How does your handshake smell?
You meet someone for the first time and shake their hand in greeting. You chat for a while, lift your hand to your face and then… You sniff it. A study carried out by...
Category: Snippets
The Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
“I’m afraid I can’t put it more clearly,” Alice replied very politely, “for I can’t understand it myself, to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.” (Lewis...
Researchers make headway in organ-on-a-chip technology
Developments at the Wyss Institute, Harvard, have made a major step towards personalised medicines, but their research may even be leaping towards reducing the use of animals in science. Probably the most prominent ethical...
“Ugh, Mum, just five more minutes!”
Teenagers are often viewed as lazy and moody, sleeping in late and being annoyed at their parents all the time. Adolescence is often a rebellious age, but could there be another factor at hand?...
Miniaturisation of the Kelvin Water Dropper Experiment
Residents of Glasgow will undoubtedly be familiar with the fair West End of the city, home to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and the surrounding park, through which the River Kelvin flows, as well...
Combined data from the Planck satellite and BICEP2 rules out detection of primordial gravitational waves
In March last year, members of the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP2) experiment, based in Antarctica, announced results that appeared to contain measurements of an elusive physical phenomenon named primordial gravitational waves....
Mini-Neptunes, Super-Earths and the Search for Extrasolar Planets
There are a few ways to create a habitable planet. We think the way Earth was created was as a bunch of rocks that were orbiting the Sun and all clumped together. Scientists think...
Attractiveness Can Make You Quicker (If You Are a Website)
New operating systems often look more “flash” than the previous iteration, with many an Apple/Android fan raving to their friends about the new look, but do improved aesthetics actually make the product better? According...
