Other Sciences News

The experimental setup of the invisible body condition, left panel, and the mannequin condition. The participants were fitted with a set of head-mounted displays that showed the real-time 3-D video feed of a pair of downward-facing cams that were mounted on the wall or on the head of a mannequin. The scientist applied touches to the participants’ body and the corresponding body part of the invisible body/mannequin using a paintbrush. The grayed-out body in the left panel illustrates the discrete portion of empty space that was meant to represent the invisible body. Two sample frames of the actual visual stimuli presented in head-mounted displays are shown below, featuring the brushing procedure and knife threat event for the two conditions, respectively. Image credit: Arvid Guterstam et al.

Neuroscientists Create Illusion of Having Invisible Body

Apr 24, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, the feeling of invisibility changes physical stress response in challenging social...

Lion Geyser and Heart Spring in Yellowstone National Park. Image credit: Brocken Inaglory / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Discover Gigantic Magma Reservoir beneath Yellowstone Supervolcano

Apr 24, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Dr Hsin-Hua Huang of California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the University of Utah has discovered a reservoir of...

The artificial photosynthesis system has four general components: (i) harvesting solar energy; (ii) generating reducing equivalents; (iii) reducing carbon dioxide to biosynthetic intermediates, and (iv) producing value-added chemicals.

Scientists Create Artificial Photosynthesis System

Apr 17, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute,...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Scientists Explain Why Modern Humans Have Chins

Apr 16, 2015 by News Staff

Chins of anatomically modern humans don’t come from mechanical forces such as chewing, but instead result from an evolutionary adaptation involving face...

Permafrost in High Arctic. Image credit: TheBrockenInaGlory / CC BY-SA 3.0

Frozen Soils Could Become Major Source of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Apr 9, 2015 by News Staff

Thawing permafrost in the Artic and sub-Arctic regions will likely produce a gradual and prolonged release of large quantities of greenhouse gases spanning...

Dr Martin Vollmer and his colleagues detected a rapid accumulation of anesthetic gases isoflurane, desflurane, and sevoflurane, in the global atmosphere. Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Anesthetic Gases Contribute to Climate Change, Say Atmospheric Chemists

Apr 9, 2015 by News Staff

Desflurane, isoflurane, sevoflurane and halothane – clinically used inhalation anesthetic agents – are accumulating in the atmosphere of our...

Forensic facial reconstruction of another Australopithecus species - A. afarensis. Image credit: Cicero Moraes / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Little Foot: Australopithecus Skeleton from Sterkfontein is 3.67 Million Years Old

Apr 1, 2015 by News Staff

The new date places an almost complete skeleton of Australopithecus prometheus from the Sterkfontein cave in South Africa as an older relative of famous...

Pasig River, Manila, Philippines. Image credit: Bar Fabella / CC BY 2.0

New Low-Cost Method Can Detect Sewage Pollution in Streams, Rivers

Mar 31, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the University of Sheffield, UK, has developed and tested a promising novel method that uses inexpensive samplers (cotton tampons)...

This is an artist's reconstruction of female Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia. Image credit: Elisabeth Daynes, via tabula.ge.

Early Members of Genus Homo Varied Widely in Body Size

Mar 30, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published online March 26 in the Journal of Human Evolution suggests that the genus Homo has come in different sizes since its origins over...

A figure from the original report by Enrico Fermi et al.

Mathematicians Partially Solve Fermi-Pasta-Ulam Problem

Mar 23, 2015 by News Staff

The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem – first introduced in 1955 by the famed physicist Enrico Fermi and his colleagues – has now been partially solved...

Molecular representations of the NU-1000 node and linker (left), MOF topology (two views, center), and the dehydration of the NU-1000 node (right). Zr – blue, O – red, C - black, H - white. Image credit: Joseph E. Mondloch et al.

Novel Material Destroys Chemical Warfare Agents Soman, VX in Minutes

Mar 18, 2015 by News Staff

A group of chemists co-led by Dr Joseph Hupp and Dr Omar Farha, both from Northwestern University, has developed a new material that is very effective...

The Totten Glacier catchment, outlined in blue, is a collection basin for ice and snow that flows through the glacier. It’s estimated to contain enough material to raise sea levels by at least 3.5 m. Image credit: Jamin Greenbaum / Australian Antarctic Division.

Totten Glacier: Scientists Identify New Threat to East Antarctic Ice

Mar 17, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Jamin Greenbaum of the University of Texas at Austin has discovered two seafloor troughs that could allow warm ocean water...

Scientists say that planetary warming will increase snowfall in Antarctica. Image credit: Eli Duke / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Antarctic Snow Linked to Global Warming

Mar 16, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change has confirmed a long-standing prediction that snowfall in Antarctica will increase significantly...

Li Zhu et al. created a chameleon-like artificial ‘skin’ that shifts color on demand.

Researchers Create Chameleon-Like Material

Mar 13, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists at the University of California Berkeley have developed a novel material that can change color simply by flexing it. The material offers intriguing...

Mountain forest in Sri Lanka. Image credit: Faslan / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Early Foragers Thrived on ‘Rainforest Diet’ 20,000 Years Ago

Mar 13, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study led by Patrick Roberts of the University of Oxford, UK, early human foragers relied primarily on rainforest resources from at...

This synthesizer assembles complex small molecules out of simple chemical building blocks, like a 3D printer on the molecular level. Image credit: L. Brian Stauffer.

Scientists Develop Revolutionary ‘3D Printer’ for Small Molecules

Mar 13, 2015 by News Staff

A group of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has designed an automated ‘3D printer’ for small molecules that could open...

Beer bottles from a 170-year-old shipwreck. Image credit: John Londesborough et al.

Chemists Analyze Beer from 1840s’ Shipwreck

Mar 5, 2015 by News Staff

Two bottles of beer from an about 170 year old shipwreck near the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea have been analyzed by a team of scientists from Finland...

LD 350-1, a partial mandible of early Homo. Image credit: Arizona State University.

LD 350-1: Oldest Known Fossil of Genus Homo Found

Mar 5, 2015 by News Staff

In two papers published in the journal Science, an international team of anthropologists reported the discovery of a partial hominin jaw with teeth from...

The new study has shown that men, on average, are more narcissistic than women. Narcissus by Caravaggio. Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome.

Men are More Narcissistic than Women, Psychologists Say

Mar 4, 2015 by News Staff

With 31 years of data from more than 475,000 participants, a new study published in the journal Psychological Bulletin supports the widely held belief...