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UK Libel Law Reform - A First Step

UK Libel Law Reform - A First Step

Feb 24 2010 | comment(s)

UK Libel Law Reform - A First Step

A UK Parliamentary committee has today 24 February 2010 published online its report on press standards, privacy and libel.

The committee's conclusions will give some cheer to those of us who believe that current UK libel laws are bringing British jurisprudence into disrepute.
Scientists Introduce The Cell Phone Of Undersea Communications

Scientists Introduce The Cell Phone Of Undersea Communications

Feb 24 2010 | comment(s)

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists and engineers have devised an undersea optical communications system that—complemented by acoustics—enables a virtual revolution in high-speed undersea data collection and transmission. Its developers are likening the new technology to the cell phone and wireless Internet access. Their report will  be presented Feb. 23 at the 2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland Ore.

Compared to communication in the air, communicating underwater is severely limited because water is essentially opaque to electromagnetic radiation except in the visible band. Even then, light penetrates only a few hundred meters in the clearest waters; less in sediment-laden or highly populated waters.
'Piezo-Rubber': New Technology Harvests Electricity From Body Movements

'Piezo-Rubber': New Technology Harvests Electricity From Body Movements

Feb 24 2010 | comment(s)

In a study in Nano Letters, scientists report that they have developed a flexible, biocompatible rubber film called Piezo-rubber for use in implantable or wearable energy harvesting systems. The material could be used, for instance, to harvest energy from the motion of the lungs during breathing and used to run pacemakers without the need for batteries that must be surgically replaced every few years.
New Hydrophobic Interface Mimics Spider Hairs

New Hydrophobic Interface Mimics Spider Hairs

Feb 24 2010 | comment(s)

Engineers from the University of Florida and Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea have developed what they call a 'nearly perfect hydrophobic interface' by reproducing, on small bits of flat plastic, the shape and patterns of the minute hairs that grow on the bodies of spiders. A paper describing the new water repellent surface, appears this month in Langmuir.

"They have short hairs and longer hairs, and they vary a lot. And that is what we mimic," said Wolfgang Sigmund, a professor of materials science and engineering.
Atheists And Liberals More Intelligent, Says Atheist, Liberal Psychologist

Atheists And Liberals More Intelligent, Says Atheist, Liberal Psychologist

Feb 24 2010 | comment(s)

According to a new study in Social Psychology Quarterly, the higher your IQ the more likely you are to be a liberal and an atheist. The author says this is because more intelligent people exhibit social values and political preferences that are novel to the human species in evolutionary history--mainly, liberalism and atheism.

The study advances a new theory to explain why people form particular preferences and values. The theory suggests that more intelligent people are more likely than less intelligent people to adopt evolutionarily novel preferences and values, but intelligence does not correlate with preferences and values that are old enough to have been shaped by evolution over millions of years."
How The Human Brain Responds To Inequality

How The Human Brain Responds To Inequality

Feb 24 2010 | comment(s)

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland have found that the reward centers in the human brain respond more strongly when a poor person receives a financial reward than when a rich person does. This activity pattern holds true even if the brain being looked at is in the rich person's head, rather than the poor person's.

The significance? The human brain is a big believer in equality, the scientists say. Their results are detailed in a new study appearing in Nature.
Bigger, More Frequent Forest Fires Could Benefit Pacific Northwest

Bigger, More Frequent Forest Fires Could Benefit Pacific Northwest

Feb 24 2010 | comment(s)

Many scientists warn that with a changing climate there's a good chance that forest fires in the Pacific Northwest will become larger and more frequent – and according to one expert, that's just fine.

The future of fire in this region is difficult to predict, will always be variable, and undoubtedly a part of the future landscape. People should understand, however, that fire is not only inevitable but also a valuable part of forest ecosystems and their management, says John Bailey, an associate professor in the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management at Oregon State University.
Designers Compete to Create

Designers Compete to Create "Green Gadget" of the Year

Feb 24 2010 | comment(s)

This Thursday, the 2010 Greener Gadgets Conference, a daylong event featuring discussions about energy efficiency, sustainable design and product manufacturing, packaging and recycling, will culminate with a Greener Gadgets design competition.

