Category archives: Humanities & Social Sciences

Busy cells on the move in babies’ brains observed Neurons move through babies’ brains to where they are needed most in the first few months after birth, and these movements have now been seen by researchers. Researchers say the cells are most active in newborns, with activity slowing when the babies are about 5 months […]

In the previous entry we saw how the so called ‘Representational Theory of Measurement’ appeared to solve one of the deepest problems in the empiricist account of scientific knowledge: how to justify the use of numbers in science (and the calculations that used them), taking into account that all knowledge was supposed to be grounded […]

Bumblebees’ emotional buzz charted Happy bumblebees are productive bumblebees, according to a study published in Science that charted how the insects’ changing moods affected their decision-making behavior. The findings are the first clues that primitive emotional states exist in bees. ScienceNews Astronomers see spiral arms surrounding new star for first time Spiral arms like those […]

Acoustic holograms can move objects with 3D sound shapes Acoustic holograms of blocks of 3D-printed plastic can create 3D sound shapes that can move objects without touching them Live Science Circadian rhythm gene linked to breast cancer spread A gene related to circadian rhythm has been linked to the spread of an aggressive form of […]

Consider a country with two left-wing and two right-wing parties. In each side of the political spectrum one of the parties is a radical and the other is a moderate. Consider also that the moderates attract more voters than the radicals. To fix ideas consider that the percentage of supporters are 15, 33, 30 and […]

Infectious prion shaped like mattress spring Scientists have glimpsed the shape of an infectious mammalian prion, according to findings published in PLOS Pathogens. The prion, which can cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans as well as mad cow disease, is shaped like a mattress spring. The Scientist Astronomers study nearby star cluster for clues about […]

Astronomers spy most distant galaxy cluster ever observed A young galaxy cluster 11.1 billion light-years from Earth is the most distant ever observed, astronomers say. Multiple space telescopes were used to spot CL J1001+0220, where nine of its 11 galaxies are furiously giving birth to stars. Space.com Dawn images, data locate ice volcano on Ceres […]

Faraway galaxy made mostly of dark matter A Milky Way-sized galaxy made up almost entirely of dark matter has been spotted 300 million light years away, and now researchers are looking for one similar to Dragonfly 44 that’s closer to the Milky Way so they might be able to finally detect the mysterious matter. “We […]

Zika could also target adult brains, study of mice suggests The Zika virus may be even more harmful than once thought, and it may attack adult brains, according to a study of mice brains. Researchers found that adult mice infected with Zika suffered significant damage to the forebrain and hippocampus, where nerve cells were killed […]

Music is usually considered as a universal art form. It is found in virtually all human cultures and its use is associated with many different human tasks, from the most sacred to the most profane. Its elusive nature has haunted thinkers for millennia. Aristotle, Plato and Pythagoras, among others, devoted much of their time to […]