Biology

Watch Japanese Children Design New Life Forms

We’ve come a long way from Tamagotchi. A company called teamLab has launched a play center called the “Sketch Aquarium,” where kids can design a fish and then interact with it in a virtual tank. It’s adorable — and very mad sciencey. This new self-dubbed “future park” offers children an alternative to the Japanese education…

io9 Mark Strauss

Watch This Octopus Unscrew The Lid Of A Jar (From Inside The Jar)

As though the case for octopus intelligence wasn’t strong enough already, check out the moves on this eight-limbed beastie. With a few deft turns of its tentacles, it manages to unscrew the lid of its enclosure from the inside. Pretty sure this octopus is just flexing its muscles, though. After removing the lid, he seems…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

News Of Junk DNA’s Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

The term “junk DNA” has been under attack lately, but a pair of geneticists are now making the case for this much maligned and misunderstood concept. There are significant chunks of our DNA, they argue, that really are utterly useless. By the end of the Human Genome Project, biologists had discovered that over 98% of…

io9 George Dvorsky

Island Gigantism: How Islands Really Do Breed Giant Creatures

Islands of giant monsters aren’t just in the movies. In real life, certain species grow to incredible size on islands. Why do they grow, and what does it mean for other species survival? We’ll explore the different reasons — and show why this phenomenon reveals that we could probably kill off Godzilla. The Islands Giants…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Scientists Have Created “Alien” DNA

After 15 years of work, scientists have successfully created a living cell that contains two unnatural DNA building blocks. The breakthrough brings us one step closer to being able to synthesize cells that can produce drugs on demand. It even opens the door to a future where we could create life that’s unlike anything ever…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

What Is It With Scientists And Their Reluctance To Study Vaginas?

When it comes to scientific studies of genitalia, whether it be human or otherwise, there’s an unquestionable bias towards penises. As a new study shows, it’s problem that’s actually getting worse — and it’s getting in the way of science. No doubt, scientists just love their penises, including those of ducks, armadillos, turtles, echidnas, slugs,…

io9 George Dvorsky

The Downside Of Eliminating A Possible Ethnic Bioweapon

Ethnic bioweapons, i.e. weapons designed to kill a particular ethnic group, sound like pure evil. For most of history, they’ve been used solely for evil. In one case, though, removing a “weapon” ended up being a humanitarian disaster. The Terai region in Nepal is covered with wet, dense forest, and inhabited by a group 0f…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

The Great Schism Among Biologists About The Nature Of Spite

Spite is an ever-present fact of life among humans — especially in the internet age. But is it purely a human emotion? Many biologists argue that animals feel spite as well — but they disagree about just how spiteful most creatures are. One thing all biologists agree on: Spite has certain rules it must follow.…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

DNA Sequences Can Trace Your Ancestors to Within 30 Miles

DNA sequencing can already tell us a lot about our ancestors—but now, a new technique developed by an international team of scientists allows them to pinpoint a person’s geographical origin—going back 1,000 years. The Geographic Population Structure (GPS) tool—slightly confusing, admittedly—beats previous best attempts to tie location to DNA. It can track populations back to…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

So it Turns Out Bears Are Surprisingly Good Rock Climbers

Trees? Sure. Trees are nature’s ladders, to a bear. A craggy rock face, on the other hand, seems a taller – and more dangerous – order. But these two black bears handle a cliffside ascent with ease. Via Stephanie Latimer, the nature enthusiast who captured the pair on video: Endangered Mexican Black Bears (momma and…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The One Cognitive Bias That’s Holding Back Genetic Research

Scientists may be awesome, but they’re still human beings — and they fall prey to the same cognitive biases as everyone else. Now, a group of researchers say they’ve discovered that the bias known as anthropocentrism is holding back genetic research and severely limiting our discoveries. Image of the protist Nassula by Gerd A. Guenther…

io9 Annalee Newitz

This Is What’s in a Single Drop of Seawater

That crisp, clear seawater you paddle in isn’t as as pure as you might think. Magnify it 25 times, and you’ll find that it’s full of life. This image was captured by David Littschwager and explained in detail by Dive Shield. It shows a single drop of seawater at 25 times magnification, and allows you…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

