The presence of human cells made the mice’s brains function better.
Scientists discover that human brains cells transplanted into mice’s brains make the mice smarter. These results shed light on how important a certain overlooked class of brain cells are in human brains.
Continue reading… “Human brain cells make mice smarter”
HD 189733b, an exoplanet whose atmosphere is being blown off by its sun’s solar flares, was discovered by the emerging field of exo-meteorology.
Science is advancing, and as it does, fields like biology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy are becoming increasingly specialized and interdisciplinary, leading to entirely new avenues of inquiry. Here re 11 emerging scientific fields you should know about.
Dolphins are the only other living beings on the planet to assign such specific monikers to known family members and associates.
One of the defining characteristics of human intelligence is language. We like to think that the complexity of our social interactions is one of the things that makes humans unique, but we do know that other animals do communicate with each other. Dolphins are one of the other smartest species on Earth, and new research suggests they may have language skills that are a lot more complex than we thought, as they’ve demonstrated their ability to call each other by individual names.
Continue reading… “Dolphins refer to each other by name: Study”
Predicting the future.
What does the future of humanity hold? Looking ahead at our future is an integral part of human nature. Information Is Beautiful Studio have compiled 38 predictions about the future of tech, science, and humanity in general — with an educated guess as to their odds of actually becoming reality. (infographic)
Continue reading… “38 predictions about the future of tech, science, and humanity”
Helium is a very low-density gas.
Jimi Hendrix once said, “I have this one little saying, when things get too heavy just call me helium, the lightest known gas to man.” He was almost right. We know of helium, conventionally, as the lighter-than-air gas that we fill balloons, blimps and zeppelins with in order to quickly and easily “defy gravity” here on Earth. (Video)
Continue reading… “The world is running out of helium”
In Japan, a person’s blood type is popularly believed to determine temperament and personality.
One thing that unites the entire human race is blood. Most people don’t think about our blood type very much unless we need a blood transfusion. But, in Japan, blood type has big implications for life, work and love.
Continue reading… “Japan’s obsession with blood types”
Scientists inserted a gene into odor sensing neurons in mice that could drastically increase their ability to smell TNT.
Mice have been genetically modified by scientists in hopes of increasing their ability to smell TNT with 500 times the sensitivity of normal mice. If successful, the mice could provide a cheap and effective way to sniff out landmines and other explosive devices that haunt nations all over the world.
Scientists, like anyone else, can be prone to bias in their bid for a place in the history books.
For several years, Dirk Smeesters had spent his career as a social psychologist at Erasmus University in Rotterdam studying how consumers behaved in different situations. He studied whether color had an effect on what consumers bought or if death-related stories in the media affected how people picked products. And whether it was better to use supermodels in cosmetics advertising than average-looking women.
Continue reading… “Scientific research threatened by fraud and misconduct”
There are mysteries in this world that still confound us.
1 The placebo effect
You induce pain in someone several times a day, for several days. You control the pain with morphine until the final day of the experiment, when you replace the morphine with saline solution. Guess what? The saline takes the pain away. But, don’t try this at home.
Continue reading… “13 things that just don’t make any sense”
By the 1920s and 30s children had access to substances which would raise eyebrows in today’s more safety-conscious times.
When you talk to people of a certain age about chemistry sets, a nostalgic glaze comes over their eyes. The first chemistry sets for children included dangerous substances like uranium dust and sodium cyanide, but all that has changed.
Continue reading… “Whatever happened to the chemistry set?”
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking is a brilliant scientist rocks our scientific world. He democratize scientific knowledge and a small facet of his genius is the ability to democratize scientific knowledge. Hawking acts like a great counter force against anti-intellectual movements. He takes complex scientific principles and explains them so the general public can understand and, more importantly, appreciate the science behind them. He inspires people to want to know more about Calabi–Yau manifolds and multiverses.
Continue reading… “Stephen Hawking discusses time travel, M-theory and extra-terrestrial life”
Are plants aware?
Are plants aware? In the new book, ‘What a Plant Knows,” Daniel Chamovitz argues that a plant can see, smell and feel. It can mount a defense when under siege, and warn its neighbors of trouble on the way. A plant can even be said to have a memory. But does this mean that plants think — or that one can speak of a “neuroscience” of the flower? Chamovitz answered questions from Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook.
Continue reading… “Plants can see, smell, feel and remember but can they think?”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.