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8654 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Peanut allergies could be a thing of the past
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New research from the University of Chicago in the US shows that a class of bacteria known as Clostridia can block peanut allergies in mice, and suggests it could be used to treat similar conditions in humans. Clostridia is one of the types of bacteria killed off by antibiotic use in early childhood, and this research supports the emerging theory that increased antibiotic use is one of the factors that has caused food allergies in kids to rise by 50% since 1997. Source: http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20142708-26075.html ...
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6298 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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6537 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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2 |
6366 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
The descent into Alzheimer's disease
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A doctor chronicles the signatures of his patient as the disease took hold of her. Our love goes out to anyone who's dealt with this awful disease in some way.
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11227 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Those aren't hairs, they're crystals
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This specimen of Millerite, housed at the Royal Ontario Museum, is one of the rarest examples in the world, with tiny, crystalline hairs that have grown from the initial rock.
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8362 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Kids, keep away from books
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Meet the tiny book scorpion, Chelifer cancroides. If you have a collection of old books, you probably have an army of book scorpions protecting it, because they eat the book lice that eat the glue that was once used by traditional bookbinders.
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8459 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
World's oldest wombat
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At 29 years old, this is the world's oldest wombat. In the wild, wombats usually only live to five years old. And with no female partners to speak of, 'Patrick' is a virgin.
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10892 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
A wearable seat
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Need a seat? This new wearable Chairless Chair exoskeleton lets you sit down in thin air. See the prototype in action:
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10964 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Ever seen an egg without its shell?
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This is a chicken's egg without its shell. The egg white consists of 90% water and 10% dissolved proteins, while the yolk contains 100% of the egg's fat and cholesterol. Which is why it tastes so great...
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7259 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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5814 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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1 |
5978 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
A worm that shoots slime
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This footage of a velvet worm shooting foot-long strands of slime to immobilise its prey is pretty incredible. After trapping its victim, the velvet worm injects it with enzymes and sucks up the pre-digested flesh.
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3456 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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3533 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Bioluminescence in Japan
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In Japan, firefly squid - or hotaru ika, as the locals call them - rise 600 metres (2,000 feet) to the surface of the water and light it up with their electric blue bioluminescence.
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5393 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
An arachnid like no other
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Unlike most arachnids, scorpions don't lay eggs; they bear live young. The babies are unable to feed or defend themselves so the mother carries them on her back for the first few weeks of their life.
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4147 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Can this sea snail cure herpes?
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Australian scientists are creating a new herpes-blocking drug using a protein found in the blood of abalones. If successful, it could prevent the virus from entering human cells, thereby prevent future outbreaks of cold sores.
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4349 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Custom fruit shaped to your desire
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These are all real, and perfectly edible. Baby-shaped pears, heart-shaped watermelons and square apples are hitting supermarkets in China and Japan. But are these fruits just frivolous fun? The answer, for the most part, is yes.
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4135 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
World's first bicycle escalator
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Trampe is the world's first bicycle lift intended for urban areas. The prototype was built in 1993. During its 15 years of operation, Trampe pushed more than 200.000 cyclists up the 130 m long hill Brubakken in Trondheim, Norway.
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5897 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Aspiring doctors, this phone is for you
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Say hello to the Blackberry Passport. This killer phone sports a huge 4.5 inch 1440x1440 LCD display, massive 3450 mAH battery, and a capacitive touch keyboard. According to its makers, the phone's resolution is perfect for seeing images accurately, and any doctor who wants to look at detailed x-rays on their smartphone couldn’t do any better than the device’s 4.5-inch screen.
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4162 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
A new and creative way to focus energy
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This weather-tracking glass sphere can concentrate sunlight up to 10,000 times, and generate electricity even on a cloudy day. According to its researchers, this solar-harvesting device is 35% more efficient than traditional flat panels. It also looks really good.
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5349 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Blood of Heroes from ancient times
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Elafonisi Beach on the Greek island of Crete has pastel pink sand! That rosy hue is caused by tiny particles of pink shells and coral that have been ground down over many years of erosion.
