Science Scanner: Discovery Could Explain Color of Pluto
Researchers have found new evidence pointing to the possibility of complex hydrocarbon and/or nitrile molecules lying on the surface of Pluto. Using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, which was installed aboard the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009, the researchers found a strong ultraviolet-wavelength absorber on the distant dwarf planet. The researchers point out that such chemical […]
Walking Fish Puts Chink in Evolution Chain
When you look at an African lungfish, you see an aquatic animal with an eel-like body and what appear to be small, scrawny limbs, which are actually pelvic fins. A new study suggests this creature could up-end what we thought we knew about the evolution of life on Earth as it made its way from […]
Science Scanner: Need a Bone? Just Print One!
If someone told you they’d created a material that looks and feels like bone on an ink-jet printer, you’d probably laugh. But researchers at Washington State University have done just that. The researchers used a 3D printer to create a bone-like material and structure that they say can be used in applications such as orthopedic procedures, […]
Science Scanner: Asteroid Narrowly Misses Earth
A lot of folks on Earth breathed a collective sigh of relief when an asteroid, the size of an aircraft carrier, sailed past us without causing any harm. Yesterday, Nov. 8, 2011 at approximately 2328 UTC, the asteroid 2005 YU55 came within 324,604.685 kilometers of Earth, making it the biggest asteroid in 35 years to […]
Science Scanner: Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner Announced
The winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry was announced this morning in Stockholm. Daniel Shechtman of Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, Israel, won for his 1982 discovery of quasicrystals. Quasicrystals are unusual materials which have some of the properties of a regular crystal, but have a more elaborate and complex structure […]
Science Scanner: Scientists Find Fried-egg Nebula Which Dwarfs the Sun
Astronomers have found nebulae that resemble a horse’s head, a check mark, a crab, an owl and a fried egg. New pictures of a hyper-giant star, formally known as IRAS 17163-3907, show it’s surrounded by a huge double shell. The star and its shells resemble an egg white around a yolky center, so University of […]
Science Scanner: Social Networking Could Hinder Freedom Movements
Online social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have recently been hailed as powerful and effective communications tools for social and political movements throughout the world. However, according to a new study from Penn State University researchers, these popular sites may not be as uniformly beneficial or robust as suggested. For example, in nations like […]
US Founding Father Cleared of Importing Invasive Species
American founding father Benjamin Franklin was – among many things – a highly regarded scientist. So it seems appropriate that it was science which proved him blameless in importing an invasive species of tree which has overrun thousands of acres of U.S. coastal prairie from Florida to East Texas. While in London in the late […]
Science Scanner: Windpipe Made from Stem Cells Transplanted into Ailing Man
In what seems like the plot of a science fiction novel, researchers successfully built and transplanted a new windpipe for an Eritrean man who had a rare but deadly form of tracheal cancer. Although human tissue has been generated outside the body, the trachea transplant is a first, according to David Green of Harvard Bioscience, […]
Can Dogs Read Our Minds?
If you have a dog, does it ever seem as if your pet can read your mind? Do you wonder how the animal learns to beg for food or behave badly, mostly when we’re not looking? According to a newly-released study, the way canines learn to respond to human attentiveness is an indication of the […]