Category archives: Science

Bees are coffee addicts too

Bees are coffee addicts too

BiologyEvolutionNeurobiology

By Francisco J Hernández

As the Hungarian mathematician Alfréd Rényi famously put it (although usually misattributed to Paul Erdös), mathematicians are devices for turning coffee into theorems. Other people drink coffee for a variety of reasons, and considering that coffee is very far from being the only popular beverage containing caffeine, it is not difficult to believe that caffeine […]

MI weekly selection #59

MI weekly selection #59

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceStatisticsTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Light on X chromosomes To better see how females turn on and off their X chromosomes, scientists at Johns Hopkins University have developed a way to get X chromosomes from different parents to light up in different colors. Dr. Jeremy Nathans and his team engineered mice to breed female babies with X chromosomes from one […]

MI weekly selection #58

MI weekly selection #58

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Tiniest particles can now be put on the scale Tiny technology that uses a fluid-filled microchannel in a silicon cantilever can measure the mass of particles down to the attogram, or one-millionth of a trillionth of a gram. The technology, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sends particles through the microchannel. Their passing changes […]

MI weekly selection #57

MI weekly selection #57

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Ancient strips of bamboo hold multiplication table A multiplication table in base 10 has been revealed in ancient strips of bamboo found in China that date back to around 305 B.C. About 2,500 bamboo strips were donated to Tsinghua University in Beijing five years ago, and researchers discovered ancient Chinese calligraphy written on the strips […]

Unexpected applications of basic research: moss forensics

Unexpected applications of basic research: moss forensics

Biology

By Rafael Medina

Different TV shows have popularized some details of the scientific methodology used in forensics in order to unravel the circumstances of a death. Regardless of the accuracy of your favorite TV series, sources of relevant forensic information are truly diverse and multidisciplinary: projectile physics, rate of chemical reactions or the knowledge of ecological processes, among […]