Reality Upgrades

Planets Are More Commonplace Than Stars

2012-01-13T19:30:00.000-08:00

The next time you look up at the night sky and find yourself marveling at the number of stars overhead, know that you are only seeing part of the magnificent bounty that our galaxy holds. Most of those Milky Way stars are not isolated orbs. Rather an average star has at least one planetary companion, invisible to the naked eye and in most cases as yet unseen by telescopes, according to a new analysis.

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EARTH 2.0 INITIALIZATION

2011-10-25T20:11:00.001-07:00

Implications for Unified Sciences

2011-10-25T01:47:00.000-07:00

Super-Earth discovered in a habitable zone

2011-09-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Whispers that the Milky Way is filled with planets have turned into a roar. Earlier this week, astronomers announced the discovery of 600 more exoplanet candidates, including one "super-Earth" which may be habitable.

The news strengthens many astronomers' suspicions that habitable planets are common and that more exciting discoveries are likely as better telescopes become available.

Called a super-Earth because it is only 3.6 times more massive than Earth and possibly rocky rather than gaseous, it resides in a 58-day orbit on the inner edge of its orange star's habitable zone. If protected by a thick, cloudy atmosphere, it could have liquid water on its surface. Called HD 85512b, the exoplanet is only the second small world to be found inside a habitable zone and lies just 36 light years away in the constellation of Vela. That is close enough for future telescopes to scour it for signs of life.

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Dark Matter Is an Illusion, New Antigravity Theory Says

2011-09-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

The mysterious substance known as dark matter may actually be an illusion created by gravitational interactions between short-lived particles of matter and antimatter, a new study says.

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Dark matter may be an illusion caused by the quantum vacuum

2011-08-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

As one of many scientists who have become somewhat skeptical of dark matter, CERN physicist Dragan Slavkov Hajdukovic has proposed that the illusion of dark matter may be caused by the gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum.

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Oxygen Molecules Discovered in Deep Space for First Time

2011-08-03T23:55:00.000-07:00

Astronomers can finally breathe a sigh of relief: A team of scientists has discovered the first oxygen molecules in deep space, capping a nearly 230-year search for the elusive cosmic molecule.

The oxygen molecules were detected in a star-forming region of the Orion nebula, roughly 1,500 light-years from Earth, by the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory. The observatory used its large telescope and infrared detectors to hone in on the species, which is thought to be common in the cosmos, but has so far been hard to find.

Individual atoms of oxygen (called atomic oxygen) are common in space, particularly around massive stars. But molecular oxygen, which is formed of two bonded oxygen atoms and makes up about 20 percent of the air we breathe on Earth, has eluded astronomers until now.

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World we see is make-believe, top British scientist says

2011-08-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

The human brain creates its own version of reality, and the world we see around us is mostly make-believe, according to a top British scientist.

Professor Bruce Hood will explore the limits of the human mind in a series of prestigious lectures for the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the oldest independent research body in the world.

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Universe's Largest Water Reservoir Discovered in Black Hole

2011-07-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

Lurking in a distant supermassive black hole there exists a reservoir of water as big as 140 trillion oceans, the largest repository of water in the universe and 4,000 times more than exists in the Milky Way. Two teams of astronomers discovered this mass of water 12 billion light years away, where it manifests as vapor spread across hundreds of light years.

Dolphin Healing Powers May Help Humans

2011-07-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

What miracles is Mother Nature hiding from us? Look no further than the bottlenose dolphin for a little bit of inspiration. At least that's what a researcher at the Georgetown University Medical Center suggests.

Michael Zasloff has published a letter in the July 21 issue of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, in which he recounts several documented incidents of serious injuries to dolphins, presumably inflicted by sharks. These bites, some larger than a basketball, healed in weeks without leaving the dolphins disfigured, without causing them apparent pain, and without becoming visibly infected.

"If I saw this in a human being, I wouldn't believe it," Zasloff said. "It should awe us. You have an animal that has evolved in the ocean without hands or legs, which swims faster than we can, has intelligence that perhaps equals our social and emotional complexity, and its healing is almost alien compared to what we are capable of."

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First Demonstration of Time Cloaking

2011-07-18T23:33:00.000-07:00

Physicists have created a "hole in time" using the temporal equivalent of an invisibility cloak. Invisibility cloaks are the result of physicists' newfound ability to distort electromagnetic fields in extreme ways. The idea is steer light around a volume of space so that anything inside this region is essentially invisible.

The effect has generated huge interest. The first invisibility cloaks worked only at microwave frequencies but in only a few years, physicists have found ways to create cloaks that work for visible light, for sound and for ocean waves. They've even designed illusion cloaks that can make one object look like another.

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FRACTALS - Hunting the Hidden Dimension

2011-07-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

The universe may have been born spinning

2011-07-09T04:47:00.000-07:00

Physicists and astronomers have long believed that the universe has mirror symmetry, like a basketball. But recent findings from the University of Michigan suggest that the shape of the Big Bang might be more complicated than previously thought, and that the early universe spun on an axis.

