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In a paper published in the journal Nature, Chinese paleontologists have detailed their impressions on the finding of a chicken-sized feathered dinosaur which might lead to a total reconsideration of the origin of birds on Earth. In 1861, just two years after Darwin published his infamous Origin of Species, scientists unearthed the fossils of Archaeopteryx, […]
A new Oxford University study shows how people living further away from the equator have bigger eyes and brains than those living closer to it. This is to cope with the harsh colder climate, scientists say. Anthropologists come to this conclusion after examining 55 skulls, dating from the 1800s, representing 12 different populations from around […]
The Universe is in constant expansion, which is why it is commonly said to be infinite, so basically one can measure all he wants and still won’t find out how big the Universe is. An accurate measurement of this rate of expansion, however, is critical for space observations, and a young Australian student has recently […]
A team of Hong Kong scientists have proven that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum, at the same time crushing a dream concluding that time travel is simply impossible. Time travel has been a central theme for science fiction for many years, moving minds and imagination to all sort of […]
In what is a slap in the face of science, scientists at the University of Illinois have demonstrated that in fact, sugar doesn’t melt, it decomposes. “This discovery is important to food scientists and candy lovers because it will give them yummier caramel flavors and more tantalizing textures. It even gives the pharmaceutical industry a […]
Arthur Ganson is a mechanical engineer by trade and a kinetic sculptor at heart. His mechanized devices spur up spirit from cogs and wires, as his sculptures move with subtlety and grace, often in a chain reaction of energy à la Rube Goldberg. His creations are rooted inside deep philosophical concepts, but at the same […]
Researchers from the University of Liverpool have found ancient footprints in Laetoli, Tanzania, suggesting the fact that human-like features of the feet and gait existed a couple of million years earlier than previously believed. Professor Robin Crompton, from the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, said: “It was previously thought that Australopithecus […]
CERN researchers have announced this Friday that they may had caught a glimpse of the fabled Higgs Boson particle, also known as the “God Particle”. Scientists have the news during the 2011 Europhysics Conference on High-Energy Physics (HEP 2011), which opened Thursday in Grenoble, France. This came after two collision detector teams (Atlas and CMS), […]
There seems to be a global trend against atomic energy, even though coal is much, much more dangerous in the long run. Germany, for example, has announced giving up all of its nuclear energy until 2022, in what has been called by many a rash and uncalculated move. However, on the other hand, other people […]
Around 200 million years ago, the Earth was still one big continent – the great Pangaea. Around that time came, what’s commonly referred to as, the End-Triassic mass extinction period in which half of all marine life on the planet went extinct. For years, scientists believed that this came as a result of a mass […]
Scientists at Fermilab’s Tevatron particle collider on Wednesday voiced excitement about the observation of a new particle. The new particle, called Xi-sub-b, was first theorized by the Standard Model which predicted that the neutral particle should exist. Now, through a process which involved high-speed collisions in the Fermilab Tevatron particle accelerator in Batavi, a three-story […]
News of a low-cost semiconductor-based gene sequencing machine has been reported this Wednesday in the journal Nature, by a team led by Jonathan Rothberg. The astonishing advancement might lead to a age of personal human genome sequence, where people will be able to decipher their own DNA for as low as $1000. The human genome was […]
Astronomers have discovered a fourth moon orbiting Pluto via the famous Hubble telescope, NASA announced this Wednesday. Some of you might be wondering, just exactly how was it possible for astronomers to have missed it so far, considering NASA’s been tracking space rocks even from the edge of the solar system. The truth is, our […]
Mike Schropp can be considered a geek-tinkerer, a person whose passion for hacking, tweaking and generally setting things apart animate him day by day. His most recent project comes as a pinnacle to his self-proclaimed label, combining his passion for building computers and lego (you’d be surprised how well they come together) to build a […]
The Timena genus is remarkable from numerous points of view; they are walking stick insects which have been around for almost two million years, out of which for the last 1.5 million years they have been asexual. Biologists from the Simon Fraser University wanted to find out exactly what is it about this celibate insect […]
A recent discovery made by Argentinian paleontologist uncovered wasp cocoons hidden inside the 70 million year old fossilized egg of a titanosaur sauropod, suggesting that these ancient wasps used to dwell, consume and breed inside of them. The find was made after researchers carefully analyzed one of the five titanosaur eggs uncovered back in 1989 […]
