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Not Exactly Rocket Science

English - Science, Biology, News
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/
Not Exactly Rocket Science · 4h ago

I’ve got your missing links right here (26 May 2012)

Top picks This is beautiful. Alexis Madrigal watches an eclipse by turning his fist into a pinhole camera, entrances passers-by Must-read piece on the NSABB – the board that assessed the risk of those mutant flu papers – by Brendan Maher Do Plants Smell Other Plants? This One Does, Then Strangles Wh
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Not Exactly Rocket Science · 2d ago

Neurons transplanted into mouse spines reverse chronic pain

Several neural diseases, including chronic pain and epilepsy, involve a lack of restraint. That is, damage to nerves in the spine reduces the levels of a signalling chemical called GABA, which silences excitable neurons. The result: too much neural activity. There are drugs that can restore GABA, bu
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Not Exactly Rocket Science · 3d ago

Virtual resurrection shows that early four-legged animal couldn’t walk very well

In a small office north of London, Stephanie Pierce from the Royal Veterinary College is watching a movement that hasn’t been seen for 360 million years. On her computer, she has resurrected the long-extinct Ichthyostega – one of the earliest four-legged animals to creep about on land. By recreating
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Not Exactly Rocket Science · 3d ago

New sense organ helps giant whales to coordinate the world’s biggest mouthfuls

The world’s largest animals have been hiding something. The bodies of the giant rorqual whales—including the blue, fin and humpback—have been regularly displayed in museums, filmed by documentary makers, and harpooned by hunters. Despite this attention, no one noticed the volleyball-sized sense orga
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Not Exactly Rocket Science · 3d ago

Here’s where all the magic happens

And by magic, I mean mixed metaphors, endless hours on Twitter, and tears. The Open Notebook has a series called Natural Habitat, which looks at the space in which science writers work. I, perhaps foolishly, agreed to take part in it. You can find the resulting video and photos here, featuring the l
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Not Exactly Rocket Science · 5d ago

Blind mice regain sight after scientists persuade their optic nerves to grow

A mouse optic nerve with new axons (in red) running all the way along it. A blind man sees his fiancée’s smile for the first time. Another walks around at night, navigating via streetlamps and headlights. Yet another reads his own name (and spots a typo). All three had lost their sight years before,
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Not Exactly Rocket Science · 1w ago

I’ve got your missing links right here (19 May 2012)

Top picks Manta rays depend on forests. Carl Zimmer on top form. The evidence for precognition was staring us in the face all along. Hilarious satire of psychology’s problems. How a professor who fooled Wikipedia got caught by Reddit – implications for ”truth” online. Great story by Yoni Applebaum.
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Not Exactly Rocket Science · 1W ago

Meet the paralysed woman who commandeered a robotic arm

Cathy Hutchinson has been trapped in her frozen body for 14 years, after a stroke disconnected her brain from her spinal column. Recently, however, she commanded a robot arm to bring a thermos of coffee to her lips. This story has been all over the news, but for the ultimate telling of the tale, yo
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Not Exactly Rocket Science · 1W ago

Deep-sea bacteria redefine life in the slow lane

Your laziest days are positively frenetic compared to the lifestyle of some deep-sea bacteria, buried in the sediments of the Pacific Ocean. These microbes are pushing a slow-going lifestyle to an extreme. They subsist on vanishingly low levels of oxygen, in sediments that have not received any new
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Not Exactly Rocket Science · 1W ago

As oxygen filled the world, life’s universal clock began to tick

The Earth’s earliest days were largely free of oxygen. Then, around 2.5 billion years ago, primitive bacteria started to flood the atmosphere with this vital gas. They produced it in the process of harnessing the sun’s energy to make their own nutrients, just as plants do today. The building oxygen
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