By tinkering with its DNA, scientists have converted the common gut bacterium E. coli into the world’s smallest tape recorder. The newly designed microbes are engineered in such a way that they are capable of documenting and storing memories from their environment which can then be retrieved at a later date. The idea behind [...]
As an orbiting laboratory, the International Space Station (ISS) offers researchers around the world the unique opportunity to perform experiments in microgravity and under the rigors of the space environment. Scientists have used the station for everything from testing technology for future space exploration to studying human health. Sometimes their work involves some pretty unusual [...]
Researchers have long puzzled over what created the giant, elliptical hole called the Sudbury Basin in Ontario, Canada. At 62 kilometers long, 30 kilometers wide, and 15 kilometers deep, it’s the second largest impact crater on the planet. Now, researchers studying the chemistry of the crater and its shattered rocks say it was made by [...]
More than 100 trillion microbes live in our bodies, helping us digest food and stay healthy -- some 700 bacteria varieties live in our mouths alone. Now, researchers show that up to 80 million bacteria can be shared during just one French kiss, and couples who kiss each other nine times a day or [...]
telegeography.com In describing the system of wires that comprises the Internet, Neal Stephenson once compared the earth to a computer motherboard. From telephone poles suspending bundles of cable to signs posted warning of buried fiber optic lines, we are surrounded by evidence that at a basic level, the Internet is really just a spaghetti-work of [...]
During the accelerated expansion of the early universe, the production of the Higgs boson—the elementary particle responsible for giving mass to all particles—should have led to instability, followed by collapse. At least that’s what some recent studies suggest. But the universe didn’t collapse immediately after the Big Bang, and now researchers think they know why. [...]
