The best science news across the web this week: I posted 5 bizarre facts about change blindness, a peculiar quirk of the human brain that causes “obvious” changes to become invisible. A drug that regrows sensory ear hairs shows promise as a cure for hearing loss. The FDA approved a pill to prevent HIV infections. A giant squid was [...]
A gorilla walking directly in front of your field of vision and waving its hand at you is the kind of thing you’d think wouldn’t be hard to notice. But last year, when I spoke with Daniel Simmons, I learned that if the brain is distracted enough, that gorilla would be completely invisible to you. What I spoke with Daniel Simmons about [...]
This week, we shatter absolute zero, spot a planet forming, our galaxy’s core released the energy of a million supernovas, and treated pain with the brain’s own natural opiates. Absolute zero isn’t absolute. Using lasers and magnetic fields, scientists have reached a temperature below absolute zero, a phenomenon which may also [...]
If you look at the menu at the top of this site you’ll notice a new page called “Misconceptions.” This is a list of science misconceptions from science experts that I’ve been putting together for quite some time. It includes insights from Carl Zimmer, Cliff Pickover, Lawrence Krauss, and more. This list will be an ongoing project [...]
No posts here this week, but that’s no excuse to avoid sharing the most exciting news in science across the web: Stem cells gave a man his sight back. Paralyzed patients are walking again thanks to bionic suits. We don’t just blink to lubricate our eyeballs. We do it to absorb information and restore focus. German scientists [...]
Science news from across the web for the week: Placing my bet: world doesn’t end today. There may be a planet in the habitable zone of Tau Ceti, only 12 light years away. If true, this means the universe is probably teaming with such planets. Scientists have officially discovered a new state of matter called quantum spin liquid. While [...]
Tau Ceti is the closest sun-like star in the galaxy. It’s only three times farther away than the nearest star system, it’s visible to the naked eye. And there might be an earth-like planet orbiting it. Most stars are much fainter than the sun, but Tau Ceti is a member of the 1 in 25 stars that fall in the same class. It resembles the [...]
The best science stories across the web this week: Researchers have developed a method for detecting psychological illness using brain scans. They used a machine learning algorithm to detect patterns in the shapes of “healthy” brains and brains suffering from various mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and [...]
Believe it or not, there really is a difference between healthy brains and “mentally ill” brains. Unfortunately, it’s also true that some medications are over-prescribed, and some illnesses are over-diagnosed. A new study has revealed that MRI scans can be used to diagnose mental disorders like depression, bipolar disorder [...]
Top science news this week: I interviewed Dr. Lawrence M. Krauss about the origins of the universe and how it could have came from nothing. A new form of graphine weighs 1,000 times less than Styrofoam, supports 50,000 times its own weight, recovers from intense compression, and conducts electricity. About 500 million years ago, a [...]
