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Tech NewsSend This Professor Pictures of Medical Trash on the Streets
I’d nearly missed it, as it lay half-swallowed by a storm drain, but the familiar shade of cornflower blue was enough to make me stop. I crouched down, snapped a photo of a single latex glove with my ancient iPhone, and moved down the block hunting for more. Forty-five minutes, 1.76 miles, and four city … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech NewsYou Will Never Get Rich as a YouTuber
For every professional musician, athlete, or chef, there are hundreds if not thousands of schmucks still playing empty bars on Tuesdays, limping out of the minors on torn ACLs, or flipping burgers at the farthest possible location from a Michelin star. While the barriers to entry might be lower for vlogging fame, new research suggests … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech NewsEnergy Drinks Won’t Make You a Coke Addict: Cocaine Will Make You A Coke Addict
Science doesn’t give answers. Instead, it’s a tool that humans have created to make meaningful conclusions from data. So, if someone tells you that science says energy drinks will turn you into a cocaine user, well, science won’t ever do that. A new study practically everyone has been reporting on claims that energy drinks can … Continued
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Tech News
Cocaine Addiction Leads to Buildups of Iron in the Brain
Cocaine, as they say, is a hell of a drug. It affects three of the neurotransmitters in our brains that make us feel fantastic—dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine—and tolerance for the stuff doesn’t seem to dissipate even months after quitting. (It’s also expensive and bad for you.) Today, new research published in Translational Psychiatry adds another … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
ScienceBiology
Some Vampire Bats Have Started Biting Humans (and It’s Probably Our Fault)
Feeling drained? According to a new study, a vampire bat species that typically feeds on native birds has turned to sucking the blood of humans at night, likely due to human encroachment. In the study, researchers analyzed guano from hairy-legged vampire bats in northeast Brazil’s Catimbau National Park to see how they responded to man-made … Continued
By Hudson Hongo -
Tech News
Good Wood Makes a Stradivarius Sing
Stradivarius stringed instruments—the finely constructed, highly sought after multi-million dollar wood boxes* crafted in the 17th and 18th century by Italian luthier Antoni Stradivari—are a bit of a mystery to modern day observers. Despite their quality, nobody quite knows what makes them so superior. Researchers at National Taiwan University, however, think they might have an … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Gadgets Are Not People
If you’re currently single, falling in love with an inanimate object might seem like the obvious solution. Whether its 15 inflatable pool toys or just a potentially explosive cellphone, dating the non-living instantly eliminates some of the trickiest relationships issues. Worried they might not like you back? Not a problem. Afraid they’ll leave you? Not … Continued
By Hudson Hongo -
Tech News
This Blooming Flower Isn’t What It Seems at All
Scientists have been working on materials that change shape for a while now. But as New Scientist points out, these metamorphoses usually require external stimuli to get going—until now. New research published in Nature Communications shows that some non-living substances can be made to transform all on their own. The secret to these remarkably lifelike … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech News
That Fitness Tracker Might Actually Make Losing Weight Harder
Activity monitors are supposed to help us reach our fitness goals, but when it comes to staying motivated, you might want to look beyond your wrist. In a study published in JAMA on Tuesday, researchers found that fitness trackers weren’t the boon to longterm weight loss they expected them to be, with users dropping far … Continued
By Hudson Hongo -
Tech NewsSex Ed Robot Babies Are Doing a Bad Job at Stopping Teen Boning
One might think that caring for a robot baby—one that cries and sleeps like a regular human baby—might discourage teenage girls from getting pregnant. According to new research, however, the robo-babies actually appear to have the opposite effect. A study published today in the medical journal The Lancet found that so-called infant simulator-based programs, which … Continued
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Tech News
A Crazy New Species of Beaked Whale Has Been Discovered in the Pacific
Did you know that beaked whales are a thing, and that they’re more than just giant, weird-looking dolphin clones? On Tuesday, a team of scientists announced the discovery of a brand new species of beaked whale. The findings, published in the journal Marine Mammal Science, detail the lengthy process of finding and identifying samples from … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidWonder Bread Plus Fire Makes a Miraculous Material
Wonder Bread is already semi-miraculous: It’s impossibly soft, sweet, and shelf-stable. But unlocking the true potential inside this fluffy stuff results in a substance nearly impervious to heat and electricity, not dissimilar from what used to cover the exterior of spacecraft. The process for turning Wonder Bread into carbon foam is essentially the same as … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech News
The Vast Majority of Americans Suffer From Road Rage
What do you think you’re doing? Why didn’t you use a turn signal? You’re getting the finger now, asshole. Hey, wait, what’s going on? Why are you getting out of your car? Ha ha, I was just kidding. Wait, is that your kid? Is he getting out? What’s he… is he banging his tiny fists … Continued
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Tech NewsCommerce
Why Do We Like the Music That We Like?
Some combinations of notes inherently sound better than others, right? It’s why the bread and butter of pop music, which is engineered to be upbeat and danceable, is highly consonant major chords. It’s why unpredictable 12-tone compositions create unease in the listener, and why Stravinsky’s dissonant Rite of Spring sparked a riot when it debuted. … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech News
We Finally Know Why Jet Lag Is Much Worse Flying East
Jet lag is objectively terrible. It grants no immunity and bends to no form of treatment, unless “consuming an entire bottle of liquor and popping a few Ambien” is considered treatment. (It’s not.) But according to conventional wisdom, some kinds of jet lag are worse than others—traveling east, for example, is harder on the sleep … Continued
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Tech News
Eating Garbage Makes Bears Lazy as Hell, Just Like You and Me
Turns out brown bears are trash monsters whose habit of noshing on garbage leads them to develop a more sedentary lifestyle. Wow, same! According to a new study published in the Journal of Zoology, migratory brown bears in northeast Turkey who often visited a garbage dump to find food—researchers termed them, fantastically, “dump bears”—tended to … Continued
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Tech News
Government-Funded Zika Study to Use Olympic Athletes as Guinea Pigs
In an effort to learn more about the dreaded disease, the National Institutes of Health is funding a study in which a group of US athletes, coaches, and staff will be monitored for exposure to the Zika virus while attending the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Brazil. Earlier this year, the US Olympic Committee … Continued
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Tech News
Teens Know the Internet Is Dark and Full of Terrors, Just Not For Them
There’s a common refrain among people of a certain age: “Wow, I’m really glad I wasn’t a teenager in the age of smartphones and Snapchat.” They’re not wrong. After polling over 10,000 18-year-olds from 25 different countries, a new UNICEF study confirms that being a teen online these days is fraught with risk, danger, and … Continued
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Tech News
Why Do Tiny Fruit Flies Have Giant Sperm?
Fruit flies have enormous sperm. This is a well known fact in the scientific community—so well known, in fact, that there’s a name for it: the big sperm paradox. But the massive, spermy problem has long confounded scientists, who couldn’t figure out why such a tiny creature needed such humongous baby batter soldiers. Until now. … Continued
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Tech NewsBulletproof Coffee: Debunking the Hot Buttered Hype
People are putting butter in their coffee. And hey, if you’re just craving a new flavor experience, more power to you. The problem is that Bulletproof Coffee, the company behind the trend, is claiming that drinking a mug of fatty joe every morning instead of eating breakfast is a secret shortcut to weight loss and … Continued
By Brent Rose