There are numerous ongoing observational campaigns that will take on the wealth of information encoded in the clustering of matter in the universe. These observations will map the position and shapes of hundreds of millions of galaxies up to tens of thousands of square degrees. Although it will be crucial to keep statistical uncertainties and […]
In their recent paper “Telling Gender: The Pragmatics and Ethics of Gender Ascriptions” , the philosophers Quill Kukla and Mark Lance (well known in the philosophy of language as authors of the 2009 essential book Yo! And Lo! The Pragmatic Topography of the Space of Reasons ) embark on a journey into the heart of […]
When plants are infected by pathogens, suffer from a lack of water or have to react to other external stimuli, the first thing they do is increase the proton and calcium concentration in the affected cells. The protons and calcium ions then act like messenger substances that trigger further reactions in the cell. The interactions […]
One of the intriguing and central mysteries in contemporary neuroscience revolves around the intricate relationship between the brain and the mind. While our understanding of neurons, neurotransmitters, and neuronal receptors has advanced significantly, the elusive question remains: How do these complex chemical and electrical processes translate into thoughts, emotions, and behaviors? Gaining insight into these […]
Morning people may have inherited Neanderthal genes People’s predisposition to wake up early may be linked to inherited genetic variants from Neanderthals, who lived at high latitudes in Europe and Asia and evolved to cope with seasonal variation in daylight. Full Story: CNN Lights attract migrating birds into cities at night Light pollution draws migratory […]
A cement is any of various substances used for bonding or setting to a hard material. A popular one, Portland cement, is a mixture of calcium silicates and aluminates made by heating limestone (CaCO3) with clay (that contains aluminosilicates) in a kiln. The product is then ground to a fine powder. When Portland cement is […]
During the last decades and, especially, throughout the 21st century, expertise is in decline in the USA. This is the subject that the author addresses in his book. I have been interested in it since I learned of its existence because I have the impression that something similar is happening in Spain, although perhaps to […]
Human beings first disturbed moon dust on Sept. 13, 1959, when the USSR’s unmanned spacecraft Luna 2 alighted on the lunar surface. In the following decades, more than a hundred other spacecraft have touched the moon — both crewed and uncrewed, sometimes landing and sometimes crashing. The most famous of these were NASA’s Apollo Lunar […]
Biology • Biomedicine • Medicine • Pharmacy
One of the biggest health threats in our current society is not related to a virus, not even to diabetes or cardiovascular disease, but to antimicrobial resistance. In fact, over 5 million deaths per year are associated with resistant bacteria, of which nearly 1.3 million deaths per year are directly attributable to antimicrobial resistance. This […]
Warming waters may release methane “fire-ice” Methane hydrate, or fire-ice, frozen underneath the ocean floor can thaw and release methane into the atmosphere as the climate warms. Researchers used 3D seismic imaging techniques to examine a portion of fire-ice off the coast of Mauritania and discovered that some dislodged methane moved from a hydrate stability […]