PET Plastic Bottles morph to Paper: Ecological Paper

A Mexican startup company, Cronology situated in Ecatepec, has designed an innovative environment friendly technology that recycles waste PET bottles into peta paper or mineral paper. The technology claims to conserve around 20 trees from being chopped down and 50,000 liter of precious water on the production of per ton of paper, as they do not need chlorine or water for manufacturing. 

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Coin Spiders Self-Emasculate after Mating: Survival of the Genes

Much has been discussed about the cruel phenomenon of sexual cannibalism practiced by the famous black widow spider but not many know about another crazy phenomenon practiced by a male coin spider. These male spiders (Herennia multipuncta) are one of the greatest lovers in the nature. These tiny spiders have the courage to propose a female almost four times its size, which, if hungry rejects the proposal and preferably feeds on the male. However, scientists observed that if the male is lucky enough to woo the female, the male after mating…

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Evolution of Stripes in Zebras: Complex Mix of Purposes

Why do zebras evolve to sport such black and white, striped coat, has made experts curious. There are many theories that explain the reason behind zebra stripes. One of the theory suggests that these stripes help zebras to camouflage in tall grasses, exceptionally well during dawn or the dusk time. While another one says, the strips assist zebra to escape from the bites of troublesome flies or social cohesion. While the last one advocates that, these stripes create an optical illusion, which dazzles the hunter that eventually misses its target. 

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Pitcher Plants switch off their Traps for luring more Prey: Exploiting Insects social instincts

Carnivorous vegetation like pitcher plants has adapted to thrive in areas scarce of nutrients. Unlike other plants that derive nutrients from soil, pitcher plants have evolved to derive essential nutrients by gorging on insects trapped in their pitcher like traps. Experts from the University of Cambridge, UK and the University of Bristol, UK, studying the pitcher plants say that the plants are smart enough to plan a strategy to attract more prey into their deadly traps. 

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Separation from Cell Phone may cause Anxiety & Unpleasantness: Poor cognitive outcome

Today cell phone has become an integral part of human life and imagining a life without such fancy gadgets is impossible. Earlier cell phones were primarily used for communication, but now they have many more applications. This increase dependency on cell phones is no less than an addiction, which is difficult to overcome. To understand what happens when an individual is distanced from its phone, researchers from the University of Missouri conducted a study. 

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The Flashing of the Clam Ctenoides ales: Underwater Light Show

Depth of ocean stores many beautiful creatures that are still alien to us. Researchers are baffled to see that even in the deepest and the darkest part of the oceans have different forms of life flourishing. They study the deepest parts of the water to find creatures and to understand how they flourish in such depths of oceans. One such marine organism that caught the attention of underwater divers is ‘disco clam’ (Ctenoides ales, a species of saltwater clam). Native to Indo-Pacific coral reefs, they are named so because they…

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Fats Cells Protect against Bacterial Infections: Body’s Defense Mechanism

Most of us work hard to keep fat at bay from our body, the evil leads to obesity and increased level of cholesterol. However, these fat cells lying under the skin actually safeguard the human body from bacterial invasion. The imperative role of fat cells was discovered by researcher Richard Gallo from UC San Diego School of Medicine and explained the valuable role of fat cells also known as adipocytes. He found that adipocytes synthesis molecules termed as antimicrobial peptides, which fight infections and other pathogens. Apart from adipocytes, previous…

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Geologic processes in Earth’s Interior responsible for creating Oceans: Geoscientific Mystery

Emergence of water is the best part in the origin of life on the planet Earth. Without water, Earth might not have looked like what it is today, but the question how water first appeared on our Blue Planet is still a mystery. The most popular theory suggests that the collision of enormous icy comets with dry and inhospitable Earth, resulted in deposition of water on the surface. 

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Femme Fatale Mantis deceives Males for Snacking: Risking Lives for Sex

Sexual cannibalism in mantis is a very well known phenomenon. Female mantises bite off the male’s head after or during sex, therefore, is also known as fatale femme. However, the reason behind such sexual cannibalism remains debatable. Female mantises use pheromones to attract males for mating, however, females most of the time ends up eating male mantis, even before the poor male gets a chance to mate. Researchers until now believed that well fed females attracts more males and in turn laid more eggs. Nevertheless, a new study rebuts this…

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Helena device can create Oxygen on Red Planet: Global Contest for Mars One’s First Unmanned Lander

Mars One, the controversial project that plans to create a permanent human settlement on the Red Planet has organized a competition called the Mars One University Competition. The competition has invited designers to prepare technology that can supply Mars citizens with breathable air. The victorious payload will have the opportunity to travel to Mars One initial unmanned lander mission that is scheduled to land on Mars in 2018. This mission will in turn prepare the way for the future colonists planning to reach Mars in 2025. A student team from…

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Volcanic Eruptions or Asteroid Collision: What really killed the dinosaurs?

Reason related to what led to the extinction of dinosaurs remains debatable. Until now, the most acceptable theory states that around sixty six million years ago, an asteroid as wide as 5 miles and moving at a speed of 70,000 miles per hour bumped into the Earth. The dust from this massive collision blocked the sun and in turn causing catastrophic chains of events that led the extinction of dinosaurs along with three-quarters of other species of the planet. 

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Affordable Artificial Leaf to produce Clean Hydrogen Fuel: Nanowire Mesh for Direct Solar Water Splitting

Today nations across the world are trying to cut down their greenhouse gas emissions. Alternative energy sources are being tried and tested to replace non-renewable fuel sources and in this race, hydrogen fuel also known as zero emission fuel, definitely seems to have a promising future. Many automobile companies are doing R & D to come up with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the auto market. Unfortunately, availability of naturally occurring pure hydrogen on Earth is very limited and therefore, production of hydrogen gas requires tremendous energy. To overcome this…

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Electricity producing Trees: Plastic Leaves to Create Power

Very soon, we might witness our streets and garden lined up with electricity producing trees. Unbelievable but true. Couple of French engineers have designed an artificial tree that uses wind energy to produce electricity. The electricity producing, Wind Tree will be available in the market by 2015. Founder of start-up Parisian, Jerome Michaud-Lariviere says that he came up with the idea of wind tree when he saw leaves quivering in the absence of air currents, which means energy is coming from somewhere and it possible can be morphed into watts. 

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Human Waste to morph into Rocket Fuel: Methane powered Spacecrafts

A research team from the University of Florida has found a way to transform human waste into something as useful as a rocket fuel. Until now the waste produced during space missions were stored which was later burnt while entering Earth’s atmosphere, when the space cargo vehicle loaded with waste returns. However, between 2019 and 2024, NASA plans to build an operating base on moon for initiating future long-term space missions that would require a way to cut down the weight of spacecraft leaving Earth. Clearly, neither dumping waste on…

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