Featured Articles

Adult Stem Cell Breakthrough For Male Pattern Balding

Adult Stem Cell Breakthrough For Male Pattern Balding

Jan 04 2011 | comment(s)

While hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on masking and treating male pattern baldness, surprisingly little is known about its cause at the cellular level.

A Journal of Clinical Investigation study has found that stem cells play an unexpected role in explaining what happens in bald scalps.   Using cell samples from men undergoing hair transplants, researchers compared follicles from bald scalps and non-bald scalps and found that bald areas had the same number of stem cells as normal areas in the same person but noted that another, more mature cell type called a progenitor cell was markedly depleted in the follicles of bald scalps. 
New Solar Cell Will Self-Repair Like Plants

New Solar Cell Will Self-Repair Like Plants

Jan 04 2011 | comment(s)

In an ideal energy future, man-made solar cells would mimic much of the functionality of efficient plant life.   Currently solar cell technology is expensive and a maintenance headache but Purdue researchers are working a new type of solar cell that uses carbon nanotubes and DNA to come closer to plant life that can be durable enough for commercials use,

Their design exploits the unusual electrical properties of structures called single-wall carbon nanotubes, using them as "molecular wires in light harvesting cells," said  Jong Hyun Choi, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Birck Nanotechnology and Bindley Bioscience centers at Purdue's Discovery Park.
Palaeontology Highlight Of 2010: A Rotten Study Of Vertebrate Origins

Palaeontology Highlight Of 2010: A Rotten Study Of Vertebrate Origins

Jan 04 2011 | comment(s)

Centralized Politics, Centralized Thought

Centralized Politics, Centralized Thought

Jan 04 2011 | comment(s)

“Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.”

“Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people?”

--Eleanor Roosevelt 
Unknown Physics Of Particle Orbital Momentum

Unknown Physics Of Particle Orbital Momentum

Jan 04 2011 | comment(s)

Everybody knows that the orbital momentum  is "quantized" and its z-projection  has integer eigenvalues in units of  . Too few, however, know that it is, in fact, a quasi-particle angular momentum which is integer-valued, not the particle one!
Citizen Science: 10-Year-Old Is Youngest Person Ever to Discover a Supernova

Citizen Science: 10-Year-Old Is Youngest Person Ever to Discover a Supernova

Jan 04 2011 | comment(s)

Kathryn Gray, a 10-year-old girl in Canada, has become the youngest person ever to discover a supernova.  With a middle name like Aurora, perhaps that isn't a surprise.

The supernova occurred in the galaxy UGC 3378 and is part of the constellation Camelopardalis.   It is about 240 million light-years away.  She discovered it with the help of two other amateur astronomers.

CBC News has the story

Supernova in UGC 3378
Discovery: Hang Son Doong Cave in Viet Nam Big Enough To Hold A Skyscraper

Discovery: Hang Son Doong Cave in Viet Nam Big Enough To Hold A Skyscraper

Jan 04 2011 | comment(s)

A cave in the Annamite Mountains of Viet Nam contains a river and jungle and is large enough, in spots, to hold a skyscraper.

Hang Son Doong Cave is part of a network of about 150 caves in central Vietnam near the Laotian border.  The husband and wife team of Howard and Deb Limbert first discovered it in 2009 but only recently returned to scale a huge calcite wall and try to find the cavern's end.
Squid Ink Revisited

Squid Ink Revisited

Jan 04 2011 | comment(s)

One of the more commonly known facts about squid is that they squirt ink. When I ask kids, "Why do you think they do that?" the answer is usually "to escape predators" or something similar.

This simple truth masks a myriad of wonders. Ink can help squid escape predators in so many different ways! Visually, it can serve as a smokescreen or a decoy; chemically, it can disgust or delight.

Cephalove just wrote up a great post about a whole different dimension of ink: one squid's warning to its fellow squid that there's reason to be alarmed.
A Good Start To 2011 For Conspiracy Theorists - Black Birds Fall Dead From The Sky

A Good Start To 2011 For Conspiracy Theorists - Black Birds Fall Dead From The Sky

Jan 04 2011 | comment(s)

If you're a conspiracy theorist, these are good times.   Leading up to the end of 2012, when the mother of all world endings is scheduled (until the next one), plenty of things would be expected to happen that sets it all in motion and counts as ominous portends, in that 'no-snowflake-in-an-avalanche-takes-the-blame' sort of way.

