Science

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  • FEATURE: The language and art of maths

    ScienceAlert - Latest Stories
    26 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am
    With its own rules and grammar, maths is a very precise language that one mathematician has turned into an art form. Nerissa Hannink reports.

  • How Do You Start a Fire With Ice?

    Discovery
    27 Jan 2012 | 3:34 pm
    You will need a sunny day, a frozen lake, a sharp knife, warm hands and some dry leaves or wood.

  • One Mean Dance Partner: How Mother Nature Twirls the Sport of Dog Mushing (from Liz O'Connell's blog)

    Nature Network Blog Posts
    Liz O'Connell
    27 Jan 2012 | 3:49 pm
    By Kristin Knight Pace for Frontier Scientists.The brittle cold of Dead Dog Flats is enough to make my parka crinkle as I ladle out the hot mixture of fat and tripe, chicken protein and kibble. One by one the dogs emerge from their houses and, by the time I have gone through the whole yard, a cloud of steam rises above us like a big, collective breath. All our warmth and exhalations are suspended above and around us, encased like a bubble in the -50 night air. Another day like this goes by and yet another. Too cold to run.Finally a break in the cabin fever-inducing weather and we are back on…

  • Found: Darwin’s long-lost fossil collection

    FT.com - Science
    27 Jan 2012 | 3:58 pm
    The specimens, in beautiful glass slides, were assembled by the greatest biologists of the early 19th century, writes Clive Cookson

  • Stone Age Social Networks May Have Resembled Ours

    Wired
    Ars Technica
    27 Jan 2012 | 9:30 am
    By Kate Shaw, Ars Technica If you ever sit back and wonder what it might have been like to live in the late Pleistocene, you’re not alone. That’s right about when humans emerged from a severe population bottleneck and began to expand globally. But, apparently, life back then might not have been too different than how we live today (that is, without the cars, the written language, and of course, the smartphone). In this week’s Nature, a group of researchers suggest that we share many social characteristics with humans that lived in the late Pleistocene, and that these ancient…
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    Scientific American

  • How Google's New Privacy Policy Could Affect You

    27 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    You’re on the way to a meeting. Traffic seems to be slowing. A text comes in: “You’re going to be late. Take the next exit for alternate route.” It’s from Google. [More]

  • Primitive Attraction: Magnetized Moon Rock Points to Lunar Core's Active Past

    26 Jan 2012 | 1:01 pm
    The moon of today is a static orb with little to no internal activity; for all intents and purposes it appears to be a dead, dusty pebble of a world. But billions of years ago the moon may have been a place of far more dynamism--literally. [More]

  • Race and Religion at the Ballot Box: Building a Better Bias Detector

    26 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm
    The color of a candidate’s skin failed to sway voters to depress the lever for either Obama or McCain in the 2008 election, immediate analyses of that contest seemed to suggest. Some pundits hailed it as the first postracial election. [More]

  • Children May Be Exposed to Higher Chemical Concentrations Than Their Mothers

    26 Jan 2012 | 6:00 am
    Children living near DuPont’s plant in West Virginia are exposed to much higher concentrations of an industrial chemical than their mothers, according to a newly published study. [More]

  • Has Petroleum Production Peaked, Ending the Era of Easy Oil?

    25 Jan 2012 | 3:31 pm
    Despite major oil finds off Brazil's coast, new fields in North Dakota and ongoing increases in the conversion of tar sands to oil in Canada , fresh supplies of petroleum are only just enough to offset the production decline from older fields. At best, the world is now living off an oil plateau--roughly 75 million barrels of oil produced each and every day--since at least 2005, according to a new comment published in Nature on January 26. ( Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) That is a year earlier than estimated by the International Energy Agency--an energy cartel…
 
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    Popular Science

  • This Week in the Future, January 23-27, 2012

    Baarbarian
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:30 pm
    This Week in the Future, January 23-27, 2012 Baarbarian Look, world's longest ongoing experiment. You're impressive. We won't deny that. But the fact that nobody has ever seen your tar pitch actually drip in person, after 85 years, is infuriating. Just ask this trio of impatient folks: Ms. Hawk, Admiral F-35, and Dr. Whiskeybottle are all waiting for something, anything, to happen. Want to win this impatient Baarbarian illustration on a T-shirt? It's easy! The rules: Follow us on Twitter (we're @PopSci) and retweet our This Week in the Future tweet. One of those lucky retweeters will be…

  • Growing Snow to Help Predict Avalanches

    Joshua Saul
    27 Jan 2012 | 3:30 pm
    Inside the Landslide MSU/Kelly Gorham Ed Adams, an engineering professor at Montana State University, used to study avalanches from inside a fortified shack. He would attach his shack to a boulder on a mountain, set small explosives in the snowpack, and trigger an avalanche, surrounding the shack. "Once snow gets on the ground, it's in an ongoing state of change," Adams says. That changeability makes the snowpack dangerously unpredictable. Scientists such as Adams know a lot about avalanches in general but very little about their inner workings. Adams has since moved from his shack into the…

  • The Most Amazing Science Images of the Week, January 23-27, 2012

    Dan Nosowitz
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:30 pm
    Hell-Monkey We love all living creatures here at PopSci, but that doesn't stop us from getting a little creeped out at the, you know, nightmarish appearance of this rare Burmese snub-nosed monkey. It's the first time the species has ever been photographed live; the only other time it's been professionally photographed is after it was killed (and just before it was eaten (warning: graphic image)). Read more at National Geographic. FFI/BANCA/PRCF This week's image roundup is a particularly good one: the best "blue marble" picture we've ever seen, a video of the aurora resulting from the biggest…

  • Video: Mixing 21st-Century Cocktails with Dave Arnold at Booker & Dax

    Paul Adams
    27 Jan 2012 | 12:51 pm
    The Red Hot Poker John Mahoney There's an inescapable showmanship inherent in pouring liquid nitrogen into a champagne flute while a cloud of vapor billows from the -321°F fluid and puffs across the bar. But the show isn't the point at Booker & Dax, a brand-new New York cocktail bar in the back of David Chang's much-loved Momofuku Ssäm Bar, where supercold nitrogen, a laboratory centrifuge, and the like are used primarily to make drinks more delicious, and secondarily to create and serve them more efficiently. Only as an occasional side effect does a swell of fog or ceiling-high gout of…

  • Study Shows Females Can Delay the Aging of Sperm Cells for Decades

    Dan Nosowitz
    27 Jan 2012 | 12:30 pm
    A new study, led by Dr. Klaus Reinhardt at the University of Sheffield, shows that females of some species can prolong the lifespan of ordinarily short-lived sperm cells by days, months, or even decades, waiting for the optimal time to use it. The study could have some big implications for the general study of aging, as well. Here's the deal: sperm cells are very short-lived, typically. They have a very high metabolic rate compared to other cells, but the reasons why sperm cells deteriorate so quickly is still not well-understood. It was assumed that part of the problem is that sperm cells…
 
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    Futurity.org

  • When auditor fees jump, stocks tumble

    Karen Nikos-UC Davis
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:57 pm
    UC DAVIS (US) — Unexplained increases in a company’s auditor fees may foreshadow a future drop in stock prices, according to a new study.“A rise in audit fees acts to deliver a precursory message about trouble within the company,” says one of the study’s authors, Paul Griffin, a professor at the University of California, Davis.

  • Medical sensor powered by rap music?

    Emil Venere-Purdue
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:14 pm
    PURDUE (US) — The driving bass rhythm of rap can be used to power a new miniature medical sensor designed to be implanted in the body.Acoustic waves from music, particularly rap, were found to effectively recharge the pressure sensor. Such a device might ultimately help to treat people stricken with aneurisms or incontinence due to paralysis.

  • How auto’s Big Three flunked Accounting 101

    Andy Henion-Michigan State
    27 Jan 2012 | 1:27 pm
    MICHIGAN STATE (US) — According to a new study, the Big Three automakers in the US overlooked basic accounting practices that could have guarded against long-term damage.The researchers identify a culture of emphasizing short-term gain over long-term brand stability at General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler Group LLC.

  • Immune suppressants may curb diabetes

    Helen Dodson-Yale
    27 Jan 2012 | 12:51 pm
    YALE (US) — A new study has uncovered how targeted suppression of the immune system may prevent type 1 diabetes or induce sustained remission.Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease—the immune system goes into overdrive and attacks the body’s normal cells instead of foreign invaders. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system targets and eventually destroys the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, leading to increased levels of blood sugars.

  • Gossip lowers stress, keeps cheats in check

    Yasmin Anwar-UC Berkeley
    27 Jan 2012 | 12:46 pm
    UC BERKELEY (US) — Gossip can have positive outcomes such as helping us police bad behavior, prevent exploitation, and lower stress, say researchers.“Gossip gets a bad rap, but we’re finding evidence that it plays a critical role in the maintenance of social order,” says University of California, Berkeley social psychologist Robb Willer, a coauthor of a study published in this month’s online issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
 
 
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    Science 2.0

  • The Bogus Practice Of Detox

    UvaE
    27 Jan 2012 | 12:31 pm
    Investigative journalists from Radio-Canada have revealed that a woman who presumably had died from a detox treatment last summer was actually part of a self-help group practicing intense 9- hour sessions of sweating (with boxed heads and  mud-covered bodies in plastic). Hyperthermia claimed her life. When the story first broke out shortly after her death, owners of detox spas and their peripheral industry had become nervous. Carol Perehudoff, a  travel and spa journalist wrote, read more

  • How Do Noisy Miners Cope With Noise?

    specialagentCK
    27 Jan 2012 | 11:22 am
    Vocal differences between urban and rural birds have frequently been documented, as have variations in the vocalizations of birds living in different types of "natural" habitat. Based on these findings, it seems logical to assume that birds in different types of urban habitat should have measurably different vocal characteristics from each other, but this possibility has only rarely been studied. In fact, no research at all has addressed whether birds in quieter and louder territories within an urban setting respond to local noise regimes by delivering quieter and louder vocalizations,…

  • Dangerous Results V: Flu Debate Rages On

    G.D.W.
    26 Jan 2012 | 7:49 am
    The debate concerning the two avian flu studies rages on. To get some background on what's going on, you can check my previous posts in what has become a series:             Dangerous Results I: Publish Or Not?   Dangerous Results II: The Sequel        Dangerous Results III: The Debate Continues...    read more

  • Simple Exclusion Methods Keep Badgers Out Of Farm Buildings

    specialagentCK
    26 Jan 2012 | 5:02 am
    European badgers (Meles meles) are in the news again this week, this time as the focus of a study seeking to determine the efficacy of badger exclusion methods installed on cattle farms. read more

  • Is Email Bad For Science?

    pknoepfler
    25 Jan 2012 | 12:31 pm
    Scientists are addicted to email.It's difficult to dispute that statement, but is email good or bad for science?Superficially, it is easy to make the case that email is good for science. Email allows scientists all over the world to rapidly communicate with each other in ways that simply were not possible prior to the email era. In that way, email is an enabler of collaboration and data sharing. Email is also a far more concrete and even documentable method of communication compared to talking on the phone. Thus, in theory email should provide a basis for avoiding misunderstanding.So,…
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    Sciencebase Science Blog

  • Alchemist Chemistry News

    David Bradley
    28 Jan 2012 | 3:46 am
    The Alchemist learns how to manipulate tiny polystyrene beads with a set of micro-tweezers this week and spots the smoking gun in forensics using capillary-scale ion chromatography and suppressed conductivity. In the world of chemophobia has asked why parabens are still the focus of research into underarm hygiene and breast cancer despite the lack of evidence linking the two in any way. There is also an elemental discovery this week concerning that lowliest of metals, zinc, which may have activity in reducing the symptoms of the common cold. A venture that sounds truly alchemical sees…

  • Shape of snowflakes

    David Bradley
    26 Jan 2012 | 8:52 am
    On Christmas Day 2006, I posted a blog about how snowflakes are not all different and some of the science underlying the formation of snowflakes. The American Chemical Society had a nice infographic at the time showing the principles of snowflake formation (PDF here). There’s no snow around here, but this is Britain, the weather could change at any moment and although we don’t quite have the four seasons in one day they get in New Zealand, give it a day or two and a warm spell can become a cold snap almost overnight. Snowflakes have at their heart a minute grain of dust that was…

  • The Northern Lights are in my mind

    David Bradley
    25 Jan 2012 | 2:22 am
    I’ve not yet seen the Aurora borealis, nor the Aurora australis, but they’re always on my mind. I am sure they’re amaaazing and wunderfuuul. This week a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun stimulated the earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field to produce some marvellous lights that were even seen as far south as Northern England. There are plenty of photos on the web now and video footage is growing. Amateur astronomers have been gripped by the aurorae, apparently as have amateur astrologers looking for aura… The aurorae are a natural light show in the sky,…

  • Is antioxidant luteolin an anticancer super-nutrient?

    David Bradley
    24 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pm
    A flavonoid compound found in fruit and vegetables, luteolin, was recently hailed as an anticancer supernutrient by the tabloid media. Aside from the fact that over-dosing on antioxidants could be detrimental to one’s front-line immune response to pathogens, the research was purely laboratory based and said nothing about whether or not luteolin might actually prevent bowel cancer. The compound has the chemical name 2-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)- 5,7-dihydroxy-4-chromenone and in the laboratory shows activity as an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase enzymes as well as blocking interleukin 6. NHS…

  • Cornstarch monsters on a speaker cone

    David Bradley
    23 Jan 2012 | 10:38 am
    Sometimes an old viral video needs another airing. In this video from about three years ago, a mixture of corn starch poured into a speaker cone is vibrated at 30 Hz using a signal generator and the video shot at 30 frames per second (coincident timing with the speaker frequency). Corn starch is a non-Newtonian fluid, which means it does not behave in a “classical” way, it undergoes shear thickening, which means it gets more viscous when a force is applied. You may have noticed it is much easier to stir it slowly than to try and stir it fast. When the force applied is cyclic, as…
 
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    PopTech Blog

  • This week in PopTech: Innovating the news and minding the mind

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pm
    There’s always something brewing in the PopTech community. From the world-changing people, projects and ideas in our network, a handful of this week’s highlights follows. Interested in exploring if and how mental training involving mindfulness exercises changes attention and emotion in the brain? Take a free, online course on The Cognitive Neuroscience of Mindfulness with 2010 Science Fellow and brain scientist Amishi Jha.  This week PBS’s IDEA LAB takes a look at how journalists are using FrontlineSMS, founded by 2008 Social Innovation Fellow…

  • Climate Resilience Lab: PopTech goes to Nairobi

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:23 pm
    The effects of climate change are well documented. Climactic events such as floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, typhoons, and prolonged droughts are among the most visible results of recent dramatic changes in the earth’s atmospheric conditions. Less visible, perhaps, is the effect these events have on the world’s most vulnerable populations – girls and women in resource-poor communities. It is a cruel fact that those with the least resources to combat the effects of adverse climate events are also the most vulnerable to those effects. A 2011 Plan…

  • Bernard Lietaer on money: Monoculture vs. multiplicity

    26 Jan 2012 | 9:26 am
    Bernard Lietaer has been studying the implementation of monetary systems for over thirty years. Trained as a civil engineer and economist, he has worked as a central banker, fund manager, university professor and consultant to governments, corporations and communities. He travels the globe researching and speaking about currency systems and is the author of numerous books and articles.  In his 2011 PopTech presentation, he argues against a monoculture of currency – fiat currency, that is, such as the dollar, euro, or yuan –  in favor of a high diversity of currencies…

  • 2012: Toward Resilience

    24 Jan 2012 | 3:12 pm
    After a freewheeling, decade-long “vacation from history” at the tail end of the 20th century, the opening decade of the 21st abruptly returned us to a world fraught with fragility and surprise. And this new context is here to stay. Each week, it seems, brings some unforeseen disruption, blooming amid the thicket of overlapping social, political, economic, technological and environmental systems that govern our lives. They arrive at a quickening, yet erratic pace, from unexpected quarters, stubbornly resistant to prediction. The most significant become culture touchstones,…

  • RoboHash: Turn text to robots

    23 Jan 2012 | 3:32 pm
    Looking for a friendly robot to add some sci-fi flare to your website or blog? RoboHash is a cool little script that will turn any snippet of text, username, file name, etc. into a cute custom robot (or monster, or alien!) that you can use as you see fit. You can change the size and file type to further meet your needs. And speaking of robots and text, January is the birth month of Czech writer Karel Čapek  (b. Jan. 9, 1890), who was the first person to use the word “robot” in written form. The word robot originally comes from the word Czech word “robota” meaning…
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    Newswise: SciNews

  • New Standard for Vitamin D Testing to Ensure Accurate Test Results

    American Chemical Society (ACS)
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    At a time of increasing concern about low vitamin D levels in the world's population and increased use of blood tests for the vitamin, scientists are reporting development of a much-needed reference material to assure that measurements of vitamin D levels are accurate.

  • Grafted Watermelon Plants Take in More Pesticides

    American Chemical Society (ACS)
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    The widely used farm practice of grafting watermelon and other melon plants onto squash or pumpkin rootstocks results in larger amounts of certain pesticides in the melon fruit, scientists are reporting in a new study.

  • Capsules That Clean: New-Look Laundry Detergents Head for Supermarket Shelves

    American Chemical Society (ACS)
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    Consumers who remember laundry detergents from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are about to get that deja vu feeling -- and younger people quite a surprise -- as detergent manufacturers once again try a major repackaging of their products. Laundry capsules that contain single doses of detergent and take up less space than conventional detergents are set to make a comeback.

  • Scorpions Inspire Scientists in Making Tougher Surfaces for Machinery

    American Chemical Society (ACS)
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    Taking inspiration from the yellow fattail scorpion, which uses a bionic shield to protect itself against scratches from desert sandstorms, scientists have developed a new way to protect the moving parts of machinery from wear and tear.

  • Making Memories Last

    Stowers Institute for Medical Research
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pm
    Stowers researchers discovered that a prion-like protein plays a key role in storing long-term memories.
 
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    Wired

  • Solar-Storm-Fueled Auroras Make for Awesome Backyard Photography

    Adam Mann
    27 Jan 2012 | 5:04 pm
    << Previous | Next >> The sun is waking up. After several quiet years, it bombarded the Earth with two consecutive solar storms this week, which generated many nights of spectacular auroras seen from backyards around the Northern Hemisphere. A relatively powerful flare burst from the sun’s surface on Jan. 19, throwing off charged particles that reached our planet on Jan. 22. But this was nothing compared to the enormous flare that erupted the next day. The biggest solar flare in six years, this impressive event propelled a gigantic, fast-moving storm that reached Earth on Jan.

  • How to Deploy Your Drogue from a DIY Space Capsule

    Kristian von Bengtson
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:09 pm
    What a great week! Power - BANG - out. Image: Kristian von Bengtson I managed to finish the basic seating structure completely, now only awaiting ergonomic foam build up and coating. But, even better Claus Nørregaard and I managed to perform the first two tests of the drogue separation system for space capsule Tycho Deep Space. If you have no idea what the drogue separation system is, you better read this previous blog post before proceeding. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/top-dome-and-drogue-chute-jettison-system/ This system was designed one late night after work by myself and…

  • Galaxy Formation on a Benchtop

    Ars Technica
    27 Jan 2012 | 1:00 pm
    By Matthew Francis, Ars Technica For a variety of obvious reasons, it’s impossible to reproduce the exact environment in which galaxies form. The lack of direct experimental tests for the models astrophysicists use creates a disconnect between what astronomers observe and theoretical work. However, that barrier is being broken down by a combination of high-powered lasers and a new understanding of how lab-scale experiments can be related to vastly larger systems such as galaxies. Researchers at the Laboratoire pour l’Utilisation de Lasers Intenses (LULI), along with colleagues at…

  • Stone Age Social Networks May Have Resembled Ours

    Ars Technica
    27 Jan 2012 | 9:30 am
    By Kate Shaw, Ars Technica If you ever sit back and wonder what it might have been like to live in the late Pleistocene, you’re not alone. That’s right about when humans emerged from a severe population bottleneck and began to expand globally. But, apparently, life back then might not have been too different than how we live today (that is, without the cars, the written language, and of course, the smartphone). In this week’s Nature, a group of researchers suggest that we share many social characteristics with humans that lived in the late Pleistocene, and that these ancient…

  • Spiders Hunt With 3-D Vision

    ScienceNow
    26 Jan 2012 | 2:45 pm
    By Elsa Youngsteadt, ScienceNOW With their keen vision and deadly-accurate pounce, jumping spiders are the cats of the invertebrate world. For decades, scientists have puzzled over how the spiders’ miniature nervous systems manage such sophisticated perception and hunting behavior. A new study of Adanson’s jumping spider (Hasarius adansoni) fills in one key ingredient: an unusual form of depth perception. Like all jumping spiders, the Adanson’s spider has eight eyes. The two big ones, front and center on the spider’s “face,” have the sharpest vision. They…
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    Neuromarketing

  • Time Warner Opens NYC Neuromarketing Lab

    Roger Dooley
    26 Jan 2012 | 7:42 am
    Time Warner Inc. is opening their new “Medialab” at its New York City headquarters. The media giant expects to “generate valuable insights into consumer behavior, evolving media habits and industry trends across all of Time Warner’s businesses, brands and advertising partners.” The lab sounds like one of the more diverse facilities dedicated to this kind [...]   CommentsCommentsRelated StoriesPut Your Customer in the Ad!Solving the “Invulnerable Customer” ProblemStarbucks Loyalty Fail

  • Put Your Customer in the Ad!

