Overfishing Leads to Aggressive Competition in Caribbean Coral Reefs

Medicine & Technology Apr 28, 2015

While they may make great loofas, in the coral communities of the Caribbean reefs sponges are a greater threat than perhaps even humans. Aggressive competitors for resources and space, these nefarious neighbors have been known to use shading, smothering, snot and even toxins to kill their coral counterparts, literally living on what’s left of their remains. And without many natural predators, these sponges continue to damage reef-building corals unless kept under control.

Life Underneath Antarctica May One Day Reveal Life On Colder Planets

Apr 28, 2015

Though it may be hard to imagine life abounding in the frigid tundra that is Earth’s Antarctica, that doesn’t mean that life cannot exist there. Recent studies looking into the develop and sustainability of life in the frozen wasteland has developed promising results in showing that life may too exist on other exoplanets or exomoons further out in space that may share a similarly cold surface. But in a new study published this week in the journal Nature Communications, researchers with the University of Tennessee Knoxville have discovered a series of underground lakes that could harbor life—pointing ever-more towards the possibility of life far off from what humans can withstand.

More than Meets the Eye—T Rex Relative Was Herbivore Instead

Apr 27, 2015

In the world of dinosaurs, not everything was as it seems. The most advantageous appendages may have just been for show-and-tell, to ward off unassuming predators, and some of the most evolutionarily superb tricks may never be revealed in the fossils we find today. And with the endless wonder of discovering an entirely unique world, unlike our own, paleontologists, like children, keep learning in the hopes of one day adding their own discovery into the dialogue. The only difference is that one of these differences was recently discovered in a new species of dinosaur related to the Tyrannosaurus rex, but this discovery really was made by a child—seven-year-old Diego Suárez.

Neonicotinoid-Laced Nectar Proves to Be Addictive Additive for Bees

Apr 27, 2015

For bees jonesing for their next fix, fate could be a little messy with their newest addictions. In a new study published this week in the journal Nature, researchers conducted experiments to find out just how new pesticides are affecting bee foraging behavior. And what they found is that humans aren’t the only ones addicted to small bits of nicotine—bees crave it too.

Safe and Sound in the Simi Hills—Puma P-32 Crosses the 101 For a New Home

Apr 25, 2015

After more than a year in Santa Monica Mountains a young puma known as “P-32” has decided to leave its nest in search of its sister and safer terrain. Only weeks after his sister made the trip across the 101 Freeway, the young male dashed across the Freeway near Thousand Oaks retreating into the Simi Hills earlier this month and now researchers with the National Park Service believe that “P-32” will have a better shot at a normal life out of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Not So Sweet—‘Spice’ Use Skyrockets and Poison Control Points to Many Recent Deaths

Apr 25, 2015

A potent new drug has hit the city streets nationwide and medical officials are finding that the backlash is anything but sugary sweet. The new street drug, popularly known as “Spice”, are synthetic substances mimicking the effects of marijuana but with far more lethal consequences. As police officers nationwide are cracking down and finding more of the synthetic “Spice” on the streets, medical officials and health agencies are also seeing an increase in life-threatening cases involving the drug, and they think that this Spring could be the apex of the killer drug.

Can the Air You Breathe Cause Your Brain to Shrink?

Apr 25, 2015

According to a new study published this week in the journal Stroke, researchers found the first link directly correlating changes in brain volume to exposure to air pollution, and during the 10-year monitoring period found that brains exposed to areas of dense air pollution were smaller leading to poorer cognitive function—poorer thinking and memory problems just being the start.

Could Sleeping More While Fasting Overnight Prevent You From Developing Breast Cancer?

Apr 20, 2015

Taking a systems biological approach to the study of cancers, many researchers have come to find that there is an intimate intermingling between cancerous tumors and the metabolic rate at which your body processes sugars. As exponentially, growing highly-metabolic cells, cancers require a lot of energy to regenerate, so could starving your cells more often help you avoid cancer altogether? Preliminary studies seem to suggest so.

Vampire Squids Reveal Far More Secrets Below—How These Deep-Sea Dwellers Are Changing The Biology Game

Apr 20, 2015

It’s no real big secret that researchers still don’t know much about what lies deep within the ocean’s unreachable depths. And thus it is ever evident that marine ecologists also do not known a lot about life at the lower depths. But with a new study published this week in the journal Current Biology, researchers now reveal that even the creatures they have found and studied in detail may house some strange secrets of the vast oceans, as well.

Disney Master Redubbing in Tinsel Town With New ‘Visemes’ Approach

Apr 20, 2015

When it comes to films and and the entertainment industry, few other companies in Tinsel Town can quite compare to Disney. But there’s a reason for the company’s great success—it doesn’t usually rely on actors, which can prove to be an added hitch in the process of film-making. But for the off-chance that they need to rely on working with live-action filming, or even the adaptation of one of its many international divisions’ hit films or television shows, Disney has devised a way around the problems of a flubbed line or a poorly dubbed film or two.

Disney’s New 3D Printing Endeavor Creates a Softer Product Instead

Apr 18, 2015

In a new collaborative study between researchers with Carnegie Mellon University and Cornell University, Disney is taking the next step of endeavoring into the industry of 3D printing—and they’re planning to land with a soft fall.

Not Sugary Sweet, But New Artificial Photosynthesis May Change the Game Altogether

Apr 17, 2015

Now, it’s not the first endeavor into artificial photosynthesis, but it may be the most successful on account of its hybrid technology. And by creating a system of semiconducting nanowires, paired with bacteria, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy and University of California, Berkeley believe that they may change the biotechnology game by converting carbon dioxide into something else, instead of a sugary sweet treat.

Enough About Espresso—Here’s the Important Stuff that Landed on the International Space Station Today

Apr 17, 2015

It appears that, as usual, everyone is excited about coffee on a Friday morning. Yes the International Space Station now has an espresso machine for the Americans, but the Italians won the race to the first ISSpresso in space and that’s not even the most important stuff that arrived today thanks to SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. And though the coffee may claim the spotlight, the nanotech, food and mice (yes, we said mice in space) are the really important things aboard this NASA payload.

Comfortably Numb—How College Freshmen are Making The Doctor’s Office and Easier Visit

Apr 16, 2015

3D printing has done it again, and this time it may even get me to willingly go to the doctors. In a new study created by a team of undergraduate students at Rice University, the researchers reveal a rather ingenious way for making a trip to the phlebotomist “comfortably numb”, making the shots we abhor from doctors visits a painless procedure to say the least.

The Tick Problem—What Are The Chances That You’ll Survive the Spring, Powassan-Free?

Apr 16, 2015

Just how likely is it that you’ll transmit a lethal tick-borne virus these spring and summer seasons? Well the odds are in your favor, as lethal viruses that use ticks as a vector are fairly rare, but if you live in Northeast and Upper Midwest of the United States, your chances may be much higher than ever before.