The electric snail is here. There’s an electric cockroach too. Both are early experimental forays in a new line of research aimed at creating tiny, self-powered animal/machine hybrids as an alternative to tiny robots. Instead of starting from scratch and having to solve all those pesky movement problems that plague roboticists, some researchers have asked,…
As the seas rise, so will the costs associated with them. The impact of climate change on oceans alone could cost $2 trillion by the end of the century, according to a report by the Stockholm Environment Institute in Sweden. That figure comes from a scenario in which Earth’s temperature rises 4 °C by 2100,…
Facing an ever-increasing din of background noise from traffic and other human activities, many animals are adapting by changing their behavior or just moving to quitter locales. In turn, noise pollution is altering the landscape of plants and trees, which depend on noise-affected animals to pollinate them and spread their seeds. Some plants do worse…
Illegal logging generates $10-15 billion around the world, according to new analysis from the World Bank. Its report, Justice for Forests, says that most illegal logging operations are run by organized crime, and much of the profit goes to corrupt officials. The bank says that pursuing loggers through the criminal justice system has made a…
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, religion lost influence, but the religious impulse lingered on. Some people sought salvation in the secular religions of politics — in Communism, fascism and various utopian experiments. Others saw artists, musicians and writers as Holy Men, who could provide transcendence and meaning, revealing timeless truths on how to…
The dream of using hydrogen gas as a clean fuel, on a large scale, just got a little bit closer. Chemists have developed a new molecule that can drive chemical reactions to store and release hydrogen under mild temperatures and pressures. No harmful emissions are released when hydrogen is burned; only water and energy are…
Researchers believe they have identified why a mutation in a particular gene can lead to obesity. Mouse experiments suggested the body’s message to “stop eating” was blocked if the animals had the mutation. The study, published in Nature Medicine, said the brain’s response to appetite hormones was being disrupted. The Georgetown University Medical Center researchers hope…
The new science of religion tells us where secularists are going wrong.
Is it possible that there are many other humanlike or “humanoid” species? If so, is it possible that they, too, have histories—histories that might be similar in some ways to our own, histories from which we might even have something useful to learn?
Mammals may possess the ability to pause embryonic development before implantation, according to a new study in PLoS ONE. Many animal embryos are able to undergo diapause, a period of arrested development, before implanting in the uterus, but though only 2 percent of mammals were known to have this ability, reported Nature. Now, researchers in…