Friday, 25 May, 2012

The European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory is designed to collect long-wavelength radiation from some of the coldest and most distant objects in the universe. In this image, Herschel has photographed a previously unseen stellar nursery, where it is estimated that up to 700 newly forming stars are crowded into the dust cloud seen in [...]

In a recent issue of Nature, U.S. seismologists report that the devastating earthquake of 2004 that caused tsunamis in the Indian Ocean had also affected California’s San Andreas Fault. The tsunamis that resulted from the earthquake, which was recorded as a magnitude of 9.2, the second largest reading ever recorded, caused the death of 230,000 [...]

A research trip to South America by a biology professor and colleagues from San Francisco State University has led to the discovery of seven new varieties of luminescent fungi. Four of the species are new to science, while the three others have never before been recorded with luminescent characteristics. Researchers hope that these discoveries will [...]

Owning a StarCAVE, an interactive virtual reality theater where scientific models are projected stereoscopically on every surface, including the floor, is probably a biologist’s single best bet at getting on MTV’s “Cribs.” Now showing: RNA. “You can fly over a strand of DNA and look in front, behind and below you, or navigate through the [...]

The green Jell-O torpedo you see above is called a salp. Typically the gelatinous little ocean creatures are less ostentatious, but researchers have lent this one some flouresceine dye for a photo-op. They’re interested in the swimming habits and propulsive wakes — here seen as a green plume on the left — of salps because [...]

For aerial navigation in cramped spaces it’s bat MAV to the rescue. Big bucks have been pumped into micro-aerial vehicle (MAV) research due to interest from the surveillance industry. Traditional fixed-wing and propeller driven flight doesn’t scale down well for tight, close quarters maneuvering. Flappy flight on the other hand has gotten bats out of [...]

Through infancy and childhood, our ability to discern and reproduce the unfamiliar speech sounds of other languages declines. Due to a severe lack of preschool-aged linguists perhaps, precise classification of the click consonants of the N|uu click language of the southern Kalahari has evaded linguistics for nearly 100 years. Some N|uu clicks are produced by [...]

We’ve all seen optical illusions, but this illusion will surprise you like a hammer blow to your thumb.  Check out the short video above if you haven’t already now. As Olaf Blanke indicates, up to 75 percent of us are partial to the rubber hand’s cheap mind trick.  For this experiment, paintbrushes were used to [...]

Everyone’s seen them do it. They’re out in the yard, rooting out who knows what, pawing at all sorts of dirty things that ought to be left alone, and then they come in and kiss the unsuspecting right on the mouth! For the sake of good hygiene, humans should be trained better. At least that’s [...]

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, artist Aaron Koblin processed U.S. Federal Aviation Administration data to create a portrait of America using brushstrokes of light 1,000 miles across. Over time, the flight paths of nearly 20,000 planes filled in the shape of the country without directly depicting any of its geographic features. The emergence of [...]