Slime molds are a fantastic demonstration of emergent behavior, a single-celled organism that forms into a multi-celled organism to produce spores, check out this awesome photo gallery of their biodiversity.
Myxococcus xanthus is a bacteria that swarms in waves to invade and devour other bacteria strains. Researchers are working with it to see if it can be used to clean surfaces or human infections.
swarm of M. xanthus bacteria (left)
invading a colony of prey bacteria (right)
Credit: John Kirby, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
Body Scan
Credit: Alexandru Balan, Brown University
biomineralization is the phenomena of life forms producing bones, shells, spines, and hardened works of nature. Biomimicry could yield new ways of engineering materials.
The Perceived Virtual Presence (PVP) scale has been developed by North Carolina State University researchers to measure the “realness” of virtual worlds.
Recrystallized Vitamin C
Credit: Milan Kosanovic, Belgrade, Serbia
Return-Oriented programming is a method of using a program’s existing code to a hacker’s own ends, like using existing browser code to harness and e-mail passwords.
Boundary extension is our habit of remembering the boundaries of what we saw in the past as extending farther than what we actually saw, and now researchers at the University of Delaware have found it can occur in an eye blink.
Domestication is thought to breed intelligence out of animals, with dogs previously considered the exception to the rule; however, a more recent study contradicts this assumption by demonstrating wolves are more intelligent than dogs.
CT scans reveal the duck-billed dinosaur’s large crest housed complex nasal passages that allowed them to communicate via sound.
CT scan reconstructions of Corythosaurus;
the nasal cavity is green, and the brain purple
Credit: Courtesy of Witmer & Ridgely, Ohio University
Scientists have recreated the deadwater effect, where a layer of freshwater from glacier melt covers saltwater, and waves in the saltwater layer slow down ships.
Britain has released 1,500 pages of UFO sightings, which explains some sighting, but leaves plenty still unidentified.
The Cosmic Coincidence Problem (which doesn’t have its own wikipedia entry, but sounds like it should), deals with the fact that the Universe is going from an energy-dominant phase to a dark-energy-dominant phase at just the right time for human beings to observe it, why is that?
Ripening bananas exhibit intense
blue luminescence under UV light
Credit: (C) Wiley-VCH 2008
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum was a sudden global warming event five-million years ago, causing land mammals to shrink and sea life to die, but also caused a bacteria to bloom, which has left magnetic fossils for researchers to recently find.
The most attention grabbing science headlines (like the ones you read here) might also be the most likely to be wrong… Which raises a “this sentence is false” logical error, doesn’t it?
Walking and running require a great deal of coordination between the left and right sides of the body, Salk Institue researchers have discovered V3 Spinal Cord Neurons keep the act organized.
V3 neurons
Credit: Dr.Ying Zhang, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Children with ADHD can improve their attention with a walk in a park.
