Category: research

Plastic Eating Worms Show Promise for Plant-Scale Recycling

Researchers at the University of Queensland have found that a common species of worm with a taste for polystyrene may significantly contribute to plastic recycling. The team, led by Dr Chris Rinke from UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, found that the Zophobas morio—known as ‘superworm’—enjoys munching on polystyrene and can metabolise it due to…


Is This Study Legit?

Who doesn’t want to know if drinking that second or third cup of coffee a day will improve your memory, or if sleeping too much increases your risk of a heart attack? We’re invested in staying healthy and many of us are interested in reading about new research findings to help us make sense of…


UK: NHS ‘Marking Own Homework’ Over Complaints, Say Researchers

Britain’s NHS complaints procedures have been likened to “asking hospitals to grade their own homework”, in research by a leading London university. Researchers set out to examine the national policies for handling complaints within the health service, where some 200,000 complaints are made each year. Complaints are a “critical source” to help drive improvements, with…


Illinois Professor Convicted of Failing to Report Chinese Bank Account

A federal jury on May 4 found an Illinois math professor guilty of failing to disclose a foreign bank account but dismissed grant fraud charges, the latest conviction stemming from a crackdown on Chinese influence in U.S. research launched by the Trump administration. Xiao Mingqing, a Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale professor, was convicted on…


A Physicist’s Explanation of Why the Soul May Exist

Henry P. Stapp is a theoretical physicist at the University of California–Berkeley who worked with some of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics. He does not seek to prove that the soul exists, but he does say that the existence of the soul fits within the laws of physics. It is not true to say…


How Common Are Near-Death Experiences? NDEs by the Numbers

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are reported by an estimated 200,000 Americans a year, and studies around the world suggest NDEs are a common human experience. They have been recorded in the folklore of many cultures, and reported by people from diverse backgrounds and in widely varying circumstances. Whatever the explanations behind them, NDEs have a significant…


The Neuroscience of Near-Death Experiences

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.—When people report having profound out-of-body experiences during close brushes with death, skeptics often attribute it to physiological and psychological factors. Robert Mays, who has studied near-death experiences (NDEs) for some 30 years, looked at some of these factors during a talk at the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) 2014 Conference in Newport…


The Profound Near-Death Experience of a Nazi Concentration Camp Survivor

Tienke Klein’s health remained poor after she was released from a Nazi concentration camp. After a long recovery from the trauma she’d endured, she finally reached the point of not needing to visit her doctor regularly. Then she was hit by a car while bicycling. The experience would release her from the prison camp she’d…


What Does Death Feel Like? Earthquake Survivors Report Pleasant Feeling

On July 28, 1976, the monstrous Tangshan earthquake caused more than 240,000 fatalities and 160,000 serious injuries. Medical workers in China did case studies on the survivors, most of whom had been buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings, to try and find out whether they had near-death experiences, and if so, how they felt.  The results…


Facts Matter (April 13): New Documents Show NIH Funded ‘Gain-of-Function’ Research in China: Expert’s Analysis

According to a treasure trove of about 10,000 pages of government documents, it turns out that the NIH was in fact funding virus alteration research over at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Specifically, the money was being funneled through a subgrant given to an organization called the EcoHealth Alliance. And what the researchers were doing…