Science

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    Discovery News Top Stories

  • 2nd Night of False Alarms on Space Station

    21 Nov 2009 | 2:31 am
    Depressurization and smoke alarms woke the shuttle and station crews for a second consecutive night on Friday. Flight controllers quickly determined they were false alarms, but the station's ventilation system automatically shut down, prompting NASA to cancel spacewalk preparations inside ...

  • Shroud of Turin May Hold Death Certificate

    20 Nov 2009 | 3:16 pm
    The debate over the Shroud of Turin is reignited by alleged writing on the artifact.

  • NASA unleashes the Galactic Ghoul?

    20 Nov 2009 | 2:36 pm
    As I've mentioned before, I love a good outrageous space headline -- and the more they personify science or mold it to sound like a space opera, the better. But it's interesting to note that the "great galactic ghoul" traces ...

  • Firing Up the Large Hadron Collider... Again

    20 Nov 2009 | 2:29 pm
    If all goes well, the Large Hadron Collider will soon be smashing subatomic particles together as they travel near the speed of light around the 16.8 mile circumference of the world's most complicated machine. Scientists hope the Large Hadron Collider ...

  • Behind Oprah Winfrey's Power of Persuasion

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:34 pm
    Oprah Winfrey announced yesterday that after 25 years on the air, she would end her beloved talk show in September 2011. This announcement caused visceral reactions among my Facebook "friends." Several status updates read "Oprah, NOOOOOOOOOOOO," or "Why Oprah, Why?" ...
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    Popular Science

  • CERN Successfully Brings Large Hadron Collider Back Online

    Paul Adams
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:54 pm
    Much beset by magnet quenches, birds, bread, black holes, evil time travelers, and fools, the Large Hadron Collider successfully came online and orbited a proton beam today! Photographs of the triumphant moment are within.

  • Yikes: Peruvian Jungle Gang Arrested for Selling Fat of Its Murder Victims

    Jeremy Hsu
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:50 pm
    Is there any medical use for black market human fat? Scientists are skeptical Plentiful fat seems more reviled than revered in today's society, even when it has uses for the medical and cosmetic industries. But today police announced the arrest of a Peruvian gang accused of murdering people and selling their fat to the cosmetics industry, according to The Associated Press. Three gang members have confessed to killing at least five people and draining their fat in a fairly grisly manner: by removing the head, arms, legs and organs, then suspending the bodies above candles to allow the fat to…

  • This Week in the Future, November 16-20, 2009

    <a href="http://www.baarbarian.com" target="_blank"> Baarbarian </a>
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:10 pm
    Leave a comment to win a TWITF T-shirt! UV phasers, battlefield-based cryogenic tech, computerized cat brains and space fish on Jupiter's moon? Believe it, baby. The future is yours, and we've rounded it up for you in high style once again with This Week in The Future This week brought some fascinating news of the future to PopSci.com. For starters, scientists stunned nematode worms with UV phasers straight out of Star Trek... and they're not ruling out future applications of the technology for super stun weapons. Not to be outdone, DARPA's working on bringingcryogenic technology to the…

  • Steward Advanced Materials Thiol-SAMMS: The Toxin Terminator

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:24 pm
    A white power that can absorb more than half its weight in mercury This simple-looking white powder can get mercury-contaminated water 100 times as clean as any other method, for about half the cost. Each grain is actually a carefully engineered molecular sponge designed to absorb more than half its weight in mercury. The product of more than 15 years of research, Thiol-SAMMS is made of silica molecules assembled into a spongelike pattern of holes, packing the surface area of a football field into just one teaspoon. Sulfur atoms, which can bind poisonous mercury, coat each of the minuscule…

  • Intel Wants Brain Implants in Its Customers' Heads by 2020

    Jeremy Hsu
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am
    Researchers expect brain waves to operate computers, TVs and cell phones If the idea of turning consumers into true cyborgs sounds creepy, don't tell Intel researchers. Intel's Pittsburgh lab aims to develop brain implants that can control all sorts of gadgets directly via brain waves by 2020. The scientists anticipate that consumers will adapt quickly to the idea, and indeed crave the freedom of not requiring a keyboard, mouse, or remote control for surfing the Web or changing channels. They also predict that people will tire of multi-touch devices such as our precious iPhones, Android smart…
 
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    Futurity.org

  • Mummy’s curse: hardened arteries

    Tom Vasich-UC Irvine
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:01 pm
    The mummy of Esankh (above), an Egyptian man who lived between 1070 B.C. and 712 B.C., undergoes CT scanning. Researchers have discovered signs of atherosclerosis in ancient mummies, suggesting that the condition causing heart attacks and strokes isn’t just a modern malady. (Credit: Michael Miyamoto /UC San Diego) UC IRVINE—Hardening of the arteries has been detected [...]

  • Infrared scanners scope out early cancer

    Aaron Hoover-Florida
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:34 am
    Engineer Huikai Xie displays a micro-endoscope developed in his laboratory at the University of Florida. Smaller than a pencil eraser, the device contains a scanner that can “see” beneath the surface of internal tissues. The goal is to reveal abnormal groups of cells before cancerous growths are big enough to be spotted by traditional camera-equipped [...]

  • Viral case of the blame game

    Karen Lowe-USC
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:45 am
    Blame spreads quickly because it triggers the perception that one’s self-image is under assault and must be protected. “When we see others protecting their egos, we become defensive too,” says Nathanael Fast, the study’s lead author. “We then try to protect our own self-image by blaming others for our mistakes, which may feel good in [...]

  • Tool decodes biology’s key players

    Chandra Shekhar-Princeton
    19 Nov 2009 | 3:08 pm
    Biologist Benjamin Garcia (left) and chemical engineer Christodoulos Floudas collaborated to develop a fast and sensitive way to analyze proteins called histones that play a key role in how genes function. The work ultimately may aid the development of technology for reprogramming cells to fight cancer or to regenerate damaged tissue. (Credit: Frank Wojciechowski) PRINCETON—A team [...]

  • Police on night beat at risk for heart disease

    Lois Baker-Buffalo
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:24 pm
    Night shifts, overtime, and shortened sleep can be a dangerous combination for police officers, according to research conducted by John Violanti. “These findings reinforce the scientific value of studying the effects of occupation on cardiovascular risk factors,” says Violanti. U. BUFFALO—Police officers who work the night shift are at an increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome, [...]
 
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    Scientific Blogging

  • Unearthing Mongolia: Gigantoraptor Erlianensis

    Fossil Huntress
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:01 pm
    The Paleontologist community in China and around the world are all aflutter over a recent find in the Erlian Basin of Inner Mongolia. Known more for its heavy oil potential and favorite export - pollution, northeastern China is the preferred stomping ground for the savvy petroleum geologist. As a complete aside, it also boasts the prettiest portion of the gene pool, or so says one of my stomping friends having explored much of Asia. So, home to pretty women today and, as it would seem, an enormous bird-like dinosaur some 70 million years ago.  Fancy that. read more

  • Sex And Food In The Giant Squid

    Danna Staaf
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pm
    A nifty news story about students in a Florida classroom watching a giant squid dissected in Melbourne, Australia, led me to hunt down an article about the dissection itself. Was it really a giant squid, I wondered wearily, or merely a very large squid? It was indeed a true giant squid! And the article is quite good, gushing alliteratively about "the museum's mollusc master" using "surgical sweeps of the scalpel" to investigate. Just a few points to clarify: read more

  • Networking For Freelancers

    antunes
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:34 am
    What do rock climbing, book clubs, and sci fi have in common? The answer is they all help an astrophysicist with job hunting. Read on for why and how! Back on May 1st, 6 months ago, I decided to transition to a pure freelancer lifestyle. At the time, Stephanie P. asked "How do you transition from research to writing within NASA?" My answer was "I think I need to see what luck I get hunting, before I can speak with any credence on 'how to transition'!?!". And indeed, freelancing @NASA is still a nut to crack. Their culture doesn't encourage outside contribution as much as I think it needs to.

  • Origin Of Life? Long Chains Of RNA Generated Using Just Warm Water

    News Account
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm
    A key riddle surrounding the origin of biological molecules like RNA and DNA is how they first came together billions of years ago from simple precursors but a study appearing in the Journal of Biological Chemistry says researchers in Italy have reconstructed one of the earliest evolutionary steps yet; generating long chains of RNA from individual subunits using nothing but warm water.  Many researchers believe that RNA was one of the first biological molecules present, before DNA and proteins, but there has been little success in recreating the formation on RNA from simple "prebiotic"…

  • New Tevatron Higgs Limits Got Worse, But The 115 GeV Excess Is Growing!

    dorigo
    19 Nov 2009 | 12:44 pm
    It happens in the best families, so they say. Two experiments work 24/7 to produce an improved result on the Higgs search, and the result is disappointing, to say the least. I am talking about the Tevatron, of course. For a little while longer, CDF and D0 will have the exclusive on Higgs boson searches. Last March, we all rejoyced when we saw that the Tevatron was starting to become sensitive to a high-mass Higgs, and indeed it excluded its existence in a range of masses between 160 and 170 GeV. We were waiting for more exclusions for the winter conferences of 2010, when more data would be…
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    Sciencebase Science Blog

  • Homeopathy really doesn’t work

    David Bradley
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    A couple of years ago, I re-posted an old article of mine about homeopathy discussing its ludicrous claims, its feeble attempts to provide a scientific explanation for those claims, and basically pointing out that no solid evidence has ever been found that infinitely diluted solutions of spurious ingredients have any more beneficial effect on a patient than a glass of fresh water. The post got a very late critique from someone in the homeopathy “industry”, so I took each of their points and updated my original post, making it even more robust than it had originally been.

  • Latest science headlines

    David Bradley
    17 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Time to bring you up to date on the latest science headlines I’ve put together for other sites this last couple of weeks, so here’s a quick round-up: On the SpectroscopyNOW site, this issue, I covered natural chemicals that can help sunflowers soak up toxic cadmium from the soil (another example of the phytoremediation process I discussed in more detail on Sciencebase.com recently). I also describe a new approach to spectroscopy that could help chemists work out the absolute structure of natural products with medicinal potential. In the same issue, under the X-ray banner, I…

  • Genetically engineered heavy metal fans

    David Bradley
    13 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    The wastewater released from industry often contains high levels of toxic heavy metals, which can kill organisms, damage ecosystems, and accumulate in the foodchain. Electroplating, lead smelting, mining, and countless other processes produce enormous volumes of such wastewater. In a perfect world, remediation would be powered by a renewable energy supply, there would be no solid waste to dispose of, and the heavy metal contaminants could be recycled back into the industrial process with minimal losses. That would be industrial Utopia, of course, but something close might exist if scientists…

  • Juggling cancer nano news

    David Bradley
    12 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Latest news reports from yours truly on Spectroscopynow.com Juggling matters on the brain – UK scientists have used magnetic resonance imaging to reveal that learning a complex task like juggling can causes changes in the white matter in the brain. The findings could have implications for developing new approaches to neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis. Cancer transition – Anticancer drugs for treating ovarian and colon cancer could use rare metals as weapons in the battle against these diseases. The presence of unusual metal centres in organometallic compounds…

  • Berlin Wall falls in Australia

    David Bradley
    9 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Twenty years ago today, my girlfriend (now my wife) and I lay on a bed in a cramped backpackers’ hostel in the Katherine Gorge National Park (now Nitmiluk), in Australia’s Northern Territory, watching news of the fall of the Berlin Wall (now rubble). Outside insects were buzzing ferociously, the temperature was in the high 30s, and the hostel owner told us that he wouldn’t bother going in the (tiny, dirty) pool unless the temperature in the shade was at least 45 Celsius. On a circuitous road trip (goin’ Greyhound) we’d set off from Melbourne, where an ex-pat…
 
 
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    PopTech Blog

  • Crowdsourcing Government Listening

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:43 am
    The federal government is just beginning to use social media to talk to citizens. What’s needed now, says Web entrepreneur Anil Dash, is a way for government to use social media to listen. Anil Dash at Web 2.0 Expo, photo by James Duncan Davidson and courtesy O'Reilly Media and TechWeb. Expert Labs—one of the more intriguing ideas to emerge from this past week’s Web 2.0 Expo in Manhattan—is a new nonprofit that will seek to bridge that gap. Its mission is to use the Web and expert online communities to crowdsource solutions to social problems that state or federal lawmakers either…

  • FLAP Bag Update: Mozambique, Kenya, and Haiti

    17 Nov 2009 | 3:14 pm
    Editor's note: PopTech staff Coco Rojas gives an update on the FLAP (Flexible Light And Power) solar bag project and who is helping us test it right now below--FLAP is a collaborative effort from PopTech, Timbuk2, and Portable Light Project. You can find out more about the project's history and field work on the FLAP FAQ page (including how to order the bag) and join the FLAP project on our community site, the Hub. FLAP received a tremendous response at the PopTech 2009 conference, and we are incredibly grateful to all the PopTech'ers who offered to help field test the bag. (Let us know in…

  • VIDEO: Paul van Zyl, Alec Ross, and Erica Williams

    17 Nov 2009 | 12:30 pm
    This week, President Obama has spoken in China about openness and human rights, world leaders are meeting in Rome to talk about world hunger and food security, and it is Global Entrepreneurship Week, so we are releasing three PopTech 2009 talks on truth, politics and the art of diplomacy. Below, Paul van Zyl makes the case for an American Truth Commission, Senior Advisor on Innovation Alec Ross argues for an overhaul of U.S. diplomacy, and Erica Williams tells how the younger generations participate in politics. All three ask us to consider how we shape the future of the American political…

  • The Twittering’s On The Wall

    13 Nov 2009 | 3:49 pm
    Upon the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the city of Berlin has launched a remarkable “living” online memorial: the Berlin Twitter Wall. Using the hashtag #fotw, people can share their thoughts on the Fall of the Berlin Wall and tell the world “which walls still have to come down to make our world a better place.” The Web site scrolls messages along a backdrop of the East Side Gallery, a famous stretch of the wall still standing and painted with murals. By clicking "stop" and "play", older tweets are shown. A click on the cameras…

  • Fellows Friday: Recent Tweets We Have Seen and Favorited

    13 Nov 2009 | 9:18 am
    Our group of 2008 and 2009 Social Innovation Fellows is incredibly active--and they often work together and link to each other's work. Some of our favorite tweets from them in the past few days are below; you can follow them on Twitter on the PopTech SI Fellows List. Jason Aramburu of @re_char is tweeting from the NE Biochar Symposium today: Heather Fleming ( @heatherfleming) is attending the Aspen Design Summit this week (through tomorrow): Ken Banks ( @kiwanja) of @frontlinesms congratulated @Afrigadget (founded by 2008 Fellow Erik Hersman ( @whiteafrican)) and recently contributed to by…
 
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    Newswise

  • Smartphone App Illuminates Power Consumption

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    A new application for the Android smartphone shows users and software developers how much power their applications are consuming. PowerTutor was developed by doctoral students and professors at the University of Michigan.

  • Saving the single cysteine: new antioxidant system found

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    We've all read studies about the health benefits of having a life partner. The same thing is true at the molecular level, where amino acids known as cysteines are much more vulnerable to damage when single than when paired up with other cysteines.

  • Gallery of Fluid Motion and Virtual Press Room Now Open

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    The virtual Press Room for next week's 62st Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics in Minneapolis is now open. See http://www.aps.org/units/dfd/pressroom/.

  • The Greening of a Motor Pool

    20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    Michigan Technological University's fleet of vehicles is going hybrid.

  • New Abbott Technology Offers Rapid Alternative to Culture for Microbial Detection

    20 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Research presented today at the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) annual meeting indicates that a new molecular diagnostic technology from Abbott identified more microbes and delivered more rapid results than traditional culture testing methods.
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    SciGuy

  • Don't panic when this blog goes dark for a few days

    Eric Berger / Houston Chronicle
    19 Nov 2009 | 4:33 am
    Just a heads up that I'll be taking a quick, late-season vacation from blogging for the next few days now that hurricane season has all but ended. And with the 2012 apocalypse looming, I figure there's no reason to save...