Individuals and companies from all corners of the world submitted their ideas for sustainable products, from self-powered gadgets to those that minimize electricity consumption by another device.
Internet camera

Internet camera

Feb 24 2010 | comment(s)

You know what I would like? An Internet camera. It would be just like the digital camera I have today: it would take pictures, compress them into JPEG files, and store them on an SD card in the camera. Of course, it would also have a GPS receiver, and it would include the GPS information in the file’s metadata, so the photos would automatically be geotagged. Nothing we aren’t already doing.

Judge Judge Judges Judgement

Judge Judge Judges Judgement

Feb 24 2010 | comment(s)

Judge Judge Judges Judgement


Today, 23 Feb 2010, a high court judge named Lord Judge has just judged the meanings of some terms used in a previous judgement in a lower court, during a pre-trial hearing.

Today is a day of hope for Simon Singh, for opponents of stupid laws, for champions of free speech and lovers of language.


Rt Hon The Lord Judge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales has made some comments in the pre-trial hearing which give cause for hope to supporters of Simon Singh in his fight against stupid laws and worse science.
Bose-Einstein Interferences: The Collider View

Bose-Einstein Interferences: The Collider View

Feb 23 2010 | comment(s)

One of the few physics measurements that the LHC experiments are already in the position of producing, with the week-worth of proton-proton collision data they have collected last December, is that of the Bose-Einstein intereference between identical bosons.
Heated Research On The Origin Of Life In Warm Waters And Ernesto Di Mauro

Heated Research On The Origin Of Life In Warm Waters And Ernesto Di Mauro

Feb 23 2010 | comment(s)

Who's Ernesto Di Mauro? He is Professor of Molecular Biology at the Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. I caught his recent research in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, which "publishes papers based on original research that are judged to make a novel and important contribution to understanding the molecular and cellular basis of biological processes." Here are two recent abstracts by Di Mauro and colleagues. (1)
Anatomy Of A Satellite

Anatomy Of A Satellite

Feb 23 2010 | comment(s)

IT arrived. With little fanfare, an ordinary cardboard box full of packing peanuts has thrown my life into panic and confusion. For the mighty packing slip says it all. "Parts&Packing List". Inside is... a piece of paper. And, hopefully, buried under the packing peanuts, also a satellite.

box with packing peanuts

My satellite. My InterOrbital pico-satellite. "Project Calliope", the satellite. The THING I'm BUILDING in my BASEMENT (dum-dum-dah-dum!). Did you ever wonder just what a satellite is made of? The answer is... this!
Researchers find a protective pathway that delays Huntington's symptoms

Researchers find a protective pathway that delays Huntington's symptoms

Feb 23 2010 | comment(s)

A Canadian research team has identified an early-life protective compensation in brain cells that have the Huntingtin gene mutation that may lead to drug treatments for Huntington's disease (HD).
 
Stephen Ferguson and Fabiola Ribeiro of Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario wrote that they were able to identfy a protective mechanism in brain cells that might explain why HD symptoms take so long to appear and lead to new treatments. Their findings are published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

The British Chiropractic Association v Simon Singh: The Law Lords Decision Could Be a Headache for BCA

The British Chiropractic Association v Simon Singh: The Law Lords Decision Could Be a Headache for BCA

Feb 23 2010 | comment(s)

It's about 5.30 pm in England and the Court of Appeal in the case of the British Chiropractic Association v Simon Singh has closed for the day. No official news as yet but the Singh supporters from Twitter seem to have smiles on their faces.

No doubt they will blog about this soon, but for the latest take a look at Jack of Kent and the list he has compiled of live Twitters from the hearing.
Gitterdämmerung?

Gitterdämmerung?

Feb 23 2010 | comment(s)

Before we get to the Wagnerian bit, here is an article in today’s Telegraph: Simon Singh: it is too late for me, but libel laws must change for the public good.  This was raised earlier on SciBlog in British Libel Laws - Good for Pseudoscience, but the present one is worth reading for its wider scope.