Category archives: Science

Hybridization: no longer the bad guy

Hybridization: no longer the bad guy

BiologyEvolutionGenetics

By Rafael Medina

It is interesting how some ideas get stuck in our minds even long after it is proved that they are incorrect or incomplete. Haeckel’s Recapitulation Theory, which states that during the embryological development of an organism it undergoes through different stages recalling the evolutionary history of its ancestors (ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny), is considered obsolete nowadays […]

How does a fly smell? Asymmetrically!

How does a fly smell? Asymmetrically!

BiologyNeurobiology

By Adela Torres

Smell has often been the neglected sense, despite—or, hopefully, until—the increasing number of interesting discoveries being made about and around it. Trivially, smells are interpreted as a series of neurochemical reactions mediated by receptors; this is no novelty, and at the single-molecule and single-neuron level the mechanism (how a molecule triggers a specific receptor which […]

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 […]

The origins of neural variability

The origins of neural variability

Neuroscience

By Jorge Mejías

Neurons are known to display irregular behavior in many areas of the brain. When recording the evolution of the membrane potential of a given neuron in the prefrontal cortex (for instance, during in vivo electrophysiology), we can observe its erratic dynamics, with spikes occurring in a random and rather unpredictable fashion. This one and other […]

The ongoing debate about the foundations of quantum mechanics

The ongoing debate about the foundations of quantum mechanics

PhysicsQuantum physics

By Daniel Manzano

Quantum mechanics is one of the most fruitful and accepted physical theories. Nevertheless, its foundations and philosophical implications are still a vivid topic of debate. Because of that reason, during the conference “Quantum Physics and the Nature of Reality,” held in July 2011 and organized by Anton Zeilinger, a set of experts were polled. A […]

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 […]