What is 'Zoo Theory'? Bizarre thesis attempts to explain why aliens are yet to contact us

They are watching us and do not want to make contact, according to a theory by an MIT scientist.

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[National Geographic’s] Best Photos of 2017

National Geographic’s 57 best images of the year—curated from 88 photographers, 112 stories, and nearly 2 million photographs.

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U.F.O.s: Is This All There Is?

Astronomers have their noses pressed against the windows of the unknown, wanting to believe in life elsewhere just like many outer space enthusiasts.

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30 years after Prozac arrived, we still buy the lie that chemical imbalances cause depression

We don’t know how Prozac works, and we don’t even know for sure if it’s an effective treatment for the majority of people with depression.

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Burning wood for power is ‘misguided’ say climate experts

Policies aimed at limiting climate change by boosting the burning of biomass contain critical flaws that could actually damage attempts to avert dangerous levels of global warming in the future. That is the stark view of one of Britain’s chief climate experts, Professor John Beddington, who has warned that relying on the cutting down and burning of trees as a replacement for the use of fossil fuels could rebound dangerously.

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NASA released a new image showing Antarctica's melting iceberg

The image was captured by NASA's Landsat 8 satellite.

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Dozens Of 130 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Eggs Found In China

Construction workers made a beautiful discovery on Christmas Day in Ganzhou, China when uncovered a nest full of dinosaur eggs. Ganzhou city is known as the 'city where dinosaurs were born' and according to local media. Archaeologists have dated the eggs at around 130 million years old. The eggs were like Christmas present from the past discovered on December 25. The construction workers were working on a construction of a secondary school when they saw a group of oval-shaped rocks on the ground where they were using explosives.

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Does Your Brain Know When You’re Dead?

Researchers say that after your heart stops, your brain functions for about another 20 seconds before it shuts down as well.

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Parts of Canada colder than Mars and Antarctica

Mars, Antarctica or Mount Everest Base Camp might be warmer alternatives for some Canadians on Thursday, as the country faces an epic cold snap that has plunged the mercury to record-setting lows in many regions. Environment Canada issued a slew of extreme cold weather alerts Thursday, with forecasts calling for daily highs in the -20 to -30 degrees Celsius range in many major cities. However, overnight temperatures and wind chill factors are expected to make it feel much, much colder – in the neighbourhood of -40 C in some places, according to several warnings.

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The placebo effect has an evil twin that makes you feel pain

A fascinating new study finds patients report worse side effects from placebo when they think it costs more money. The placebo effect is one of the most mystifying phenomena in medicine. When we expect a pill to make us feel better, it does. If we see others get better while using a medicine, we will too.

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Debating the ethics of head transplants

When articles about the world’s first head transplant began popping up in news feeds, Emory Neuroethics Program director Karen Rommelfanger thought it must be a hoax. There hadn’t been any papers published about the procedure or any serious discussion of practice operations on animals or human corpses. Just a few still photos and lots of online speculation. Most of the conversations were centered on the gross-out factor of the operation or the very high likelihood that such a procedure would fail. Very few were talking about the many ethical concerns a head transplant would raise.

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‘Happy New Year’ in European languages

Learn how to wish a "Happy New Year" in German, French, Spanish, Italian and other languages with my neatly coloured map!

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'It's shocking, it's horrendous': Ellen MacArthur's fight against plastic

Trophies from her past glories as a competitive yachtswoman are placed discreetly around the 16th-century building on the Isle of Wight, the base of Dame Ellen MacArthur’soperations today. On a blackboard in one of the meeting rooms, the targets of a different passion are spelled out. From uncovering the scale of plastic pollution in the oceans to targeting the textile waste of the fashion industry, MacArthur, who in 2005 broke the solo record for sailing round the world, is dedicating her life to saving it.

