Research

– 201203heat cloak

Cloaking has turned into a subject of great interest for scientists in the past decade, most likely because of its military potential. We’ve seen some exciting prototypes developed, from optical invisibility cloaks to temporal cloaks, and now French scientists at the University of Aix-Marseille have added a new member to the cloaking family, one that renders […]

– 201203wieck flying qubit cover 2

Hailed as yet another big step towards devising working quantum computers, scientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have successfully managed to generate quantum qubits inside a semiconductor for the first time, instead of vacuum. A qubit is the quantum analog of a bit. While a bit must be read either as a 0 or 1, the qubit can […]

– 2012011142248203 m

A subspecies of the the giant Galapagos tortoise, Chelonoidis elephantopus, long thought to be extinct for more than 150 years, is now believed to might still exist, scientists say. Yale University researchers conducted a highly thorough genetic analysis of various Galapagos giant tortoises in the region, which allowed them to speculate that at least a few dozen specimens […]

– 201201wine glass

Red wine. Everyone has heard of the proposed “magic” of red wine. Perhaps it is good for your heart; maybe it protects the prostate.  Despite all of these rumored benefits of red wine, few studies have actually been able to support and explain how and why red wine is so beneficial.  Recent studies have shown […]

– 201201nanowire

Moore’s law states that the processing power of computers doubles approximately every two years; as prices fall and manufacturing technology increases, researchers have now shown that wires just a few nanometres wide conduct electricity in the same way as their larger counterparts, rather than being affected by quantum mechanics – a result which surprised many […]

– 201201octopus mimicking

Off the coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia, dwells the Thaumoctopus mimicus commonly refered to as the mimic octopus, a remarkable animal capable of changing its shape and size to take the form of a jellyfish, a lion fish or even a crab or shrimp, among many other, for both protection against predators and as a shrewd […]

– 201112chimp

Concluding a debate which lasted for over 7 months, the US Institute of Medicine has released a report that marks a turning point for chimpanzees, our closest relative, in terms of medical research. The panel laid out some stringent rules against all current and future chimp research, installing some dramatic penalties to those who disobey. […]

– 201112memory pill

What if you could increase your ability to remember with a pill?  This may not be an idea just for science fiction novels.  Scientists have discovered a method that could strengthen long-term memories. A protein called PKR functions to maintain a relatively low level of excitability by enhancing GABA synaptic transmission.  GABA is an inhibitory […]