  • Majority of TV meteorologists mistrust global climate models

    Eric Berger / Houston Chronicle
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:58 am
    Tolka Rover: Flickr This iceberg was photographed near Juneau County, Alaska, in 2008. A new survey in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (see .pdf) confirms what many of us have suspected for some time: That there's a significant...

  • U.S. Defense agency warms to cold fusion?

    Eric Berger / Houston Chronicle
    18 Nov 2009 | 5:08 am
    The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has released a report (see .pdf) that one might describe as a mild endorsement of cold fusion. The report notes that Japan and Italy have emerged as the leaders in low-energy nuclear research (LENR) and...

  • Hey, let's all build us a hurricane fighting machine!

    Eric Berger / Houston Chronicle
    17 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pm
    Awesome. Just awesome. I was having a bad day and out of the blue one of the Chron's editors, Matt Schwartz, sends me a link to Hurricane Fighting Machines™. That's right, folks, it's trademarked so don't even think about stealing...

  • If a butterfly flaps its wings in zero gravity ...

    Eric Berger / Houston Chronicle
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:32 am
    Among the six crew members blasting into space aboard space shuttle Atlantis astronauts were some stowaways -- a handful of butterfly larvae. The larvae were launched as part of the Butterflies in Space experiment, and the butterfly habitat will be...
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    digg.com: Stories / General Sciences / Popular

  • Study uses brain scans to discover how children 'read' faces

    20 Nov 2009 | 10:20 pm
    Oxford University scientists are using brain-scanning technology to understand how we learn to recognise and 'read' faces as children.

  • How engineers repaired the Large Hadron Collider (w/VID)

    20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm
    The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is ready to re-start following a programme of repairs to rectify damage caused by an accident last year. BBC News explains why the accident shut down the Large Hadron Collider and how it has been repaired.

  • Future colliders: Beyond the LHC

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:40 pm
    The Large Hadron Collider is by no means the last of the particle smashers. A group at CERN recently explored the various scenarios that might emerge from the atomic debris in Geneva – and how they would shape what colliders we build next. We draw out the key points about each of the scenarios.

  • The evolution of highly venomous box jellyfish

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:30 pm
    Box jellies, also called sea wasps, stingers or fire jellies, live primarily in warm coastal waters around the world. Their toxicity varies among species and ranges from being completely harmless to humans to causing death within minutes after a sting

  • Zap! Light Used to Paralyze Tiny Creatures

    20 Nov 2009 | 9:10 am
    Set your ultraviolet rays to stun. A new technology can temporarily disable life forms.
 
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    Wired: Wired Science

  • Istanbul Opens World’s Largest Earthquake-Safe Building

    Alexis Madrigal
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:16 am
    The world’s largest seismically isolated building, the new international terminal at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport, is now complete and open for business. Stretching across more than 2 million square feet, the terminal doesn’t sit directly on the soil, but rather on more than 300 isolators, bearings that can move side-to-side during an earthquake. The whole building moves as a single unit, which prevents damage from uneven forces acting on the structure. “What an isolation system does is that it enables the building to move through large displacements in unison,…

  • Sushi DNA Tests Reveal Fraud

    Aaron Rowe
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:14 am
    A biologist walks into a sushi bar and orders some tuna. What does he get? Escolar, a nasty fish with buttery flesh that can cause bizarre episodes of diarrhea, accompanied by a waxy intestinal discharge. It’s not a joke. It happened five times to the same scientists during a brief research project. The results of that study were published Wednesday in PLOS One. “A piece of tuna sushi has the potential to be an endangered species, a fraud or a health hazard,” wrote the authors. “All three of these cases were uncovered in this study.” The team of researchers from…

  • Ghostly Bones of Galactic Feast Revealed

    Alexis Madrigal
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:08 am
    A new infrared image of the galaxy Centaurus A reveals the gassy, ghastly bones of a galaxy that it consumed several hundred million years ago. The parallelogram of stars leftover from the collision had been obscured by dust. But using new processing techniques in the near-infrared part of the spectrum, European Southern Observatory astronomers were able to glimpse the leftovers of the cosmic dinner. “There is a clear ring of stars and clusters hidden behind the dust lanes, and our images provide an unprecedentedly detailed view toward it,” said Jouni Kainulainen, in a paper on the…

  • When Good Rockets Go Bad

    Annaliza Savage
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:08 pm
    << previous image | next image >> In the grand scheme of human space programs in Russia and the United States, catastrophic failures are relatively rare. But they are often quite spectacular and make a big impression on the public and on the funding for space exploration. The explosions in the videos we’ve assembled here were very costly, some in terms of life, some in terms of lost equipment and all in terms of progress of the space programs. Vanguard TV3 Fuel Tanks Explode Dec. 6, 1957: The United States’ first attempt to launch a satellite into orbit was also its first…

  • Malaria Gaining Resistance to Best Available Treatment

    Nathan Seppa, Science News
    19 Nov 2009 | 4:44 pm
    WASHINGTON — Malaria that is resistant to the best available drug is more widespread in Southeast Asia than previously reported, new research shows. The worrisome finding poses a risk that travelers could carry this strain of the malaria parasite to other parts of the globe and unwittingly spread it, scientists reported Nov. 19 at a meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The frontline drug in question is called artemisinin, the most potent medication currently in use against malaria. Signs of malarial resistance to artemisinin have surfaced over the past several…
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    Eye on DNA

  • DNA{wesome}

    Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD
    15 Nov 2009 | 3:01 am
    That’s right, baby! via Buzzfeed

  • Genetics = Real Science

    Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD
    14 Nov 2009 | 7:37 am
    Matchmaking services are adding DNA testing to their list of offers. The DNA test analyzes HLA genes of the immune system that influence a person’s body odor. The theory is that people are attracted to those whose HLA genes and body odor differ from their own so that their potential offspring have the possibility of inheriting a more varied set of HLA genes leading to enhanced health due to a stronger immune system. In an Associated Press article, Dr. Rocio Moran, medical director of the General Genetics Clinic at the Cleveland Clinic said: They are just trying to make a buck. That if…

  • Larry David’s DNA Test

    Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD
    13 Nov 2009 | 7:46 am
    Larry David found out last night on Lopez Tonight that he “fails as a European” being only 63% European according to a DNA ancestry test. David seemed genuinely surprised by the remaining 37% of his ethnicity. Watch the video to find out more about the 37% or click on this link from Twitter.

  • Lopez Tonight First Late-Night Show to Offer DNA Testing

    Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD
    12 Nov 2009 | 6:58 am
    Now we know that claim is misleading. Maury Povich and other talk shows have been offering DNA paternity testing for years but I guess those shows are on during the daytime. In any case, Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiam will get the results of his DNA test tonight 11/10c on the Lopez Tonight show on TBS. Probably not as entertaining as the Maury Show but interesting nonetheless. via Orlando Sentinel

  • American Genes Don’t Exist

    Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD
    3 Nov 2009 | 9:17 pm
    Congratulations to Meb Keflezighi of Eritrean descent, who won the New York City Marathon last Sunday and was the first American to do so since 1982! Why did I mention that he was born in Eritrea? Because critics say that an immigrant like Keflezighi who moved to the U.S. at age 12 isn’t a legitimate American. A post on Letsrun.com said: Give us all a break. It’s just another African marathon winner. How about making that African-American? Silly me. I thought that naturalized American citizens equal American citizens at birth with the same rights and privileges (with the exception of…
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    Neuromarketing

  • The Outsider Effect

    Roger Dooley
    16 Nov 2009 | 4:52 am
    Trying to juice up your next ad campaign? Develop a clever new product strategy? Research shows that adding an outsider to the mix can improve the thinking of your team and produce better results. According to a study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Better decisions come from teams that include a [...]

  • Management Lessons from Airplane Crashes

    Roger Dooley
    9 Nov 2009 | 6:40 am
    Airplane crashes don’t happen often, and when they do they are no doubt among the most-studied failures in any industry. Most bad business decisions, by contrast, are pushed into the past as quickly as possible. That may be one lesson – studying why a business strategy proved to be a failure might prevent similar failures [...]

  • Emsense Raises $9 Million

    Roger Dooley
    3 Nov 2009 | 9:09 am
    Neuromarketing firm Emsense has raised $9 million in additional capital. The new round was led by an investment from Technology Partners with existing investor the Foundry Group also participating. This funding will allow EmSense to continue its global expansion in support of its many market research partners. The funds will also enable the company [...]

  • Want Some Emotion with That Website?

    Roger Dooley
    3 Nov 2009 | 5:01 am
    As a web community guy, one of the most common problems I see is the failure to communicate emotion properly when people interact online. A remark intended as humorous can be perceived as a personal attack, or an expression of sympathy can be taken as cruel sarcasm. While I always suggest caution (particularly [...]

  • College Branding: What if Harvard Moved Next Door?

    Roger Dooley
    2 Nov 2009 | 5:06 am
    Why do most college branding efforts end up as meaningless pablum? I think it’s because most colleges have been relatively insulated from the effects of devastating competition. In fact, historically there have been major barriers to competition in the cozy world of higher education. The biggest have been geography, cost, and reputation. [...]
 
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    SCIENCEFRIDAY

  • SciFri Blog:LLL200, The Map

    20 Nov 2009 | 7:59 am
    We just got our first LLL200 supporters (TWO!) in Kentucky. I'm really looking forward to crossing the Mississippi River...

  • SciFri Video:Cranberry Sauce With A Side Of Stress

    20 Nov 2009 | 7:40 am
    With the holiday season fast approaching, we hit the streets of New York City to see if people were feeling especially stressed. Paul Rosch, president of The American Institute of Stress and a professor at New York Medical College, and Sheldon Cohen, psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University, weigh in on the effects of stress and offer a few tips for how to mitigate it.

  • SciFri Blog:Bee Glue v. HIV

    20 Nov 2009 | 7:39 am
    If you do a Google search for the word

  • SciFri Blog:The Ice Age Cometh…NOT!

    19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm
    Current knowledge of past thoughts on the future...

  • SciFri Radio:Tropical Medicine Update

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    We'll check in on the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual meeting and talk about highlights from the conference.
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    Cognition and Language Lab

  • A Poorly-edited Editors' Handbook

    coglanglab
    12 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    Most psychology journals require that papers follow the American Psychological Association's style guide. This guidebook covers everything from the structure of the paper to the right way of formatting section headings, and it is updated every so often. The sixth edition was released over the summer, and it seems it had to be recalled due to "errors and inconsistencies."I haven't actually seen the 6th edition myself (I just bought the 5th edition a couple years ago and am not in a hurry to buy the new one). On the whole, it's a good manual and the rules make sense. However, reviewers will…

  • Changes in this blog

    coglanglab
    4 Nov 2009 | 7:39 am
    As I've mentioned in a previous post, I'm in the process of renovating the lab website. There will also be significant structural changes to this blog (probably a regular schedule for posting, for instance). All this renovation is taking a considerable amount of time, and you may have noticed the lack of frequent posting. This will continue until the new site is launched, hopefully in the next month.Read the blog: http://coglanglab.blogspot.com Do the research: http://coglanglab.org

  • Magic babies

    coglanglab
    29 Oct 2009 | 12:22 pm
    There's an interesting article today over at Slate (Why Babies Crave Magic) that features work from one of my favorite local labs.Read the blog: http://coglanglab.blogspot.com Do the research: http://coglanglab.org

  • Making Super-babies

    coglanglab
    26 Oct 2009 | 9:44 am
    Parenting advice is no doubt as old as time itself. There is good advice, and then there are myths.The Walt Disney Company is, in a roundabout fashion, owning up to one myth, which is that their Baby Einstein videos make babies smarter. This has been a well-known myth in scientific circles -- the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no videos of any type for children under 2. Controlled experiments are tough, since it's hard to assign children to either watch or not watch TV (this tends to correlate with parental factors), but a quick search found a conference paper showing that toddlers…

  • Vaccination and the Assault on Health

    coglanglab
    23 Oct 2009 | 5:53 am
    I had always though that refusal to get a flu vaccination was relatively harmless masochism. Refusal to vaccinate one's own children, on the other hand, should probably be prosecuted as child abuse, but at the least the negative consequences stay close to home.Yesterday, however, I read two articles on vaccination. One in Slate looks at the risks the unvaccinated pose to people with immunity problems (she's unable to get childcare for her child, who is undergoing cancer treatment, because the risk of being around unvaccinated children is too high). If that seems like a parochial problem ("my…
 
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    neurodudes

  • Penn Neuroscience Bootcamp 2010

    Bayle
    5 Nov 2009 | 4:31 pm
    “….a chance for individuals without a neuroscience background to quickly gain a working knowledge of [neuroscience]” ….thought I might have something of interest to your readers, especially those who were trained in robotics. This summer, Penn is hosting our second Neuroscience Boot Camp, a chance for individuals without a neuroscience background to quickly gain a working knowledge of the subject. The program is specifically targeted so that participants can apply this information to other fields. You’ll find the full information below. Please let me know if you…

  • Crowdsourcing the Brain with the Whole Brain Catalog

    Stephen
    24 Oct 2009 | 9:42 am
    A very cool article on a new open source, online system to crowd source the assemblage of data in neuroscience from the Voice of San Diego.  From the article: Traditionally, the study of the brain was organized somewhat like an archipelago. Neuroscientists would inhabit their own island or peninsula of the brain, and see little reason to venture elsewhere. Molecular neuroscientists, who study how DNA and RNA function in the brain, didn’t share their work with cognitive specialists who study how psychological and cognitive functions are produced by the brain, for example. But there has…

  • Henry Markram on TED – video online

    Stephen
    22 Oct 2009 | 10:20 am
    We had read that Dr. Henry Markram of the Blue Brain project had given a talk at TED (technology, entertainment, design), but the video wasn’t released until this month.  This talk is geared towards a general audience, rather than getting into the specific details of the Blue Brain project, as he has before.  It is engaging and includes many suggestions towards the future of neuroscience and AI. Watch it online at the TED website.

  • Neurodudes is on Twitter

    Neville
    18 Oct 2009 | 1:38 am
    Stephen Larson has decided to try and boost our SfN presence with Twitter. If that’s your thing, feel free to follow us (neurodudes). Since I have never used twitter before, this could be a short-lived experiment but you never know. Hope everyone is enjoying the conference so far (aside from the almost complete lack of wireless!)

