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A few weeks ago, following Russia’s invasion of Crimea that caused worldwide turmoil, I wrote a piece about the potentially dangerous consequences to manned space flight. In the article, I argue that seeing how the US space program, like many other in the rest of the world for that matter, is heavily reliant on Russian […]
Materialistic people are more likely to be depressed and unsatisfied, partly because they are not grateful enough for the things they have, according to a study by Baylor University researchers. Generosity and happiness have been linked many times, and most psychologists believe that generally speaking, there is a tight connection between the two. But things […]
Heralded as one of the biggest advances in the field, scientists at Duke University have engineered muscle tissue that is up to ten times stronger than anything previously achieved. The muscle can contract similarly to native neonatal skeleton muscle and, most importantly, it demonstrates self-healing ability – again, just like the real thing. To demonstrate […]
As if SeaWorld didn’t have enough press with the shocking Blackfish documentary, a document released by Buzzfeed reveals that the marine park gives its whales psychoactive drugs and anti-depressants. According to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice affidavit, SeaWorld’s whale trainers give the animals benzodiazepine, which has a valium-like effect on the mammals. The document […]
I’ve been covering more artistic topics lately, but I feel that every once in a while, it’s a good break from all the hard science. As always, we’d love to hear if you like it or not! Feel free to contact us for any positive or negative appreciations. Also, if you’d like to share your […]
An 8.2-magnitude earthquake hit near the coast of Chile last night, triggering multiple strong aftershocks and a 6-foot (3 meter) tsunami. There have been at least five confirmed casualties, with the victims being crushed or suffering from heart attacks. “The fact is, we will know the extent of the damage as time goes by and […]
Her short career was absolutely remarkable – before she was 20, Haruko Obokata was accepted into the science department at Tokyo’s Waseda University, but that was only the beginning. Then she studied at Harvard University in what was supposed to be a half-year program, but advisers were so impressed with her research, they asked her stay longer. […]
While some governments may be more environmentally conscious and apply strict environmental policies, others are not. It’s important, however, that the whole world reaches some form of common ground. After all, we’re all breathing the same air – more or less. Just so you get a finer picture, take note of the fact that 29% […]
Most people nowadays buy antibacterial soaps instead of normal ones, because they believe it keeps them safe and protects them for the oh-so dreaded bacterial infections. Apparently, there’s little evidence that antibacterial soaps provide any additional protection than the regular kind. The problem: most people don’t use them properly. For that matter, it may be […]
Approximately one in 20,000 Americans suffer from Huntington’s disease, a devastating neurodegenerative affliction that gradually deprives patients of their ability to walk, speak, swallow, breathe and think clearly. Like other similar diseases, like Alzheimer’s, there isn’t any cure, but scientists at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) may have discovered a way to tackle it by […]
How important are details, when it comes to saving money? Any accountant will tell you: really important. A middle school student in Pittsburg thought the same thing – he discovered that the government could save $400 million dollars just by change the typeface it uses. Inspired by a school project on saving ink, he calculated […]
In what may be a historic decision, the UN’s top court has ordered Japan to stop its annual whale hunt in the Antarctic. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected Tokyo’s arguments that whaling has scientific purposes, in a case which many believe will shape the future of the giant mammals. “Japan shall revoke any […]
The most basic fabric of civilization was woven on the principles of moral judgement, that is to say serving the interests of the community and others, instead of merely following self-interest at large. This is why some believe, arguably or not, that religion was a key civilizing factor since it laid out a moral workbook. […]
Using only material geometry and interference patterns, MIT researchers have devised a novel way of passing light of any colour only if it comes from a specific angle. Light coming from other directions will be reflected, something which can be desirable in certain applications. Those who could benefit immediately from the findings are solar photovoltaics, detectors […]
As incredible as it may sound, scientists have successfully reversed the aging process in mice, according to a new study published in Cell. Reversing aging, a real possibility? Many of the chronic diseases that exist in older adults constitute a highly significant social and economic burden to the community; if you think about it, eliminating […]
Many herald 3-D printing as a new wave set to revolutionize manufacturing in the 21 century. I fully agree in most respects, however the benefits medicine can achieve through this technology haven’t been stressed enough, maybe. There’s a pen that 3-d prints bone directly on lesion sites, 3d printed skin or prosthetic. It’s the field of […]