    Roger Dooley
    24 Jan 2012 | 8:05 am
    In my direct mail days, we used personalization whenever possible. Starting a letter with “Dear Roger” instead of “Dear Friend” responds better every time (if the recipient’s name is Roger, that is!). A sweepstakes that uses a personalized address message like, “Imagine our Prize Patrol ringing the doorbell at 123 Shady Circle,” will garner more [...]   CommentsVery cool, Daniel, and exactly the kind of thing I was talking ... by Roger DooleyThis advertisement not only uses your face, but it log's into ... by Daniel GonzalezPlus 7 more...Related…

  • Solving the “Invulnerable Customer” Problem

    Roger Dooley
    19 Jan 2012 | 7:22 am
    Often, consumers don’t buy products because even though they recognize a risk exists, they don’t think they will be victims. The belief may be irrational, but they see themselves as invulnerable. So, they don’t buy life or disability insurance, they don’t invest in healthcare products products or services, they don’t join a gym, or take [...]   CommentsYes, there is a high-ticket product that baby boomers are ... by Margaret J. KingHi Roger, Great post! This is one of the key issues that we ... by JenPlus 8 more...Related StoriesPut Your Customer in the…

  • Starbucks Loyalty Fail

    Roger Dooley
    17 Jan 2012 | 7:08 am
    Starbucks knows a thing or two about loyalty. I’m a Gold Card member, and enjoy the free refills as well as the periodic free drinks I accrue by using it. (Green Card members get the refill benefit, but not the free beverage after every 15 purchases. In addition, Gold Card members get a personalized card [...]   CommentsThere is such a competition now. In order to keep its clients, ... by Anna[...] Starbucks Loyalty Fail [Neuroscience Marketing] 0 ... by Build a Loyalty Program—Just Don’t Be Like Starbucks - Printing HubPlus 8 more...Related StoriesWhen Loyalty Points Beat…

  • Upcoming Appearances – Early 2012

    Roger Dooley
    16 Jan 2012 | 6:42 am
    The first quarter is shaping up as a busy time for neuromarketing speaking gigs – I’ve booked a few more than usual to publicize my new book, Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing. For those who can’t attend one of the conferences, there’s one free webcast this week (from the American [...]   CommentsComments
 
 
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    Mind Hacks

  • A treasure hunt for the mysteries of mind and brain

    tomstafford
    21 Jan 2012 | 8:22 am
    I’ve published a couple of free ebooks recently: Explore your blind spot shows you how to reveal the gap we all have in our visual experience of the world, and discusses what it means about consciousness that this gap is kept hidden from us most of the time. Control Your Dreams, co-written with Cathryn Bardsley and illustrated beautifully by Harriet Cameron, tells you how to have lucid dreams, those dreams where you realise you are dreaming and can take control over reality. Both books are written as treasure hunts – travel guides, but for exploring inner space. When you start…

  • The peak experiences of Abraham Maslow

    vaughanbell
    19 Jan 2012 | 6:48 pm
    The New Atlantis has an in-depth biographical article on psychologist Abraham Maslow – one of the founders of humanistic psychology and famous for his ‘hierarchy of needs’. Maslow is stereotypically associated with a kind of fluffy ‘love yourself’ psychology although the man himself was quite a skeptic of the mumbo jumbo that got associated with his work. The association is not so much because of Maslow’s focus on self-actualization, a goal where we use our psychological potential to its fullest, but because of his association with the ‘human…

  • Gimme Shelter

    vaughanbell
    16 Jan 2012 | 7:44 pm
    The Rolling Stones launched their career in a social therapeutic club, designed to help troubled youth with communication skills. The club became legendary in rock ‘n roll history but its therapeutic roots have almost been forgotten. Eel Pie Island is a small patch on the River Thames famous for the underground club that earned a place in 60′s history for hosting the cream of jazz bands and rock n’ roll outfits. Less well known, is the story of how the club was created as a therapeutic environment to help troubled youth. Its place in music history has been recounted many…

  • A medical study of the Haitian zombie

    vaughanbell
    11 Jan 2012 | 6:18 am
    We hear a lot about zombies these days – in films, in music and even in philosophy – but many are unaware that in 1997 The Lancet published a medical study of three genuine Haitian zombies. The cases studies were reported by British anthropologist Roland Littlewood and Haitian doctor Chavannes Douyon and concerned three individuals identified as zombies after they had apparently passed away. The Haitian explanation for how zombies are created involves the distinction between different elements of the human being – including the body, the gwobon anj (the animating principle)…

  • A relationship through brain injury

    vaughanbell
    9 Jan 2012 | 6:14 pm
    The New York Times has an excellent article on the challenges faced by couples after one member survives brain injury. Carers sometimes say that, after brain injury, their partner is emotionally unresponsive, emotionally unstable or that their ‘personality has changed’. This can lead to a strain on the relationship that far outlasts the ‘obvious’ effects of the injury and, unfortunately, the problem is not widely recognised. Mrs. Curtis, 60, was once drawn to her husband’s “sparkle,” she said. After the injury, he “flat-lined” emotionally, and he suffers from…
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    NPR

  • Scratching An Ankle Is Hard To Beat

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:25 pm
    Scratching an itchy ankle is more satisfying than relieving an itch on your back or arm. Even if you thought you knew that, scientists now have evidence to back up your hunch.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • How 'Space Weather' Affects Planes And Power Grids

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm
    This week solar flares sent a huge blast of X-rays and charged particles screaming towards the Earth. Solar astronomer David Hathaway and physicist Doug Biesecker discuss the sun's explosive behavior, and how that 'space weather' affects satellites, airplanes and the electric grid.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Ancient Skull Holds Clues to Dog Domestication

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm
    A 33,000-year-old skull of a "wolf on the way to becoming a dog" was found in a Siberian cave. Evolutionary Biologist Susan Crockford, co-author of a study about the skull in PLoS ONE, discusses why the discovery challenges common beliefs about dog domestication.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Ode To Ice

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm
    Discover the secret life of ice--what makes it cloudy or clear, why cracks form on ponds. Science Friday visited Queens ice sculptor Shintaro Okamoto in his studio and spoke with ice researcher Erland Schulson, of Dartmouth University, to find out why ice is an interesting subject for artists and scientists.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Can Science Be Done Without Secrecy?

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm
    In his book, Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science, Physicist Michael Nielsen discusses why scientists jealously guard their data and are slow to adopt online tools for collaboration. Nielsen talks about why attempts to create science wikipedias have failed.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us
 
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    EE Times

  • Apple snatches Smartphone lead from Samsung in Q4

    27 Jan 2012 | 10:46 pm
    Apple and Samsung Electronics continued their game of tag at the top of the smartphone shipment table, with Apple taking back the top spot for smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter, while Samsung became the world’s largest smartphone brand for the year of 2011.View the full article HERE.

  • Globalfoundries CEO says company is back on track

    27 Jan 2012 | 8:50 pm
    Globalfoundries CEO Ajit Manocha has praised his firm for what he called a “remarkable quarter” in Q411, and promised that the foundry was on track to “keep the momentum going,” after a year plagued with difficulties and setbacks.View the full article HERE.

  • Rebuilding America: Proposals emerge to fix 'dysfunctional' R&D tax credit

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:45 pm
    The R&D tax credit, a key incentive for spurring investment in U.S. innovation and manufacturing, needs a major overhaul, a tax expert says.View the full article HERE.

  • Cisco rolls more routers for smart grids

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:53 pm
    Cisco Systems is shipping its first routers geared for networks of smart meters, initially focusing on a co-development deal with meter maker Itron.View the full article HERE.

  • Nokia bleeds $1.38 billion in Q4; sales drop 21 percent

    27 Jan 2012 | 4:22 am
    Nokia had some good news and bad news for financial investors on Thursday (Jan. 26), announcing that though it had managed to sell over 1 million Windows Phone 7 Lumia devices to date, it had also lost $1.38-billion in the fourth quarter of 2011.View the full article HERE.
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    P212121

  • Labguru – Scientific Project Management

    Sean
    16 Jan 2012 | 4:41 pm
    Recently, Labguru launched as a better way to organize your laboratory projects. Labguru enables you to create research projects, milestones, protocols and experiments, as well as manage your tasks and events in an integrated calendar. It reminds me a bit of 37signals, tweaked toward science, which is certainly a compliment. A nice feature is the ability to give protocols, papers, etc.. tags. This way documentation can be linked together allowing for finding instead of searching as they nicely put. Login View: Video Overview: I’ve been visiting their site since launch which was about a…

  • ChemSource

    Sean
    30 Dec 2011 | 4:28 pm
    Ever wanted a chemical concierge service in your pocket? We’re going after those random sales reps that swing by your office every 3 months and ask you if you need anything. Interested? Sign up for our newsletter for the release.

  • Cyber Monday Sale

    Sean
    23 Nov 2011 | 9:08 pm
    Buying research chemicals and supplies should not be boring. We’re all about having consistently low prices. However, we’ve just been approached by a couple of our suppliers that really want a Cyber Monday Sale! Sign up for our newsletter for a complete list of the sale items. Have an item that you would love to see on sale? Feel free to leave it in the comments!

  • Longest Crystallography Conference Name Ever

    Sean
    30 Sep 2011 | 10:57 am
    69th Annual Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference / 5th Annual Ohio Valley Crystallography Symposium November 2-4, 2011 Cleveland, Ohio ANY CHARACTER HERE Program topics include both macromolecular and small molecule X-ray diffraction studies, neutron diffraction, and new developments in hardware. Keynote speaker: Janet Smith from the University of Michigan ANY CHARACTER HERE A lot of other great speakers are lined up including: Barnali Chaudhuri, Leighton Coates, Tom Thompson, Andrew VanDemark and more! Oral and poster abstracts on diverse diffraction studies will included from both established…

  • Help me, Help you

    Sean
    12 Sep 2011 | 7:58 am
    We’ve been hard at work on various aspects of P212121 one of which is adding products. It isn’t that exciting until you find the product you want at a great price. We realize that most companies have their listings and put out a flyer or newsletter, which can be handy. However, what has worked a lot better for us is asking labs what they use then finding deals for them. We record their purchase orders from the last year and follow up email in about a week (here’s a recent example). The end result is that you get information that helps your lab. It also helps guide us in…
 
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    PLoS Biology: New Articles

  • Restoration of Ailing Wetlands

    Oswald J. Schmitz
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Oswald J. Schmitz It is widely held that humankind's destructive tendencies when exploiting natural resources leads to irreparable harm to the environment. Yet, this thinking runs counter to evidence that many ecological systems damaged by severe natural environmental disturbances (e.g., hurricanes) can restore themselves via processes of natural recovery. The emerging field of restoration ecology is capitalizing on the natural restorative tendencies of ecological systems to build a science of repairing the harm inflicted by humans on natural environment. Evidence for this, for example,…

  • Stochastic Expression of the Interferon-β Gene

    Mingwei Zhao et al.
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Mingwei Zhao, Jiangwen Zhang, Hemali Phatnani, Stefanie Scheu, Tom Maniatis Virus infection of mammalian cells induces the production of high levels of type I interferons (IFNα and β), cytokines that orchestrate antiviral innate and adaptive immunity. Previous studies have shown that only a fraction of the infected cells produce IFN. However, the mechanisms responsible for this stochastic expression are poorly understood. Here we report an in depth analysis of IFN-expressing and non-expressing mouse cells infected with Sendai virus. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts in which an internal…

  • The Chromosomal Passenger Complex Activates Polo Kinase at Centromeres

    Mar Carmena et al.
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Mar Carmena, Xavier Pinson, Melpi Platani, Zeina Salloum, Zhenjie Xu, Anthony Clark, Fiona MacIsaac, Hiromi Ogawa, Ulrike Eggert, David M. Glover, Vincent Archambault, William C. Earnshaw The coordinated activities at centromeres of two key cell cycle kinases, Polo and Aurora B, are critical for ensuring that the two sister kinetochores of each chromosome are attached to microtubules from opposite spindle poles prior to chromosome segregation at anaphase. Initial attachments of chromosomes to the spindle involve random interactions between kinetochores and dynamic microtubules, and errors…

  • Structural and Functional Loss in Restored Wetland Ecosystems

    David Moreno-Mateos et al.
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by David Moreno-Mateos, Mary E. Power, Francisco A. Comín, Roxana Yockteng Wetlands are among the most productive and economically valuable ecosystems in the world. However, because of human activities, over half of the wetland ecosystems existing in North America, Europe, Australia, and China in the early 20th century have been lost. Ecological restoration to recover critical ecosystem services has been widely attempted, but the degree of actual recovery of ecosystem functioning and structure from these efforts remains uncertain. Our results from a meta-analysis of 621 wetland sites from…

  • Substrate Specificity within a Family of Outer Membrane Carboxylate Channels

    Elif Eren et al.
    17 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Elif Eren, Jagamya Vijayaraghavan, Jiaming Liu, Belete R. Cheneke, Debra S. Touw, Bryan W. Lepore, Mridhu Indic, Liviu Movileanu, Bert van den Berg Many Gram-negative bacteria, including human pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, do not have large-channel porins. This results in an outer membrane (OM) that is highly impermeable to small polar molecules, making the bacteria intrinsically resistant towards many antibiotics. In such microorganisms, the majority of small molecules are taken up by members of the OprD outer membrane protein family. Here we show that OprD channels require a…
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    PLoS Computational Biology: New Articles

  • Balancing Feed-Forward Excitation and Inhibition via Hebbian Inhibitory Synaptic Plasticity

    Yotam Luz et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Yotam Luz, Maoz Shamir It has been suggested that excitatory and inhibitory inputs to cortical cells are balanced, and that this balance is important for the highly irregular firing observed in the cortex. There are two hypotheses as to the origin of this balance. One assumes that it results from a stable solution of the recurrent neuronal dynamics. This model can account for a balance of steady state excitation and inhibition without fine tuning of parameters, but not for transient inputs. The second hypothesis suggests that the feed forward excitatory and inhibitory inputs to a…

  • A Feedback Quenched Oscillator Produces Turing Patterning with One Diffuser

    Justin Hsia et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Justin Hsia, William J. Holtz, Daniel C. Huang, Murat Arcak, Michel M. Maharbiz Efforts to engineer synthetic gene networks that spontaneously produce patterning in multicellular ensembles have focused on Turing's original model and the “activator-inhibitor” models of Meinhardt and Gierer. Systems based on this model are notoriously difficult to engineer. We present the first demonstration that Turing pattern formation can arise in a new family of oscillator-driven gene network topologies, specifically when a second feedback loop is introduced which quenches oscillations and…

  • Single Sample Expression-Anchored Mechanisms Predict Survival in Head and Neck Cancer

    Xinan Yang et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Xinan Yang, Kelly Regan, Yong Huang, Qingbei Zhang, Jianrong Li, Tanguy Y. Seiwert, Ezra E. W. Cohen, H. Rosie Xing, Yves A. Lussier Gene expression signatures that are predictive of therapeutic response or prognosis are increasingly useful in clinical care; however, mechanistic (and intuitive) interpretation of expression arrays remains an unmet challenge. Additionally, there is surprisingly little gene overlap among distinct clinically validated expression signatures. These “causality challenges” hinder the adoption of signatures as compared to functionally well-characterized single…

  • Computational and Statistical Analysis of Protein Mass Spectrometry Data

    William Stafford Noble et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by William Stafford Noble, Michael J. MacCoss High-throughput proteomics experiments involving tandem mass spectrometry produce large volumes of complex data that require sophisticated computational analyses. As such, the field offers many challenges for computational biologists. In this article, we briefly introduce some of the core computational and statistical problems in the field and then describe a variety of outstanding problems that readers of PLoS Computational Biology might be able to help solve.

  • Macro-level Modeling of the Response of C. elegans Reproduction to Chronic Heat Stress

    Patrick D. McMullen et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Patrick D. McMullen, Erin Z. Aprison, Peter B. Winter, Luis A. N. Amaral, Richard I. Morimoto, Ilya Ruvinsky A major goal of systems biology is to understand how organism-level behavior arises from a myriad of molecular interactions. Often this involves complex sets of rules describing interactions among a large number of components. As an alternative, we have developed a simple, macro-level model to describe how chronic temperature stress affects reproduction in C. elegans. Our approach uses fundamental engineering principles, together with a limited set of experimentally derived facts,…
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    PLoS Genetics: New Articles

  • Sequencing of Pooled DNA Samples (Pool-Seq) Uncovers Complex Dynamics of Transposable Element Insertions in Drosophila melanogaster

    Robert Kofler et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Robert Kofler, Andrea J. Betancourt, Christian Schlötterer Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile genetic elements that parasitize genomes by semi-autonomously increasing their own copy number within the host genome. While TEs are important for genome evolution, appropriate methods for performing unbiased genome-wide surveys of TE variation in natural populations have been lacking. Here, we describe a novel and cost-effective approach for estimating population frequencies of TE insertions using paired-end Illumina reads from a pooled population sample. Importantly, the method treats…

  • A Flexible Bayesian Model for Studying Gene–Environment Interaction

    Kai Yu et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Kai Yu, Sholom Wacholder, William Wheeler, Zhaoming Wang, Neil Caporaso, Maria Teresa Landi, Faming Liang An important follow-up step after genetic markers are found to be associated with a disease outcome is a more detailed analysis investigating how the implicated gene or chromosomal region and an established environment risk factor interact to influence the disease risk. The standard approach to this study of gene–environment interaction considers one genetic marker at a time and therefore could misrepresent and underestimate the genetic contribution to the joint effect when one or…

  • A Genome-Wide Association Study Identified AFF1 as a Susceptibility Locus for Systemic Lupus Eyrthematosus in Japanese

    Yukinori Okada et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Yukinori Okada, Kenichi Shimane, Yuta Kochi, Tomoko Tahira, Akari Suzuki, Koichiro Higasa, Atsushi Takahashi, Tetsuya Horita, Tatsuya Atsumi, Tomonori Ishii, Akiko Okamoto, Keishi Fujio, Michito Hirakata, Hirofumi Amano, Yuya Kondo, Satoshi Ito, Kazuki Takada, Akio Mimori, Kazuyoshi Saito, Makoto Kamachi, Yasushi Kawaguchi, Katsunori Ikari, Osman Wael Mohammed, Koichi Matsuda, Chikashi Terao, Koichiro Ohmura, Keiko Myouzen, Naoya Hosono, Tatsuhiko Tsunoda, Norihiro Nishimoto, Tsuneyo Mimori, Fumihiko Matsuda, Yoshiya Tanaka, Takayuki Sumida, Hisashi Yamanaka, Yoshinari Takasaki, Takao…

  • Heterochromatin Formation Promotes Longevity and Represses Ribosomal RNA Synthesis

    Kimberly Larson et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Kimberly Larson, Shian-Jang Yan, Amy Tsurumi, Jacqueline Liu, Jun Zhou, Kriti Gaur, Dongdong Guo, Thomas H. Eickbush, Willis X. Li Organismal aging is influenced by a multitude of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and heterochromatin loss has been proposed to be one of the causes of aging. However, the role of heterochromatin in animal aging has been controversial. Here we show that heterochromatin formation prolongs lifespan and controls ribosomal RNA synthesis in Drosophila. Animals with decreased heterochromatin levels exhibit a dramatic shortening of lifespan, whereas increasing…

  • Inference of Population Structure using Dense Haplotype Data

    Daniel John Lawson et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Daniel John Lawson, Garrett Hellenthal, Simon Myers, Daniel Falush The advent of genome-wide dense variation data provides an opportunity to investigate ancestry in unprecedented detail, but presents new statistical challenges. We propose a novel inference framework that aims to efficiently capture information on population structure provided by patterns of haplotype similarity. Each individual in a sample is considered in turn as a recipient, whose chromosomes are reconstructed using chunks of DNA donated by the other individuals. Results of this “chromosome painting” can be…
 
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    PLoS Pathogens: New Articles

  • The Bacterial Cytoskeleton Modulates Motility, Type 3 Secretion, and Colonization in Salmonella

    David M. Bulmer et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by David M. Bulmer, Lubna Kharraz, Andrew J. Grant, Paul Dean, Fiona J. E. Morgan, Michail H. Karavolos, Anne C. Doble, Emma J. McGhie, Vassilis Koronakis, Richard A. Daniel, Pietro Mastroeni, C. M. Anjam Khan Although there have been great advances in our understanding of the bacterial cytoskeleton, major gaps remain in our knowledge of its importance to virulence. In this study we have explored the contribution of the bacterial cytoskeleton to the ability of Salmonella to express and assemble virulence factors and cause disease. The bacterial actin-like protein MreB polymerises into helical…

  • The Intracellular DNA Sensor IFI16 Gene Acts as Restriction Factor for Human Cytomegalovirus Replication

    Grazia Rosaria Gariano et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Grazia Rosaria Gariano, Valentina Dell'Oste, Matteo Bronzini, Deborah Gatti, Anna Luganini, Marco De Andrea, Giorgio Gribaudo, Marisa Gariglio, Santo Landolfo Human interferon (IFN)-inducible IFI16 protein, an innate immune sensor of intracellular DNA, modulates various cell functions, however, its role in regulating virus growth remains unresolved. Here, we adopt two approaches to investigate whether IFI16 exerts pro- and/or anti-viral actions. First, the IFI16 gene was silenced using specific small interfering RNAs (siRNA) in human embryo lung fibroblasts (HELF) and replication of DNA…

  • How Do Bacteria Know They Are on a Surface and Regulate Their Response to an Adhering State?

