Cataglyphis , the desert ant, is a genus in the subamily Formicinae. The most famous species is C. bicolor , the Sahara Desert ant. There, the midday sun is so hot that even the permanent residents, sand lizards, insects and a few birds, have to take shelter. But this is when, for not much than […]
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Acoustic holograms can move objects with 3D sound shapes Acoustic holograms of blocks of 3D-printed plastic can create 3D sound shapes that can move objects without touching them Live Science Circadian rhythm gene linked to breast cancer spread A gene related to circadian rhythm has been linked to the spread of an aggressive form of […]
Consider a country with two left-wing and two right-wing parties. In each side of the political spectrum one of the parties is a radical and the other is a moderate. Consider also that the moderates attract more voters than the radicals. To fix ideas consider that the percentage of supporters are 15, 33, 30 and […]
Author: Estibaliz Capetillo-Zarate got her Ph.D. from Bonn University in 2006. Since 2007 she has worked for the Weil Cornell Medical College. Currently she is an Ikerbasque Research Fellow affiliated to UPV/EHU and the Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience. She investigates the role of neurons and microglia in Alzheimer’s disease. We might be still a […]
The definition of life is not a simple one. According to classical textbooks, “living things are born, grow, reproduce and die”. But one doesn’t have to look too far to find some caveats in this interpretation. For example, when bacteria divide, can we really say that one is “giving birth” to the other? The part […]
Since we were kids (unless under the spell of a creationist education), we have been told that genetics is the reason for the colour of our eyes, our hair, our height and whether we look more like mum or dad. In the last few years, it might seem to many that gene association studies have […]
Infectious prion shaped like mattress spring Scientists have glimpsed the shape of an infectious mammalian prion, according to findings published in PLOS Pathogens. The prion, which can cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans as well as mad cow disease, is shaped like a mattress spring. The Scientist Astronomers study nearby star cluster for clues about […]
Whiskers or vibrissae are a type of mammalian hair characterized, anatomically, by their larger, thicker and stiffer morphology, large and well-innervated hair follicle and by having a definite projection in the somatosensory cortex of the brain, forming the so-called “barrels”. The ‘barrels’ of the barrel field are regions within cortical layer IV that are visibly […]
Some weeks ago I came across a little poem via Twitter (ah, the modern world!). It was authored by Wendell Berry, an american writer and farmer very involved in ecologic farming activism. Let’s meet the poem: To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. To know the dark, go dark […]
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Astronomers spy most distant galaxy cluster ever observed A young galaxy cluster 11.1 billion light-years from Earth is the most distant ever observed, astronomers say. Multiple space telescopes were used to spot CL J1001+0220, where nine of its 11 galaxies are furiously giving birth to stars. Space.com Dawn images, data locate ice volcano on Ceres […]