patterns

Does Drinking Red Wine Really Protect Against COVID? Let’s Look at The Data

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A study published last month in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition made headlines around the world. Among a number of findings concerning alcoholic drinks and COVID, it reported drinking red wine was associated with a reduction in the risk of contracting COVID.   Before you start inviting people over to celebrate, it’s important to be … Read more

Physicists Reveal The Weird Shapes Ice Takes as It Melts at Different Temperatures

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Melting ice can take on different shapes depending on the temperature of the water around it, new research reveals, giving us new insights into the complex physics that underlie this deceptively complicated transition.   The team behind the research created ultra-pure ‘clear’ ice for their experiments, free from bubbles and impurities, then observed the ice … Read more

Scientists Spot Eerily Sophisticated Patterns in ‘Simple’ Bacteria Colonies

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Bacterial colonies can organize themselves into complex ring-like patterns which have an “intriguing similarity” to developing embryos and were thought to be unique to plants and animals, new research suggests.   Bacterial cells band together in clumps to form tightly packed colonies called biofilms that have a growing reputation for acting strangely like multicellular organisms. … Read more

Brain Signals Associated With OCD Discovered by Scientists For First Time

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Scientists have been able to observe brain activity linked with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in more detail than ever before – and if these neural signals can be identified, it opens up the possibility of being able to change them as well.   OCD can affect up to two in every 100 adults, and while various … Read more

What if Math Is a Fundamental Part of Nature, Not Something Humans Came Up With?

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Nature is an unstoppable force, and a beautiful one at that. Everywhere you look, the natural world is laced with stunning patterns that can be described with mathematics. From bees to blood vessels, ferns to fangs, math can explain how such beauty emerges.   Math is often described this way, as a language or a … Read more

Scientists Identify a Previously Unknown Type of Storm, Called an ‘Atmospheric Lake’

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A new type of weather condition has been observed, existing primarily in one particular part of the world: compact, slow-moving, moisture-rich pools. Researchers are calling these ‘atmospheric lakes’.   This unique type of storm occurs over the western Indian Ocean and moves towards Africa. Unlike most storms – created by a vortex – the lakes … Read more