    Henk J. Busscher et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Henk J. Busscher, Henny C. van der Mei

  • IL-10R Blockade during Chronic Schistosomiasis Mansoni Results in the Loss of B Cells from the Liver and the Development of Severe Pulmonary Disease

    Keke C. Fairfax et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Keke C. Fairfax, Eyal Amiel, Irah L. King, Tori C. Freitas, Markus Mohrs, Edward J. Pearce In schistosomiasis patients, parasite eggs trapped in hepatic sinusoids become foci for CD4 T cell-orchestrated granulomatous cellular infiltrates. Since the immune response is unable to clear the infection, the liver is subjected to ongoing cycles of focal inflammation and healing that lead to vascular obstruction and tissue fibrosis. This is mitigated by regulatory mechanisms that develop over time and which minimize the inflammatory response to newly deposited eggs. Exploring changes in the…

  • Systems Biology Approaches Reveal a Specific Interferon-Inducible Signature in HTLV-1 Associated Myelopathy

    Sonja Tattermusch et al.
    26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Sonja Tattermusch, Jason A. Skinner, Damien Chaussabel, Jacques Banchereau, Matthew P. Berry, Finlay W. McNab, Anne O'Garra, Graham P. Taylor, Charles R. M. Bangham Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus that persists lifelong in the host. In ∼4% of infected people, HTLV-1 causes a chronic disabling neuroinflammatory disease known as HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). The pathogenesis of HAM/TSP is unknown and treatment remains ineffective. We used gene expression microarrays followed by flow cytometric and functional assays to…
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    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles

  • Myocardial Alternative RNA Splicing and Gene Expression Profiling in Early Stage Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome

    Marco Ricci et al.
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Marco Ricci, Yanji Xu, Harriet L. Hammond, David A. Willoughby, Lubov Nathanson, Maria M. Rodriguez, Matteo Vatta, Steven E. Lipshultz, Joy Lincoln Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) is a congenital defect characterized by underdevelopment of the left ventricle and pathological compensation of the right ventricle. If untreated, HLHS is invariably lethal due to the extensive increase in right ventricular workload and eventual failure. Despite the clinical significance, little is known about the molecular pathobiological state of HLHS. Splicing of mRNA transcripts is an important…

  • Reorganizing the Intrinsic Functional Architecture of the Human Primary Motor Cortex during Rest with Non-Invasive Cortical Stimulation

    Rafael Polanía et al.
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Rafael Polanía, Walter Paulus, Michael A. Nitsche The primary motor cortex (M1) is the main effector structure implicated in the generation of voluntary movements and is directly involved in motor learning. The intrinsic horizontal neuronal connections of M1 exhibit short-term and long-term plasticity, which is a strong substrate for learning-related map reorganization. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied for few minutes over M1 has been shown to induce relatively long-lasting plastic alterations and to modulate motor performance. Here we test the hypothesis that the…

  • The PI3-Kinase/mTOR-Targeting Drug NVP-BEZ235 Inhibits Growth and IgE-Dependent Activation of Human Mast Cells and Basophils

    Katharina Blatt et al.
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Katharina Blatt, Harald Herrmann, Irina Mirkina, Emir Hadzijusufovic, Barbara Peter, Sabine Strommer, Gregor Hoermann, Matthias Mayerhofer, Konrad Hoetzenecker, Walter Klepetko, Viviane Ghanim, Katharina Marth, Thorsten Füreder, Volker Wacheck, Rudolf Valenta, Peter Valent The phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) are two major signaling molecules involved in growth and activation of mast cells (MC) and basophils (BA). We examined the effects of the dual PI3-kinase/mTOR blocker NVP-BEZ235 on growth of normal and neoplastic BA and MC as well as…

  • Plastic and Heritable Components of Phenotypic Variation in Nucella lapillus: An Assessment Using Reciprocal Transplant and Common Garden Experiments

    Sonia Pascoal et al.
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Sonia Pascoal, Gary Carvalho, Simon Creer, Jenny Rock, Kei Kawaii, Sonia Mendo, Roger Hughes Assessment of plastic and heritable components of phenotypic variation is crucial for understanding the evolution of adaptive character traits in heterogeneous environments. We assessed the above in relation to adaptive shell morphology of the rocky intertidal snail Nucella lapillus by reciprocal transplantation of snails between two shores differing in wave action and rearing snails of the same provenance in a common garden. Results were compared with those reported for similar experiments…

  • Interventions to Influence Consulting and Antibiotic Use for Acute Respiratory Tract Infections in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

    Talley Andrews et al.
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Talley Andrews, Matthew Thompson, David I. Buckley, Carl Heneghan, Rick Deyo, Niamh Redmond, Patricia J. Lucas, Peter S. Blair, Alastair D. Hay Background Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are common in children and generally self-limiting, yet often result in consultations to primary care. Frequent consultations divert resources from care for potentially more serious conditions and increase the opportunity for antibiotic overuse. Overuse of antibiotics is associated with adverse effects and antimicrobial resistance, and has been shown to influence how patients seek care in ensuing…
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    PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases: New Articles

  • Clinical and Virological Study of Dengue Cases and the Members of Their Households: The Multinational DENFRAME Project

    Philippe Dussart et al.
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Philippe Dussart, Laurence Baril, Laure Petit, Lydie Beniguel, Luong Chan Quang, Sowath Ly, Raimunda do Socorro Silva Azevedo, Jean-Baptiste Meynard, Sirenda Vong, Loïc Chartier, Aba Diop, Ong Sivuth, Veasna Duong, Cao Minh Thang, Michael Jacobs, Anavaj Sakuntabhai, Marcio Roberto Teixeira Nunes, Vu Ti Que Huong, Philippe Buchy, Pedro Fernando da Costa Vasconcelos Background Dengue has emerged as the most important vector-borne viral disease in tropical areas. Evaluations of the burden and severity of dengue disease have been hindered by the frequent lack of laboratory confirmation and…

  • Climate Teleconnections and Recent Patterns of Human and Animal Disease Outbreaks

    Assaf Anyamba et al.
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Assaf Anyamba, Kenneth J. Linthicum, Jennifer L. Small, Kathrine M. Collins, Compton J. Tucker, Edwin W. Pak, Seth C. Britch, James Ronald Eastman, Jorge E. Pinzon, Kevin L. Russell Background Recent clusters of outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases (Rift Valley fever and chikungunya) in Africa and parts of the Indian Ocean islands illustrate how interannual climate variability influences the changing risk patterns of disease outbreaks. Although Rift Valley fever outbreaks have been known to follow periods of above-normal rainfall, the timing of the outbreak events has largely been unknown.

  • The Impact of Neurocysticercosis in California: A Review of Hospitalized Cases

    Curtis Croker et al.
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Curtis Croker, Matthew Redelings, Roshan Reporter, Frank Sorvillo, Laurene Mascola, Patricia Wilkins To assess the burden of neurocysticercosis (NCC) in California we examined statewide hospital discharge data for 2009. There were 304 cases hospitalized with NCC identified (incidence = 0.8 per 100,000). Cases were mostly Latino (84.9%), slightly more likely to be male than female (men 57.6%, women 42.4%) with an average age of 43.5 years. A majority of cases were hospitalized in Southern California (72.1%) and many were hospitalized in Los Angeles County (44.7%). Men were more likely…

  • Impact of Continuous Axenic Cultivation in Leishmania infantum Virulence

    Diana Moreira et al.
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Diana Moreira, Nuno Santarém, Inês Loureiro, Joana Tavares, Ana Marta Silva, Ana Marina Amorim, Ali Ouaissi, Anabela Cordeiro-da-Silva, Ricardo Silvestre Experimental infections with visceral Leishmania spp. are frequently performed referring to stationary parasite cultures that are comprised of a mixture of metacyclic and non-metacyclic parasites often with little regard to time of culture and metacyclic purification. This may lead to misleading or irreproducible experimental data. It is known that the maintenance of Leishmania spp. in vitro results in a progressive loss of virulence…

  • Whole Genome Sequences of Three Treponema pallidum ssp. pertenue Strains: Yaws and Syphilis Treponemes Differ in Less than 0.2% of the Genome Sequence

    Darina Čejková et al.
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Darina Čejková, Marie Zobaníková, Lei Chen, Petra Pospíšilová, Michal Strouhal, Xiang Qin, Lenka Mikalová, Steven J. Norris, Donna M. Muzny, Richard A. Gibbs, Lucinda L. Fulton, Erica Sodergren, George M. Weinstock, David Šmajs Background The yaws treponemes, Treponema pallidum ssp. pertenue (TPE) strains, are closely related to syphilis causing strains of Treponema pallidum ssp. pallidum (TPA). Both yaws and syphilis are distinguished on the basis of epidemiological characteristics, clinical symptoms, and several genetic signatures of the corresponding causative agents.
 
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    PLoS Hubs for Clinical Trials: New Articles

  • Clinical Pharmacists on Medical Care of Pediatric Inpatients: A Single-Center Randomized Controlled Trial

    Chuan Zhang et al.
    23 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Chuan Zhang, Lingli Zhang, Liang Huang, Rong Luo, Jin Wen Objective To explore the best interventions and working patterns of clinical pharmacists in pediatrics and to determine the effectiveness of clinical pharmacists in pediatrics. Methods We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 160 pediatric patients with nerve system disease, respiratory system disease or digestive system disease, who were randomly allocated into two groups, with 80 in each group. Interventions by clinical pharmacists in the experimental group included answering questions of physicians and nurses, giving advice…

  • Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy and Safety of Existing TNF Blocking Agents in Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis

    Kalle J. Aaltonen et al.
    17 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Kalle J. Aaltonen, Liisa M. Virkki, Antti Malmivaara, Yrjö T. Konttinen, Dan C. Nordström, Marja Blom Background and Objectives Five-tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-blockers (infliximab, etanercept, adalimumab, certolizumab pegol and golimumab) are available for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Only few clinical trials compare one TNF-blocker to another. Hence, a systematic review is required to indirectly compare the substances. The aim of our study is to estimate the efficacy and the safety of TNF-blockers in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and indirectly compare all five…

  • Phase I Evaluation of Intravenous Ascorbic Acid in Combination with Gemcitabine and Erlotinib in Patients with Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

    Daniel A. Monti et al.
    17 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Daniel A. Monti, Edith Mitchell, Anthony J. Bazzan, Susan Littman, George Zabrecky, Charles J. Yeo, Madhaven V. Pillai, Andrew B. Newberg, Sandeep Deshmukh, Mark Levine Background Preclinical data support further investigation of ascorbic acid in pancreatic cancer. There are currently insufficient safety data in human subjects, particularly when ascorbic acid is combined with chemotherapy. Methods and Findings 14 subjects with metastatic stage IV pancreatic cancer were recruited to receive an eight week cycle of intravenous ascorbic acid (three infusions per week), using a dose escalation…

  • The 24-h Energy Intake of Obese Adolescents Is Spontaneously Reduced after Intensive Exercise: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Calorimetric Chambers

    David Thivel et al.
    17 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by David Thivel, Laurie Isacco, Christophe Montaurier, Yves Boirie, Pascale Duché, Béatrice Morio Background Physical exercise can modify subsequent energy intake and appetite and may thus be of particular interest in terms of obesity treatment. However, it is still unclear whether an intensive bout of exercise can affect the energy consumption of obese children and adolescents. Objective To compare the impact of high vs. moderate intensity exercises on subsequent 24-h energy intake, macronutrient preferences, appetite sensations, energy expenditure and balance in obese adolescent. Design…

  • Brain Training Game Improves Executive Functions and Processing Speed in the Elderly: A Randomized Controlled Trial

    Rui Nouchi et al.
    11 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Rui Nouchi, Yasuyuki Taki, Hikaru Takeuchi, Hiroshi Hashizume, Yuko Akitsuki, Yayoi Shigemune, Atsushi Sekiguchi, Yuka Kotozaki, Takashi Tsukiura, Yukihito Yomogida, Ryuta Kawashima Background The beneficial effects of brain training games are expected to transfer to other cognitive functions, but these beneficial effects are poorly understood. Here we investigate the impact of the brain training game (Brain Age) on cognitive functions in the elderly. Methods and Results Thirty-two elderly volunteers were recruited through an advertisement in the local newspaper and randomly assigned to…
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    PLoS Medicine: New Articles

  • Adult Mortality Attributable to Preventable Risk Factors for Non-Communicable Diseases and Injuries in Japan: A Comparative Risk Assessment

    Nayu Ikeda et al.
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Nayu Ikeda, Manami Inoue, Hiroyasu Iso, Shunya Ikeda, Toshihiko Satoh, Mitsuhiko Noda, Tetsuya Mizoue, Hironori Imano, Eiko Saito, Kota Katanoda, Tomotaka Sobue, Shoichiro Tsugane, Mohsen Naghavi, Majid Ezzati, Kenji Shibuya Background The population of Japan has achieved the longest life expectancy in the world. To further improve population health, consistent and comparative evidence on mortality attributable to preventable risk factors is necessary for setting priorities for health policies and programs. Although several past studies have quantified the impact of individual risk factors…

  • Effect of Sanitation on Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infection: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

    Kathrin Ziegelbauer et al.
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Kathrin Ziegelbauer, Benjamin Speich, Daniel Mäusezahl, Robert Bos, Jennifer Keiser, Jürg Utzinger Background In countries of high endemicity of the soil-transmitted helminth parasites Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and hookworm, preventive chemotherapy (i.e., repeated administration of anthelmintic drugs to at-risk populations) is the main strategy to control morbidity. However, rapid reinfection of humans occurs after successful deworming, and therefore effective preventive measures are required to achieve public health goals with optimal efficiency and sustainability.

  • Challenging Medical Ghostwriting in US Courts

    Xavier Bosch et al.
    24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Xavier Bosch, Bijan Esfandiari, Leemon McHenry

  • Trends in Resource Utilization by Children with Neurological Impairment in the United States Inpatient Health Care System: A Repeat Cross-Sectional Study

    Jay G. Berry et al.
    17 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Jay G. Berry, Annapurna Poduri, Joshua L. Bonkowsky, Jing Zhou, Dionne A. Graham, Chelsea Welch, Heather Putney, Rajendu Srivastava Background Care advances in the United States (US) have led to improved survival of children with neurological impairment (NI). Children with NI may account for an increasing proportion of hospital resources. However, this assumption has not been tested at a national level. Methods and Findings We conducted a study of 25,747,016 US hospitalizations of children recorded in the Kids' Inpatient Database (years 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006). Children with NI were…

  • Ensemble Modeling of the Likely Public Health Impact of a Pre-Erythrocytic Malaria Vaccine

    Thomas Smith et al.
    17 Jan 2012 | 4:00 pm
    by Thomas Smith, Amanda Ross, Nicolas Maire, Nakul Chitnis, Alain Studer, Diggory Hardy, Alan Brooks, Melissa Penny, Marcel Tanner Background The RTS,S malaria vaccine may soon be licensed. Models of impact of such vaccines have mainly considered deployment via the World Health Organization's Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in areas of stable endemic transmission of Plasmodium falciparum, and have been calibrated for such settings. Their applicability to low transmission settings is unclear. Evaluations of the efficiency of different deployment strategies in diverse settings should…
 
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    Reuters

  • Arctic ice melt lifts hopes for Russian maritime trade

    27 Jan 2012 | 11:07 am
    SEVERODVINSK, Russia (Reuters) - When severe snowstorms prevented life-sustaining fuel supplies from reaching the frozen Alaskan town of Nome, U.S. officials turned to a Russian company for help.

  • Russia to delay space mission due to technical problems

    27 Jan 2012 | 10:38 am
    MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia plans to delay the next mission carrying U.S. and Russian astronauts to the International Space Station by several weeks due to problems with the spaceship's descent vehicle, Interfax news agency quoted an industry source as saying Friday.

  • Kepler telescope team finds 11 new solar systems

    27 Jan 2012 | 10:09 am
    CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found 11 new planetary systems, including one with five planets all orbiting closer to their parent star than Mercury circles the Sun, scientists said on Thursday.

  • Rivals see no need to match Roche's big gene bet

    27 Jan 2012 | 9:39 am
    DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG's rivals Sanofi SA and Novartis AG see no need to match the Swiss drug maker in buying a gene-decoding business like Illumina Inc and reckon they can do partnerships instead.

  • Gingrich calls for moon base, space contests

    25 Jan 2012 | 8:25 pm
    COCOA, Florida (Reuters) - Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich called on Wednesday for a base on the moon and an expanded federal purse for prize money to stimulate private-sector space projects.
 
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    Sciencetext Tips and Tricks

  • WordPress plugin unblocks blocked sites

    David Bradley
    27 Jan 2012 | 5:53 am
    A new WordPress plugin makes it rather easy to uncensor sites that have been blocked for whatever reason. In just a few clicks you can establish a proxy site using the well-known blogging software. It could become an essential tool for users in countries that restrict free speech, which is pretty much everywhere to a greater or lesser extent. The plugin would also help defeat implementations of  PIPA or  SOPA  in the US that will, should they pass into law, restrict sites across the globe. Don’t be fooled, however, the very same plugin might also be used, perish the thought, to let…

  • Highway to Hull #mundanemetal

    David Bradley
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:08 am
    How about a new “meme” for a Friday? #mundanemetal All the hard rock greats deconstructed. Here’s a few for starters, would love to see yours spread all over Twitter: Highway to Hull Eels of Steel Smells Like White Spirit Sabbath Muddy Sabbath Don’t Fear the Sweeper The Number of the Yeast That last one is a bit lame, but could be the start of a lab-based metal meme, or one just for bakers and brewers… (Hat tip to my missus who was singing the line “Highway to Hull” just now…don’t ask. Related Posts:Ladies, what’s your color?Secret…

  • Have a slice of Raspberry Pi

    David Bradley
    27 Jan 2012 | 1:22 am
    Coming soon: The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video and has slots for USB 2.0 and an SD card. The Cambridge-based developers want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming. An ARM GNU/Linux box for $25! Raspberry Pi. Thanks to Classic FM’s Tim Lihoreau for the alert on this. Related Posts:Best Way to Tie Up Your Mp3 Player HeadphonesTED Talks…

  • SOPA sits you back on the sofa

    David Bradley
    26 Jan 2012 | 3:46 pm
    Sofa, settee, couch. It’s where the potatoes sit. It’s where the media moguls would prefer you to be, passively consuming the cr*p they want to feed you and watching inane advertisements. Off the couch creating and sharing is where they’d rather you weren’t, hence DMCA, SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and all that comes after. Be afraid, this isn’t just about stopping you making a copy of a song or movie, this is about putting each and every one of us back in our place – on the couch, consuming scheduled cr*p, like good little citizens. In this fascinating and worrying…

  • Hard to please

    David Bradley
    26 Jan 2012 | 2:52 am
    One can never predict which blog posts are going to be popular among the readers. I posted a video referring to a health didact on Sciencebase recently that was picked up by Lifehacker and gave the site a week-long traffic spike bringing us several thousand of new readers (most of whom seem to have disappeared as the traffic has now levelled off, that’s not a surprise). Similarly, a post showing the patterns formed when a viscous syrup is drizzled on to a moving conveyor belt also went “viral”, similarly bringing in even more new readers. I post all Sciencebase and…
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    FlowingData

  • More people want to learn statistics

    Nathan Yau
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:16 am
    Data is hot right now, so as you would expect, more people are signing up and applying to learn about it. Quentin Hardy for The New York Times reports. At North Carolina State, an advanced analytics program lasting 10 months has, since its founding in 2006, placed over 90 percent of its students annually. The average graduate’s starting salary for an entry-level job is $73,000. Its current class of 40 students had 185 applicants, and next year’s applications are already twice that. In 2009, Harvard awarded four undergraduate degrees in statistics. Two graduates went into finance, one to…

  • The Fixie Bike Index and hipsters

    Nathan Yau
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:50 am
    Priceonomics takes the association of fixie bikes to hipsters, and creates the Fixie Bike Index. After starting with New York, they branch out to national numbers. In short, fixed gear bikes = hipsters, and New York boroughs that have more fixies per capita should have more hipsters per capita. We sampled our data to see the number of used bikes for sale per capita in each borough with the term "fixie" or "fixed gear" in the product title to create the Fixie Index. I don't know about these numbers. I lived in Modesto for a year and don't remember people riding bikes — or hipsters, and…

  • Own and securely store your location with OpenPaths

    Nathan Yau
    26 Jan 2012 | 2:25 am
    There are a lot of ways to collect your location, whether it's for journaling and personal reflection or for sharing with others, but it can be tricky making use of your data once it's stored behind company servers. OpenPaths lets you collect your data via iPhone or their just released Android app. We inhabit a world where data are being collected about us on a massive scale. These data are being stored, analyzed and monetized primarily by corporations; there is limited agency for the people whom the data actually represent. We believe that people who generate data through their own…

  • Words used in SOTU and Republican presidential candidates in debates

    Nathan Yau
    24 Jan 2012 | 10:55 pm
    Jonathan Corum for The New York Times examines word usage by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union addresses and the words used by Republican candidates in their debates. Many of you will be happy to know that no word clouds were harmed in the making of this graphic. [New York Times]

  • In perspective: One hour of video uploaded to YouTube per second

    Nathan Yau
    24 Jan 2012 | 2:34 pm
    YouTube surpassed the one hour of video uploaded per second threshold recently. To put that rate into perspective, they launched a fun illustration-based site, One Hour Per Second. Big team effort headed by Punk & Butler, illustrations by Alex Eben Meyer, animation by Justin Young, and development by Use All Five. The concept is simple. A clock runs that shows how much time has passed, and things that could've happened during the runtime of video uploaded animate on the screen. For example, it starts with "In 1.5 seconds of uploads to YouTube, the International Space Station completes one…
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    Science Daily

  • NASA sees a weakening Cyclone Funso's 'closed eye'

    27 Jan 2012 | 4:48 pm
    Powerful Cyclone Funso's eye has been clear in NASA satellite imagery over the last several days until NASA's Aqua satellite noticed it had "closed" and become filled with high clouds on January 27.

