Tag: Science
NASA’s Opportunity rover is currently traipsing around Mars and every now and then, it discovers something temporarily unexplainable. Last month, the space agency published an image of a rock that seemed to mysteriously appear on the Martian surface. “It looks like a jelly donut,” said Steve Squyres, head scientist on the rover project. And it […]
Astrology has no basis in science whatsoever, yet half of our countrymen here in America believe it is either “very scientific” or “sort of scientific.” On top of that, a quarter of Americans don’t know that Earth orbits the Sun. Research conducted by the National Science Foundation uncovered those truths and more: less than half […]
A new study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology confirms what you may have already known to be true: when it comes to art, people like weirdos. More specifically, researchers found that observers tended to more highly evaluate a work of art if they perceived its creator to be eccentric. To test their hypothesis, they […]
The human brain, for all its power, is a fallible thing. Look no further than /r/illusionporn, or the myriad optical tricks floating around elsewhere on the internet for proof. Now, German researchers have come up with a new practical application for the mind’s endless capacity for fooling itself: scratching itches without actually scratching them. Christoph […]
Here’s some evidence of just how badly we’re fucking up the planet. Tributyltin, a chemical that was used in painting ship hulls before it was banned internationally in 2008, has been making female snails grown penises and vas deferens — the tubes that carry sperm — for decades. In some cases, the growths were large […]
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology analyzed the linguistics of tens of thousands of Kickstarter proposals over the year 2012, to find whether the words people use in their pitches impact whether or not they’re successfully funded. Their findings? You’re more likely to convince people to give you their money if you’re not a […]
Perfect pitch–the ability to identify a musical note without any context–is something of a golden egg among musicians. You either have it or you don’t, and if you do, you’ve got a serious leg up on the competition (especially if you’re a singer or play jazz or classical music). If you don’t, it’s generally been […]
In the above video, researchers from the University of Tokyo use sound to make small particles hover in mid-air, a scientific magic trick that’s been done before but remains no less wonderful. Researcher Yoichi Ochiai explains on his website: It is known that an ultrasound standing wave is capable of suspending small particles at its sound […]
Often times guilt is metaphorically described as a “weight on one’s conscience.” According to a recent study published by the scientific journal PLOS ONE, this statement may be more than a metaphor. Guilt is a negative emotion that is defined by feelings of responsibility for an action or non-action that violates either societal or personal standards. For […]
According to BBC, the U.S. Special Operations Command is currently seeking to develop an Iron Man style body suit to give soldiers “superhuman strength” for an advantage while in combat. The Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (Talos) would have a metallic frame, similar to the one in Iron Man, the film. These suits would be composed of additional layers […]
