As a secondary school educator, I often see students sharing their drinks with one another. This bugs me more than anything because it causes germs to be easily spread from one person to another. The problem is, students have this misconception that if they are not sick, then the person they are sharing their drink with won't get sick either. Sounds rational, but is it true? Definitely not. Each person's immune system is unique, and so is our microbiome (as described in the video below). What may be harmless to one person may not be so much to another. I believe this video does an excellent job demonstrating that not only are humans unique in a sense that we each have our own personalities, have different occupations, and come from differe ...

See what happens when scientists drop a bowling ball and a feather in the world's largest vacuum; for the science-illiterate viewers out there (sorry ), a vacuum is a space entirely devoid of matter (also known as an absolute vacuum). A lot of you probably already know how this one ends, but that doesn't make watching it play out any less spectacular.



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This video explains it quite well. The key hormone in question is serotonin. Serotonin is known to play a role in depression. Low serotonin levels are believed to be the reason for depression and associated symptoms of anxiety, apathy, fear, feelings of worthlessness, insomnia and fatigue. The opposite is true when a high-level of serotonin is present, you feel jovial and enthusiastic. MDMA promotes the formation of this hormone.

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Are frozen goods really that bad for our health?

Watch the fastest animal in the world - a peregrine falcon - effortlessly accelerate to speeds of more than 290 km/h to chase a plummeting skydiver.

Peter Diamandis makes a case for optimism -- that we'll invent, innovate and create ways to solve the challenges that loom over us. "I'm not saying we don't have our set of problems; we surely do. But ultimately, we knock them down."

The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 was one of the worst man-made disasters of the 20th century. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe. During the accident itself, 31 people died, and long-term effects such as cancers and deformities are still being accounted for.

An abandoned ferris wheel and buildings reclaimed by nature - the remains of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster show what a city looks like when everyone disappears.

So, does stress really cause your beautiful golden locks to turn silver?

The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. Due to its striped lower back, it is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger. Native to continental Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, it is believed to have become extinct in the 20th century. It was the last extant member of its family, Thylacinidae; specimens of other members of the family have been found in the fossil record dating back to the late Oligocene.

Surviving evidence suggests that it was a relatively shy, nocturnal creature with the general appearance of a medium-to-large-size dog, except for its stiff tail and abdominal pouch (reminiscent of a kangaroo) and dark transverse stripes that radiated from the top of its back, simil ...

For the first time, the feeding activity of one of the world's biggest leeches has been caught on film, and it's just as disgusting as you might expect.

This lion, named Will, spent his life with a traveling circus in Brazil. "For 13 long years, the lion had been confined to a cramped cage and denied any semblance of a normal existence," the Sao Paulo sanctuary wrote.

In 1943, Walt Disney helped combat malaria by making an animated film called The Winged Scourge. This short film starred the seven dwarfs and taught children that mosquitoes transmit malaria, which is a very bad disease. While not specifically mentioned in the film, malaria is caused by several species of the protozoan Plasmodium, of which Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum are the most common. The most serious infections involve P. falciparum, which causes a higher incidence of complications and death. The short film advocated the killing of mosquitoes to stop the disease.


Luckily, by 1951, malaria was finally eliminated in the United States (eliminated means that no new cases arose in the country for 3 years). Today, oral chloroqui ...

I recommend you watch the whole video, but if you're anxious and eager to see what I'm referring to, skip to the fourth minute.

It's hard to fathom the difficulties our ancestors had to contend with given how our world has advanced with technological sophistication over the past century. We shouldn't, however, underestimate the power of the human-mind, and how everything that was discovered in the past paved the way for the practices used today, especially those used in science.

Of the very first astronomers, the ancient Babylonian were the first to use simple arithmetic to predict the positions of celestial bodies. Evidence reveals that these astronomers, working several centuries B.C.E., also employed sophisticated geometric methods that foreshadow the development of calculus. Historians had thought such techniques did not emerge until more than 1400 years later, ...

Watch as a neurosurgeon opens up a patient's skull and clears the clotted blood from the surface of her brain. We probably don't have to tell you that this is extremely graphic footage, but - you've been warned.

The sculptures are made using neutral PH material to keep them Sea-Environment friendly and that they wouldn’t cause any damage to aquatic creatures.

A Chinese snake breeder recently made a rather unexpected discovery: a two-headed baby Chinese cobra, both with individual, fully-functioning brains.

Watch the video above, the trick is nothing short of incredible!

This is due to a mechanism called the opponent-process theory, which was developed in the 1870s. It is the idea of perceiving color in terms of paired opposites such as red with green, and yellow with blue. The possible scientific explanation for this theory is that bipolar cells are excited by one set of wavelengths and inhibited by other, which are in extend attached to the cone retinal receptors.