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The biggest space missions and rocket launches we'll see in 2018

There’s a lot going on. Next year is already overflowing with exciting missions to space. NASA is launching a new lander to Mars, as well as a spacecraft that will get closer to the Sun than ever before. And two of NASA’s vehicles already in space will finally arrive at their intended targets: one will rendezvous with a nearby asteroid, while another will pass by a distant space rock billions of miles from Earth.

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Chinese scientists hear sound in deepest part of the world’s oceans

Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding deepwater sound communication after conducting China’s first acoustic test in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world’s oceans. Researchers from Northwestern Polytechnical University in Shaanxi province carried out the experiment near the Challenger Deep, a small valley at the southern end of the trench about 11km under the surface, China Ocean News reported this week.

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How Climate Change Deniers Rise to the Top in Google Searches

Type the words “climate change” into Google and you could get an unexpected result: advertisements that call global warming a hoax. “Scientists blast climate alarm,” said one that appeared at the top of the search results page during a recent search, pointing to a website, DefyCCC, that asserted: “Nothing has been studied better and found more harmless than anthropogenic CO2 release.”

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Trump says cold weather disproves global warming. His own White House disagrees.

Just as spring means the flowers bloom, winter means Donald Trump’s climate denial blossoms. On Thursday, President Trump posted a tweet suggesting that the current cold snap across the United States disproves evidence of climate change. Of course, it’s called “global” warming for a reason — as this map shows, even though it’s cold here, it’s unusually warm pretty much everywhere else in the world.

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Combatting PTSD by letting patients hear their own brainwaves

Currently, PTSD is usually treated with psychotherapy and antidepressants, but those aren’t always effective. Now a study conducted at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has found that a novel form of treatment reduced symptoms of the disorder by letting patients “hear” their own brainwaves.

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Super aluminum-graphene battery has a 5-second charging time

Super aluminum-graphene battery has a 5-second charging timeMaterial and engineering researchers at East China’s Zhejiang University unveiled a “super” aluminum-graphene battery that can be fully charged in 5 seconds and then last for two hours. They claim to have developed a novel aluminum-graphene battery that is more cold-resistant, can work in temperatures ranging from -40 C to 120 C and is less flammable.

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Is this the future? Dutch plan vast windfarm island in North Sea

Advanced plans by Dutch power grid aims to build power hub possibly at Dogger Bank whose scale would dwarf current offshore sites

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DNA vaccine promises permanent, universal protection against the flu

A universal, one-dose flu vaccine has long been a holy grail for medical researchers. With the World Health Organization estimating over half a million people die every year from influenza, and the social and economic costs being almost impossible to calculate, the impact of an effective flu vaccine cannot be underestimated. New research from the University of Washington School of Medicine could pave the way for a universal flu shot by developing a novel DNA vaccine that targets the genetic components of the virus.

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Octopuses are so clever, scientists missed a species right under their noses

The giant Pacific octopus you saw at the aquarium last month? It might not have actually been a giant Pacific octopus.

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Exercise is good medicine for boosting memory and thinking skills, new guidelines say

New guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology say exercising twice a week may help preserve memory and thinking skills in people with mild cognitive impairment.

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American reams: why a ‘paperless world’ still hasn’t happened

The long read: In a world seduced by screens, the future of paper might seem uncertain. But many in the industry remain optimistic – after all, you can’t blow your nose on an email.

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Quanta Magazine: Neutrinos Suggest Solution to Mystery of Universe’s Existence

Updated results from a Japanese neutrino experiment continue to reveal an inconsistency in the way that matter and antimatter behave.

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Scientists have found a drug that can repair cavities and regrow teeth

A new discovery about a drug developed for Alzheimer's patients might replace fillings for cavity repair. Tideglusib stimulates stem cells in the pulp of teeth, promoting new dentine production and natural tooth repair.

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The Future of Buying Stuff Won’t Involve Humans at All, Except You

Many of the basics we'll buy will be constructed, bought, and shipped by machines.

