Scientific experiments using animals frequently involve the marking of animals that artificially changes their phenotype. For instance, penguins with flipper bands have been used to study climate change. However, as Saraux et al. show, this banding reduces penguins’ survival rate. Consequently the study may mix up the effects of banding with other changes in penguin […]
Many animals —including mammals, birds and fishes— acquire from others knowledge and skills which may develop into behavioural traditions. Outside of humans, it is in the primates —specially chimpanzees— where socially transmitted behaviour patterns, such as tool use and social conventions, reach their summit. In recent years researchers mainly in the field of comparative psychology […]
This is the ultimatum game: You are provisionally allocated USD10 with the following instructions. You have to decide a way to divide this money with another person. If she or he agrees, the division is carried out. If not, you both get nothing. What would you do? How would you react if you were the […]
NGC1365 is a beatiful galaxy. It is big and bright enough to be observed with a medium-sized amateur telescope. Sometimes mis-located at the southern constellation of Eridanus, it is indeed located in the smaller Fornax constellation and it is one of the most notable peers in a famous galaxy cluster. Being one third of the […]
Thin films are defined as material layers ranging from nanometers to several micrometers of thickness that are deposited onto a matrix in order to modify its physical characteristics. Although solar cells conform a relevant field of application, it may be highlighted that the most important employment of thin film technology lies in the semiconductor industry […]
Humanities & Social Sciences • Science • Technology • Weekly Selection
3-body problem gets 13 more possible solutions Scientists have come up with 13 new solutions to the “three-body problem,” a situation in which three objects orbit each other in a pattern. The discoveries, which will help astrophysicists further understand planetary systems, brings the total number of solutions to 16. Science now Milovan Šuvakov, V. Dmitrašinović […]
From a certain point of view, eukaryotic cells could be described as microscopic power plants equipped with factories and energy-generating platforms, inside of which highways and compartments are constantly built and rebuilt, and a fluent traffic provides a constant recycling of structures while getting rid of garbage. The trafficking also involves material coming in and […]
Despite the large variety of musical tastes, we all tend to like or dislike certain combinations of sounds. This perception goes down to a basic level when two or more notes play simultaneously, such as in musical chords. A chord is called consonant when it is perceived as pleasant to our ears and dissonant when […]
About 95% of the photoreceptors in our retina are rods, which we use for nocturnal vision, since they can detect single photons. During the day, rods saturate, and we use the other 5% of photoreceptors, the cones, which mediate color vision and do not saturate even at the highest light levels. There is still a […]
Imagine the following situation: about 100 people have to choose one of them for an important position; they have different preferences about who must be chosen, some may have a stronger or lighter interest in being elected, but, and this is essential, it is very likely that most of them will have to cast their […]