Pig Bladders Could Be the Secret to Healing Severe Muscle Injuries

When large chunks of muscle are lost in severe injuries, they don’t grow back. But now, scientists have discovered a way to regenerate some lost muscle with material from pig bladders—a technique actually quite common in medicine. The five men in this study published today (April 30) in Science Translational Medicine all suffered leg injuries…

Health Sarah Zhang

Video Reveals the Secret Lives of Carnivorous Sponges

Sponges are generally filter feeders, living off of bacteria and single-celled organisms sieved from the surrounding water. But some are more aggressive about obtaining their food. Researchers have recently discovered four new species of carnivorous sponges living on the deep seafloor. The undersea critters—found in an area spanning the Pacific Northwest to Baja California—look like…

io9 Mark Strauss

What Would Happen If You Turned Megalodon into Shark Fin Soup?

A group of marine biologists watched the new Syfy movie Mega-Shark vs. Mecha-Shark, which made them wonder what would happen if megalodon actually were alive today. Likely, it would be hunted to near-extinction for its fins — which would, they estimated, make 70,456 bowls of shark fin soup. They reached this estimate by looking at…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Why Doesn’t the Heart Get Tired Like Other Muscles?

Anywhere from 60 to 100 times every minute of every day of every year of your (hopefully) long life, your heart beats. Unlike the other muscles in your body, however, your heart almost never gets tired . . . until it stops for good. Here’s why. Three Kinds of Muscles The human body is composed…

Health Melissa - TodayIFoundOut.com

Your Future Flu Vaccines Could Be Grown Inside a Tobacco Plant

Finally, some good news about tobacco and your health. No, there is no nicotine involved, but there will be lots and lots of virus-like particles. Tobacco plants could be one of the fastest and most effective ways of making the seasonal flu vaccine—much faster than the current method using chicken eggs. The flu shot you…

Health Sarah Zhang

DNA Evidence Debunks a Longstanding Myth About Louis XVI’s Blood

When King Louis XVI was beheaded in the early days of the French Revolution, it is said that a handkerchief soaked in his blood was placed in this gourd (pictured). Now a group of Spanish geneticists have sequenced DNA in the blood, to find out whether it’s truly from the king. First, the researchers sequenced…

io9 Annalee Newitz

This Alaskan Frog Can Survive Getting Frozen and Thawed

While human cryogenics is still in its pie-in-the-sky, butt-of-the-joke phase, a frog that lives in Alaska’s subzero temperatures can pull off a surprisingly similar feat. Scientists have now documented the wood frog surviving through its longest and coldest states ever. This frog could someday hold the key to preserving organs for transplant and maybe just…

Tech News Sarah Zhang

Scientists finally reveal secret origin behind 1960s deep ocean mystery

An international team of researchers have finally discovered the source of a weird, low-frequency rhythmic sound that has puzzled scientists and submarine sonar operators for more than half a century. Listen to it. No kaijus, folks. It’s the Antarctic minke whale or Balaenoptera bonaerensis. The fact that the sound appeared “in higher and lower latitudes…

Sploid Jesus Diaz

Watch Japanese Children Design New Life Forms

Watch This Octopus Unscrew The Lid Of A Jar (From Inside The Jar)

News Of Junk DNA’s Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

Island Gigantism: How Islands Really Do Breed Giant Creatures

Scientists Have Created “Alien” DNA

What Is It With Scientists And Their Reluctance To Study Vaginas?

The Downside Of Eliminating A Possible Ethnic Bioweapon

The Great Schism Among Biologists About The Nature Of Spite

DNA Sequences Can Trace Your Ancestors to Within 30 Miles

So it Turns Out Bears Are Surprisingly Good Rock Climbers

The One Cognitive Bias That’s Holding Back Genetic Research

This Is What’s in a Single Drop of Seawater

Pig Bladders Could Be the Secret to Healing Severe Muscle Injuries

Video Reveals the Secret Lives of Carnivorous Sponges

What Would Happen If You Turned Megalodon into Shark Fin Soup?

Why Doesn’t the Heart Get Tired Like Other Muscles?

Your Future Flu Vaccines Could Be Grown Inside a Tobacco Plant

DNA Evidence Debunks a Longstanding Myth About Louis XVI’s Blood

This Alaskan Frog Can Survive Getting Frozen and Thawed

Scientists finally reveal secret origin behind 1960s deep ocean mystery

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