Seismologists working at the University of Utah reported an earthquake occurring at 06:34 AM on March 30, 2014 (MDT). The epicenter of the magnitude 4.8 shock was located 4 miles north-northeast of Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. A supervolcano This was not a singular event, but was a part of a series […]
New Caledonian crows understand ow to displace water to receive a reward, with the causal understanding level of a 5-7 year-old child, according to results published March 26, 2014, in the open access journal PLOS ONE. Just a few days ago, we were presenting a study which showed that goats are smarter than previously believed, […]
When it comes to rings, we usually think about gas giants – Jupiter and Saturn have spoiled us that way. But astronauts have showed that asteroids can have rings too – at just 250 kilometres across, Chariklo is the smallest known body which has rings. Previously, only gas giants in our solar system have been […]
When it comes to fighting cancer, it’s crucial to know what kind of cancer you’re dealing with – different diseases often require different approaches. However, when mice with human tumors received doses of anti-CD47, cancer cells shrank and ultimately disappeared, regardless of their nature; and we’re talking about human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver, […]
For the half-dead arriving at hospitals, like the unfortunate who suffer gunshot wounds or lose a lot of blood some other way, there’s very little doctors can do. There are so little life saving procedures and surgeries that can be performed, and doctors need their patients at least a few more hours to be alive […]
Cardiff University researchers report on Monday that children with two copies of a common gene (Thr92Ala), together with low levels of thyroid hormone are four times more likely to have a low IQ. It was found that this combination occurs in 4% of the UK populace. In the future genome sequencing will become so cheap that […]
Testing drugs on 3-D printed human tissue might significantly improve drug research.
Cambrian fossil is earliest example of large swimming filter-feeder. An evolutionary explosion Half a billion years ago, the world was extremely different. We’re in the Cambrian, the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, which lasted from about 541 to 485 million years ago. Life is diversifying at an incredibly fast rate, into what we […]
Throughout the world, tens of millions of people get stitches every year, and researchers have been looking for better options for quite a while. Now, a team of Maryland researchers proposed applying sticky, biodegradable mats of polymer nanofibers onto surgical incisions to seal them and promote healing. This is not a new idea, but the […]
In a huge breakthrough in synthetic biology, scientists at Johns Hopkins University have engineered from scratch a yeast chromosome. This is the first time scientists have been able to assemble a chromosome from a creature as complicated as a yeast, namely a prokaryrite. The implications of this research are far and wide. For one, the […]
By the time the oil stopped flowing, nearly 11 million gallons had leaked out, contaminating 1,300 miles of shoreline and stretching over 470 miles from the crash site. Photo: Bettmann / Corbis Shortly after midnight on March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez, a mile off-course in an attempt to avoid icebergs, ran aground on Bligh […]
Right on the western exterior wall of the Temple of Isis at Shanhur, located just 12 miles north of the famous Luxor, archaeologists have uncovered an ancient stone carving depicting the Roman emperor Claudius dressed as a pharaoh. The scene is the most preserved out of the other 36 original scenes discovered during the 2000-2001 excavation season, […]
One of the biggest mysteries in solar physics is how is it possible that the sun’s surface is colder than its atmosphere. At first glance, it seems that the sun’s atmosphere, called the corona, is hotter than the heat source which is preposterous given the second law of thermodynamics. So, either the sun doesn’t care […]
When it comes to studying the Earth’s atmosphere and pollution, paintings are not really where you usually go to gather information. But team of Greek and German researchers suggest that colors of sunsets painted by famous artists can offer clues about our planet’s past atmosphere. They mainly focused on paintings that depicted ash and gas […]
An innovative project which addresses both environmental and health concerns has been revealed in Delhi, India. It’s estimated that 2.5 billion people in the world (almost 1 in 3 people) lack proper sanitation – something unimaginable in the developed world. With that thought in mind, a team at the University of Colorado Boulder has designed […]
During a lifetime, a person sees hundreds of thousands of faces. Of course, you wont remember all of them, in fact you might find you’re embarrassed when you fail to recognize a distant relative at a family gathering. Things like this happen, but you shouldn’t be upset on your brain. In fact, it does a […]
Researchers at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration have published findings that demonstrate what was speculated for a long time – oil and gas drilling in the vicinity of rural Utah is leaking important quantities of volatile chemicals, particularly high ozone levels, that are much higher than those typically found in busy cities. In fact, the pollution […]
Crops, like any plants, adapt to their surroundings and, depending on conditions, can offer more or less yield. In the biggest study of its kind, the results from 1,700 published simulations that evaluate yield impacts of climate change were compiled and analyzed together. The team of researchers involved in this massive aggregation found that even a 2 degrees […]