And one just did.   In Arkansas, thousands of blackbirds fell dead from the sky over the town of Beebe.

Where on Google Earth #246

Where on Google Earth #246

Jan 03 2011 | comment(s)

Happy New Year, and welcome to the first "Where on Google Earth" (WoGE) of 2011.  I was shocked to find out that my guess at WoGE #245 was correct, (Plymouth, Montserrat being the most post-apocalyptic looking place I could think of) so it is with great pleasure that I present WoGE #246.

Sexing Up Global Warming For A New Decade

Sexing Up Global Warming For A New Decade

Jan 03 2011 | comment(s)

Environmental groups are concerned they have lost the trust of the public regarding global warming so they have taken to new marketing approaches.    They started the last decade with runaway public interest and goodwill and ended it with scandals and black marks on the credibility of the climate field.
Did I stutter?

Did I stutter?

Jan 03 2011 | comment(s)


Record setting year for highs and lows - global warming doesn't just mean hot, people.

H/t Toothpaste for Dinner
Never Forget: How I Will Politicize The Attacks Of September 11th, On 9/11/2012

Never Forget: How I Will Politicize The Attacks Of September 11th, On 9/11/2012

Jan 03 2011 | comment(s)

On Tuesday, September 11th, 2012, I will make the attacks of 2001 a political issue.  For almost 10 years, these attacks have been used by Republicans as a political issue, justifying everything from conspicuous consumption to the Two War Economy of stopping (inflaming) Global Terrorism. 
First they came for your light bulbs...

First they came for your light bulbs...

Jan 03 2011 | comment(s)

California, the U.S. state in the midst of a budget deficit that would make third world nations cringe, didn't stop finding ways to tinker with an already perilous economy.   100 watt incandescent bulbs will no longer be allowed to be sold along with over 720 other laws the legislature found time to pass while being unable to approve a budget.
A Wine Goblet Timeline Of Social Status In Ancient Greece

A Wine Goblet Timeline Of Social Status In Ancient Greece

Jan 03 2011 | comment(s)

2000 years from now, if future researchers find our Science 2.0 mug, what would it tell them? 

Quite a bit, it turns out - at least regarding the social structure of the period in which we live.   Coffee is big in society.   But America is a young country compared to an ancient empire like Greece.   Studying drinks in ancient Greece over a long period can help researchers piece together what the social structure may have been like beyond select older writings.
It Was A Tentacular Year

It Was A Tentacular Year

Jan 03 2011 | comment(s)

Seems to be a time for retrospectives! I couldn't resist the chance to muse on the history of Squid A Day . . .

I started posting sixteen months ago, on September 1st, 2009, having been brought to the site by a writing contest for graduate students. I didn't win the grand prize, but I did get a nifty little flip video camera . . .
AMAZING SCIENCE

AMAZING SCIENCE

Jan 03 2011 | comment(s)

NEW THEORIES OF COSMOLOGY for OPEN DISCUSSION
      History of the science always showed that the science is like a mirage. People will think that science has reached to an end ,there is no further discoveries etc,. But all the time we found that still we are at the begining only and l there is so much to go.
Let us cultivate some of the potential ideas for further development of science.

Double Relativity Effect and Film theory of the Universe
ABSTRACT 
Saturn (Chronos), Eating His Children

Saturn (Chronos), Eating His Children

Jan 02 2011 | comment(s)

Western thought, from the sciences to the arts, have been based upon the rich mythology and history of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.  One which seems to guide the subconscious thought of many of our political and financial leaders is the myth of Saturn (Chronos).  Saturn, the Roman name for the Greek God Chronos, became the ruler of the deities after overthrowing his own father.  However, Saturn, like most power hungry individuals, quickly aged and forgot the crimes perpetrated by his own father -- 
Promotive Eudaemonia

Promotive Eudaemonia

Jan 02 2011 | comment(s)

This is the second of two parts.

Read part one here

In this discussion we will attempt to perfect the definition of eudaemonia by replacing the word "flourishment" with the word "promotive."

Eudaemonia

Eudaemonia

Jan 02 2011 | comment(s)



In this first of two installments defining eudaemonia we will attempt the impossible, circumnavigating the sphere of "the good."