in the muscles and brains of old mice simply by transfusing blood coming from younger mice. The effect is credited to a key protein found in much higher concentration in the blood of younger mice. So far, the findings […]

Bioplastic made from shrimp shell could help curb plastic pollution

In the US alone, some 34 million tons of plastic waste is generated every year, of which only seven percent gets recycled. The good thing about plastic is that it’s sturdy, cheap and easy to make – these are also its biggest downsides. Plastic is so well built that it can last up to 1,000 years […]

Tree rings reveal worst droughts in the West's history happened during Christopher Columbus' lifetime

Modern climate tracking and water flow records go back only 100 years, but to prepare for the worse, scientists and policy makers alike need to understand how the weather was like in the world many more years prior. A solution is to study the tree rings of certain tree species which bear telltale signs of water […]

Superheavy element 117 confirmed

It’s a good day to be a chemist – a new, super-heavy element has been added to the periodic table after it was discovered by a team Germany’s GSI laboratory. The periodic table was (and still is) the foundation for modern chemistry – it is a tabular arrangement of all the chemical elements, organized on […]

New circuitboard is 9,000 times faster and more energy efficient at simulating the human brain than PC

A mouse might not look like the smartest animal, but however modest its cortex may seem it’s still 9,000 times faster than a personal computer simulation of its functions. Not only that, but it takes 40,000 times more power to run – energy efficiency being, in fact, the true benchmark that needs to be considered when […]

Small mite is world's fastest land animal, relative to size

Cheetahs are the world’s fastest land animals in the world, able to run as fast as 75 mph. It’s their acute agility that allows them to survive, however, catching prey by making huge leaps at four times the acceleration human leg muscles are capable of producing. No doubt about it, this is one of the […]

Bionic prosthetic allows disabled to run, climb and even dance - watch this TED talk!

Hugh Herr, head of the Lab’s Biomechatronics research group, spoke at TED 2014 on March 19 about his group’s work in creating bionic prosthetic limbs, and their goal to eliminate human disability through technology. For Herr, his work and involvement is deeply personal, having lost both his lower limbs in a climbing accident 30 years […]

Google Earth used to track uncontacted Amazonian tribe

The so-called developing world is riddled with isolated communities that hear little or any news from the outside world. It takes a lot of imagination, however, to understand how the few people, part of the last remaining, truly pure indigenous tribes of the Amazon basin, must live like. Located deep in the Amazon rainforest, members […]

Study of HIV evolution shows the virus is adapting to human hosts

One of the most threatening modern pandemics, HIV/AIDS, has been thoroughly studied in the past few decades, with billions awarded to research seeking out a cure. Progress has been slow, but today doctors have a number of tools at their disposal to curve HIV development, spreading and ail patients, despite a cure has yet to […]

Taking a walk encourages creativity more than sitting

If you’ve ever read the biographies of some of the world’s greatest thinkers, you may have noticed that one of their favorite pastimes was taking long and relaxing walks. For instance, Charles Darwin had a fixed schedule that demanded he begins his morning rituals with a walk upon waking at 7:00, and only after take […]

Environmental rule regulating mercury emissions saves lives (and $90 billion)

Can you put a cost on pollution? Policy makers, not matter how some may deny it, are more astute than they were a few decades ago about subjects like climate change or global warming. Few can deny the adverse effects of immediate particle pollution on health, but whenever environmental regulations were put forth on the […]

The Chameleon vine: the only plant that morphs host plants near it

The animal kingdom is full of cons – shapeshifter who have learned that to survive, they need look different or mask their appearance altogether. Everyone’s heard of the chameleon, a distinct species of lizard with the ability to change colours and easily blend to his environment. He’s not alone, though, and frankly he’s not even […]

Glass molecules jam to form fractal wells

Water is liquid, air is gaseous, but glass? For years at end, glass has perplexed scholars intending on fixing it under a state of matter. Neither liquid, nor solid, explaining glass is a lot harder than some might think. Researchers at Duke University have contributed to solving the puzzle after they performed numerical solutions and […]

Legalizing marijuana doesn't encourage consumption among teens

A common concern among the general public, parents especially, is that once a draft calling for legalizing marijuana goes through, this will have as an effect increased consumption among adolescents. A new study at Rhode Island Hospital which compared 20 years worth of data from states with and without medical marijuana laws found, however, that there […]

Blood from world's oldest woman tells us why life reaches its limits

No matter how much some would like to avoid this prospect, death is inevitable for all living beings (or is it?). Yet, some people at least live longer than others. A great deal of attention has been drawn to longevity for obvious reasons, but any effort to prolong life needs to start with the very […]

3D printer used to build 10 homes in one day in China

Say what you will, but the Chinese are clearly the fastest builders in the world, though sometimes quick haste makes to waste. A while ago, I wrote about how a Chinese company wants to build the tallest skyscraper in the world in just 90 days. Really crazy stuff, but now another Chinese company, with many […]