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Color Red Increases the Speed and Strength of Reactions

2011-06-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

A new study, published in the latest issue of the journal Emotion, finds that when humans see red, their reactions become both faster and more forceful. And people are unaware of the color’s intensifying effect.

The findings may have applications for sporting and other activities in which a brief burst of strength and speed is needed, such as weightlifting.

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An Alternative to Antibiotics Found

2011-06-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

Antibiotics are among the greatest achievements of medical science. But lately the former multi-purpose weapon fails in the battle against infectious diseases. Bacteria are increasingly developing resistance to antibiotics. Researchers have now found a therapeutic equivalent which could replace penicillin and related phamaceuticals.

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People can be altered by experiences they haven't had yet?

2011-06-23T01:51:00.000-07:00

One of the most respected, senior and widely published professors of psychology, Daryl Bem of Cornell, has just published an article that suggests that people — ordinary people — can be altered by experiences they haven't had yet. Time, he suggests, is leaking. The Future has slipped, unannounced, into the Present. And he thinks he can prove it.

Later today you are going to do something, something you don't know about yet. Yet somehow, it's already happened. Somehow, it's already affected you. Huh?

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Humans May Have 'Magnetic' Sixth Sense

2011-06-22T06:22:00.000-07:00

Humans may have a sixth sense after all, suggests a new study finding that a protein in the human retina, when placed into fruit flies, has the ability to detect magnetic fields.

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Moving Mirrors Make Light from Nothing

2011-06-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

A team of physicists is claiming to have coaxed sparks from the vacuum of empty space. At the heart of the experiment is one of the weirdest, and most important, tenets of quantum mechanics: the principle that empty space is anything but.

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Suppose You Could Know What Others Are Thinking

2011-05-17T01:11:00.000-07:00

Scientists suggest spacetime has no time dimension

2011-05-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

The concept of time as a way to measure the duration of events is not only deeply intuitive, it also plays an important role in our mathematical descriptions of physical systems. For instance, we define an object’s speed as its displacement per a given time. But some researchers theorize that this Newtonian idea of time as an absolute quantity that flows on its own, along with the idea that time is the fourth dimension of spacetime, are incorrect.

Scientists propose that clocks measure the numerical order of material change in space, where space is a fundamental entity; time itself is not a fundamental physical entity.

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A Star as Old as the Universe Found in Milky Way

2011-04-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

Astronomers have discovered a relic from the early universe -- a star that may have been among the second generation of stars to form after the Big Bang.

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Radiation Rings Hint Universe Was Recycled Over and Over

2011-04-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

Most cosmologists trace the birth of the universe to the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. But a new analysis of the relic radiation generated by that explosive event suggests the universe got its start eons earlier and has cycled through myriad episodes of birth and death, with the Big Bang merely the most recent in a series of starting guns.

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Doctors want to make more use of our ability to 'trick ourselves better’

2011-03-19T22:55:00.000-07:00

Not so long ago, it wasn’t unusual for your friendly GP to have at hand a bottle of sugar pills for patients’ minor aches and pains. While sugar pills are no longer on offer, a report out last week revealed that half of all German doctors are happily dishing out placebos to their patients for ailments such as stomach upset and low mood.

The study, published by the German Medical Association, said that placebos – here defined as sham treatments without any active constituents – from vitamin pills to homeopathic remedies and even surgery, can prove effective as treatments for minor problems and are completely without side effects.

Dan Winter - The Purpose of DNA

2011-02-19T08:28:00.000-08:00

Rewrite the textbooks: Findings challenge conventional wisdom of how neurons operate

2011-02-19T08:22:00.000-08:00

Neurons are complicated, but the basic functional concept is that synapses transmit electrical signals to the dendrites and cell body (input), and axons carry signals away (output). In one of many surprise findings, Northwestern University scientists have discovered that axons can operate in reverse: they can send signals to the cell body, too.

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Italian scientists claim to have demonstrated cold fusion

2011-01-25T07:14:00.000-08:00

Despite the intense skepticism, a small community of scientists is still investigating near-room-temperature fusion reactions. The latest news occurred last week, when Italian scientists Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi of the University of Bologna announced that they developed a cold fusion device capable of producing 12,400 W of heat power with an input of just 400 W. Last Friday, the scientists held a private invitation press conference in Bologna, attended by about 50 people, where they demonstrated what they claim is a nickel-hydrogen fusion reactor. Further, the scientists say that the reactor is well beyond the research phase; they plan to start shipping commercial devices within the next three months and start mass production by the end of 2011.

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Mindfulness Meditation Training Changes Brain Structure in Eight Weeks

2011-01-23T18:01:00.000-08:00

Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain's grey matter.

"It is fascinating to see the brain's plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life." says Britta Hölzel, PhD, first author of the paper and a research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany. "Other studies in different patient populations have shown that meditation can make significant improvements in a variety of symptoms, and we are now investigating the underlying mechanisms in the brain that facilitate this change."

