The finding that modern humans coexisted and mated with Neanderthals 50000 years ago was a breakthrough when it was announced in 2010. As a result of interbreeding, the genomes of all modern Eurasians contain a small Neanderthal DNA load that has been calculated to be between 1.5% and 4%. Most Africans, however, lack this DNA […]
Ethics • Health • Psychology
Almost desperate, Rodrigo – the name is fictitious- visits his doctor seeking a solution for a chronic back pain he has been suffering for the last three years. After trying five different medications, none of them with effect, he receives an unexpected suggestion from his uncle, who encourages him to try acupuncture. He himself has […]
Humanities & Social Sciences • Science • Technology • Weekly Selection
Neanderthal Y chromosome missing in modern humans The Neanderthal Y chromosome hasn’t been found in modern humans, suggesting it is extinct. Researchers found dissimilarities in the Neanderthal Y chromosome’s immunity genes that could have caused miscarriages. BBC Clouds may not help keep global temperatures down Clouds’ cooling power may not be as great as climate […]
Hibernation is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression used by some mammals to survive a cold winter. It may last several days, weeks, or months depending on the species, environment temperature, season, and individual’s body condition. Usually, hibernating animals survive the energetic bottleneck of the winter by building stores of body fat in late […]
We saw that one of the devices based on semiconductors are photocells. A photocell working in reverse is also useful. If a conduction electron in an n-p diode happens to fall into a hole, it will emit the excess energy as a photon, much as an electron would do in an atom as it jumps […]
After Language evolution: The origin , we will go over some of the fundamental substrates of human language. As if mind or anatomy were not broad enough themselves, we will see how a host of structures contributes to language. Each of them has their own role in the emergence, use and change of language as […]
He was a man of insatiable curiosity and a hallmark of modern multidisciplinarity. Yet he was born on an April day six centuries ago. He never attended university, and still he authored masterpieces in the history of art and cultivated a broad range of interests and skills. Distant domains such as painting, sculpture, technology and […]
Humanities & Social Sciences • Science • Technology • Weekly Selection
Photos reveal possible planet-forming disk around young star Photos taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, appear to show the birth of an alien planet similar to Earth along with other nascent worlds. The photos reveal a disk surrounding the star TW Hydrae that appears to have planets starting to form within it […]
The blood-brain barrier is one of the defenses of the central nervous system. It is made of a thin layer of endothelial cells closely fitted together by tight junctions, being a mandatory pass between the blood and the neural cells. Thus, this barrier, considered the last great biochemical barricade in the organism, separates the blood […]
A new vista in spintronics was opened in 2004 with the observation of the spin Hall effect in GeAs at 20 K by David Awschlom and his group. In the spin Hall effect the electrons of a charge current flow in a nonmagnetic conducting material in the absence of an external magnetic field. An applied […]