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Tech NewsRodents That Go Missing in Scientific Papers Can Skew Results
A group of researchers noticed something strange in certain scientific papers involving small rodents (like rats or mice): the number of animals reported at the start of an experiment often did not match the number of animals at the end. This can have a significant impact on experimental results, and yet it turns out to … Continued
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Tech News
A Simple Computer Test Shows the Limitations of Our Free Will
The question of whether or not human beings possess free will is a source of much contention, particularly between neuroscientists and philosophers. A new study pitted humans against a computer to test whether our conscious decisions are actually determined by unconscious processes. Perhaps, the premise suggests, we only think we have free will when making … Continued
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Tech NewsE. Coli Move Around Like Mutant Sperm
Bacteria have been swimming before anything else in the world was walking, but we know relatively little about their method of locomotion. New research shows how bacteria use their flagella to run and tumble their way through a gooey medium. What you see in the above video at first looks like disorganized, random behavior. But … Continued
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Tech News
Someday Scientists Could Reprogram Carpenter Ants To Do Our Bidding
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found a way to modify the behavior of carpenter ants using epigenetics—the science of how a gene gets turned into a physical body part or a character trait. They reported their findings last week in the journal Science. Are you ready to be a Beastmaster? Camponotus floridanus — … Continued
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Tech News
Here’s Why Researchers are Pushing for a New Safer Strain of Polio
Thanks to the miracle of vaccines, we’re close to wiping out the polio virus. But that very success brings its own set of fresh challenges. We need some safe form of the virus in order to keep manufacturing vaccines, but those are in short supply the closer we come to eradicating polio entirely. Now a … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Bats Respond to Too Much Noise the Same Way Children Do
Bats find their way around at night by emitting noise and listening to the way it bounces back to them. But since bats often congregate in large groups, how do they keep from losing their own signal in the din? A new study found that they do this much in the same way children do: … Continued
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ScienceBiology
This Venomous Snake is the First Animal Suspected to Be Completely Scentless
There are a lot of animals that blend in visually with their environment; there are relatively few that can mask their smell. One exception is the puff adder. Recent research shows that this venomous snake is virtually scentless, the better to hunt for prey and elude predators. Bitis arietans, otherwise known as the puff adder, … Continued
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Tech NewsWe Can Now Watch the Inside of a Worm’s Brain at Work
This recording lets us see 77 of the nematode’s 302 neurons light up like a Christmas display as the worm freely wriggles around on a plate. This is amazing. We’re watching an animal’s mind at work. This recording, made by researchers at Princeton University, and supplemented with a recent paper in the Proceedings of the … Continued
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Tech News
The Future of Architecture Is Already Happening in Portland
Framework sounds like a futuristic, Frakenstein-like treehouse. But as one of two winners of a contest for high-rise buildings built out of wood, it’s a actually a glimpse into the future of urban architecture. The 12-story design will be one of the tallest wooden buildings in the United States once it’s completed—and many hope it … Continued
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Tech News
How Cigarette Packaging Fools You
A new study shows we’re still suckers for canny packaging of cigarette brands, especially those claiming to be slightly less bad for us than the usual variety. A team of Australian researchers investigated the effects of plain packaging laws, publishing their findings yesterday in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. Plain packaging … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Scientists Officially Pronounce the “Ninja Lanternshark” a New Species
It’s scientific name is Etmopterus benchleyi, but when a shark is all-black, lurks in the depths of the ocean, and has the ability to glow, why limit yourself to the official nomenclature? Researchers have nicknamed this bad boy the “ninja lanternshark.” These sharks were hauled up from the deep all the way back in 2010, … Continued
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Tech News
Scientists Give Themselves Predator Vision to View the Inner Workings of Single Cells
Scientists can now use heat to check out the internal workings of a cell. All they need is lasers and titanium. This means that one day they might be able to figure out how a disease takes hold before it attacks more than one cell in your body. Scientists at the University of Bordeaux and … Continued
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Tech News
A Neurosurgeon Critiques Latest James Bond Film’s Grasp of Brain Surgery
The James Bond franchise is entertaining and lucrative, but it’s not a very good way to learn about anatomy. That’s the conclusion of a neurosurgeon, who noticed that Spectre, the latest film in the franchise, fails rather spectacularly in its depiction of practical neurosurgery. Note: Spoilers for Spectre. When Dr. Michael Cusimano isn’t performing neurosurgery … Continued
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Tech News
Bismuth Could Stop Farts From Smelling, If Someone Could Make It Safe
We avoid mercury, arsenic, and lead exposure, but there’s one heavy metal that we gulp down in smaller doses: bismuth. And if it were less toxic, bismuth could one day keep us from stinking up elevators and other public places with our farts. Heavy metals are exactly what they sound like: metals of relatively high … Continued
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Tech News
Gold Molecules Make Like a Snow-Blower to Carve Nano-Scale Pathways
These perfectly straight trenches were dug by molecules of gold. Under just the right conditions, gold will act like a mini-snow blower. It will pry molecules out of a material, puff away the detritus, and then move on to the next. One day, we could use this to make entire labs on a chip. Scientists … Continued
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Tech News
How Did They Make Ice Cream in the 17th Century?
History’s first confirmed ice cream graced the court of Charles II in 1671. It was made using a special flavor, orange blossom, and one very special chemical ingredient that made ice cream without refrigeration possible in the first place. Ask who served the first ice cream and you’ll get a variety of answers. Sources name-drop … Continued
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Tech NewsWatch This Fighting Automaton Battle a Dragon, Crab, and Rooster
Paris is the only place you can see Le Défenseur du Temps, a beautiful living sculpture, up close, but the internet is the only place you can see Le Défenseur du Temps at work. This fighting statue is now motionless everywhere except in video. Le Défenseur du Temps fought for our amazement and amusement from … Continued
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Tech News
This Weather Phenomenon Caused a Nuclear Bomb Test to Go Horribly Awry
In 1955, the Soviet Union tested a bomb designated RDS-37 at a missile testing site in northeast Kazakhstan. The bomb’s power had been scaled down for the test, but a relatively rare weather phenomenon gave it an unexpected, and destructive, increase in power. The Semipalatinsk test site would, under normal conditions, have been a safe … Continued
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Tech News
The First Time We Used Cosmetics To Catch a Murderer
In 1912 forensics was still in its infancy when a pretty girl was found dead in her parent’s parlour. Her boyfriend was the immediate suspect, but he had an alibi that couldn’t be broken. Here’s how make-up, and the people who analyze it, broke it. Marie Latelle’s murder, in her own parents’ house, shocked the … Continued
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Tech NewsCan You Work Out the Mechanism on This Alcohol Clock From 1945?
Alcohol clocks never caught on with consumers, so they were only marketed for a short time in 1945. Have a look at one in action, and see if you can figure out how it turns. You might be able to find an old alcohol clock in a museum, or in the home of a very … Continued
Esther Inglis-Arkell
Esther Inglis-Arkell's posts