The community of bacteria that lives in our gut has a lot to tell us. It can give clues to what we eat, the environment we live in, and diseases and disorders we may have. Now, scientists have linked these bacterial species to how we feel. A new research study found an association between women's gut bacteria and their emotions.
As summer heats up, new maps from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives us our best guess at where Zika-carrying mosquitoes could be hanging out this year in the US.
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?
When you think ticks, one of the first things to come to mind is Lyme disease. However, as terrible as Lyme disease is, there's another threat from ticks rising in rank in Connecticut and the Northeast — one that is spreading and that hospitals are not prepared for — the Powassan virus.
For all of its drama, Uber's driverless program has states like Arizona excited for the future of self-driving vehicles. But it's not Arizona alone that supports the driverless craze; the Illinois House of Representatives will hear a bill that would allow driverless cars on the road with or without human operators.
When the mosquito that carries the malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) bites someone, the parasite must travel to the liver where it undergoes part of its lifecycle before infecting red blood cells and spreading to its next host. Until now, the first step of how the parasite gets to the liver hasn't been clear.
Yellow fever has emerged again in Brazil, causing death and disease to people unprepared for this mosquito-borne illness.
Yes, bubonic plague—the Black Death that killed millions in the Middle Ages— is still out there. It even infects and kills people in the United States. Without treatment, half the people infected die, but the Food and Drug Administration approved ciprofloxacin in 2015 to treat plague, and it has just successfully been used to stop the infection in five people.
Every year, 100-200 people in the US contract leptospirosis, but usually 50% of the cases occur in Hawaii where outdoor adventurers are exposed to Leptospira bacteria found in freshwater ponds, waterfalls, streams, and mud. That's why it's so alarming that two people in the Bronx have been diagnosed with the disease and a 30-year-old man has died from it.
We usually associate Salmonella bacteria with a dangerous type of food poisoning, but they actually are pretty good at seeking out tumors. That trait made the bacteria a great candidate to deliver a protein that would help knock tumors out.
HoloLens developer Michael Peters of In-Vizible has released quite a few videos since receiving his HoloLens last year. Many of his experiments are odd and funny, but some include serious potential approaches to data visualization. In the videos embedded below, you'll specifically see stock market information beautifully rendered in different ways to help understand the data.
Lighthouses and signal fires may have been the first social media. Without the ability to share language, a distant light meant "humans here." A new study from the University of California, San Diego, finds that bacteria can also send out a universal sign to attract the attention of their own, and other bacterial species.
As researchers learn more and more about our intestinal bacteria—also called the gut microbiome—we're finding out that these microbes aren't just influencing our health and wellness, they're a useful tool for improving it, too.
One thousand feet under the ground, extremophile microbes that have not seen the light of day for four million years are giving up some fascinating facts to scientists who go the distance.
I think it was 1986 when I first discovered my love for making computers say stupid things out loud. My older brother got a Commodore 64 for his birthday, which came bundled with software that would speak out any term you typed in—and boy, that computer sure made a fool of itself after my five-year-old imagination got a hold of the keyboard.
From time immemorial, human beings seem to be at odds with one another. When these differences become so heated and unresolvable, it eventually erodes into physical violence. This violence has manifested into some of the most horrific exercises in human history, things which every school child is aware of and none of which we have to recount here. Although humans have been cruel and violent for a very long time, the 20th century may have epitomized that behavior. With two World Wars and many,...
Voodoo you want the best costume this year? You're probably laughing so hard right now that you need to hold yourself together with pins and needles, right?
In this video, we learn how to understand the anatomy of the upper back for drawing. First, you will need to learn how to draw the skeletal block of the body. Once you have drawn the outline for the skeleton, you can continue onto the rest. Make sure to add in the details for all the parts of the body, using thin lines at first, then thicker lines. Color these in white once you have the bone shapes made, then color in the "meat" on top of those. Draw in lines to create shading and realism on ...
In this tutorial, we learn how to use the groove function in Ableton Live 8. A group settings consists on points along the timeline where hits sit. If you have something with no groove applied, it will sound robotic. By adding a groove, you will shuffle around the midi from the hard quantized parts. This will add more human element to the audio. There is a button on the left with two lines that show the library with options you can use. You can also apply this to other clips, scroll through t...
Celebrities are at the cutting edge of makeup. You can love them or hate them, but what matters is that they have access to the wolrd's best makeup artists, hairstylists, and stylists, which means they always look like human perfection on the red carpet.
We can't seem to divulge ourselves from our stick figures, which we perfected to an art in second grade. But if you're a true artist who's looking to become better at realistically rendering a human body, then you've come to the right place.
With the "Thor" movie coming out in 2011 and the actors recently debuting a five-minute trailer at Comic-Con, fanboy buzz about this Norse comic book hero has officially reached fever pitch. Guys like the story - the son of a king cast down to earth as punishment, who seeks to redeem himself while falling in love with a human nurse - while gals like the fantastically ripped men.
