George Dvorsky

Here’s Why Longsword Fighting Is Now A Popular Sport

If you love sword battles in your fantasy films, then this emerging sport may be perfect for you. Called longsword fighting, it’s a revival of a once-forgotten ancient skill. There’s been a renewed interest in what enthusiasts call historical European martial arts, or HEMA. It includes such things as grappling and several types of swordfighting.…

While watching Alfred Hitchcock, a man who has been in a vegetative state for 16 years exhibited similar brain patterns to healthy viewers, including parts of the brain involved in higher cognition and the processing of sensory information. The study “provides the best evidence to date that fMRI can be used to identify consciousness in…

Mice With Genetically “Humanized” Brains Learn Faster

It’s not quite a Pinky and the Brain scenario, but researchers from MIT and several European universities have spliced a human gene responsible for speech and language into mice — a bit of biological uplift that made the mice smarter in certain ways. This is not the first time that the intelligence of an animal…

10 Horrifying Technologies That Should Never Be Allowed To Exist

As we head deeper into the 21st century, we’re starting to catch a glimpse of the fantastic technological possibilities that await. But we’re also starting to get a grim sense of the potential horrors. Here are 10 frightening technologies that should never, ever, come into existence. Illustration by Jim Cooke As I was putting this…

A Density Map Showing 219 Million Stars Of The Visible Milky Way

It took University of Hertfordshire astronomers 10 years to do it, but their meticulous efforts have resulted in a mindboggingly detailed catalogue of the visible part of the northern section of the Milky Way — a vast swath of space that contains new fewer than 219 million stars. Looking below, the axes show galactic latitude…

Cool Experiment Puts Asimov’s First Law Of Robotics To The Test

Isaac Asimov’s First Law of Robotics states that “a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” That sounds simple enough — but a recent experiment shows how hard it’s going to be to get machines to do the right thing. Roboticist Alan Winfield of…

Schizophrenia Is Actually Eight Distinct Genetic Disorders

New research published in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggests that schizophrenia is not a single disease, but rather a group of eight genetically distinct disorders, each of them with its own set of symptoms. The finding could result in improved diagnosis and treatment, while also shedding light on how genes work together to cause…

MIT’s Robotic Cheetah Can Now Run And Jump While Untethered

Well, we knew it had to happen someday. A DARPA-funded robotic cheetah has been released into the wild, so to speak. A new algorithm developed by MIT researchers now allows their quadruped to run and jump — while untethered — across a field of grass. The Pentagon, in an effort to investigate technologies that allow…

The Landing Site On Comet Churymov-Gerasimenko Has Been Selected

This is it, people — this is the spot on the comet where Rosetta’s Philae lander will touch down on November 11th. It’s called Site J, an area chosen for its unique scientific potential and minimum risk to the lander. Choosing a landing site was not easy. Comet Churymov-Gerasimenko’s strange, rubber ducky-like shape is presenting…

Americans are more likely to work nights and weekends compared to citizens of other developed countries. In addition to spending more hours on the job, nearly 30% of Americans work weekends and — shockingly — more than a quarter toil away after 10pm. But people who work the extra-long hours tend to be highly educated…

An Airbus A330 Recently Flew Into A Hailstorm — And This Is The Result

Earlier this week, an Air Europa Airbus A330 travelling from Madrid to Buenos Aires flew directly into a rather serious hailstorm, receiving serious damage to the nose and both windshields. Top image via Aviation Herald. Up until that point, things were rather uneventful on the 12-hour flight. But during the final 20 minutes things got…

Hot Jupiters Create Chaos for Their Stars

New research shows that star-snuggling hot Jupiters, despite being only a thousandth of the mass of their host suns, make their host stars wobble like a spinning top. Top image: Artistic impression via Hubble Space Telescope. Hot Jupiters were among the very first exoplanets ever discovered. Their existence caught astronomers completely off-guard, not only because…

Science Shows Fat Shaming Doesn’t Work – In Fact, It Often Backfires

Overweight and obese people are often the targets of discrimination and teasing. But while some might argue that ‘fat shaming’ encourages weight loss, a new study of nearly 3,000 British adults shows it’s simply not true. This isn’t actually very surprising. Previous research has found that people often resort to comfort eating after being shamed…

These Simple Tips Will Make Your Science Visualizations Rock

There are so many, many ways to graphically convey scientific data. But depending on how this information is presented, it can be perceived differently by different people — if not completely inaccurately. Here are 10 simple rules to help you convey your data more effectively. Top image: Called “Security Blanket,” it’s a digitally printed image…

Our Recovering Ozone Layer Shows Politics Can Make A Difference

Finally, some good news about our troubled atmosphere: A UN study shows that the ozone layer is displaying early signs of thickening after years of depletion. It’s on the road to recovery — an achievement that scientists say is due to political will. Such is the conclusion of 300 scientists who summarized their findings in…

Astrobiologists can now add a new term to their lexicon: The Venus Zone. It describes the area around a star in which a planet is likely to exhibit the inhospitable hell-like conditions found on the planet Venus. The concept will help astronomers determine which exoplanets are more analogous to Earth, and thus friendlier to alien…

New Fossils Push Back The Origin Of Mammals By Millions Of Years

A controversial new analysis of the fossilized remains of six squirrel-sized animals has pushed the lineage of modern mammals back to the Late Triassic — a time when the first dinosaurs emerged. The research also suggests that early mammals didn’t just hide in the undergrowth. Top image: An artist’s impression of the mouse-sized Xianshou Songae,…

Why Do the Anarcho-Primitivists Want to Abolish Civilization?

Anarcho-primitivists are the ultimate Luddites — ideologues who favor complete technological relinquishment and a return to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. We spoke to a leading proponent to learn more about this idea and why he believes civilization was our worst mistake. Philosopher John Zerzan wants you to get rid of all your technology — your car,…

A Gigantic Pendulum Wave Made From 16 Bowling Balls

We’re used to seeing pendulum waves generated on tiny scaffolds with itty-bitty balls. But as this awesome demonstration points out, the same physics applies even at the largest scales. The key to pendulum waves — and understanding why the balls appear to move in and out of synch with each other — is that the…

Ashkenazi Jews Linked To Group Of Just 330 People From Middle Ages

A genetic analysis shows that all of the Ashkenazi Jews alive today — of which there are more than 10 million — can trace their roots to a group of just 330 people who lived 600 to 800 years ago. The new study, which now appears in the journal Nature Communications, involved the genetic analysis…