Science & Health: Space, Medicine, Climate Change And Humans
The home of space, archaeology, medicine, physics, climate change and everything else that impacts the planet, our health and the world of science.
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Electric Ecology: How Animals and Plants Use Static Electricity to Stay Alive
When you hear the word “electricity”, thoughts of power lines or household appliances are probably conjured up in your mind. But electricity is not just a modern human phenomenon – it was around long before us and, in fact, long before planet Earth. “Electricity” simply refers to the interactions between any electrically charged objects, not…
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Sea Lions Can Use Their Whiskers Like Humans Use Fingertips
Humans have amazing fingertips. They are sensitive and can be moved over objects to feel its softness, texture, size and shape. These movements are both complex, and “task-specific”. This means that you adopt different movements depending on what you want to feel about an object. We squeeze or push objects to judge softness, and feel…
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‘Eco-Friendly’ Fabric Is Destroying the Rainforest
Viscose rayon is often billed as a more sustainable fabric. But a new investigation shows that one of its most popular purveyors is contributing to deforestation in Indonesia.
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Ever Wondered What AI Would Say About Its Own Ethics? The Oxford Union Found Out
Not a day passes without a fascinating snippet on the ethical challenges created by “black box” artificial intelligence systems. These use machine learning to figure out patterns within data and make decisions – often without a human giving them any moral basis for how to do it. Classics of the genre are the credit cards…