A Spanish research facility has shown off a technique for “carving” nanoparticles into complex shapes. It could have practical uses in both medical testing and drug delivery. A nanoparticle is a self-contained object that has at least one dimension smaller than 100 nanometers: that is, a stack of 10,000 would be just one millimeter wide. […]
When a droplet impacts a pool at low speed, a layer of air trapped beneath the droplet can often prevent it from immediately coalescing into the pool. As that air layer drains away, surface tension pulls some of the droplet’s mass into the pool while a smaller droplet is ejected. When it bounces off the […]
Most of us have heard theories about how cows lying down means rain is on the way (it’s a logical reaction, but how would they know?), but now researchers believe animals may be able to detect impending earthquakes. The study began after an entire colony of 96 toads abandoned a pond in Italy in 2009, […]
Yes, now everyone can make holograms at home, thanks to Litiholo’s DIY Hologram Kit. Face it, holograms are awesome! If you’ve ever wanted to make your own holograms you’ve probably realized that it’s difficult, expensive, and complicated. No so if you have this kit, it’s easy! Just set up the included jig, use the laser […]
Note: Be sure to skip ahead to 6:00 to go directly to the interview. A discussion about science, society, and the universe featuring an out-of-character Stephen Colbert and renowned astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson. Please note that this interview took place at the Kimberley Academy in Montclair, New Jersey back in 2010. [Youtube]
It sounds like a movie, maybe one with a foreign enemy and an Army medic who’s miraculously immune to the very disease that’s killing everyone. But this is no movie, and as of yet, there’s no way to know if there’s a living human who could combat the mutant H5N1 avian flu strain locked up […]
Do you see numbers as colors? Do you hear smells? Then congrats, you’ve got synesthesia. Over the past 30 years… a growing body of evidence has shown that synesthesia has a physical basis—for example, the brains of synesthetes are wired differently, and the condition is highly heritable, which indicates there is a genetic component. In […]
[Source: PHD Comics]
ONCE upon a time, 3 billion years ago, there lived a single organism called LUCA. It was enormous: a mega-organism like none seen since, it filled the planet’s oceans before splitting into three and giving birth to the ancestors of all living things on Earth today. This strange picture is emerging from efforts to pin […]
Walking through doorways causes forgetting: According to a new study, walking through a doorway helps your brain forget what you were about to do. “Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away,” Radvansky explains. -Read more about it right here. […]