Until now it was known that exposure to certain bacteria in the environment may have some antidepressant qualities, but Dorothy Matthews and Susan Jenks, researchers from Sage Colleges, New York, have gone much further by suggesting that these same bacteria may also increase our ability to learn. “Mycobacterium Vaccae ,” says Dorothy Matthews “organism is a soil that is ingested or breathed in a natural way for people when they spend time in the field or in contact with nature.” (more…)

One line of research developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute shows that surpass graphene carbon nanotubes and other nanoparticles in strengthening the resilience and various mechanical properties of epoxy compounds. The findings made so far suggest that the nanomaterial graphene should be to choose to strengthen composite materials used in all sorts of things, from wind turbines on the wings of airplanes.

According to studies on the subject conducted in the institute, the compounds with added graphene are stronger, more rigid and less likely to fail than the compounds with carbon nanotubes or other nanoparticles added. This means that graphene, a carbon sheet one atom thick, could be an important component in the development of nanomaterials composed of the next generation. (more…)

A team led by scientists at Princeton University has tested the theory of general relativity by Albert Einstein to see if it meets a cosmic scale. And after two years of astronomical data analysis, scientists have ruled that Einstein’s theory, which describes the interaction between gravity, space and time, operating at great distances as it does in local regions of space.

The analysis of these scientists on more than 70,000 galaxies shows that the universe, at least up to 3500 million light-years from Earth, follow the rules established by Einstein in his famous theory. (more…)

A team of scientists from the University of California at Davis has identified the main scent produced naturally in humans and in birds that attracts the Culex mosquitoes, which feed on blood and transmit the West Nile virus and other diseases threatening.

The new research explains why mosquitoes added to humans as a food source, and paves the way for key advances in the control of mosquitoes and the diseases they spread.

Walter Leal and Zain Syed have found that nonanal is the chemical that awakens the powerful sense of smell in mosquitoes, guiding them to their feast of blood. The nonanal acts as a kind of beacon. Substances that do this are carrying a “message”, so to speak. (more…)

A Yale University physicists have made the first definitive measurements of the “persistent current, but a small electrical current perpetual flows naturally through tiny metal wire rings even without an external power source.

The team used a new method, based on nanoscale devices and is comparable to that of a drawbridge or a diving pool, to indirectly measure the current through the magnetic strength changes that occur when electric current flows through the ring. (more…)

Researchers at Princeton University have unveiled a new and unexpected visual appearance of the mysterious phenomenon experienced by humans and known as the “Valley Stranger.” Scientists have discovered that the monkeys also experience it. This psychological phenomenon of visual perception is characterized by a sense of rejection and unsettling feeling in the viewer when seen robots or avatars designed to closely resemble a human (or monkey, if the observer is a mono), but show imperfections betray its artificial nature. (more…)

In Friedberg in Hesse state in Germany is the first release plastic bridge in the world and is ready for use.  The bridge is constructed by plates in a polymer glass fiber reinforced (FRP) mounted on two steel beams and already complies with all construction standards of the European Union. (more…)

IT professor Martin Fisher and his team at KickStart, a nonprofit organization, has invented a pump can draw water from sources from 10 m below the ground and push it to about 12 m in height. Even gives the power required to transmit it via pipeline to a fairly large area of land (about two acres). It costs only about $ 100. (more…)

A new species of ant blind, subterranean, predatory, discovered in the jungles of the Amazon by Christian Rabeling evolutionary biologist at the University of Texas, probably a descendant of the first ants significant as such.

The new ant is named Martialis Heureka, and has a combination of characteristics never before recorded. It is adapted to live in the soil, is two to three millimeters in length, is pale, has no eyes, and Rabeling and his colleagues suspect it uses its jaws to capture prey.

The ant also belongs to its own new subfamily, a total now of 21 ant subfamilies. This is the first time since 1923 that reveals a new subfamily of ants with living species. Other subfamilies have been discovered since then, but always from fossilized individuals. (more…)