A team of scientists made artificial lungs and then transplanted them into pigs (not this one). The pigs all survived. (Credit: HQuality/shutterstock)
Ah, to live in a world where we can crank out custom-made organs to meet supply. No need for donors or years-long waiting lists.
We’re still a ways off from that organ utopia, but we’re at least a little closer to bioengineered lungs becoming a reality. On Wednesday, researchers from the University of Texas ...read more
(Credit: Tero Vesalainen/shutterstock)
In Finland, sauna bathing traditionally involves bathers not only immersing themselves in steam, but also slapping themselves with branches until their skin is red and tingling, then diving into cold water or rolling in the snow. Now researchers find that sauna bathing — even of the conventional kind, sans cold and slapping — may have a wide range of health benefits.
Saunas bathe people in steam from water thrown on h ...read more
A new statistical method could help solve which Beatles wrote which songs. (Credit: Nationaal Archief/Wikipedia Commons)
In interviews, John Lennon and Paul McCartney have explained that, though they were listed as co-writers for Beatles tunes, one or the other usually wrote most of a song.
McCartney wrote most or all of “Yesterday,� “Martha My Dear� and “Lady Madonna,� for exam ...read more
Cygnus X-1 is a black hole feeding off its nearby binary companion, a young blue supergiant star. (Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
Discovered in the early 1960s by rocket-borne X-ray detectors, Cygnus X-1 is a binary system containing a supergiant star and a stellar-mass black hole. That black hole is both accreting matter — pulling gas off its companion and funneling it into a swirling disk — and shooting out powerful jets. The processes of accretion and jet fo ...read more
In 1990s’ Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger terraformed Mars atmosphere into breathable air in mere minutes thanks to a secret alien turbinium reactor. (Credit: TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)
On Monday, a study published in Nature Astronomy took an exhaustive look at what it would take to terraform the Red Planet and fulfill generations of sci-fi dreams.
In it, leading Mars experts tallied the planet’s stores of carbon dioxide, a powerful g ...read more
A study of rhesus monkeys shows that anxious adults can lead to more anxious offspring. (Credit: Skynavin/Shutterstock)
You have your mother’s eyes. You have your father’s nose. But might you also have Grandpa Joe’s high anxiety? That’s a possibility, according to a study of rhesus monkeys published July 30 in the Journal of Neuroscience.
In recent years, researchers have explored the heritability of personality, inclu ...read more
Subway riders in Hong Kong. (Credit: Sean Pavone/Shutterstock)
Microbes are all around us and in us and especially on us. Our skin can be both a barrier between our bodies and the microbes in our environment and a way in. Once microbes find their way onto our hands, they’re a step closer to getting inside us through our eyes, mouths, and noses.
Don’t despair. A diverse ecosystem of bacteria calls our skin and bodies home without causing us any harm at all. ...read more
Chinese scientists have discovered how a plant tricks wasps into carrying its seeds great distances. Photo Credit: adapted from Chen et al. 2017 Figure S1; used with permission from Gao Chen
Stemona tuberosa is well known for its use in Chinese traditional medicine, but it’s got a much more intriguing claim to fame: It’s one of less than a handful of plants known to science that engages in vespicochory—that i ...read more
(Credit: Monty Python/YouTube)
Any nerd worth her NaCl knows all about English comedy group Monty Python, and their version of the King Arthur legend, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.â€� But lesser known are the troupe’s other feature-length films, including 1983’s “The Meaning of Life.â€� Amidst a dinner party with Death and a machine that goes “ping!â&euro ...read more
