Scientists have demonstrated an amazing proof-of-concept, using a technique called intracortical micro stimulation (ICMS) that allows amputees to feel sensory-rich information in real time. The technology is a remarkable breakthrough, and represents a huge stop toward creating devices that give amputees a sense of touch; the introduction of more life-like assistive devices has the...
In 1990, NASA’s Voyager 1 spaceprobe aimed its camera toward Earth and snapped a picture at the request of Carl Sagan. The result was this photo, and a deep reflection on the “Pale Blue Dot,” summarized here: “Consider again that dot,” Sagan mused. “That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever...
Marine Staff Segeant James Sides lost his right arm from the elbow down following an IED explosion in Afghanistan in 2012. For a while, Sides was using a prosthetic hand to give him some semblance of life before the accident. Eleven months later, and Sides is using a potentially revolutionary new prosthetic that can be controlled by his own muscles. You and I are able to move our hands...
Scientists have developed a new technology capable of identifying fingerprints no matter how thoroughly they've been wiped. According to Science Daily, scientists from Leicester University claim a new color-changing fluorescent film method could better capture hidden or latent prints on metal surfaces (guns, knives, door knobs, etc.). Basically, if you don't wear gloves, the method is...
Global warming has been a hot-button controversy for years, but there’s a new app that could end the discussion once and for all. Novim, a research group from UC Santa Barbara, took on the daunting task of wrangling data from more than two centuries of research into Earth temperatures from its Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) study. Using that, the group developed an iOS app...
New data collected by French research agency CEA suggests the Earth's inner core—beneath the crust, mantle and core—is much, much hotter than originally thought. So hot, in fact, that researchers believe it's just as hot as the surface of the Sun. Through X-ray analysis of molten iron, Agnes Dewaele and other members of the scientific community were able to measure a temperature range...
Human beings are one step closer to creating lab-grown organs for other human beings. That little organ donor sticker you have on your state-issued ID may one day become irrelevant—that's the plan. In what is a major hurdle for regenerative medicine, Scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, led by Harald Ott, have successfully transplanted a functional lab-grown...
Scientists claim that five-year-long research has culminated in a positive link between Bigfoot and modern humans. As in, Bigfoot, the mythical and allusive ape-like creature, could be related to your Uncle Bill. That would explain Uncle Bill’s year-round fur coat, and why he prefers mountain-living over the city. This is real, actual, 100 percent serious. According to Melba S. Ketchum...
Perhaps more than any other urban myth, the does-he-or-doesn’t-he existence of Bigfoot is the most debated and publicized unsolved mystery. Somewhere in our minds, we’d like to think he does. But for all the supposed proof, we’ve simply never turned up cold hard evidence that the gentle giant(s) (or vicious, who knows?) are actually a real entity, and not some made up thing. One Idaho...
There’s a vicious hurricane, Sandy, hurtling straight toward USA’s East coast. The current forecast is grim — it could be the worst storm in more than 100 years — and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is even referring to the event as Frankenstorm: gale-force winds, snow, torrential rain, flooding and extreme tides in one unforgiving force of nature. Please,...