Ecology

beep beep non e uno struzzo

Beep Beep is not an ostrich, but a Major Road Runner: where he lives and how fast he is

Credit: dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons The famous character Beep Beep from Warner Bros., Willy the Coyote’s arch-enemy in the Looney Tunes cartoon of the same name, who runs quickly through the desert streets to the sound of “Beep Beep”, it’s not an ostrich as many think: it is a major road runner (Geococcyx californianus). ...

Immagine

The brightest supermoon of the year is arriving on October 17: when and how to observe it

Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky. Thursday 17 October we will witness the third of four consecutive “Superlunes” at the end of 2024, the so-called “Hunter’s Supermoon”. The latter will be there brighter than 2024making the Moon appear full for about three days, from Tuesday evening to Friday morning. The “Supermoon” is a journalistic term designed to indicate a full Moon that occurs ...

comunicazione sogni lucidi remspace

Two human beings would communicate with each other via lucid dreams: the REMspace experiment

Credit: REMspace An experiment conducted last September 24th by the Californian startup REMspace would have led to first communication between human beings occurred during a lucid dream (i.e. a dream in which you are aware of being asleep). Two individuals, monitored remotely while sleeping in different homes, were able to exchange a simple message using a advanced technology that detects ...

Porfiria

What is porphyria and why is it called “vampire disease”: symptoms and causes

Credit: Rashmi Bhavasar, G Santoshkumar and B Rahul Prakash, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons The news is going around the world: the 32-year-old from Minnesota Phoenix Nightingale claims to have the so-called “vampire disease”for whom she cannot eat garlic because it would be fatal. It’s about the acute intermittent porphyriaa metabolic disorder that belongs to the family of rare ...

esperimento saponificazione

Can you make soap from used oil? Yes: our chemical experiment on saponification

The soap it is one of the household products most used by man. Despite its enormous global diffusion and constant daily use, the chemistry behind its production is often little known. In this video we want to explore the process saponificationthe reaction chemistry which allows you to transform oils and fats in soap. To do this, we made a experiment ...