After a broken neck left him quadriplegic, Ian Burkhart was told he would never be able to use his hands. Now he can grasp a bottle and pick up a credit card by using a computer plugged directly into his brain. Special software is able to decode his thoughts and convert them into electrical signals in his hand, bypassing the damaged nerves in his spine. Now Ian has regained an amazing degree of control over his hand, each movement stimulated by his own thoughts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I_q_dFtPhU ...

It revolves around the just-perfect temperature and craftsmanship. Take a look

This might be painful to watch for some viewers, but as tattoos become more popular, you might need this done to you one day.

This frog (Breviceps namaquensis) sounds like a bike horn.

An illustration of the magnus effect by trying to score a basket - with a twist. See for yourself!

A living, swimming ghost fish has been seen live for the first time ever.

The fish, part of the family Aphyonidae, was caught on camera during an ongoing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) exploration by the ship Okeanos Explorer. The exploration centers on the deep ocean at Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, a protected area spanning 95,216 square miles (246,608 square kilometers) east of the Philippines.

The secretive fish was swimming along a ridge 8,202 feet (2,500 meters) down, according to NOAA. The animal is about 4 inches (10 centimeters) long, with translucent, scale-less skin and eerie, colorless eyes. No fish in the family Aphyonidae has ever been seen alive before.

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Charles Darwin said that it was "absurd in the highest possible degree".

Watch this guy get a tattoo as he explains the science behind the equipment and the pain.

A restaurant in Japan has created a new dish where the squid comes “back to life” and “dances” on your plate. The dish is called Odori don. Basically the dish is a rice bowl topped with a whole fresh squid (minus the head). When soy sauce is poured on the squid, a chemical reaction occurs that causes the squid’s tentacles to squirm around in the bowl, making the squid appear as if it is dancing a jig!

This video brings to life the evolution of aggresive behavior in a population, and its relation to game theory – the field of mathematics concerned with quantifying strategic behavior and decision-making. The author illustrates what happens in an artificial population of species that exhibit two entirely different strategies as they compete for resources. In the first strategy called ‘dove’, organisms are required to share their food source with the other if both happen to land at the same site after being randomly shuffled. Sharing your food source allows the organism to survive another cycle, but not reproduce, unless they’re fortunate enough to land at a site all by them self. The author shows that if this cooperative strategy is ...

Researchers working to bring back animals like the passenger pigeon and woolly mammoth discuss the implications of their work.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

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What's happening: The foam used in this experiment is a type of synthetic carbon, which means it's so dense, it doesn't allow for air-flow. Because of this, the heat smoulders through the material, rather than forming a proper flame, sucking the oxygen out as it goes, and leaving behind the dried out remains. This is the same reaction that happens when you turn wood into charcoal.

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Watch as one of nature's most efficient killing machines slowly chows down on the face of a fly as it writhes helplessly in its arms. It's the sound that really got to us...

A simplified illustration of the various brain functions...

A guitar player placed his phone on the inside of his guitar. Check out what the phone recorded

This is Richard Feynman's take on a simple question, why do magnets repel each other?

A little more on Richard Feynman. He was an American theoretical physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics for which he proposed the parton model.

As always: A scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, but one who asks the right questions. ...

Turkish communities living in the mountains in the north east of the country use a remarkable whistling language to communicate. Around 10,000 people use the bird-like whistle, which researchers suggest is the first known form of language to use both sides of the brain.

Whistlers usually speak Turkish when talking near each other, but switch to whistling when they want to convey a message over longer distances, which can be up to five kilometers. The whistling language has the same vocabulary and grammatical structure as Turkish, it’s just a different format. Scientists have previously assumed that all spoken language, written texts and sign language mainly utilize the left hemisphere, but this doesn't seem to be the case for the whistling l ...

The destructive power of humans.

JSJ is an ancient form of Japanese Touch Therapy believed to generate a sense of balance through the body.

Check the video and the link below to read more about this treatment. Would you be willing to try it?

Source: http://soulspottv.com/blog/this-5-minute-exercise-you-can-do-with-just-your-hands-will-boost-energy-balance-emotions/ ...

Brain electronic interfaces can make a blind person to see, a deaf person to hear, and help people to increase their memory capacity.

I've always told my students that cracking your joints leads to arthritis. Perhaps I've been wrong all these years, watch this video to find out more:

A parasitic worm called Onchocerca volvulus affects 25 million people around the world in one of the most revolting ways possible. The larvae of this tiny worm, found in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, can live for more than 10 years in a person’s skin, and that’s not even the worst part - they often make their way into their eyes.



Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/features/20142008-26044-2.html ...

I'm not sure whether it's his voice or whether it is the meaning behind the script, nevertheless this is awesome.

