Think nothing. Your brain is always on, as your heart, liver or kidneys are, so thinking nothing is the closer you’ll get to a resting state for it, because even when we sleep the brain is quite active. We know that the interactions among different brain regions can be studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging […]
The Hodgkin-Huxley model for the generation of the nerve action potential is one of the most successful mathematical models of a complex biological process that has ever been formulated. Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley described the model in 1952 to explain the ionic mechanisms underlying the initiation and propagation of action potentials in the squid […]
Renewable energy sources are crucial to react to the continuous increase of energy consumption and pollution by carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. Biofuels, where the energy content is derived from a biological source, are one of the alternatives to oil and natural gas. Still, some biofuels are controversial, like biodiesel, because they imply cultivating certain crops […]
Species distribution models (SDM) are computer algorithms that relate species distribution, occurrence or abundance, with information on environmental conditions and spatial characteristics of locations where the species has been, or is suspected to be, found. These models can be used to predict or to have a better understanding of the species distribution, and are widely […]
Chronic pain is one of the most common problems of advanced age. Even though the combination of physical therapy and analgesics such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is effective in chronic pain treatments, it only confers short-term benefits. On the other hand, it could be quite expensive and may have significant adverse side effects. Effective, lasting […]
Finding patterns in a text could be very useful. It could reveal if the text has been written by a certain person or not, for example. Going a step further, finding sentiments in a text or a speech can also be very handy. These skills usually appear in procedural and spy movies and TV series […]
An invasive species can be any kind of living organism—an amphibian (like the cane toad), plant, insect, fish, fungus, bacteria, or even an organism’s seeds or eggs—that is not native to an ecosystem and causes harm. They can harm the environment, the economy, or even human health. Species that grow and reproduce quickly, and spread […]
In great contrast to the native American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana L., which has never advanced beyond the status of a minor fruit, an oriental member of the family Ebenaceae, D. kaki L. f ., is prominent in horticulture. Perhaps best-known in America as the Japanese, or Oriental, persimmon, it is also called kaki (in Spanish […]
Tides are more predictable than winds or sunshine. Then, why are not they already widely used as a source of renewable energy? The simple answer is that designing and building an ocean energy array is quite complex. This complexity has an associated variability in the cost of energy that makes projects difficult to evaluate from […]
The Mars 2020 rover mission is the next step in robotic exploration of the Red Planet. Unlike Curiosity, Mars 2020 will try to find answers to key questions about the potential for life on Mars, seeking signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past, but also searching for signs of past microbial life […]