News

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(apr/2nd/2012) The common pesticide kills hundreds of millions of bees

Without bees, there would be no apples, almonds and cranberries for humans to eat, because they are responsible for helping such plants reproduce through pollination. It is therefore important to understand why in recent years, hundreds of millions of these insects have been killed. By means of two investigations, one French and one English, it was concluded that the most widely used pesticide for crops contains neonicotinoids, a substance that disorients the bees and prevents them from getting the food to their hive, causing the queen bee to die and, therefore, the colony disappears. To prove this, a microchip was adhered to the belly of the bees and followed his path, only to find that they got lost halfway and died. Some bee species are extinct for this reason, that is, in future years there will be fewer bee hives. Some people seek to establish stricter regulations on the use of pesticides to prevent this from happening, for it is alarming. Read the full article here. Original article.

(mar/22nd/2012) We have a greedy internal positioning system

It was found that people reach their destination faster than random mechanisms of decision making. A test was made at the University of Umea in Sweden through comparing maps and mazes and it showed that humans make aimed decisions, not random ones, when trying reach a desired point. People backtracks only if, when confronted with an obstacle, they could not move to a place where they had not been. I.e., it’s an “ambitious” way of orienting, because first we cover all unknown areas and only draw back in order to find other ways until we are sure we can’t go any further. This experiment could be useful to know which elements of a city can make pedestrians or drivers arrive earlier to their destinations. Read the full article here.

(mar/17th/2012) Fruit flies drink alcohol if sexually deprived

At the University of California was made an experiment which proved that Drosophilae flies that were sexually deprived chose to drink more alcohol than those who had been accepted by a partner. This was achieved thanks to the fact that the females that have mated once tend to reject males by a substance injected with sperm. The conclusion is that a molecule called neuropeptide ‘F’ in the flies’ brains, which is produced with intercourse and alcohol. This result is interesting because it could explain addiction in animals and humans, to the point of developing effective treatments for it. Read the full story here and the original scientific article in this link.

(mar/07th/2012) Cancerous tumors are being subject to test in order to understand why are they drug-resistant

In England, a group of researchers used new generation DNA sequence to explore cancer tumors and try to understand what makes them so resistant to some drugs. They concluded that traditional biopsies ignore that in fact the genetic composition of tumors is a mosaic of genetically different cells. Therefore, some of them may be attacked by the drugs, while others can grow and reproduce, or travel through the rest of the body.

This contrasts with the traditional view of cancer: a set of malignant cells make identical copies of themselves creating a homogeneous tumor. However, these cells are not equal, they tend to mutate constantly, even within the same tumor. This study could be not the definitive one, since the sample taken was very small: only four patients with cancer and two tumors were examined closely. However, it is interesting to know other ways to address cancer research in the world. Read the full story here.

(mar/2nd/2012) The oceans are becoming acidic very quickly

Although throughout the history of the planet has been acidification of the seas, global warming turns attention to this phenomenon. When the amount of CO2 in water increases, marine species are at risk of not surviving. Most affected are shelled animals such as oysters. This situation is alarming because much of our life depends on the oceans. Read the full story here.

(feb/23rd/2012) The “neutrinos faster than light” statement is questioned

The managers of the CERN experiment which demonstrated the superior speed of the neutrinos have found two factors that could have influenced the measurement of the speed of these particles: the transmission of GPS data and some clock connections. Read the full story. Click here to read the press release.

(feb/17th/2012)  Super-adhesive gecko skin is imitated to hold up to 300 kg.

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, scientists invented an adhesive material to support heavy objects. It is made of a material called polydimethylsiloxane. This “Geckskin”, as it’s been called, can be peeled off easily, leaving no residue, and without losing their sticking power. This was achieved after 20 years of watching the feet of some reptiles called geckos, which can remain attached to a wall or the ceiling without falling. This invention is useful for humans. Read the full story. Read the the scientific paper.

(feb/10th/2012) A stripped pajama against mosquitoes?

In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, researchers from Eötvös University (Hungary) and the University of Lund (Sweden) showed that zebra’s stripes are an evolutionary advantage, because they protect them from a mosquito called tabanids.

The flies are attracted to linearly polarized  light. Zebra’s stripes are polarized in different way, so that light reflected by the combination of black and white stripes together ceases to be attractive to mosquitoes. In their experiment, researchers placed sticky traps that looked like black, brown, white, gray and stripped  horses. The stripped “horse” was the one that caught the least flies, proving his hypothesis. Read more about it here. Read the original scientific paper here.

(jan/26/2012) SCIENTISTS RECREATE THE NUCLEUS OF THE SUN WITH A LASER

An X-ray laser heated a piece of foil at the impressive 2 million degrees centigrade (2,000,000 ° C, that is 3,600,032 °F), temperature of the center of planets and stars. This may help to understand how the Sun’s core works, where energy providing fusion processes occur. Read more here.

(jan/26/2012) A 3D object was made invisible!

Researchers at the University of Texas have managed to make three-dimensional objects invisible outside laboratory conditions. In the experiment a 18cm long cylinder was coated with a non-conductive material known as “plasmotic”.

We’re able to see the objects that we see because light bounces off them and reaches our eyes. The invisibility technique consists of plasmotic materials that cancel the “field” that makes the light bounce off the material in question, allowing it to pass through. Thus, the object becomes completely transparent.

It was possible for microwaves to pass by the object. This is because the size of the object that can become invisble depends on the wavelength of light that radiates (the microwave is longer compared with the light that we see). To make an object invisible to the visible light range, the object must be of the order of microns. Read more about this discovery. Read the original scientific paper.

(jan/20/2012) Asian monkey thought extinct was found

“Miller’s Grizzled Langur”, a primate that was supposed to be extinct, was found in Indonesia, out of its habitat, probably due to climate change. Read the full story here.

(jan/17/2012) 100 years ago Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole

Antarctica is the coldest, and farthest continent of the planet, so that before there were airplanes, arriving and surviving was quite an achievement. Read the fascinating history of an exploration to the South Pole in this article.

2011

(sep/22/2011) CERN “finds out” that neutrinos travel faster than light

In an amazing measurement, scientists at CERN in Geneva have found that neutrinos (elementary particles of matter) can travel a little beyond the speed limit set by Einstein’s theory. This has not been confirmed yet, but if so, it will change the concept that physicists have so far of the structure of the universe. Read more by clicking here.

(jul/27/2011) UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) TO PREVENT OSTEOPOROSIS, BIOCERAMIC PATENTED

Osteoporosis is a problem that about 5 and a half million women in Mexico suffer from. It’s estimated that if this increasement continues, next year there will be up to 7.1 million. Fortunately, the Materials Research Institute of UNAM (IIM for its acronym in Spanish) has a new patent, a bioceramic that prevents this problem. More details in this link (in spanish).