25 Nov, 2013 | by Labroots

Your Brain Sees What You Are Missing

An article reporting the results of a study focusing on how the brain works made science news this month, when researchers found that the human brain has the capacity to process and understand things that we see, without being consciously aware of them. The article was printed in the science journal Psychological Science, detailing how the study was performed and why the results are so important. Jay...... Read More

22 Nov, 2013 | by Labroots

Is Time a Result of Quantum Entanglement?

Source: https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/d5d3dc850933 http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.4691 It is ironic that two of Albert Einstein’s most famous works – the respective theories of general relativity and special relativity – have been prisoner to a seemingly irreconcilable difference in the century since they were each postulated.  The problem is time.  Or, rather, how each model approaches...... Read More

21 Nov, 2013 | by Labroots

Microbial Computers Could Revolutionize Medical Diagnostics

Source: http://stanmed.stanford.edu/2013fall/article10.html Imagine going to your doctor for a routine physical examination.  At some point your physician asks you to imbibe some exotic concoction.  A few hours later, you have a bowel movement: one that your doctor collects and shines ultraviolet light upon.  He’s looking for your solid waste material to shine back at him; you are praying it...... Read More

20 Nov, 2013 | by Labroots

Microsoft Kinect-ing Sign Language and the Spoken Word

Source: http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2013/10/30/microsoft-research-uses-kinect-translate-spoken-sign-languages-real-time/ YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnkQyUo3134 “The street finds its own uses for things,” William Gibson wrote three decades ago.  The acclaimed science-fiction author was musing on humanity’s penchant for taking new technology and appropriating (or misappropriating)...... Read More

19 Nov, 2013 | by Labroots

Romanian Scientists Create Artificial Blood

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2480236/Forget-prosthetic-limbs-theres-artificial-BLOOD-Liquid-water-salt-protein-successfully-used-mice.html “I do not drink… wine.” - Count Vlad Dracula And thanks to research by his modern-day countrymen, the good count won’t have to feed on the precious vino of his victims, either.  Romanian researchers have formulated artificial...... Read More

15 Nov, 2013 | by Labroots

Yellowstone Magma Reservoir: Twice the Hotspot than Previously Believed

Source: http://www.nature.com/news/large-magma-reservoir-gets-bigger-1.14036 Be of good cheer: this will not mean that Yellowstone is twice as likely to cataclysmically erupt as a mega volcano (or that it will become next month’s big premiere movie on SyFy, for that matter).  However, it does mean that the chances of a massive earthquake in the area are much larger than originally thought. Yellowstone...... Read More

14 Nov, 2013 | by Labroots

Surprising Effects of the End of Daylight Savings Time

As daylight savings time comes to an end for the year, people enjoy the extra hour of sleep that comes with the change. However, according to a Live Science news article, the change in quantity of sleep is not the only impact that the practice of changing the time has. It turns out that the beginning and ending of daylight savings time has some interesting effects on the human body. Some of these have...... Read More

13 Nov, 2013 | by Labroots

Spices May be the Source of Contaminated Food

For the many people who avoid eating meat because of the potential for contamination, new findings by studies conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration are going to be disappointing, if not startling. Spices have now been added to the list of potentially tainted foods, containing salmonella, along with rodent hair and insect parts. Seven percent of the imported spices they tested contained the...... Read More

12 Nov, 2013 | by Labroots

Relationship Found Between Global Warming and Mammal Body Size

Those in environmental science have long recognized that there is a direct link between global warming and the body size of mammals, including primates, horses and deer. During the period of global warming that took place approximately 55 million years ago, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, these animals became much smaller in size. Now researchers from the University of Michigan...... Read More

11 Nov, 2013 | by Labroots

Forensic Science Improves the Use of Fingerprint Technology

Fingerprints have long provided a method used for law enforcement to learn who was guilty of crimes. Now, fingerprinting technology has been improved. Adding a fluorescent product to directly highlight fingerprints makes it faster, easier and less expensive to gather fingerprint evidence. The discovery made by the French Police and Gendarmerie, in combination with the FBI and Scotland Yard, was published...... Read More