Parking is a funny thing; no one is ever happy with it. Even if you go to Disney World, which has come as close as anyone to mastering the perception you are moving while you really go nowhere inside the park itself, the parking is horrendous outside.  If something is popular enough you want to go, the parking will be crowded.  Sometimes you may not go at all because you think about parking.

Researchers estimate that for every 110 vehicles circulating on the roads looking for spaces, there are 100 available spots, both in lots and on the street.  If so, that number is quite high, downright inefficient, but it still isn't high enough to make parking palatable.

In a recent study, scientists used simulations to model the behavior of a closed, granular system comprising a chain of equal-sized spheres that touch one another and are sandwiched between two walls. Energy travels through this system as solitary waves, also known as non-dispersive energy bundles. When the system was disturbed by multiple energy perturbations, akin to someone tapping on each of the walls, the energy spread unevenly through the system.

When we think of DNA, we think of biology but the concept of DNA has become so culturally ingrained it is now colloquial - and the concept of a blueprint common to people may help revolutionize manufacturing.

A group at the Fraunhofer Institute have set out to decode "factory DNA".

In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) has helped numerous couples have children who otherwise would not have been able to, but a British study of a non-invasive, drug-free alternative to IVF could save them (and the taxpayers who fund the NHS) a lot of money.

A new study (European Obstetrics&Gynaecology, 2011;6(2):92-4) shows that the DuoFertility monitor and service used for six months gives the same chance of pregnancy as a cycle of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) for many infertile couples.

From time to time and against strong resistance from the scientific establishment, inspired scientists come out of the closet and dare to publicly consider whether the future can influence the present. Is it in principle possible that we may be able to partially perceive the future say via evolved emotional responses? Future influence has been proposed by Roger Penrose in order to explain how certain crystals grow. So called quasi-periodic crystals avoid additions of atoms into places and orientations that are perfectly allowed while growing, but whose occupation would lead to future mismatches in the resulting, larger crystal (this is due to quasi-periodic crystals not having periodic order over large distances like usual crystals).

Can music lead to better CPR? Yes and no.  Any mnemonic hook that helps rescue personnel deliver a good number of chest compressions to heart attack victims is likely good but one song, "Disco Science" by Mirwais, does well yet can only achieve half the CPR goal.

If you are a fan of Guy Ritchie's film "Snatch" you have heard "Disco Science" but may not know that it has 100 beats per minute, around the optimal range for CPR. However, it does not help at all in  improving the depth of compression, which may mean it's time to give up on trying to find the best musical gimmick to aid in CPR and just teach it the old fashioned way.

A newly discovered fossil, found in South America, bears resemblance to Scrat, the sabre-toothed squirrel well-known for his antics in the Ice Age movies. In reality, though, the creature is known by the slightly more complicated name of Cronopio dentiacutus. It was found in the La Buitrera locality in the Rio Negro Province, Argentina. It belongs to the dryolestoids, an extinct mammal group that belongs to the lineage that led to modern marsupials and placental mammals.

The following is an excerpt from a book I am working on intermittently. I do not know whether the project will ever see the light, and it just occurred to me that I could share a tiny bit of it with you in my blog. Enjoy!

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Throughout the history of politics, the discourse has been rancorous. If your parents did not tell you never to discuss religion or politics in polite company, you learned that lesson on your own. 'Blame the media' thinking was popular even in the 1700s.

A University of Missouri analysis of recent political blogs - i.e., basically meaningless, but fun to talk about - indicates politics are getting nastier due to digital media.  Why?  The digital world has made it easier for polarized interest groups (which is basically every interest group) to reach other people who are similarly polarized.

Wait, what? Don't we know, like, almost nothing about colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltonii)? How could we have any idea whether they need protection or not?

On the other hand, the fact that we've seen so few individuals rather suggests that there aren't that many of them to begin with. As with any scarce resource, perhaps caution is the better part of valor . . . or something like that. I might be getting my aphorisms mixed up.