Depression Did Not Make the Germanwings Co-Pilot Murder a Plane Full of People

Because Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz killed himself when he purposefully drove a plane carrying 149 other people into a mountain in the Alps, there has been an assumption that he suffered from “depression”—an assumption strengthened by the discovery of antidepressants in his home and reports that he had been treated in psychiatry and neurology clinics. Many patients and other interested parties are rightly concerned that Lubitz’s murderous behavior will further stigmatize the mentally ill.

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Ants in space grapple well with zero-g

A study finds that ants on board the International Space Station still use teamwork to search new areas, despite falling off the walls of their containers for up to eight seconds.

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Some Personalities Are More Likely to Apologize

Well-organized people are even efficient at saying they're sorry, for one.

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Can Weather Data Alter Business Decisions? IBM Thinks So

IBM’s ongoing reorganization has birthed a new Internet of Things division, in which the giant tech company will invest $3 billion over the next four years. The unit’s first big move: an alliance with The Weather Company. The partnership will focus first on data services for retailers, insurance companies and utilities.

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Daily Apple Not Associated With Reduced Doctor Use

In an unsettling finding, the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine reports this morning that although daily apple eaters are less likely to use prescription medications, "Evidence does not support that an apple a day keeps the doctor away." "People who eat an apple a day are a little more likely to keep the doctor away, but once we adjusted for all the other differences—as you can imagine, apple eaters are very different from non-apple eaters—the effect disappeared,"...

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It hit 63 degrees in Antarctica on Tuesday

Antarctica may have experienced its warmest day ever recorded on Tuesday, with the temperature reading of 63.5°F, reports The Weather Underground. Tuesday's record high temperature follows another high reading of 63.3°F set just the day before. Until this week's heat wave, the highest-known recorded temperature on the continent was 62.6°F back in 1976.

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How do geckos defy gravity?

Geckos aren’t covered in adhesives or hooks or suction cups, and yet they can effortlessly scale vertical walls and hang from ceilings. What’s going on? Eleanor Nelsen explains how geckos’ phenomenal feet allow them to defy gravity.

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World's largest aircraft looking for investors to give it liftoff

It could be the future of aviation, British eccentric genius on a grand scale, or possibly a bit of both. Secreted in a hangar a few miles south of Bedford sits the world’s largest aircraft: a hybrid of plane, balloon and hovercraft, an airship that the company modestly says will change the world. The Airlander 10 can fly for weeks, land virtually anywhere that’s flat, and burns just a fifth of the fuel of a conventional aircraft.

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When Retrofitted Technology Goes Wrong

It can be tempting to retrofit an older solution to add new technology or features. But just because you can ...

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Ancient egyptian beer making vessels discovered in Israel

The pottery shards (pictured), found in Tel Aviv, come from large ceramic basins, which were used to prepare fruity beer that was left to ferment under the sun.

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'Google Maps' for the body: A biomedical revolution

Scientists are using previously top-secret technology to zoom through the human body down to the level of a single cell. Scientists are also using cutting-edge microtome and MRI technology to examine how movement and weight bearing affects the movement of molecules within joints, exploring the relationship between blood, bone, lymphatics and muscle.

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10 Ways Our Minds Warp Time

How time perception is warped by life-threatening situations, eye movements, tiredness, hypnosis, age, the emotions and more...

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DARPA to re-invent GPS navigation without the use of satellites

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has unveiled its plan for the future, and it’s a huge shift, marked by new goals in four main areas. Arguably the biggest change is its plan to reinvent complex military systems and make them more modular, in an effort to ensure “superiority in the air, maritime, ground, space, and cyber domains.”

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Rolls-Royce signs $1bn engine deal with Air China

Engineering group to furnish airline’s new Boeing Dreamliner fleet with Trent 1000 engines.

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Facebook's 10-Year Plan To Become The Matrix

In 10 years, Facebook would like anyone, anywhere, to be able to strap on a virtual reality headset and share moments with friends and family across the world. It’s the vision of a digital utopia that Facebook reps shared onstage during the annual F8 conference. Mark Zuckerberg himself pointed to a simple graph showing that we're sharing more and more complex experiences. The natural endpoint is virtual and augmented reality.

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New study reveals main culprit for Alzheimer’s disease

A new analysis in more than 3,600 donated brains in the US has singled out malfunctioning tau proteins as the main driver for the cognitive decline and memory loss associated with Alzheimer's disease, offering a new focus for future Alzheimer's treatment and research.

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Poland blames Russian air controllers in 2010 crash

Two Russian air traffic controllers are among those charged in a military investigation of a 2010 plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski. The military prosecutors said bad weather was the primary cause of the crash, which killed 95 people on their way to Katyn, Russia.