  • SfN party update

    Neville
    18 Oct 2009 | 1:29 am
    Neurodudes is out at SfN this year (well 2/3rds of us, at least!) Being from MIT, as I run into old friends on the poster floor, it seems like this year I’m getting asked more about “When and where are the MIT parties?” (which we are known to be epic) than, say, “How’s it going?” or “When is your poster?” You should be ashamed of yourselves! (And, really, don’t you want to hear about our cool images of growing axons? Come by poster B9 on Monday afternoon to see some neat stochastic modeling techniques applied to this data to find some…
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    Mind Hacks

  • Cold asylum

    20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    New Scientist has a gallery of striking photos taken from Christopher Payne's book that details his photographic tour of abandoned asylums in the US. In both the UK and the US, and, I suspect, in many other countries, there are numerous unused decaying mental asylums that have become obsolete as 'care in the community' has become the flag under which mental health services have been reformed or ignored. The NewSci gallery captures the faded grandeur of some of these impressive buildings and has photographs of the devices and technology from a psychiatry of a bygone era. As we discussed…

  • Feliz Día Nacional del Psicólogo en Colombia

    20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Colombia has an official Day of the Psychologist and you might be forgiven for thinking that it's a self-declared promotional event by the psychology association here, but it isn't, the day is established by law. Article 92 of Law 1090 establishes 20th November as the official celebration. Psychology departments around the country usually celebrate the day with conferences and parties. I was kindly invited to give a talk on the 'Neuropsicología de Alucinaciones' at the four day conference (wow) at the University of Antioquia, so many thanks to everyone who attended. Later on, there is a free…

  • 2009-11-20 Spike activity

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

  • Time-space fusion

    19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    Neurophilosophy has an excellent piece on 'time-space' synaesthesia where affected individuals experience units of time - such as hours, days, or months - as occupying specific locations in space relative to their own body. The image on the right is taken from a BBC News article on time-space synaesthesia and was drawn by one lady to illustrate how days of the week appear to her. However, Neurophilosophy piece covers two new studies, one on a person with synaesthesia who experiences months in the space around her body in the form of a '7' shape: Michelle Jarick of the Synaesthesia Research…

  • Selecting for kuru resistant cannibals

    19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    New Scientist reports on a new study on how a gene that gives protection against the deadly brain disease kuru became more common in people exposed to the condition through their cannibalistic tradition of eating the bodies of dead relatives. Kuru is a prion disease, meaning the damage is caused by a poorly arranged or folded protein molecule which can trigger the same damaging changes in other proteins it comes into contact with. The condition is related to what we know as 'mad cow disease' and causes a distinctive form of shaking, brain degeneration and eventually leads to death. It was…
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    NPR Topics: Science

  • Museum: Galileo's Fingers, Tooth Found

    20 Nov 2009 | 2:06 pm
    Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again, a Florence museum said Friday.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Scientist: 'Don't Give Up' On Stopping Asian Carp

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    Two Asian carp species that could devastate the Great Lakes ecosystem may be a few miles from Lake Michigan. To halt their migration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built an underwater electric fence on a canal 20 miles south of the lake. But tests conducted by David Lodge at Notre Dame indicate that they have gotten close to the lake despite the barrier.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Rethinking The Human Future In Space

    20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    With NASA reporting a "significant amount" of water on the lunar surface, is it time to re-examine our priorities regarding living and working in space? Mark Sykes, director of the Planetary Science Institute, talks about why and how people should venture beyond Earth.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Real-Life Physics Problems Star On TV

    20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    The stars of The Big Bang Theory are two fictional Caltech physicists, but the physics problems they study are real. Bill Prady, the program's co-creator and executive producer, talks about including real-world science in the script, from dark matter to magnetic monopoles.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Personalizing Solar Power

    20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    Researchers are hoping to improve solar energy installations by coupling a solar panel to an efficient hydrolysis unit that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen. Daniel Nocera of MIT says the approach could lead to personal solar power units that could get many houses off the grid.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us
 
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    Not Exactly Rocket Science

  • Leafcutter ants rely on bacteria to fertilise their fungus gardens

    21 Nov 2009 | 8:30 am
    Hardly a natural history documentary goes by without some mention of leafcutter ants. So overexposed are these critters that I strongly suspect they're holding David Attenborough's relatives to ransom somewhere. But there is good reason for their fame - these charismatic insects are incredibly successful because of their skill as gardeners. As their name suggests, the 41 species of leafcutter ants slice up leaves and carry them back to their nests in long columns of red and green. They don't eat the leaves - they use them to grow a fungus, and it's this crop that they feed on. It's an old,…

  • Memories can be strengthened while we sleep by providing the right triggers

    20 Nov 2009 | 6:20 am
    In my final year of university, with exam deadlines looming and time increasingly fleeting, I considered recording some of my notes and playing them over while I was asleep. The concept of effectively gaining 6 extra hours of revision was appealing, but the idea didn't stick - it took too long to record the information and the noise stopped me from sleeping in the first place. And the whole thing had a vague hint of daftness about it. But a new experiment suggests that the idea actually has some merit, showing that you can indeed strengthen individual memories by reactivating them as you…

  • Tiny fungi replay the fall of the giant beasts

    19 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am
    Around 15,000 years ago, North American was home to a wide menagerie of giant mammals - mammoths and mastodonsgiant ground slothscamelsshort-faced bearsAmerican lionsdire wolves, and more. But by 10,000 years ago, these "megafauna" had been wiped out. Thirty-four entire genera went extinct, including every species that weighed over a tonne, leaving the bison as the continent's largest animal. In trying to explain these extinctions, the scientific prosecution has examined suspects including early human hunters, climate change and even a meteor strike. But cracking the case has proved…

  • Breaking the inverted pyramid - placing news in context

    18 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am
    News journalism relies on a tried-and-tested model of inverted storytelling. Contrary to the introduction-middle-end style of writing that pervades school essays and scientific papers, most news stories shove all the key facts into the first paragraphs, leaving the rest of the prose to present background, details and other paraphernalia in descending order of importance. The idea behind this inverted pyramid is that a story can be shortened by whatever degree without losing what are presumed to be the key facts. But recently, several writers have argued that this model is outdated and needs…

  • Elephants and humans evolved similar solutions to problems of gas-guzzling brains

    16 Nov 2009 | 2:04 pm
    At first glance, the African elephant doesn't look like it has much in common with us humans. We support around 70-80 kg of weight on two legs, while it carries around four to six tonnes on four. We grasp objects with opposable thumbs, while it uses its trunk. We need axes and chainsaws to knock down a tree, but it can just use its head. Yet among these differences, there is common ground. We're both long-lived animals with rich social lives. And we have very, very large brains (well, mostly). But all that intelligence doesn't come cheaply. Large brains are gas-guzzling organs and they need a…
 
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    PLoS Computational Biology

  • Exon Array Analysis of Head and Neck Cancers Identifies a Hypoxia Related Splice Variant of LAMA3 Associated with a Poor Prognosis

    Carla S. Moller-Levet et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary Alternative splicing is the process by which cells express a set of different, but related, transcripts from a single gene. When translated, each transcript results in a different protein, resulting in additional cellular complexity. Affymetrix Exon microarrays, which feature multiple probesets targeting different locations throughout each gene, allow the changes in transcription that result from alternative splicing to be investigated in a single genome-wide assay. In addition, the increased number of probesets targeting each gene offers the potential to combine signals in…

  • Spatial Analysis of Expression Patterns Predicts Genetic Interactions at the Mid-Hindbrain Boundary

    Dominik M. Wittmann et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary Understanding brain formation during development is a tantalizing challenge. It is also essential for the fight against neurodegenerative diseases. In vertebrates, the central nervous system arises from a structure called the neural plate. This tissue is divided into four regions, which continue to develop into forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain and spinal cord. Interactions between locally expressed genes and signaling molecules are responsible for this patterning. Two key signaling molecules in this process are Fgf8 and Wnt1 proteins. They are secreted from a signaling center…

  • Evaluation of the Oscillatory Interference Model of Grid Cell Firing through Analysis and Measured Period Variance of Some Biological Oscillators

    Eric A. Zilli et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary For many animals, including rats, accurate spatial memory over relatively large areas is important in order to find food and shelter. Just as unique points in time can be efficiently represented by combinations of repeating elements like hours, days, and months, points in space can be represented as combinations of elements that repeat at different spatial scales. Just such a code has been identified in the brains of rats and it shows an intriguing triangular spacing of encoded locations. Two different explanations have been developed as to what general mechanism in the brain…

  • A Novel Extended Granger Causal Model Approach Demonstrates Brain Hemispheric Differences during Face Recognition Learning

    Tian Ge et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary The right temporal cortex has previously been shown to play a greater role in the discrimination of faces in both sheep and humans. In the frequency domain, analysis of the relative causal contributions of low (theta 4–8Hz) and high (gamma 30–70Hz) frequency oscillations reveals that prior to learning, theta activity is more predominant in right than in left hemisphere processing, and that learning reduces this so that high frequency oscillations gain more control. We have been able to demonstrate that the frequency of connections increases in the right hemisphere and…

  • Stochastic Drift in Mitochondrial DNA Point Mutations: A Novel Perspective Ex Silico

    Suresh Kumar Poovathingal et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary Aging is characterized by a systemic decline of an organism's capacity in responding to internal and external stresses, leading to increased mortality. The mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging (mFRTA) attributes this decline to the accumulation of damages, in the form of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations, caused by free radical byproducts of metabolism. However, there is still a great deal of uncertainty with this theory due to the difficulties in quantifying mtDNA mutation burden. In this modeling study, we have shown that a random drift in mtDNA point mutation during…
 
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    PLoS Genetics

  • Detailed Analysis of a Contiguous 22-Mb Region of the Maize Genome

    Fusheng Wei et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary Maize is a major cereal crop and key experimental system for eukaryotic biology. Previous investigations of the maize genome at the sequence level have primarily focused on analyses of genome survey sequences and BAC contigs. Here we used a comprehensive set of resources to construct an ordered and oriented 22-Mb sequence from chromosome 4 that represents 1% of the maize genome. Genome annotation revealed the presence of 544 genes that are interspersed with transposable elements (TEs), which occupy 83.8% of the sequence. Fifty-one genes were involved in 14 tandem gene clusters…

  • A Single Molecule Scaffold for the Maize Genome

    Shiguo Zhou et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary The maize genome contains abundant repeats interspersed by low-copy, gene-coding sequences that make it a challenge to sequence; consequently, current BAC sequence assemblies average 11 contigs per clone. The iMap deals with such complexity by the judicious integration of IBM genetic and B73 physical maps, but the B73 genome structure could differ from the IBM population because of genetic recombination and subsequent rearrangements. Accordingly, we report a genome-wide, high-resolution optical map of maize B73 genome that was constructed from the direct analysis of genomic DNA…

  • Exceptional Diversity, Non-Random Distribution, and Rapid Evolution of Retroelements in the B73 Maize Genome

    Regina S. Baucom et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary Although TEs are a major component of all studied plant genomes, and are the most significant contributors to genome structure and evolution in almost all eukaryotes that have been investigated, their properties and reasons for existence are not well understood in any eukaryotic genome. In order to begin a comprehensive study of TE contributions to the structure, function, and evolution of both genes and genomes, we first identified all of the TEs in maize and then investigated whether there were non-random patterns in their dispersal. We used homology and TE structure criteria…

  • The Physical and Genetic Framework of the Maize B73 Genome

    Fusheng Wei et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary Maize has been a cultural icon and staple food crop of Americans since the discovery of the new world in 1492. Contemporary society is now faced with growing demands for food and fuel in the face of global climate change and the potential for increased disease pressure. To provide a comprehensive foundation to systematically understand maize biology with the goal of breeding higher yielding, disease-resistant, and drought-tolerant cultivars, our consortium sequenced the B73 genome of maize. In this study, we used a comprehensive physical and genetic framework map to develop a…

  • Forty-Three Loci Associated with Plasma Lipoprotein Size, Concentration, and Cholesterol Content in Genome-Wide Analysis

    Daniel I. Chasman et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of plasma lipoprotein fractions hold great promise for understanding lipid metabolism and its central role in cardiovascular disease and related disorders. Conventional assays for lipoprotein status determine total cholesterol content of low- or high-density lipoprotein particles (LDL-C or HDL-C, respectively) or total plasma triglyceride content (as an estimate of very-low density lipoprotein particle concentration [VLDL]). All three measures have been targets for recent GWAS. However, a more precise target for GWAS of lipoprotein…
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    PLoS Pathogens

  • Inclusion Biogenesis and Reactivation of Persistent Chlamydia trachomatis Requires Host Cell Sphingolipid Biosynthesis

    D. Kesley Robertson et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary The genus Chlamydia is composed of a group of obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens that cause several human diseases of medical significance. C. trachomatis is the most commonly encountered sexually transmitted pathogen, as well as the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide. The prevalence of chlamydial infections, and the extraordinary morbidity and health care costs associated with chronic persisting disease, justifies the research efforts in this area of microbial pathogenesis. Despite their clinical importance, the mechanisms by which these intracellular…

  • Glypican-1 Mediates Both Prion Protein Lipid Raft Association and Disease Isoform Formation

    David R. Taylor et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary The prion diseases are unique in that their infectious nature is not dependent on nucleic acid but is instead attributed to a misfolded protein, the prion protein. This misfolded prion protein is capable of inducing the misfolding of the normal form of the prion protein that is present on the surface of neurons and other cells in the body. However, the site in the cell at which this misfolding occurs and whether other proteins are involved remains controversial. We have addressed these questions by investigating how the normal form of the prion protein is targeted to…

  • Targeting the Replication Initiator of the Second Vibrio Chromosome: Towards Generation of Vibrionaceae-Specific Antimicrobial Agents

    Yoshiharu Yamaichi et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary Multi-drug resistant bacteria continue to emerge and there is a pressing need for the development of new antibiotics. Here, we carried out a cell-based high throughput screen to identify inhibitors of RctB, the initiator of replication of the second chromosome found in all the species of the Vibrionaceae. This family of bacteria includes several human pathogens, including Vibrio cholerae, the cause of cholera, as well as several species that damage economically important marine organisms. We identified a compound—designated vibrepin—that has potent cidal activity against V.

  • Identification of Host Cytosolic Sensors and Bacterial Factors Regulating the Type I Interferon Response to Legionella pneumophila

    Kathryn M. Monroe et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary Initial detection of invading microorganisms is one of the primary tasks of the innate immune system. However, the molecular mechanisms by which pathogens are recognized remain incompletely understood. Here, we provide evidence that an immunosurveillance pathway (called the RIG-I/MDA5 pathway), thought primarily to detect viruses, is also involved in the innate immune response to an intracellular bacterial pathogen, Legionella pneumophila. In the response to viruses, the RIG-I/MDA5 immunosurveillance pathway has been shown to respond to viral RNA or DNA. We found that the RIG-I…

  • Major Depletion of Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells in HIV-2 Infection, an Attenuated Form of HIV Disease

    Rita Cavaleiro et al.
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Author Summary Infection by HIV-2, the second AIDS-associated virus, is considered a unique natural model of attenuated HIV disease. HIV-2 infected individuals exhibit much lower levels of circulating virus (viremia) and progress to AIDS at slower rates than HIV-1 infected patients. In this study, we characterized for the first time blood plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC), important mediators between innate and acquired immunity, in HIV-2 infection. We observed a profound reduction in circulating pDC levels in HIV-2 infected patients, even in those with undetectable viremia, to levels…
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    PLoS ONE Alerts

  • Smoking Induces Long-Lasting Effects through a Monoamine-Oxidase Epigenetic Regulation

    Jean-Marie Launay et al.
    23 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Background Postulating that serotonin (5-HT), released from smoking-activated platelets could be involved in smoking-induced vascular modifications, we studied its catabolism in a series of 115 men distributed as current smokers (S), never smokers (NS) and former smokers (FS) who had stopped smoking for a mean of 13 years. Methodology/Principal Findings 5-HT, monoamine oxidase (MAO-B) activities and amounts were measured in platelets, and 5-hydroxyindolacetic acid (5-HIAA)—the 5-HT/MAO catabolite—in plasma samples. Both platelet 5-HT and plasma 5-HIAA levels were correlated with the…

  • Induction of Foxp3-Expressing Regulatory T-Cells by Donor Blood Transfusion Is Required for Tolerance to Rat Liver Allografts

    Yuta Abe et al.
    23 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Background Donor-specific blood transfusion (DST) prior to solid organ transplantation has been shown to induce long-term allograft survival in the absence of immunosuppressive therapy. Although the mechanisms underlying DST-induced allograft tolerance are not well defined, there is evidence to suggest DST induces one or more populations of antigen-specific regulatory cells that suppress allograft rejection. However, neither the identity nor the regulatory properties of these tolerogenic lymphocytes have been reported. Therefore, the objective of this study was to define the kinetics,…

  • Outcomes after Chemotherapy with WHO Category II Regimen in a Population with High Prevalence of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis

    Francine Matthys et al.
    23 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Standard short course chemotherapy is recommended by the World Health Organization to control tuberculosis worldwide. However, in settings with high drug resistance, first line standard regimens are linked with high treatment failure. We evaluated treatment outcomes after standardized chemotherapy with the WHO recommended category II retreatment regimen in a prison with a high prevalence of drug resistant tuberculosis (TB). A cohort of 233 culture positive TB patients was followed through smear microscopy, culture, drug susceptibility testing and DNA fingerprinting at baseline, after 3 months…

  • Heterosexual and Homosexual Partners Practising Unprotected Sex May Develop Allogeneic Immunity and to a Lesser Extent Tolerance

    Cherry Kingsley et al.
    23 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Background Epidemiological studies suggest that allogeneic immunity may inhibit HIV-1 transmission from mother to baby and is less frequent in multiparous than uniparous women. Alloimmune responses may also be elicited during unprotected heterosexual intercourse, which is associated ex vivo with resistance to HIV infection. Methodology/Principal Findings The investigation was carried out in well-defined heterosexual and homosexual monogamous partners, practising unprotected sex and a heterosexual cohort practising protected sex. Allogeneic CD4 and CD8 T cell proliferative responses were…

  • Cancer Associated Fibroblasts Promote Tumor Growth and Metastasis by Modulating the Tumor Immune Microenvironment in a 4T1 Murine Breast Cancer Model

    Debbie Liao et al.
    23 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Background Local inflammation associated with solid tumors commonly results from factors released by tumor cells and the tumor stroma, and promotes tumor progression. Cancer associated fibroblasts comprise a majority of the cells found in tumor stroma and are appealing targets for cancer therapy. Here, our aim was to determine the efficacy of targeting cancer associated fibroblasts for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Methodology/Principal Findings We demonstrate that cancer associated fibroblasts are key modulators of immune polarization in the tumor microenvironment of a 4T1…
 
 
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    Reuters: Science News

  • Station alarms delay second spacewalk

    21 Nov 2009 | 9:59 am
    CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Two spacewalkers halted a body-conditioning sleepover in a low-pressure chamber on the International Space Station on Saturday after a false depressurization alarm shut down ventilation fans.

