Recently I became aware through Sullivan's post at LBRB that Autism Speaks was sponsoring the National Autism Association's national conference and that Andrew Wakefield was speaking at this conference, along with a long list of proponents of less-than-scientifically-backed treatments.

Émilie du Châtelet - An Essay On Heat - 1739 - #1


In 1739 the Paris Academy of Sciences proposed a question: what is fire?  A prize was offered for the best response. Entries were to be presented anonymously. The prize was awarded to Euler.  Voltaire, who had also entered the competition, did not know until the list of entrants was published with the prize award notification that his entry had been in competition against one from his lover.  Although Émilie du Châtelet did not win the prize, her entry was considered so remarkable that, at the request of Réaumur, the Academy decided to have it printed at its own expense.

A robot named MABEL was created in a University of Michigan lab but 'she' can run like a human, up to 6.8 miles per hour.

Unless HYDRA and SHIELD exist in secret underground lairs, MABEL is the world's fastest bipedal robot - with knees, that is.

I have written enough today about the topic of Higgs boson searches at the LHC by discussing the new ATLAS limits (see previous post), but I feel that, before going to bed, I need to point out the new results on the same topic by CMS, the competitor experiment. As you know, I work in CMS and I have to be twice as cautious when I write about the results of my own experiment, because some of my colleagues have uncovered nerves when it comes to blogs. However, the little I'll say here tonight should cause no discomfort to anybody.

Science, history and a little detective work?  Yes, please!  

Tony Lupo, professor and department chair of atmospheric sciences at the University of Missouri, and Mike Madden, a meteorology student,  pulled together bits and pieces of global meteorological flotsam to compile a Missouri weather forecast from 150 years.

They created their weather forecast for the Battle of Carthage, which took place early in the Civil War on July 5, 1861.  Why that one?  Well, they live in Missouri.

2007 OR10, nicknamed Snow White by the graduate student who discovered it because it would presumably be white due to breaking off from icy fellow dwarf planet Haumea, turned out to be red.

Well, it still turned out to be ice also but the surprise is it may have methane slowly dissipating into space, which means it may have once had an atmosphere.

A study on activity in a the parahippocampal cortex (PHC) found people will remember a visual scene when the brain is more active.

The PHC, which has previously been linked to recollection of visual scenes, wraps around the hippocampus, a part of the brain critical for memory formation. However, this NeuroImage study is the first to investigate how PHC activity before a scene was presented would affect how well the scene was remembered. 

Former Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel seemed to be a role model for achieving on-field success with a high level of character.  Two-time National Coach of the Year, Larry Coker and former player Randy Shannon also were thought to provide moral leadership while winning national championships during their tenure as head coaches for the University of Miami.

Yet, both storied football programs now find themselves in the middle of NCAA investigations for major rule violations.  Reports of players trading memorabilia for cash or discounts, receiving cash and “entertainment” from boosters, and at least one of these coaches admitting to lying about their knowledge of these events has triggered a frenzy of discussion on what’s wrong with college athletics.

Much awaited, the results of searches for the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider have been released by the ATLAS collaboration, and are being shown at the Lepton-Photon conference in Mumbay, India. I will provide here just the main results, with little commentary - I wish to let the cake cool down a bit before discussing the subject in detail, examining the various inputs.

'Forgiveness is not something you do for others, nor does forgiving mean the offending behaviour is acceptable. It is something you do for yourself! By forgiving, you choose not to carry the burden of hate'

Paul Bretherton