Medicine & TechnologyIt was once believed that tool use was one of the signifying traits distinguishing humans from the rest of the animal world, but research has shown that is simply not the case. Chimps crack nuts, gorillas build rudimentary bridges, and dolphins use sponges to stir up the ocean floor, just to name a few. Scientists can now add macaques to the list, for it turns out they are quite handy with a hammer.
Anyone who knows paleontology, knows the older the sediment, the greater the potential for documenting the evolution of life on earth. I guess the same can be said of certain naturalists, namely David Attenborough, who has been exploring life on our planet for almost 90 years.
In the midst of digging out from the magnitude 7.8 quake that struck Nepal just three weeks ago, residents of Kathmandu find themselves once again in recovery mode. A powerful aftershock, with a preliminary magnitude registering 7.3, struck just east of Nepal's capital on Tuesday, sending an already rattled community running for cover yet again.
Exiting news out of MIT: underwater robots just got smarter. Inspired by Star Trek's Enterprise, the folks at MIT have developed a new program that gives AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) greater decision-making capabilities.
Forget the cards and flowers. If you want to be truly original this Mother's Day, the space-funding company Uwingu will let you purchase a name, in honor of dear old Mom, for one of the 600,000 craters on the Martian surface.
One of the most amazing materials in nature has got to be spider silk. Although thinner than a human hair, it is stronger by weight than steel, can be stretched up to four times its original length, and is about as durable as Kevlar - of bullet proof vest fame. Yet Italian scientists have recently improved on Mother Nature by applying the latest in nanomaterials technology to those notorious web spinners. Introducing the graphene spiders.
When Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen first stumbled upon X-rays in his laboratory at Wuerzburg University in Germany back in 1895, he probably never imagined that his revolutionary technology, used for decades to glimpse the inner workings of the body, would one day be used on chocolate.
Gamers all over the world are squealing in delight following the news that the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality consumer headset has finally been scheduled for release in early 2016. The announcement of a consumer model was first promised in November of 2012 and after two and a half years’ anticipation, it appears the dream of a virtual reality headset built for everyday consumers might finally be coming true.
In a nod to the original Tesla, Nikola Labs now announces that they have created a device that can convert radio waves into useable DC power for smart phones. If they are correct, our smart devices may be able to fully transition into the 21st century, no longer stuck with 19th century charging conventions.
If you've ever dreamt of owning your own industrial chicken farm, you may want to hold off just yet. It turns out a deadly avian influenza is sweeping across the Midwest like an infectious prairie fire.
When it comes to the sugars that we eat, would you believe that our bodies may respond more positively to some rather than others? It’s a pretty simple assumption that our bodies may respond differently to each sugar we ingest, but it turns out that the physiological responses and mental associations made are far more complex than even researchers in neurobiology could have ever assumed. In a new study published this week in the journal PNAS, researchers with the University of Southern California investigated appetite responses and food choices with regards to ingestion of fructose versus glucose. And what the researchers found was that fructose was far more likely to be dangerous to your diet.
One of the biggest hurdles to interplanetary space travel has always been fuel: how can you possibly carry enough to get you to the outer reaches of the solar system? Well, the fuel-conscious scientists at NASA may have cause to celebrate.
As if submersion of coastal communities by rising sea levels weren’t bad enough, scientists have recently added another frightening repercussion to climate change: the loss of species. Scientists are still quibbling over the number of species that may perish with rising temperatures, some claiming zero while others predicting a whopping 54%. In an effort to refine the predictions, Marc Urban, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, has crunched the numbers, and although his results don’t spell the end for over half the world’s species, the numbers are still frightening.
It seems locals aren't the only ones upset about the construction of one of the world's largest telescopes near the summit of Mauna Kea, which is already home to not one but 13 large telescopes. The Thirty Meter Telescope will be one of the largest in the world when completed, but today, those opposed to the project received help from cyber protesters as they hacked the Thirty Meter Telescope website bringing it down for about two hours.