Researchers at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center have discovered a new form of cell division in human cells. They believe it serves as a natural back-up mechanism during faulty cell division, preventing some cells from going down a path that can lead to cancer. “If we could promote this new form of cell…
The latest attempt to build machines that can learn to recognize objects or even develop cognitive skills is caled Spaun. Its full name is the Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network, but Spaun sounds way more epic. It’s the latest version of a techno brain, the creation of a Canadian research team at the University of…
This incredible image of fern spores is just one of the many mind-blowing images that won the Olympus BioScapes Imaging Competition in 2012. Check out the top ten images and videos captured by life-science researchers.
In 2015, Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend a year onboard the International Space Station. In the second part of his series on living in space, BBC space correspondent Richard Hollingham finds out what’s in store for them.
A common and ancient plant dye could replace cobalt and help deliver greener lithium-ion batteries, according to an American study. Purpurin, an extract of the common Madder plant, turns out to have the right characteristics to use as a cathode, according to research led by The City College of New York (along with Rice University…
A decade ago, a British philosopher put forth the notion that the universe we live in might in fact be a computer simulation run by our descendants. While that seems far-fetched, perhaps even incomprehensible, a team of physicists at the University of Washington has come up with a potential test to see if the idea…
Just in time for the Christmas holiday, Vatican Radio announced that Pope Benedict XVI will be launching a new digital ministry (of sorts) through a Twitter feed with the handle @Pontifex. With the encouragement of Twitter director of social innovation, Claire Diaz Ortiz, Il Papa will extend this engagement into digital space, broadcasting 140-character messages…
Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation is awarding two special prizes of $3 million each to British cosmologist Stephen Hawking for his work on black holes and to seven scientists at the world’s biggest atom-smasher for their roles in the discovery of a new subatomic particle believed to be the long-sought Higgs boson….
This year a high-school student in Maryland announced that he had invented a diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer. The test costs three cents per use. It works 168 times as fast and more than 400 times as accurately as the best previously existing test. It also may be able to detect ovarian and lung cancers….
In a blow to those people who believe that global warming predictions are just a lot of hot air, an international team has established that predictions made 20 years ago are turning out pretty accurate. The report compares predictions from the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report, published in 1990, with real-world…