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3D Printing – Why all the hype?

3D printer making a small building. Image credit: Tiia Monto, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3D_printer2.jpg In recent years, 3D printing has drawn a lot of attention to itself with breakthroughs in various industrial applications.  Given the…

Risks of cannabis use in light of legalization surge

Should cannabis be legalized in the United States, and if so, under what conditions? Current research on medical consequences of cannabis use suggest that heavy use of cannabis can have longlasting effects on lung, cardiovascular and mental health, but…

The (Not so) Secret Life of our Inner Neanderthal

We’re still grappling with the astonishing 2010 discovery that Neanderthals had mated with modern humans [1]. Now two new studies published earlier this year [2, 3] have identified the Neanderthal contributions to our present-day genomes, and also…

Blocking the Brakes: Helping Your Immune System Battle Cancer

There’s been a lot of buzz recently about cancer immunotherapy, including its selection as Science Magazine’s 2013 Breakthrough of the Year. Immunotherapy has introduced a new class of drugs that harness your immune system’s ability to fight off cancer…

Increasingly Acidic Oceans Are Dissolving Snail Shells

From Snails Are Dissolving in Pacific Ocean (original article here) Image courtesy of Arctic Exploration 2002, Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, NOAA/OER Recent findings show that CO2 emissions are increasingly acidifying oceans, causing…

Origins of Eukaryotes: Who are our closest relatives?

Where do we come from? How did all the diversity of life originate? These are some of the most intriguing biological questions we still struggle to answer. In order to understand the processes that produce the diversity of life on Earth, evolutionary…

A distant galaxy acts as a giant magnifying glass

From “Detection of the Gravitational Lens Magnifying a Type Ia Supernova“ Quadruple image of the same quasar, called the ‘Enstein Cross’ The supernova of PS1-10afx was seen in 2010 and extremely bright for its class and location…