  • NASA eyes cyclone Iggy's threat to western Australia

    27 Jan 2012 | 4:48 pm
    NASA satellites are providing valuable data to forecasters as Tropical Cyclone Iggy nears Western Australia. NASA's Aqua satellite provided visible and infrared data on Iggy, observing colder cloud tops and strengthening storm. Iggy has already triggered warnings and watches along coastal areas.

  • Possible new treatment for Rett Syndrome

    27 Jan 2012 | 4:48 pm
    Researchers have discovered that a molecule critical to the development and plasticity of nerve cells – brain-derived neurotrophic factor -- is severely lacking in brainstem neurons in mutations leading to Rett syndrome, a neurological developmental disorder. The finding has implications for the treatment of neurological disorders, including Rett syndrome that affects one in 10,000 baby girls.

  • Space weather center to add world's first 'ensemble forecasting' capability

    27 Jan 2012 | 4:39 pm
    Leaner, greener flying machines for the year 2025 are on the drawing boards of three industry teams under contract to the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project.

  • New ideas sharpen focus for greener aircraft

    27 Jan 2012 | 4:37 pm
    Leaner, greener flying machines for the year 2025 are on the drawing boards of three industry teams under contract to the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project.
 
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    The Why Files

  • Chasing neutrinos at the South Pole

    svmedaristwf
    26 Jan 2012 | 2:34 pm
    Nice: IceCube Complete! 2010 marked the completion of a bizarre telescope composed mainly of ancient ice. One billion tons of ice. ENLARGE Photo: Forest Banks/NSF The South Pole Station and the IceCube Laboratory seen from the air. Buried a mile deep in the ice at the South Pole, IceCube is the world’s strangest telescope. Composed of water, it’s looking for the neutrino, nature’s most unusual particle. Eighty years after the neutrino was “invented” to balance a physics equation, it remains ultra-difficult to detect, measure and understand. IceCube is focused…

  • Ocean fish in hot water

    svmedaristwf
    19 Jan 2012 | 3:50 pm
    A different sort of fish sandwich The seas’ most sought-after fish are swimming between a rock and a hard place: the fisherman’s net and an encroaching mass of suffocating water. ENLARGE Courtesy Guy Harvey, NOAA The movements of Atlantic blue marlin, such as this one being tagged here, provided researchers with part of the data that lead to their discovery of this predicament. A recent study has uncovered a new dose of bad news for ocean fish and the fishing industry. Areas of the deep ocean with little dissolved oxygen, called dead zones, are expanding and, thus, shrinking many…

  • What is sleet?

    admin
    17 Jan 2012 | 3:04 pm
    What is sleet? ENLARGE Photo: Generation X-Ray When precipitation droplets refreeze before hitting the ground, you get sleet. Sleet is translucent balls of ice that are frozen raindrops. The most common forms of precipitation are rain, snow, freezing rain, and sleet. In Wisconsin, precipitation usually begins as ice particles in a cloud. The temperature conditions below the cloud base determine if the precipitation ends up as rain, snow, freezing rain, and sleet. The altitude of the melting line, or the height where the air temperatures are at freezing, determines the type of precipitation.

  • What is the coldest wind-chill temperature ever recorded in Madison?

    admin
    16 Jan 2012 | 3:19 pm
    What is the coldest wind-chill temperature ever recorded in Madison? Photo: LongitudeLatitude The face of a frigid windchill. The wind-chill temperature describes the increased loss of heat by the movement of the air. The wind-chill is relevant to humans and other animals that need to maintain a constant body temperature. The cooling power of the wind cannot be measured with a thermometer; it must be computed. The wind-chill temperature translates your body’s heat losses under the current temperature and wind conditions into the heat loses your body would feel if exposed to the existing air…

  • Where does the water come from in Midwestern snow storms?

    admin
    16 Jan 2012 | 3:06 pm
    Where does the water come from in Midwestern snow storms? ENLARGE Photo: NOAA/NASA GOES Project Water can travel a long way to dump onto the Midwest as snow. This picture shows the storm system that cause the massive February 2011 storm. Last week we were visited for the second time this winter by a sizable snowfall. A reasonable question to ask is where does the water come from to make the snow? A general answer is not available as the variety of snowstorms that we get in Wisconsin result from different sources of water. In fact, even for this last storm in the southern part of the state,…
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    PhysOrg

  • Making memories last: Prion-like protein plays key role in storing long-term memories

    27 Jan 2012 | 2:11 pm
    Memories in our brains are maintained by connections between neurons called "synapses". But how do these synapses stay strong and keep memories alive for decades? Neuroscientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have discovered a major clue from a study in fruit flies: Hardy, self-copying clusters or oligomers of a synapse protein are an essential ingredient for the formation of long-term memory.

  • Investors clamor for Facebook's IPO

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:30 pm
    Wall Street is about to get Facebook fever. The social networking giant with nearly 1 billion users is expected to file papers any day now to sell stock to the public. The timing stems partly from federal rules that would require Facebook Inc. to begin disclosing its financial information in April because of its phenomenal growth.

  • Report: Facebook IPO filing could come next week

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:28 pm
    Facebook could file regulatory papers as early as Wednesday for its highly anticipated initial public offering of stock, according to a newspaper report.

  • Blind moles use beauty for function, not fancy

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:28 pm
    (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have long wondered why a blind mole that lives in underground darkness has beautiful iridescent hair. After all, many animals or birds with magnificent features exhibit their colorful beauty for mating purposes. Now, a new study shows that the iridescent hairs of the blind golden mole, Chrysochloridae, aren’t for attracting potential mates. Instead, the shiny coats help the rodents function efficiently underground.

  • Study offers new information for flu fight

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:23 pm
    Influenza virus can rapidly evolve from one form to another, complicating the effectiveness of vaccines and anti-viral drugs used to treat it. By first understanding the complex host cell pathways that the flu uses for replication, University of Georgia researchers are finding new strategies for therapies and vaccines, according to a study published in the January issue of the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.
 
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    Yahoo! News: Science News

  • BP emails reveal company veiling spill rate (AP)

    27 Jan 2012 | 10:45 pm
    AP - On the day the Deepwater Horizon sank, BP officials warned in an internal memo that if the well was not protected by the blow-out preventer at the drill site, crude oil could burst into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 3.4 million gallons a day, an amount a million gallons higher than what the government later believed spilled daily from the site.

  • Ky. to review how to restore bridge struck by boat (AP)

    27 Jan 2012 | 10:24 pm
    AP - Kentucky's governor said Friday there will be an immediate review of ways to restore an aging traffic bridge in the western part of the state after a five-story-high cargo boat carrying space rocket parts for NASA and the Air Force slammed into it, leaving a 300-foot-wide gap in the structure.

  • Michigan Gray Wolves Off Endangered Species List (ContributorNetwork)

    27 Jan 2012 | 7:11 pm
    ContributorNetwork - Gray wolves in Michigan have taken off the federal endangered species list and may now be shot if they pose a threat to local wildlife. Last December, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) placed management of wolves into the hands of local DNR officials in Michigan. The Wolf Management Plan went into effect Friday, says Click on Detroit. Here are details about Michigan's wolf population and the new guidelines surrounding them.

  • Robotic Russian Supply Ship Docks at Space Station (SPACE.com)

    27 Jan 2012 | 6:30 pm
    SPACE.com - A robotic Russian cargo ship pulled up to the International Space Station Friday (Jan. 27), delivering tons of fresh fruit, clothing and other vital supplies for the orbiting lab's six-man crew.

  • Contradictions Don't Deter Conspiracy Theorists (LiveScience.com)

    27 Jan 2012 | 5:19 pm
    LiveScience.com - Did Princess Diana fake her own death to escape the public eye? Or was she killed by a rogue element of the British secret service?
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    NOVA scienceNOW

  • Finding a Fake Van Gogh

    WGBH Science Unit
    25 Jan 2012 | 11:00 am
    NOVA scienceNOW's Dean Irwin discusses what he learned about this new computer technology while producing his story on digital art authentication. Podcast produced by David Levin. Music by Jeff Allen. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA scienceNOW is provided by the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and PBS Viewers. Funding for NOVA is provided by David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Lockheed Martin Corporation, and PBS viewers. This material is based…

  • Surprises in Your Genes

    WGBH Science Unit
    20 Dec 2011 | 11:00 am
    In order to develop from an embryo, animals as different as fruit flies and humans call on a nearly identical set of genes. But how does this one common genetic toolkit create so many different species? It turns out that it's not the genes you have-- it's how you use them. Podcast produced by David Levin. Original interviews by John Rubin. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS viewers. To learn more, go to pbs.org/nova/evolution

  • In Defense of Pluto

    WGBH Science Unit
    13 Dec 2011 | 11:00 am
    After Pluto was discovered in 1930, it enjoyed the title of planet for more than 75 years. But in 2006, that all changed. At a meeting in Prague, the International Astronomical Union adopted a new definition for planethood, leaving the solar system with only eight planets. But not everyone agrees with its decision. In this podcast, planetary scientist Alan Stern talks to us about Pluto’s demotion, and why he thinks it should be back on list of planets. Podcast produced by David Levin. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes…

  • Sexual Cannibalism

    WGBH Science Unit
    29 Nov 2011 | 11:00 am
    In this podcast, biologist Maydianne Andrade explains that sexual cannibalism-a gruesome mating behavior shown of Redback Spiders-is a prime example of how evolution works. Podcast produced by David Levin. Interview by Josh Seftel. Funding for NOVA scienceNOW is provided by the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and PBS viewers. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0229297. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the…

  • Rebuilding on Ground Zero

    WGBH Science Unit
    1 Sep 2011 | 12:00 pm
    In the months after 9/11, New York City faced a difficult decision. What should it do with the site where the twin towers once stood? For architecture critic Paul Goldberger, there was only one choice: rebuild. Podcast produced by David Levin. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers. For more science stories, visit our website at pbs.org/nova
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    Nerdy Science Blog

  • 9 Awesome iPad Apps Used by Nurses

    WTJ
    21 Jan 2012 | 10:57 pm
    There are a lot of different fields that are making use of the iPad in new and inventive ways, but the medical field in particular has benefited from having the device that allows them to not only share information across cloud storage, but cuts back on the amount of paper that is wasted. Nurses in particular are able to take advantage of numerous apps that can make their jobs easier and more efficient. Here are just a few of them. 1. Carter’s Encyclopedia of Health & Medicine Covering 12,000 entries, this app allows you to search for treatments, abbreviations, and everything in…

  • The Future of Cancer Clinical Trials Holds Promise Thanks To Viruses

    WTJ
    26 Dec 2011 | 7:50 am
    by Brad Thompson, PhD Chemotherapy has always and continues to be our first line of defense against cancer, but is not for the faint of heart. Some form of chemotherapy is still routinely prescribed for most types of the disease. The treatment works by targeting fast-growing cells, like those typically found in rapidly growing tumors. But while chemotherapy can shrink tumors, they often grow back and become resistant to treatment. To combat this resistance, chemotherapy is now often used in combination with other treatments that have different mechanisms for attacking and killing cancer…

  • The Science of Proton Therapy

    WTJ
    19 Dec 2011 | 10:12 pm
    Thanks to advances in science and technology, there have been thousands of major advances in medicine over the past thirty years. But it was a physicist who helped develop a treatment that would revolutionize the way some types of cancer are treated—and his own history is as fascinating as the research that led to his discoveries. Robert R. Wilson, once a scientist on the notorious Manhattan Project, is responsible for developing proton therapy, a procedure that uses a proton beam to kill cancerous tissue. His research on proton beams led to the creation of a particle accelerator that was…

  • Nobel Prize-Winning Psychologist Demonstrates Cognitive Biases in New Book

    WTJ
    12 Dec 2011 | 7:43 am
    Dr. Daniel Kahneman, one of the world’s most influential psychologists and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002, recently published his book Thinking, Fast and Slow to much acclaim. Written in lucid, layman’s prose, the book is intended for anyone who has an interest in delving into our routine thinking processes and learning how we can improve our decision-making after understanding typical cognitive biases that cloud our judgment. To give you a taste of the book, here are some ideas and biases that Kahneman explores: 1.      Two systems of thinking Kahneman and his…

  • Japan Scientists Want to Know the Oysters’ Gossips

    WTJ
    7 Dec 2011 | 5:57 am
    Do you know how does an oyster talk? Scientists from Kagawa University has been studying the “language” of oysters.  The purpose of studying the language is not to interrogate an oyster if it has pearl, but to find out the gossips about the environment.  The scientists invented a device call “kai-lingual” to decode the oysters’ language from their movements.  I guess an elegant oyster with pearl would be really polite by saying “pearl-ease” in every sentence. (news [pic])
 
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    ScienceBlogs : Combined Feed

  • Recent Archaeomags [Aardvarchaeology]

    28 Jan 2012 | 3:52 am
    British Archaeology #122 (Jan/Feb) has a good feature on the origins of Roman London, presenting and collating evidence from excavations in the 90s and 00s for a military camp immediately post-dating the AD 43 invasion of Britain. The editors have slapped a silly headline on the thing though, playing up a short passage about human heads deposited in the Walbrook stream as if this were the main issue dealt with in the piece. The unsigned last page discusses the important work of Raimund Karl (in The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice Oct 2011; read it on-line), who has compared the…

  • Two incontrovertible things: Anthropogenic Global Warming is Real, and the Wall Street Journal is Political Rag [Greg Laden's Blog]

    27 Jan 2012 | 10:40 pm
    The Wall Street Journal has published one of the most offensive, untruthful, twisted reviews of what scientists think of climate change; the WSJ Lies about the facts and twists the story to accommodate the needs of head-in-the-sand industrialists and 1%ers; The most compelling part of their argument, according to them, is that the editorial has been signed by 16 scientists. The scientists who signed to WSJ editorial are: Claude Allegre, former director of the Institute for the Study of the Earth, University of Paris; J. Scott Armstrong, cofounder of the Journal of Forecasting and the…

  • In Praise of Teachers's Unions [EvolutionBlog]

    27 Jan 2012 | 9:18 pm
    Over at Talking Philosophy, Mike LaBossiere offers a defense of teachers's unions. He is a bit too tame for my taste, and he is far too respectful towards anti-union arguments that have far more to do with general hostility to public education than they do with measured criticism, but in the end he arrives at the right place: In general, it would be rather odd if unions did not cause some problems. If they did not, they would be truly unique. However, it seems more sensible to address these problems rather than simply condemning unions. Given the fervor with which these unions are being…

  • Kicking sand to catch fish [Life Lines]

    27 Jan 2012 | 5:06 pm
    I really love fishing! I can't think of a more relaxing time than sitting by the lake, or a more exciting time than going deep sea fishing. Therefore, I find animals that have come up with unique ways of catching fish pretty interesting. Take for example the humpback whales that we talked about in a previous blog. These animals actually create bubble-barriers around schools of fish to keep their meal in one spot. It turns out that bottlenose dolphins also have a unique strategy. They use sand. By hitting the ocean floor with their tails, they create clouds of sand that act as barriers around…

  • From the Archives: Confessions of a Science Librarian (and #IAmScience) [Confessions of a Science Librarian]

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:59 pm
    A repost from February 9, 2006 from the old blog. it tells the story of how I became a science librarian. It's my small contribution to the #IAmScience meme on Twitter right now. Basically it's about unconventional career paths in science. And this is mine. =========================== Inspired by Adventures in Ethics and Science and Stranger Fruit... So, how does a person go from being a software developer to being a science librarian? From a very young age, always read a lot of books, magazines, comic books and whatever else is lying around, mostly science fiction and fantasy but a lot of…
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    Bad Astronomy

  • The Gingrich Who Stole The News Cycle

    Phil Plait
    27 Jan 2012 | 12:38 pm
    Because I was on the road Wednesday night, I missed the first few hours of reaction to Newt Gingrich’s speech in Florida, when he said he wants to have a permanent station on the Moon "by the end of my second term". It wasn’t until Thursday morning that I opened up my web browser and saw that every blog, every news site, everyone, was talking about it. I must have had dozens of tweets and emails telling me about it and asking my opinion. So I found a video of the speech and watched it. The only reason I didn’t laugh out loud at the nonsense unfolding from Mr.

  • Siriusly twinkling

    Phil Plait
    27 Jan 2012 | 10:19 am
    If you live nearly anywhere on Earth — those of you north of 73° you’re out of luck, but I’m guessing there aren’t many of you! — and look to the southeast shortly after sunset, you’ll see the figure of Orion. Follow the three belt stars to the east, and you’ll see a bright star: Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. If it’s near the horizon, you may see it twinkling madly: flickering, dancing, perhaps even changing color. This gave astronomer David Lynch an idea: take a time exposure of Sirius with a camera and telephoto, and…

  • Weekly Space Roundup for January 26, 2012

    Phil Plait
    27 Jan 2012 | 8:05 am
    Yesterday was the weekly live video Space Roundup, run by Fraser Cain from Universe Today. This week we had Pamela Gay, Alan Boyle, Nicole Gugliucci, and Ian O’Neill. We talked about the solar storm, black holes, arsenic life, Newt Gingrich, Phobos-Grunt, and answered some questions from the listeners. Here’s the video: We do these every week on Google+ at 18:00 UTC on Thursday. Come join us!

  • This is a galaxy

    Phil Plait
    26 Jan 2012 | 1:23 pm
    I have nothing to add to this, except to say it’s great, and I saw it because Brian Cox mentioned it on Twitter. Oh yeah: one more thing; watch it in HD and full screen. Coooool.

  • Rosetta’s stunning Mars

    Phil Plait
    26 Jan 2012 | 7:52 am
    Click here to view gallery
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    Bitesize Bio

  • How To Choose The Right Gene Expression Chip

    emma_hutchinson
    27 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am
    In a previous article, I discussed how to extract high-quality RNA for use in microarray experiments.  Today we’ll talk about how to choose the right gene expression chip for your analysis.  There are many choices out there!  In some cases, you might find that this decision is made for you, as many gene expression chip [...]

  • Time for T: How to Use the Student’s T-test

    Sarah-Jane O'Connor
    25 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am
    To pull together our discussions so far on hypothesis testing and p-values, we will use the t distribution as an example to see how it all works. The t distribution (you may have heard it called Student’s t) is a probability distribution that looks like a bell-shaped curve (or normal distribution). If we sample repeatedly from [...]

