Physicists have developed a new cooling technique for mechanical quantum systems by using an ultracold atomic gas, cooling a membrane down to less than 1 degree above absolute zero.

Ultracold atomic gases are among the coldest objects in existence. Laser beams can be used to trap atoms inside a vacuum chamber and slow down their motion to a crawl, reaching temperatures of less than 1 millionth of a degree above absolute zero - the temperature at which all motion stops.

At such low temperatures, atoms obey the laws of quantum physics: they move around like small wave packets and can be in a superposition of being in several places at once. These features are harnessed in technologies such as atomic clocks and other precision measurement devices.

Due to a loss of scientific relevance, which has led to scarcity of personnel
and thus decreasing government funding, Italian natural history museums are on the verge of collapse. 

A new paper in Zookeys proposes that the existing museums associate and collaborate to form a diffused structure, able to better manage their scientific collections and share resources and personnel. Basically, they need to be a little more corporate and start consolidating rather than relying on government to some day boost funding.

What will it take to convince skeptics of global warming that the phenomenon is real? Droughts, floods and heat waves will begin to change minds.

Americans may recall the 'threat warning level' system that came into being after the terrorist attacks on the Wall Trade Center on September 9th, 2011.

It was a color coded with 5 levels. But it never once dropped below 3 - yellow, before it was dissolved in 2011. Did anyone pay attention? Another famous example is the "Doomsday Clock", created by anti-nuclear activists to increase anxiety about nuclear weapons. Even after disarmaments and the collapse of the Soviet Union, it barely moved. We are always on the verge of Doom, according to doomsday prophets, today they just say it's because of global warming, and there are still nuclear power plants, they warn.

The retina is the neural tissue in the back of the eye that initiates vision. It is responsible for receiving light signals and converting them into neurologic signals, which are then transmitted via the optic nerve to the brain so that we can see.

Mutations that disrupt vision by damaging the retina and optic nerve have been identified in more than 200 genes. This genetic diversity made genetic diagnostic testing difficult until the recent development of high throughput genomic techniques.

Sometimes you don't need to travel to the unexplored corners of the globe to discover a new species of plant. Sometimes they can be really close to home, you just have to spend 40 years of your life looking.

University of South Carolina
Professor John Nelson and alumnus Douglas Rayner have founds just such a new species close to home and they have dubbed it Stachys caroliniana, a new example of what is commonly called a hedge-nettle or woundwort.

And rarity is unusual among S. caroliniana's closest relatives. There are about 300 species in the genus Stachys, according to Nelson, the curator of the University of South Carolina's A.C. Moore Herbarium. He calls it a "cosmopolitan genus."