Author archives: César Tomé

MI weekly selection #9

MI weekly selection #9

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

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 […]

MI weekly selection #7

MI weekly selection #7

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

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 […]

MI weekly selection #6

MI weekly selection #6

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

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 […]

MI weekly selection #5

MI weekly selection #5

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

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 […]

Sesame Street and brain activity in children

Sesame Street and brain activity in children

Neuroscience

By César Tomé

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 […]

MI weekly selection #4

MI weekly selection #4

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

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 […]

When should a man be more interested in caring for his sister’s children than his wife’s?

When should a man be more interested in caring for his sister’s children than his wife’s?

AnthropologyEvolutionGenetics

By César Tomé

From the genetic point of view, when should a man be more interested in caring for his sister’s children than his wife’s? A quantitative analysis of Alan Rogers, University of Utah, shows that this behaviour should be the choice in populations where adultery is common or permitted. In the animal world, males caring for offspring […]

MI weekly selection #2

MI weekly selection #2

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Five hundred phases Condensed matter physics – the branch of physics responsible for discovering and describing most of these phases – has traditionally classified phases by the way their fundamental building blocks – usually atoms – are arranged. The key is something called symmetry. Classifying the phases of matter by describing their symmetries and where […]