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I swear, Officer, I got this pot from a church fundraiser!

I swear, Officer, I got this pot from a church fundraiser!

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

Ah, summer. Sunshine, lazy days, kids selling cocaine under the guise of lemonade on the sidewalk. Wait, what?

Best excuse ever for ingesting pot: it was the mysterious sidewalk salesman working for a "church fundraiser" who sold me the magic brownies. Also the most interesting issue of CDC's MMWR ever.

A few months ago, a pre-school teacher, with best intentions of supporting a local parish, bought some brownies from a sidewalk vendor who was holding a bake sale fundraiser for the church. I'll let MMWR set up the rest of the story:
Intention

Intention

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

What was it that my late aikido and Zen sensei asked me to do, on that day twenty-some years ago?  I do remember his request struck me as difficult to carry out, and perhaps not really necessary. I recall with great clarity the short exchange that followed the request:

“I’ll try,” I waffled.

Sensei just stared at me.

“OK, I get it.  There is no try, only do or don’t do.”  I weakly attempted to mollify Sensei with a line from the new film, Karate Kid.

Piper longum Linn (Piperaceae) used in Ayurvedic medicines helps cure leprosy.

Piper longum Linn (Piperaceae) used in Ayurvedic medicines helps cure leprosy.

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

 Piper longum Linn (Piperaceae) used in  Ayurvedic medicines helps cure leprosy. 



Proessor Ashwani Kumar
Suck It Linus (Pauling)

Suck It Linus (Pauling)

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

Antioxidants cause cancer. Or at least that is the headline you may read in some less reputable sources of science news, reporting this study out this week in Nature. Before you go rushing off to toss out your Teavana supercharged antioxidant green tea and your expensive GNC herbal supplements, let's take a closer look at what the research shows. (Well, to be frank, you can go throw out those supplements, and only keep your tea if you enjoy drinking it.)
Creationists on BloggingheadsTV

Creationists on BloggingheadsTV

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)


What's the quickest way to get scientists and serious science writers to quit coming on your show? Invite the creationists. Discover bloggers Sean Carroll and Carl Zimmer explain what happened:

Sean says:
More Privacy Issues With Web Browsing

More Privacy Issues With Web Browsing

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

A couple of years ago, I talked about some of the search terms that people have used when they’ve found my blog pages. In the comments, Donna was amazed at the information that’s available to the web sites you visit.

My response to Donna’s comment discussed some stuff that’s available, but there are other issues too.

Cinnamomum verum Presl ( syn C.zeylanicum Bi) a wonder tree bark for health

Cinnamomum verum Presl ( syn C.zeylanicum Bi) a wonder tree bark for health

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

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Morning Science Quote

Morning Science Quote

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

... Experiments unguided by an appropriate theoretical framework usually amount to little more than "watching the pot boil."

- John Holland, "Complex Adaptive Systems", Daedalus 121:17-30 (1992)














Read the feed:

Salicornia bigelovii a Seed Oil halophyte can provide biofuel in saline irrigation and coastal areas

Salicornia bigelovii a Seed Oil halophyte can provide biofuel in saline irrigation and coastal areas

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

Saline water occupies 71% of the Earth area. It is thought that even a quarter of the whole pedosphere is affected by salts (Glenn and O’Leary, 1985), amounting to 950 x 106 ha (Flowers and Yeo, 1995), while 23 % of the 1.5 x 109 ha cultivated land is considered as saline (Rhoades and Loveday, 1990).

JATROPHA CURCAS: Studies on factors improving production.

JATROPHA CURCAS: Studies on factors improving production.

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

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High yielding accessions of JATROPHA CURCAS: a bio-diesel plant

High yielding accessions of JATROPHA CURCAS: a bio-diesel plant

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

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FrankenCamera - Will This Open Source Technology Revolutionize Photography?

FrankenCamera - Will This Open Source Technology Revolutionize Photography?

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

Stanford scientists say they will reinvent digital photography with the introduction of an 'open-source' digital camera.

If the technology catches on, camera performance will be no longer be limited by the software that comes pre-installed by the manufacturer because virtually all of the features of the Stanford camera – focus, exposure, shutter speed, flash, etc – are at the command of software that can be created by inspired programmers anywhere. "The premise of the project is to build a camera that is open source," said computer science professor Marc Levoy.
Giant Squid Test Drive New Preservative

Giant Squid Test Drive New Preservative

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

This is so cool! I can't believe I haven't been hearing taxonomists buzz about this. 3M Novec is a new engineered material that is non-flammable (unlike ethanol) non-toxic (unlike formalin, though Steve O'Shea swears you can drink the stuff) and doesn't leach color. Its only apparent downside so far: it's denser than water.

