Cancer cells do a pretty good job of flying under the radar of our immune system. They don't raise the alarm bells signaling they are a foreign invader the way viruses do. That might be something scientists can change, though.
Montezuma's revenge, the runs, the trots, or just diarrhea — everyone gets it sooner or later. What exactly is diarrhea good for, if anything?
While at work, you notice your gloves changing color, and you know immediately that you've come in contact with dangerous chemicals. Bandages on a patient signal the presence of unseen, drug-resistant microbes. These are ideas that might have once seemed futuristic but are becoming a reality as researchers move forward with technology to use living bacteria in cloth to detect pathogens, pollutants, and particulates that endanger our lives.
On October 17, 1943, a story in the New York Herald Tribune read "Many laymen — husbands, wives, parents, brothers, sisters, friends — beg Dr. Keefer for penicillin," according to the American Chemical Society. Dr. Chester Keefer of Boston was responsible for rationing the new miracle drug, penicillin.
Our quest to find new antibiotics has taken a turn — a turn down the road, that is. A team of scientists from the University of Oklahoma is scooping up roadkill and searching for bacteria on them that might yield the world's next antibiotic.
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.
We may not fully appreciate all the important roles wheat plays in our lives until it's gone—or at least, when it's in very short supply. What would a world be like without bread, cakes, cereal, pasta, or wheat beer? If the dire warnings about an impending stem rust fungus come to pass, we may know all too soon.
Maternal infection with genital herpes, or other pathogens, during early pregnancy could increase risk of autism, or other neurodevelopmental disorders, says a new study.
If you want to appreciate the value of microbes, look no further than a chunk of cheese. Because cheese roughly traces back to the Neolithic Era, we might say the earliest cheesemakers were the first humans to manipulate microbes—without even knowing it. Now, thanks to microbiologists and the long tradition of cheesemaking, we know a lot more about the microbes that make our favorite types of cheese possible.
Transmitted by a sandfly one-third the size of a mosquito, parasitic Leishmania protozoa are responsible for a flesh-destroying disease that kills an estimated 20,000 people per year. Two new studies offer understanding of how the parasite provides immunity through persistence and why some people suffer more virulent forms of the disease.
Place the paper colored-side down on the table. Fold the piece of paper in half to form a triangle. Match the upper right corner to the bottom left corner. Run your fingers along the edge of the triangle to complete the fold. Shrink the triangles size again and fold it in half once more. Match corner to corner. This fold forms a smaller triangle. Ensure the corners match up evenly. Run your fingers along the edge of the smaller triangle to complete the fold. Open up half of the triangle. Pres...
A top executive from Baidu's telematics division believes the company will become the word leader in driverless by 2020, according to a report in today's South China Morning Post.
While some researchers look for drugs to treat HIV, other scientists delve deep into the virus itself for answers on how it causes infections.
With significant advancements in the treatment and prevention of HIV, you'd think the stigma surrounding the deadly virus and AIDS, the syndrome the infection causes in the body, would have lessened. Unfortunately, a new project looking at conversations on Grindr — a social networking app for gay, bi, curious, and queer men — has shown that this stigma is very much present.
Augmented reality upstart DAQRI announced today that it has strengthened their in-house talent by recruiting renowned physicist Seamus Blackley and acquiring a team of 15 engineers and scientists from Heat Engine, LLC.
Remember those horrible, soul-crushing studies from a few years back linking grilled meats with cancer? Unfortunately, they're still true, but scientists have recently found that an unexpected ingredient can curb some of the harmful effects of high-temperature cooking.
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.
In order to make manganese dioxide electrodes, you're going to need cobalt nitrate and manganese nitrate to do it. Making cobalt nitrate is fairly easy, but making the manganese nitrate is a little more complicated. But not impossible.
What is MnSO4 and MNO2, anyway? They are they molecular formula for Manganese Sulfate and Manganese Dioxide. And you can make one from the other. But how?
This video speaks to everyone who has ever bought anything online, or in fact, anyone who has ever bought anything period. How do you know what you're getting is genuine? Is it a fake product? Is it stolen goods? Is it impure?
If you had to answer the following statement, which answer would you choose? Water is:
You already know how to make sulfuric acid with the metabisulfite and oxidizer method and you saw how to make copper sulfate from copper and sulfuric acid, so now try making sulfuric acid with these two in mind… with sulfuric acid by electrolysis of copper using an inert anode.
It's a stormy winter night, and you're electricity goes out. You could grab some candles to add a little light to your life, or you could use glow-in-the-dark chemicals for a cool luminescent.
There's a few reasons why you might want to purify chemicals by recrystallization, but the best one could be luminescence glow-in-the-dark dust.
Aluminum nitrate nonahydrate is a crystalline hydrate - a salt of aluminum and nitric acid - Al(NO3)3·9H2O. It's used for a variety of things such as antiperspirants, corrosion inhibitors, and petroleum refining, or… glow-in-the-dark powder. Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make aluminum nitrate nonahydrate with Dr. Lithium.
This is chemistry at its best! Europium is the chemical element (Eu) which was named after Europe. Dysprosium (Dy) is a rare earth element of a metallic silver luster. Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make europium and dysprosium nitrate salts with Dr. Lithium.
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make a desiccator bag for drying chemicals with Dr. Lithium.
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make a 100 foot glow stick with Dr. Lithium.
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make copper sulfate from copper and sulfuric acid in three ways. They show you how to make copper sulfate from copper and sulfuric acid using two chemical methods and one electrochemical method.
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to get lithium metal from an Energizer battery. They show you how to get Lithium Metal from an Energizer Ultimate Lithium battery.
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make nitric acid. They show three ways to make nitric acid based on two different chemical approaches, both of which can be done using easily accessible materials.
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make fire 4 ways without matches by using chemistry, without matches or lighters.
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to test if a fertilizer has nitrates rather than urea or ammonia as its nitrogen source.
To punch up the launch of its new podcast, USA Today has created an augmented reality experience to introduce listeners to the story of corruption in Chicago.
The NBA Finals is underway, and now basketball fans with iPhones and Android devices can get closer to the action for free than they ever could with expensive courtside tickets.
Magic Leap loves to stoke mystery around its still unreleased product, the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition, and now we've found yet another piece of the puzzle in the form of an Easter egg on the company's website.
