Superconductivity promises to revolutionize our world with efficient transport, cheaper electricity, and even hoverboards. Although it’s still a long road to that technology, a crucial theory has just been confirmed that could help. The superconducting state happens suddenly when electrons in the material join in pairs. This formation is due to internal electrical currents that […]
Science is always pushing the limit of accepted theories until we find that they don’t work anymore. And the latest results from CERN indicate that we might be on the verge of new physics. The data looks at a special particle called a B meson. The current theory of particle physics, the Standard Model, has […]
TheBackyardScientist is back with a super-high-speed camera, a fish tank, and some molten salt. Sodium chloride (salt) can become a molten liquid when it’s heated to over 801 degrees celsius (1,474 degrees fahrenheit). If you drop a small shot of that liquid into a tank of cool water, a surprisingly powerful physical reaction occurs. You can watch the […]
Everyone has memories that they prefer not to dwell on, although according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, consciously suppressing one’s recollection of certain events can leave an “amnesic shadow,” resulting in the erasure of other unrelated memories. The processes behind creating, retrieving, and forgetting memories are still not fully understood, although […]
To probe the effects of brain stimulation, the researchers chose 24 patients who had experienced a stroke at least six months before, and who had difficulties with moving one hand. The participants were then split into two groups. The first group underwent nine consecutive days of rehabilitation training, with each session lasting an hour. For […]
Researchers have managed to sequence a section of the oldest human DNA ever, taken from the 430,000-year-old teeth and thigh bones of fossils found in northern Spain. What they’ve been able to determine from this impressive feat could rewrite the evolutionary tree of ancient human species, including those that eventually gave rise to us. Starting in 1997, […]
A fossil from a new species of dinosaur is helping to bridge a crucial 20-million-year gap in tyrannosaur evolution. The key fossil is a 90-million-year-old, grapefruit-sized partial skull from Uzbekistan’s Bissekty Formation. This tyrannosaur braincase, the first well-preserved one found from the mid-Cretaceous period, shows that, although still small, tyrannosaurs of the time already had […]
There’s a deadly fungus spreading among snakes in the United States. But don’t cheer. As much as snakes might frighten us, they’re important players in the ecosystem, and we really don’t want to lose them. In 2006, scientists discovered some odd skin infections among snakes in declining populations in New Hampshire. Soon after, fungal infections […]
In the last few months, we’ve seen three companies in the U.S. announce plans to build Hyperloop test tracks, Elon Musk’s proposal for rapid transit vacuum tubes for people across large distances. Now, it seems Europe is getting in on the action too, with an upcoming track planned to connect three cities. The proposal comes […]
“Weird” is the norm when it comes to sexual desires, according to a recent study from the University of Montreal. In fact, almost half of us could have sexual fantasies which are considered “deviant” or “atypical” under current psychiatric criteria. The study, published in the Journal of Sex Research, probed 1,040 Canadians of both genders on their sexual […]
