Hot Tea Freezing In Mid-Air Captured In Stunning Photograph

by Robin Andrews

photo credit: What a beautiful waste of tea. Michael Davies

It’s pretty cold in the north of Canada at any time of year, but in the winter, temperatures plummet to incredible lows. Ontario-based photographer Michael Davies and his friend Markus stood at the top of a mountain and demonstrated this by throwing leftover tea into the air, dramatically photographing it instantaneously freezing.

Eyewitnesses Are More Accurate When They're Confident

by Janet Fang

photo credit: BostonBill (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

People who witness crimes are often asked to identify suspects in a lineup. Traditionally, police would present them with six people simultaneously, five of whom are fillers who are innocent but resemble the suspect. Photo arrays are more common these days than live lineups, and previous studies found that these work better if the pictures are presented in a sequence, rather than all at once. Almost a third of U.S. law enforcement agencies have since adopted this sequential procedure.

Researchers Have Pinpointed The Most Lightning-Struck Spot On Earth

by Ben Taub

photo credit: Lake Maracaibo is struck by lightning on 297 days a year. Denis Rozhnovsky/Shutterstock

They say lightning never strikes twice, although whoever "they" are might want to have a rethink. New research presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting suggests that one spot in a Venezuelan lake receives a bolt of lightning on 297 days out of 365 each year.

Stunning Images Blend Models Into The Surrounding Environment

by Tom Hale

photo credit: Clouds could even be painted thanks to it being a still day. Trina Merry

New York artist Trina Merry has created a series of photographs called "Lost In Wonder" that fuse the modern medium of photography with the ancient practice of body art.  

The Physical Characteristics That Make Men More Attractive, According To Science

by Tom Hale

photo credit: Roman Seliutin/Shutterstock

This video from Tech Insider reveals some of the physical characteristics that scientific studies suggest make men more attractive to women.

Of course, take it with a pinch of salt. Not everybody loves the cliché tall, dark and handsome look – although wearing red clothes probably wouldn’t go amiss. Furthermore, personality goes a long way. Even science has said that, not just your mom.

 

Cat Walks Again After Receiving Titanium Prosthetic Legs

by Tom Hale

photo credit: ISUNewsService/YouTube

Vincent the cat was born with an abnormality in his hind legs, which meant he couldn't walk. Abandoned as a kitten, he was left in the hands of the Story County Animal Shelter in Iowa. Usually, it's bad news for a kitten in this position. However, thanks to the determination of workers at the shelter, some top veterinarians and an experimental procedure, he's nowback on his feet and very happy.

Molecular Clock Needs To Take Supernovae Into Account, Claims Researcher

by Robin Andrews

photo credit: Tick tock. Andrey Armyagov/Shutterstock

Not all clocks measure time in hours, minutes and seconds. The molecular clock is one such timepiece; it uses the random mutations in sequences of DNA to estimate when species diverged from one another. Although it is an invaluable tool for biologists and paleontologists alike for tracking evolutionary changes over time, it doesn’t always precisely match up with the dates given by the corresponding fossils. The University of Kansas has announced that they are working on a paper which shows that cosmic radiation is to blame for this offset.

Why Do Humans Have Grandparents?

by Justine Alford

photo credit: Humans are one of the few species that live long after reproductive age. Family Business/Shutterstock

Many of us treasure our grandparents, but it turns out they’re so precious that humans have evolved gene variants that help protect them against certain age-related diseases, like Alzheimer’s. By keeping the older generation healthier, it not only reduces their burden on others but also allows them to keep contributing to society.

9 Benefits of Effective Reverse Logistics Process Management & 5 Advantages of Partnering with a 3PL

While conventional logistics optimizes the flow of goods from producer to consumer, reverse logistics manages the processes for inverting that flow to deal with returned parts, materials and products from the consumer back to the producer. Most often, this includes warranty recovery, value recovery, repair, redistribution, product recalls, used parts and replacement materials for refurbishment, service or product contract returns, and end-of-life recycling.

What Your Beard Says About Your Personality

by Tom Hale

photo credit: pio3/Shutterstock

In what is surely going to prove a controversial conclusion, a new study has claimed to find a link between beards and misogny. As always, correlation does not necessarily imply causation, but that hasn't stopped the researchers making such a link.

Childhood Drawings May Indicate Intelligence as Teenagers

by Lisa Winter

photo credit: King's College London

If you’ve had a child go through preschool or Kindergarten, you’ve likely had his or her teacher show you the child’s artwork and explain the importance of some of the details. This isn’t just them making conversation; the amount of details and realism can indicate a young child’s intelligence.

