George Dvorsky

This Part Of The US Is Spewing Methane Into The Air At An Alarming Rate

See that small “hot spot” in the U.S. Southwest near the Four Corners region? It shows an extraordinarily dense concentration of the greenhouse gas methane. At triple the standard ground-based estimate, it’s the largest concentration ever seen over the United States. So what’s causing it? Methane is a particularly nasty greenhouse gas. It’s very efficient…

Life expectancy in the U.S. has never been higher. Americans born in 2012 can expect to live for 78.8 years (up 0.1 from 2011). But the gender gap hasn’t changed; life expectancy for men is 76.4 years and 81.2 for women. From 2011-12, death rates declined for 8 of 10 leading causes, but suicides increased…

Check Out This Spectacular Hi-Res Shot Of A Boulder Resting On A Comet

This is a photograph of a giant boulder on top of another giant boulder. And by another giant boulder we mean Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The image was captured by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera from a distance of 17.7 miles (28.5 km). Yay, finally a high-resolution image of the comet’s’ surface. The ESA’s Rosetta team have dubbed…

Watch How The Presence Of A Mean Adult Makes This Toddler’s Head Spin

As adults, we’ve learned to alter our behavior in the presence of angry people. But as this fascinating experiment reveals, even toddlers as young as 15 months have already figured this out. This new study from the Institute of Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington reveals that children as young as 15…

12 Technologies We Need To Stop Stalling On And Develop Now

The pace of technological change is governed by many factors — including public demand. Which is why we need to be demanding more. Here are 12 transformative technologies whose development should be expedited right now. Top image: Conceptual space elevator (Credit: Obayashi Corporation) To make this list meaningful, I only included those items that are…

What If You Awoke One Morning Transformed Into A Robot?

Acclaimed Japanese director Oriza Hirata is releasing a stage production of Kafka’s surrealist classic The Metamorphosis. But in this production, our tortured protagonist does not wake to find himself transformed into a bug. Instead, he’s an android. And remarkably, an actual robot gets to star in the show. In Kafka’s original story, traveling salesman Gregor…

The 2014 Nobel Prize for chemistry has been awarded for the development of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Also called nanoscopy, the technique allows scientists to visualize pathways of individual molecules inside living cells in real time, including those in the brain. The award goes out to German scientist Eric Betzig and Americans William Moerner and Stefan…

Super Typhoon Vongfong Has Erupted Into The Biggest Storm Of 2014

Over the course of 24 hours, Typhoon Vongfong rapidly strengthened from a Category 3 to Category 5. With sustained winds approaching 170 mph (272 km/h), the storm is heading straight towards Japan — a country still reeling from Typhoon Phanfone. GIF: NOAA Vongfong is the strongest tropical cyclone of the year, and the strongest since…

Awareness Can Continue For Several Minutes After Clinical Death

The biggest ever scientific study of near-death experiences shows that awareness can continue for a surprisingly long duration after the brain has shut down completely. The finding suggests that these experiences are more than just hallucinations — and that our definition of clinical death should probably be revised. Near-death experiences (NDEs) and out-of-body experiences (OBEs)…

Stephen Hawking Contributes Vocals To New Pink Floyd Track

Pink Floyd has a new album coming out next month called The Endless River, and it’s set to feature a Stephen Hawking vocal sample on the track, “Talkin’ Hawkin’.” Top image: The cover of “The Endless River” via Pink Floyd. Floyd fans will remember that this isn’t the first time the band has collaborated with…

Brain Scans Show Signs Of Cognitive Decline Before Symptoms Appear

Neuroscientists from the University of Geneva have devised a technique that reveals evidence of cognitive decline prior to the onset of symptoms — an indication that deterioration in the brain happens before we’re able to pick up on cognitive deficiencies. Top image: Scans showing a comparison between a stable, healthy brain and one exhibiting cognitive…

The 2014 Nobel Prize In Physics Goes To The Inventors Of The Blue LED

Congratulations goes out to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura. Some 20 years ago, they invented the blue light-emitting diode, an energy-efficient and environmentally efficient light source with revolutionary implications. This particular prize fits in well with Alfred Nobel’s mandate of rewarding scientists for inventions that conferred the greatest benefit to humanity. With the…

Are We Overthinking the Dangers of Artificial Intelligence?

Futurists and science fiction authors often give us overly grim visions of the future, especially when it comes to the Singularity and the risks of artificial superintelligence. Scifi novelist David Brin talked to us about why these dire predictions are often simplistic and unreasonable. Illustration: Jim Cooke Our civilization faces no shortage of risks in…

Terrifyingly Brilliant Spider Creates Stunningly Advanced Web

A European garden spider recently stumbled upon a rather amazing solution to a serious problem. It wanted to weave its web across the top of a garage, but the angle of the roof was too shallow for anchoring. So it did what any industrious spider would do — it suspended a rock to anchor the…

Introducing the world’s first solar battery. The device — which is part solar cell, part battery — recharges itself using air and light. Nano-scale holes allow air to enter the battery (inset), while rods of titanium dioxide gather light (larger image). The researchers from Ohio State say it’ll help tame the costs of renewable energy.

New “Programmable” Antibiotic Targets Drug-Resistant Genes

A fundamental drawback to antibiotics is that they indiscriminately target all of the bacteria in your body, including the good ones. So how cool would it be if we could engineer a smart antibiotic that targets specific strains of bacteria? Researchers at Rockefeller University have just taken us one major step forward in that direction.…

Chemical Reactions Shot in Ultra HD Look Like Alien Life

Chemical reactions are those magical moments when the matter that surrounds us suddenly bursts into life. A stunning new video collaboration between scientists and artists now showcases eight different types of these reactions in exquisite detail. The collaboration between Tsinghua University Press and University of Science and Technology of China was meant as a way…

Our Planet Is Warming Faster Than We Realized

Climate scientists have come to the startling realization that — owing to inaccurate and sparse measurements prior to 2004 — we’ve been seriously underestimating the rate at which the ocean in the Southern Hemisphere is getting hotter. And as scientists like to say, ocean warming is global warming. By using satellite data and a suite…

Nobel Prize In Medicine Awarded To Discoverers Of Brain’s “Inner GPS”

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to U.S.-British scientist John O’Keefe and Norwegian couple May-Britt and Edvard Moser for discovering the brain’s internal positioning system. The discovery answered a question that vexed scientists and philosophers for centuries: How does the brain create a map of the space surrounding us and…

Wreck Of The S. S. Connaught Discovered Off The Coast Of Boston

The S.S. Connaught — a luxurious ocean liner considered the Titanic of its era — has finally been discovered. The 380-foot iron-hulled side-wheeled steamer sunk in 1860 after it caught fire en route to Boston. The ship hadn’t been seen in 154 years. The Endurance Exploration Group started their search in earnest last year with…