USA: Ahmed Zewail, Nobel prize-winning chemist – 1946-2016
Source: The Telegraph Ahmed Zewail, who has died aged 70, became the first Egyptian – and the first Arab – to win a Nobel Prize for science when he won […]
The religious divide on views of technologies that would ‘enhance’ human beings
BY MICHAEL LIPKA4 COMMENTS Many Americans are wary of the prospect of implanting a computer chip in their brains to improve their mental abilities or adding synthetic blood to their veins to make them stronger and faster, according to a major new Pew Research Center survey gauging the public’s views […]
Revolutionising biomedical science: mini-brains in a vat
ORGANOIDS Revolutionising biomedical science: mini-brains in a vat By Celia Luterbacher, Lausanne AUG 2, 2016 – 11:00 Many people know that cancer is made up of cells. But equally important is the extracellular matrix, which surrounds those cells and inhibits or promotes their growth. (swissinfo.ch) Miniature organs and cancers grown […]
Richard Dawkins on Medicine, Placebo and Homeopathy
He talks about homeopathy very precisely in the first few minutes of this video. He makes a very profound point that whoever establishes the scientific validity of homeopathy, will not […]
In a Scientific First, Blind Mice Regain Eyesight
Source: Time By Alice Park Once the optic nerve that’s responsible for sight is damaged, it’s impossible to see again. At least that’s been the dogma. But a group of […]
Is this the dark age of the Muslim world?
Dawn.com: It is a well-known fact that 1.6 billion Muslims contribute a disproportionately smaller share to the world’s knowledge. This global community – forming the majority population of 57 countries and spanning virtually every single country of the world – has had only three Nobel laureates in science in the […]
‘Healing’ detected in Antarctic ozone hole
Source: BBC By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent Researchers say they have found the first clear evidence that the thinning in the ozone layer above Antarctica is starting to heal. The […]
Helium discovery a ‘game-changer’
Source: BBC By Helen Briggs Scientists have discovered a large helium gas field in Tanzania. With world supplies running out, the find is a “game-changer”, say geologists at Durham and […]
Women’s And Men’s Brains Work Differently When It Comes To Cooperating
Huff Post: by Sara G. Miller — EGUDINKA VIA GETTY IMAGES “It’s not that either males or females are better at cooperating, or can’t cooperate with each other. Rather, there’s just a difference in how they’re cooperating When men and women work together, their brains may not take the same […]
Blame it on the brain
Source: BBC By Priya Shetty Grady Nelson had his life spared by a brain scan. In January 2005, after he was released from a Florida prison, where he had served […]
Ex-Nasa man to plant one billion trees a year using drones
The system could be a serious boost for the planet’s forests Christopher Hooton @christophhooton Tuesday 7 April 2015 2 comments A drone start-up is going to counter industrial scale deforestation using industrial scale reforestation. BioCarbon Engineering wants to use drones for good, using the technology to seed up to one […]
Will genetically modified insects help stop disease?
Historically, malaria and dengue control strategies have incorporated insect population control using insecticides, but in recent years, researchers have turned to genetic engineering. By developing mosquitoes that don’t carry such pathogens, researchers hope to stop disease spread. Culling insects Researchers creating genetically modified (GM) insects generally have one of two […]
NASA’s Kepler Mission Announces Largest Collection of Planets Ever Discovered
NASA’s Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets – the single largest finding of planets to date. “This announcement more than doubles the number of confirmed planets from Kepler,” said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star […]
ANIMAL IN THE WORKS : Weasel causes shutdown at Cern
By Isobel Leybold-Johnson APR 29, 2016 – 22:49 Technicians working in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) tunnel of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, as seen earlier in the year (Keystone) The Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator at Cern, just outside Geneva, has been immobilised temporarily after a short […]
Here’s the Memory Trick That Science Says Works
Source: Time By Jeffrey Kluger If the brain could brag that’s pretty much all it would do. It’s easily the most complicated organ in your body, and, more than that, the nimblest computer that has ever existed. But the brain has a bug and everyone knows it: memory. No matter how […]
If cryonics suddenly worked, we’d need to face the fallout
Source: BBC By Rachel Nuwer 25 April 2016 Right now, in three facilities in the US and Russia, there are around 300 people teetering on the cusp of oblivion. They […]
Climate change Scenarios: The Swiss landscape in 100 years
By John Heilprin Apr 22, 2016 – 11:00 Nature already needs extra protection, like the Rhone glacier where tarp is used to help prevent ice melt (Keystone) Switzerland’s essential alpine character stands little chance of surviving predicted man-made global warming, even if the Paris agreement succeeds in putting the world […]
Earth could become hotter than thought
By AFP – Apr 21,2016 – JORDAN TIMES Photo courtesy of ecologikol.com WASHINGTON — Global warming could make the planet far hotter than currently projected because today’s scientific models do not correctly account for the influence of clouds, researchers recently said. The study in the journal Science was […]
What really happened when the “dino-killer” asteroid hit earth
Source: BBC By Jane Palmer Where armies of trees once stretched skywards, seemingly escaping from the thickets of ferns and shrubs that clawed at their roots, only scorched trunks remain. […]
Why there might be many more universes besides our own
Source: BBC By Philip Ball The idea of parallel universes, once consigned to science fiction, is now becoming respectable among scientists – at least, among physicists, who have a tendency […]