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The Canadian who reinvented mathematics

Canadian Robert Langlands is 'like a modern-day Einstein,' who has devoted his life to the limits of pure mathematics

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'Punk Rocker Frog' Has Shape-Shifting Spikes and Teen Angst

The punk rocker frog changes the texture of its skin to better blend in with its surroundings, which is very weird for a vertebrate.

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Dancing Math

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The myth of Europe’s Little Ice Age

The Little Ice Age is generally seen as a major event in European history. Analysing a variety of recent weather reconstructions, this column finds that European weather appears constant from the Middle Ages until 1900, and that events like the freezing of the Thames and the disappearance of English vineyards have simpler explanations than changing climate. It appears instead that the European Little Ice Age is a statistical artefact...

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2 crew members in the cockpit at ALL times: EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic among airlines to announce radical new changes in wake of Germanwings tragedy

EasyJet (pictured) will implement the new rule from tomorrow in the wake of the Germanwings air disaster where the co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed the plane.

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Germanwings Pilot Andreas Lubitz Sought Treatment for Vision Problems Before Crash, Authorities Say

Andreas Lubitz, who was flying the Germanwings jetliner that slammed into a mountain in the French Alps on Tuesday, sought treatment for vision problems that may have jeopardized his ability to continue working as a pilot, two officials with knowledge of the investigation said Saturday. The revelation of the possible trouble with his eyes added a new element to the emerging portrait of the 27-year-old German pilot...

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Invisible Solar Cells That Could Power Skyscrapers

Silicon Valley startup Ubiquitous Energy is making the world’s first transparent solar cells, a technology that could greatly expand the reach of solar power. Their technology is an invisible film that can go on any surface and generate power, which could lead to cell phones and tablets that never run out of batteries — or skyscrapers that can use their massive banks of windows as solar panels. Bloomberg's Sam Grobart reports.

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A New Type of Dyson Sphere May Be Nearly Impossible to Detect

Over fifty years ago, physicist Freeman Dyson proposed an awesome, if slightly insane, idea: That an advanced alien civilization might construct a massive, energy-harvesting sphere around its star, and bunk up inside.

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Holocaust Survivor Band

This short documentary profiles two elderly Holocaust survivors in Florida who recently formed their own klezmer band.

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How do you design the library of the future?

ARE you sitting comfortably? Here is the Story of the Decline of the Academic Library. Once Upon A Time libraries were the gatekeepers to most of the information students and academics needed. Books had the information and libraries had the books. Then one day the Big Bad Internet came along and made hundreds of millions of books, articles and manuscripts freely available to anyone with access to a computer.

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30 never-before-seen species of flies discovered in Los Angeles

Scientists have found 30 never-before-seen species of flies buzzing about in the city of Los Angeles. The discovery suggests that we know less about the diversity of our winged neighbors than was previously thought. The flies are all members of the phorid family, and were captured in 30 insect traps set up in the backyards of homeowners around the city. Phorid flies are a little smaller than the fruit flies that hover over your bananas.

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BREAKING: Air Canada plane crashes on runway at Halifax Airport; dozens sent to hospital

A frightening landing for passengers aboard Air Canada flight 624 arriving in Halifax from Toronto. The plane crashed on the runway of the Halifax International Airport Sunday night, but no major injuries were reported.

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Theory of the strong interaction verified: Supercomputer calculates mass difference between neutron and proton

The fact that the neutron is slightly more massive than the proton is the reason why atomic nuclei have exactly those properties that make our world and ultimately our existence possible. Eighty years after the discovery of the neutron, a team of physicists has finally calculated the tiny neutron-proton mass difference. The findings are considered a milestone by many physicists and confirm the theory of the strong interaction.

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'Beautiful mind' John Nash adds Abel Prize to his Nobel

Mathematician made famous by Hollywood will share US$765,000 award with Louis Nirenberg for work in the field of geometric analysis.

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Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz ‘wanted to make everyone remember him’

The co-pilot on the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps wanted to do “do something” history would remember him by, according to reports. Andreas Lubitz, 27, had hidden a sicknote declaring him unfit to work on the day of the disaster before boarding the Düsseldorf-bound Airbus A320 and flying it into a mountain in the southern French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.

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Graphene light bulb set for shops

A light bulb made from graphene - said by its UK developers to be the first commercially viable consumer product using the super-strong carbon - is to go on sale later this year.

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German airline could face 'unlimited' damages for crash blamed on co-pilot

Lufthansa could face "unlimited" compensation claims for the crash that killed 150 people in the French alps and it would be difficult, even counterproductive, for the German carrier to try to avoid liability, experts said Friday. Under a treaty governing deaths and injuries aboard international flights, airlines are required to compensate relatives of victims for proven damages of up to a limit currently set at about $157,000 -- regardless of what caused the crash.