Making graphene in a kitchen blender

A team led by Jonathan Coleman at Trinity College Dublin reports they’ve patented a technique that can easily produce large quantities of quality graphene. The method is so simple that the researchers have even been able to scale it down for use in a kitchen blender. The exact ‘recipe’ has yet to be disclosed, but nevertheless […]

Claws of meanest crustacean inspire supermaterial design

As the night covers the tropics, odd clicky sounds run about much to the annoyance of sailors stationed in harbors. These sounds are made by the punching mantis shrimp, a very small crustacean which doesn’t seem that much threatening but who definitely lives up to its name. Its claws are so powerful that it can […]

Old tires become material for new and improved roads

Scrap tires, which are very problematic to dispose of and can cause many problems, can now be used to lower road noise and reduce need for road maintenance. Almost 300 million scrap tires are generated every year in the US alone, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). You may wonder what’s exactly happening with these wheels, […]

Condensing towers could make water from thin air in the driest places on Earth

The Namib desert is one of the vastest and driest deserts in the world. There is little water to be found here, so the few critters calling the desert home had to learn to adapt in order to survive. One particular beetle species stands out through the ingenuity with which it manages to quench its […]

Monkeys can do math, study proves

It’s long been supposed that monkeys are capable of mental arithmetics, but it was only recently that this was proven for a fact by neuroscientists at the Margaret Livingstone of Harvard Medical School in Boston. The researchers taught three rhesus macaques to identify symbols representing the numbers zero to 25, then when given the choice […]

Thinking ‘obesity is a disease’ makes you more likely to eat high-calorie foods

A study has concluded that if obesity is thought of as a disease instead as a problem related to diet/lack of exercise, people will continue to eat high calorie foods. On June 18, 2013, the American Medical Association officially recognized obesity as a disease. This was met with mixed opinions, but the largest US medical […]

Vitamin B may have come from space - what does this mean for origin of life?

After analyzing samples from eight different carbon-rich meteorites, researchers at Pennsylvania State Universities found these contained niacin, also known as vitamin B3 and the more pristine the meteorite, the higher the concentration. What this means is that the ancient Earth had a steady supply of vitamin B3 during its early years when it was frequently […]

Frozen in time: Three-million-year-old landscape still exists beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet

A geological study has revealed that the massive ice sheet has fixed the landscape in place, rather than destroying it. Ice is usually really good at scouring stuff away – it doesn’t take a scientist to tell you that. But according to this new study, some of the sub-glacial landscape may have remained unchanged for almost 3 million […]

Distant Black Hole Spins at Half the Speed of Light

About half of the Universe’s lifetime ago, it was feasting time for supermassive black holes – they were eating galaxies left and right, a new study might suggest. Taking advantage of a galaxy which acts like a natural zoom lens in space, astronomers have analyzed a black hole powering a quasar about 6 billion light years […]

Excitons observed in action for the first time

A technique developed by MIT researchers reveals the motion of energy-carrying quasiparticles (excitons) in solid material. Let’s work that out in common English. Quasiparticles aren’t technically particles, but they act like they are. It’s hard to give a definition without going into more complicated physics here, but a quasiparticle is a disturbance, in a medium, that behaves […]

MIT and Harvard researchers develop 100% internal cochlear implant

A cochlear implant that can be wirelessly recharged using the natural microphone of the middle ear rather than a skull-mounted sensor was developed by a joint team from MIT and Harvard. The cochlea is the auditory part of the inner ear – t’s where the hearing takes place. Cochlear implants are not really a new thing […]

Internet reduces retirees' depression

According to a new study, spending time online can make drastically reduce depression rates in retirees, especially the ones who live alone. In the article, authors describe that Internet use reduced the probability of a depressed state by 33 percent for retirees. Late life depression is a major problem, affecting some 10 million people in the US […]

China just admitted 20% of its farmland is polluted

The Chinese government sort of took everyone by surprise after it made a most unaccustomed statement; it admitted the country isn’t fairing that well. Oh, no, don’t worry. They still got plenty of money and loads to collect still. What’s beginning to be revealed is the cost of China’s new found prosperity and accelerated industrialization: […]

Sleep aids and anxiety pills can kill

There’s no secret prescriptions drugs have taken off in the past few decades, amounting to a multi-billion dollar industry. Millions are hooked on them, despite this why are so many policymakers or key people of interest shutting an eye on the potential perils these drugs pose? In the quest to treat symptoms, not diseases, physicians […]

Facebook activism rarely goes deeper than a single click

While there’s nothing wrong in getting involved in Facebook campaigns… there’s nothing inherently good either. According to a new study, viral causes/pledges/petitions that spread via social media rarely go deeper than a single click on the “Like” button. Apparently, social media’s ability to mobilize the masses into action has been overrated – at least when it […]

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