  • Pseudoreplication: Don’t Fall For This Simple Statistical Mistake

    Sarah-Jane O'Connor
    23 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am
    Now we come to the third part of our trifecta; in the last two posts I have gone over p-values and how they determine significance in null hypothesis testing, and we talked about degrees of freedom and their effect on the p-value. Finally, we come to pseudoreplication: where it can all go terribly wrong. Replication [...]

  • Build A CV You Can Be Proud Of – Part III: Analytical Skills… Including the Dreaded Statistics!

    Steffi Magub
    20 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am
    In the previous article in this series, we covered teamwork and networking. Now it’s time to move on to what many people consider the most boring part of the lab work: the analysis. I know we all wish that a simple histogram or a rather nice-looking Western blot or PCR would suffice. But the fact [...]

  • How Free is Your Degree?

    Sarah-Jane O'Connor
    18 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am
    In the last post I talked about p-values and how we define significance in null hypothesis testing. P-values are inherently linked to degrees of freedom; a lack of knowledge about degrees of freedom invariably leads to poor experimental design, mistaken statistical tests and awkward questions from peer reviewers or conference attendees. Even if you think [...]
 
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    Nature Network Blog Posts

  • One Mean Dance Partner: How Mother Nature Twirls the Sport of Dog Mushing (from Liz O'Connell's blog)

    Liz O'Connell
    27 Jan 2012 | 3:49 pm
    By Kristin Knight Pace for Frontier Scientists.The brittle cold of Dead Dog Flats is enough to make my parka crinkle as I ladle out the hot mixture of fat and tripe, chicken protein and kibble. One by one the dogs emerge from their houses and, by the time I have gone through the whole yard, a cloud of steam rises above us like a big, collective breath. All our warmth and exhalations are suspended above and around us, encased like a bubble in the -50 night air. Another day like this goes by and yet another. Too cold to run.Finally a break in the cabin fever-inducing weather and we are back on…

  • Speed Matters: Human Genome Sequencing with a Nano-Mechanical Twist (from Paige Brown's blog)

    Paige Brown
    26 Jan 2012 | 12:32 pm
    Imagine genome sequencing technologies that approach the speed of that seen in the movies, in the futuristic film GATTACA, for example. In the future, a person need only wait a few minutes for important information to be retrieved from their genes for purposes of medical diagnosing and disease prevention. Nanotechnology, the science and technology of objects in the range of 1 billionth of a meter, may be just the key to upping the ante in DNA sequencing speed and accessible personalized medicine. Mechanical engineers familiar with nanofabrication may be just the people to get us…

  • Acne and suicide: the numbers (from Tine Janssens' blog)

    Tine Janssens
    26 Jan 2012 | 9:21 am
    In Suicide: the numbers, I gave a general overview of suicide in Western society. But what about teenagers? This will be the first blogpost on adolescent suicidal behaviour.The numbersAccording to the World Health Organization suicide is the second leading cause of death in the 10-24 years age group, globally. The dominant cause of death in both young men and women in OECD countries, is injury-related death (respectively 70-75% and 53-55%) (Viner at al., 2011 ). Suicidal thoughts have a prevalence of 15-25% among adolescents in Western society (Bridge at al., 2006). “Lifetime estimates…

  • Living Science (from Ivana Gadjanski's blog)

    Ivana Gadjanski
    26 Jan 2012 | 6:44 am
    I’m still a newbie on the Nature Network and am still finding my niche here. Judging by my first posts, my niche will be a cluster of musings, with the strong gravity center consisting of one topic: how to define your own way. In science. Science in every way. Science as a way of thinking – observing the world, as a profession or better to say way-of-life, science as a set of steps which most of us go through…I keep wondering if there is a good protocol to follow to build up a great career in science complemented with great personal life..What is the best goal to follow? •…

  • Sniffing out Parkinson's disease (from Nsikan Akpan's blog)

    Nsikan Akpan
    25 Jan 2012 | 9:12 pm
    “Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.” Thich Nhất HanhAn Israeli nanotech specialist, Hossam Haick, is applying a medical twist to this maxim. He is convinced the stuff that we exhale can answer fundamental questions about our health. His lab has developed a disease breathalyzer – dubbed the “NA-NOSE” - that can sniff out the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. Fig. 1Millions suffer from this fatal neurological disorder, which is marked by involuntary shaking and muscular…
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    PHD Comics

  • 01/25/12 PHD comic: 'By the way'

    26 Jan 2012 | 10:15 pm
    Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com title: "By the way" - originally published 1/25/2012 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!

  • 01/23/12 PHD comic: 'The Mountain Top'

    24 Jan 2012 | 2:20 pm
    Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com title: "The Mountain Top" - originally published 1/23/2012 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!

  • 01/18/12 PHD comic: 'Clue'

    21 Jan 2012 | 12:02 pm
    Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com title: "Clue" - originally published 1/18/2012 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!

  • 01/16/12 PHD comic: 'Go back'

    18 Jan 2012 | 3:07 pm
    Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com title: "Go back" - originally published 1/16/2012 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!

  • 01/17/12 Cecilia's Blog: 'New Year'

    17 Jan 2012 | 8:03 pm
    Now that it is two weeks into the year, and I've actually had a chance to test out my New Year's Resolutions, I can commit to them via the Internet. I'm not one to do this every year - because I really feel like you should always keep in mind what is important to you - but let's be honest: that doesn't always work out. This year I needed an extra reminder and so here they are: 1) Be healthier. This means eat less and exercise more. For me at least, and pretty much for everyone I think :-P It just came out that Paula Dean (the butter queen) has Diabetes. I guess that's what a pound of sugar a…
 
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    Physics Today News Picks

  • Are nanomaterials safe?

    Physics Today
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:55 pm
    Science: Nanotechnology research requires more oversight regarding human and environmental safety, says a new report from the US National Research Council (NRC). Although the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) studies the safety of nanomaterials, the NRC has found gaps in its guidelines. For example, little research has been done on the effects of human ingestion of nanoparticles or on the safety of complex nanomaterials made up of mixtures of different elements. Potentially the most disruptive recommendation in the report is to change who oversees nanotechnology risk research. NNI…

  • ISS safety plans not sufficient

    Physics Today
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:23 pm
    Florida Today: NASA isn't adequately prepared to evacuate the International Space Station (ISS) in an emergency, says a new report from the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP). The report recommends that the agency improve its emergency drills and consider alternative "lifeboat" options for ISS. There is a greater than 30% chance that a crew might have to abandon ISS between now and 2020, the planned end of ISS operations, as a result of the failure of critical systems or a deadly space debris strike, says ASAP. The panel also found NASA lacks an adequate plan to safely send the station to…

  • Chair of innovative-camera company discusses technology, licensing

    Physics Today
    27 Jan 2012 | 1:10 pm
    Macworld: A California company called Lytro has developed a revolutionary new camera that allows users to focus an image after it’s been shot. Lytro uses a microlens array to capture four-dimensional light-field information. With software and processing, that information can be used to improve the image later. In a Q&A with Lytro’s executive chair Charles Chi, Tim Moynihan asks him about the light-field technology, best types of sensors, and licensing possibilities with camera and camera-phone manufacturers.

  • Powerful x-ray laser creates solid-density plasma

    Physics Today
    27 Jan 2012 | 10:17 am
    Science Daily: Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s SLAC accelerator laboratory used rapid-fire laser pulses to flash-heat a tiny piece of aluminum foil to about 2 million °C. The experiments used SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source, which is a billion times brighter than any other x-ray source, to both create and probe the sample. "Making extremely hot, dense matter is important scientifically if we are ultimately to understand the conditions that exist inside stars and at the center of giant planets within our own solar system and beyond, " said Sam Vinko, a…

  • Flooding as a result of climate change predicted for UK

    Physics Today
    26 Jan 2012 | 2:02 pm
    Nature: According to a study released yesterday by the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, severe flooding will be the most urgent problem the country could face as a result of climate change. The study examines 100 potential consequences of climate change for the UK in a number of different climate scenarios, drawing on climate projection models made in 2009. Flooding currently costs the UK around £1.3 billion (US$2.04 billion) per year; the study predicts that by the 2080s, it could cause £2.1 billion to £12 billion worth of damages each year.
 
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    Scienceray

  • Saturn Transiting Libra Compels Decisions: A Journal Entry of Observing The Changes

    25 Jan 2012 | 8:51 am
    The major life effect of Saturn is something that appears in my astrology writing often.  Saturn first restricts, and then it produces an outcome of change that is more or less forced upon the person who experiences it.  Saturn transits come in many forms because it highlights different aspects of a person’s life and multifaceted makeup. With aspects to Libra, one sure outcome is that it’s always about making decisions. Image via Wikipedia Wherever Saturn forms an aspect, it’s very powerful.  In my current case, it forms an aspect to the birth planet,…

  • Does Giant Sun Eruption Affect Earth?

    24 Jan 2012 | 12:27 pm
    Photo via CBBC Newsround. Solar activity goes through relatively reliable cycles, where phases of quietness turn into phases, in which the solar activity is hugely increased. These sun storms or solar eruptions happen on a regular basis, normally approximately every eleven years, and cause the emission of huge energy fields and large quantities of high energy particles in the direction of our planet. The current phase of activity has already been expected. The eruption from 22. to 23. January now has been the strongest solar activity period since 2005. The sun storm reached a level of 3 on…

  • Theories of Origin: How Real are They

    21 Jan 2012 | 10:56 pm
    One could imagine there were jump starts form apes to man. He is the only one to be equipped with a voice box that allows vocal cords to contract and expand so permitting sounds to be emitted but wait a moment vocal cords also occur in other mammals not just us. We like to think that we are the only species that is able to learn from our surroundings in that we use tools but that does not fit the registry of being so superior on that basis anymore. One only has to examine recent reach on the octopus, elephant, crow and cat to know that there are qualities that even humans would envy. One gets…

  • Affection in Quotes

    8 Jan 2012 | 9:14 pm
    It may take a lifetime to acquire the affection of your peers one noted person was able to decompose affection into two parts. To Arthur Helps it consisted of pity and admiration and one can see that in order for you to show a fondness towards someone there must be an element of wanting to emulate what the person has done. You would hold him in high esteem and then there is this curious addition of feeling sorry for the person, perhaps because his work has been in vain. This might have been the case for the work of G.B. Shaw as a member of the socialist oriented Fabian society who tried…

  • Achievement in Quotes

    3 Jan 2012 | 12:39 am
    People have been recognized by their deeds, good and bad as suggested by the proverb from the New Testament, “by their deeds yee shall know them”. Unless one acts and acquires an accomplishment by doing so, how can one really say that he deserves the credit for his work? In fact one can say that action is required in some way to obtain that achievement. It even bears its own denouement or pitfall as poet Maya Angelou alluded to in her quote “achievement brings its own anti-climax”. One only has to see the discovery of atomic energy as a moment that was hailed as a…
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    Brain And Consciousness Research

  • Being ignored hurts, even by a stranger

    28 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am
    Feeling like you're part of the gang is crucial to the human experience. All people get stressed out when we're left out. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that a feeling of inclusion can come from something as simple as eye contact from a stranger.

  • Research reveals power of the subconscious in human fear

    28 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am
    The human subconscious has a bigger impact than previously thought on how we respond to danger, according to research led by the University of Exeter. This new study shows that our primitive response to fear can contradict our conscious assessment of danger.

  • Does the military make the man or does the man make the military?

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am
    "Be all you can be," the Army tells potential recruits. The military promises personal reinvention. But does it deliver? A new study, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that personality does change a little after military service -- German conscripts come out of the military less agreeable than their peers who chose civilian service.

  • How does messiness affect consumer preference for simplicity?

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am
    A clean desk might not be all it's cracked up to be. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, messiness can lead consumers toward clearer thinking -- especially political conservatives.

  • Sleep preserves and enhances unpleasant emotional memories

    27 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am
    Contrary to previous assumptions that sleep might soften negative emotional effects of a disturbing event, a period of sleep was associated with participants' maintaining the strength of their initial negative feelings compared to a period of wakefulness. This suggests that sleep's effect on memory and emotion are independent.
 
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    ZME Science

  • Virus mutations shows natural selection theory at its best

    Tibi Puiu
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:48 pm
    Darwin’s theory of natural selection illustrates perfectly what evolution is all about, the survival of the fittest if you will. It’s because of natural selection that a crocodile has an armor-like skin to protect it against enemies, a chameleon can change its color and camouflage itself for protection and hunting or humans evolved a more potent brain, and brought us at the forefront of evolution on Earth. It’s pretty well understood how evolution works, but the mechanisms behind it not so well, how a new feature or treat appears across an entire species and so on. A new…

  • Stem cells treatment dramatically improves vision of the blind

    Tibi Puiu
    27 Jan 2012 | 1:28 pm
    Pigmented epithelial cells were grown from embryonic stem cells prior to injection. Detailed in a recently published study, a team of ophthalmologists have successfully managed to improve the vision of both of their trial patients, which were declared legally blind due to macular degeneration, by inserting human embryonic stem cells into one eye of each person. Significant improvements were recognized shortly after the procedure, and continued to progress positively in the months that came after, as well. The other eyes that were left untreated remained in the same poor condition as prior to…

  • 17-year old teens send LEGO man into space

    Tibi Puiu
    27 Jan 2012 | 11:20 am
    Canadian duo, Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, both only 17 years old, have managed to put the infamous Lego man, attached with the Canadian flag, into space. They managed to achieve this with extremely limited resources, using items bought off craiglist, and unlimited ingenuity. The plastic figurine was attached to a styrofoam box, which also contained a camera which documented the whole event , as well as a GPS tracking device – the box itself was carried away by a helium balloon, which the boys built themselves in their spare Saturdays for the past four months. The balloon, ascended…

  • Underwater caves might hint to the origins of life both on Earth and other worlds

    Tibi Puiu
    27 Jan 2012 | 10:53 am
    Researchers studying marine bacteria in the Bahamas’ underwater caves, have made some remarkable discoveries which allowed to understand how these organisms adapt and thrive in rather precarious conditions. Their study might help scientists understand how marine life formed for the first time millions of years in the past, as well as hint how marine life could be found on distant planets or moons, like Jupiter’s Europa which is believed to have a hot, liquid ocean of water underneath its icy, tens of kilometers thick shell. Tom Iliffe, professor of marine biology at the Texas…

  • Star Trek’s tricorder – SciFi to reality after T-ray breakthrough

    Tibi Puiu
    26 Jan 2012 | 2:39 pm
    In the popular TV series, Star Trek, one of the most fascinating devices featured, out of the whole myriad of blasters and tractor beams, is the tricorder,  a portable medical scanner and communication device which could detect biological phenomena such as increased blood flow around tumorous growths just by sweeping a person. The closest thing to such a device might come subsequent to a recent remarkable research which discusses a novel way of creating electromagnetic Terahertz (THz) waves or T-rays, which are stronger, render a more efficient continuous wave, and can operate at room…
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    BEYONDbones

  • The Emancipation Proclamation is coming to a museum near you.

    Dirk
    23 Jan 2012 | 11:33 am
    There is a very brief window of opportunity, from Thursday, Feb. 16 to Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012, to see the original Emancipation Proclamation on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Currently the museum is hosting an exhibit on the Civil War, entitled Discovering the Civil War. This exhibit, organized by the National Archives of the United States, went on display in Washington, DC to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the start of the war. It is now touring and Houston is the third stop on the tour. Emancipation Proclamation at HMNS! Thursday, Feb. 16 – Tuesday, Feb. 21…

  • HMNS Expansion Update: Finishing Touches From 2011

    Susanna
    9 Jan 2012 | 4:38 pm
    The push to finish the construction of the Duncan Family Wing is getting underway, and for the most part the visible progress starts to happen on a smaller scale than it has thus far. View of the west façade of the new wing, fully visible from San Jacinto - now that the tower crane has been removed! One big exception to that statement was last month’s removal of the tower crane from the west side of the building. The task required the use of another giant, but mobile, crane to lift each piece of the tower crane up and over the new building, into the delivery driveway for additional…

  • Go Stargazing! January Edition

    James
    6 Jan 2012 | 11:56 am
    Venus continues to appear higher and higher in the sky each night, outshining everything but the Sun and the Moon. Look for it in the southwest at dusk, shifting towards due west by next month. photo credit: Mars rises in late evening and is now high in the southwest at dawn. It rises by 10:45 as January begins and by 9:00 at month’s end. Although not nearly as bright as Venus or Jupiter, Mars has brightened enough to rival the brightest stars in the sky, and will keep brightening all winter as Earth approaches it. Saturn remains in the morning sky this month. Look in the south at dawn,…

  • Save The Date: GEMS on February 11, 2012!

    Allison
    12 Dec 2011 | 11:42 am
    We had a terrific time at the Girls Exploring Math and Science event last year on Saturday, February 19, 2011. The Museum was buzzing with lots of learning – songs about kinetic and potential energy, buzzing instruments made with straws, Popsicle sticks and rubber bands, and lots of “ah-hah” moments throughout the day! We had a fabulous presenting sponsor in KBR and two of their engineers were our featured speakers, Rachel Amos and Elaine Jimenez. Rachel and Elaine shared with the GEMS attendees a bit about their careers in Mechanical Engineering with KBR, their…
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    Harvard Gazette

  • Harvard’s ties to India

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm
    Over the past several years, Harvard University has been ramping up its involvement in India and South Asia, a trend catalyzed by Harvard’s South Asia Initiative, which was founded in 2003 to foster the University’s engagement in the region. Harvard’s understanding of the region’s importance is highlighted by President Drew Faust’s January visit to India. The region contains a quarter of the world’s population and includes both India’s rising economic power and Pakistan’s strategic importance. Harvard Business School has opened a regional office in Mumbai, where the initiative…

  • Early-stage venture fund launches

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm
    When the “next big thing” is invented in a dorm room, ruminated over in a late-night café, or discovered in a laboratory, it will now find more support in the Cambridge area, giving its inventors a better reason to stay connected. Today, the Experiment Fund, a new seed-stage investment fund, opens its doors with backing from storied venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Designed specifically to support student start-ups and nurture novel technologies and platforms created in Cambridge (or by innovators educated in Cambridge), the Experiment Fund will eventually include…

  • Education’s future, globally

    26 Jan 2012 | 2:45 pm
    Future generations of leaders in international education gathered at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) last week to explore solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges in the field. The conference, “Defining the Future of Global Education,” featured the presentations of final projects by close to 50 master’s students in the HGSE course “Education Policy Analysis and Research in Comparative Perspective,” taught by Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of International Education. “The themes discussed during the conference and the commitment…

  • Broad Institute awarded $32.5M grant

    26 Jan 2012 | 1:57 pm
    The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT today announced that it has received a $32.5 million grant from the Boston-based Klarman Family Foundation to support a new collaborative effort focused on deciphering how human cells are wired. This grant will allow the scientific community to expand its understanding of how biological decisions are made in health and disease, paving the way for major treatment breakthroughs. “Creating a complete catalog of cell circuitry will ultimately have a huge impact on our ability to understand and treat disease,” said Broad Institute…

  • A great day for Danes

    26 Jan 2012 | 1:31 pm
    With temperatures plummeting, surrounded by exotic drag queens, Woman of the Year Claire Danes led the Hasty Pudding Theatricals parade down Massachusetts Avenue. Jacqueline Rossi ’12, a member of the Harvard comedy news show “On Harvard Time,” arrived in costume with other performers to dance in the parade. Dressed as “a young Drew Faust,” Rossi said that Danes was an inspirational performer. “Right now, I’m halfway through ‘Homeland,’ ” Rossi said, referring to the 2012 Showtime series starring Danes. “I think it’s great — all my roommates were thrilled to find out…
 
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    Periodic Tabloid

  • Candlepower

    Tom Tritton
    26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    An amphiphobic material—one that rejects both water and oil—would be the holy grail of coatings, because of its potential to produce self cleaning surfaces, unsullied by any foreign intrusion. A new publication brings this particular fantasy a bit closer to reality, with an unlikely hero: a candle.

  • Can We Talk About Creationism?

    Michal Meyer
    24 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    I recently received a letter criticizing Chemical Heritage for running an article on a creationist. A fair criticism, right? After all, we run a science and history magazine, not a religion magazine. Except that the creationist in question is a chemist. As the editor of the magazine I approved the inclusion. I had three reasons.

  • Darkness

    Tom Tritton
    19 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    “A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there.” This remark contains the truism that looking for a black object in the dark is challenging, even if the object is there. And what is the blackest known material? A recent report from the University of Michigan reveals that single-walled carbon nanotube forests fit the bill as the blackest of them all.