Scientists have used one of the brightest light sources in the Universe that we know of to expose the biochemical structure of a 50 million-year-old fossil plant to stunning visual effect. The mixed team of paleontologists, geochemists and physicists bombarded the fossils with extremely bright X-rays and showed that the chemical makeup of the plant […]
New research from Queen Mary University of London shows goats quickly learn how to solve complicated puzzles and can remember the solution for at least 10 months, which might explain their remarkable ability to adapt to harsh environments. Basically, scientists trained a group of goats to retrieve food from a box using a sequence of […]
An eminent team of US researchers found that it is highly unlikely that the moon ever once harbored important quantities of water, after studying a mineral called apatite. Generally speaking, scientists have always though the moon was water barren, a theory confirmed by the initial rock samples brought back by the Apollo missions, however in […]
What do you think the opposite sex wants in a partner? Stone-hard abs, broad shoulders? Skinny girls, nice makeup? If you’re thinking something along these lines, then you’re almost certainly mistaking. Research has already shown that we’re pretty bad at understanding what the opposite sex finds attractive in us. These misunderstandings are more than a […]
Last December, scientists showed that dolphins in Louisiana were suffering from abnormal lung diseases and low birthrates in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill that released more than 636 million liters of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Now, another study illustrates that potentially lethal heart defects in two […]
For most college students, caffeine fueled sessions are part of a routine. But what if there was a way to accelerate learning when needed? What if a real, scientific “thinking cap” were developed? According to a new study conducted by Vanderbilt psychologists, that may not be that far away. Robert Reinhart, a Ph.D. candidate, and […]
Floating wind farms may seem like something out of a science fiction novel, but a MIT start-up called Altaeros Energies just unveiled an enormous helium-filled wind turbine which will hover 1,000 feet above ground for 18 months. The turbine, called Altaeros BAT, is a part of a pilot program aimed at demonstrating that airborne wind turbines are feasible. A wind turbine […]
According to a study published Monday, the Western Corn Rootworm (actually a beetle larvae) has already developed a resistance to not one but two strains of generically modified corn; this happened mostly thanks to the over-reliance and improper implementation of the crops by farmers. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), for all the bad rep they get, […]
Palau’s President Tommy Remengesau Jr. has declared the Pacific nation will become a marine sanctuary – where absolutely no commercial fishing will take place. Palau is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean with a population of only 21.000 people which is spread across 250 islands. However, they have a 200 nautical mile […]
If you’ve been living in a cave or just don’t care about science at all, then you don’t know what the International Space Station is, and I’ll explain here. The ISS is a a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. It’s been launched in 1998, and since then, it has been continuously operating. Astronauts […]
Some thirty years after Chernobyl’s nuclear plant meltdown that caused an international incident, scientists have yet to assess the full blown damage the radioactive disaster has caused. While the rest of the world has moved on, ever since the disaster the area surrounding the former nuclear plant has remained largely unchanged, even the plants and […]
Scientists have made great efforts to discover a material that can be used to both absorb and emit light. A fluke may have suffice, since researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore discovered by accident a material that can be used to work as a solar panel, harnessing energy from the sun during the […]
A potentially game changing drug developed by scientists at Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University infiltrates the cells from glioblastoma, the most aggressive type of brain tumor, and causes them to literally explode. Trials so far have been made only on mice whose tumor growth was reversed and survival was prolonged considerably. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is […]
The backbone of today’s modern telecommunication industry is held by fiber optic cables. These information highways have accelerated data transfer and help people all over the globe stay connected, but that’s not all they’re good for. A group of international researchers are exploring the idea of using fiber optics as a lab-on-chip device. The tubes […]
A while ago, Andrei published a post in which he uploaded and spoke about seven key charts that show plain and simple that global warming is real and man-made, unless you know of another perturbing climate factor other than humans capable of producing the same effects. Like I said, plain and simple – for those […]
There’s a common number thrown around for how many scents a human can smell – 10,000. Even scientific literature has cited this figure, though it is highly debatable. This makes a lot of people believe that they have an extremely poor sense of smell compared to most animals, like familiar canines. In reality, it seems […]
