Earlier this month, a guard patrolling a Guatemalan wildlife reserve photographed a young salamander. Its glossy orange-and-black skin made it look like a Halloween decoration. But the salamander’s appearance wasn’t just seasonally appropriate—it was the first time anyone had laid eyes on the species in 42 years.
Two Americans first discovered Jackson’s climbing salamander (Bolitoglossa jacksoni) while hiking in the cloud forests in 1975. Its name came from one ...read more
(Credit: Bryan Goff/Unsplash)
In 1207 BCE, as an army of Israelites waged a bitter conflict against soldiers from Canaan, the sun all but disappeared. The event had all the markings of divine intervention, and the auspicious occurrence would go on to be recorded in the Old Testament. Today, eclipses have lost the aura of religious significance, but this particular occasion was special. It’s the first time we can confirm that an eclipse was ever recorded for posterity, say researchers fro ...read more
When the new release accompanying a science paper immediately alludes to lap dances and twerking, attention must be paid.
That doesn’t happen all the time. And, incredibly, the study in question, which appeared last week in Evolutionary Psychological Science paper, actually lived up to the hype! It really does mention “female erotic lap dancers” and “twerking, which appears to be a simulated copulatory act, performed while dancing,” all in the service of mathematic ...read more
The Black Knight Transformer is a prototype flying car that can drive like a truck and fly like a helicopter. Credit: Advanced Tactics
A prototype flying car that supposedly does the job of both a helicopter and a truck went up for sale on eBay a few days before Halloween. That privately-developed AT Black Knight Transformer represents a vision of the flying car future that has seemingly fallen out of favor as new startups in Silicon Valley and elsewhere pursue the idea of flying car ...read more
Remember the ‘voodoo’ fMRI controversy? Well, I just came across a new voodoo-ish paper – just in time for Halloween.
The study, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, comes from Franziska Plessow and colleagues of Boston. The main claim is that a dose of oxytocin reduced the response of “reward-related food motivation brain regions” to pictures of high-calorie foods, suggesting that the hormone might be of use in the treatment of obesity.
However, I have some ...read more
Animation showing the path of A/2017 U1 through the solar system. (Credit: NASA/JPL)
Astronomers have spotted an interstellar visitor for the first time.
It’s either a comet or an asteroid, and came speeding right through the heart of our solar system; after a hairpin turn around the sun, it’s now on its way back out of our cosmic backyard. Scientists at the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS 1 telescope at Haleakala first spotted the quarter-mile-wide object on ...read more
Sophia has porcelain skin, defined cheekbones and quite a flashy smile. She’s also a robot.
Ahead of Wednesday’s Future Investment Initiative event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, officials granted this humanoid robot citizenship, making Sophia the first robot to receive citizenship anywhere in the world. The bot, made by Hanson Robotics, is modeled to look like Audrey Hepburn (does Sophia do Audrey justice?).
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Throughout the interview, Sophia flashed a somewhat ...read more
Do you prefer a paperback or hardback to a download on your Kindle? Or maybe BluRays and CDs instead of MP4s? You’re not alone.
Digital products might help us combat clutter, and satisfy that need for instant gratification, but when push comes to shove, a lot of people still prefer something they can hold in their hands. And sales for physical goods like books and movies seem to support that notion. So if digital is so much easier to store and tote around, what gives?
“When somethin ...read more