  • "Big Bang" experiment advancing fast

    21 Nov 2009 | 5:39 am
    GENEVA (Reuters) - After a year's delay, scientists at the world's biggest accelerator have restarted an experiment to recreate "Big Bang" conditions that had sparked suggestions the earth would be sucked in by millions of black holes.

  • Art collector finds Galileo's lost tooth, fingers

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:44 pm
    ROME (Reuters) - An art collector has found a tooth, thumb and finger of the renowned Italian scientist Galileo Galilei who died in the 17th century, Florence's History of Science museum said on Friday.

  • Italy collector finds Galileo's lost tooth, fingers

    20 Nov 2009 | 9:17 am
    ROME (Reuters) - An art collector has found a tooth, thumb and finger of the renowned Italian scientist Galileo Galilei who died in the 17th century, Florence's History of Science museum announced on Friday.

  • Astronaut in space while wife giving birth

    20 Nov 2009 | 7:17 am
    CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Shuttle Atlantis astronaut Randy Bresnik can be forgiven if he's having a tough time focusing on work -- his wife is due to give birth on Friday to a baby girl.
 
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    Sciencetext Tips and Tricks

  • Internet against government corruption

    David Bradley
    18 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Can the internet prevent government corruption? You’re probably never going to meet an entirely honest politician, but according to a statistical study by US researchers of 170 countries the internet could provide the tools necessary to reduce corruption significantly. Martha García-Murillo of the School of Information Studies, at Syracuse University, New York, modeled political, economic and technological factors. She found that “red tape”, good governance and freedom of the press all had a greater effect on whether or not there was apparent corruption within a particular…

  • Lethal machinery

    David Bradley
    16 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    I just received a spam email from someone going by the likely name of J Hunt. Apparently he had some used equipment to sell. Unfortunately, its use seems to have proved fatal to his father: “My father purchased an Ilco 040 Performance Series Automatic Duplicator Key Machine in 2001. He used it twice, then died. I would like to resell it but don’t know what it’s worth. It’s in really good condition (looks new).” I suspect Mr Hunt will get few offers to buy for this lethal contraption… Related Posts:A man with five livesSpring Clean Your PCDHL Trojan…

  • Mobile malware epidemic on the way

    David Bradley
    13 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    A mobile malware epidemic could render phone networks useless within two to three years, if public awareness of the issue and network security experts don’t take control out of the hands of hackers. If you’re intelligent enough to be reading the Sciencetext blog, then it’s unlikely that you’re going to be taken in by an email phishing scam or be running a security-compromised web browser. You’re never going to follow a suggestion in a Twitter direct message or run an unknown Facebook app, are you? But, what about your mobile devices, malware on these is…

  • Twitter retweet to share tweets

    David Bradley
    11 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Having moved its Lists feature out of beta recently, the social media service, Twitter is currently beta testing a new way for users to see who’s talking about their tweets. The new ReTweet, or RT, features appear only for a select few users but add a handy icon to tweets that have already been retweeted and the option to view only retweets for a particular tweet made by people you follow. They’re headlining the new service as “Retweet to Share Tweets”, which is the basic ethic underlying the retweet system in which one Twitter user duplicates someone else’s…

  • Feedburner Feedcount

    David Bradley
    6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    When did you last check your blog’s subscriber numbers? It’s been quite a while for me. But, this week, I decided to take a quick look at my Feedburner stats. Seems that Sciencetext, SciScoop, and Sciencebase are all doing rather well. In fact, the former two are doing a lot better than expected… …which was worrying. Visitor rates had not changed much. Traffic has gradually climbed over the last few months and individual posts occasionally get retweeted or bookmarked on various social media sites. However, the leap for Sciencetext specifically since the last time I…
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    FlowingData

  • Buzzwords in Academic Papers (Comic)

    Nathan
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:45 am
    This comic was really amusing, although it might be because I'm a big nerd entertained by all things from PHD Comics... It's my blog, and I can laugh if I want to. Have a nice weekend, everyone. [Thanks, Stephen]

  • Thank You, FlowingData Sponsors

    Nathan
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:20 am
    Thank you to the FlowingData sponsors for keeping the servers alive. Without them, this blog would not be possible, and I wouldn't be able to do what I do. Check out what they have to offer. They make your data useful: Xcelsius Present — Transform spreadsheets into professional, interactive presentations. NetCharts — Build business dashboards that turn data into actionable information with dynamic charts and graphs. InstantAtlas — Enables information analysts to create interactive maps to improve data visualization and enhance communication. Tableau Software — Data exploration and…

  • Choose Your Own Adventure – Watch the Stories Unfold (UPDATED)

    Nathan
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:10 pm
    Interaction designer Christian Swinehart takes a careful look at the popular Choose Your Own Adventure books from the 1980s. We saw something like this before, but Swinehart takes it a step further. For those unfamiliar, these CYOA books let you make the protagonists' main decisions, and your choices would have an impact on the outcome of the adventure. Some endings were bad and some were good. With this in mind, Swineheart begins by color-coding pages. Either it's a decision page or one of five possible types of endings: great (you win), favorable, mediocre, disappointing, and catastrophic.

  • The Future: Embedding Data in the Everyday

    Nathan
    17 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    Imagine a world where data becomes the everyday, simply embedded in what you normally do. It's really not far off if you think about it. We use charts, graphs, and viz to make important decisions with investments, businesses, and to stay informed on the news, so why not use it in our own lives? This infographic video, The Ambient Life, is a vision of that future by Freeband Communication and IIPIC. Watch for the dramatic twist in the middle. Just when you thought it was safe to go for a jog... We've seen this type of projected future before (see here, here, and here). Still though, I never…

  • Visualize This: Class Size and Quality of Education. Your Turn

    Nathan
    16 Nov 2009 | 11:48 pm
    Photo by Night Owl City Last week I posted some parallel coordinate plots that related SAT scores and class size. Now it's your turn to take a crack. You can find the data that I used (and more) from the National Center of Education Statistics. There's a link to download the data as an Excel file. You can find pupil/teacher ratios here. The two best entries each win a copy of David McCandless' The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World's Most Consequential Trivia as well as eternal glory on FlowingData. Yes. Eternal. Different Views and Other Factors There were a lot of great…
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    ScienceDaily

  • Barn personnel experience higher-than-average rates of respiratory symptoms

    21 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    The estimated 4.6 million Americans involved in the equine industry may be at risk of developing respiratory symptoms due to poor air quality in horse barns, according to a questionnaire study.

  • Saliva proteins change as women age

    21 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    In a step toward using human saliva to tell whether those stiff joints, memory lapses, and other telltale signs of aging are normal or red flags for disease, scientists are describing how the protein content of women's saliva change with advancing age. The discovery could lead to a simple, noninvasive test for better diagnosing and treating certain age-related diseases in women, they suggest.

  • Brain disease 'resistance gene' evolves in Papua New Guinea community; could offer insights into CJD

    21 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    A community in Papua New Guinea that suffered a major epidemic of a CJD-like fatal brain disease called kuru has developed strong genetic resistance to the disease, according to new research by scientists in the UK.

  • Hidden threat: Elevated pollution levels near regional airports

    21 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    Scientists are reporting evidence that air pollution -- a well-recognized problem at major airports -- may pose an important but largely overlooked health concern for people living near smaller regional airports. Those airports are becoming an increasingly important component of global air transport systems. The study, one of only a handful to examine airborne pollutants near regional airports, suggests that officials should pay closer attention to these overlooked emissions, which could cause health problems for local residents.

  • Software knowledge unnecessarily lost

    21 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    All too often the knowledge acquired by software architects is unnecessarily lost. Moreover, it is difficult to simply and quickly assess the quality of software. According to researchers these problems can, however, be easily resolved. They investigated how architectural knowledge can be better disseminated and retrieved.
 
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    The Why Files

  • Death of the mastadon

    admin
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:32 pm
    It's one of the biggest puzzles of paleontology: Why did North America's large mammals go extinct shortly after the glaciers melted about 15k years ago? New study suggests that hunters get the credit -- or blame.

  • Fearing flu, finding vaccine

    admin
    12 Nov 2009 | 1:28 pm
    Flu vaccine is made in eggs, but that's too slow for a major epidemic. How are vaccines made inside animal cells? What other methods can protect us against a fast-changing, deadly virus?

  • Apnea treatment = Golfer’s glory?

    svmedaris
    5 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pm
    Golfer-doctor finds that treating apnea cuts golf scores; sees new motivator for wearing nighttime masks.

  • Tar sands

    admin
    29 Oct 2009 | 1:04 pm
    Canada's oil-drenched sands give it the second-largest oil reserves in the world. Using the "tar sands" pollutes air and water, destroys forests and could cause cancer. Should we leave oil sands alone?

  • Internet: The fastest teacher?

    svmedaris
    21 Oct 2009 | 10:51 am
    MRI scans of older people show major differences between searchers and non-searchers. After seven hours of Internet experience, those differences disappear. Honest? Could changing the brain be this easy?
 
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    PHYSORG

  • Australia issues 'catastrophic' alerts as fires rage

    21 Nov 2009 | 8:25 am
    Australia has issued "catastrophic" alerts after record-breaking temperatures and wild lightning storms sparked more than 100 fires across the country, officials said Saturday.

  • Quick restart of Big Bang machine stuns scientists

    21 Nov 2009 | 8:21 am
    (AP) -- Scientists moved Saturday to prepare the world's largest atom smasher for exploring the depths of matter after successfully restarting the $10 billion machine following more than a year of repairs.

  • GOP: Health test recommendations could affect care

    21 Nov 2009 | 4:20 am
    (AP) -- Republicans are seizing on this week's recommendations for fewer Pap smears and mammograms to fuel concern about government-rationed medical care - and to try to chip away support by women for President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul.

  • Measure to change U. of Neb. stem-cell rule fails (Update 2)

    21 Nov 2009 | 4:02 am
    (AP) -- The University of Nebraska's governing board on Friday voted not to place tighter restrictions on embryonic stem cell research than those outlined under federal guidelines, which were expanded after President Barack Obama took office.

  • Atlantis astronauts take 2nd spacewalk of mission

    21 Nov 2009 | 4:01 am
    (AP) -- An astronaut anticipating the birth of his daughter at any moment embarked on the first spacewalk of his career Saturday, tackling a load of maintenance work outside the International Space Station.
 
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    Scientific American

  • Circulation of LHC Beams Could Resume in Earnest over the Weekend

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:50 pm
    The Large Hadron Collider , the world's most powerful particle accelerator, is drawing near to its long-awaited reboot. More than a year after the European collider's initial start-up was quashed by a helium leak caused by a faulty electrical connection , particle beams have been injected into the collider, known as the LHC, and may be guided fully through its rings in the coming hours. [More]

  • How Long Can a Nuclear Reactor Last?

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:27 pm
    Could nuclear power plants last as long as the Hoover Dam?Increasingly dependable and emitting few greenhouse gases, the U.S. fleet of nuclear power plants will likely run for another 50 or even 70 years before it is retired -- long past the 40-year life span planned decades ago -- according to industry executives, regulators and scientists. [More]

  • Novel Nova: Stellar Blast Powered by Helium May Leave a Tantalizing Remnant

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:05 am
    A stellar explosion known as a nova that was detected in 2000 formed a two-lobed shell of material ejected from the star. Shaped like a bow tie, it continues to swell at great velocity. But, curiously, the coat of ejecta flowing outward from the star lacks hydrogen, the most common gas in the universe. [More]

  • Cracked Corn: Scientists Solve Maize's Genetic Maze

    19 Nov 2009 | 2:48 pm
    The complex corn genome--coming in at a hearty two billion base pairs (compared with the human genome's 2.9 billion base pairs)--has been mapped by more than 150 researchers, who worked for years to decipher the grain's genetic code . It's the most complicated plant genome to be deciphered to date and promises to increase the efficiency of the crop itself. [More]

  • Can Flywheels Help Balance Electricity Supply and Demand?

    19 Nov 2009 | 1:48 pm
    Beacon Power Corp. broke ground today on a 20-megawatt, energy-storage facility in southeastern New York. [More]
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    Eurekalert

  • Chest ultrasound as useful as chest CT in the eval of pediatric patients with complicated pneumonia

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Chest ultrasound can serve as a viable alternative to chest CT in the evaluation of pediatric patients with complicated pneumonia and parapneumonic effusion (a build-up of fluid between the lung and chest wall), according to a study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

  • Possible link studied between childhood abuse and early cellular aging

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Researchers from Brown University and Butler Hospital have determined that children who suffer physical or emotional abuse may be faced with accelerated cellular aging as adults. The findings are published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry. A print version of the article is also expected.

  • Effect of real-time CPR feedback reported at resuscitation science symposium

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    The Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium is the largest clinical research network to study prehospital treatments for cardiac arrest in the United States and Canada. ROC conducted the first randomized study to assess if real-time audio-feedback, during the EMS prehospital course of care, would improve clinical outcome. Results of the study were presented on November 15 during the Resuscitation Science Symposium 2009 program.

  • Watching a cannibal galaxy dine

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    A new technique using near-infrared images, obtained with ESO's 3.58-meter New Technology Telescope, allows astronomers to see through the opaque dust lanes of the giant cannibal galaxy Centaurus A, unveiling its "last meal" in unprecedented detail -- a smaller spiral galaxy, currently twisted and warped. This amazing image also shows thousands of star clusters, strewn like glittering gems, churning inside Centaurus A.

  • Saving the single cysteine: New antioxidant system found

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    We've all read studies about the health benefits of having a life partner. The same thing is true at the molecular level, where amino acids known as cysteines are much more vulnerable to damage when single than when paired up with other cysteines.
 
