The greenhouse effect is possibly one of the scientific topics most frequently covered by the mass media. When reading the news, it is very often difficult to separate ideology from the purely scientific content. However, the greenhouse effect has a profound and direct impact on the planet where we live and, also, in other potentially […]
Humanities & Social Sciences • Science • Technology • Weekly Selection
Long canyon lies beneath Greenland Ice Sheet A canyon nearly twice as long as the Grand Canyon has been found under the massive Greenland Ice Sheet. By studying data compiled over three decades, Jonathan Bamber of the University of Bristol in the U.K. and his team discovered details about the canyon, which is at least […]
It was commonly assumed that no new neurons are formed in the adult mammalian brain, even after the first results showing neurogenesis in rodents were published in the 1960s. Further work in mammals and birds during the 80s contributed to change the scientific consensus, but it was the discovery of adult neurogenesis in humans in […]
Disclaimer: What I will relate in this post is the result of my research during the last year and specially the results of my last paper, uploaded as a preprint to ArXiv.org with reference arXiv:1307.2060 . Apart from the self-promotion, I think this is interesting since it can give people an insight on how short […]
Humanities & Social Sciences • Science • Technology • Weekly Selection
BMI may not be accurate predictor of fitness, study suggests Metabolism and body mass index do not go hand-in-hand, according to a study published in the journal Science. According to the study, it is possible to have a normal-range BMI while also having an abnormal metabolism, indicating that it’s not prudent to rely on BMI […]
Classic rail vehicles have rigid wheelsets: both wheels are interlocked and have the same degrees of freedom (DoF), so they share all their displacements. They also have positive conicity, this is, the wheel surface on the contact patch is conical and, if we extend these ideal cones, their base would meet at the centre of […]
Until the 70’s of the last century there was a great divide in Economics. On the one hand, Microeconomics studied the individual economic behavior, whether of a firm or a consumer, and was able to construct a General Equilibrium Theory that explained remarkably well (at least, for a social science) many economic regularities like market […]
Humanities & Social Sciences • Science • Technology • Weekly Selection
Current safe sugar levels may not be so safe Female mice fed a diet with 25% added sugars died at twice the normal rate, while males were less likely to reproduce. That amount of sugar is considered a safe level for human consumption. “Added sugar consumed at concentrations currently considered safe exerts dramatic impacts on […]
Go to a dark place and look to the night sky. How many stars you can count? This is an ancient question which can be traced back at least to the classic Greek philosophers. However, no matter how dark your sky is, the stars you are seeing are all related to our home, the Milky […]
The crossing number of a graph, defined as the minimum number of edge crossings arising when the graph is drawn in the plane, turns out to be a mathematical concept with a fascinating history. Lowell Beineke and Robin Wilson trace the origins of the crossing number, with particular emphasis in the war-time experiences of the […]