MindStretch Podcast

Earth Is Totally Unprepared For a Surprise Asteroid Strike, NASA Scientists Warn

There is no plan B.<p>NASA is certainly not in the business of spreading panic over asteroid strikes - every time one comes close, we see yet another …

50 Years Ago, Sugar Industry Quietly Paid Scientists To Point Blame At Fat

In the 1960s, the sugar industry funded research that downplayed the risks of sugar and highlighted the hazards of fat, according to a newly published article in <i>JAMA Internal Medicine.</i><p>The article draws on internal documents to show that an industry group called the Sugar Research Foundation wanted …

In time warping study, people unconsciously controlled blood sugar levels | Ars Technica

Researchers suggest well-timed placebos may be useful in managing type 2 diabetes.<p>Ideas can be powerful drugs. If a person is simply convinced that a …

Scientists Create Successful Biohybrid Being Using 3-D Printing and Genetic Engineering

Scientists genetically engineered and 3-D-printed a biohybrid being, opening the door further for lifelike robots and artificial intelligence.<p>If you met this lab-created critter over your beach vacation, you'd swear you saw a baby ray. In fact, the tiny, flexible swimmer is the product of a team of …

Solar cell sucks up CO2 and spits burnable fuel out the other side

Recreating a plant's ability to use sunlight to turn carbon dioxide into fuel, something known as artificial photosynthesis, is one of the holy …

Genetics Expert: In 20 Years, Couples Won't Have Sex to Reproduce

The 1932 dystopian masterpiece <i>Brave New World</i> opens with a tour of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where genetically engineered …

Why we feel emotions in our guts, and what microbes have to do with it

In the dark, oxygen-free zone of our large intestines, a vast community of life is flourishing. Scientists say there are more than 100 trillion microbes living there, and if you gathered them all together, they would weigh more than our brains.<p>In his new book, “The Mind-Gut Connection,” Dr. Emeran …

The Top 10 Emerging Technologies Of 2016 [INFOGRAPHIC]

<b>The Top 10 Emerging Technologies Of 2016 by Jeff Desjardins, Visual Capitalist</b><p>Sometimes the world is not yet ready for a new technology to enter the …

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There's Very Little Evidence That Flossing Actually Works

Don't lie, everybody exaggerates how often they floss when they go to the dentist. However, maybe there’s no need to feel wracked with guilt the next …

Researchers think we may have to protect our brains from hackers in a few years

What if hackers could one day control your mind, or at least take a glimpse inside, through the use of sophisticated malware?<p>It’s a scenario that’s sounds straight out of a science fiction novel, but we’re far closer than you might think. As scientists continue to make breakthroughs in implanting, …

Scientists turn CO2 into fuel with solar power

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago believe that they've perfected the art of photosynthetic solar cells. It's a technology that mimics a plant's ability to inhale carbon dioxide and, with water, convert it into glucose and oxygen. This system is capable of drawing in carbon …

Neuroscientists Still Don’t Know Why Music Sounds Good

Your taste in music is weird. Maybe you just can’t stop listening to that power ballad, or you’ve wondered about your bewildering weakness for …

"In the future we will all be homeless" says co-living entrepreneur

Home ownership is set to become a thing of the past, according to the entrepreneur behind London co-living start-up The Collective, because socially …

theearthchild.co.za

EPIC Earth: A Year of Days From Space

NASA has released a pretty amazing video: It consists of more than 3,000 images of Earth taken by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on …

Geophysicists just debunked a key assumption about how Earth's continents formed

Before it split into the continents we know today, Earth was home to just a single landmass, or "supercontinent," called Pangea.<p>Over tens of millions of years, as the familiar story goes, these giant hunks of rock slowly split apart, breaking up at a rate of just a millimeter — a little more than …

5 prescription drugs doctors had no idea could hurt their patients

As a doctor, Ben Goldacre likes to have <i>all</i> the available facts about a prescription drug before he even thinks about prescribing it. However, when it …

Why cloth diapers might not be the greener choice, after all

<i>Kendyl Salcito is the executive director of NomoGaia, a think tank dedicated to helping multinational corporations respect human rights in their global operations.</i><p>The invaluable yet lowly diaper was first mass-produced in 1887, a rectangle of oft-soiled, washable cotton fabric unimproved for more …

The Chemistry Of Titan Could Pave The Way For Future Life

The precursors to life may be on Saturn’s smoggy moon Titan, but not in the way you think. Far from there being DNA or RNA drifting around the muddy …

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Entrepreneur Elon Musk is a man with many plans. The founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX sits down with TED curator Chris Anderson to share …

How to read the genome and build a human being | Riccardo Sabatini

Secrets, disease and beauty are all written in the human genome, the complete set of genetic instructions needed to build a human being. Now, as …

This computer will grow your food in the future | Caleb Harper

What if we could grow delicious, nutrient-dense food, indoors anywhere in the world? Caleb Harper, director of the Open Agriculture Initiative at the …

A roadmap to end aging | Aubrey de Grey

https://download.ted.com/talks/AubreydeGrey_2005G-64k.mp4Cambridge researcher Aubrey de Grey argues that aging is merely a disease -- and a curable …

We can reprogram life. How to do it wisely | Juan Enriquez

For four billion years, what lived and died on Earth depended on two principles: natural selection and random mutation. Then humans came along and …

Open Agriculture Initiative

Job Opportunity: OpenAg Software Developer<p>Welcome!<p>The MIT Media Lab Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg) is on a mission to create healthier, more …

How playing an instrument benefits your brain - Anita Collins

The superbug that doctors have been dreading just reached the U.S.

For the first time, researchers have found a person in the United States carrying bacteria resistant to antibiotics of last resort, an alarming development that the top U.S. public health official says could mean “the end of the road” for antibiotics.<p>The antibiotic-resistant strain was found last …

Google's chief futurist Ray Kurzweil thinks we could start living forever by 2029

Ray Kurzweil, Google's chief futurist, laid out what he thinks the next few decades will look like in an interview with Playboy.<p>Kurzweil is one of the biggest believers in The Singularity, the moment when humans — with the aid of technology —will supposedly live forever.<p>He's chosen the year 2045 …

Scientists Create Sperm from Human Skin to Cure Infertility

Around 15% of the world’s couples experience fertility problems and are unable to have children without the donation of sperm or eggs. To help them, …