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Posts Tagged ‘Top’

Why aliens are hell and zombies are heaven [Steal This Pitch]

05 Mar
These days, two major scifi moneymakers are zombies and aliens. In books, TV shows, and movies, zombies are clawing at people's faces and aliens are perpetually jumping out of the shadows. Both types of movies have found popularity before, and now they're big again. But why? More »
 

How did humans really evolve? [Io9 Backgrounder]

04 Mar
Almost two million years ago, a band of brave explorers left their families behind in their warm, tropical home and sought refuge in northern lands. Armed with sharp stone tools and their wits, they followed the coast as far north as they could, then began to veer east, settling on the sunny, fertile shores of an inland sea that today we call the Mediterranean. Their children spread further north and east, and a million years later they had established settlements along the coasts of today's Europe, England, and China. More »
 
 

Research proves online gaming at work is good for you – and for your boss [Mad Science]

04 Mar
Are you in danger of getting fired because of too much gaming at work? If so, here's a scientific study you need to know about (and perhaps slip into the "to-read" pile on your boss's desk): "Games at work: the recreational use of computer games during working hours." More »
 
 

A drug that can make your old memories like new [Mad Science]

04 Mar
There are drugs that help you remember what you learn, and ones that erase your memory. But until now, there have no substances with the power to enhance and strengthen old memories hovering on the brink of being forgotten. Now a group of neuroscientsts say they've isolated a single enzyme in the brain that can help long-term memories remain crisp in your mind. More »
 
 

Our galaxy is home to more than 50 billion planets…and 500 million potentially habitable ones [Astronomy]

20 Feb
The Kepler telescope discovered more than 1,200 planets in just one tiny corner of the Milky Way. Crunching the numbers, a conservative estimate says there should be at least fifty billion planets in the entire galaxy, and about 500 million of those should be inside the habitable zone. But how many of those planets have life on them, let alone other intelligent beings? That's the question we still can't answer...but we're getting closer. More »
 
 

The truth about why things smell bad: Vibrating molecules [Biology]

15 Feb
For over a century, our sense of smell has been explained with the "lock and key" hypothesis, which holds that each odor molecule has a particular shape that allows it to fit into particular smell receptors in the nose. But now a controversial study involving fruit flies suggests that hypothesis might miss the truth entirely - the secret, they say, is all in the vibrations. More »
 
 

The 15 Best Speculative Fiction Books of 2010 [Best Of 2010]

07 Jan
We couldn't narrow it down to just ten, so here are our fifteen favorite books of 2010, including everything from the fantastical and epic, to the horrifying and futuristic. More »
 
 

Your Guide to the Darkest Day in 372 Years [Astronomy]

20 Dec
Late Monday night—well, actually, early Tuesday morning—the moon will move into the earth's shadow, causing a lunar eclipse visible to anyone in North America. Even better, it's happening on the Winter Solstice, for the first time since 1638. More »


 
 

Use the AROUND Operator in Google Searches for More Specific Results [Google Search]

07 Dec
Google searches are pretty smart and tend to be relevant to your search terms, but if you want to get really specific you can specify the proximity of your search terms with the undocumented AROUND operator. More »
 
 

This Generator the Size of a Pencil Tip Shakes Up Big Power [Electricity]

02 Dec
Japanese researchers have cooked up a minuscule kinetic battery capable of generating more energy than anything of its kind. Through only the slightest vibrations, the tiny device cranks out 22 milliwatts—20 times more than anything similar before it. More »