|  Aaaaaaah, Really? You Would Die If You Didn't Sigh Now, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Stanford University have identified the source of sighing, which they classify as a life-sustaining reflex that prevents air sacs located in the lungs, called alveoli, from collapsing. "A human lung has as much surface area as a tennis court, and so that's all folded inside your chest," study co-author Jack Feldman, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA, told Live Science. "The way that nature did it is that there's 500 million little air sacs called alveoli. Read More » Surfers Invent Floating Trash Bin to Clean Up World's Oceans  | Two Australian surfers are trying to tackle the planet's water pollution problem head-on, by developing a device that functions as an automated floating trash bin for the world's oceans. The device, called the Seabin, can be placed in the water, attached to a floating dock in a marina, and is connected to an onshore water pump.
| Read More » Mastication adaptation: easier chewing benefited human ancestors  | By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A study in which people chewed on pieces of raw goat meat and vegetables smacked with a rock is shedding light on how changes long ago in the way our ancestors dined paved the way for physiological advances that helped make us who were are today. Scientists said on Wednesday the advent of meat-eating combined with the use of simple tone tools to make food easier to consume meant that members of the human lineage about 2.5 million years ago all of a sudden had less need for chewing. Without needing to spend much of the day chewing food as chimpanzees do, our ancestors underwent significant evolutionary changes, acquiring smaller teeth, jaws and chewing muscles while losing the snout possessed by their predecessors.
| Read More » Stephen Hawking joins 150 top scientists calling for Britain to stay in EU  | Stephen Hawking has joined more than 150 top scientists in calling for Britain to stay in the European Union, saying that leaving would be "a disaster for UK science and universities". The physicist and other members of the Royal Society, including three Nobel laureates, made the case against Brexit, as leaving is widely called, in a letter to The Times on Thursday.
| Read More » Stephen Hawking joins 150 top scientists calling for Britain to stay in EU  | Stephen Hawking has joined more than 150 top scientists in calling for Britain to stay in the European Union, saying that leaving would be "a disaster for UK science and universities". The physicist and other members of the Royal Society, including three Nobel laureates, made the case against Brexit, as leaving is widely called, in a letter to The Times on Thursday.
| Read More » How Often Do Big Fireballs Blaze Up in Earth's Sky?  | A fireball exploded over the south Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 6 in the most powerful such event since February 2013, when a similar "airburst" injured more than 1,200 people in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. Meteors burn up in Earth's atmosphere every day, but most are small and therefore fly completely under the radar. Fireballs as dramatic as the Feb. 6 event — which was caused by an object estimated to be 16 to 23 feet (5 to 7 meters) wide — occur about once every two to three years, according to Peter Brown, a professor at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and a member of the Western Meteor Physics Group.
| Read More » Ancient Roman Tavern Found Littered with Patrons' Drinking Bowls  | One of France's earliest-known Roman taverns is still littered with drinking bowls and animal bones, even though more than 2,000 years have passed since it served patrons, a new archaeological study finds. The finding is a valuable one, said study co-researcher Benjamin Luley, a visiting assistant professor of anthropology and classics at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. Before the Romans invaded the south of France, in 125 B.C., a culture speaking the Celtic language lived there and practiced its own customs.
| Read More » Ripe Old Age: SeaWorld's Killer Whale Tilikum Near Death at 35  | The killer whale named Tilikum, who made headlines after killing his trainer at SeaWorld in 2010, has a respiratory infection that may ultimately take the orca's life, at age 35. Tilikum's health has declined during the past few weeks, likely because of a drug-resistant bacterial infection in his lungs, officials said. "Tilikum's behavior has become increasingly lethargic, and the SeaWorld veterinary and animal care teams are concerned that his health is beginning to deteriorate," SeaWorld Cares said in the statement.
| Read More » New 'LightningStrike' Plane Will Take Off, Hover & Land Vertically  | DARPA, the government agency charged with developing new military technologies, awarded a contract to Aurora Flight Sciences Corp. to design a new vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, the company announced March 3. Aurora was one of four companies competing in the first phase of DARPA's VTOL Experimental Plane (X-Plane) program. The other competing companies were The Boeing Co., Karem Aircraft Inc., and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., according to DARPA.
| Read More » Robots welcome visitors to Berlin travel fair  | By Victoria Bryan BERLIN (Reuters) - Chihira Kanae is greeting visitors to the world's biggest travel fair in Berlin this week, answering questions and guiding people in the right direction. The Marriott hotel in Ghent has been trialling Mario, using him to hand out room keys, high-five guests and liven up meetings held in the hotel by reading out presentations.
| Read More » Africa must spend more on science research to halt brain drain, lift growth - scientists By Kieran Guilbert DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A lack of investment in science is stunting Africa's growth, driving engineers, researchers and scientists abroad and depriving the continent of billions of dollars each year, the founder of a landmark conference said on Thursday. Africa loses $4 billion a year by outsourcing jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths, the so-called STEM fields, to foreign professionals, said Thierry Zomahoun, chairman and founder of the Next Einstein Forum (NEF). ... Read More » First Uterus Transplant in US Has Failed Due to Complications The Cleveland Clinic first announced the uterus transplant on Feb. 25. "There is a known risk in solid organ transplantation that the transplanted organ may have to be removed should a complication arise. Read More » Scientists find 'good' cholesterol can sometimes be bad By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - So-called "good" cholesterol may actually increase heart attack risks in some people, researchers said on Thursday, a discovery that casts fresh doubt on drugs designed to raise it. High density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is generally associated with reduced heart risks, since it usually offsets the artery-clogging effects of the low density (LDL) form. "Our results indicate that some causes of raised HDL actually increase risk for heart disease," said lead researcher Daniel Rader of the University of Pennsylvania. Read More » | |
