Trains have a huge seasonal problem each autumn: leaves. Yes, leaves from the trees. And now they are testing a solution: laser beams! It sounds absurd, but it will all make sense after we get into its science. Every autumn when leaves fall off the trees and beautifully cover parks and streets, railway infrastructure managers […]
Humanities & Social Sciences • Science • Technology • Weekly Selection
Neanderthals interbred with ancient Asians at 2 points in history Neanderthals interbred with the ancestors of Asians twice in ancient history, according to a pair of studies published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The studies approached the same question from different directions, but came to the same conclusion, looking at why Asians have […]
In his book Climate Matters , John Broome (2012) examines climate change from the point of view of moral philosophy. Unlike many other essays that consider the ethics of social choice in this matter, Broome’s book contains some chapters that focus on the implications for individual ethics: “ Should you stop flying to distant places […]
In 2012, some amateur astronomers reported the sighting of an unheard-of event: what was then called a cloud at the Martian limb apparently higher than 200 km above the planet’s surface. Such report received some attention from the mass media, particularly at the internet, but went mostly unnoticed among the professional community. However, the Planetary […]
In my past entry I described the tribe of the ‘Halflings’ as those authors who try to find a middle road between the ‘Platonist’ that identify beauty as one essential goal of scientific research (even conflating it, in the end, with truth itself), and the ‘Sceptics’ that assume that aesthetic criteria are essentially subjective and […]
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Mesozoic mammals more diverse than previously thought The discovery of two fossils dating back about 160 million years suggests an extensive ecological diversity among early mammals that coexisted with dinosaurs during the Mesozoic era. The two fossils are of a mole-like animal that lived below ground and a creature that lived in the trees, each […]
The human brain is one of the most intriguing pieces of Nature. Since science is science, or even before, the human being has tried to understand the reason for its existence. Studies of comparative anatomy and physiology in the context of evolutionary theory began to define it as a rarity in the natural realm. We […]
Most people in Spain have heard about the ongoing bitter polemic between the Victims of Hepatitis C Platform and the Spanish government with regard to the access to a new medication called Sovaldi approved by the Spanish government last 1st October. The main reason for such clash between them is simple: the asking price for […]
Sad as it may be, every star must die. At some point during its life it stops burning nuclear elements to sustain itself via radiation pressure, and collapses. Its ultimate fate depends on its mass; most of them are not massive enough to produce a supernova by themselves, but they die in an equally spectacular […]
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Sea slug can use photosynthesis for nutrition by taking gene from algae The emerald sea slug steals a gene from the algae it eats, allowing it to get nourishment from photosynthesis. Discovery Chimps adopt new calls when moved to new groups Chimps who move into a new group change their calls to match those of […]