DNA molecules can 'teleport', Nobel Prize winner claims

2011-01-18T22:17:00.000-08:00

A Nobel Prize winning biologist has ignited controversy after publishing details of an experiment in which a fragment of DNA appeared to ‘teleport’ or imprint itself between test tubes.

The phenomenon might be very loosely described as 'teleportation' except that the bases project or imprint themselves across space rather than simply moving from one place to another.

"It is hard to understand how the information can be stored within water over a timescale longer than picoseconds," said the Ruhr University in Bochum’s Klaus Gerwert, quoted by New Scientist magazine, which broke the story.

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Scientists make holograms of atoms using electrons

2011-01-07T01:47:00.000-08:00

While holography is often associated with artistic 3D images, it can also be used for many other purposes. In a new study, scientists have created holograms of atoms using laser-driven electron motion, which could lead to a new type of ultra-fast photoelectron spectroscopy. In the future, this type of holography could enable scientists to study the structures of molecules in a more direct way than before.

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A New Concept of the Universe

2011-01-01T01:11:00.000-08:00

Newton, Einstein, Hawking, Sagan and lately micho koo koo have all been dethroned for the false science they taught for their corporate masters. The false academic sciences have need utterly demolished within the pages of the many volumes written by Walter and Lao Russell regarding the true Nature of our Universe.

'Teleportation' Is Year's Biggest Breakthrough

2010-12-20T21:47:00.000-08:00

A strange discovery by quantum physicists at the University of California Santa Barbara means that an object you can see in front of you may exist simultaneously in a parallel universe -- a multi-state condition that has scientists theorizing that teleportation or even time travel may be much more than just the plaything of science fiction writers.

Until this year, all human-made objects have moved according to the laws of classical mechanics, the rules governing ordinary objects. Toss a ball in the air and it falls back to Earth. Drop a coin from your roof and it falls into your yard. But back in March, a group of researchers designed a gadget that moves in ways that can only be described by quantum mechanics -- the set of rules that governs the behavior of tiny things like molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles.

And the implication -- that teleportation and even time travel may someday, somehow be a reality -- is so groundbreaking that Science magazine has labelled it the most significant scientific advance of 2010.

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New form of synaesthesia proves auras are real?

2010-11-17T18:11:00.000-08:00

Glowing visions of light that emanate from a person's body, often seen by those claiming to be psychic, really do exist, for some people at least. That's the tantalising conclusion of a study on a new form of emotion-colour synaesthesia which projects itself as coloured auras.

Other forms of synaesthesia include numbers and letters that evoke colours, touch that evokes emotions and colours with their own fragrances. Now, Vilayanur Ramachandran and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, have identified a new type of synaesthesia in a man whose emotions give rise to colours, which can take the form of auras surrounding other people.

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Holographic Universe Theory Explained

2010-11-17T17:55:00.000-08:00

Reveleation in the brain: Every synapse is like a CPU

2010-11-17T05:11:00.000-08:00

A typical healthy human brain contains about 200 billion nerve cells, or neurons, linked to one another via hundreds of trillions of tiny contacts called synapses. One neuron may make as many as tens of thousands of synaptic contacts with other neurons. Examined up close, a synapse — less than a thousandth of a millimeter in diameter — turns out to be so complex it is "almost beyond belief", researcher said.

"One synapse, by itself, is more like a microprocessor —with both memory-storage and information-processing elements — than a mere on/off switch. In fact, one synapse may contain on the order of 1,000 molecular-scale switches. A single human brain has more switches than all the computers and routers and Internet connections on Earth,".

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'Space-time cloak' could conceal events

2010-11-16T23:47:00.000-08:00

New materials with the ability to manipulate the speed of light could enable the creation of a "space-time cloak" capable of masking events or even creating an illusion of "Star Trek"-style transportation, according to scientists in London.

The cloak, while currently only existing in mathematical theory, takes advantage of the potential properties of "metamaterials" -- artificial materials designed and manipulated at a molecular level to interact with and control electromagnetic waves.

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"Mirrors in Your Brain": Does an Epic Discovery Do for Psychology What DNA Did for Biology?

2010-11-16T00:22:00.000-08:00

A recent paradigm-shattering discovery in neuroscience shows how our minds share actions, emotions, and experience -what we commonly call "the monkey see, monkey do" experience. When we see someone laugh, cry, show disgust, or experience pain, in some sense, we share that emotion. When we see someone in distress, we share that distress. When we see a great actor, musician or sportsperson perform at the peak of their abilities, it can feel like we are experiencing just something of what they are experiencing.

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The Natural Dynamics of Everything

2010-11-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

Holographic 3D Digital Projection Explained

2010-11-06T02:11:00.000-07:00

Free energy is here!

