Darwin’s bark spider is very small and yet constructs webs with anchor lines spanning rivers. It was discovered in 2001 in Madagascar, but a recent paper documented that its silk is stronger than Kevlar. The extra strong silk is what makes it possible for the spider to make anchor lines that are very long and can bear [...]
June 3, 2010
Images on TV and the internet continually tick off the number of gallons of crude oil leaking into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Yet the numbers are quickly becoming unfathomable to us in our daily lives. We have no reference point for tens of millions of gallons, except to know that’s a lot [...]
May 28, 2010
Finding a tick usually involves a squeamish self-examination – carefully rubbing fingertips through the scalp, meticulously scanning the body, and groaning “eyeww” if a little bloodsucker is discovered. Now, there’s a new way to find the pesky, disease-laden critters–via satellite! University of Alabama at Birmingham graduate students Nathan Renneboog and Stephen Firsing are pioneering the [...]
May 18, 2010
Scientists have discovered enormous plumes of oil in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, in an indication that the leak from an underwater well could be far worse than previously estimated, AFP reported Saturday citing The New York Times. One of the plumes was 10 miles (16 kilometers) long, three miles wide and [...]
May 12, 2010
A LONG-awaited rough draft of the Neanderthal genome has revealed that our own DNA contains clear evidence that early humans interbred with Neanderthals. Such interminglings have been suspected in the past, but there’s more: Neanderthals were probably not the only other Homo species early Homo sapiens mixed with. These findings call into question the familiar story that [...]
April 29, 2010
Astronauts on board the International Space Station will soon have a new roommate–and it’s not human. It’s a humanoid. In Sept. 2010, space shuttle Discovery will deliver Robonaut 2–”R2″ for short–to the ISS, where it will become the first humanoid robot to travel and work in space. Developed jointly by NASA and General Motors, R2 [...]
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September 23, 2010
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