The relatively new theory of plate tectonics is still uncertain about what is the driving force behind the tectonic movement; now, scientists working at the Kamioka Liquid-Scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND) and the Borexino Detector believe they are close to finding out the answer to that question, after using neutrino detectors and measuring the flow of […]
Scientists from North Carolina State University have successfully managed to engineer a new kind of soft, malleable memory device that can function like a memristor, while at the same time retaining the physical properties of your plain old, delicious Jell-O. Due to its consistancy, the device might find itself ideally suited for wet environments, where […]
The world bee population is at its greatest trial in years, as thousands of bee populations die off each year. Scientists are trying to salvage what’s left or even possibly enforce the current bees left by breeding a new pest resistant, cold impervious superbees. Beekeepers around the world have reported on their lowest honey crops […]
In the first ever-survey of its kind, geologists have managed to discover a chain of massive underwater volcanoes, some as tall as 2 miles, underneath the Antarctic waters near the South Sandwich Islands in the remote Atlantic Ocean. The South Sandwich Islands have always been known for their evident volcanic activity, ever since their discovery […]
Dubbed MBE, after the intricate molecular beam epitaxy process, this device developed by scientists at Sharp Laboratories in Oxford, England, can actually grow electrical components at a dazzling precision atom by atom. This is where razor sharp technology is at, as far as manufacturing goes, and this monstrous-looking device is capable of transferring atoms from […]
A recently published remarkable study describes how scientists from Japan have successfully manage to grow teeth inside a lab using mice stem cells. Takashi Tsuji from Tokyo University of Science and his team managed to achieve this after extracting stem cells from the molars of mice. They then transported these cells to the lab where […]
There were a lot of crazy exhibits on display at this year’s Robotech 2011, and one of the most impressive stands was that of Professor Hideyuki Sawada from Kagawa University in Japan who showed off an bizarre looking artificial mouth designed to look and function as close as possible to the real thing. With this […]
Paleontologists have unearthed in Montana the fossilized bone of a the last known dinosaur so far, dating back from 65.5 million years ago. The finding carries a big weight in supporting the currently leading asteroid impact dinosaur extinction theory. What paleontologists found was actually the horn of a thought to be triceratops in a sediment […]
New York to Paris – 8 hours. Who in their right minds would’ve thought 100 years ago that you could span more than 3600 miles in this kind of time span? Aviation has changed the way we view time and distances forever, and consequently the world is a much smaller place now. Humans aren’t the […]
A bit late on reporting this, but I’m still struck with amazement by this extremely peculiar case of precipitations. Last week a cold wave hit Chile and surroundings, including the Atacama desert, known to be the driest place on Earth, covering it in snow. In this area less than 50mm of rain on average is […]
Seriously, what the heck?
At 300,000 kilometers/second, the speed of light is constant in vacuum, such as space, when it encounters a different medium, however, such as glass or water, its speed is reduced. Another phenomena that can occur in addition is that light can be dragged when it travels through a moving substance, and scientists at University of […]
Using a new X-raying technique and device, based on synchrotron radiation, scientists have been able to map the pigmentation of creatures dead for million of years just by reading the traces metals in fossils left. “Every once in a while we are lucky enough to discover something new, something that nobody has ever seen before,” […]
Seiji Uchida is 49 years old and for the past 28 years he’s been left paralyzed from the waist down and to one of his arms after a dreadful car accident. He’s never lost hope of walking on his own two feet ever since, though, and now thanks to the marvels of Japanese robotics, his […]
On display at one of the featured stands at this year’s Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition is a pair of special glasses developed by scientists at Oxford University, which mixes technology already developed by gaming and smartphone manufacturers, and allows people with next to none vision orientate. ‘We want to be able to enhance vision […]
Each year for three weeks, professional cyclists suffer at great lengths, enduring both physical and mental pain, in the Tour de Frace. Considering each day means around 100 miles on a bike, most of the time uphill, though mountains and so on, there aren’t any losers at the Tour de France. If you manage to […]
Long before humans were even thinking about developing the nut and bolt mechanism for screwing one thing to another, mother nature had it all planned and implemented, in this weevil from Papua which attaches their legs to their bodies instead of the old fashion ball-and-socket joint. Weevils in Papua Weevils are beetles from the Curculionoidea […]
Physics is still not sure what to make of antimatter; theoretically speaking, after the Big Bang, matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts. But if this is the case, then where is all the antimatter ? Matter vs antimatter An antiparticle has exactly the same mass as a particle, but a opposite electrical charge, […]
