HIV-infected people who are treated long-term with antiviral drugs may have no detectable virus in their body, but scientists know there are pools of the virus hiding there, awaiting the chance to emerge and wreak havoc again. Since scientists discovered these latent pools, they have been trying to figure out if the remaining HIV is the cause of or caused by increased activation of the immune system.
Scientists know that bacteria create their own energy, get nutrients to run their cellular processes, and multiply. But, bacteria haven't been shown to respond to external mechanical stimulation or signals in a way that's similar to how our bodies respond to touch, until now.
We've worked hard to reduce the flow of toxic chemicals into our waterways, which means no more DDT and other bad actors to pollute or destroy wildlife and our health. But one observation has been plaguing scientists for decades: Why are large quantities of one toxic chemical still found in the world's oceans?
We fight cancer in a variety of ways, but no matter whether drugs, biologics, or our immune cells are part of the battle, they can do a better job fighting back cancer if we can help them find the tumors.
As drug-resistant bacteria become more commonplace, researchers are looking for new antibacterial strategies to disrupt disease-causing microbes. Some scientists are working to create new drugs, while others are trying out drug combinations. Another group, however, are ditching pharmaceuticals altogether and experimenting with non-drug alternatives.
Cancer is a complicated illness, but the more we understand it, the likelier we are to beat it. The 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab at the University of New South Wales took to virtual reality to help improve our odds by allowing scientists to walk through virtual representations of actual cancer cells.
Plants all around us capture sunlight every day and convert it to energy, making them a model of solar energy production. And while the energy they make may serve the needs of a plant, the process isn't efficient enough to generate power on a larger scale. So, scientists from the University of California found a way to treat bacteria with chemicals that turned them into photosynthesis machines, capable of generating products we can convert into food, fuels, and plastics.
Wound infections don't usually enter the blood and become systemic, spreading the infection throughout our bodies, and there's a good reason for that: Our bodies actively work to prevent it, according to research that discovered a new use for a protein first discovered decades ago.
By looking for the mechanism that allows influenza A to invade lung cells, scientists also discovered a treatment that might block the virus from taking hold there.
Steampunk scientists, there's a new spectrometer for your workshop, and it's called the iPhotometer 5.
Pyromania is definitely nothing new on WonderHowTo. From flamethrowers and hydrogen fireballs, to flame-making pistons and wine corks, to simply burning steel wool fireworks and DIY smoke mix, we've covered it all. But when pyromaniacal mad scientists feel the need to release some tension in the lab, gummy bears and cockroaches become the victims of euphoric oxidation by way of molten potassium chlorate. A recent video by famous YouTube chemist NurdRage shows one of mankind's most despised cr...
Bone loss and belly fat may no longer be certain fates of menopause, thanks to new research from an international team of scientists.
Tremendous strides have been made in the treatment and outlook for patients infected with HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. Treatment with a combination of antiretroviral drugs can keep patients with HIV alive for decades, without symptoms of the infection. The trouble is, if HIV-infected people stop taking their medications, the virus takes over in full force again—because the virus hides out quietly in cells of the immune system, kept in check, but not killed by the treatment.
I can't stand trying to use my phone in direct sunlight. It drives me crazy — I just want to get through a game of Sonic, but I can't see where I'm going. No one has it harder than I do. But my troubles might soon be over, as researchers are developing anti-glare films for smartphones, based off of the eyes of moths. Weird.
Frosty the Snowman is a fairy tale they say, but this microscopic snowman is very real and just broke the record for the world's smallest snowman. (Though, it's not Guinness-official yet.)
In spirit of the recently posted brightly frosted cupcake periodic table, here are some equally clever, beautiful science-themed holiday cookies from Not So Humble. The creative cooking blog does not offer full instructions for most of these, but does lend tips here and there. Get inspired and bake your own holiday cookies.
No more alkaline batteries. No more NiCad's. No NiMH's. No Lithium. Forget all of those hazardous chemical reactions in the batteries and think eco-friendly. Professor David Edwards did.
Your roommate swears by 'hair of the dog' or chugging raw eggs and tomato juice, but do these hangover cures actually work? What do the scientists say?
There's no reason to waste a perfectly good Cheeto just because it dropped on the kitchen floor, right? The "5-second-rule" makes it fair game if you can swipe it up fast enough (this doesn't apply for liquids or foods with floor fuzz stuck to them.) But, is that errant piece of chocolate really safe after it's mixed with the bacteria-laden mud from your shoe?