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    NOVA scienceNOW

  • Chasing Down Dinner

    WGBH Science Unit
    6 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    Evolving an ability to run long distances might have been key to survival for early humans. In this podcast, we talked to Dan Lieberman, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University, to find out why. Podcast produced by David Levin. Original interview by Gaia Remerowski. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by ExxonMobil, David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers. Major funding for NOVA scienceNOW is provided by the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical…

  • How We Became Human

    WGBH Science Unit
    29 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm
    Today, humans are rapidly changing the world's climate-but some anthropologists think climate may have once changed us. In this podcast, Rick Potts, director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, explains why a rapidly shifting environment could have shaped early human behavior. Podcast produced by David Levin. Original interview by Graham Townsley. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by ExxonMobil, David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers. Major…

  • Portland Science Pub

    WGBH Science Unit
    15 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm
    In this podcast, Neil deGrasse Tyson visits Portland, Oregon, to participate in a monthly event called the “Science Pub.” Sponsored by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the “Pub” invites researchers to talk about their work, answer audience questions, and have a beer. It's a science conversation done Oregon style. The original event lasted over two hours, but we trimmed the Q&A down to about 30 minutes. Podcast edited by David Levin. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by ExxonMobil, David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the…

  • Cosmic Perspective: Looking Up

    WGBH Science Unit
    26 Aug 2009 | 10:00 am
    As an astrophysicist, NOVA scienceNOW host Neil deGrasse Tyson has a unique view of the universe. Hear his "Cosmic Perspective" on looking up at the night sky. Audio editing by David Levin. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by ExxonMobil, David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers. Major funding for NOVA scienceNOW is provided by the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Additional funding is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This material is…

  • Cosmic Perspective: Bad News

    WGBH Science Unit
    17 Aug 2009 | 10:00 am
    As an astrophysicist, NOVA scienceNOW host Neil deGrasse Tyson has a unique view of the universe. Hear his "Cosmic Perspective" on bad news. Audio editing by David Levin. NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. Funding for NOVA is provided by ExxonMobil, David H. Koch, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers. Major funding for NOVA scienceNOW is provided by the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Additional funding is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This material is based upon work…
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    Nerdy Science Blog

  • GIANTmicrobes Launched Seven New Microbes for Christmas Presents

    WTJ
    16 Nov 2009 | 5:56 am
    Getting Christmas presents for your scientist colleagues may be a hard decision-making process.  You are not only need to be creative, but also need to have intellectual humorous includes in your gifts. GIANTmicrobes has just launched seven brand new microbes, which include brain cell, nerve cell, platelet, bird flu, swine flu, yogurt and three different coloured amoebas.  The microbes sold are plush dolls that are one million times of actual microbes size.  Image and information of the microbe will be given with the purchase, which will be a good science teaching tools for your kids too.

  • Three Oil Palm Genomes Sequenced Completely

    WTJ
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:04 am
    Palm oil is the world most consumed edible oil.  Palm oil is also used as important source of biofuel. The Genome of oil palms, the plant that produces palm oil, had been sequenced by consortium led by Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), Orion Genomics and the Advanced Biotechnology and Breeding Centre.  The sequence completion announced by Datuk Dr Mohd Basri Wahid, director-general of MPOB, at that International Palm Oil Congress 2009.  The consortium sequenced three oil palm genomes from two palm species, which are Elaeis oleifera and Elaeis guineensis (namely pisifera and dura palm). …

  • Curly Hair Gene Identified by Australian Scientists

    WTJ
    9 Nov 2009 | 2:50 am
    Trichohyalin gene is known for hair production and development.  Scientists from Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Australia, analyzed collected data from 5000 twins and found the same gene is responsible for curly hair.  The scientists have not fully understand the effect of such gene on biochemical reactions difference between curly hair and straight hair, however scientists hope the understanding of the curly hair gene will bring new implications for cosmetics industry and act as a new forensic tool. The study is published in November issue of American Journal of Human Genetics.

  • Malaysian Researcher Wins Japanese Award

    WTJ
    5 Nov 2009 | 2:49 pm
    A young researcher Dr Kevin Ng from Sabah, Malaysia has won the Japan International Award 2009 for Young Agricultural Researchers at University of Tokyo, Japan.  The award was presented by Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (MAFF). Dr Kevin Ng joined Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) as a researcher in August 1999 after graduating from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).  He works at the FRIM Biotechnology Division Genetics Laboratory ever since and wins the award at age 34.  The award is accredited to those with outstanding contribution to technological…

  • Kiss to Spread Germs

    WTJ
    1 Nov 2009 | 8:31 pm
    According to Dr Colin Hendrie who wrote in the journal Medical Hypotheses, man passed a bug named Cytomegalovirus to woman through kissing to build up immunity against it. Cytomegalovirus can be found in saliva and it is harmless normally. However it can be dangerous in pregnancy by causing birth defects or killing unborn babies. Dr Colin Hendrie suggested the best way to build up immunity protection is kissing the same person for about six months. So does that means after six months you either get pregnant or breakup? (news [pic])
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    ScienceBlogs : Combined Feed

  • From nature, robots [Collective Imagination]

    21 Nov 2009 | 10:01 am
    Mechanical engineer Sangbae Kim looks to animals to inspire his robot designs.. Press release from MIT: Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...

  • Rhodes Secretary: Wall Street Megabonuses Draining Our Young Talent [The Scientific Activist]

    21 Nov 2009 | 9:05 am
    In the op-ed pages of The Washington Post today, Elliot Gerson--the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust--takes a bold stand: Tonight, 32 young Americans will win Rhodes Scholarships. Their tenures at Oxford are funded by the legacy of the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes, a man whose life would not be honored today were it not for his vision that young people of outstanding intellect, leadership and ambition could make the world a better place. For more than a century Rhodes scholars have left Oxford with virtually any job available to them. For much of this time, they have overwhelmingly…

  • The 124th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle [Respectful Insolence]

    21 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am
    It's time for another installment of that venerable (gasp!) blog carnival of skepticism, science, and critical thinking, The Skeptics' Circle. This time, it's the 124th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle, and it's finally landed, late but still brimming with skeptical goodness at Beyond the Short Coat. Next up, two weeks hence, on December 3, will be TechSkeptic at Effort Sisyphus. His instructions for submitting your work are here. General instructions for what we look for in a Skeptics' Circle entry are here. So, by the way, is the schedule. If you're interested in hosting one of these puppies…

  • Chinese propensity to copy [Gene Expression]

    21 Nov 2009 | 8:54 am
    No, this isn't about intellectual property issues and piracy. Whole Genome Distribution and Ethnic Differentiation of Copy Number Variation in Caucasian and Asian Populations: Although copy number variation (CNV) has recently received much attention as a form of structure variation within the human genome, knowledge is still inadequate on fundamental CNV characteristics such as occurrence rate, genomic distribution and ethnic differentiation. In the present study, we used the Affymetrix GeneChip® Mapping 500K Array to discover and characterize CNVs in the human genome and to study ethnic…

  • Leafcutter ants rely on bacteria to fertilise their fungus gardens [Not Exactly Rocket Science]

    21 Nov 2009 | 8:30 am
    Hardly a natural history documentary goes by without some mention of leafcutter ants. So overexposed are these critters that I strongly suspect they're holding David Attenborough's relatives to ransom somewhere. But there is good reason for their fame - these charismatic insects are incredibly successful because of their skill as gardeners. As their name suggests, the 41 species of leafcutter ants slice up leaves and carry them back to their nests in long columns of red and green. They don't eat the leaves - they use them to grow a fungus, and it's this crop that they feed on. It's an old,…
 
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    Discover Blogs

  • Cassini buzzes Enceladus once again | Bad Astronomy

    21 Nov 2009 | 10:29 am
    On November 20, 2009, the Cassini spacecraft buzzed the surface of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus once again, returning dramatic images of its water geysers and wrinkled, ridged surface: That raw image (which means it has not been processed to remove instrument/detector artifacts like bad pixels and such) was taken when Cassini was a mere 2000 km (1200 miles) above the moon’s surface. The features are beautiful and plentiful… and it looks like a great place to ski. Bonus: the low gravity would make the experience last longer! Cassini got an overview of the geysers, too, when it…

  • Radio Alert: Science Fantastic Today At 5 | The Loom

    21 Nov 2009 | 8:04 am
    Today at 5 pm EST I am going to be on Science Fantastic, the radio show hosted by physicist Michio Kaku. You can call in at 800-449-8255. Here’s a list of stations that carry the show, either live or repeated later this week.

  • Exquisite rubble | Bad Astronomy

    21 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am
    I know, I usually wax lyrical and scientific over this picture or that returned from various astronomical and space observatories. But honestly, I don’t have a whole lot to say about this particular image, from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, showing boulders that have rolled downhill to the bottom of the 45 kilometer-wide Rutherford crater: Except: a) Click to embiggen. 2) I still have not gotten used to these super hi-res pictures. This one is 510 meters across. See the big rock at the top, left of center? The one casting a long shadow? That’s about the size of my yard, and I…

  • Weekly News Roundup: A Klingon Dad, Russian Space Bloggers, & Black Market Fat | Discoblog

    20 Nov 2009 | 2:04 pm
    • Gardak! To learn about children and language, Dad speaks to son only in Klingon for first three years of the child’s life. • In Soviet Russia, blog writes you! Maksim Suraev, a Russian cosmonaut, joins the blogosphere with a healthy dose of cold war humor about life on the International Space Station. • In a case of Project Mayhem gone terribly bad, Peru police say a gang drained the fat from their murder victims and sold it on the black market for use in cosmetics. • Wisconsin looks to become the first state to recognize an official state microbe. Of course the bacterium,…

  • Found: Dino-Munching Crocodiles Who Swam in the Sahara | 80beats

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:25 pm
    A thrilling set of ancient crocodile fossils have been unearthed in northern Africa. A “saber-toothed cat in armor” and a pancake-shaped predator are among the strange crocodile cousins whose bones have been found beneath the windswept dunes of the Sahara, archaeologists say [National Geographic News] At a news conference organized by the National Geographic Society, which sponsored the research, scientists announced that the fossils represent 5 species; 3 new species and 2 that were previously known. These ancient croc ancestors, known as crocodilyforms, are unlike any crocodiles…
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    Bitesize Bio

  • Which is Best: TAE, TBE or Something Else?

    Nick
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:41 am
    TAE or TBE, which is best? Well, of course, it depends on what you want to do. Here are the pros and cons of both: TBE (Tris-borate-EDTA) is a better conductive medium than TAE (Tris-acetate EDTA) so is less prone to overheating so use TBE for long runs Borate is an enzyme inhibitor so TBE is not a good buffer to use if you will be isolating the DNA for downstream enzymatic steps. For example, borate carry-over could affect your ligations, so use TAE instead. Acetate gives improved separation of large DNA fragments On the other hand, borate resolves <2kb fragments better, so use TBE for…

  • Does (Should) Your Lab Rock?

    Nick
    16 Nov 2009 | 6:42 am
    My PhD was a soul-less affair. It was also rock-less, jazz-less and pop-less. And all because my supervisor was of the opinion that music in the lab was a distraction that reduced concentration and our ability to do the job. “Rubbish!”, I thought, “Nothing helps you through a mindless task like splitting cells, pipetting or labelling like a bit of music”. A 2005 study in the “Psychology of Music” Journal backs up my opinion, reporting that music increased the performance of software developers in both creative and routine tasks. But over the years I have…

  • Measure Twice, Cut Once

    Travis
    11 Nov 2009 | 10:15 am
    This old construction adage has a home within your job search. Attention to detail is crucial, especially in the “e” age. You no longer have your sense of humor, wit, charm, personality or infectious smile to fall back on. Instead, you only have the cold black and white of the written word. So why is it that when your computer will automatically check your spelling and grammar, so many people miss this basic step? I think most people would be surprised at how many cover letters, resumes and back-and-forth emails are filled with incorrect spelling and grammar. This is 100%…

  • Be The Golden Child In Your Lab

    Suzanne
    8 Nov 2009 | 5:02 pm
    In a previous article, I listed some ways that people annoy their co-workers and many of you added some of your own pet peeves. Now I would like to discuss some ways to be the lab favorite, also known as the “golden child”. Does your lab have a “golden child”? Someone who is always perfect, the favorite of the PI, the go-to person for everything by everyone? Do you wonder how they got that way? Well, actually, I can’t tell you because I wasn’t the golden child of my lab.  But I’ve known a few and I run a lab myself. So instead, I am going to tell you…

  • The Perfect Learning Tool for Science: Video

    Suzanne
    4 Nov 2009 | 4:42 pm
    I don’t need to tell you that you can find (virtually) everything you need to know on the internet — encylopedias are a thing of the past. Now, you have an app for that on your phone. You don’t even need to wait to get home. So it makes total sense that for science, we would learn techniques via the internet. But not just a literary “how-to” guide anymore. Videos as a learning tool are starting to take a bigger role in teaching. A live demonstration speaks a thousand words! In a previous article, I talked about JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) and how…
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    Nature Network Blog Posts

  • The Rain in Spain.... (from Sabbi Lall's blog)

    Sabbi Lall
    21 Nov 2009 | 8:05 am
    This last week was a sort of cascade of science awards in New York. On Monday night the New York Academy of Sciences Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists was announced (I think young can mean up to 40 odd). The range of fields the awardees come from is awesome- the Faculty winners were Paul Chirik (Chemical Biologist), Carmala Garzione (Earth Scientist), Ben Oppenheimer (Astrophysicist) and Shai Shaham, (Developmental Geneticist). Shaham works on C. elegans glial development, and on Tuesday, kudos to the worm again when Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun received the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize. My…

  • Bands (from Eva Amsen's blog)

    Eva Amsen
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:45 pm
    So, I’ve been launching myself into something I actually have the time, but not the inspiration for. Or maybe I have inspiration and time, but no confidence. Whichever it is, I have an excuse for not blogging, and that’s what matters. You see, I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year. The goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel in the month of November. It’s hard. I’m very behind. NaNoWriMo lets you update your word count on the site, and you can see where you are and where you’re supposed to be. This is what my graph looks like today: Procrastination, visualized. My…

  • Presto, Pesto (from Kristi Vogel's blog)

    Kristi Vogel
    20 Nov 2009 | 4:40 pm
    The northwest corner of my backyard is dominated by volunteers – a rangy cottonwood sapling, millet and sunflowers from the bird feeder, and basil that re-seeds itself every year, after an initial deliberate planting when I first moved into the house. There was enough basil this year to make a batch of pesto, and since I recently purchased a small freezer, I have plenty of room to store pesto cubes. As you can see in the photo below, I also have space in the freezer to store a large bag of pine nuts. We’ve had a light freeze in the Hill Country already, and because the leaves are…

  • A Dangerous Level of Knowledge (from Brian Derby's blog)

    Brian Derby
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:03 pm
    I have spent most of the evenings of this week battling with a home wireless network. One of the disadvantages with the plug and play philosophy of modern technology is that when you need to do something slightly different, the manual (or lack of manual) does not give sufficient information for one to implement the modification. I live in a largish house with solid walls and a “solid” ceiling between the two levels, i.e. not timber floor boards on joists. This makes instaling a wired ethernet rather expensive and/or disruptive. It also means that the Wi-Fi does not really extend…

  • A great loss (from Anna Kushnir's blog)

    Anna Kushnir
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:59 pm
    I have been waiting for a bit of news for a few months now. Every single email with one particular subject heading made me jump in my seat, tied my stomach into knots, but none of them were that one email. Until today. Anna, Please call me as soon as you can. Ryan This was the email I have been waiting for, with much dread and mountains of anxiety, for 6 months. My graduate advisor passed away yesterday, after a lengthy and terrible battle with Parkinson’s disease. Her illness was the reason my lab shut down part way through my graduate work. It’s the reason she moved to Arizona, where…
 
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    ScienceAlert - Latest Stories

  • Feature: Seclusion to inclusion

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:16 am
    A new initiative is helping to reduce the practice of secluding psychiatric patients experiencing an extreme crisis.

  • Mixing hinders cancer drugs

    19 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Combining anti-cancer drugs with alternative medicines makes them less useful and more dangerous, according to new studies.

  • Deer DNA helps husbandry

    19 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Researchers are working to identify variants in deer DNA, and make it easy for farmers to identify them when breeding better animals.

  • Wastewater algae turned to fuel

    19 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    A recent New Zealand project is using it all – treating wastewater, converting the algae into fuel, and making the residue into fertiliser.

  • Better surgery worth repeating

    19 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Research has found that repeat surgery is now a viable option for brain cancer patients – before, it was more likely to harm than help.
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    PHD Comics

  • 11/18/09 PHD comic: 'Flush'

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:37 am
    Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com title: "Flush" - originally published 11/18/2009

  • 11/16/09 PHD comic: 'Buzzwords'

    17 Nov 2009 | 5:03 pm
    Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com title: "Buzzwords" - originally published 11/16/2009

  • 11/13/09 PHD comic: 'I am going home'

    15 Nov 2009 | 1:29 am
    Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com title: "I am going home" - originally published 11/13/2009 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!

