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Tech NewsDung Beetles Navigate by Storing Star Maps in Their Tiny Brains
Dung beetles have this really neat trick by which they’re able to use the positions of the stars to orient themselves along a straight line, making them the only known animal to use the Milky Way for navigation. Exactly how they do this has remained a mystery—until now. For food, dung beetles famously detach a … Continued
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ScienceBiologyFake Skinned Robot Bats Will Soon Be Creeping Us Out From the Skies Above
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign think mimicking nature is the best way to help robots take flight. So with the help of a 3D printer they’ve created a flying robotic bat complete with a layer of fake silicone skin for the wing’s membranes. It somehow manages to make real bats look almost … Continued
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Tech NewsWhy We Don’t Crash Our Cars While Daydreaming and Driving
Many of us have experienced prolonged stretches of driving where we’re seemingly oblivious to our surroundings, and we’re left dumbfounded that we didn’t get into a serious accident. A new study suggests that a specific brain function protects us from these bouts of absentminded driving—but that it completely breaks down while texting. In 2014, over … Continued
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Tech News
Why Are You Always Staying Up Past Your Bedtime?
The consequences of not getting enough sleep are evident to all of us—and yet we’re constantly staying up later than what our internal biological clocks are telling us. A new study shows the elusive nature of what’s to blame. A new user data-driven study published in Scientific Advances is providing a fascinating glimpse into global … Continued
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Tech NewsThis Piece of Paper Can Diagnose Zika Incredibly Fast
Researchers have demonstrated a paper-based device that can detect the Zika virus within two to three hours. It’s affordable, effective, and practical for widespread use—particularly in countries with underdeveloped healthcare infrastructures. As the Zika virus continues to ravage parts of South and Central America, healthcare workers are having a hard time knowing who’s infected and … Continued
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Tech News
We’re Totally Wrong About Why Babies Make Funny Faces
Newborn infants are supposed to be capable of imitating our facial expressions, like sticking out our tongues and opening our mouths. A new study in Current Biology suggests there’s no actual imitating going on—and that it’s all in our heads. Parents are just going to have to accept the fact that this long-held truism about … Continued
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Tech NewsScientists Have a Wild Plan to Stop These Rhinos From Going Extinct
In a lush conservation park in central Kenya, the world’s last three northern white rhinos are unable to breed. When they die, the subspecies will go extinct. That is unless a complex, controversial plan involving tissue cryobanks and test tube embryos can actually work. After decades of poaching, a subspecies which once numbered in the … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
The Brilliantly Insane Plan to Reconstruct Leonardo da Vinci’s Genome
An international team of scholars has just unveiled plans to science the shit out of Leonardo da Vinci, the man who gave us the Mona Lisa and envisioned futuristic technologies like helicopters and tanks 500 years ago. Goals of the fledgling “Leonardo Project” include recovering the famous Renaissance figure’s remains and reconstructing his genetic code. … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech NewsBio-Engineering Is a Lot Less Dystopian When It Looks Like an Acid Trip
The burgeoning industry of biological design is in the headlines every day. Yet even science journalists have had trouble explaining concepts like CRISPR in terms that everyone can understand. A new exhibition at a Silicon Valley museum skillfully explains the technically and ethically complicated field of bio-engineering to adults—as well as the next generation of … Continued
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Tech News
Artificial Wombs Just Got One Step Closer to Reality
Scientists have sustained human embryos in a petri dish for 13 days, shattering the previous record of nine days. The breakthrough will allow researchers to study early fetal development in unprecedented detail, and brings us one step closer to viable “artificial wombs.” But it’s adding fuel to an already heated ethical debate. Two separate papers … Continued
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Tech News
Microscopic Tubes Inside Beating Heart Cells Work Like Shock Absorbers
Using state-of-the art microscopy, scientists have peered inside cardiac cells while they beat, revealing tube-like structures that buckle and then snap back into shape, much like shock absorbers. The details now appear in Science. Inside each heart muscle cell are tiny structures called microtubules. Using high-resolution, high-speed microscopes, researchers from Perelman School of Medicine in … Continued
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Tech News
Why Your Labrador Retriever Loses Its Mind Around Food
As a breed, labrador retrievers often have serious food-related issues—a behavioral quirk that often leads to over-eating and canine obesity. Researchers have finally figured out why, and the answer could influence the way we treat human obesity. Many years ago, I had a friend who owned a labrador retriever. This dog was constantly begging for … Continued
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Tech NewsThe Airplane Seating Arrangement that Triggers ‘Air Rage’
New research shows that the mere presence of a first class cabin on an airplane—plus the added experience of having to shuffle through this cabin while boarding—contributes to “air rage,” both among economy and first class passengers. Air rage typically describes disruptive or violent behavior committed by passengers and airplane crew. Flight attendants often have … Continued
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ScienceHealth
British Scientists Think Vaping Has ‘Huge Potential’
A new British report concludes that e-cigarettes are a blessing rather than a curse, arguing that the potential health benefits greatly outweigh the risks. It’s a position that runs in stark contrast to the dire warnings put out in the United States. After taking a look at the growing body of scientific evidence, researchers at … Continued
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Tech News
This Toxic Hot Spring Looks Like an Acid-Fueled Nightmare
It looks like the set from a 1950s scifi flick, but this toxic, funhouse-colored hot spring isn’t humanity’s first deadly encounter with alien biology. Although it is home to some very strange life forms, and we’re not sure what would happen if those gloves came off. The Danakil Depression, a hydrothermal system stretching from Dallol … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
SciencePhysics & Chemistry
The World’s Smallest Thermometer Is Made of DNA
Need to take a temperature in a hard-to-reach spot? Researchers have created the world’s smallest thermometer from DNA, and it could be used to measure temperature even within living cells. A team of researchers from the University of Montreal has developed the tiny new molecular sensors based on the way that RNA—a long-chain molecule similar … Continued
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Tech News
Mind Fuck Alert: Plants May Have Memories
Plants have an incredible knack for greening and flowering in sync with the seasons. We’ve been trying to figure out how they do it for years, and now, scientists have uncovered evidence that memory is involved. Of course, we aren’t talking about memories stored in neurons. It’s something much stranger. Misfolded proteins called prions—which lead … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceHealth
FDA Moves to Ban Shock Devices Used to Treat Behavioral Problems
The Food and Drug Administration wants to ban electrical stimulation devices used to treat behavioral problems, saying they pose an “unreasonable and substantial” risk to public health. Uh, you think? It’s not often that the FDA makes moves to ban a device, but the government agency has concluded that these tools should no longer be … Continued
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Tech News
Gigantic Dinosaurs Had to Grow Freakishly Fast
Titanosaurs were the largest land animals to ever appear on this planet, but even these lumbering beasts had humble beginnings. The discovery of a baby titanosaur fossil suggests that these dinosaurs were born with very adult-like features—and wow did they ever grow fast. Titanosaurs like Argentinosaurus, Apatosaurus (formerly known as Brontosaurus), and Rapetosaurus grew to … Continued
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Tech NewsWhy We Sleep So Poorly In Unfamiliar Places
Many of us have trouble sleeping in an unfamiliar place, like a hotel, or a friend’s house for the first time. When we finally do get to sleep, it’s often fidgety and disturbed. New research shows that one hemisphere of our brain stays more active during the first night of sleep—and it does so to … Continued