  • First Person: Orlando Battista

    Sarah Hunter-Lascoskie
    17 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Orlando Battista was a prolific polymer chemist; there are over 65 patents to his name. But his scientific career wouldn't have happened without his non-scientific talents.

  • The Secret of a Stradivarius: Physics or Chemistry?

    Tom Tritton
    12 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Music aficionados swear that instruments by Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri are the very definition of superlative. Could it be physics: the shape and structure of the instrument producing perfect intonation? Or could it be chemistry: the varnish and other finishes adding the final definitive touch to timbre excellence? A new study suggests it may be neither.
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    YouTube Videos

  • Symphony of Science - The Greatest Show on Earth! A music video about Evolution

    melodysheep
    17 Jan 2012 | 5:21 am
    Symphony of Science - The Greatest Show on Earth! A music video about Evolution mp3: bit.ly - A musical celebration of the wonders of biology, including evolution, natural selection, DNA, and more. Featuring David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins and Bill Nye. "The Greatest Show on Earth" is the 13th video in the Symphony of Science music videos series. Materials used in this video are from: Richard Dawkins' "There is grandeur in this view of life" speech BBC Life BBC Planet Earth David Attenborough's First Life Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life Bill Nye Evolution…

  • Another 10 quirky science stunts

    Quirkology
    19 Nov 2011 | 4:31 pm
    Another 10 quirky science stunts For more info, visit richardwiseman.wordpress.com From: Quirkology Views: 590358 1631 ratings Time: 03:13 More in Education

  • Symphony of Science - the Quantum World!

    melodysheep
    6 Sep 2011 | 10:53 am
    Symphony of Science - the Quantum World! mp3: bit.ly A musical investigation into the nature of atoms and subatomic particles, the jiggly things that make up everything we see. Featuring Morgan Freeman, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, Brian Cox, Richard Feynman, and Frank Close. "The Quantum World" is the eleventh installment in the ongoing Symphony of Science music video series. Materials used in the creation of this video are from: symphonyofscience.com for downloads & more videos! Richard Feynman - Fun to Imagine BBC Visions of the Future - the Quantum Revolution Through the…

  • Weird Science

    UniversalMovies
    7 Apr 2011 | 4:27 pm
    Weird Science If you can�� get a date, make one! That�� the theory in this wild comedy about two teens (Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith) who set out to make the perfect woman (Kelly LeBrock). From: UniversalMovies Views: 0 0 ratings Time: 01:34:03 More in Movies

  • What is Science?

    JonDuanePerry
    20 Jan 2011 | 3:27 am
    What is Science? What is Science is a video by www.StatedClearly.com designed to clarify what exactly science is and what qualifies as scientific evidence. This video is part of a series on science that will help people understand the differences between science and religion. Science and religion are currently both very important parts of human culture and should be clearly understood by the public. Why is it important to understand the difference between science and religion? Understanding Science and Religion helps us to more appropriately interact as a multicultural and multi-religious…
 
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    The Sara Bellum Blog

  • Real Teens Ask: Is Propofol a Drug?

    admin
    26 Jan 2012 | 9:21 am
    Since the death of Michael Jackson in 2009, “propofol” has been mentioned often in the news.  The substance was found to be the cause of his death and was the center of the highly publicized trial of his doctor. So, it’s no surprise there is a lot of curiosity about propofol.   NIDA received questions about it during last year’s Drug Facts Chat Day. During Chat Day, Cam from California asked about the basics— Is propofol a drug? Yes.  Propofol is a common type of anesthetic—a drug that doctors use to “put people to sleep” for surgery. It is given to patients through an…

  • Smoking: How It Primes the Brain for Addiction

    admin
    24 Jan 2012 | 11:16 am
    More people understand now the harmful effects that smoking has on the body as well as the addictive effects of nicotine. The good news is that teens seem to be getting the message—SBB recently reported that smoking rates among 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders are at an all-time low. But many teens are still smoking—according to the 2011 Monitoring the Future Study, 19 percent of high school seniors reported smoking in the past month. New NIDA research gives yet another reason for teens to avoid lighting that first cigarette—nicotine may “prime” the brain to enhance cocaine’s…

  • It’s All About Hormones

    admin
    19 Jan 2012 | 10:12 am
    Why do adults seem to blame “raging hormones” for many things teens do? Beyond causing acne and a sudden interest in dating, are hormones responsible for changes in behavior or emotional response? The answer is yes. The hormones that change around puberty—starting between age 8 and 14—and last until the early 20s when adolescence ends may affect you in more ways than you realize. NIDA defines a “hormone” as “a chemical substance formed in glands in the body and carried in the blood to organs and tissues, where it influences function, structure, and behavior.” In preteen and…

  • Amy Winehouse: Death by Misadventure

    admin
    17 Jan 2012 | 11:40 am
    In October 2011, the coroner who conducted Amy Winehouse’s autopsy declared that the Grammy-winning singer “died by misadventure.” Translation: Amy died of accidental alcohol poisoning. Amy famously battled an addiction to drugs and alcohol, and had returned to rehab only months before her death. She gave up drugs after receiving treatment in 2008 but had trouble staying away from alcohol—in fact, Amy had just resumed drinking a few days before her death after 3 weeks of abstinence from it. Sadly, she drank a lethal amount of alcohol—nearly five times the British drunk-driving…

  • Let’s Talk: Does Smoking on TV Influence You?

    admin
    12 Jan 2012 | 10:37 am
    The Government banned cigarette commercials on television in 1970 after the 1964 Surgeon General’s report found that smoking cigarettes increased your chances of getting lung cancer.  This was a big deal, considering the strong smoking culture in the United States at the time.  However, this ban didn’t stop smoking on television. Forty-years later, characters on television shows continue to smoke. And, what if we told you that teens are one of the primary audiences for some of those shows? Researchers from Columbia University and Legacy (formerly the American Legacy Foundation), an…
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    EurekAlert! - Breaking News

  • Brainiac babies

    26 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pm
    A Northwestern University study has found that the evidence for intuitive physics occurs in infants as young as two months - the earliest age at which testing can occur.According to a review of literature, infants show an understanding that unsupported objects will fall and that hidden objects do not cease to exist. Scientific testing also has shown that by five months, infants have an expectation that non-cohesive substances like sand or water are not solid.

  • Bedwetting can be due to undiagnosed constipation, research shows

    26 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Bedwetting isn't always due to problems with the bladder. Constipation is often the culprit; and if it isn't diagnosed, children and their parents must endure an unnecessarily long, costly and difficult quest to cure nighttime wetting.

  • NASA eyes cyclone Iggy's threat to western Australia

    26 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pm
    NASA satellites are providing valuable data to forecasters as Tropical Cyclone Iggy nears Western Australia. NASA's Aqua satellite provided visible and infrared data on Iggy, observing colder cloud tops and strengthening storm. Iggy has already triggered warnings and watches along coastal areas.

  • Eureka! Kitchen gadget inspires scientist to make more effective plastic electronics

    26 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pm
    A kitchen gadget that vacuum seals food in plastic inspired a Rutgers physicist to improve the performance of organic transistors for potential use in video displays.

  • NASA sees a weakening Cyclone Funso's 'closed eye'

    26 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pm
    Powerful Cyclone Funso's eye has been clear in NASA satellite imagery over the last several days until NASA's Aqua satellite noticed it had "closed" and become filled with high clouds on Jan. 27.
 
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    The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, Tech

  • NASA Solves Mystery of Earth's 'Missing Energy'

    dailygalaxy.com
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:14 pm
    Two years ago, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., released a study claiming that inconsistencies between satellite observations of Earth's heat and measurements of ocean heating amounted to evidence of "missing energy" in the planet's...

  • Was the Moon Once Powered by a Dynamo Core? MIT Research Says "Yes"

    dailygalaxy.com
    27 Jan 2012 | 12:49 pm
    MIT's research on an ancient lunar rock suggests that the moon once harbored a long-lived dynamo — a molten, convecting core of liquid metal that generated a strong magnetic field 3.7 billion years ago. The findings, published today in Science,...

  • CERN Zeroes In on the 'Great Antimatter Mystery'

    dailygalaxy.com
    27 Jan 2012 | 12:34 pm
    The question of whether normal matter's shadowy counterpart anti-matter exerts a kind of "anti-gravity" is soonto be answered, according to researchers at the University of California Riverside, who are getting closer to addressing the question once and for all. The...

  • EcoAlert: Bus-Sized Object Buzzed Earth Today

    dailygalaxy.com
    27 Jan 2012 | 12:07 pm
    A small asteroid the size of a city bus zoomed between Earth and the moon's orbit today, Friday Jan. 25, days after its discovery, but it never posed a threat to our planet, NASA says.The asteroid, 2012 BX34 passed within...

  • Image of the Day: Massive Elliptical Galaxy & Cosmic Wave a Million Light years Long

    dailygalaxy.com
    27 Jan 2012 | 10:24 am
    A Naval Research Laboratory scientist is part of a team that has recently discovered that vast clouds of hot gas are "sloshing" in Abell 2052, a galaxy cluster located about 480 million light years from Earth. The scientists are studying...
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    Science Knowledge

  • 10 Unsolved Mysteries -> How Many Elements Exist?

    27 Jan 2012 | 11:36 am
    The periodic tables that adorn the walls of classrooms have to be constantly revised, because the number of elements keeps growing. Using particle accelerators to crash atomic nuclei together, scientists can create new “superheavy” elements, which have more protons and neutrons in their nuclei than do the 92 or so elements found in nature. These engorged nuclei are not very stable—they decay radioactively, often within a tiny fraction of a second. But while they exist, the new synthetic elements such as seaborgium (element 106) and hassium (element 108) are like any other insofar as…

  • 10 Unsolved Mysteries -> How Does the Brain Think and Form Memories?

    25 Jan 2012 | 11:30 am
    The brain is a chemical computer. Interactions between the neurons that form its circuitry are mediated by molecules: specifically, neurotransmitters that pass across the synapses, the contact points where one neural cell wires up to another. This chemistry of the mind is perhaps at its most impressive in the operation of memory, in which abstract principles and concepts—a telephone number, say, or an emotional association—are imprinted in states of the neural network by sustained chemical signals. How does chemistry create a memory that is both persistent and dynamic, as well as able to…

  • 10 Unsolved Mysteries -> How Does the Environment Influence Our Genes?

    23 Jan 2012 | 10:48 am
    The old idea of biology was that who you are is a matter of which genes you have. It is now clear that an equally important issue is which genes you use. Like all of biology, this issue has chemistry at its core. The cells of the early embryo can develop into any tissue type. But as the embryo grows, these so-called pluripotent stem cells differentiate, acquiring specific roles (such as blood, muscle or nerve cells) that remain fixed in their progeny. The formation of the human body is a matter of chemically modifying the stem cells’ chromosomes in ways that alter the arrays of genes that…

  • 10 Unsolved Mysteries -> How Do Molecules Form?

    21 Jan 2012 | 10:42 am
    Molecular structures may be a mainstay of high school science classes, but the familiar picture of balls and sticks representing atoms and the bonds among them is largely a conventional fiction. The trouble is that scientists disagree on what a more accurate representation of molecules should look like. In the 1920s physicists Walter Heitler and Fritz London showed how to describe a chemical bond using the equations of then nascent quantum theory, and the great American chemist Linus Pauling proposed that bonds form when the electron orbitals of different atoms overlap in space. A competing…

  • 10 Unsolved Mysteries -> How Did Life Begin?

    19 Jan 2012 | 10:28 am
    The moment when the first living beings arose from inanimate matter almost four billion years ago is still shrouded in mystery. How did relatively simple molecules in the primordial broth give rise to more and more complex compounds? And how did some of those compounds begin to process energy and replicate (two of the defining characteristics of life)? At the molecular level, all of those steps are, of course, chemical reactions, which makes the question of how life began one of chemistry. The challenge for chemists is no longer to come up with vaguely plausible scenarios, of which there are…
 
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    BenchFly Blog

  • BenchFly Crossword: History’s Most Famous Scientists in Two Words

    Alan Marnett
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:04 am
    Distilling a lifetime’s body of work down to two words seems slightly unfair. Contemplating our own two-word biography, we hope the words “no-talent” and “ass-clown” don’t make the short list. Ironically, for history’s most accomplished scientists – many of whom started entire fields of scientific knowledge – it seems a word or two is all that’s necessary to conjure up images of their greatness. Even if “ass-clown” was an appropriate phrase for a few of these mental giants, the words “Nobel” and…

  • Scared of Dropping the Soap? Worry No More.

    Katie Pratt
    25 Jan 2012 | 1:30 pm
    I realize that my audience here at BenchFly probably doesn’t contain a large number of prisoners, but I never claimed to cater to the majority. Also, you never know when you might end up incarcerated (wrongfully, obviously), so having a few science-y tricks up your sleeve is not a bad idea. And while this may not be a recipe for breaking out by dissolving the bars to your cell, it could make life on the inside a little better.   MAGNETIC SOAP! If you drop that soap, all you’d need is a secret magnet and whoooosh! You wouldn’t have to bend over to pick it up!! Amazing, right? Now,…

  • Put an End to Lab-Induced Crocodile Hands with Style

    FlyGirl
    20 Jan 2012 | 7:30 am
    Dear FlyGirl: Throughout the day, I’m constantly taking gloves on and off. Regardless of the material (latex, nitrile), I always wash my hands after taking the gloves off because my hands either have that gross residue on them (powdered gloves) or they’re sweating (no powder). As a result, my hands are always dry and combined with winter weather, it’s unbearable. I’ve tried lotions, but then my hands feel greasy, which I hate when typing or writing in my notebook, so I end up having to wash them again- and the cycle continues… I’m guessing crocodile hands…

  • Hiring the PI’s Spouse and the Effect on Lab Morale

    Alan Marnett
    18 Jan 2012 | 9:32 am
    “In group meeting today, I’d like to welcome a new member to our group, Agent Zero.” “Agent Zero?!” You whisper, leaning over to a labmate sitting next to you. “What are you talking about? He said ‘Dr. McIntyre’ – it’s his wife.” “Then why does she keep turning her head and covertly talking into her shirt sleeve?” “That’s called covering your mouth when you cough. By the way, take notes on that one.” “Something’s going on here.” “Yeah, you need to step away from the solvents…

  • My Boss’ Spouse: A Spy or Civilian in Lab?

    Dora Farkas
    14 Jan 2012 | 7:48 am
    Dear Dora, My PIs wife just started working in the lab and it’s made things really awkward since everyone assumes she’s a spy for the boss. Is there anything we can do? - biokid, graduate student   Dear Biokid, Husbands and wife teams are quite common in science (as well as other fields). In many cases the arrangement works well. It is understandably an awkward situation at first, but she is probably more preoccupied with her own workload than with others in the lab. My suggestion is to continue with business as usual and treat your PI’s wife as you would any other…
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    Resilience Science

  • Arctic Resilience Assessment research position at SRC

    Garry Peterson
    5 Jan 2012 | 3:35 am
    Stockholm Resilience Centre is looking for a researcher in Resilience in Arctic Social-Ecological Systems.  Applications are due Jan 23. The job ad states: In a joint venture with the Stockholm Environmental Institute,  Stockholm Resilience Centre seeks a researcher to be scientific leader in an Arctic Resilience Report (ARR). The ARR has been approved as an Arctic Council project and is a priority for the Swedish chairmanship of the Arctic Council. The goal of the project is to better understand impacts and risks related to integrated processes of change in the Arctic with focus on the…

  • No surprise to Buzz Holling: Non-linear response of seabirds to forage fish depletion

    Garry Peterson
    22 Dec 2011 | 4:30 pm
    Guest post from Henrik Österblom from the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Basic ecology rests firmly on a number of basic assumptions.  Some of these assumptions, specifically how predators interaction with their prey, were developed by a key figure in the history of resilience – Buzz Holling. The Holling type I, II and III functional responses are standard material in many textbooks in ecology (here’s wikipedia on functional response).  The different functional responses reflect the prey consumption ratio as a function of food density.  I learned about these different types of…

  • Three social science and sustainability positions at ASU

    Garry Peterson
    20 Dec 2011 | 3:32 am
    While Stockholm is looking for one professor in the environmental social sciences, ASU is looking for 3 social scientists working on sustainability.  The job ad is below and applications are due in early January: The School of Sustainability at Arizona State University invites applications for up to three tenure track faculty positions at the assistant or associate professor level The School of Sustainability at Arizona State University invites applications for up to three faculty positions either at the tenure-track assistant professor level or tenured associate professor level. The…

  • TED talk on Ecosystem Services

    Garry Peterson
    17 Dec 2011 | 12:12 am
    Economist Pavan Sukhdev, who headed The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity TEEB project that synthesized work on economics on biodiversity and ecosystem services, gives a TED talk Put a value on nature! Related posts:Losses from destruction of Nature dwarf losses from financial crisis Ecological Basis for Managing Ecosystem Services Three new positions in ecosystem services research at McGill University

  • Crisis since 2008

    Garry Peterson
    16 Dec 2011 | 4:05 pm
    According to google searches and news, since 2008 the news has been writing much more about crisis, but people haven’t been searching for it so much. a search for financial crisis and euro crisis leads to a more striking result. Related posts:Ten most popular posts on Resilience Science from 2008 The tragedy of a common currency Financial crisis: bad models or bad modellers
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    LabGrab - Helping Science Share Discoveries, Science News, and Laboratory Research Findings

  • British Antarctic Survey begins mission to study the subglacial Lake Ellsworth

    Jeffrey Serrill
    21 Jan 2012 | 2:11 pm
    Methods for a large-scale scientific mission to a subglacial lake in Antarctica were published earlier this month in the journal Reviews of Geophysics. Read more... Lake-Ellsworth.jpg read more

  • Continental shifts in alpine plant ecosystems influenced by global climate change

    Jeffrey Serrill
    11 Jan 2012 | 3:40 pm
    An international collaboration of European research teams has just published an important study which directly attributes changes in mountain vegetation to climate change across the European continent. Read more... global warming.jpg.jpg read more

  • Meet Roku, Hex, and Chimero: the World's First Chimeric Monkeys

    Andrew Hau
    10 Jan 2012 | 5:10 pm
    Researchers at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) have created the world’s first chimeric monkeys, which may contain as many as six distinct genomes. Named Roku, Hex, and Chimero, these rhesus monkeys were produced by successfully aggregating multiple embryos and implanting the mixed embryo into a surrogate mother. Read more... Monkeys.jpg read more

  • To run, or not to run ...