Scientists have good and bad news for hard-driving people who boast they need only six hours of sleep a night. The good news is a few may be right: Researchers at the University of California-San Francisco have identified a family with a genetic mutation that causes members to require only six hours sleep a night. The bad news? The gene is vanishingly rare in humans, found in less than 3% of people.
Oh my God. So awesome. 0:41. How they did it:
In what appears to be some kind of hybrid science-art project, Japanese researchers have discovered a method for rendering a dead animal's body completely transparent, in order to dye the skeletal system. Simultaneously creepy and beautiful.
The only thing better than successfully pulling off a new experiment is doing it with household materials. You get to laugh in conceit as professional scientists everywhere spend all their grant money on the same project you just accomplished with some under-the-sink chemicals! However, there are times when DIY gets dangerous. Some household chemicals are not pure enough to use and some are just pure dangerous. Let's take a look at two problems I have encountered in the course of mad sciencing.
DIY is a far-reaching term—though culturally it tends to refer to hacks, mods, crafts and constructions, its meaning can also extend to the ongoing trials and tribulations of the evolution of mankind: astonishing developments in technology, desperate acts of self-preservation or as in today's topic, discoveries in science that truly move the needle.
Using a technology we like to call "Hive Computing," several Android apps allow you to contribute idle processing power to help further scientific research. This basically means that when you're not using your phone or tablet, it can join forces with other idle devices to form a supercomputer that scientists can use to potentially make a world-changing breakthrough.
Are you an active or aspiring scientist? In this free educational video from National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, learn how to make a model of a comet, and why models are important to scientists. Get started on a scientific road to discovery with help from this excellent video on how to make a model of a space comet.
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to lower electrical resistance with liquid nitrogen with Dr. Lithium.
In a previous video by NurdRage, he showed you how to make manganese sulfate ("How to make MnSO4 from MNO2 (two separate ways)"), but there can be situations where the iron in the precursor would carry over and contaminate the product. Recrystallization doesn't work for this high level of contamination, so a different approach is needed.
You'll be breaking hearts this Valentine's Day, literally, you'll be "breaking hearts"… if you try this science experiment. A live heart. That disgusting thing you swear your love by. How do nerds break hearts? With liquid nitrogen!
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make strontium nitrate. They show you how to make strontium nitrate from strontium carbonate and nitric acid.
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make sodium silicate from drain cleaner and gel beads with Dr. Lithium.
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to perform three cool science experiments with Dr. Lithium. Follow the vid and you'll now have more than one example of an investigatory project!
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to dissolve glass with drain cleaner. They show you how to dissolve that glass with sodium hydroxide (drain cleaner).
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make a test tube thunderstorm. They show you how to make the thunderstorm in a test tube using alcohol, sulfuric acid and potassium permanganate.
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to get zinc, carbon rods and MnO2 from lantern batteries. They show you how to get zinc, carbon electrodes and manganese dioxide from a lantern battery.
In a previous Nurd Rage video (here), Dr. Lithium showed you that pyrolytic graphite was diamagnetic, and that it could be stably levitated over magnets. It was repelled by a magnetic field, and this repulsion was strong enough to levitate it. In this science video tutorial, you'll learn how to levitate plain old pencil lead this time.
If you prefer glow sticks over candles during a power outage, then this how-to is for you! Although glow sticks are used as temporary light sources, there are other applications for them. Divers use them for night diving, fisherman use them to catch swordfish, and the military uses them for light markers, along with infrared versions used in conjunction with night vision devices. But with all these handy uses for glow sticks, the most popular is — recreational use, like dancing at raves, some...
Rust protection doesn't have to cost a fortune. With a little zinc and some electricity, you can protect your precious metals from rust by galvanization. When you galvanize something, you're giving it a protective coating, and in this case, it's a zinc coating.
If you want to know the best way to get an accurate pH measurement, this shows the lab equipment needed and the processes used. When doing chemical reactions, sometimes the acidity or the basicity is important. This is usually defined as pH and measuring it can be very useful for getting the reaction right. There are a few ways to measure pH, and the simplest, cheapest, most reliable method is paper. But that's not all. See a whole lot of ways in this two-part video.
Various electrochemical reactions requires that anodes do not degrade when used. Carbon is cheap, but degrades easily and platinum is extremely expensive. In a previous video, you learned "How to make cobalt and manganese nitrates", and you saw that titanium could be used as a cathode, but not as an anode due to an effect called passivation.