The Smithsonian is testing it out by displaying giant squid, and according to their program manger, "We had to use pretty creative ways to get the specimens to stay down inside the container." Tantalizing! Did they glue suckers to the glass? Pour lead shot inside the mantle? Inquiring minds want to know!
Tangential Science: 42,001 And The Science Of Karma

Tangential Science: 42,001 And The Science Of Karma

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

Tangential Science: it's not necessarily science, but it's still funny.

1. Science of Karma 

Can there be science to 'Karma'?   Likely not, since Karma is, by definition, an Eastern religious concept that has been colloquiallized into a philosophical one.    In the East (considered globally since  Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists all lay claim to it), Karma is basically cause and effect, which is all very Newtonian, and it is echoed in Western religions with the 'as you sow, so also shall you reap' idea ... except at least in the West you are only screwed over once by what you do and actions have consequences over multiple lifetimes.
Look Ahead Sensor: It's Science Versus Smugglers - Guess Who Wins?

Look Ahead Sensor: It's Science Versus Smugglers - Guess Who Wins?

Sep 03 2009 | comment(s)

Idaho National Laboratory engineer Phillip West holds a curious metallic device about as wide as a steering wheel. It looks a bit like a flat, stoic face, with two large circular holes for eyes, protruding cylindrical ears and a long, disc-ended snout. 

"Are we ready?" he asks, then kneels and nestles the snout gently into the dirt. West flips a switch on one of the machine's handles, and for the next eight seconds a rising tide of sound waves, strong enough to shake your shoes, floods the earth underfoot.  
How Much Of A Mutant Are You?

How Much Of A Mutant Are You?

Sep 02 2009 | comment(s)

Do you ever wonder how many harmful mutations you carry in your genome? Even if you've never worried about how much of a mutant you are, geneticists have spent a lot of time thinking about this issue. They are interested in a) how much genetic variation is out there, and b) how much of that is potentially harmful and connected to disease? This month's issue of Genome Research has some new research on an individual's personal mutational load.
Lamarckian Experimentalist Paul Kammerer - Fraud Or Founder Of Epigenetics?

Lamarckian Experimentalist Paul Kammerer - Fraud Or Founder Of Epigenetics?

Sep 02 2009 | comment(s)

Should early 20th century researcher Paul Kammerer be credited as the founder of epigenetics?   It would certainly be a dramatic change from current perceptions of his work.

Kammerer, a leading proponent of the Lamarckian theory of evolution, achieved global prominence in the 1920's by arguing that acquired traits could be passed down through generations and, in his most controversial experiment,  forced land dweller midwife toads to live in water. Their offspring preferred to live and mate in water and by the third generation he noted that they began to develop black nuptial pads on their forelimbs, a feature common to water dwelling species.
Gruesome Analysis

Gruesome Analysis

Sep 02 2009 | comment(s)

I have just read a letter in Chemistry World (September 2009, p40) by A J Dijkstra, who has just translated the first ever book on lipid chemistry from French into English. This book is Recherches chimiques sur les corps gras d'origine animale, Paris, 1823, by Michel Eugène Chevreul. His long life (1786 – 1889) took him from before the French Revolution to the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower. Chevreul had a long and varied scientific career, as his Wikipedia biography relates. 

200 Grams

200 Grams

Sep 02 2009 | comment(s)

A TubeSat picosatellite lifts 200 grams of payload. That's about 7 ounces. Looked at one way, that's less than half a can of soda. But it's enough to lift an entire Nintendo DS game handheld into orbit. 200 grams can be a lot of electronics.

When I committed to this project, I didn't yet have the specific electronics in mind. I've built mini guitar amps and guitar sound processors that come in well under 7 ounces. I assumed I could kit-bash stuff and create my own schematics for the final assembly. What I didn't expect was that there would be a company that already builds everything I need.
An overaged student and his two posters

An overaged student and his two posters

Sep 02 2009 | comment(s)

The Physics in Collisions conference in Kobe is over, and I am packing up. Tomorrow morning I will leave from KIX to FRA, and later FRA to VCE, hopefully making it home for dinner.

I learned a few interesting things on physics at the conference, and I hope I will share some of the highlights with you in a post tomorrow. But I also learned quite a few things about Japanese culture, which probably was a more valuable experience for me.

For now, I will just offer you the picture below, which portrays a rather overaged student in front of his two posters. Regulars of this site will not fail to notice that despite the suit (jacket not shown), I am wearing a Scientific Blogging shirt (blue logo near the pocket).