A team of scientists at Germany’s University of Darmstadt have broken a major — and bizarre — record, bringing light itself to a full stop inside a crystalline structure and keeping it stopped for a full minute. The groundbreaking research could have major implications for storing information in quantum memory.

In a minute, light moving at full speed in a vacuum could travel more than 11 million miles. The previous … Read More → "Researchers trap light for one full minute, new super villain weaponry likely on its way"

It’s easy to see only lifeless nothingness when glancing over the pixelated stills taken by NASA’s spacecrafts, but there’s really a gorgeous, moving universe hidden within them. Sorting through eight years of photos taken by the Cassini probe, film editor Fabio Di Donato is taking viewers for a dance between Saturn’s rings in his new short Around Saturn< … Read More → "Dance through Saturn’s rings in beautiful film made of NASA imagery (video)"

The ominous howl of the wolf has long been a source of fear and fascination for mankind. But new research shows they’re not so different from people – for every wolf has its own distinct voice. By recording and analysing wolf howls, scientists have discovered a new way of identifying individual animals.

Holly Root-Gutteridge of Nottingham Trent University has developed  … Read More → "Wolves’ howls have distinct identities, voice recognition study shows"

Japanese artist Aki Inomata created a variety of architectural shells for hermit crabs for her 2009-2010 sculpture series “Why Not Hand Over a ‘Shelter’ to Hermit Crabs?” Inomata made the shell sculptures out of translucent plastic using rapid manufacturing techniques. Some shells have houses sprouting out of them, others feature entire cityscapes. Hermit crabs have willingly inhabited the shells, in some cases choosing … Read More → "Architectural shell sculptures for hermit crabs"

The unofficial sage of honeycomb sculptures is Tomáš Libertíny. This 34-year-old Slovakian designer has perfected a method for recruiting bees to become sculptors with little more than a rough shape to work on.

Libertíny’s method involves first taking a shape like a vase or a human figure and then coating it with wax. … Read More → "These honeycomb sculptures made by bees are simply majestic"

The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a basic part of game theory. Two prisoners are given the choice between informing on the other, or staying silent. They can’t communicate with each other. The choices they make determine how many years in prison they both get. This analogy/brain game is often used to demonstrate the ways that different people can work with or against each other in economic and social situations. Now, for the first time, scientists have done a study based on The Prisoner’s Dilemma that used real prisoners. Instead of time off their sentences, they … Read More → "What happens when actual prisoners play The Prisoner’s Dilemma?"

If you were designing a robotic arm for use in pharmaceutical research, you’d want to make it easy to sterilize between uses. That’s why Kawasaki Heavy Industries has encased its snazzy-looking new MSR05 arm entirely in stainless steel.

Recently demonstrated at the Interphex Japan pharmaceutical industry trade show, the MSR05 is intended specifically for use in drug discovery experiments involving dangerous substances. In order to minimize the risk of … Read More → "Stainless steel robot arm designed to experiment with drugs (video)"

In equatorial Africa is a small shrew that can bear the weight of an adult human for minutes at a time, and then walk away unharmed. This animal, the armored shrew, has become known as the hero shrew for its amazing strength. But researchers have been puzzled as to why the creature evolved that way — built with an incredibly strong spine that no other … Read More → "Newly-discovered ridiculously strong shrew species helps explain strange spine design"

The town’s citizens all speak “strong” Warlpiri, a “highly endangered” language exclusive to some 4000 people. Light Warlpiri, on the other hand—a language that’s a cocktail of Warlpiri, English, and Kriol (a local dialect dating back to the 19th century and based on creole)—whittles its number of native speakers to just 350, and no one … Read More → "The Australian town that invented a language"

When a peacock fans his plumage and struts his stuff, it’s an impressive sight. Or so it appears to us humans. What really matters, of course, is what the female he’s trying to impress makes of it. In a new study, scientists mounted tiny eye-tracking cameras on the heads of peahens to try to get inside their minds as they watched males’ courtship displays.

Read More → "What a peahen really watches when a peacock tries to impress her"