Technology

Many people think that it is possible to detect if someone is lying by the movements of their eyes. However, an article published in the journal PLoS ONE reveals that this belief is unfounded. One of the theories of neurolinguistic programming (NLP) argues that when a person lies his gaze is directed upwards and to the right. On the contrary, when the truth is being told, the eyes look to the left. Now, an international group of researchers has carried out various experiments to test these theories.

The electromagnetic waves emitted by mobile phones affect the ants' ability to orient and memorize, according to a study published in the journal Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine. Although the results do not have to be applicable to human beings, the authors of the work think that precautions on antenna emissions should be increased.

Animals with large brains are smarter, but they have fewer offspring and smaller intestines. This fact, which has been suspected for a long time, has just been experimentally confirmed in guppy fish (Poecilia reticulata) by an international team of researchers who publish their work in Science.

Love enters through the stomach, or so it happens to females of Corynopoma riisei, a tropical freshwater fish, as confirmed by an article published in the journal Current Biology. When a male wants to mate, an ornament hangs from his body so that it is visible to the female he wants to conquer.

Thanks to space research, today we know the existence of planets outside our Solar system, we understand something more about the processes of star formation and even about the origin of the Universe itself. But the work that scientists do outside of our atmosphere also serves to advance more mundane but surely irresistible to many people. And it is that the European Space Agency (ESA) is developing a series of experiments in microgravity conditions that will improve the quality and texture of many desserts.

French scientists have sequenced the genome of the banana, specifically of the variety known as the Malay banana (Musa acuminata). In total they have identified 36,500 genes, that is, 14,000 more than humans. The milestone is an important step given that it is a staple food, also considered the main fruit crop in the world both in terms of production and trade.

Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has found a fifth moon around the dwarf planet Pluto. The satellite appears to be irregular in shape, measuring 10 to 24 kilometers in diameter and making a circular orbit around the planet in the same plane as the rest of the moons.

A few weeks ago, two residents of Basturs (Lleida) found several remains of huge bones while shepherding their flock. Paleontologists from the Catalan Institute of Paleontology (ICP) and the Conca Dellá Museum confirmed what the discoverers thought: they were dinosaur bones.