Lots of animals play dead when they’re threatened, but this little hognose snake really knows how to commit to a role. Somebody get this guy a part on Broadway!





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Deforestation has left sloths in the wild almost homeless, but a woman in Costa Rica opened up a rescue centre to make sure the species survives. She has a sloth nursery that has provided us with some super cute sloth footage that helps raise awareness of the struggles faced by this species.

Herons also have surprising intellectual abilities; they can use bread to catch fish! It is thought that the birds learn the technique from watching fisherman throw baited hooks and tourists tossing bread to attract fish.

Watch the Nikon Coolpix p900 camera zoom into the moon. This is the first bridge camera on the market with an 83x optical zoom, and it sure is something. It also includes a digital zoom, which reaches to 166x, or 4,000 mm.


What is the difference between optical and digital zoom?

An optical zoom is a true zoom lens, like the zoom lens you’d use on a film camera. They produce much better-quality images. Some cameras offer a digital zoom, which is simply some in-camera image processing. When you use a digital zoom, the camera enlarges the image area at the center of the frame and trims away the outside edges of the picture. The result is the same as when you open an image in your photo-editing program, crop away the edges of the picture, and t ...

A medical doctor claims he has the cure for HIV, a cure so simple it's laughable. According to Dr. Samir Chachoua, the Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus (CAEV) in goats milk "destroys HIV and protects people who drink it for life". The so-called researched voluntarily infected himself with Charlie Sheen's HIV-infected blood, and cured himself shortly after with this cocktail. The moral of the story is, if you are traveling across the countryside and see a goat limping, please stop and milk it for Charlie. It's the least you can do.

Joking aside, here's the interview with Bill Maher.

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This might change your perspective on owls

Although I'm a guy, I enjoyed watching this video. I also appreciate a modestly-dressed woman

After watching this incredible footage, I can't help but notice the similarities between humans and chimpanzees - it's quite fascinating!

Enjoy

The greater sage grouse is found in the western parts of the United States and Canada. When mating season is upon the birds, males and females meet at breeding locations known as leks. The males strut around, inflating and deflating the air sacs in their chests to impress the females.

Cancer cells and their bizzare behavior explained in this short video along with the various treatments depending on the cancer type and stage.

I really enjoyed the way the folks at ASAP Science break it down in this video. Long story short, if you want the best bang for your buck, spend your money on others, and stop spending money on material goods. Having a five-dollar latte can be more beneficial than buying a $100,000 Porsche.

A defining features of learning mathematics is being able to read, write, and discover proofs. A proof is a method of communicating a mathematical truth to another person who speaks the "language" of mathematics. It's a way of showing whether a statement made is absolutely true or false.

I recently came across a fallacious proof attempting to show that the integer one equals two – shown are the steps to accomplish this. Common sense dictates that this is impossible, but the proof is somewhat convincing to the untrained eye. However, most people with basic algebraic knowledge should be able to pick out the mistake, so take a minute or two to see if you can identify the incorrect step. If you're stuck, don't give up so quickly! It's easier th ...

A must see introductory video about paradise birds. This video reveals the astounding beauty of 39 of the most exquisitely specialized animals on earth. After 8 years and 18 expeditions to New Guinea, Australia, and nearby islands, Cornell Lab scientist Ed Scholes and National Geographic photojournalist Tim Laman succeeded in capturing images of all 39 species in the bird-of-paradise family for the first time ever.

What do you get when you combine ultra-fine sand and the key ingredient in Silly Putty? Kinetic Sand, and this 'non-Newtonian fluid' has got some bizarre properties.

Now you have an excuse to take more breaks at work - tell your boss or TEACHER "science said so!".

An easy to understand animation of antimatter.

Ever seen an egg cracked underwater?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ritaljhhk7s#t=1m20s

Here's how the decomposition of mercury(II) thiocyanate as it's lit with a torch (skip to 1 minute, 20 seconds).

The KodKod (Leopardus guigna) is the smallest wildcat - it's even smaller than domestic cats. It lives primarily in central and southern Chile and marginally in adjoining areas of Argentina. Check out the video below for more information on this cute creature:

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Here's what happens when you pour 1 984°F/1 085°C molten copper on a Big Mac. This demonstration has nothing to do with the fact that McDonald's uses preservatives in its ingredients. This is simply a demonstration of the Leidenfrost effect - a scientific principle explaining the phenomena that occurs when a liquid comes in near contact with a solid that is significantly hotter than its boiling point; the surface of the liquid comes to a nearly immediate boil, and creates a thin layer of protective steam. It's much the same effect as when one drops water onto a hot pan and the droplet is seen to dance across the surface. In this instance, the inherent moisture in the burger protects it for a few moments before the copper (at nearly 2 000 d ...

Here's how the technology industry shaped the way we see the world today.