You hear people panicking about climate change. But what about direct heating? Even if there was no climate change, our energy use still matters depending on how many people live on the planet.
Latest Articles
A software program builds alternative DNA molecules
Scientists are using computer programs to understand our early beginnings. Click on the link to see how they are doing…
Medicine
Telling people they’re getting a placebo does not stop it from working
Does giving a placebo require lying to a patient? This study concludes...no! Placebos still work even when the patient knows, at least for emotional distress.
Horseshoe crabs are critical to the biotech industry
Did you know that the modern US biomedical industry is built around the baby blue blood of horseshoe crabs? Come find out what scientists are doing to help…
Diet and exercise can shape how your mind ages
Dementia is a condition that many of us are all too familiar with within friends and family. Dementia itself is a blanket term that describes several conditions…
Can a Chinese medicinal herb Psoralea fructus build healthy bones?
Osteoblasts are cells that are responsible for bone formation. A lack of osteoblasts will cause osteoporosis – a disease that occurs when the body has too…
This article explores incentives for projects spanning millennia, and determines which of those incentives would provide the most successful approach.
Human activities such as coal mining and processing can cause high levels of selenium contamination, which can be harmful to human health. Could common soil fungi be the answer to this problem? #fungi #selenium #wastewater #contamination Study by: @mary_sabuda @biominerals @crsoil
Nature has been able to filter out CO2 from our air for millions of years. So how might a battery prove to be our own artificial tree? #sustainability #environment #carbonemissions
The reality of being able to live and settle on Martian or lunar bases can seem like it is getting close. To do this, we need to be able to grow our own food there. This is a category of space agriculture called in-situ resource utilization, a fancy way of saying “using what is already there instead of bringing…
Sunlight does not reach the deepest parts of the ocean, but life still thrives in the darkness. Below depths of 200 meters, where sunlight cannot reach, some organisms eat organic material that falls from the sunlit zone. For these organisms, photosynthetic organisms, such as phytoplankton and algae, form the basis of…
We aren't that far off from Mars colonies. But humans are not built for Mars. Or rather, Mars isn't built for us, yet. Understanding the sacrifices such a massive undertaking needs is important to its success.
Scientists at University of Washington have attempted to improve upon previous population models developed by the United Nations and the Austrian Wittgenstein Centre by using different calculation techniques for two key factors - fertility and migration.
Have you ever driven past an old factory building and wondered what ever happened to the harsh chemicals that were used there? If you guessed that a lot of the chemicals ended up in the environment, you would be right. Many of these pollutants are what we refer to as “halogenated hydrocarbons”. These are molecules…
All life on Earth has to respire. For us this means inhaling oxygen to fuel our metabolism and exhaling waste gases like carbon dioxide. When we do this, we move the energy from the food we eat to the oxygen we breathe, creating a flow of energy that our cells use for growth. This is called respiration. However, not…