In the course of 2012, the work of scientists in Spain gave headlines, opened news reports and featured on the covers of the best scientific journals, as highlighted by the SINC agency in its selection of the most outstanding research in science "made in Spain" .
Over the past twelve months, researchers around the world have made surprising and interesting findings. Before ending 2012, we have selected some of those things that we did not know before 2012 and that science has revealed. For example, that there is a planet with 4 suns, that the misnamed "junk DNA" plays an important role, and that stress causes the human brain to shrink.
A human being blinks 15 to 20 times a minute. Experts have always believed that these spontaneous blinks, which occur every few seconds, were intended to lubricate the cornea and prevent it from drying out. However, the speed is greater than that necessary for ocular lubrication, according to a study published in the journal PNAS.
That human beings live longer than chimpanzees is something that we should thank grandmothers, according to an anthropological study coordinated by Kristen Hawkes, of the University of Utah (United States), and published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Every year, the editors and experts of the journal Science select the ten most outstanding scientific milestones of what has happened in the course of 2012. On this occasion, the first place has been for the discovery of the Higgs boson, which confirms the hypothesis about its existence formulated forty years ago and completes the standard model of physics, providing an explanation of how other fundamental particles obtain their mass.
After conducting the largest online study to measure intelligence, with 100,000 participants, scientists at the University of Western Ontario in Canada have concluded that it is a mistake to try to use a single standard test to measure IQ ( IQ for its acronym in English).
Our hands evolved to punch and not just to acquire the ability to handle tools, play musical instruments or create works of art, according to a study from the University of Utah published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Its author, biologist David Carrier, has compared human hands with other apes, and has concluded that the fact that they have smaller palms and longer and stronger fingers, as well as flexible thumbs, is also due to role that aggressiveness has played in our evolution.
Researcher Barry Tomlinson and his colleagues at the University of Leeds are convinced that since palm trees are the longest-living plants, they could help us understand what longevity depends on, according to the American Journal of Botany. In their article, the researchers state that the life expectancy of an organism is determined, to a large extent, by the period of time in which its cells remain metabolically active.
Danni Büchner is invited to Sam Dylan's Halloween party. But the "Goodbye Germany" emigrant has no desire for many other party guests. And find clear words.
