Want to get an autism diagnosis but are just too darn busy?

Researchers at Harvard Medical School are here to help.  Yes, the process of diagnosing autism is complex and subjective but what about if qualified people are not there to help or you are in a rush?

Last week the Large Hadron Collider has started producing collisions at the record high 8-TeV centre-of-mass energy to the ATLAS and CMS detectors.

In the course of the first week of run almost 200 inverse picobarns have been delivered to CMS, which is absolutely satisfactory.

The integrated luminosity versus time is shown below.



And here is the peak instantaneous luminosity reached during these first few days of running:


(NB: I believe the above figure lacks a "s^-1" units).

A study published in CANCER found that while dental X-rays are necessary, frequent dental X-rays in the past led to an increased risk of developing the most commonly diagnosed primary brain tumor in the United States.

Ionizing radiation is the primary environmental risk factor for developing meningioma, which is the most frequently diagnosed primary brain tumor in the United States. Dental x-rays are the most common artificial source of exposure to ionizing radiation for individuals living in America.

Gene expression is impacted by social dominance?  A study of rhesus macaques published in  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says a female's social status affects how her genes turn on and off, and those who rank higher tend to be healthier - unless their social status declines.

During the educational reform efforts of the No Child Left Behind Act, females achieved parity with males on math tests for the first time in history, yet stereotypes die hard.  Some people think females are just not as good at math.  Is there truth to it?

Matter annihilates antimatter, mostly resulting in light (no, not “pure energy”, whatever that is supposed to be). Matter and antimatter can also come into existence together via a process that is the reverse of annihilation. Yet our universe has almost no antimatter. How can such be if they come into existence in exactly equal amounts, each particle together with its antiparticle?

Everyone has heard of hindsight - where the context of past events is much clearer in memory than they were at the time - but a new study of the blindsight phenomenon, where a person is cortically blind yet they can still discriminate visual information without any awareness, could make the architecture of the brain a lot clearer. 

Toward that end, Tony Ro, a neuroscientist at the City College of New York, is artificially recreating blindsight in his lab. Sound scary? Just wait.

In my late teenage years I grew fond of Scientific American. Although language caused a barrier, and while I could digest and understand only some of the articles, the popscience presented opened my eyes to exciting developments and invited me to study further the subjects presented.

These days, many years later, I still glance through the magazine, but generally with less enthusiasm. Today's editions seem packed with rather superficial information, and the articles tend to be less inviting towards further studies. Yet, once in a while, a hidden jewel attracts my attention. Such is the case this month with an article by Steve Carlip from UC Davis. Subject is quantum gravity. Quantum gravity in a pancake universe, that is. 

What happens when genomics and synthetic biology labs get together?  Anti-science people flip out.  Because, you know, anti-science hippies think scientists are inhuman crazies without families who only care about breaking the laws of nature (maniacal laugh).