science

First of their kind scans of preserved infant woolly mammoths have made the insight into the early stages of development for the 40,000 year-old prehistoric animals less fuzzy.

According to a report published July 8 in the Journal of Paleontology, researchers performed a full body CT scan of two mammoth newborns, named Lyuba and Khroma, who died at the ages of 1 and 2 months respectively. The skeletal structures of the infants, which researchers consider to be the most well-preserved baby mammoth specimens found to date, gave the scientists the chance to document the various changes that occurred to the body as the ancient pachyderms grew. They also helped determine whether the mammoth gestation periods may have been shorter than that of modern elephants.

Check out the video at WSBTV.

These vegetated surfaces don't just look pretty. They have other benefits as well, including cooling city blocks, reducing loud noises, and improving a building's energy efficiency.What's more, a recent modeling study shows that green walls can potentially reduce large amounts of air pollution in what's called a "street canyon," or the corridor between tall buildings.

The technique, which is still in experimental stages, takes advantage of a rare mutation that makes one percent of people of European descent resistant to HIV.

Using a new "genome editing" tool, researchers are hoping to be able to insert the mutation into the cells of other people - and they've already proved the basic principles work using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), Peter Aldhous reports for New Scientist.

The new genome editing technique is much more precise than tradition forms of genetic engineering, as it places a sequence of gene into a pre-designated area of the genome, rather than at random locations. By using this technique, researchers led by Yuet Kan from the University of California, San Francico, have managed to alter the genome of iPSCs, which can turn into any cell in the body. As predicted, when the scientists grew these iPSCs into white blood cells, they were resistant to HIV.

funny, science, awesome, breakthroughs, 2013

Mauritius Island is 2000 km (1240 miles) southeast of Africa. It gives off a stunning optical illusion that the island its on top of a large waterfall. There actually isn't much of a depth difference at all, but the receding waves are pulling the light colored sand out into the ocean, giving the illusion of a drop off.

People have been getting rid of cockroaches for decades by setting out bait mixed with poison. But in the late 1980s, in an apartment test kitchen in Florida, something went very wrong. A killer product stopped working. Cockroach populations there kept rising. Mystified researchers tested and discarded theory after theory until they finally hit on the explanation: In a remarkably rapid display of evolution at work, many of the cockroaches had lost their sweet tooth, rejecting the corn syrup meant to attract them.