October 7, 2011

African witch doctors have long used a certain tea to help pregnant women induce labor and delivery. The ingredients of that concoction are now being exhaustively studied by scientists. Could the secrets of the witch doctors save millions of lives? Kalata-Kalata & Secrets of the Witch Doctors? During the 1960s, a Norwegian doctor named Lorents…

September 26, 2011

Modern antibiotics work by attacking specific parts of pathogens. While this works in most cases, some pathogens merely develop resistance to the antibiotics. Recently, biologists developed an innovative and promising way to combat these terrifying “superbugs.” Can ancient secrets of the medical world save lives today? Evolutionary Arms Race: Superbugs versus Antibiotics Superbugs present a…

September 24, 2011

Oneirology is the scientific study of dreams. It’s widely considered a protoscience, or a promising field of study that has yet to be firmly established. New research could change all that though. In fact, it could change a lot of things. What if technology existed that could read dreams? What if these “natural movies” could…

September 17, 2011

Life as we know it derives from organic compounds. Or does it? Can inorganic life exist? Inorganic Life? Carbon is the basis for all organic compounds and thus, all life on earth. Compounds that lack carbon are considered inorganic and thus, inanimate. However, for many years scientists have speculated on the possibility of unknown lifeforms,…

September 8, 2011

In 1950, Alan Turing wanted to answer the question, “Can machines think?” However, due to the difficulties involved in defining exactly what constitutes “thinking,” he chose to answer a closely related question: “Are there imaginable digital computers which would do well in the imitation game?” This question, which is known popularly as the “Turing Test,”…

August 29, 2011

On January 12, 1967, Dr. James Bedford passed away. A few hours later, he became the first person in history to have his body frozen with intent of future resuscitation. So, where is the Cryonics Man today? The Strange Science of Cryonics? Cryonics is the science of freezing a deceased subject in the hopes of…