    LabGrab
    6 Jan 2012 | 8:47 am
    At what point does it become "easier" for us to run rather than to walk? Many of you reading this might be thinking; "right, umm never" ... but surprising research out of NC State’s Human PoWeR (Physiology of Wearable Robotics) Lab proves that the muscles of the body might be helping make that decision for us. NC State University biomedical engineers Dr. Gregory Sawicki and Dr. Dominic Farris have discovered that around 4.5 miles per hour, running makes better use of an important calf muscle than walking, and therefore is a much more efficient use of the muscle’s – and the body’s –…

  • Muscle-derived stem cell transplantation helps curb age-related degeneration

    Jeffrey Serrill
    5 Jan 2012 | 1:35 pm
    University of Pittsburgh researchers have recently published a study suggesting that a certain type of stem cell transplantation may help rescue some of the cellular deficiencies which occur as part of the normal aging process. Read more... Mice.jpg read more
 
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    SciencePunk

  • Geek romance: How to make a Storm Glass pendant

    15 Jan 2012 | 3:23 pm
    Toward the end of last year, being in possession of two novelties - a girlfriend and a steady job - I decided to spend my free evenings crafting a very special piece of jewellery. I was inspired by a visit to Barometer World in the late summer, where I discovered the curious material known as storm glass (tragic backstory recounted here). In short, a storm glass is a weather divination tool so old that nobody really knows where they came from. It's likely they were borne out of alchemy experiments performed during the medieval period. Inside a sealed glass tube, crystals bloom, wither and…

  • Luke Jerram's glass sculptures of microbes

    18 Dec 2011 | 6:11 pm
    This weekend I visited the Trauma exhibition at London's GV Art gallery. The pieces all relate in some way to physical and psychological trauma inflicted on the body, by a range of artists working alone and in collaboration with medics. Some of the items are underwhelming verging on irritating - placing histological slides on a plinth does a disservice both to art (because there is no emotional narrative contained within) and to science, because it implies that the inherent wonder and beauty of science is absent unless it is repackaged as a gallery exhibit. (Hello? Museums present objects of…

  • The Information Diet - five ways to improve your data consumption

    20 Nov 2011 | 12:35 pm
    Last week I had a visit from a friend of mine, who was on something of a farewell tour. After several years of planning, he'd packed in his dependable but much-begrudged corporate job, and was setting sail for Asia, to see more of the world. He's already seen much more of the world than most people. Not because he was well connected or rich, but because he made it his life's mission to tour the forgotten, the hidden and the forbidden places of the world. I mention this because if there ever was a man to take life advice from, it is this one, and he put into words something I've been pondering…

  • Falling Walls: Modern chemistry turns lead into gold

    9 Nov 2011 | 10:18 am
    Today I'll be writing a series of blogposts from the Falling Walls conference in Berlin. Each speaker is invited to discuss the ideas, inventions, and discoveries they believe will break down walls in their field. Paul Chirik: How Modern Alchemy Can Lead to Inexpensive and Clean Technology Professor of chemistry Paul Chirik is on a mission to turn lead into gold. Or, to be more precise, to make lead act like gold. Precious metals are instrumental to some of the most widespread and important chemical processes in our world, such as the osmium needed to synthesise fertiliser (so valuable that…

  • Falling Walls: Making a Fine Mess of Things

    9 Nov 2011 | 8:26 am
    Today I'll be writing a series of blogposts from the Falling Walls conference in Berlin. Each speaker is invited to discuss the ideas, inventions, and discoveries they believe will break down walls in their field. Robert E. Horn: How Visual Language Supports Decision Making About Wicked Problems and Social Messes Let's face it, having "messes" listed as a research specialism on your business card is pretty neat. But Stanford's Robert Horn is exactly that, a man who studies messes, or more accurately "inter-related sets of problems", particularly because business and government strategies are…
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    Science Business

  • FDA Approves Pfizer Drug for Advanced Kidney Cancer

    Alan
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:59 pm
    Cross-section of kidney (National Library of Medicine) The Food and Drug Administration today approved the drug axitinib to treat patients with renal cell carcinoma, a form of advanced kidney cancer, who have not responded to another drug for this type of cancer. The drug is made by Pfizer Inc. in New York and marketed under the brand name Inlyta. Renal cell carcinoma is the most common form of kidney cancer, which starts in the lining of very small tubes in the kidney. Inlyta works by blocking proteins called kinases that play a role in tumor growth and cancer progression. The drug is taken…

  • VC Company, Harvard Start Seed-Stage Fund

    Alan
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:11 pm
    Central Square subway station, Cambridge, Mass. The Experiment Fund, a joint venture of Harvard University’s engineering school and venture capital company New Enterprise Associates (NEA), opened today in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The fund plans to support technology-based student start-ups in Cambridge and companies begun elsewhere by former students. The venture expects to support companies working in information technologies, health care, and energy. NEA’s Patrick Chung, one of Experiment Fund’s founders, expects the fund to support several promising companies over the…

  • Columbia Joins Coulter Biomedical Engineering Partnership

    Alan
    27 Jan 2012 | 11:39 am
    Columbia University in New York and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation in Miami will establish the Columbia-Coulter Translational Research Partnership, part of a network of biomedical engineering and translational research institutions in the U.S. The program is expected devote $5 million in funding over five years, with two-thirds of the funds from the Coulter Foundation, and one-third from Columbia. The Columbia program will operate from the biomedical engineering department in the university’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. The funds will go to biomedical technology…

  • Medical Sensor Powered by Music Vibrations Developed

    Alan
    27 Jan 2012 | 10:09 am
    Vibration-powered sensor (Purdue University) Engineers at Purdue University in Indiana have developed a miniature medical sensor that can be powered by vibrations from music played nearby, with the deep bass of rap music found most effective. The research conducted in the lab of Babak Ziaie, professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering, will be presented at the IEEE MEMS (microelectromechanical system) conference on 30 January. A patent has been filed for the device as well. The miniature sensor (pictured right) is designed to be implanted in the body and…

  • NIH Trials to Assess Emergency Cardiac Arrest Treatments

    Alan
    26 Jan 2012 | 3:58 pm
    NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has begun two clinical trials to evaluate treatments for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A comparison of continuous chest compressions (CCC) combined with pause-free rescue breathing, to standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) that includes a combination of chest compressions and pauses for rescue breathing, and Treatment with the drug amiodarone, another drug called lidocaine, or a placebo in participants with shock-resistant ventricular fibrillation, a condition in which the heart beats chaotically instead of pumping blood.
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    Time Human

  • Leonardo da Vinci Pictures

    Gabriel Sword
    20 Jan 2012 | 5:36 pm
    Here are some pictures of Leonardo da Vinci: Leonardo's study of the womb His first known sketch Leo's helicopter sketch The Mona Lisa

  • The Jet Engine VW Beetle

    Gabriel Sword
    19 Jan 2012 | 1:59 pm
    What do you get when you combine a jet engine with a VW Beetle? Well, you get what Mr. Ron Patrick created  -- this awesome baby! Now aside from this being to coolest Beetle you will ever see in your life, why would you want to put money into something like this if you couldn't even ride it on the street. Hehe, I got some good news for you! It's completely street legal. The only problem is you can't engage the supersonic jet engine on the road. How sad. You're more than welcome to use it's original gasoline engine though! Mr. Ron Patrick - creator of the jet engine beetle, has his PHD in…

  • Benjamin Franklin Pictures

    Gabriel Sword
    19 Jan 2012 | 1:49 pm
    Pictures of the famous inventor Benjamin Franklin: Franklin's birthplace First postage stamp Pictures of other scientists: Albert Einstein Charles Darwin Leonardo da Vinci Nikola Tesla Edwin Hubble

  • Nikola Tesla Quotes

    Gabriel Sword
    16 Jan 2012 | 11:27 pm
    Great quotes by the mad scientist Nikola Tesla: If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor. -- Nikola Tesla I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love,…

  • Albert Einstein Quotes

    Gabriel Sword
    16 Jan 2012 | 5:32 pm
    Here is a comprehensive list of Albert Einstein quotes: We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. -- Albert Einstein Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever. -- Albert Einstein Click here to signup for the FREE Time Human science magazine Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius --…
 
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    Science Debate - Where We Discuss Science

  • Children with autism have a different type of gut bacteria

    Admin
    16 Jan 2012 | 8:23 pm
    Gastrointestinal problems are common in children with autism and may be associated with compositional changes in intestinal bacteria. The underlying reason autism is often associated with gastrointestinal disturbances has been unknown. read more

  • 3-D world in our brains - neuron-by-neuron maps of the regions of the mouse brain

    Admin
    8 Jan 2012 | 2:46 pm
    For the first time, the scientists have produced neuron-by-neuron maps of the regions of the mouse brain that process different kinds of visual information, laying the groundwork for decoding the circuitry of the brain using cutting-edge, genetic research techniques only possible in mice. read more

  • Ritalin Targets Prefrontal Cortex in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Patients

    Admin
    5 Jan 2012 | 7:10 pm
    The psychostimulant methylphenidate, known by the brand name Ritalin, is used as part of a treatment program to the control symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).  Symptoms of ADHD starts before the age of seven years and  affects about 3 to 5 percent of children world-wide. Millions of individuals diagnosed with ADHD are treated by Ritalin. read more

  • Ability to recognize another individuals' knowledge and beliefs not unique to humankind

    Admin
    29 Dec 2011 | 7:36 pm
    Many animals produce alarm calls to predators, and do this more often when kin or mates are present than other audience members. So far, however, there has been no evidence that they take the other group members' knowledge state into account. read more

  • Frogs Use Calls to Find Mates with Matching Chromosomes

    Admin
    27 Dec 2011 | 7:54 pm
    When it comes to love songs, female tree frogs are pretty picky. According to a new study from the University of Missouri, certain female tree frogs may be remarkably attuned to the songs of mates who share the same number of chromosomes as they do. The researchers found female frogs can hear chromosome difference in the calls of potential mates. read more
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    Materials Home Rss

  • Beetle-mimetic Velcro?

    27 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am
    Korean scientists present a new interlocking material based on the mechanism beetles use to lock away their wings.

  • MSE Congress Calls for Abstracts

    20 Jan 2012 | 1:50 am
    The “Materials Science and Engineering – MSE2012-Congress” will take place from September 25-27 in Darmstadt, Germany. Those who want to contribute lectures or posters have to keep in mind: Deadline for the submission of abstracts is February 17.

  • Breast cancer cells targeted, then burned, by gold-filled silicon wafers

    18 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am
    By shining infrared light on specially designed, gold-filled silicon wafers, scientists at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute have successfully targeted and burned breast cancer cells.

  • An expert look at correlated electrons

    18 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Electronic correlations strongly influence the properties of matter and thus are an ideal playground for physicists to explore fundamental aspects of solid state physics.

  • AFM Actuators Drafted for Nanoscale Thermal Analysis

    17 Jan 2012 | 8:00 pm
    Magnetic actuation effect allows thermal analysis of nanoscale materials, for application in packing, sports equipment, and the automotive and aeroscape industries.
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    Frontier Scientists

  • One Mean Dance Partner: How Mother Nature Twirls the Sport of Dog Mushing

    liz
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:37 pm
    By Kristin Knight Pace for Frontier Scientists The brittle cold of Dead Dog Flats is enough to make my parka crinkle as I ladle out the hot mixture of fat and tripe, chicken protein and kibble. One by one the dogs emerge from their houses and, by the time I have gone through the whole [...]

  • Frontier Scientists’ New Video Describe FLOPs in Supercomputing

    liz
    15 Jan 2012 | 1:20 pm
    Fairbanks, Alaska,  — If you know what a FLOP is, you can stop reading now. But if you don’t, take note and watch “What’s a FLOP?” http://frontierscientists.com/projects/computational-science/ It will be your primer to the next step in computational science. “Computational Science is a primary means of discovery in the world today. It’s a way of [...]

  • Satellite Tracking Helps Russian Tanker Navigate Critical Sea Duck Habitat

    liz
    14 Jan 2012 | 11:51 am
    By Matthew Sexson and Paul Laustsen for USGS, ANCHORAGE — On its way to deliver emergency fuel to Nome, Alaska, the Russian tanker Renda will move through an area used by wintering spectacled eiders, a federally threatened sea duck. But, to protect the ducks and their wintering habitat, resource managers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and navigators from the U.S. Coast Guard are [...]

  • The end of it all

    Laura
    31 Dec 2011 | 9:36 am
    By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We docked at a little after 1400 yesterday. The end of a cruise is always sad but at the same time welcome. Cruises are exhausting, so much energy is expended taking advantage of every available opportunity and sample. Now we must re-enter the real world. There [...]

  • And the Bering Sea Roars

    Laura
    28 Dec 2011 | 4:12 pm
    By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 I didn’t quite expect the Bering Sea to be quite this nasty in December.  Bad yes, but perhaps a few hours to sneak in a few samples before roaring in again with another storm.  No such luck, the storms are just rolling in like freight trains.  [...]
 
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    Entirely Subjective

  • Give yourself Permission to a little Delusion

    Jonas
    26 Jan 2012 | 11:55 am
    You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen, it said ‘Parking Fine’. - Tommy Cooper The line between wearing Rose Tinted Glasses and Delusion is certainly a thin one. On the other hand we have somehow learned to give ourselves a hard time, to undervalue our achievements and set our standards ever higher. Therefore, a little conscious delusion departing from the baseline of our high expectations can be a return to sanity. Why not invite a little delusion, a little wishful thinking into our lives now and then, just for a…

  • How we Delete and Distort Reality, and why it Matters

    Jonas
    18 Jan 2012 | 11:23 am
    Perception is an active process, rather than a passive taking in of what is out in the world. Everything our senses take in is reflected against prior experience, evaluated, its meaning determined and put into the current context. What at first may sound like a purely “semantic” difference, is in actuality of the greatest importance. Because all of us are actively perceiving our environment and bringing wildly different moods, contexts, expectations with us, all of us perceive completely different things. All of us delete, distort and generalize our perceptions, but even more…

  • On Reading Ken Wilber’s “Sex, Ecology, Spirituality”

    Jonas
    15 Jan 2012 | 3:55 pm
    Ken Wilber’s “Sex, Ecology, Spirituality” is a daunting read by any standard. At over 850 pages (300 of which are extensive notes at the end), it is one of the most abstract books I have yet read. This was my third attempt at it and I only barely made it through even though I was intensely motivated to take in its points. In it, Ken Wilber attempts to summarize the development of the Universe from its beginning right into the future, to give an overview how the Western Culture ended up where it is now and what might be in store for us during the next couple of hundred years.

  • How to create crystal clear Screencasts (for free)

    Jonas
    29 Nov 2011 | 2:44 pm
    Making Screencasts is a bit hit-and-miss. The internet abounds with low-resolution, crackly videos, as well as dozens of software packages that simply don’t do what they promise. In this short video I would like to present to you the tools I have chosen to create high quality screencasts. Finding a good Screen Recording Tool On the web, there seems to be a strong consensus that Camtasia Studio is an awesome screencasting tool. Unfortunately, it also comes with a price tag of almost $400. CC-BY Jonas Tullus. Music CC-BY by Löhstana David. Presentation source. Video as WebM. Video on…

  • Conveying Ideas with Animations

    Jonas
    21 Nov 2011 | 5:34 pm
    Animated videos have been quite popular on the internet ever since YouTube became big. The reasons for the popularity of animated short explanation videos could be many: Whether it is because people have a limited attention span, or don’t want to read through hundreds of words of text, or this new medium allows more expressiveness. Personally, I have very high hopes for creating understandable and easily consumable explanations and to explore this (for amateurs) relatively new medium of animations with voice over. I see a great future for decently produced animations, and they are just…
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    Midwest Labs Blog

  • Nebraska Agri-Business Expo 2012

    Brent Pohlman
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:31 pm
    Next week is the Nebraksa Agri-Business Expo  (See Online Program) This show brings the best people in agriculture together from the State of Nebraska and Eastern Iowa. It is always great to walk around and see all the different vendors. This year the weather will be fantastic and their is a huge excitement about agriculture...

  • National Radon Action Month

    Brent Pohlman
    26 Jan 2012 | 9:20 am
    January is National Radon Action Month. Radon is a cancer-causing, radioactive gas that is released in rock, soil, and water from the natural decay of uranium. It seeps into buildings, building up in your indoor air. You can’t see, smell, or taste radon, but it could be present at a dangerous level in your home....

  • Do you love earthworms?

    Brent Pohlman
    25 Jan 2012 | 11:34 am
    Sometimes this little slimy critter is taken for granted. Often times we see them during heavy rains or when we are digging up our soil to plant a tree or our garden. Maybe we should we respect these critters a little more and applaud them for the work that they do. They areate our soil...

  • Food Waste – A Problem with opportunities for change

    Brent Pohlman
    24 Jan 2012 | 7:40 am
    Making more effective use of the way we prepare and eat our food. When it comes to food, the current dialogue talks about whether the food is organic or not organic. Also, the talk of ingredients and preservatives also comes up quite a bit. People are always looking at food as good or bad. In...

  • Lessons learned from Blazer Manufacturing

    Brent Pohlman
    23 Jan 2012 | 9:12 am
    Did you see the story about this company in today’s Omaha World Herald? It is a great story about a business that began in Gordon Blaser’s garage nearly 40 years ago. This company supplies schools with athletic equipment in all 50 states. The equipment range from pole vaults and shot put rings to volleyball net...
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    EcoTone

  • ESA Policy News: January 27

    katie@esa.org (Katie Kline)
    27 Jan 2012 | 1:50 pm
    Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Science Policy Analyst Terence Houston.  Read the full Policy News here. STATE OF THE UNION: PRESIDENT HIGHLIGHTS CLEAN ENERGY, RESEARCH GOALS For his third formal State of the Union address, President Obama outlined a set of proposals and initiatives for the 112th Congress to act [...]

  • Researchers Find Flaws in Popular Theory on Women’s Math Performance

    katie@esa.org (Katie Kline)
    26 Jan 2012 | 3:47 pm
    This post contributed by Celia Smith, ESA Education Programs Coordinator Credit: xkcd.com In science, neat and tidy explanations rarely tell the whole story, and that is exactly what researchers at the University of Missouri have found about stereotype threat theory in their paper on the subject, currently in press at the Review of General Psychology. [...]

  • State of the Science, 2012

    katie@esa.org (Katie Kline)
    25 Jan 2012 | 7:48 pm
    Thoughts and twitterings around the ecosphere on President Obama’s State of the Union address to Congress, Tuesday, January 24th, 2012. In the Wednesday morning quarterbacking that followed this year’s State of the Union, pundits aired the perennial complaint that the President’s speech ran too long, heavily-laden with a Clinton-style laundry list of programs. But citizens [...]

  • What’s your number?

    katie@esa.org (Katie Kline)
    20 Jan 2012 | 3:14 pm
    This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs Many of us still operate under the notion that, as responsible car owners, we should get our vehicle’s oil changed every 3,000 miles to keep our engines running smoothly.  But it turns out that this engrained wisdom is not true if you own a [...]

  • Solutions for a nitrogen-soaked world

    katie@esa.org (Katie Kline)
    18 Jan 2012 | 4:01 pm
    Interdisciplinary panel reviews US nitrogen pollution trends, risks and mitigation strategies. -This post contributed by Liza Lester, ESA communications officer. A tractor spreads manure. Excess fertilizer seeping out of fields has a host of consequences for ecological systems and human health. Credit, flickr user eutrophication&hypoxia, 2010.   Nitrogen is both an essential nutrient and a [...]
 
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    weird things

  • will the kremlin use assange as a pawn?

    Greg Fish
    27 Jan 2012 | 6:20 am
    Russian politics have always been tumultuous even in the best of times, and now, with Medvedev and Putin’s unabashedly open game of musical chairs drawing public fury and mass protests in a land where all political matters are almost always met with withering cynicism and disgusted apathy by the general populace, all the important people behind the scenes are worried. Propaganda campaigns are spreading across Russian TV at a rate even worse than the sloganeering and conspiracy theories I remember from my childhood, though it was during Perestroika and the government was a little more…

  • applying logic and causality backwards…

    Greg Fish
    26 Jan 2012 | 6:35 am
    Every time an experiment manipulating evolution hits the news, there’s always an eager throng of people who insist that the very fact that the biologists intervened and steered the forces of selection or mutations to doing the experiment means that we now have proof of a designed involved in evolution. Just take yesterday’s study on the possible emergence of multicellularity. According to the creationist crowd, if the biologists didn’t trigger the selective influences on the yeast, it would’ve remained the same and their meddling is therefore proof that without an…

  • do decaying neutrons travel between universes?

    Greg Fish
    25 Jan 2012 | 6:34 am
    According to string theorists, our universe is just one of many in an otherwise infinite cosmos and that all the different universes don’t just sit quietly in a vacuum, but actively interact with each other when space and time bend and fold to create the right conditions for different forces and particles to jump between them. While the exact number of all these cosmoses is pretty much impossible to estimate with any certainty, evidence for just one or two other universes would provide a very solid pillar for string theory and the multiverse hypothesis in general. And to that end,…

  • being not even wrong would’ve been better

    Greg Fish
    24 Jan 2012 | 6:26 am
    You may have heard of the Time Cube guy, whose real name is Gene Ray, the web’s first celebrity crackpot at large and lunatic extraordinaire, the trailblazer for the modern physics cranks praised by Margaret Wertheim in her attempts to cash in on documenting this curious species. And as all trailblazers, he has imitators like the now infamous Stuart Wilde whose theories about the origin of humans recently graced Pharyngula. Far be it from me to even attempt to summarize his ideas because they involve human dematerialization and the sort of stuff you’d expect to believe you saw…

  • so how would you claim territory in outer space?

