It's one of the most common arguments in basketball: Who hit that ball out of bounds? When two NBA players lunge for a ball end up tipping it out, neither wants to cop to the final touch. Refs are called in to arbitrate while both players deny their culpability, often in heated tones.
There's an obvious motive behind wanting to avoid blame, but a new study shows that there might also be a neurological basis behind both players' belief that their opponent touched the ball last. Our brains ...read more
Throat cancer, stroke and paralysis can rob people’s voices and strip away their ability to speak. Now, researchers have developed a decoder that translates brain activity into a synthetic voice. The new technology is a significant step toward restoring lost speech.
“We want to create technologies that can reproduce speech directly from human brain activity,” Edward Chang, a neurosurgeon at the University of California San Francisco, who led the new research, said in a press b ...read more
We know surprisingly little about seismicity (on Earth it would be earthquakes) on other planets. Although we have done a little seismology on the Moon, both "listening" for natural temblors or creating our own, beyond that, we haven't had much luck. Sure, the 1970's Viking landers had seismometers as part of their array of instruments, but they were sitting on the deck of the landers, not placed on the ground, so almost no useful data was collected.
The newest Mars lander, InSight, is th ...read more
It seems like every few years there’s a virus or bacterium that threatens human health in a new way. But a new fungus that is a threat to humans? That doesn’t happen very often. That’s why we in the medical mycology community – the people who study dangerous fungi – are so intrigued and concerned by news reports about a new, deadly fungus called Candida auris.
C. auris is believed to have been first identified in 2009 in the ear canal of a patient in Japan, but has ...read more
Grab a spacesuit and a few months of provisions. We’re taking you on a tour of the Interplanetary Parks Service.
Space is harsh. From damaging radiation to deadly gases and drastic temperature changes, pretty much any environment beyond Earth can kill you at a moment’s notice. Yet our cosmic backyard boasts natural wonders that rival the greatest found on terra firma.
And, one day, when we have the technology for deep-space rocket launches, suitable protective gear, and enough pr ...read more
Turkey’s Mount Chimaera is on fire, and has been for millennia. Dozens of campfire-sized flames burst straight of the mountain’s rocky, sea-facing slope. These eternal flames are fueled by methane, the odorless, colorless substance that provides much of our natural gas for fuel, as well as a potent greenhouse gas.
Most methane (a single carbon atom surrounded by four hydrogens) forms from the decay of ancient plants, animals and other life. But the Earth itself can create methane, t ...read more
SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule experienced an “anomaly” during a rocket test on Saturday that sent smoke high drifting high over its launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Elon Musk and SpaceX have been short on details so far, but unconfirmed video footage shows the spacecraft being destroyed. The same Crew Dragon capsule completed a flawless flight to the International Space Station in March.
The event raises concerns that SpaceX may not be able t ...read more
This is a guest post from Mark R. O'Brien, University at Buffalo, State University of New York. This piece reflects the views of the author.
People eat animals that eat plants. If we just eliminate that middle step and eat plants directly, we would diminish our carbon footprint, decrease agricultural land usage, eliminate health risks associated with red meat and alleviate ethical concerns over animal welfare. For many of us, the major hurdle to executing this plan is that meat tastes goo ...read more
What if everyone had access to powerful tools for scientific learning and problem solving? Scientific discovery tools — from telescopes to magnetometers — help us answer questions and generate knowledge. But many powerful tools are too expensive or too difficult for non-experts to use.
Tool Foundry by Luminary Labs
Earlier this month, Luminary Labs launched Tool Foundry to advance scientific discovery tools that anyone can use. The initiative is funded by gr ...read more
