Posted in: Featured, Science by Sergiu Vidican | April 27th 2011 | no comments
The Fukushima Daiichi situation has improved a lot since the tsunami which took place on March 11. However, traces of radiation can still be detected in the area, and the people who go in its proximity will suffer from radiation.
According to an article in livescience.com, radioactive iodine-131 has been released into the water supply from the damaged nuclear power plant. However, the emitted radiation [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | May 2nd 2011 | no comments
You might have seen online the video in which a man is struck by lightning on numerous occasions, and after each hit, he gets up and walks away without any injuries.
In case you did not see the clip, you can watch it here. As you can see in the video, the man gets hit by the lightning, stays on the ground for a certain period of time, then gets up, walks a little bit only to be struck [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | May 2nd 2011 | no comments
According to a new research, the atmosphere might have been formed thanks to the extreme microbes that survive on gases eliminated by the hot springs from Siberia.
These microbes are called anaerobic carboxydotrophs, and they have the ability of eating carbon-dioxide. The researchers managed to find them in the Uzon Caldera of eastern Siberia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Albert Colman, a [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | May 2nd 2011 | no comments
Antarctica is a very cold and inhospitable region. It is isolated, or it would be more suitable to say that it was isolated.
In the recent period of time, more and more people travel in the area, the majority of them being researchers. However, recently, tourists go there as well, in order to get in touch with the wild nature. However, as you might know, humans are not good at [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | May 2nd 2011 | no comments
According to the astronomers, a big change has occurred in the sky these past days.
In these past days, all the planets in the sky, with the exception of Saturn aligned along the ecliptic, the path of the sun through the sky. In the past two months the majority of the planets were hidden behind the sky. Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter can be seen with the naked eye, whereas Uranus [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | May 2nd 2011 | no comments
According to a research presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Denver which took place on May 1, the parents who want to prevent their children from becoming bullies should be very positive, very communicative with their offspring.
The researchers used data collected from various phone surveys, and they observed that in the majority of the cases, the [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 30th 2011 | one comment
According to the researchers, the right-hand dominance is more than 500,000 years old.
It is believed that thanks to the right-handedness the human language was developed. David Frayer, of the University of Kansas, the main researcher of the study said that the reason why most of the people are right-handed is because the left portion of the brain controls the right part of the body. [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 29th 2011 | no comments
The Grand Canyon has been a geological mystery for a very long period of time. According to livescince.com, the geologists have recently discovered a giant anomalous structure on the underside of the plateau which might be able to solve this mystery.
One thing is clear: its age is pretty mysterious. For a very long time it was believed that the Grand Canyon is 6 million years old. [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 29th 2011 | no comments
The website nytimes.com states that according to a new study on the evolution of the stars, the initial stars which were present in the sky were extremely huge and they also span at very fast speeds.
Of course, these stars no longer exist, and they have died a very long time ago. The astronomers were able to make these assumptions by analyzing the current stars, and the patterns of [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 29th 2011 | no comments
In 2005, the United States Congress voted to authorize $17.5 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors.
According to an article in nytimes.com, the decision was made because the government wanted to encourage the usage of nuclear power, being considered much more effective and less polluting than the other types of energies. Six years have passed since then and the situation [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 29th 2011 | no comments
America is the country of fast food, and a recent survey revealed the fact that from the top 34 developed countries, United States of America spends the least amount of time cooking.
According to livescinece.com, the Americans spend an average of 30 minutes per day cooking. People from the States have gotten used to the fast food and to the microwave dinners, and as a result the act [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 29th 2011 | one comment
According to livescience.com the U.S. Social Security Administration makes a list of the most popular baby names each year.
Because of that, some of the parents who want to be trendy know which names to choose. However, figuring out the most hated baby names can be more complicated. One of the reasons for that is the fact that some of the most popular baby names appear in the most [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 28th 2011 | no comments
According to an article in guardian.co.uk, the SETI institute which has been operating for more than 50 years has very big financial problems.
The SETI institute became familiar through Carl Sagan's novel Contact, which was turned into the movie of the same name starring Jodie Foster. In the novel, the main character, Ellie Arroway worked at the institute in order to find sings of [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 28th 2011 | no comments
According to livescience.com and nytimes.com, the scientists have advised people to stay away from armadillos as they are extremely dangerous for the human health.
These animals are not very loved by the people, as their aspect is not a great one, but the reason why the contact should be avoided is very terrible: leprosy. The federal researchers have stated on Wednesday that the [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 28th 2011 | no comments
The evolution of the brain is the most important change. This is what makes us humans, and some believe that this is why we left Africa.
The bigger the brain is, the more energy it requires. In a way we were forced to leave the area in order to feed our brain, to survive. The primates seem to know the importance of food as well. They only eat the top quality foods, the ones which are [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 28th 2011 | no comments
Each of us learns about evolution when they are in schools. We hear a very brief story about the way in which modern humans appeared, about our ancestors, and that’s it.
However, according to guardian.co.uk there are many uncertain things about evolution, and what we usually learn is a very brief and ambiguous story. The human evolution lasted for about six million years, the past; [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 27th 2011 | one comment
According to the website livescinece.com, at least 9 doctors who were assigned to take care of the prisoners detained at Guantánamo Bay, failed to observe that some of the prisoners showed signs and symptoms of torture.
The study was published online yesterday, April 26, in the open-access journal PloS Medicine. More than 700 other secret documents on former and current prisoners [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 27th 2011 | no comments
According to an article in livescince.com, the scientific community has been affected by a rumor which indicates the fact that that the Higgs boson which is also known as “God’s particle” might have been found at the world's largest atom smasher.
Of course, nothing is clear yet, as the rumor started from a disclosed internal note from various physicists at the Large Hadron [...]
By Sergiu Vidican | April 27th 2011 | no comments
According to articles in nytimes.com and lifeslittlemysteries.com, the psychologists have reached to the conclusion that more and more teenagers are narcissists, a personality trait which is characterized by vanity, conceit, and selfishness.
The term was coined by Freud, and it comes from the Greek mythology, being based on Narcissus. He was a very handsome and loved young man, who [...]