  • 11/11/09 PHD comic: 'Experience'

    12 Nov 2009 | 9:41 pm
    Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com title: "Experience" - originally published 11/11/2009 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!

  • 11/09/09 PHD comic: 'Brain saver'

    10 Nov 2009 | 3:19 pm
    Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com title: "Brain saver" - originally published 11/9/2009 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!
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    Brain Waves

  • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Forum on Neuroscience

    9 Nov 2009 | 3:47 pm
    Off to Princeton to participate in a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation meeting on Connecting Revolutions in Neuroscience with Health and Health Care tomorrow. We'll be engaged in a series of highly iterative, forward-looking discussions that will culminate in a wrap-up that integrates the thinking across neurotechnology, neuroscience and behavioral health and outlines connections and implications for the future of health and health care. Should be interesting!

  • Opportunities in Neuroscience for Future Army Applications

    30 Oct 2009 | 10:56 am
    Floyd Bloom and team have done all of us a service with this extensively researched and well thought out analysis. I'm using the findings right now on a new piece of legislation in development. Opportunities in Neuroscience for Future Army Applications makes 17 recommendations that focus on utilizing current scientific research and development initiatives to improve performance and efficiency, collaborating with pharmaceutical companies to employ neuropharmaceuticals for general sustainment or enhancement of soldier performance, and improving cognitive and behavioral performance using…

  • Neurotech Clusters: Leading Regions in the Global Neurotechnology Industry

    22 Oct 2009 | 2:45 pm
    This reports really represents the economic geographer in me wondering how the neurotech industry is developing across space. After months of data collection, writing and analysis here are the results. Go to the NIO website to download the 100 page report. According to NeuroInsights and NIO, the top nine neurotech regions with composite scores are: 1. San Francisco Bay Area, CA (100) 2. Greater Boston, MA (98) 3. New York/New Jersey (91) 4. London, United Kingdom (84) 5. San Diego, CA (83) 6. Los Angeles/Irvine, CA (81) 7. Baltimore, MD (69) 8. Greater Philadelphia, PA (66) 9. Minneapolis, MN…

  • The Young and the Neuro "Revolution"

    14 Oct 2009 | 8:02 am
    From prefix to adjective and now David Brooks makes "the Neuro" a noun. The meme lives.

  • 2010 Translational Neurotech Summit, Call For Speakers

    8 Oct 2009 | 2:27 pm
    The Neurotech Development Foundation is organizing a Translational Neurotech Summit on May 18, 2010. This one day gathering of scientists, entrepreneurs, executives and investors will be held coordination with The 5th annual Neurotech Investing and Partnering Conference May 19-20, 2010. The goal of the summit is to facilitate the movement of promising neurotechnology (pharmaceuticals, biologics, cell-based therapeutics, devices and diagnostics) from universities, government labs and research institutes into the private sector. CALL FOR SPEAKERS Showcase your translational research project to…
 
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    Physics Today Newspicks

  • Beams sent around LHC

    Physics Today
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:16 am
    Physics Today: Updated: 2:38PM EST and 4:40PM EST: Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), announced that they have sent a particle beam around the 27-kilometer collider. "It’s great to see beam circulating in the LHC again," said CERN director general Rolf Heuer. "We’ve still got some way to go before physics can begin, but with this milestone we’re well on the way." The LHC circulated its first beams on 10 September 2008, but suffered a serious malfunction nine days later. It has taken over a year repairing and consolidating the machine to ensure that such an incident cannot…

  • A light touch on liquid droplets

    Physics Today
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:46 am
    Nature: With microfluidic devices gaining prominence for many applications in chemistry and biology, the hunt is on to find ways of accurately controlling the motion of liquid droplets. In Angewandte Chemie, Antoine Diguet et al. describe a method for using light to trap and move oil droplets floating on an aqueous solution. Related Link Photomanipulation of a droplet by the chromocapillary effect

  • Russia restructures physics labs

    Physics Today
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:54 am
    Science: Four of Russia's most prominent physics labs are to be merged into a new national research center. The institutes, which have languished in the post-Soviet era, have cautiously welcomed the raised profile the merger will bring. But a different reform aimed at separating basic and applied research at one of the institutes—the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, Russia's premier lab for nuclear energy research--has researchers up in arms. The merger, announced in a presidential decree last month, will combine the Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Protvino, 100 kilometers…

  • Khan documents confirms Chinese help in nuclear weapon research

    Physics Today
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:24 am
    washingtonpost.com: In 1982, a Pakistani military C-130 left the western Chinese city of Ürümqi with a highly unusual cargo: enough weapons-grade uranium for two atomic bombs, and a blueprint of how to build one say accounts written by the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan. Khan is currently under house arrest. The uranium transfer was part of a broad-ranging, secret nuclear deal approved years earlier by Chinese premier Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. US officials say they have known about the transfer for decades and once privately…

  • A new way of ranking scientists

    Physics Today
    19 Nov 2009 | 12:38 pm
    APS Physics: Most metrics of a scientist’s impact in a field, like the h-index, rely primarily on the number of times his or her papers have been cited, and can miss the more subtle ways that knowledge and credit for this research spread among scientists. Filippo Radicchi, Santo Fortunato, Benjamin Markines, and Alessandro Vespignani are instead proposing a way to rank scientists that reflects the diffusion of scientific credit in time. Their method, based on an algorithm similar to Google’s PageRank, takes into account several nontrivial effects such as the fact that being cited by an…
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    Physics Today We Hear That

  • 2010 Joseph A. Burton Forum Award recipient

    Physics Today
    16 Nov 2009 | 1:14 pm
    Citation: "For broadening the public understanding of science in Pakistan and for informing the public of the dangers of the nuclear arms race in South Asia" Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy is chairman and professor at the department of physics at Quaid e Azam University, Islamabad, where he has taught for 36 years. He received a PhD in nuclear physics from MIT in 1978, and won the Abdus Salam Prize for Mathematics, the Baker Award for Electronics, and the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science. His research interests lie in theoretical high energy physics. Dr. Hoodbhoy has spoken and…

  • Professor Birman to receive Sakharov Prize for human rights

    Physics Today
    16 Nov 2009 | 10:40 am
    For about 35 years, Dr. Joseph L. Birman, '47, Distinguished Professor of Physics at The City College of New York (CCNY) has advocated for the rights of repressed scientists, first in the former Soviet Union and later in China, Cuba, Iraq, Iran and the United States. Now he is to be honored for "his tireless and effective personal leadership in defense of human rights of scientists throughout the world" as one of three recipients of the American Physical Society's (APS) Andrei Sakharov Prize for 2010. Professor Birman is to receive the award, named for the Russian theoretical physicist who…

  • Hirosi Ooguri wins Nishina Memorial Prize

    Physics Today
    9 Nov 2009 | 1:49 pm
    Kashiwa, Japan — On November 9, the Nishina Memorial Foundation announced that Hirosi Ooguri, IPMU Principal Investigator and Fred Kavli Professor of California Institute of Technology, is a recipient of the 2009 Nishina Memorial Prize. This is the oldest and most prestigious physics award in Japan. The past winners of the Nishina Prize include the 4 Nobel Laureates in physics: Leo Esaki, Masatoshi Koshiba, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa. Since 1955, the Prize has been awarded annually by the Nishina Memorial Foundation. The Foundation was established to commemorate Yoshio…

  • Eugene Commins Named First AAPT J.D. Jackson Excellence in Graduate Education Award

    American Association of Physics Teachers
    6 Nov 2009 | 8:50 am
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE College Park, Maryland, United States, October 29, 2009. The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) announced today that the first AAPT J. D. Jackson Excellence in Graduate Education Award winner is Eugene Commins, physics professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. This award is given in recognition of contributions to graduate physics teaching and awardees are chosen for their extraordinary accomplishments in communicating the excitement of physics to their students. This prestigious award will be presented to Commins at a Ceremonial Session…

  • Mary Beth Monroe Recognized for Creative Leadership in Physics Education

    American Association of Physics Teachers
    6 Nov 2009 | 8:44 am
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE College Park, Maryland, United States, October 29, 2009. The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) announced today that The Melba Newell Phillips Medal has been awarded to Mary Beth Monroe, Professor of Physics at Southwest Texas Junior College, in recognition of her creative leadership and dedicated service that have resulted in exceptional contributions within AAPT. The Medal will be presented to at a Ceremonial Session of the AAPT Winter Meeting at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, DC, on Monday, February 15, 2010. Lila Adair, Chairman,…
 
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    HowStuffWorks: Science Daily RSS Feed

  • 10 Biggest Snowstorms

    18 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am
    Here is our list of the biggest snowstorms of all time.

  • How Solar Cooking Works

    18 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am
    Parabolic cookers can use the heat of the sun to reach temperatures of up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius).

  • 5 Crazy Gov't Experiments        

    18 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am
    The occasional oddball research premise slips past the people who review government grant applications. What are some of the craziest instances of your tax dollars at work?

  • How Missile Defense Systems Will Work

    18 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am
    What once was "Star Wars" under Reagan is now National Missile Defense under Bush. Learn more about the technology behind the system.

  • How Jet Packs Work

    18 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am
    We may fantasize about soaring through the sky, but humans aren't aerodynamic creatures. Could human flight be possible with personal jet packs?
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    FT.com - Science & Environment

  • Science briefing: maize genome is decoded

    19 Nov 2009 | 2:35 pm
    The largest and most complex plant genome known to science – that of maize – has been decoded at last. Results of the $30m US-led project are published on Friday in the journals Science and PLoS Genetics

  • Science briefing: Alzheimer's breakthrough

    12 Nov 2009 | 3:07 pm
    Researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institute believe they have uncovered a key element in the formation of lasting memories – a receptor molecule called nogo receptor 1

  • Four-year Merlin inquiry dropped by SFO

    12 Nov 2009 | 12:22 pm
    The Serious Fraud Office said it had scrapped the Merlin Biosciences case for lack of evidence, after more than four years looking into allegations of impropriety relating to investments held in one of the business' funds

  • Public to be quizzed on genetic research

    10 Nov 2009 | 6:42 pm
    Britain's Academy of Medical Sciences will assess acceptance of experiments that could create monkeys or mice with recognisably human features

  • Science briefing: Scents and early memories

    5 Nov 2009 | 8:31 pm
    Research shows that the first time someone smells a particular odour, whether pleasant or unpleasant, the memory is imprinted in their brain in a way that is unparalleled by other sensations
 
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    SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

  • Seed's Daily Zeitgeist

    greenwood@seedmediagroup.com
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:10 am
    Seed's Daily Zeitgeist The ultimate moral dilemma (source: NPR) Radiolab's hosts ask Harvard moral psychologist Joshua Greene to discuss moral puzzles—including the classic challenge of whether you would kill your child to save a village. As it turns out, about half of subjects say they would. Here, try the Relaxacisor (source: MuseumofQuackery.com) The physical headquarters of the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices may have closed down when its founder retired and donated the materials to the Science Museum of Minnesota, but the collection's site is alive and well—unlike many…

  • Hair Raiser

    greenwood@seedmediagroup.com
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:53 am
    Malcolm Gladwell and Steven Pinker duel over balancing scientific rigor with relatable narrative, while the future of personal genomics goes under the microscope.

  • Seed's Daily Zeitgeist

    greenwood@seedmediagroup.com
    19 Nov 2009 | 7:57 am
    Seed's Daily Zeitgeist Where did the science stimulus money go? (source: Scienceworksforus.org) More than $20 billion in stimulus money has poured into the nation’s universities, according to a trio of research consortia that recently gathered data from most of the major science institutions across the US. The information is posted to the new ScienceWorksforUs.org, where viewers can search data state by state, including number and size of grants. Though the site may not be visually stunning, what it represents—the largest cash influx into scientific R&D in half a century—is…

  • Our Adapting Future

    greenwood@seedmediagroup.com
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:20 am
    Current developments in autonomous, biological, and evolutionary robotics will have a profound impact on the future of interactive and dynamic architectural space.

  • Seed's Daily Zeitgeist

    greenwood@seedmediagroup.com
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:58 am
    Seed's Daily Zeitgeist Scientists examine the aching hearts of ancient Egypt (source: LiveScience) We often think of heart disease as a modern ailment, brought on by things like smoking, diets high in processed foods, or sedentary lifestyles. But researchers recently found evidence for the disease in 3,500-year-old mummies, suggesting it may have much more ancient origins. Watch 200 years of colonialism in less than 4 minutes (source: 3 Quarks Daily) A new visualization shows the expansion and decline of the French, British, Portuguese, and Spanish empires over the last 200 years. An artist…
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    Scienceray

  • Cloudy Government: How Innovative Countries are Making Use of Cloud Computing in Their Information Technology Strategies

    21 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am
    We have seen revolutionary computing technologies come about roughly once each decade in the “modern era” of computing since around 1945, when computing came to mean computations performed by a machine, not by man. From the mainframe era of the 1960s to the advent of minicomputers in the 1970s, the personal computer in the 1980s, the growth of the Internet and the Web in the 1990s, and the explosion of cell phones and other smart, Web-connected devices in the past 10 years, computing has been reinvented in many ways over time.

  • Creepy Crawlies: Critters That Will Have You Jumping at Every Itch

    19 Nov 2009 | 2:33 am
         I hate bugs.  Very little in life scares me, but I am a complete wuss when it comes to them.  Or even things that look like them.  I took my kids to a large museum awhile back, where they had a live insects exhibit.  23 inch centipedes.  6 inch long roaches.  There were plenty of other nasty things to look at, but I couldn’t list a one, because I was long gone at that point.      We left the devilish exhibit, and the next stop was the mundane butterfly room.  Or at least it was mundane, until one landed on…

  • Wildlife’s Got Talent!

    18 Nov 2009 | 2:08 am
    Say cheese!  In fourth place I’d put this Bruce the Shark (Finding Nemo) impersonator.  The 14 ft long white shark was snapped in the waters off the coastal Mexican resort of Guadalupe.  The fearless photographer maintains that he wasn’t in any danger – he apparently had a “100% safety record” and went on to say that great whites aren’t as ferocious as they’re made out in the Jaws movies.  I’ll take his word for that but don’t think I’ll take up shark photography myself! In third place is this polar…

  • 10 Star Trek Gadgets That Actually Exist

    18 Nov 2009 | 12:13 am
    Image via Wikipedia Cloaking Device The ability to truly cloak something in warfare would greatly improve the chances of victory. The British Army have already managed to successfully do it. They managed to ‘hide’ a 60 tonne tank just by projecting images from behind the tank to the front, giving the impression that there was nothing there. Communicator Sitting proudly on the uniform, all Captain Kirk had to do was hit the button and he could talk to anyone else. The crazy thing is, it actually exists. Vocera Communications has made the device like-for-like, using hands-free voice…

  • A Flower to Fight Vampires: The Secret of Vervain

    16 Nov 2009 | 11:58 pm
    Image via Wikipedia It’s unbelievable how this Vampire phenomenon has hit our culture! On TV, in movies, in books – we just can’t seem to escape these blood sucking bachelors. And just as many vampire stories there are out there, there are even more vampire legends. What harms a vampire- Garlic? A wooden stake in the heart? How about a little flower. Image by watchwithkristin via Flickr In the CW hit show “Vampire Diaries” we’re seen people use something called Vervain to combat a threatening vampire. It doesn’t kill the vampire. It just sort of evens…
 
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    Brain And Consciousness Research

  • To eat or not to eat? Mental budgets help control consumption

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    If you feel like you're in a losing battle with a triple-chocolate cake, a "mental budget" can help, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

  • Monetary gain and high-risk tactics stimulate activity in the brain

    19 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    Monetary gain stimulates activity in the brain. Even the mere possibility of receiving a reward is known to activate an area of the brain called the striatum.