    Greg Fish
    23 Jan 2012 | 6:14 am
    Many space operas tend to treat empires spanning multiple solar systems much like we would treat empires on our own world, complete with borders and territorial maps included on the characters’ computers. Just one look at the surrounding stars and they know that they’re in alien territory, ready to be greeted by a space-borne version of the interstellar empire’s border patrols. But considering that not only is space three dimensional, it involves stunning distances between objects, could a species carve out a large territory in space and be able to control the borders to its…
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    bioBlogia

  • Pequeñas cantidades de alcohol extienden dramáticamente la vida de un gusano

    Francisco P. Chávez
    22 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pm
      Una minúscula cantidad de alcohol más que duplica la vida útil de un diminuto gusano llamado Caenorhabditis elegans. Eso encontraron científicos de UCLA que utilizan el nemátodo como modelo en estudios de envejecimiento. El hallazgo, publicado en la revista PLoS ONE es realmente sorprendente y difícil de explicar. En los seres humanos, el consumo de alcohol es generalmente dañino. Igualmente es conocido que si los gusanos se le dan concentraciones mucho más altas de etanol, resulta en efectos neurológicos y la muerte Los gusanos, que crecen a partir de un huevo a un estado…

  • Por primera vez convierten las células madre del cordón umbilical en las células de soporte del cerebro

    Francisco P. Chávez
    21 Jan 2012 | 8:40 am
      Por primera vez, las células madre del cordón umbilical se han convertido directamente en las células de soporte del cerebro, los llamados oligodendrocitos. Esto eventualmente puede conducir a nuevas opciones de tratamiento para las enfermedades del sistema nervioso y particularmente para las lesiones de la médula espinal y la esclerosis múltiple. Esta es la primera vez que esto se ha logrado con células madre no embrionarias, lo que supera muchos de los obstáculos éticos que se presentan con el uso de las células madre embrionarias. Las células madre del cordón…

  • Científicos replican un importante paso evolutivo en el laboratorio

    Francisco P. Chávez
    18 Jan 2012 | 11:56 am
      Hace más de 500 millones de años, los organismos unicelulares en la superficie de la Tierra comenzaron a formar grupos multicelulares que finalmente se convirtieron en plantas y animales. Sólo la forma en que ocurrió la pluricelularidad es una pregunta importantísima que no ha sido dilucidada por los biólogos evolutivos. Científicos de la Universidad de Minnesota han replicado que paso clave en el laboratorio mediante la selección natural en la levadura de la cerveza común. en el artículo publicado en la revista PNAS, encontraron que las levaduras son organismos unicelulares…

  • Los estrellas de mar tienen tendencias bilaterales

    Francisco P. Chávez
    17 Jan 2012 | 9:09 am
      Una típica estrella de mar tiene cinco lados simetría, es decir son pentamerales. Sin una cabeza clara, las estrellas de mar pueden moverse en cualquiera de las 5 direcciónes de sus brazos. Sin embargo, científicos de la Universidad Agrícola de China han descubierto que las estrellas de mar han ocultado sus tendencias bilateral, las que se revelan en momentos de estrés. Las estrellas de mar pertenecen a un grupo de animales conocido como los equinodermos, que también incluyen a los erizos de mar, los pepinos de mar y las ofiuras. Los equinodermos pueden tomar muchas formas de…

  • Desarrollan prueba no invasiva para conocer el sexo del feto en el primer trimestre

    Francisco P. Chávez
    14 Jan 2012 | 9:32 am
      Una nueva investigación publicado en la revista FASEB Journal sugiere que la medición de la relación de las enzimas DYS14 y GAPDH en el plasma materno es un indicador eficaz para la detección precoz del sexo del feto en el primer trimestre. El nuevo estudio de investigación describe los resultados que podrían conducir a una prueba no invasiva que permitiría a las mujeres embarazadas saber el sexo de sus bebé ya en el primer trimestre. Específicamente, los investigadores de Corea del Sur descubrieron que diferentes proporciones de dos enzimas (DYS14/GAPDH), que se puede extraer…
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    The Conversation - Science + Technology

  • 'Moon rocks' made here: tranquillityite discovered in Western Australia

    Birger Rasmussen, ARC Australian Professorial Fellow at Curtin University
    26 Jan 2012 | 9:08 pm
    By the time the Apollo Program ended in 1972 it had cost NASA roughly US$170 billion dollars (in today’s terms). It was seen as a waste of money by some, but almost 40 years since the launch of Apollo 17, we are still seeing significant returns on the investment. Among the most significant of those returns is the valuable information the lunar landings provided about our moon and, in turn, the planet we call home. Have you seen my rock collection? Prior to the Apollo missions, knowledge about the moon was limited to remote sensing, modelling and speculation. It was unclear what the moon was…

  • Do big servers have the edge at the Australian Open?

    Paul M. Sommers, Professor of Economics at Middlebury College
    26 Jan 2012 | 1:36 pm
    With the Australian Open into its final few days, we’re starting to see the best tennis players in the world come to the fore. And to be the best in the world, you need a well-rounded game, including a powerful serve. But how much of a role does a powerful serve play when you get toward the end of a tournament? Is there a relationship between serve speed and ultimate tournament success? Does court surface play a role in determining the effectiveness of a serve? The four major Grand Slam tennis tournaments are contested on a range of surfaces: two hard courts (Australian Open and US Open),…

  • Wham, bam – what goes into your Australia Day lamb?

    Damian Frank, Researcher in Flavour and Sensory Science at CSIRO
    24 Jan 2012 | 9:23 pm
    As you stand around the BBQ this Australia Day, savouring that quintessential aroma of grilling lamb, spare a thought for the selfless service of our unsung national heroes – our estimated 140 million plus sheep (ovis aries). And spare a thought for those that made them so tasty. The Australian sheep meat industry has benefited from decades of dedicated scientific research by organisations such as state departments of primary industry and CSIRO. Without that, it’s unlikely your grilled lamb chops would be quite as fresh, juicy, succulent, tender and deliciously flavoursome. These days the…

  • Fruits of Labor: what's wrong with the government's science outreach drive?

    Tim Dean, Philosopher at University of New South Wales
    24 Jan 2012 | 1:39 pm
    To its credit, the Australian Government is making a concerted push into science outreach with the tritely-named Inspiring Australia program. This includes $5 million in funding through the equally tritely-named Unlocking Australia’s Potential grant scheme – intended to “inspire people with science”. Now, I’m all about science outreach. (In fact, I’m also all about philosophy outreach too. You might call it reason outreach, all up. But let’s stick to science for now.) I firmly believe the greatest existential challenge faced by humanity is the spread of unreason, for unreason…

  • Monster Bug Wars: going head-to-head with our god complex

    Binoy Kampmark, Lecturer in Global Studies, Social Science &Planning at RMIT University
    23 Jan 2012 | 9:22 pm
    It all starts with a disastrous human presumption: the animal world is there to be used, abused and mocked. Cage it, memorialise it, idealise it, and worship its remains with a sickly reverence through cable television subscriptions. This is the anthropomorphic premise behind Monster Bug Wars, a show that starts its second season on Foxtel’s Animal Planet channel this evening. It might be worm vs. spider, cockroach vs. mantid, ant vs. land crab, and so on. In Monster Bug Wars, animals are merely human representatives writ large, killing, maiming and eating with lusty bravura. Humans, it…
 
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    Idle Diffractions

  • Who Needs a Fireplace?

    Kevin Thompson
    17 Jan 2012 | 10:03 am
    As is often the case, I get a few minutes as the weekend starts to look at all those neat articles I didn’t delete during the week, hoping I would get to all of them on the weekend. Here is this... This blog is authored by Dr. Kevin P. Thompson, Vice President of Optical Engineering Services at Optical Research Associates (ORA). For the rest of the blog entry, visit "Idle Diffractions" at www.ora-blogs.com.

  • Faster than a Speeding Bullet

    Kevin Thompson
    14 Dec 2011 | 12:06 pm
    This is worth pausing on – yet another event on the timeline to smaller and faster. The folks at MIT, who appear to be the US answer to the Fraunhofer Institute, report in the New York Times today... This blog is authored by Dr. Kevin P. Thompson, Vice President of Optical Engineering Services at Optical Research Associates (ORA). For the rest of the blog entry, visit "Idle Diffractions" at www.ora-blogs.com.

  • In Case You Are Consuming this Holiday Season

    Kevin Thompson
    12 Dec 2011 | 12:21 pm
    The latest issue of Information Display from the Society for Information Display (SID) has a couple of articles that are somewhat of a high-end Consumer Reports coverage of TVs, particularly plasma.... This blog is authored by Dr. Kevin P. Thompson, Vice President of Optical Engineering Services at Optical Research Associates (ORA). For the rest of the blog entry, visit "Idle Diffractions" at www.ora-blogs.com.

  • Is this a revolution, or, clutter?

    Kevin Thompson
    27 Oct 2011 | 5:47 pm
    Three items crossed through the ether on the weekend, one is somewhat long awaited (if you consider 5 years long), one that continues the march to making everything look inspiring, and one that even... This blog is authored by Dr. Kevin P. Thompson, Vice President of Optical Engineering Services at Optical Research Associates (ORA). For the rest of the blog entry, visit "Idle Diffractions" at www.ora-blogs.com.

  • The missing dinosaurs puzzle

    Kevin Thompson
    18 Oct 2011 | 3:45 pm
    This note was brought to my attention by Mark Kahan, as are many things. I must admit, after Jurassic Park one does occasionally consider what would the world be like if the dinosaurs had not decided... This blog is authored by Dr. Kevin P. Thompson, Vice President of Optical Engineering Services at Optical Research Associates (ORA). For the rest of the blog entry, visit "Idle Diffractions" at www.ora-blogs.com.
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    Sciencebase Science Blog

  • Alchemist Chemistry News

    David Bradley
    28 Jan 2012 | 3:46 am
    The Alchemist learns how to manipulate tiny polystyrene beads with a set of micro-tweezers this week and spots the smoking gun in forensics using capillary-scale ion chromatography and suppressed conductivity. In the world of chemophobia has asked why parabens are still the focus of research into underarm hygiene and breast cancer despite the lack of evidence linking the two in any way. There is also an elemental discovery this week concerning that lowliest of metals, zinc, which may have activity in reducing the symptoms of the common cold. A venture that sounds truly alchemical sees…

  • Shape of snowflakes

    David Bradley
    26 Jan 2012 | 8:52 am
    On Christmas Day 2006, I posted a blog about how snowflakes are not all different and some of the science underlying the formation of snowflakes. The American Chemical Society had a nice infographic at the time showing the principles of snowflake formation (PDF here). There’s no snow around here, but this is Britain, the weather could change at any moment and although we don’t quite have the four seasons in one day they get in New Zealand, give it a day or two and a warm spell can become a cold snap almost overnight. Snowflakes have at their heart a minute grain of dust that was…

  • The Northern Lights are in my mind

    David Bradley
    25 Jan 2012 | 2:22 am
    I’ve not yet seen the Aurora borealis, nor the Aurora australis, but they’re always on my mind. I am sure they’re amaaazing and wunderfuuul. This week a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun stimulated the earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field to produce some marvellous lights that were even seen as far south as Northern England. There are plenty of photos on the web now and video footage is growing. Amateur astronomers have been gripped by the aurorae, apparently as have amateur astrologers looking for aura… The aurorae are a natural light show in the sky,…

  • Is antioxidant luteolin an anticancer super-nutrient?

    David Bradley
    24 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pm
    A flavonoid compound found in fruit and vegetables, luteolin, was recently hailed as an anticancer supernutrient by the tabloid media. Aside from the fact that over-dosing on antioxidants could be detrimental to one’s front-line immune response to pathogens, the research was purely laboratory based and said nothing about whether or not luteolin might actually prevent bowel cancer. The compound has the chemical name 2-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)- 5,7-dihydroxy-4-chromenone and in the laboratory shows activity as an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase enzymes as well as blocking interleukin 6. NHS…

  • Cornstarch monsters on a speaker cone

    David Bradley
    23 Jan 2012 | 10:38 am
    Sometimes an old viral video needs another airing. In this video from about three years ago, a mixture of corn starch poured into a speaker cone is vibrated at 30 Hz using a signal generator and the video shot at 30 frames per second (coincident timing with the speaker frequency). Corn starch is a non-Newtonian fluid, which means it does not behave in a “classical” way, it undergoes shear thickening, which means it gets more viscous when a force is applied. You may have noticed it is much easier to stir it slowly than to try and stir it fast. When the force applied is cyclic, as…
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    KQED QUEST

  • Surgeons Seek Kid-Sized Tools for the Operating Room

    Amy Standen
    28 Jan 2012 | 12:57 am
    If you’ve ever spent time in Silicon Valley or among hi-tech entrepreneurs, you may have heard the term “Valley of Death.” It’s used to describe the huge gulf that can exist between coming up with a new idea, and getting a product to market. It's a problem in hospitals, too. Just take the neonatal intensive care unit at the University of California San Francisco. On a recent morning, Marti Thompson was swaddling a baby the size of a burrito with firm assurance. She's been a nurse here for 13 years. She said some of the babies who come through here were born prematurely. Others were…

  • Life With the Leaf: Clean Car Future

    Andrea Kissack
    27 Jan 2012 | 7:07 pm
    Mercedes Fuel-Cell car for 2014 Big news this week for electric car drivers. We may soon have more company on the roads if the state of California has any say. The California Air Resources Board has passed the toughest vehicle emission regulations in the U.S. CARB is mandating that automakers cut exhaust by two-thirds by dramatically increasing their production of electric and plug-in hybrids. Automakers and oil companies have sued in the past to stop similar measures but this time is different. There are already more than fifteen thousand electric and plug-in hybrids on U.S. roads. The…

  • The Sun Shows A Flare for the Dramatic

    Ben Burress
    27 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am
    M9 Solar Flare of January 23 2012; credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory Let's see, what's the weather like right now (sticks finger into the air). Speed, 1.2 million miles per hour, density 1.1 protons per cubic centimeter, temperature 200,000 degrees Celsius. Sound a bit extreme? Surely climate change hasn't made things THAT batty. As a matter of fact, conditions have calmed down in the last several hours. Okay, I'm not talking Earth weather—if I were, we'd all be dead, fast. I'm talking space weather, and a subsidence in its condition following a powerful solar flare whose ejecta struck…

  • Geological Outings Around the Bay: Mount Vaca and the Monticello Dam

    Andrew Alden
    26 Jan 2012 | 2:31 pm
    The Monticello Dam occupies Devils Gate, a deep cleft in the massive sandstones of the Great Valley Sequence. Photos by Andrew Alden This outing visits two great landmarks of the northeastern Bay Area—one highly visible, the other well hidden. Both feature the same body of rock: the mighty Great Valley Sequence. Most of Northern California's bedrock is part of just three large bodies: the granite of the Sierra, the metamorphic rocks of the Coast Range, and the sedimentary rocks of the Central Valley. All three are parts of one entity: a former subduction zone. Picture the Pacific…

  • Life with the Leaf: Charging Up

    Andrea Kissack
    23 Jan 2012 | 8:03 pm
    As the EV charging infrastructure slowly rolls out, most people are finding the most reliable, and cheapest, place to charge is at home. Choosing a Home Charger Someday the hope is that we should all be able to pick up a home charger at our local car dealership but right now it’s up to us early adopters to do the homework. When I reserved my Leaf back in the fall of 2010, Nissan was requiring a home visit from their charging contractor, AeroVironment. I paid one hundred dollars to have an AV installer come to my home and give me a bid for a charger and installation which came out to about…
 
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    As Many Exceptions As Rules

  • Keeping Your “Ion” The Ball – Salts and Life

    25 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am
    Biology concepts – salts in biology, osmotic potential, action potential, transpiration Dietary salt – crucial for survival; Veruca Salt – not so much.In Latin, verruca means wart, so RoaldDahl was probably trying to tell us somethingwhen he wrote her character into Charlieand the Chocolate Factory We have learned that one of the crucial functions of water in living organisms is to help regulate the salt concentration in and between the cells (Gimme Some Dihydromonoxide). But why do living things require salts? We all know that we must have a source of salt (sal in Latin) in our diet or…

  • Sorry, I Don’t Drink

    18 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am
    Biology concepts – water conservation, kidney function, metabolic water, adaptation, water uptake “Koala” in aborigine means “no drink.” The moist eucalyptus leaves are poisonous to most animals, but koalas have a special bacteria that can break down the toxic eucalyptus oil.We all know we need water to survive (see Gimme Some Dihydromonoxide), so why is it that koala bears have decided they don’t need to drink? Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves, as well as mistletoe and a few other leaves. The leaves contain a good amount of water, and the koalas can survive on just this…

  • Gimme Some Dihydromonoxide

    11 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am
    Birds need water just like the rest of us, but beaks make it harder. They may suck it up like a straw or scoop it up like a bucket, or by leaning back and letting the rain fall in.At some point or another we've all said, “I’m about to die of thirst.” Of course we can only survive for a few short days without water, but do you know why? Cells are full of salt water (saline), but are also crowded with proteins, carbohydrates and lipids (saline + organic molecules = cytoplasm). This suggests the importance of H2O, but it doesn’t say anything about the reasons behind its importance.Water…

  • No Introductions Necessary?

    4 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am
    Biology concepts – introduced species, invasive species, The United States is a melting pot, and it is one of ourgreatest strengths. The questions is, is it also a goodidea for plants and animals?The United States is an amazing place to live; nearly everyone’s family is from some place else. But if you ask the people you meet on any given day, they will likely say they are from the USA. Most have had time to assimilate and find their niche in their family’s adopted homeland. Can you name a place on Earth where this situation applies to its animals and plants?If a place like this…

  • The Life Of The Party

    28 Dec 2011 | 7:00 am
    Biology concepts – plant adaptations, osmosis, parthenogenesisLast week we discussed the biological implications of an old Christmas carol. Today’s post is a hodgepodge of holiday biology, but we can still find some exceptions. From a distance, spruce, fir, and pine Christmas trees look similar. The differences are mostly in the needles, both shape and number.Christmas trees – There are many different types of trees used for Christmas, but they are all evergreens. This is the reason they were used in the first place. The tradition sprung from old pagan ceremonies that reminded us that…
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    Laboratory News » News

  • Pause on avian flu research

    Kerry Taylor Smith
    26 Jan 2012 | 8:32 am
    A two-month moratorium on studies that make the avian influenza virus H5N1 more transmissible between mammals has been signed by 39 influenza researchers amid fear of bioterrorism. This voluntary pause recommends that two research groups withhold key data from pending publications on H5N1. Both describe specific mutations in the virus’ genome that could allow it to be transmitted as droplets between ferrets – the standard model for mammal to mammal transmissions. The papers contain information about methods and mutations that could help public health officials and researchers understand…

  • Planck has run dry

    admin
    19 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    The Planck telescope is about to run out of coolant Since 2009, a mixture of helium-3 and helium-4 has been cooling the light detectors on the Planck telescope to a freezing -237.05°C. However, the helium-3 refrigerant has run dry and engineers say the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) on board is about to become defunct. “We always knew we would eventually lose HFI and the helium has run down exactly when we thought it would – on the dot,” said Dr Jan Tauber, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Planck project scientist. The systems will start to warm up from their ultra-frigid state…

  • Understanding regulation

    admin
    19 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    An unexpected discovery has opened up new opportunities for targeting cancer A team from the University of Leicester have opened up a whole new approach to the therapeutic intervention for a family of anti-cancer drug targets. Using the microfocus X-ray source at Oxfordshire’s Diamond Light Source, Professor John Schwabe and his colleagues – Drs Watson, Fairall and Santos – have revealed a new understanding of how transcriptional repression complexes work. “We have discovered a completely new and unexpected link between inositol phosphate signalling (in this case IP4) and the…

  • Cannabis on the brain

    admin
    19 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    For the first time, scientists have gained experimental evidence of the effects of specific chemicals found in cannabis on the brain. Scientists from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London studied the effects of two main components of cannabis – Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) – in 15 healthy men who were occasional cannabis users. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study each participant on three occasions after administration of THC, CBD or a placebo. The men then performed a visual oddball detection task so the researchers could…

  • Heading ball causes brain injury

    admin
    16 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am
    Advanced cognitive testing of amateur footballers has revealed frequent heading of the ball can lead to brain injury and cognitive impairment. In the first of two studies, researchers identified five areas in the frontal lobe and the temporo-occipital region of the brain that were affected by heading – areas that are responsible for attention, memory, executive functioning and high-order visual functions. Researchers used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) on 38 amateur footballers who had played the sport since childhood. Participants were asked to recall the number of times they headed the…
 
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    BioEdge

  • Research fraud troubles UK scientists

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:50 am
    “Dishonesty is common and institutionalized in medicine and medical research,” says a UK cardiologist, Peter Wilsmhurst, who has spent years trying to expose research misconduct and has reported more than 20 doctors to the General Medical Council. Read more...

  • European assembly slams euthanasia

    27 Jan 2012 | 12:18 am
    The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has given a big boost to opponents of legalised euthanasia. This body, which (somewhat confusingly) is not part of the European Union, is an advisory body in Strasbourg with more than 300 delegates whose pronouncements on human rights are highly influential in the EU. Read more...

  • Is is morally wrong to take a life? Not really, say bioethicists

    26 Jan 2012 | 10:49 pm
    Is it morally wrong to kill people? Not really, argue two eminent American bioethicists in an early online article in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, of Duke University, and Franklin G. Miller, of the National Institutes of Health believe that “killing by itself is not morally wrong, although it is still morally wrong to cause total disability”. Read more...

  • Doctors call for a moratorium on donation after cardiac death

    26 Jan 2012 | 10:37 pm
    Is that rustling in the bushes a deer or my brother? What the hell. We’ll sort it out later… BANG! Most people would regard moral reasoning like this as at least superficial. Several paediatricians writing in the latest issue of Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine apparently agree. They have called for a moratorium on donating organs after cardiac death (DCD) until a number of troubling issues have been resolved. The pre-press, peer-reviewed article offers a good summary of the ethical issues. Read more...

  • Massachusetts judge ordered forced abortion and sterilization of mentally ill woman

    21 Jan 2012 | 5:23 am
    It is difficult to imagine a case better scripted for a discussion of informed consent than Mary Moe’s Massachusetts abortion. Read more...
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