2010-11-05T20:44:00.000-07:00

Holographic communication flickers into life

2010-11-05T01:11:00.000-07:00

Long anticipated by science fiction, real-time holographic communication and 'telepresence' are finally within our grasp.

"Holographic telepresence means we can record a 3D image in one location and show it in another location, in real-time, anywhere in the world," said Nasser Peyghambarian, who led the team behind the new technology.

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World’s Most Precise Clocks Could Reveal Universe Is a Hologram

2010-10-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

Our existence could be coded in a finite bandwidth, like a live ultra-high-definition 3-D video. And the third dimension we know and love could be no more than a holographic projection of a 2-D surface.

A scientist’s $1 million experiment, now under construction in Illinois, will attempt to test these ideas by the end of next year using what will be two of the world’s most precise clocks.

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Scientists find first real evidence you CAN see the future

2010-10-22T23:38:00.000-07:00

Ever think you could predict the future? The good news is, you're not crazy. The better news is—there's now scientific evidence that backs you up.

For most of us, the idea of psychic phenomena is just too science-fictiony. But it's true, according to Dr. Daryl Bem, a social psychologist who conducted nine different experiments on the phenomena.

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Reality Upgrades opinion: "Future (or past) is not fixed but keeps changing according to what is taking place in the present moment. The future we might be able to see doesn't always come to past but often remains as parallel reality among rest of the infinite possibilities we didn't cross."

From Zero to 'Living Technology'

2010-10-17T08:22:00.001-07:00

We are now familiar with the idea that scientists can design life by modifying genes or even making genes from scratch. Watch how life is made from self-assembling systems that do not require genes to instruct them.

Earth 2.0 - Time to Upgrade

2010-10-17T01:11:00.000-07:00

Find out more at earth2channel.com

10 things you should know about sound

2010-10-10T23:22:00.000-07:00

What if we were not alone?

2010-10-08T00:55:00.000-07:00

The Day Before Disclosure is a film documenting the growing awareness and the build up to what can potentially be the single, most important event in human history – the day the UFO and ET presence becomes a world wide accepted reality. This is the story of the witnesses that was laughed at, the researchers and reporters that wasn’t believed and the governmental and military personnel that were sworn to silence.

A story that alters the foundation of everything you thought you knew, and takes you along for a ride all the way from the darkest abyss of living nightmares, through to the brightest hope for the future of humanity.

Watch here (FREE)

The chances of alien life existing on Gliese 581g are 100%, an astronomer has claimed.

2010-10-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

Gliese 581g was discovered orbiting a nearby star at a distance that places it squarely in the "habitable zone" where liquid could exist on its surface. Of around 500 planets that astronomers have found outside Earth's solar system, this is the first to be considered habitable.

The planet is a similar size to Earth and its mass indicates that it is probably rocky with a definite surface and has enough gravity to hold an atmosphere, according to Prof Steven Vogt, who led the team that discovered it.

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Scientists move objects across meter-scale distances using only light

2010-10-01T05:05:00.000-07:00

For more than 40 years, scientists have been using the radiation pressure of light to move and manipulate small objects in space. But until now, the movements have always been restricted to very small scales, typically across distances of a few hundred micrometers, and mostly in liquids. In a new study, scientists have demonstrated a technique that achieves giant optical manipulation in air using a new kind of optical trap that can move 100-micrometer-sized objects across meter-scale distances with an accuracy of about 10 micrometers.

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First habitable planet outside solar system found

2010-09-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

Astronomers say they've found the first planet beyond our solar system that could have the right size and setting to sustain life as we know it, only 20 light-years from Earth.

The discovery, published online in The Astrophysical Journal, is the result of 11 years of observations at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Astronomers participating in the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey detected the planet by tracking the faint gravitational wobbles it produced in its parent star. Now they say there may well be many more planets out there like this one.

"The fact that we were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common," Vogt said in a news release.

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The Physics of Anti-Gravity

2010-09-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

Sounds complicated? Maybe, but maybe you can still forward this to a some physicist you know.

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Universal, primordial magnetic fields discovered in deep space

2010-09-22T22:01:00.000-07:00

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology and UCLA have discovered evidence of "universal ubiquitous magnetic fields". Physicists have hypothesized for many years that a universal magnetic field should permeate deep space between galaxies, but there was no way to observe it or measure it until now.

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Your Biological Computer

2010-09-21T21:55:00.000-07:00

Scientists develop new 'photonic' chip that could make quantum computers a reality

2010-09-21T19:22:00.001-07:00

Scientists have developed a computer chip that could pave the way for a new generation of powerful 'quantum' computers. The photonic chip, built by scientists from Bristol’s Centre for Quantum Photonics, uses light rather than electricity to pass information.

The breakthrough could lead to 'quantum' computers capable of performing complex calculations and simulations that are impossible for today's computers.

The researchers believe that their device represents a new route to a quantum computer – a powerful type of computer that uses quantum bits (qubits) rather than the conventional bits used in today’s computers.