  • Researchers find explanation for rapid maturation of neurons at birth

    18 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    So a baby can detect outside signals, the brain cells use a a "pump" that drains chloride out of newborn neurons, making these highly chaotic, developing cells quiet down. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have figured out the genetic control of the pump in rodents.

  • Pushing the brain to find new pathways

    18 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    Until recently, scientists believed that, following a stroke, a patient had about six months to regain any lost function. After that, patients would be forced to compensate for the lost function by focusing on their remaining abilities. Although this belief has been refuted, a University of Missouri occupational therapy professor believes that the current health system is still not giving patients enough time to recover.

  • Are teenagers wired differently than adults?

    18 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm
    Parents have long suspected that the brains of their teenagers function differently than those of adults.
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    ZME Science

  • First Universal Two-Qubit quantum processor created

    Mihai Andrei
    17 Nov 2009 | 9:05 am
    Physicists from NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) have demonstrated what they claim to be the first universal programmable quantum information processor that will be able to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics (the set of principles that describe the atomic and subatomic matter). They managed to accomplish this using two quantum bits (qubits) of information. This processor could prove to be a major breakthrough for a future quantum computer, that could very well be the ‘evolutionary leap’ in the computers’ life thus resulting the possible solve…

  • Telegraph’s picture of the day shows why you should never teach a lion stuff

    Mihai Andrei
    16 Nov 2009 | 2:02 pm
    Yeah, that’s a lion trying to open a car door with it’s teeth; picture taken in Johannesburg, South Africa via The Telegraph Related posts Volcano Eruption And Lightning Storms In Chile (1) Two pictures show the progress of technology - first and finest picture of Earth (4) Top 10 new animals of 2008 (0) Mermaid sightings in Israel lead to 1.000.000$ reward (1) Hubble takes amazing pictures of mammoth stars (3)

  • The most beautiful types of quartz [w/ pics]

    Mihai Andrei
    12 Nov 2009 | 3:24 pm
    Despite the fact that it’s the 2nd most common mineral in the Earth’s continental crust, quartz is a true wonder of nature. Composed of the two most common elements in our planet’s crust (oxygen and silicone), quartz fascinated both scientists and common people since ancient times. At a molecular level, it forms extremely complicated (and variable) crystals, so going into more details there would require a considerable amount of detail - entire books have been written on that sole subject. Quartz in itself is colorless and transparent (or translucent), but more often than…

  • The Sky Burial

    Mihai Andrei
    9 Nov 2009 | 1:56 pm
    First of all, it has to be said that this once common burial practice in Tibet is pretty hard to ‘digest’ for our ‘civilized’ world, and there’s a big chance you’ll find the pictures shocking. As adepts of Buddhism, Tibetans believe the single most important part of a person is its spirit, and after death, there is no reason to preserve the body, which is just a hollow vessel. Also, wood is quite scarce and the soil is really rocky, making it hard to dig a grave. That’s pretty much why, after a somebody dies, the corpse was cut in specific locations…

  • Negative thinking might not be so negative after all

    Mihai Andrei
    4 Nov 2009 | 6:49 am
    A study conducted by professor Joseph Forgas at the University of New South Wales showed that bad moods can actually turn out good for you, as it makes people less gullible by increasing their ability to judge and also is a big memory boost. The study proved that people who were experiencing bad moods were more critical and paid more attention to the surrounding environment than happier people, who were more likely to believe everything that they were told. “Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, cooperation, and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods…
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    Science & Technology Videos

  • Registry Clean Up Software - Video

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:19 pm
    http://Best.RegistryCleanerReviewsNow.com has PC proven solutions. Imagine what would happen to your data, mp3s, photos and more if you got the registry clean up software. Right away visit the site!Author: advance093Keywords: registry clean up software Clean Cleaner Cleanup Compress Defrag Optimize Optimizer Registry Added: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:19:29 GMTVideo codes to display this video on your website!http://www.livevideo.com

  • FaceLift New York: Get Facelift in New York

    20 Nov 2009 | 10:15 pm
    http://www.newyorkcityfacelift.com/ Facelift treatments require educated decision-making. You need to know who are the best Facelift candidates, Facelift recovery time and appropriate Facelift expectations.Author: denisbyrne82Keywords: new york facelift new york facelift new york face lift face lift Added: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:15:57 GMTVideo codes to display this video on your website!http://www.livevideo.com

  • Buy Alien Workshop Skateboards

    20 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm
    http://alienworkshopskateboards.org Buy Alien Workshop Skateboards. Alien Workshop produces decks, wheels, apparel and other skateboard accessories. My blog can show you where to get the best deals.Author: angelinapiabolKeywords: Buy Alien Workshop Skateboards Buy Alien Workshop Skateboard Buy Alien Workshop Buy Alien Workshop Skate boards Buy Alien Skateboards Added: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:01:35 GMTVideo codes to display this video on your website!http://www.livevideo.com

  • Cell Phone Unlock Codes

    20 Nov 2009 | 7:56 pm
    http://www.globalunlock.com/phones/unlock-codes (COPY OR CLICK LINK) Unlock codes for cellular phone unlocking made very easy to complete.Author: globalunlockKeywords: unlock codes unlock codes code cellular password cell phone unlocker pda samsung blackberry motorola nokia htc sony ericsson g1 t-mobile verizon imei unlocking remote mep mep2 T Mobile AT&T ATT GSM SIM CARD Added: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:56:07 GMTVideo codes to display this video on your website!http://www.livevideo.com

  • flash presentation

    20 Nov 2009 | 7:56 pm
    flash presentationAuthor: liveyourdreamsindiaKeywords: flash presentation Added: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:56:03 GMTVideo codes to display this video on your website!http://www.livevideo.com
 
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    BEYONDBones

  • Photo From You: Insect Identification

    Erin M
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:59 am
    This comment and photo were emailed to us on the blog a few days ago. “My friend was out on the Katy prarie the other day and left her window down. Upon her return to the vehicle, she discovered nearly 100 of these little guys swarming inside her Tahoe. Can you please tell me what they are?” The insect in question this time is one that is VERY common around here, and perhaps, like most insects, quite misunderstood! This picture was taken inside a woman’s car out near the Katy Prairie. Since the photo is blurry, it’s hard to get a really positive identification, but it…

  • 100 Years 100 Objects: Merychippus

    David
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am
    The Houston Museum of Natural Science was founded in 1909 - meaning that the curators of the Houston Museum of Natural Science have been collecting and preserving natural and cultural treasures for a hundred years now. For this yearlong series, our current curators have chosen one hundred exceptional objects from the Museum’s immense storehouse of specimens and artifacts—one for each year of our history. Check back here frequently to learn more about this diverse selection of behind-the-scenes curiosities—we will post the image and description of a new object every few days. This…

  • Lucy’s Great Mystery: Part 3

    Bob
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:10 am
    In Part One we learned the frightening facts: Lucy was surrounded by formidable felines. She was too slow to run away and she didn’t have weapons to repel 150 pound leopards or 500 pound  homothere saber-tooths. In Part Two we discussed even more of the fearsome predators surrounding Lucy, and began to discuss how futile fighting back would be. How Could Our Lucy Survive a Legion of Cats and Hyenas? How did she defend herself? Here are some suggestions: She made sharp-edged knives out of broken antelope bones and buffalo horns This was a popular theory in the 1950’s.  In South African…

  • Reminder: GEMS booth host applications due on November 20th!!

    Allison
    18 Nov 2009 | 2:36 pm
    Attention Girl Scouts: Just one more reminder to send in your booth host application for GEMS 2010 by Friday at 5 p.m. for consideration – we’re going to have a lot of fun this year and we don’t want anyone to miss out on the opportunity to participate and share some knowledge! Go to our website to download the information packet and application – I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with this year. Is your troop not yet old enough to host a booth? Leave a comment and let us know what topics you’re most interested in learning about at GEMS 2010! See…
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    HarvardScience

  • Harvard Medical School grad heads for International Space Station

    404132862
    16 Nov 2009 | 7:01 am
    In an era when elementary schoolchildren can create exciting new worlds and explore them with the click of a computer mouse, will we again see bold explorers like Lewis and Clark or the Mercury Seven astronauts? Will we follow modern Jasons and their Argonauts through space in an age in which the nation’s deficit is soaring and equally alluring worlds in our body’s cells offer the potential to cure disease and extend life? Robert Satcher says we will.read more

  • Researchers ‘NOTCH’ a victory in war on cancer

    404132862
    10 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pm

  • Speeding new medicines and technologies to the developing world

    404132862
    9 Nov 2009 | 9:16 am
    A consortium of Harvard and five other leading research universities and the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) have endorsed a far-reaching “Statement of Principles and Strategies for the Equitable Dissemination of Medical Technologies” in the developing world.read more

  • Quantum gas microscope offers glimpse of quirky ultracold atoms

    404132862
    5 Nov 2009 | 11:39 am
    Harvard physicists have created a quantum gas microscope that can be used to observe single atoms at temperatures so low the particles follow the rules of quantum mechanics, behaving in bizarre ways. The work, published this week in the journal Nature, represents the first time scientists have detected single atoms in a crystalline structure made solely of light, called a Bose Hubbard optical lattice. It's part of scientists' efforts to use ultracold quantum gases to understand and develop novel quantum materials.read more

  • Materials scientists find better model for glass creation

    404132862
    4 Nov 2009 | 9:09 am
    Harvard materials scientists have come up with what they believe is a new way to model the formation of glasses, a type of amorphous solid that includes common window glass.Glasses form through the process of vitrification, in which a glass-forming liquid cools and slowly becomes a solid whose molecules, though they’ve stopped moving, are not permanently locked into a crystal structure. Instead, they’re more like a liquid that has merely stopped flowing, though they can continue to move over long stretches of time.read more
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    Periodic Tabloid

  • Sleepy Science

    Tom Tritton
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am
    Science fiction aficionados may be familiar with a trilogy by Nancy Kress, in which she imagines the emergence of genetically modified humans who don’t require sleep. Naturally, given all the extra time, the sleepless quickly surpass others who need to rest each day and evolve into a superior race. The trilogy tells the story of the resulting class, cultural, and technological conflict and is a fascinating read. Alas, most of us need our nightly sleep and function miserably when sleep deprived. But what if the performance hit from too little sleep could be ameliorated by tweaking brain…

  • Student Achievement in Science

    Tom Tritton
    12 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am
    It is an article of faith, especially in higher education, that student participation in research is utterly required for shaping attitudes, appreciation, and understanding of the scientific enterprise. Accordingly, every institution of higher learning with any aspiration to excellence has students toiling in labs doing some kind of research right alongside their professors. High-school students—equally impressionable—don’t often have this same opportunity to engage in research projects, at least in part because their teachers don’t, either. To redress this latter problem, a group of…

  • Carlson Vs. Moore

    Tom Tritton
    5 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am
    In one corner, we have Moore’s law. In the other corner, there is Carlson’s curve. Moore’s law— named after Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel—famously predicted over 40 years ago that the transistor density of integrated circuits would double about every two years. So far, it’s been right. Carlson’s curve—named after biologist Rob Carlson—refers to a graph showing the diminishing cost per base of sequencing DNA over time. Like transistor density, DNA sequencing prowess is similarly exponential, and showing no signs of slowing down. Of course, neither of these is a…

  • Mind-Boggling Numbers

    Tom Tritton
    22 Oct 2009 | 2:00 am
    The universe is a big place. Estimates vary, but there are something like 1010 galaxies, 1022 stars, and 1080 atoms. Such numbers are hard to get your mind around, even in an era when trillions (1012) is commonly used when measuring government debt. But this is just the observable universe. Cosmologists are now pretty convinced that the true reality is a multiverse, or many parallel universes existing at the same time. Naturally, one wonders how many such universes there might be. Imponderable as this question may seem, a duo of physicists at Stanford University has taken a stab at answering…

  • Cancer News, Good and Bad

    Tom Tritton
    15 Oct 2009 | 2:00 am
    One of the reasons cancer therapy is effective is that conventional drugs are somewhat indiscriminate toxins. Thus, they kill lots of tumor cells, even if those cells are not similar in their molecular properties. This is a good thing since most tumor masses are thought to be heterogeneous at the cell and molecular levels. The bad news is that indiscriminate toxins can also damage normal tissues. Hence, the agony of awful side effects that accompanies cancer treatment. A new study (with 30 authors from several research centers in Canada and Britain) describes an incredibly detailed look at…
 
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    Fisheye Perspective

  • What you call this? Linguistic morphology of chemical names and lost in translation

    5 Nov 2009 | 6:44 am
    Here is a real world example how Linguistic morphology of chemical names may have unwanted secondary effectsFor example, English search engines such as Google and Yahoo! are unable to find "chlorobenzene" by searching for "benzene". Interestingly, in other languages such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean (CJK languages), this is less of a problem, where for example the Japanese "(chlorobenzene) can usually be found by querying for"(benzene).So next time you visit Japan and wish to buy an Aspirin be sure what you are asking for. Similarly when chemical names fluorescin and fluorescein…

  • Lowering Pharma firewalls: Just for Bioinformatics or Chemoinformatics also

    4 Nov 2009 | 8:02 am
    Notion of pre-competitive collaboration has been in under experiment steadily for quite sometime now. Notable examples are the Airbus consortium of European aircraft manufacturers, the Sematech consortium of US semiconductor manufacturers, banks working together to launch Visa and Mastercard, our recent moon lust and many more. But this was never a case for pharmaceutical industry until now which is now lowering industry firewalls to shift funding and focus from early- to late-stage projects by developing cooperation in the areas with little potential for differentiation most notably a shared…

  • Gladwell states as guidlines for a better omics data management

    31 Oct 2009 | 9:45 am
    Universal application of high throughput omics technologies have enabled scientists to measure tens of thousands of data points in a single experiment. As a result of this scientific world has become deluged with data. This has greater implications the way science will be done in coming years. There is a general accord that science has turned more into a data management problem. Put the technical aspect of scientific data management aside, and ask can we depict useful and practically relevant conclusions from our past experiences in scientific data management, and what makes few data…

  • Optical Cell 2 Duo lac operon: Bridging the gap between Bacteria and Yeast

    28 Oct 2009 | 5:47 pm
    Students from iGEM Harward team are using the optical communication to create a physically distributed lac operon between a bacteria and an yeast cell which normally occur within the same cell. Idea is to use the principles of synthetic biology to decouple the single cell lac operon events such as de-repression and transcription into two different cells in order to create a spatially separation between these events. In this new system bacteria send optical signal to yeast that the operon has been de-repressed and in response the yeast complete the operon’s function and express…

  • Mackenzie Cowell's Fascination with Synthetic Biology

    27 Oct 2009 | 8:31 am
    Mackenzie Cowell is one of the founders of DIYbio.org, an organization that aims to help make biology a worthwhile pursuit for citizen scientists, amateur biologists, and DIY biological engineers who value openness and safety. Mackenzie was recently interviewed by MAKE magazine for an ongoing series of video interviews with notable working scientists and technologists. These interviews were recorded at SciFoo, an un-conference on Science and Technology organized by O'Reilly Media along with Nature Publishing Group and Google. Mac is fascinated about emerging discipline of synthetic biology,In…
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    findingDulcinea Science

  • Caster Semenya and the Ambiguity in Determining Sex

    19 Nov 2009 | 8:00 pm
    The results of Caster Semenya’s sex verification tests will not be made public. Reports suggest that she is intersex, meaning that she cannot be classified simply as a male or female.

  • 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower to Peak Tonight

    14 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm
    The early morning hours of Nov. 17 will be the best time to view the Leonid meteor shower in the United States.

  • What Success Does for the Brain

    11 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am
    MIT researchers have shown that the brain appears to react more to success than failure, supporting previous evidence that we learn more from a positive outcome than a negative one.

  • Praying May Increase Brain Power

    10 Nov 2009 | 11:30 am
    A recent study found that intense prayer and meditation have a positive effect on mental ability, leading one researcher to suggest that it’s possible to reconcile science and religion.

