A Scientific Research Vault
We have already mentioned in some of our earlier posts that animals are superior relatively in certain terms. We are still trying to comprehend unique animal behavior and abilities like sophisticated communication in tiny marmoset monkeys or bacteria influenced smell based networking in hyenas. We are also fascinated about the way elephants communicate through seismic waves or echolocation in dolphins.
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It is well known fact that the most important work that a bee performs is to pollinate. Almost 80% of our flowering crops are dependent on these bees for their pollination process. That constitutes nearly 1/3 of human diet dependent on bees. Now we can imagine how dependent we are on bees for our survival on this planet. However, scientists have been recording an alarming decline in the bee population and have been named as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). In last six years approximately 10 million beehives has suffered from…
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A longitudinal study conducted by researchers Carla D’Antonio and Stephanie Yelenik was carried over a period of two decades to study the impact of invasive plants, to be one of the few studies conducted over such a period of time in this field of research. D’Antonio of UC Santa Barbara University, worked with postdoctoral scholar Stephanie Yelenik to collect data on grass invaded fields over the time period between mid 1990s and 2012. Field sites chosen were in Hawaa Volcanoes National Park. Data obtained from this study revealed unique results…
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We have all experienced the typical disinfectant liquid smell coming from hospitals or used in our homes to clean the floor or kitchen top which many of us don’t like in particular but is very essential in maintaining a germ free healthy life. Imagine how wonderful it would be, if we can lead a germ free life without using these disinfectants.
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As reported in the journal “Ecology and Evolution” , researchers from the University of Minnesota are working on developing a new approach for studying effects of using genetically engineered (GE) insects. GE insects are aspired to be used for purposes of managing pests and insect-borne human diseases. Researchers including David Andow, Aaron David, Joe Kaser, Amy Morey and Alex Roth are working on designing a standardized ecological risk assessment (ERA) for using such an approach. “Our project is trying to get it a little bit further into a standardization —…
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With the ever-increasing fuel prices and harmful greenhouse gases produced by these fuels, the need of the hour is to switch to an alternative fuel as effective as the traditional fuels. One such innovation is being done in the field of automobile industry with bringing the concept cars like electric cars and now hydrogen cars is being added to the list. These pollution free hydrogen cars would emit only water vapor and so can be seen as a promising mode of transportation in the future.
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Today everyone keeps discussing about protecting our mother nature, our planet from different wastes like chemical waste, radioactive waste, bio-degradable waste or non-degradable waste to name just a few. With the advancement of science and technology one more type of waste is posing a serious threat to the environment. Almost in every house there are television sets (one per family if not one in every room) and desktop. Do you remember your old heavy box type television set (with the Cathod Ray Tube Technology) which was latter replaced with the…
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We have seen animals like dogs, cats and others squatting to mark their territorial borders and to pass other messages. Researchers have been trying to unravel the amount of messages these signs flash to other animals. A similar study lead by postdoctoral researcher Kevin Theis of Michigan State University, has revealed some important information about hyenas squatting also known as pasting. The study mainly focused on two species of hyenas namely the spotted hyenas and the striped hyenas.
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Whenever I see a salamander or a lizard it makes me think how wonderful it could have been if we had the same capacity to re-grow an amputated limb or any scar so effectively and so easily. In humans, tissue repair mechanism is most vigorous during the gestation period and this decline with the advancement of age. That is why infant tissues tend to heal faster than an older individual. Interdependence between the tissue and tender age is the matter to exploration. What is that in juveniles that help in…
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We humans are not the only one who depends on past experiences for making competent decisions, ants too have been known living successfully on the same paradigm and they have been residing on earth for some 110-130 million years ago.
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Chimpanzees are our closed relatives in behavioral terms and as well as in appearance because we share 98.8 percent of the DNA pool. This striking similarity made the researchers inquisitive about how a chimpanzee would reciprocate to a robot. Robot fascinates humans, but the topic of research was whether the robot can lure chimpanzees’ interest too. Like humans do the chimpanzees understand that the robots are not living and do they attempt to communicate or make any bond with the bot? Researchers from the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Comparative…
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Solar energy, the outcome of the most innovative technology employed ever to harness sun’s energy. It is being widely used as an alternative source of energy mainly for electricity generation, transportation (solar car), in agriculture & horticulture (greenhouse), solar water heater to name a few. Nevertheless, there are certain drawbacks with solar energy, for instance, cost involved in the set up and irregularity/ unavailability during night or rainy days, as storage of solar energy was not so far possible. Giant Ivanpah is the largest solar thermal plant in the world…
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Marmosets are small, squirrel-like primates found in South America. They are considered to be the most primitive species of monkeys as they lack the ability to even change their facial expressions (*1). However, Marmosets were recently found to have a new skill that makes them more special than most animals. While different animals are known to call onto each other for purposes of mating or territorial defense, Marmosets have taken it to a new level of actual conversing. This discovery moves marmosets from being cute animals, to being courteous and…
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Having the Asian Elephant as a close relative, the long extinct woolly mammoth now has hope to come back to life. Scientists are studying the possibility of having hybrid animals give birth to an animal that resembles the woolly mammoth. Although it might sound like a remotely possible science fiction movie, the actual theoretical basis for the work is there. The first step in the process is creating the genetic map of the woolly mammoth (i.e., genome mapping). Reportedly, work in this area has already taken place, as researchers have…
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Architectural framework for capturing solar energy has been done using layers of materials one over the other. It has been an expensive module to work upon. So in order to reduce the overall cost, the number of layers has been restricted, which lowered its total efficiency level. In order to counter act this problem, researchers came up with a solution according to which, the effectiveness of panels can be increased upto 22% by using aluminum studs on the plane surface of the material that’ll be exposed to the sun light.…
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