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Inter-Dimensional Science: New Metaphysics & Holistic Living Philosophy

2010-09-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

There is an immense lack of awareness about the 'human mind system' of controls that have held humanity captive for thousands of years to greed, hatred, fear and separation, and prevented it from uncovering our true, infinite, interconnected, multidimensional nature.

Visit Website

Pope's astronomer says he would baptise an alien

2010-09-17T23:47:00.000-07:00

Aliens might have souls and could choose to be baptised if humans ever met them, a Vatican scientist said today. The official also dismissed intelligent design as "bad theology" that had been "hijacked" by American creationist fundamentalists.

Guy Consolmagno, who is one of the pope's astronomers, said he would be "delighted" if intelligent life was found among the stars. "But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able to communicate with it – when you add them up it's probably not a practical question."

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A flying saucer. Made in Russia

2010-09-14T19:22:00.000-07:00

A former pilot, Eugene Bugrov is very popular in Tyumen. In the arsenal of devices created by Tyumen inventor Eugene Bugrov one can find very diverse projects: from a flying saucer to the engine operating on the energy of plasma.

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Searl Effect Generator - Free Energy Device

2010-09-12T17:55:00.000-07:00

Vote NOW for Professor John Searl's Magnetic Device (SEG) to receive $200M funding.

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Laws of physics may change across the universe

2010-09-10T05:11:00.000-07:00

New evidence supports the idea that we live in an area of the universe that is "just right" for our existence. The controversial finding comes from an observation that one of the constants of nature appears to be different in different parts of the cosmos.

If correct, this result stands against Einstein's equivalence principle, which states that the laws of physics are the same everywhere. "This finding was a real surprise to everyone," says John Webb of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Webb is lead author on the new paper, which has been submitted to Physical Review Letters.

Even more surprising is the fact that the change in the constant appears to have an orientation, creating a "preferred direction", or axis, across the cosmos. That idea was dismissed more than 100 years ago with the creation of Einstein's special theory of relativity.

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Tractor beams come to life

2010-09-10T04:44:00.000-07:00

Tractor beams, energy rays that can move objects, are a science fiction mainstay. But now they are becoming a reality -- at least for moving very tiny objects.

Researchers from the Australian National University have announced that they have built a device that can move small particles a meter and a half using only the power of light.

Physicists have been able to manipulate tiny particles over miniscule distances by using lasers for years. Optical tweezers that can move particles a few millimeters are common.

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The internet is changing the way we think?

2010-09-07T20:08:00.000-07:00

Are our minds being altered due to our increasing reliance on search engines, social networking sites and other digital technologies?

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Fractals - the hidden dimension

2010-09-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

What do movie special effects, the stock market, heart attacks, and the rings of Saturn have in common? They're all connected by a revolutionary branch of math called fractal geometry. Invented by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot in the 1960s and 1970s, fractals have changed the way we see the world and opened up a vast new territory to scientific analysis and understanding.

Mandelbrot coined the term fractals to suggest "fractured" and "fractional," a nod to the new geometry's focus on broken, wrinkled, and otherwise "rough" shapes. NOVA's Hunting the Hidden Dimension tells the dramatic story of a group of pioneering mathematicians who took Mandelbrot's invention from a mathematical curiosity that few took seriously to an approach that is touching nearly every branch of science and technology today, from cell phones to cardiac medicine to the study of tropical forests.

Solar flares have influence on radioactive elements on Earth

2010-09-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

When researchers found an unusual linkage between solar flares and the inner life of radioactive elements on Earth, it touched off a scientific detective investigation that could end up protecting the lives of space-walking astronauts and maybe rewriting some of the assumptions of physics.

It's a mystery that presented itself unexpectedly: The radioactive decay of some elements sitting quietly in laboratories on Earth seemed to be influenced by activities inside the sun, 93 million miles away.

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How the Brain Stops Time

2010-09-03T01:11:00.000-07:00

One of the strangest side-effects of intense fear is time dilation, the apparent slowing-down of time. It's a common trope in movies and TV shows, like the memorable scene from The Matrix in which time slows down so dramatically that bullets fired at the hero seem to move at a walking pace. In real life, our perceptions aren't keyed up quite that dramatically, but survivors of life-and-death situations often report that things seem to take longer to happen, objects fall more slowly, and they're capable of complex thoughts in what would normally be the blink of an eye.

Now a research team from Israel reports that not only does time slow down, but that it slows down more for some than for others. Anxious people, they found, experience greater time dilation in response to the same threat stimuli.

An intriguing result, and one that raises a more fundamental question: how, exactly, does the brain carry out this remarkable feat?

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New Sunspot Pictures: Sharpest View Yet in Visible Light

2010-09-03T01:10:00.000-07:00

This crisp view of a sunspot, captured by New Jersey Institute of Technology's New Solar Telescope and released last week, may be the most detailed picture of its kind yet shot in visible light, astronomers say.

