Category archives: Technology

MI weekly selection #32

MI weekly selection #32

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

New study of foragers undermines claim that war has deep evolutionary roots One of the most insidious modern memes holds that war is innate, an adaptation bred into our ancestors by natural selection. This hypothesis—let’s call it the “Deep Roots Theory of War”–has been promoted by some intellectual heavyweights. A study published today in Science […]

MI weekly selection #31

MI weekly selection #31

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Dog breeds in Americas trace ancestry to Asian dogs A study found that modern breeds of Chihuahuas, Arctic sled dogs and Peruvian hairless dogs trace their ancestry to dogs that humans brought across the ancient land bridge that connected North America to Northeast Asia. The study compared DNA from Asian and European dogs with archaeological […]

MI weekly selection #30

MI weekly selection #30

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Clouds protect habitable planets from star’s heat According to a recent study that developed a 3D model to explore how clouds affect temperatures on exoplanets, the number of habitable worlds could be double the amount previously thought. The study found that as many as 60 billion exoplanets fall within a habitable zone around their star […]

Highly sensitive holographic polymers

Highly sensitive holographic polymers

Materials

By Silvia Román

Nowadays, there is a growing demand for new biosensors capable of detecting specific molecules, contaminants or toxic substances in food, drinking water, air, blood and so forth, with a high degree of sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, we preferably want these biosensors to be inexpensive, easily reproducible and with a rapid and accurate response. This demand […]

MI weekly selection #29

MI weekly selection #29

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Poor Math Skills Make a Mortgage Default More Likely Unprecedented numbers of American subprime mortgage holders began defaulting on their loans in 2006, precipitating two years later the most severe global recession since The Great Depression. Pundits have offered numerous theories about what started the mortgage mayhem, but firm evidence has remained elusive. According to […]

Carbon nanotubes to study neuron activity

Carbon nanotubes to study neuron activity

BiomedicineMaterialsNeurobiologyPhysicsPhysiology

By Francisco R. Villatoro

Human brain has about 85 billion neurons. Each neuron forms thousands of chemical and electrical synapses with other neurons. To record the synaptic activity of each neuron in the brain an intracellular probe with a millivolt scale is required. Glass electrodes are widely used, but they are fragile and they have high impedance. An intracellular […]

Saturn’s extreme weather in the computer

Saturn’s extreme weather in the computer

Computer sciencePhysicsPlanetary Science

By Santiago Pérez-Hoyos

Saturn is truly a weird place. Apart from having quite a peculiar thermal history and one of the most interesting satellites in the Solar System, this planet displays arguably the most fascinating meteorological phenomenon ever seen. Suppose for a moment that next spring a storm raises in your hometown. Nothing unusual to care about, probably […]

MI weekly selection #28

MI weekly selection #28

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Violence against women at epidemic proportions Three in ten women worldwide have been punched, shoved, dragged, threatened with weapons, raped, or subjected to other violence from a current or former partner. Close to one in ten have been sexually assaulted by someone other than a partner. Of women who are murdered, more than one in […]

Massive quantum entanglement

Massive quantum entanglement

Computer sciencePhysicsQuantum physics

By Francisco R. Villatoro

Entanglement is a fundamental tool in quantum computing and several quantum information protocols, such as quantum teleportation, quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution. The basic unit of entanglement is the entangled bit ( ebit ), represented by a maximally entangled state of two qubits (quantum bits). Entanglement can also be implemented in a higher dimensional […]