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5495 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Snapping turtles: Nature's answer to the bear trap
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Woah. This is an Alligator Snapping Turtle from the Suwanee River in Florida, and you don't want to mess with it - it delivers a nasty bite and can hold onto its victims for several HOURS. This guy was caught as part of routine environmental surveys involving Professor Arthur Georges, the Chief Scientist of the Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra.
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5352 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
How an elephant scratches its waist
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Here's a good reminder of how enormous elephants are - this one's using a Volkswagen as a scratching post. Photographed in South Africa, the elephant was in musth, which is a sexually aggressive period experienced by elephant bulls once a year.
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5264 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Whiter than paper
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What's whiter than white? These Cyphochilus beetles from Southeast Asia. Their scales are whiter than paper, and no human technology can replicate their brilliance.
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5596 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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6601 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Think your job is hard, compare it to this
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Twice a year, locals in central Nepal scale the Himalayan foothills to harvest honey produced by the world's largest honeybee ( Apis dorsata laboriosa). Single adult bees of this species can measure up to 3.0 cm (1.2 in) in length, and are highly adapted to its highland habitat. ...
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6452 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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6410 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
The Schiller Effect makes stones seem to light up all on their own
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The Schiller Effect (aventurescence) is an optical illusion that makes stones such as labradorite appear to light up internally. The layering of different minerals at a scale near the wavelength of light causes the scattering and interference effect.
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5845 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
They see me crawlin', they runnin'...
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The southern black racer ( Coluber constrictor priapus) is a non-venomous American snake that is very active during the day. This may explain why it was spotted winding its way through a wire fence.
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3236 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
This sweet fruit grows in the most unbelievable place
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The Brazilian Jaboticaba tree well and truly takes advantage of all the surface area on its trunk by growing its sweet, grape-like fruits all over it. It's said to have evolved its trunk-fruit so animals could reach them and distribute the seeds.
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4195 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Cookie monster of the sea
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The cookie cutter shark ( Isistius brasiliensis) is as fearless as they come! This small, 20-inch shark can take on giants like whales and larger sharks, and have even been known to mistakenly try to bite submarines. They dwell in the deep warm ocean and come closer to the surface as the sun sets to grab a quick snack off their unsuspecting prey. Cookie cutter sharks approach their victims from below, latch on with their suction cup style lips, bite and then twist (below). A nice, round hole is left as a souvenir. They get this easy meal by tricking other ocean residents with their distinctive brown collar, which may act as a lure that allows the cookie cutter shark to be seen as a smaller, not-so-scary fish. As frightening as they seem, the ...
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5774 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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1 |
5733 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
This tike's bite can make people allergic to metal
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After being bitten by the lone star tick, people in the US are experiencing severe allergic reactions to red meat - including hives, swelling, trouble breathing and vomiting. So pretty much every meat lover's worst nightmare.
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0 |
6030 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Shape-shifting metal
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Ever seen 'memory metal' in action? Watch this paperclip - made from an incredible shape-shifting metal called Nitinol - be bent completely out of shape and then restored instantly as it touches a simple bowl of warm water.
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5987 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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0 |
3086 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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1 |
2065 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Eggstremely painful
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When a female kiwi is about to about to lay her egg, it fills almost her entire body cavity. She's usually unable to eat anything in the days before laying.
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1 |
1967 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Shake, rattle, and roll
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The earthquake that struck Chile in 2010 was the sixth largest ever recorded - and made itself felt as far away as Antarctica. After the quake, several Antarctic seismic stations registered "icequakes," probably due to fracturing of the ice as the planet’s crust shook.
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4408 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
There are such things as friendly snakes
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Meet this 18-day-old embryo of an African night adder. These snakes might be venomous, but they're surprisingly friendly - in captivity they've been known to crawl on people, trying to tuck themselves into their clothes.
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4298 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
A 'multi-berry' tree
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Meet Italy’s double tree, the Bialbero de Casorzo. That cherry tree on top isn't being parasitic - its roots have grown right through the hollow truck of the mulberry tree into the earth below, so there's no stealing of nutrients going on here.