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Recipe for Water: Just Add Starlight

2010-09-03T01:08:00.000-07:00

ESA's Herschel infrared space observatory has discovered that ultraviolet starlight is the key ingredient for making water in space. It is the only explanation for why a dying star is surrounded by a gigantic cloud of hot water vapour.

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Are we living in a designer universe?

2010-08-31T23:11:00.000-07:00

The argument over whether the universe has a creator, and who that might be, is among the oldest in human history. But amid the raging arguments between believers and sceptics, one possibility has been almost ignored – the idea that the universe around us was created by people very much like ourselves, using devices not too dissimilar to those available to scientists today.

As with much else in modern physics, the idea involves particle acceleration, the kind of thing that goes on in the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Before the LHC began operating, a few alarmists worried that it might create a black hole which would destroy the world. That was never on the cards: although it is just possible that the device could generate an artificial black hole, it would be too small to swallow an atom, let alone the Earth.

However, to create a new universe would require a machine only slightly more powerful than the LHC – and there is every chance that our own universe may have been manufactured in this way.

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Scientists confirm: pyramids in Bosnia are oldest known pyramids in the world

2010-08-26T18:10:00.000-07:00

Bosnian pyramids have been finally confirmed. Pyramid experts from all over the world have confirmed the existence of the Bosnian pyramids. In addition, 90% of all these experts said that the the Bosnian pyramids are by far the world’s largest and oldest pyramids. There are five (5) pyramids in Bosnia and it is said that they are 12000-26000 years old. In 2010 UNESCO added the Bosnian pyramids into their World Heritage sites. UNESCO and the CIA are planning to make the Bosnian Pyramid Valley the world’s largest and most valuable historical monuments by 2012.

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Schools Kill Creativity

2010-08-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

Does the Past Exist Yet? Evidence Suggests Your Past Isn't Set in Stone

2010-08-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

Recent discoveries require us to rethink our understanding of history. "The histories of the universe," said renowned physicist Stephen Hawking "depend on what is being measured, contrary to the usual idea that the universe has an objective observer-independent history."

Is it possible we live and die in a world of illusions? Physics tells us that objects exist in a suspended state until observed, when they collapse in to just one outcome. Paradoxically, whether events happened in the past may not be determined until sometime in your future -- and may even depend on actions that you haven't taken yet.

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Magnetic Mother

2010-08-21T01:11:00.000-07:00

Brenda Allison, 50, is so magnetically charged that metal objects including coins, keys and even tin lids stick to her for up to 45 minutes.

Looking on the bright side, she should never lose her keys. But for mother-of-one Brenda Allison, her mysterious 'power' that means metallic objects stick to her body has long since lost its attraction.

Dubbed 'the human magnet', Miss Allison says she is often embarrassed by the effect, which she has been told is down to a heightened electromagnetic current running through her body.

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Meditation physically enhances the brain

2010-08-19T23:52:00.000-07:00

It has long being credited as the way to a serene mind. But scientists have now discovered that meditation physically enhances the brain.

Even a brief course of meditation strengthens connections between the regions of the brain that regulate our emotional responses, they found. This could make it easier for us to keep calm, they said.

Chinese and U.S. researchers at the University of Oregon focused on effects of a meditation technique known as integrative bodymind training, or IBMT. Based on ancient Chinese medicine, IBMT combines posture, mental imagery and body relaxation and breathing techniques.

'We believe this new finding is of interest to the fields of education, health and neuroscience,' the experts said.

A previous study by the same team found just five 20-minute sessions of IBMT had a visible effect on health by cutting stress.

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Sensory hijack: rewiring brains to see with sound

2010-08-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

A new device that restores a form of sight to the blind is turning our understanding of the senses upside down

CLAIRE CHESKIN used to live in a murky world of grey, her damaged eyes only seeing large objects if they were right next to her. She could detect the outlines of people but not their expressions, and could just about make out the silhouettes of buildings, but no details. Nowadays things are looking distinctly brighter for Cheskin. Using a device called vOICe, which translates visual images into "soundscapes", she has trained her brain to "see through her ears".

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Prayer heals, study finds

2010-08-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

Prayer heals when it's close-up and personal, and there's a study to prove it.

It's not just any kind of prayer, but "proximal intercessory prayer", or PIP - when one or more people pray for someone in that person's presence and often with physical contact - that was found by a team of doctors, scientists and religious experts to have remarkable results in healing some patients.

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Incredible Fab Lab House Generates Three Times More Energy Than It Consumes

2010-08-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

Sustainability and green technologies have taken over the world of design lately as more and more projects develop with these new concepts in mind. The Fab Lab House comes from Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and is a great example of eco-living. This Madrid-based project generates three times the energy it consumes and also houses an orchard in order to produce food.

The shape of this house was dictated by its purpose: a sustainable, self-sufficient construction whose “form follows energy”. All the characteristics of its environment were carefully studied and taken advantage of, such as the wind or the solar rays. This house is currently available for sale, with prices starting from 45.000 € for the smallest model.