First Macroscopic Quantum Entanglement At Room Temperature Achieved

by Alfredo Carpineti

photo credit: Paul Klimov, a graduate student at the Institute for Molecular Engineering, adjusts the intensity of a laser beam during an experiment. University of Chicago

November has been a great month for quantum entanglement fans. Not only was entanglement proven to be a fact of nature, but the first quantum computer code was written on an entangled system as well. Now, scientists from the University of Chicago were able to obtain a quantum entanglement state at room temperature in a macroscopic (relatively large) object. Macroscopic objects are expected to obey exclusively classical physics, so this experiment is a big deal. 

How Loneliness Can Be Deadly

by Justine Alford

photo credit: Jaromir Chalabala/Shutterstock

We’ve all felt isolated at times, but the so-called “invisible epidemic” that is loneliness is about much more than ephemeral feelings of sadness. Doctors have known for some time that loneliness is associated with not only chronic illness but death, too. Now, scientists are beginning to unravel why this is, with the discovery that social isolation puts our body in “fight or flight” mode, preparing for social threat. This triggers a cascade of events that ultimately alter the production of white blood cells, leaving us vulnerable to disease.

The Universe’s Most Miraculous Molecule

by Richard Gunderman

photo credit: George Thomas/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

It’s the second most abundant substance in the universe. It dissolves more materials than any other solvent. It stores incredible amounts of energy. Life as we know it would not be possible without it. And although it covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, many parts of the world are in dire straits for lack of it. What is it?

This Technique Could Lead To Self-Healing Tires

by Justine Alford

photo credit: Lane V. Erickson/Shutterstock

Flat tires: agonizing time-wasters and inducers of expletives, they are at least a good faux excuse for tardiness. But in the future, we could have to find a new fib, as scientists might have come up with a way to avoid them. By altering the rubber processing technique, researchers have managed to produce a material that exhibits self-healing properties, without sacrificing strength or elasticity.

Thanks To The Magnus Effect, This Basketball Does Something Pretty Weird When Dropped

by Morenike Adebayo

photo credit: Basketball is dropped from a height of 126.5 meters (415 feet). Veritasium/YouTube

Drop a basketball from a height, you've got a few flights of stairs to descend to retrieve it and you might even owe an apology to an angry passer-by.

But if you give it enough height and add a dash of backspin, you can watch it say GOODBYE, FRIEND as it curves a great distance away from its intended flight path.

Wormhole Illusion Causes Magnetic Field To Move Through Space Undetected

by Jonathan O'Callaghan

photo credit: An illustration of a wormhole in action. edobric/Shutterstock.

Scientists have developed a magnetic system that mimics the behavior of a wormhole – theorized to allow space-time to be bent, and vast distances to be traveled in an instant – but it absolutely is not an actual wormhole, so don’t get too excited. However, what they did, which was to make a propagating magnetic field invisible, is actually very interesting. You can get excited again.

Quantum Teleportation Breakthrough Sets Distance Record Of 100 Kilometers

 by Jonathan O'Callaghan

photo credit: sakkmesterke/Shutterstock.

This is not the same as "classical" teleportation akin to Star Trek. Just to get that out of the way nice and early.

Scientists say they have set a new distance record for quantum teleportation, which could be important in terms of quantum computing, but probably less so in beaming yourself to a spacecraft. So, what is quantum teleportation? Let’s take a look.

The Chameleon Field: Will We Ever Find This "Fifth Force"?

by Caroline Reid

photo credit: And why does it get its name from this animal? Steve Wilson/Flickr. (CC BY 2.0)

The universe isn't just expanding, it's accelerating. And no one knows why. Dark energy was proposed to fill in this knowledge gap: a sort of "repulsive gravity" that pushes matter and space-time away instead of dragging it closer. Rather than gathering around regions of dense matter (such as stars or galaxies), dark energy prefers to hang out in the most isolated neighborhoods of the universe in the vast regions of empty space. 

This Atom Makes Quantum Computing Light Work

by Caroline Reid

photo credit: Abstract concept of a photon interacting with a particle. agsandrew/Shutterstock.

The elusive dream of quantum computing might seem far off, but researchers everywhere are trying to figure out solutions to get us closer to these powerful computers. One team of scientists from the University of Toronto has succeeded in making an important tool in computing, a logic gate, from a single type of atom. It uses clever optical effects to transmit information. The research is published in Nature Physics.