According to a new study by scientists from University College London, it seems people who find optical illusion solving easier are less inclined to think about the process and understand how they came to that decision. This conclusion came after further analysis of data from a research conducted last year, which showed people with more […]
As you probably (and should) know already, symbiosis is a close interaction (often long term) between different species, both of which have something to win from this deal. But symbiosis between animals and bacteria… that’s definitely something new. Marine sandy bottoms This kind of environment seems dead, desert-like and empty, but if you were to […]
For the 2012 panicked or just the doomsday memorabilia collectors, Kacey Wong‘s doomsday survival suit will definitely spark interest. The Hong Kong artist has designed the robot-shaped suit inspiring herself after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, with the idea of protecting people from radiation leaking from nuclear power stations. Mobile and equipped with glowing […]
Whether its filling the space between oranges in a box or squeezing molecules between cells, wasted storage space is a problem to which people, and especially companies, have been trying to find a solution for a long time. A recently published research might lead to dramatic improvements of storage capabilities and in the field of […]
This Monday (June 27), an asteroid the size of a bus just buzzed our planet after a flyby which brought it closer to Earth than most satellites. Dubbed asteroid 2011 MD, it was first spotted by MIT’s Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program just last week on June 22, but there never was any […]
It was 1893 when Orlando Ferguson, a real estate developer based in South Dakota combined religious beliefs with some scientific theories and a big chunk of creativity to create this square map of the stationary earth. The map was accompanied by a 92 page lecture delivered by Ferguson, who referred to himself as a professor, […]
Were dinosaurs slow and lazy, as you see most reptiles today, or active and quick like you see them in the movies? It pretty much depends on their body temperature – if they are cold blooded or not. The kingdom of T-Rex It seemed to be a no-brainer that dinosaurs are cold blooded, relying on […]
What if you could power regularly used consumer electronics, like for say a laptop, just by using them? It’s an incredible prospect, one which Australian scientists from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) hope to turn into reality in the near future. Harnessing the power of piezoelectric technology, researchers successfully embedded a piezoelectric thin […]
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s super sand! *tadam Researchers from Rice University have managed to develop a new kind of filtering sand, dubbed “super sand”, which has five times the filtering properties of regular sand. The advancement could provide an indispensable, cost-effective solution for the current water crisis in developing countries where […]
Launched in 1997 on a mission to study Saturn and its satellites, the Casisni spacecraft reached the system in 2004. Since then it has provided numerous invaluable scientific findings regarding the second largest planet in our solar system, and other important scientific findings alike. One such finding was detailed in a recently published study, which […]
Ghastly nails on a blackboard or deafening sires don’t come any close to a infant’s whining as far as annoying sounds are concerned, according to a recent study from SUNY New Paltz. In a fairly simple approach, researchers asked study participants to solve various math problems while a background noise was playing. Six sounds were […]
A team of neuro-scientists have managed to restore lost memories to rats by activating a part of their brains through an artificial memory chip – just like a sort of neuro-prosthesis. Further advances backed by this study might lead to the development of important leaps in long-term memory treatment, providing relief for Alzheimer or dementia […]
Akkadian, or Assyro-Babylonian, is the oldest attested written language – the code for the cuneiform writing system. Texts written in Akkadian date back as early as 2800 BC, and although it hasn’t been spoken for well over two thousand years, the language can be considered invaluable to the unraveling of the first human civilizations from […]
When you first hear of the work done by Miguel Nicolelis and his team, though the “cool factor” is high, you might wonder as to the practical application. Miguel has spent the last number of years (and, in fact, most of his career) working to gives our primate cousins a third (robotic) arm. In his […]
According to a recently published study, computer processor chips made out of nano-scale magnets could yield an efficiency close to the limit imposed by physics. A 100% efficiency is impossible in practice, since any mechanical or electrical process requires more energy than it theoretically needs because of dissipation, be it heat (most of the time) […]
An Australian engineer boosts that he has successfully managed to build a working hover bike, one, he claims, that you could ride to 173 mph at 10,000 feet and feel like any other motorcycle. So far, however, Chris Malloy’s prototype hoverbike hasn’t done any of the aforementioned claims, aside from hovering a bit over ground, […]
