Author archives: César Tomé

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 […]

“Native” water once existed on the Moon A new analysis of lunar soil samples from NASA’s Apollo missions has found evidence that the moon in its early days may have contained “native” water. The findings, which were published in the journal Nature Geoscience, go against prevailing theories that the moon formed from the debris of […]

New fabric may increase access to water in deserts A team of scientists say they’ve created a piece of fabric that can collect water from fog and release the liquid when conditions are warmer. Researchers coated a piece of cotton fabric with the polymer PNIPAAm, creating sponge-like material. The fabric could be used to increase […]

Electronics on paper At the moment the costs are still too high for them to be used in things like business cards or package labels, but remarkable advances in materials science and simpler fabrication methods are setting the stage for a whole new breed of cheap, bendable, disposable, and perhaps even recyclable electronics. And some […]

Your molar roots are leftovers from Homo erectus Adult human molar roots form for at least a year before erupting from the gum line, according to research published in the journal PLoS ONE. Researchers say the majority of the formation of teeth has evolved to keep up with longer human lifespans, except for the adult […]

Could Earth be constantly crashing through dark matter? Scientists are looking to new techniques to search for evidence that the Earth is constantly breaking through walls of dark matter. Researchers are acting on a theory that dark matter, made up of weakly interacting massive particles, are tied up in domain walls, which they liken to […]

Anyone can find an exoplanet A team of volunteer amateur astronomers has discovered evidence of 42 alien planets. The volunteers were sorting through NASA data as part of the Planet Hunters crowdsourcing program. Professional astronomers have yet to confirm the proposed planets. Space.com Planethunters.org Drought predictions in East Africa Variations in sea-surface temperatures of the […]

When a standard kilogram is not a kilogram Tens of micrograms worth of surface contamination have caused the international standard kilogram to gain weight, according to new research, causing concern that each country’s standard weight for a kilogram is now slightly different. The cylinder-shaped piece of metal is key for scientific experiments that require exact […]

In the real world, children learn new information by participating in classrooms, interacting with their family and friends, and watching educational videos. While previous neuroimaging research has typically used simple tasks and short-lasting stimuli, in a new study published in PloS Biology researchers examined brain development using a more complex and naturalistic educational stimulus. Children […]

First brain cells found devoted to selective attention in an invertebrate animal. Dragonflies lack humans’ big brains, but they still get the job done, according to new research that suggests that these insects have brain cells capable of feats previously seen only in primates. Specifically, the dragonflies can screen out useless visual information to focus […]