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Study Discovers Method To Maximize Placebo Effect

2010-08-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

Want to maximize the placebo effect? A good way to do this, according to a new study, is to tell someone they have a decent chance of getting the real treatment instead of a fake pill, but keep them guessing.

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New Find Pushes Age of Stone Tools Back A Million Years

2010-08-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

The genus Homo is no longer the sole primate lineage known to have used stone tools to consume the meat of large mammals. New research pushes that skill back nearly a million years.

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Ancient language mystery deepens

2010-08-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

A linguistic mystery has arisen surrounding symbol-inscribed stones in Scotland that predate the formation of the country itself.

These symbols, researchers say, are probably "words" rather than images.

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Rethinking Einstein: The end of space-time

2010-08-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

Physicists struggling to reconcile gravity with quantum mechanics have hailed a theory – inspired by pencil lead – that could make it all very simple.

Physicist Petr Horava wants to rip this fabric apart and set time and space free from one another in order to come up with a unified theory that reconciles the disparate worlds of quantum mechanics and gravity.

Since Horava published his work in January 2009, it has received an astonishing amount of attention. Already, more than 250 papers have been written about it. Some researchers have started using it to explain away the twin cosmological mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. Others are finding that black holes might not behave as we thought. If Horava's idea is right, it could forever change our conception of space and time and lead us to a "theory of everything", applicable to all matter and the forces that act on it.

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"Starchild Skull" DNA Result

2010-08-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

We may exist inside a black hole, scientist says

2010-08-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

Indiana University’s Nikodem Poplawski has taken a (theoretical) look at black holes through Einstein’s general theory of relativity and come to the conclusion that an entire universe could theoretically exist inside each black hole.

That means that we and our universe may be inside a black hole right now, and outside is an even larger universe. Theoretically speaking.

“Maybe the huge black holes at the centre of the Milky Way and other galaxies are bridges to different universes,” Poplawski told New Scientist.

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Every 2 Days We Create As Much Information As We Did Up To 2003

2010-08-06T03:16:00.000-07:00

Today at the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe, CA, the first panel featured Google CEO Eric Schmidt. As moderator David Kirkpatrick was introducing him, he rattled off a massive stat.

Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003, according to Schmidt. That’s something like five exabytes of data, he says.

Let me repeat that: we create as much information in two days now as we did from the dawn of man through 2003.

“The real issue is user-generated content,” Schmidt said. He noted that pictures, instant messages, and tweets all add to this.

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For the First Time Ever, Scientists Watch an Atom's Electrons Moving in Real Time

2010-08-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley has used ultrashort flashes of laser light to directly observe the movement of an atom's outer electrons for the first time.

Researchers were able to time the oscillations between simultaneously produced quantum states of valence electrons with great precision. These oscillations drive electron motion. Valence electrons control how atoms bond with other atoms to form molecules or crystal structures, and how these bonds break and reform during chemical reactions.

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There was no Big Bang at the start of the universe, says physicist

2010-08-04T18:27:00.000-07:00

A new theory explains the accelerating universe without invoking mysterious, unseen dark energy to account for the expansion. But it also gets rid of singularities, an unchanging speed of light...and the most famous astrophysical phenomenon of all, the Big Bang.

The observation of certain supernovas in the late 1990s led astronomers to the very unexpected discovery that the universe is expanding, and that the expansion is speeding up. There was nothing in the existing laws of physics to account for this, and so the only solution was dark energy - a mysterious force so named because we've never detected it, and yet it has to make up 75% of all the energy and mass in the universe for it to account for this cosmic acceleration. Also, the existence of dark energy weakens the supposedly inviolate law of conservation of energy, if not negates it completely. Cosmologically speaking, that's a problem.

Beyond the touchscreen: Projecting the future

2010-08-04T01:55:00.000-07:00

Imagine a cookie that changes flavour on the spot, or a furry computer display that you stroke when you miss your cat. It might sound like fantasy, but visitors to the SIGGRAPH computer graphics and animation conference in Los Angeles this month have experienced nothing less from the new technologies on display.

Connecting Brains to the Outside World

2010-08-04T01:47:00.000-07:00

Dr. Donoghue, 61, is a professor of engineering and neuroscience at Brown University, studying how human brain signals could combine with modern electronics to help paralyzed people gain greater control over their environments. He’s designed a machine, the BrainGate, that uses thought to move objects.

When Memory-Related Region of Brain Is Damaged, Other Areas Compensate

2010-08-03T03:08:00.000-07:00

Many neuroscientists believe the loss of the brain region known as the amygdala would result in the brain's inability to form new memories with emotional content. New UCLA research indicates this is not so and suggests that when one brain region is damaged, other regions can compensate.

Researchers revamp ideas about what’s in the sun

2010-07-31T01:03:00.000-07:00

Behind its blazing facade, the sun turns out to be reluctant to give up its secrets. Most frustratingly, astronomers haven’t figured out one of the most basic facts about Earth’s nearest star: exactly what it’s made of.

