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 […]
The Kepler mission is gazing at the Universe. Every little twinkle in more than 150,000 stars is being recorded since 2009, looking for planetary transits. And this will continue for at least three more years, giving us insight into the wondrous nature of the planetary systems in our galaxy’s vicinity. So far, we had witnessed […]
Humanities & Social Sciences • Science • Technology • Weekly Selection
Bunnies implicated in the demise of Neanderthals in Iberia Excavations are shedding light on what might have been a significant factor in the demise of the Neanderthal: the inability to hunt small game. The remains of large animals are prevalent in Neanderthal cave excavations, but the bones of smaller animals such as rabbits were prevalent […]
When contemplating a high-technology device, one can often realize how much the design and the different pieces have been optimized for the goal they try to achieve. It does not have to be a modern-day technological device; think for example in a classic, mechanical clock: all its parts are assembled in a clean and neat […]
Michelangelo famously claimed he merely carved out sculptures he saw trapped inside the stone. His genius involved a powerful internal vision that he masterly imposed on external matter. We can think of Michelangelo’s conception of sculpture when we look at human babies acquiring language, because babies, like sculptors, carve out the language they hear in […]
The depth of the ocean is directly related to the behavior of the tectonic plates. Studies conducted so far have assumed that the sea floor depth depends solely on its age. However, these results do not match the experimental measurements. The work developed by Adam and Vidal shows that the convective flow of the underlying […]
It is well known that an accurate and energetic laser shot can melt, ionize and excite the material in which the light is focused, creating very bright plasmas after the interaction. Valuable information can be obtained from the light emitted by the plasma, such as the elemental composition of the material itself or the environment […]
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1813) is especially known as one of the discoverers of evolution by natural selection. However, among his various contributions to the development of modern biology we can also consider the British naturalist as the father of biogeography: the study of the spatial distribution of organisms over the surface of the planet. Wallace’s […]
Humanities & Social Sciences • Science • Technology • Weekly Selection
Zircon grains came from ancient continent Grains of zircon found on the island of Mauritius may have come from the crust of an ancient continent beneath the Indian Ocean. The grains formed almost 2 billion years ago, but the island is only 65 million years old. New Scientist Trond H. Torsvik, Hans Amundsen, Ebbe H […]