Carlos Fuentes, one of the great contemporary Latin American writers, once said that La Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (‘The truthful history of the conquest of New Spain’, first published in 1632) was the true foundation of the Latin American novel. This chronicle narrates the conquest of modern-day Mexico by the […]
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“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 […]
Markets are the most studied economic mechanism for two main reasons. First, they have existed in most societies. Second, at least since Adam Smith we have learned some of the interesting properties they possess. In particular, the modern General Equilibrium Theory, in its standard version, asserts that rational agents interacting in a competitive market with […]
Metaethics is the branch of philosophy that tries to elucidate, not what is morally good or bad, or how can we know it (this would be the function of ethics), but what is the nature of ethics, of moral language, of moral judgments, and of moral attitudes. The scientific study of morals could be considered […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
Imagine yourself listening to someone who is talking in a language very different from any one you know. Most probably, for you it will be just a series of meaningless noises. If, instead, you are listening to someone speaking in your own native language, usually the meaning of his or her utterances would be as […]
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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 […]
Think about yourself for a second: how did you react to the epidemic of the avian or the swine flu (H1N1) a couple of years ago? Did you go through special cares or measures in order to avoid the infection? Did you even really consider changing your everyday habits because of the fear and panic […]