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Thousands Once Spoke His Language in the Amazon. Now, He’s the Only One.

The Taushiro tribe vanished into the jungles of the Amazon basin in Peru generations ago. Amadeo García García is now the last native speaker of their language.

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Trump administration eases nursing home fines in victory for industry.

The Trump administration is scaling back the use of fines against nursing homes that harm residents or place them in grave risk of injury.

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China Signals Slower Growth Is Acceptable to Tackle Debt, Smog

China can achieve a goal of doubling the size of its economy by 2020 even if annual expansion slows to 6.3 percent, according to a senior Communist Party official, signaling a greater willingness to tackle debt and pollution at the expense of growth. In its blueprint for 2016 to 2020, China set a minimum annual growth target of 6.5 percent for the five-year period to achieve the goal of doubling gross domestic product from 2010 levels. But over the weekend, Yang Weimin, an official from the Communist Party committee overseeing economic policy, said annualized growth of 6.3 percent in 2018-2020 would do.

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FCC approves Energous WattUp, the first 'at-a-distance' wireless charging system

Wireless charging was the hot new thing a few years back, then it faded away a bit. Now, it's coming back with Apple's decision to finally adopt one of the existing wireless charging standards. Every phone with wireless charging still needs to be sitting on the charging pad, but that could change soon. Wireless charging startup Energous has announced that its WattUp system has been approved by the FCC, making it the first "at-a-distance" wireless charging tech ready for consumers.

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'Coral bleaching is getting worse ... but the biggest problem is pollution'

The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef is the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere – an underwater wilderness stretching over 700 miles along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. One of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the Americas, the reef is home to a dazzling variety of coral and more than 500 species of fish, and provides a livelihood for more than a million people. But now, a combination of mass tourism and poor waste management has left the reef increasingly vulnerable to climate change, placing this natural wonder in serious trouble.

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Driverless trucks moving closer to commercial reality on Canadian highways

Autonomous trucks are moving towards commercial reality on Canadian highways as companies look to boost productivity amid a driver shortage and governments seek to reduce deadly crashes.

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Evidence of advanced UFOs 'beyond reasonable doubt', says former Pentagon chief

The existence of unidentified flying objects using technology more advanced than human capabilities has been proved “beyond reasonable doubt”, the former head of a secret US government programme has said. Luis Elizondo, who quit as head of the Advanced Threat Identification Programme (AATIP) two months ago, warned nations now “had to be conscious” of the potential threat posed by UFOs.

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Men Resist Green Behavior as Un-Manly

Women have long surpassed men in the arena of environmental action; across age groups and countries, females tend to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Compared to men, women litter less, recycle more, and leave a smaller carbon footprint. Some researchers have suggested that personality differences, such as women’s prioritization of altruism, may help to explain this gender gap in green behavior.

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Trump to slash safety regulations put in place after nation’s worst environmental disaster

During the Obama administration, the federal government took action to prevent another Deepwater Horizon-sized oil spill, widely viewed as the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. After taking office, the Trump administration immediately began making plans to relax certain offshore drilling rules implemented after the 2010 disaster.

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Google’s voice-generating AI is now indistinguishable from humans

Humans have officially given their voice to machines. A research paper published by Google this month—which has not been peer reviewed—details a text-to-speech system called Tacotron 2, which claims near-human accuracy at imitating audio of a person speaking from text. The system is Google’s second official generation of the technology, which consists of two deep neural networks. The first network translates the text into a spectrogram (pdf), a visual way to represent audio frequencies over time.

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Elon Musk confirms Tesla pickup truck coming ‘after Model Y’

After some confusion over Tesla’s plan to build an electric pickup truck at the Tesla Semi event last month, CEO Elon Musk now confirms that a Tesla pickup truck is coming “right after …

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Experts say we should tax meat eaters the same way we tax smokers

If your burger ends up costing as much as a plate of caviar, you may decide to explore vegetarian options. As global demand booms, a tax on meat may be a way of discouraging overconsumption and paying for the environmental damages of the livestock industry, a new report suggests. But critics believe it would disproportionately affect the poor.