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6755 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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5808 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Watch this mantis devour a fly
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Want to see something that's equal parts creepy and stunningly beautiful? Watch this juvenile glass mantis dismantle and devour a fly.
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5929 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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3134 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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5072 |
bio_man |
10 years ago |
Spider-man would be proud of this finding
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Researchers have uncovered the mechanism that allows spiders to build such strong webs. According to the study, both ends of the spider's silk grand have different pH levels, which helps these proteins become a solid fibre that can be spun into a solid web. The researchers also found that the pH level has different effects on the stability of the two regions at each end of the spidroin proteins. “While one of the ends tended to pair up with other molecules at the beginning of the duct (N-terminal) and became increasingly stable as the acidity increased along the duct, the other end (C-terminal) destabilised as the acidity increased, and gradually unfolded until it formed the structure characteristic of silk at the acidic pH of 5.5”, ex ...
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5219 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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1 |
8203 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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0 |
9634 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
World's largest aquatic insect
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The largest aquatic insect in the world has been discovered in China, with a wingspan of 21 cm. And those enormous tusks? They're for mating.
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7553 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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5862 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Monstrous leaves
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Native to the Amazon Basin, the leaves of Victoria lilies can grow up to 3 metres in diameter and they have enormous 8-metre-long stalks.
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5611 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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1 |
2887 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Hottest and weirdest place on Earth
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Dallol in Ethiopia is not only the hottest inhabited place on Earth, it's also one of the weirdest. Between 1960 and 1966, the average annual temperature was a toasty 35°C (96°F), but the temperature can regularly creep to over 46°C (115°f). At 48 metres below sea level, Dallol is Earth's lowest land volcano, and its last recorded eruption was in 1926. Its craters contains hot springs that boast a whole range of otherworldly colours - including neon yellow - thanks to the hot magma bubbling below the surface. This magma heats the groundwater that flows into the area from the nearby highlands, and as the heated groundwater moves up towards the surface, it dissolves salt, sulphur, potash and other minerals and deposits them in the Dallol crat ...
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1309 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
This is why geckos can walk on walks
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Geckos have 500,000 keratinous hairs on their feet, which split at the ends to create a large surface area. The hairs allow geckos to scale smooth vertical surfaces.
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1268 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
One of the most caring professions
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Doctors bow in reverence to cancer victim, Liang Yaoyi, in China. Nine-year-old Liang died from a brain tumour and donated his organs because, "There are many people doing great things in the world. I want to be a great kid too." What an incredible person.
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1191 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Energy efficiency chart
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A new report has ranked the world’s 16 major economies according to their energy efficiency, and Germany - who set a world record in May for generating 74% of their power needs from renewable energy - came out on top.
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1308 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
This proves that mothers are awesome
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It's official: a deep-sea octopus has broken the world record for time spent defending her eggs. After 4.5 years, they've finally hatched, so someone pass Octomum eight glasses of wine - she's earned them!
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1220 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Every year, this park becomes a lake
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I know we've shown this one before, but every spring when the snow melts, Green Lake in Tragöss, Austria overflows and floods the park next to it. For a few weeks, its trees, hiking trails, benches and bridges are submerged in over nine metres of water.
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1362 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
The moon isn't round
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Although it may look perfectly round from Earth, the Moon isn’t a sphere. New research suggests that because of the way it was formed it’s more like a lemon, with a bulge in the middle.
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1127 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Can you guess what animal this is?
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This is an x-ray of a developing bat embryo. A substance called Alcian blue staining is used to get a better view of its cartilage and bones.
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1095 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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1133 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
182 Year-old land creature
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With an estimated birth year of 1832, Jonathan was alive for the invention of the safety pin, the telephone, and the roller coaster. Here, he is photographed in 1902 and today, on the South Pacific Island of Saint Helena.
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1108 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Mysterious rocks - help solve this puzzle
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Dozens of stones up to 300 kg in weight are traveling for hundreds of metres across a dried lake in America. But no one's ever seen them do it. So, what's making these Death Valley 'sailing stones' move?
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1048 |
duddy |
10 years ago |