20 years ago, El Niño had an uncorrected impact on the data that went into global warming models, causing puzzling results. Now, those results have been corrected and instead of El Niño impacting global warming, global warming could be impacting El Niño.

Using coral samples from Kiribati, researchers have outlined how El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle has changed over the past 4,300 years - altering the cycles of El Niño and La Niña events that bring extreme drought and flooding to Australia and many other Pacific-rim countries. The new paper suggests that external changes have an impact on the strength and timing of El Niño events.

Astronomers has begun to map the location of the most massive and mysterious objects in our galaxy – the Southern Milky Way and its giant gas clouds, where new stars are born.

Very good news for the Quantum Randi Challenge, the most engaging bit of science outreach that already helped tripping up a notorious crackpot, and which now starts to gain momentum toward its main aim, which is helping a wide audience to understand the essence of quantum mechanics while being immunized against quantum–mysticism, which is sadly promoted by established scientists as badly as by snake-oil sellers.

Finding the collaboration by educators and artists that the Quantum Randi Challenge needs is now easier, as most of the didactic core has passed the scientific community’s peer review system, and not just with one paper, but two!

Last week I met Marek Karliner at the ICNFP 2013 conference in Crete, where we both enjoyed a nice friendly atmosphere, great food, and a wonderful peaceful location. Professor Marek Karliner is the chair of the Institute of Theoretical Physics of Tel Aviv in Israel. Since he agrees that outreach in physics is an important service that researchers should provide to the community, I was able to convince him to write for this blog the short article which you find below, on the interesting topic of baryons containing two heavy quarks - TD.

The human brain is adept at linking seemingly random details into a cohesive memory that can trigger myriad associations — some good and some not so good.

For recovering addicts or individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), unwanted memories can make recovery difficult. For example, former meth addicts report intense drug cravings triggered by associations with cigarettes, money, even gum, which makes them more likely to stumble during recovery.

Scientists have been able to erase drug-associated memories in mice and rats without affecting other more benign memories. Their discovery points to a clear and workable method to disrupt unwanted memories while leaving the rest intact.

Changing the Structure of Memory

Attila E. Pavlath, Ph.D., who turned fresh-cut apple slices into a popular convenience food, outlined advances in keeping other foods fresh, flavorful and safe for longer periods of time through the use of invisible, colorless, odorless, tasteless coatings.

Since Medicaid paid for 45 percent of the 4 million births in the United States in 2010, and that has been rising steadily, a new paper says that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and expanding Medicaid even more may lead to improved coverage of well-woman and maternity care — and perhaps result in better health outcomes.

Previously, data on Medicaid funding of births did not exist in a comprehensive form so the authors collected all such data on Medicaid births from individual states during the years 2008 to 2010.

Trailer park residents are one of the few demographics it's still okay to stereotype but, as is usually the case, low-income trailer park residents form distinct groups with different visions of morality, according to a new paper. In other words, they are no more easy to quantify than anyone else.

Dingoes have been unfairly blamed for the extinctions of the Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) and the Tasmanian devil, a new study has found.

The Australian dingo is commonly blamed for the demise of thylacines and devils on the mainland about 3,000 years ago but Aboriginal populations and a shift in climate were more likely responsible.

The researchers created mathematical models to replicate the dynamic interaction between the main potential drivers of extinction (dingoes, climate and humans), the long-term response of herbivore prey, and the viability of the thylacine and devil populations.

The models included interactions and competition between predators as well as the influence of climate on vegetation and prey populations.