“We really don’t know what the sun’s composition is,” says Carlos Allende Prieto, an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in the Canary Islands. “It’s a big problem.”

Ultra-strong interaction between light and matter realized

2010-07-30T00:46:00.000-07:00

The interaction between matter and light represents one of the most fundamental processes in physics. Whether a car that heats up like an oven in the summer due to the absorption of light quanta or solar cells that extract electricity from light or light-emitting diodes that convert electricity into light, we encounter the effects of these processes throughout our daily lives. Understanding the interactions between individual light particles - photons - and atoms is crucial for the development of a quantum computer.

Revised theory of gravity doesn't predict a Big Bang

2010-07-29T00:58:00.000-07:00

The Big Bang theory has formed the basis of our understanding of the universe's origins since it was first proposed in 1927 by Georges Lemaitre. And for good reason: the theory is supported by scientists' latest observations and experiments, and is based on Einstein's widely accepted theory of general relativity. But scientists are always on the lookout for any evidence that might suggest an alternative to the Big Bang.

The latest in this area of research comes from astrophysicists Maximo Banados and Pedro Ferreira, who have resurrected a theory of gravity from the early 20th century and discovered that a modified version of the theory may hold some surprises.

Model describes universe with no big bang, no beginning, and no end

2010-07-29T00:51:00.000-07:00

By suggesting that mass, time, and length can be converted into one another as the universe evolves, Wun-Yi Shu has proposed a new class of cosmological models that may fit observations of the universe better than the current big bang model. What this means specifically is that the new models might explain the increasing acceleration of the universe without relying on a cosmological constant such as dark energy, as well as solve or eliminate other cosmological dilemmas such as the flatness problem and the horizon problem.

Our galaxy may contain 100 million habitable planets

2010-07-25T00:53:00.000-07:00

Scientists celebrated Sunday after finding more than 700 suspected new planets -- including up to 140 similar in size to Earth -- in just six weeks of using a powerful new space observatory.

Quantum Consciousness: The Way to Reconcile Science and Spirituality

2010-07-17T00:50:00.000-07:00

Human thought in the twenty-first century needs to work towards a new model that immerses the human being within a vibrant energetic universe. However, this need not demand that we throw away what we already have; rather, we can expand upon the tools that have brought us to our present position.

There is an eastern proverb that roughly translates as: "You may ride your donkey up to your front door, but would you ride it into your house?" In other words, when we have arrived at a particular destination we are often required to make a transition in order to continue the journey. In this sense we can be grateful to a vast knowledge base of scientific and religious thought for helping us arrive at the point where we presently stand. Yet it is now imperative that we move forward. As Deepak Chopra wrote his post "Consciousness and the End of the War Between Science and Religion," how we move forward is likely to be centered in our understanding of consciousness.

The Illusion of Gravity

2010-07-15T00:55:00.000-07:00

Erik Verlinde, a string theorist and professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam, is shaking the giant box of contemporary science, jumbling what we think we know by declaring that gravity is just an illusion.

Plants 'can think and remember'

2010-07-14T01:02:00.000-07:00

Plants, scientists say, transmit information about light intensity and quality from leaf to leaf in a very similar way to our own nervous systems.

These "electro-chemical signals" are carried by cells that act as "nerves" of the plants.

Birds navigate by being able to SEE Earth's magnetic field with their right eye

2010-07-14T00:57:00.000-07:00

German researchers found that if a bird’s right eye was covered by a frosted goggle, the birds could not navigate effectively, while they could navigate perfectly well if the left eye was covered instead.

It has long been known that birds are able to sense magnetic fields and use them to navigate, particularly when migrating south for the winter.

Discovery shakes up standard view of atomic structure

2010-07-07T01:14:00.000-07:00

European researchers dropped a potential bombshell on their colleagues around the world Wednesday by reporting that sophisticated new measurements indicate the radius of the proton is 4 percent smaller than previously believed.

Classical music moves the heart in vegetative patients

2010-07-02T01:19:00.000-07:00

Classical music pulls at the heartstrings of people in a vegetative state as well as those of healthy listeners. If you play music to vegetative patients, their heart rate changes in the same way as that of healthy controls, suggesting that music can affect the neural systems of emotion even when conscious thought is impossible.

What Are We? New Experiments Suggest We're Not Purely Physical

2010-06-29T01:19:00.000-07:00

We assume there's a universe "out there" separate from what we are, and that we play no role in its appearance. Yet experiments have shown just the opposite.

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Super-complex organic molecules found in interstellar space

2010-06-21T01:23:00.000-07:00

A team of scientists from the Instituto Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of Texas has succeeded in identifying one of the most complex organic molecules yet found in the material between the stars, the so-called interstellar medium. The discovery of anthracene could help resolve a decades-old astrophysical mystery concerning the production of organic molecules in space.

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Setting History Free

2010-06-04T01:09:00.000-07:00