We're addicted to "True Blood." And, if we're going to be honest here, it's not just because the show has labyrinthine plot lines and exciting vampire vs. human vs. werewolf action. With hot chicks and hot guys, the show seems to be a breeding ground of good looks. And we're not complaining.
Cosplay, or "costume play," is basically dressing up with costumes and accessories to represent a specific character, usually one in anime (like Sailor Moon) or manga. Like most Japanese fashion trends, cosplay emerged from the trendsetting Harajuku district of Japan and continues to thrive today, even in America when people wear costumes to anime conventions.
In this tutorial, learn how to take a photo of an ordinary human and make it look like they live on Pandora. Turn yourself into a Na'vi warrior in no time at all by following the instructions in this two-part clip. Cool!
Using motion capture is one of the easiest and most effective ways to animate the motions of a bipedal character who is proportional to a normal human. When the character is not in proportion, like the World of Warcraft low-poly models in this video, it gets a little more complicated. This video will teach you how to use motion capture in 3DS MAX to animate a goblin WoW character, making them almost ready to use in your hybrid machinima videos.
This Blender 2.5 video tutorial offers a demonstration and overview of clean hand topology. The tutorial includes tips on how to structure your mesh, including clean topology, mesh flow and edgeloop density. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial from the folks at CG Cookie. For more info...
In this Blender 2.5 video tutorial, you'll see how to UV unwrap a full, stylized female character. The tutorial covers creating seams, unwrapping, pinning and techniques to reduce stretching. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial from the folks at CG Cookie. For more information, includi...
Creating a good 3D model of the human face is massively challenging. This five-part video will teach you how to do just that using the popular 3D modeling software 3D Studio Max. It goes into great detail, and should be very helpful for anyone looking to improve their 3D modeling skills.
In the old days, artists used to have their apprentices render all of the parts of some human figures except for the face and hands. Those are the hardest parts, and had to be done by the master. If you aspire to be a 3D modeling master, you have to be able to make good-looking hands. This video tutorial will show you how to model those hands using 3D Studio Max.
The nose is the most prominent feature of the face, and cannot be obscured by sunglasses or hats like the eyes and hair. This two-part video will show you how to add detail to the nose of a 3D model of a human head using 3D Studio Max. You have to have a face already for this to really matter, but if you are up to the task of modeling a basic face in 3D, this video will help you make it look a lot better.
When you begin practicing intermediate to advanced yoga, you have to challenge yourself with harder poses like the handstand, which requires a strong core and ripped arms. Though after practice the handstand gets easier to do, we know you're only human and have some off days.
In this video, Extension Horticulturalist Curtis Smith talks with Master Gardener Marsha groves about controlling harmful pests that are damaging to plants throughout the year in both outdoor garden and greenhouse environments. The first part of the video covers the issue of plant eating snails, and how they might best be dealt with. Smith explains that there are a number of non-toxic methods which one can use to rid a plant of snails. The process of introducing predatory creatures such as tu...
Body painting isn't just art, it's sexy. More and more people are shedding their clothes and adding some paint for a new shocking look that is bound to drop jaws. If you're not into being painted into a Picasso, then maybe you'd like to try your hands on the other side of the paint brush…
The art of the con is as old as civilization, employing the skills of deception, misdirection, and the psychology of human greed and the desire to get something for nothing. In this episode Shermer employs a professional con artist to teach him the fine art of conning people. He shows a street game where you follow the queen. Unfortunately, you're being scammed. Three card monte will always take your money. It's a straight out con.
If you're looking for some natural dog food recipes or homemade dog food, this recipe from the Natural Pet Food Cookbook is a great start. Chef Jason Hill of Chef Tips puts Bandit's Beef Stew to the test, and this dog food recipe was approved with enthusiasm by his family's Shih Tzu puppy, Sugar. This recipe can be prepared as an organic dog food with the right ingredients. Just choose canned organic vegetables when preparing this meal. It's also a human grade dog food, as Chef Jason Hill att...
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: GEOPHAGY [n]
In this video, you will be walked through the game Foreign Creature. There are human characters in this one, with word clouds, in an office setting with bulletin board, desks, rolling shelves, and tack boards. In another scene of the game, you will see a hospital setting with nurses, surgery table, patient, medical equipment, and doctors. In this setting, the patient is a foreign creature who blacks out the medical staff and proceeds to stalk the hospital. Police try to capture the humanoid-l...
The original iterations of the Terminator film franchise have served as the inspiration (via the heads-up display of the T-800) for future augmented reality dreams, so it is fitting that the current crop of AR gives the latest installment in the series a promotional boost.
The Tesla-riding Starman that was launched into space via Elon Musk's SpaceX last week will miss its Mars target and is instead headed toward a lonely asteroid belt in the void of space. But if you missed the initial launch and would like to get a taste of what Starman is seeing, you can now take a short ride along thanks to a new Snapchat Lens.
