Science
From mathematics and AI to medicine and psychology, The Optimist Daily features the latest news on discoveries, technological advances, and breakthroughs in the world of science. Our Science section is here to engage and enlighten you.
Fossil discovered by team of junior naturalists identified as new species
When the members of the Hamilton Junior Naturalist Club headed out on a fossil-hunting expedition, they expected to find some interesting shells and perhaps bones, but what they didn’t expect was the shocking discovery of a previously undiscovered species of penguin. Back in 2006, the students Read More...
Environmental DNA monitoring is the conservation tool of the future
One in four freshwater organisms are currently at risk of extinction, but saving aquatic species can be more difficult than conserving their land-based counterparts as they are inherently less visible to the human eye and less accessible to researchers. To address this, scientists Marie Read More...
Arachnophobia? There's an app for that
Spiders are creepy-looking creatures, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that an estimated five percent of all humans on earth have a serious fear of spindly arachnids. In fact, one 2017 survey found that six-month-old babies often show stress reactions when exposed to spiders, suggesting that Read More...
Wild solutions: Bruce the parrot makes his own prosthetic beak
Bruce, a nine-year-old disabled parrot from New Zealand, has designed and uses his own prosthetic beak to the delight and surprise of wildlife researchers. When wildlife researchers found Bruce, he was only a baby and was already missing his upper beak, which was likely caught in a trap made for Read More...
This state-of-the-art hologram hits you right in the feels
Scientists at the University of Glasgow are making our futuristic science fantasies a reality. They have created a system that allows users to actually feel a hologram. 'Aerophatics' The system uses jets of air known as “aerophatics” to simulate the feeling of holding something. “Those jets Read More...
New fabulous fly species named after "Drag Race" host RuPaul
Australian scientist Bryan Lessard, otherwise known as “Bry the Fly Guy,” has discovered a new flashy rainbow fly species and named it after RuPaul, the famous “Drag Race” host, with the hope that it would serve as a positive signal for young LGBTQ individuals who are drawn to Read More...
Climate-resistant coffee of the future may come from this Finnish lab
From meat to milk to chocolate, lab-grown products have increased in popularity in recent years, as people look for alternatives with a minimal impact on the environment as well as the welfare of workers and animals. Now, coffee is about to join in on the lab-grown movement thanks to Finnish Read More...
Plants may literally light the way to sustainable energy sources
Scientists at MIT are in the process of developing a new source of passive lighting that could one day light up our streets. The surprising source? Glow-in-the-dark plants. The relatively new field of “plant nanobionics” involves embedding nanoparticles into plants to enhance the natural Read More...
NYC to build one of the country's biggest EV charging networks
Electric vehicles aren’t a common sight on the streets of New York City. In fact, this fast-paced city seems to have finally slept on EV adoption. It lags behind Los Angeles, a city that boasts four times as many registered EVs and around eight times more chargers—but NYC plans to turn this Read More...
Study unveils effective way to address marine dead zones
Marine dead zones refer to areas of the ocean which are too low in oxygen to support life. In the Gulf of Mexico, runoff from agricultural operations, mostly nitrogen and phosphorus, travels down the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, contributing to an overgrowth of algae and a widening dead zone Read More...