Studies

– 201203download

In the year 2011 alone, the US faced 14 extreme weather events, while Japan registered record rainfalls and the Yangtze river basin in China suffered a record drought. The year 2010 saw Russia in the midst of its hottest summer in centuries, while Pakistan and Australia received record-breaking amounts of rain, highly atypical for the region. […]

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– 201203robojellyfish

After a three year effort, researchers at Virginia Tech have successfully managed to create a silicone robot that functions underwater by mimicking the  motion of a jellyfish. The robot can propel itself thanks to the heat-producing reactions catalyzed by its surface, and since it uses hydrogen and oxygen found in the water as fuel, the Robojelly can theoretically […]

– 201203full 600px Tycho supernova xray

Supernovae are one of the most energetic and brightest events in the cosmos, often so powerful they outshine whole galaxies. They’re considered  to play a major role in our understanding of the Universe, which is why scientists have invested so much time and effort into studying them. A recent study of X-ray and ultraviolet observations from […]

– 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 […]

– 201201sudoku

One of my favorite past times is filling sudoku puzzles. There’s something about this seemingly simple, yet challenging, dance of digits up and down, left and right that manages to keep me highly entertain though a perfectly balanced mixture of thrill and frustration. If you think you’re good enough to solve any kind of sudoku, […]

– 201201time cloak cornell science nanotech

Cloaking used to be one of my favorite SciFi themes. James Bond supercars that would show up or disappear instantly at the flick of an alarm key, the hallow man, objects rendered completely invisible to the human eye and lost in the surroundings. I say used to be because spatial cloaking has transcended for some […]

– 201201roku hex

In Greek mythology, the chimera is a fire breathing beast composed of several animal parts (lion body, snake-head tail, a goat head hanging from its back and so on), which has spurred the imagination of man for thousands of years. Though it is fairly clear that such an abomination never existed, apart from the infinite recesses of […]

– 201112Stonehenge Closeup

The Stonehenge site, 5,000 years old (new discoveries place it far back in history), still remains of the world’s greatest archeological mysteries. One of its biggest question marks revolves around its conception. It’s fairly understood why it was build, as a site of sun worshiping, but how it was actually built remains unknown, considering these […]

– 201112quantumdotsolarpaint2

Researchers have successfully managed to create a “solar paint” made out of quantum dots, which exhibits similar properties to multifilm solar cell architectures. The later are sophisticated, expensive and require a lot of time to deploy; the paint can be easily applied to basically any surface, like a house’s roof, and prepare it to easily generate […]