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Vast Underground City Found in Turkey May Be One of the World’s Largest

A newly discovered complex of carved rooms and tunnels may prove to be the largest of the many mysterious ancient underground cities in Turkey’s Cappadocia region.

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Elon Musk: Burning Fossil Fuels Is the 'Dumbest Experiment in History, By Far'

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and chairman of SolarCity, and the guy who dreamt up the hyper loop, says we shouldn't need an environmentally motivated reason to transition to clean energy. We're probably going to run out of oil sometime; why find out if we can destroy the world while we do it, if an alternative exists?

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Night vision eyedrops: Californian scientists make illuminating new discovery

It might sound like something straight out of Q’s laboratory or the latest Marvel film but a group of scientists in California have successfully created eye drops that temporarily enable night vision.

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Richard III royal burial ceremony

A regal reburial for Richard III at Leicester Cathedral.

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Smart meter scheme could be IT disaster, says IoD

The government's £11bn scheme to roll out energy saving smart meters could be an "IT disaster", the Institute of Directors warns.

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Carbon nanotube fibers make superior links to brain

Carbon nanotube fibers invented at Rice University may provide the best way to communicate directly with the brain. The fibers have proven superior to metal electrodes for deep brain stimulation and to read signals from a neuronal network. Because they provide a two-way connection, they show promise for treating patients with neurological disorders while monitoring the real-time response of neural circuits in areas that control movement, mood and bodily functions.

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Common Parasite Could Manipulate Our Behavior

Imagine a world without fear. It might be empowering to go about your daily life uninhibited by everyday distresses. You could cross highways with confidence, take on all kinds of daredevilry and watch horror flicks without flinching. Yet consider the prospect a little more deeply, and the possibilities become darker, even deadly. Our fears, after all, can protect us. The basic aversion that a mouse has for a cat, for instance, keeps the rodent out of death's jaws.

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How Germanwings co-pilot Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit

The co-pilot blamed for deliberately crashing a passenger jet with 150 people on board into the Alps used post-9/11 safety mechanisms to carry out his plan. Andreas Guenter Lubitz, 28, waited for his captain, Patrick Sondenheimer to leave the flight deck and go to the toilet before commanding the Airbus A-320 to descend. Once out of the cockpit, the door locked automatically. Ironically, this auto-lock feature, which led to Lubitz having sole control of the plane...

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The man who proved Stephen Hawking wrong

He grew up in grinding poverty and was forever in trouble at school. So how did Leonard Susskind become one of the world’s greatest physicists?

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What Happens to Your Brain on Sugar, Explained by Science.

These are excellent images comparing the brain on cocaine vs sugar.These PET brain scans show chemical differences in the brain between addicts and non-addicts. Pretty scary.

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How Brain-Damaging Mercury Puts Arctic Kids at Risk

Inuit children, exposed in the womb, have lower IQs because their mothers eat whale meat and other foods tainted with contaminants that drift north.

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DNA Tests Uncover Evidence Of Infidelity In Royal Family Tree

At last, King Richard III of England has been reburied in Leicester Cathedral this week. And at the same time, researchers have announced even more evidence of infidelity that could potentially shake up his royal family tree. Richard III, the last Plantagenet king, died at the age of 32 at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. But it wasn’t until in 2012 when his skeletal remains were discovered under a parking lot on a former friary site in Leicester.

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It's Remarkably Easy to Lock a Pilot Out of the Cockpit

The investigation into the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 has turned toward the co-pilot, whom a French prosecutor says locked the captain cockpit before deliberately flying the plane into the ground and killing all 150 people aboard. That revelation, which came today, casts Tuesday’s crash in a chilling light but would explain why an Airbus A320—an industry workhorse with an excellent safety record—with an experienced crew went down in picture-perfect conditions without raising an alert.

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Canada’s Government Has Removed Regulations That Protect Its Rivers And Lakes

In its quest for oil, Canada has lifted regulations on much of its water supply.

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Biohackers Figured Out How to Inject Your Eyeballs With Night Vision

In "people becoming superhuman" news, a small independent research group has figured out how to give humans night vision, allowing them to see over 50 meters in the dark for a short time. Science for the Masses, a group of biohackers based a couple hours north of Los Angeles in Tehachapi, California, theorized they could enhance healthy eyesight enough that it would induce night vision. To do this, the group used a kind of chlorophyll analog called Chlorin e6...

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Plane That Flies Itself Whilst Pilot Leaves the Cockpit

Aviations's latest wonder. 1932 and the pilot's plane flies by itself whilst the pilot goes on to the roof of the plane! Filmed in Glendale, USA.

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