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Before the Iron Age, Most Iron Came From Space

New research is showing just how coveted meteoritic iron was in the Bronze Age. Earth is not short of iron—the metal makes up much of our planet’s core and is the fourth most abundant element in the crust. But actually getting that iron out to use it—to make tools, for example—hasn’t always been a simple process. Most iron is packed away in ore, and you have to know how to smelt it to produce the metal, long prized for its strength and workability. Humans didn’t really master the process and produce iron at a large scale until around 1200 B.C...

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World's richest 10% produce half of global carbon emissions, says Oxfam

The richest 10% of people produce half of Earth’s climate-harming fossil-fuel emissions, while the poorest half contribute a mere 10%, British charity Oxfam said in a report released Wednesday. Oxfam published the numbers as negotiators from 195 countries met in Paris to wrangle over a climate rescue pact.

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He’s 79 and working full time at Walmart: A sobering truth for those without pensions

Tom Coomer has retired twice: once when he was 65, and then several years ago. Each time he realized that with just a Social Security check, “You can hardly make it these days.”

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The Halloween asteroid prepares to return in 2018

There is one year to go until asteroid 2015 TB145 approaches Earth once again, just as it did in 2015 around the night of Halloween, an occasion which astronomers did not pass up to study its characteristics. This dark object measures between 625 and 700 metres, its rotation period is around three hours and, in certain lighting conditions, it resembles a human skull.

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Mars: Not as dry as it seems

When searching for life, scientists first look for an element key to sustaining it: fresh water. Although today’s Martian surface is barren, frozen and inhabitable, a trail of evidence points to a once warmer, wetter planet, where water flowed freely. The conundrum of what happened to this water is long standing and unsolved. However, new research published in Nature suggests that this water is now locked in the Martian rocks.

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The scientific evidence for microaggressions is weak and we should drop the term, argues review author

Racism and prejudice are sometimes blatant, but often manifest in subtle ways. The current emblem of these subtle slights is the “microaggression”, a concept that has generated a large programme of research and launched itself into the popular consciousness – prompting last month’s decision by Merriam-Webster to add it to their dictionary.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson on UFOs: 'Call me when you have a dinner invite from an alien'

There has been a lot of talk about the existence of aliens and UFOs following reports that the Pentagon has researched them, but astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson isn't convinced, or frankly, interested. "Call me when you have a dinner invite from an alien," he told CNN's Alisyn Camerota during a "New Day" appearance Wednesday morning. "The evidence is so paltry for aliens to visit Earth, I have no further interest."

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Precious Gems Bear Messages From Earth’s Molten Heart

We may covet gemstones for their beauty, but their real value lies in what they tell scientists about the extreme forces at work deep underground.

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Diet rich in apples, tomatoes may help repair lungs of ex-smokers, study suggests

The natural decline in lung function over a 10-year period was slower among former smokers with a diet high in tomatoes and fruits, especially apples, according to a study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, suggesting certain components in these foods might help restore lung damage caused by smoking.

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Scientists Say Humans' 'Lack of Empathy' Is Leading to Global Species Annihilation

No bells tolled when the last Catarina pupfish on Earth died. Newspapers didn’t carry the story when the Christmas Island pipistrelle vanished forever. Two vertebrate species go extinct every year on average, but few people notice, perhaps because the rate seems relatively slow—not a clear and present threat to the natural systems we depend on. This view overlooks trends of extreme decline in animal populations, which tell a more dire story with cascading consequences...

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Aging population, costs behind sliding No. of pet dogs in Japan

Japan's aging population and the higher cost of keeping dogs has likely contributed to the sliding number of pet canines in the country, with cats overtaking them this year for the first time since an annual survey began in 1994, according to industry experts.

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