  • On This Day: Scientist Wilhelm Roentgen Discovers X-Rays

    8 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am
    On Nov. 8, 1895, German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen’s experiments with cathode rays led him to discover X-rays, a feat that earned him the first-ever Nobel Prize for Physics.
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    2020 Science

  • From the Summit on the Global Agenda: Technology innovation as an enabler of social innovation

    It's the end of day one at the World Economic Forum Summit on the Global Agenda, and I'm sitting in my rather comfortable hotel room overlooking Palm Island, trying to pull my thoughts together. It was a day for meeting old friends, making new acquaintances, listening to stirring speeches and ...

  • Rethinking the world – World Economic Forum style

    For the next three days I will be participating in and blogging from the World Economic Forum Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai.  If last year's summit - described as the "World's largest brainstorming" - is anything to go by, we're in for an intense few days.  The summit ...

  • Tim Jones’ Exquisite Corpse of Science – an update

    Back in July I wrote a short blog about Tim Jones' Exquisite Corpse of Science project - an innovative project to explore what people think about science and it's place in their lives and society, through the medium of drawing and film.  Four months on, I though it was worth ...

  • Looking for the nanotechnology in your life? There’s an app for that!

    Okay so it's more of a list of nanotech-enabled products than a lifestyle tool, but at the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, we've just released an iPhone version of our surprisingly successful web-based nanotech Consumer Products Inventory. With findNano, it's a piece of cake to search or browse through the 1000+ manufacturer-identified ...

  • Culture Clash – the biopolitics of popular culture

    This is a first for 2020 Science - a plug for a meeting which I have nothing to do with!  But next month's seminar on the Biopolitics of Popular Culture being run by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) looks so intriguing that I couldn't resist! (that, and ...
 
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    TreeHugger

  • Submerged is the New Black: 'Aqualta' Envisions Flooded Cities

    21 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am
    Aqualta: Times Square at Night, NYC. Images via Studio Lindfors If nothing happens in Copenhagen, if greenhouse gasses continue to spew unabated, if the glaciers melt, and sea levels rise, New York City based architectural firm Studio Lindfors has envisioned a fatalistic, and more-than-slightly idealized vision of the future cityscape. "Aqualta" takes familiar New York City and Tokyo urban scenes as they'd appear submerged under 4 stories of water. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

  • How to Make Nano Solar Cells from Powdered Donuts (Video)

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:01 pm
    It's friday and we know you need something to keep you busy for the weekend, so here's the perfect thing. As the efficiency (and business case) for nano-based solar technology continues to ascend, isn't time you got in the game? Don't worry, it's not as easy as it sounds; in addition to powdered donuts, you'll need some Passion tea from Starbucks and a bottle of Everclear. Even if the cells don't work you've got some good provisions to keep you busy till Monday. Enjoy.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

  • Rolls Royce Could Launch an Electric Phantom In a Year

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:36 pm
    Photo: Rolls Royce Does It Matter? Depends How You Look at It... Autocar reports that a source inside the company told them that Rolls Royce could have an electric version of its Phantom super-luxury car on the road by the end of 2010: "Internally it's thought that the near-silence of electric propulsion, and the fact that full torque is available from a standstill, would align perfectly with Rolls-Royce's core values. Engineers are currently hard at work making this a reality, although a running prototype has yet t... Read the full story on TreeHugger

  • U.S. Military Wary About Offshore Wind Power Off Coast of Maryland

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:11 pm
    Photo: Wikipedia, CC Maryland Offshore Wind Development Martin O'Malley, the governor of Maryland, would like to see offshore wind power developed off the cost of his state, but the U.S. military has expressed fears that the turbines could "disrupt flight and weapon test ranges, as well as erroneously appear on radar as unidentifiable aircraft." Three military bases in the region are using that area in the Atlantic for training missions and flight tests.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

  • Rice Husks & Biomass Gasification Provide Power for Rural Indians

    20 Nov 2009 | 9:55 am
    Rice = food and electricity at the same time... photo: ya po guille via flickr. One solution for getting clean electricity to the 440-some million people in rural India who currently don't have grid power (or any power...) is to build wind farms, solar power plants, or use some decentralized but still tech-heavy option such as solar panels. And then there's rice husks and biomass gasification. Not a new technology, bu... Read the full story on TreeHugger
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    Sara Bellum Blog

  • About HIV/AIDS: Inform Yourself to Protect Yourself

    admin
    19 Nov 2009 | 12:09 pm
    Image Courtesy of Susan Sermoneta When someone mentions “HIV/AIDS” what is the first thing that comes to mind? —Something you learned about in health class? —Or saw on TV? —Or recall a friend who recently got tested for HIV? —Or a celebrity who raises awareness about HIV/AIDS around the world? Here’s some of the science behind HIV/AIDS that you may not know; HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), a disease of the immune system. Currently, there is no cure, but there is treatment. The good news? HIV/AIDS…

  • NIDA News: NIDAs Chat Day, More Questions on Marijuana

    admin
    17 Nov 2009 | 7:26 am
    Image Courtesy of Chris Phillips, ICF Macro NIDA’s annual DRUG FACTS CHAT DAY, held November 10, was a huge success. The computer-filled room where it happened vibrated with excitement, as more than 40 NIDA scientists eagerly tried to answer as many questions as they could. And questions they got. Teens from around the country sent in some 13,000 questions about drugs–wow, so nice to hear from you! So what was different about Chat Day this year? Well for one, there seemed to be twice as many questions on marijuana. Maybe that’s because the news lately is full of talk about…

  • Let’s Talk: SBB Wants Your Feedback

    admin
    12 Nov 2009 | 7:09 am
    Good news SBB readers, each week more and more of you are visiting the blog. Because more of you are tuning in, we want to make sure we provide you with the most interesting and helpful information. We always take your comments and your messages into consideration, and you’ve already given us great insight. So, we are taking it a step further. In other words, we want more of your feedback! Here’s how it’s going to work. Each month, we’ll post a specific question on the blog asking for your feedback. The first question is: Question #1: What would you like to talk about,…

  • NIDA News: What Are Teens Asking About Drugs?

    admin
    10 Nov 2009 | 9:43 am
    November 10th is NIDA’s annual DRUG FACTS CHAT DAY! In case you haven’t heard of it—more than 40 NIDA scientists and science writers sit down at computers and answer questions sent in live from high school students from all over the country. Last year, 11,000 teens sent in their questions! To actually ask a question on the CHAT your school has to register in advance. But even if you haven’t registered, there’s a lot of interesting stuff to read by just observing Chat Day, on November 10, 8 am to 6 pm EST. You’ll see factoids and quizzes (test your…

  • Real Teens Ask: How Old Are Kids who Start Using Drugs?

    admin
    5 Nov 2009 | 7:02 am
    Lots of teens have questions about drugs. Each year, NIDA scientists spend a day chatting online with high school students and answering their questions. At the last Drug Facts Chat Day, soccerstar0 asked: “On average how old are kids who start using drugs?” Research shows that drug use often starts in the teen years. You might have heard that, but here’s something you may not know—the science shows that the younger you are when you start using drugs, the more likely you are to get addicted later on. Doing drugs can also cause problems with friends, in sports, and in…
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    The Mr Science Show

  • Ep 118: Astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life

    20 Nov 2009 | 3:31 am
    Astrobiology is a fascinating and complex field of science. It is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe, and is a relatively new field of science incorporating astronomy, biology, geology, palaeontology, physics, mathematics and other disciplines. It is even more fascinating given that we have never actually discovered life anywhere else in the universe! Dr Carol Oliver is a science communication researcher working for the Australian Centre for Astrobioligy, whose key goals include contributing to the understanding of the orgin of life on Earth…

  • Swimming with Whales - video from Tonga

    18 Nov 2009 | 4:53 pm
    A few months back, I spoke to Scott Portelli about his experiences diving with whales in Tonga - see Ep 109: Tongan blowholes and whales. Scott has recently returned from Tonga, and took from breathtaking footage of the whales. Enjoy the video below.

  • Ep 117: The Science of Superheroes - Mystique (X-men)

    31 Oct 2009 | 4:59 am
    Ever wondered whether it is scientifically possible to become a superhero? In a new series of podcasts, Dr Christopher Pettigrew (aka Dr Boob*) and I are going to tackle this question. Chris is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Biochemistry in University College Cork, and in these podcast episodes - which we will publish more than a few times a year - we will uncover whether it is possible now to possess the powers of superheroes, and if we can't, whether in the near future we could engineer ourselves to become superheroes. The first superhero we are tackling is Mystique from…

  • Ep 116: Terence Tao and Prime Numbers

    19 Oct 2009 | 2:05 am
    Terence Tao is a Professor at the Department of Mathematics, UCLA and one of Australia's most acclaimed mathematicians. Indeed, he is arguably the world's greatest living mathematician. In 2006, he was awarded a Fields Medal, which is the top prize a mathematician can win, and at 24 became the youngest ever full professor at UCLA. I recently went to Tao's Clay–Mahler Lecturer at UNSW, which was a fascinating look at prime numbers. I managed to grab Terence for a quick chat. Listen to this podcast here: Primes are integers that can only be divided by themselves and one. For example, the…

  • Blog Action Day 2009 - Climate Change

    18 Oct 2009 | 7:39 pm
    October 15 is Blog Action Day 2009 and this year's topic is Climate Change. The idea is to raise awareness of the topic, so I thought I'd get in on the act - it is still October 15 in some parts of the world... Climate Change is arguably our most pressing human concern. If you are interested in what it is, who’s responsible and why we should care, then an easy way to enter the debate is to have a listen to our 2007 Beer Drinking Scientists episode on the topic. Grab the mp3 here, or listen below: We recorded this in 2007 over a beer or three, and so some of the more recent discoveries and…
 
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    EurekAlert!

  • Chest ultrasound as useful as chest CT in the eval of pediatric patients with complicated pneumonia

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Chest ultrasound can serve as a viable alternative to chest CT in the evaluation of pediatric patients with complicated pneumonia and parapneumonic effusion (a build-up of fluid between the lung and chest wall), according to a study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

  • Possible link studied between childhood abuse and early cellular aging

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Researchers from Brown University and Butler Hospital have determined that children who suffer physical or emotional abuse may be faced with accelerated cellular aging as adults. The findings are published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry. A print version of the article is also expected.

  • Effect of real-time CPR feedback reported at resuscitation science symposium

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    The Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium is the largest clinical research network to study prehospital treatments for cardiac arrest in the United States and Canada. ROC conducted the first randomized study to assess if real-time audio-feedback, during the EMS prehospital course of care, would improve clinical outcome. Results of the study were presented on November 15 during the Resuscitation Science Symposium 2009 program.

  • Watching a cannibal galaxy dine

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    A new technique using near-infrared images, obtained with ESO's 3.58-meter New Technology Telescope, allows astronomers to see through the opaque dust lanes of the giant cannibal galaxy Centaurus A, unveiling its "last meal" in unprecedented detail -- a smaller spiral galaxy, currently twisted and warped. This amazing image also shows thousands of star clusters, strewn like glittering gems, churning inside Centaurus A.

  • Saving the single cysteine: New antioxidant system found

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    We've all read studies about the health benefits of having a life partner. The same thing is true at the molecular level, where amino acids known as cysteines are much more vulnerable to damage when single than when paired up with other cysteines.
 
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    science-in-the-news

  • Mark Varner: Women 'better at picking up on emotions than men' - Telegraph

    FriendFeed
    24 Oct 2009 | 3:34 pm
    Science In The News: Mark Varner Women 'better at picking up on emotions than men' - Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science... October 24 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like "The research found that women were better than men at processing facial expressions and completing assessments, something that had always been suggested but never conclusively proved." Does this have implications for reproductive and mating behavior? - Mark Varner

  • Mark Varner: High protein diets 'could cause Alzheimer's' - Telegraph

    FriendFeed
    22 Oct 2009 | 8:13 am
    Science In The News: Mark Varner High protein diets 'could cause Alzheimer's' - Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health... October 22 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like "Researchers found that mice fed meals similar to those of the original Atkin's Diet had brains five per cent lighter than all the others. They also found that the hippocampus part of the brain, which is responsible for memory, were less developed in those rodents on the high protein diet. Scientists say the findings, published in the journal Molecular Neurodegeneration, suggest the ravages of…

  • Mark Varner: Internet use 'may improve brain function in adults', says UCLA study - Telegraph

    FriendFeed
    22 Oct 2009 | 6:19 am
    Science In The News: Mark Varner Internet use 'may improve brain function in adults', says UCLA study - Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science... October 22 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like "Using the internet for just a few days alters our brains – and may help improve cognitive function in the elderly, according to new research." This report attracts an 'old geezer' like me, of course, but what could lead to such results? - Mark Varner

  • Mark Varner: BBC - Earth News - Barnacles' sticky secret revealed

    FriendFeed
    19 Oct 2009 | 11:00 am
    Science In The News: Mark Varner BBC - Earth News - Barnacles' sticky secret revealed - http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth... October 19 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like ""We've found homologous enzymes in barnacles and humans, which serve the same function of clotting proteins underwater, despite roughly a billion years of evolutionary separation," says Dr Dickinson." The homology of the enzymes suggest conservation of the DNA sequences for the whole mechanism. Why is this important in reproduction? - Mark Varner

  • Mark Varner: BBC NEWS | Health | 'Ethical' stem cell crop boosted

    FriendFeed
    19 Oct 2009 | 10:48 am
    Science In The News: Mark Varner BBC NEWS | Health | 'Ethical' stem cell crop boosted - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2... October 19 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like "US researchers have found a way to dramatically increase the harvest of stem cells from adult tissue." Why is this so important? - Mark Varner
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    The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel

  • Buried Antarctica "Alps" Point to Hyper-Speed Global Warming

    Casey Kazan Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:30 am
    An international team of experts have mapped a huge, incredibly old location, mentioned in the notes of a Russian explorer from half a century ago, buried under hundreds of meters of ice.  In an amazing break with tradition this process did not result in the unleashing of ancient horrors, a self-destruct sequence, alien invasion or anyone shooting at Indiana Jones.  They've examined the entire Gamburtsev mountain range, 700 meters tall and buried under a kilometer of Antarctica.The team used an array of tools including seismic wave reflection, radar, and precise gravitational measurements…

  • Titanic Thirty-Meter Telescope 12 x's Hubble To Probe Dark Matter & First Stars

    Casey Kazan Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am
    We're building a billion dollar telescope and it isn't just aimed at the stars: it's looking for the first ones. The new Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) proves that sometimes bigger really is better and will be elements in the optics allows them all to act as one (which is good because it's impossible to build a real one that big.)  The realtime control also allows astronomers to correct for the effects of the atmosphere - so even though it's on the ground, the TMT will have twelve times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. The key really is collecting more light.  No matter what CSI…

  • Will Dark Energy Fuel Spaceships of the Future? -A Galaxy Classic

    Casey Kazan Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:28 am
    The internet was amazed by images of the world's first warpship recently, and if you're wondering how science got past the fiction so quickly, remember how Leonardo is credited with inventing the helicopter?  Despite not knowing any of the relevant aerodynamics, physics, engineering, or having any of the required skills other than "able to draw a pretty picture"?  It's the same deal.Dr Richard Obousy recently gifted the Discovery channel with designs for the first "warpship", and in return they gave him more publicity than you can shake a physics consulting firm at.  Did you know…

  • 'Hobbits' a New Human Species?

    Casey Kazan Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:24 am
    Professor Mike Morwood created an international storm with his discovery of Homo floresiensis -- dubbed the Hobbit because of its small size and big feet -- on Flores, an Indonesian island, in 2003. The archaeologist said the Hobbits, who were only about one metre tall and weighed just 30kg, existed on the remote island until about 12,000 years ago. Homo floresiensis is a genuine ancient human species and not a descendant of healthy humans dwarfed by disease found researchers from Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York. Using statistical analysis on skeletal remains of a…

  • Will NexGen AI Have Unintended Consequences? -A Galaxy Insight

    Casey Kazan Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:18 am
    What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from smartphones?AI is becoming the stuff of future scifi greats: A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously. Real AI effects are closer than you might think, with entirely automated systems producing new scientific results…
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