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sparkling wine bottle and flute

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Different shaped glasses really do affect the experience of drinking champagne, a study has shown.

Bubbly poured into a long narrow flute provides more of a nose-tingle than when served in a wide and shallow "coupe".

The reason is that much higher levels of carbon dioxide, released by bubbles in the glass, collect at the top of a flute.

The surface of a freshwater lake

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Contrary to popular belief, there are not a lot of fish in the sea, say researchers.

Despite covering 70% of the Earth's surface, marine environments contain only 20% of all its species.

In the new study, scientists made the surprising discovery that freshwater rivers and lakes contain more fish species than salty oceans.

Yet freshwater environments occupy only 2% of the Earth's surface.


Harry Potter

Harry Potter (Photo credit: Profound Whatever)

Scientists have deployed Harry Potter-style powers to levitate fruit flies and watch them walk on air.

Researchers performed the seemingly magical feat by suspending fruit flies in a strong magnetic field.

The technique, known as "diamagnetic levitation", allows water and organic based materials to become weightless.


Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

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Men and women have such different personalities they really could be from Mars and Venus, research has shown.

A new psychological study of more than 10,000 people revealed "striking" gender differences, especially in areas such as sensitivity and dominance.

The findings suggest previous studies have "consistently underestimated" the way personality divides men and women, say the authors.


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Making friends and being popular may boil down to the size of your forebrain, a study suggests.

Scientists found an association between the size of the orbital frontal cortex - the part of the brain just above the eyes - and the number of friends a person has.

The region is one of the most highly evolved areas of the human brain. It is known to be crucial to social skills and the ability to "mentalise", or guess what other people are thinking.

Brain scans revealed that volunteers with the largest numbers of friends also had the largest orbital frontal cortex.

Mind-controlled drone danger

By Daniel Smith on Feb 7, 12 03:05 PM

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Drones guided by thought control raise the possibility of machines instead of men being blamed for military accidents and war crimes, a leading scientist warned today.

Fast-moving advances in neuroscience mean that pilotless attack planes controlled by an operator's thoughts may be a reality in the "not too distant future", according to Professor Rod Flower.

But he warned that such technology would take ethical concerns over the use of drone weapons to a new level.

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Internet dating is now the second most common method of matchmaking in America, research has shown.

Only introductions made through friends help more people in the US to find love.

But dating sites' claims that they employ "science-based" methods of bringing lonely hearts together cannot be trusted, say scientists.

A review of more than 400 psychology studies and surveys found there was no longer any stigma attached to internet dating.

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An expedition to one of the deepest parts of the ocean has discovered a "supergiant" species.

The huge crustacean was discovered more than four miles (7km) deep in waters north of New Zealand by scientists from the University of Aberdeen.

The creature is a type of amphipod, commonly found in the deep sea, which are usually 0.8in-1.2in (2cm-3cm) long. The new specimen measured 11in (28cm).

Telepathy on the way!

By Daniel Smith on Feb 2, 12 03:04 PM
Matt uses telepathic commands on a doctor in &...

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A first step has been taken towards hearing imagined speech using a form of electronic telepathy, it has been claimed.

Scientists believe in future it may be possible to "decode" the thoughts of brain-damaged patients who cannot speak.

In a study described by one British expert as "remarkable", US researchers were able to reconstruct heard words from brain wave patterns.


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A dinosaur-age ancestor of modern crocodiles from Morocco had a huge armoured head designed as a "fish trap", scientists have revealed.

The extinct creature, dubbed "Shieldcroc", lived around 95 million years ago but was unlikely to have wrestled with dinosaurs.

Instead, it probably used its long flat jaws to ambush fish.

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Daniel Smith

Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.

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