Since I do educational outreach programs with living Arthropods (referred to below as BUGS!), I have to actually have bugs. Some people think that’s weird. I’m okay with that. I don’t imagine many would find it surprising that I have always had bugs – or something. I mean Bluegills in the basement bathtub, countless beetles and caterpillars and butterflies in nets and other random containers, tons of rolly-pollies and fireflies… you get the idea. I mean, I drove my Mom nuts! 

In team sports it is often difficult to determine the value of an individual.   Some sports can do it easily enough, like baseball(1) or basketball, but during the World Cup, casual fans who hear commentators talk about the quality 'form' of a player are lost when the game is 0-0.

Jordi Duch, Joshua S. Waitzman and Luís A. Nunes Amaral of Northwestern University say they may have an answer.  

Clausewitz On Science


Clausewitz On War - yes.  But Clausewitz On Science?

Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz is famous for his book Vom Kriege - On War.  In that book he is very specific in stating that there is no 'science of war'.

In order for someone to state quite categorically that an area of study is not a science they must first know enough about science to be able to determine the matter scientifically.

During pregnancy, many women experience remission of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and uveitis and scientists have described a biological mechanism they say is responsible for changes in the immune system that helps explain that remission.

The expression of an enzyme known as pyruvate kinase is reduced in immune cells in pregnant women compared to non-pregnant women, says biophysicist Howard R. Petty from the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, and Roberto Romero, M.D., of the National Institutes for Health. Their study coming in the August issue of the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology also reports that expression of the enzyme is lower in pregnant women compared to those with pre-eclampsia, a condition with inflammatory components.

Astronomers have glimpsed what could be the youngest known star at the very moment it is being born -so young it can hardly be considered a true star because it is in the earliest stages of star formation and has just begun pulling in matter from a surrounding envelope of gas and dust.

The Astrophysical Journal study authors found the object using the Submillimeter Array in Hawaii and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The new star, known as L1448-IRS2E, is located in the Perseus star-forming region about 800 light years away yet within our Milky Way galaxy. 

Lithium has been used for more than 50 years in the treatment manic depression, clinically termed bipolar disorder,  though no one is sure why it has been beneficial.

Don't be concerned.  We don't know why aspirin works either, but we still use it.

Still, science mysteries are going to be pursued and new research from Cardiff University suggests a possible mechanism for why Lithium works, opening the door for better understanding of the illness and potentially more effective treatments.

If we can't get rid of CO2, the greenhouse gas that gets the most press, perhaps we can store it, say researchers.    Maybe even in rock form.     Carbon dioxide when mixed with water forms carbonic acid (also known as carbonated water or soda water), which can percolate through  rocks, dissolving some minerals and forming solid carbonates with them, thereby storing the carbon dioxide in rock form.

Sigurdur Gislason of the University of Iceland has been studying the possibility of sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in basalt and presented his findings today to several thousand geochemists from around the world at the Goldschmidt Conference hosted by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

People who have been around a long time know the somewhat convoluted history of Science 2.0 in general and Scientific Blogging in specific but the top question I get after people say, "Oh, you're that guy!" is "Why did you call it Scientific Blogging?"

Why not Science 2.0?   Well, there's a practical reason and a philosophical one.  The practical reason is that the way domain names work it isn't really possible.   In order to make Science2.0.com I would have to make Science2 a subdomain of 0.com and that has been in existence since 1985.   Yes, 1985, well before Tim Berners-Lee blessed us with an elegant way to make a World Wide Web.  VeriSign owns it and they are unlikely to give it to me.

MODIS Rapidfire For Citizen Scientists - #1

A brief explanation of the NASA/GSFC MODIS Rapid Response System - Rapidfire - together with a Howto for citizen scientists.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration / Goddard Space Flight Center Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer is a bit of a mouthful, so I'll just refer to it as Rapidfire from here on, if you don't mind.

The MODIS Rapid Response System was developed to provide daily satellite images of the Earth's landmasses in near real time.  True-color, photo-like imagery and false-color imagery are available within a few hours of being collected, making the system a valuable resource ...

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"What is the meaning of our existence, what is the meaning of existence for all living beings in general? Knowing how to answer such a question means to have religious feelings. You will say, but then sense asking this question. I will respond: anyone who believes his own life and that of his fellows is meaningless is not only unfortunate, but hardly capable of living. " 

Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Religion and Science (1930) (From the collection of lectures and essays, "The World as I See It").