Featured Articles

Richard III: The Hunt For The Last Plantagenet King

Richard III: The Hunt For The Last Plantagenet King

Aug 24 2012 | comment(s)

King Richard III, the last of the Plantagenets, ruled England from 1483 until he was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the next-to-last major battle in what would later be called The Wars of the Roses. If you're watching "Game of Thrones" on HBO, the Wars of the Roses were Lancasters instead of Lannisters and Yorks rather than Starks - the show has more dragons and less sex than the real thing. Richard III was a York and if you think that show has a lot of characters and craziness, try to follow the actual Wars of the Roses.
CDC On Vaccines: Measles Cases Highest Since 1996

CDC On Vaccines: Measles Cases Highest Since 1996

Aug 24 2012 | comment(s)

The anti-vaccination culture is making headway. CDC has reported 17 outbreaks and 222 measles cases from 211, mostly in unvaccinated people - the highest since 1996.

To identify areas of under-vaccination for measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases, state and local health departments monitor compliance with school immunization requirements using annual school vaccination assessment reports, supported as a CDC immunization funding objective for the 64 grantees, including the 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC), five cities, and eight other reporting areas. CDC also monitors progress toward meeting Healthy People 2020 objectives  for the vaccination of children entering kindergarten.
Key players in the Calvin cycle : Light reaction and Light dependent Carbon fixation

Key players in the Calvin cycle : Light reaction and Light dependent Carbon fixation

Aug 24 2012 | comment(s)

Melvin Calvin at Berkeley in 1945 showed that Chlorella could take up 14CO2 and produce 3-phosphoglycerate. 
 This article is for wider audience interested to know that carbon fixation cycle  is not “Dark reaction”  or  ” Light independent carbon fixation cycle” but is "Light dependent Carbon fixation".


Calvin cycle enzymes are present in mesophyll cells of C3 plants but they are absent from mesophyll cells of C4 plant.
 In C4 plants the RuBISCo is present and active in Bundle sheath cells only where they fix CO2 during day time. 
Ayurvedic Medications And Lead Poisoning

Ayurvedic Medications And Lead Poisoning

Aug 24 2012 | comment(s)

Despite extensive regulations and preventative efforts, lead poisoning, which can damage the brain, kidneys, and nervous and reproductive systems, still occurs in the United States.  Babies are also at risk. Fetal exposure to lead can adversely affect neurodevelopment, decrease fetal growth, and increase the risk for premature birth and miscarriage. 

Want A Tattoo? Have A Mycobacterium Chelonae Infection To Go With It

Want A Tattoo? Have A Mycobacterium Chelonae Infection To Go With It

Aug 23 2012 | comment(s)

21% of adults in the United States have at least one tattoo, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and on occasion outbreaks of nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) skin infections have been reported after tattooing.

In January 2012, public health officials in New York received reports of Mycobacterium chelonae skin infections in 14 New York residents who received tattoos during September–December 2011. All infections were associated with use of the same nationally distributed, pre-diluted gray ink manufactured by "company A". 
Bought Chemical-Free Dirt? I'd Like To Sell You Some Organic Soap

Bought Chemical-Free Dirt? I'd Like To Sell You Some Organic Soap

Aug 23 2012 | comment(s)

"Earlier this week, the magazine "Mother Jones" posted a helpful little story on the question of whether the health-conscious consumer should wash organic produce. Was it necessary, the author pondered, after all “how bad could a little chemical-free dirt really be?”"

Chemical free dirt? If you are reading Science 2.0 at all, you know why that term sent Wired scribe Deborah Blum into a science fit. 

She writes, "By fostering a fictional world view of chemistry, it makes us less safe, not more; less aware of the world around us, not more. Because the only place where you might find chemical-free dirt is in the gardens of your fairy-tale imagination. And that’s not going to be all that useful back here on Earth."
Ban GMO Music Now!

Ban GMO Music Now!

Aug 23 2012 | comment(s)

Physician John Smallberries said to me, “Twenty years ago, I didn’t even know what the word autism meant. It was rare.” But since then something has shifted. 

Whether it was music, vaccines, GMOs, or some combination of those, an astounding 1 in 110 children are now diagnosed as being 'on the spectrum', with boys 4 to 5 times likely to be diagnosed.  

What could be damaging the health and well-being of so many of our children? 
6 More Good Reasons To Vote No On California Prop 37

6 More Good Reasons To Vote No On California Prop 37

Aug 23 2012 | comment(s)


http://www.flickr.com/photos/royluck/with/6134108264/

Atheism+ : Because Secular Humanism Is Too Inclusive

Atheism+ : Because Secular Humanism Is Too Inclusive

Aug 23 2012 | comment(s)

Secular humanists not feminist enough for you?  Atheism not social justice-y enough for you?

Okay, on a science site you are stopping me right there and saying, "Isn't atheism just about believing on one less God than 90% of the world? And what's with all this social engineering business?"
Man, Know Thyself: Thousands Of Years Later, Self-Awareness Eludes Us

Man, Know Thyself: Thousands Of Years Later, Self-Awareness Eludes Us

Aug 23 2012 | comment(s)

"Man, know thyself" was the challenge of ancient Greek philosophers and it has been the goal of mankind since.

Thousands of years later, neuroscientists are trying to decipher how the human brain constructs our sense of self, with mixed results. Pretty pictures mapped to activity can only tell us so much. But if self-awareness is defined as being aware of oneself, including traits, feelings, and behaviors, there are three brain regions critical for self-awareness, they say: the insular cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex.
Plants muscling in?

Plants muscling in?

Aug 22 2012 | comment(s)

Do plants have muscles?  Strictly speaking, no, but time-lapse photography shows that they can be quite thuggish in behaviour.

Gender And Alcohol: Men Drink More After Divorce, Women While Married

Gender And Alcohol: Men Drink More After Divorce, Women While Married

Aug 22 2012 | comment(s)

In a long-term marriage,  men tend to drink less than they did while single. That's good.  But women drink more, say sociologists. 

My Take On The Would-Be Particle At 38 MeV

My Take On The Would-Be Particle At 38 MeV

Aug 22 2012 | comment(s)

Everybody seems to be talking about this new would-be particle, allegedly observed in diphoton decays in this paper by Kh. Abraamyan et al. at JINR, and consistent with an earlier claim of two physicists (van Beveren and Rupp) who had considered several distributions published by different collaborations.
Beer That’s Good For The Planet - It Creates Clean Energy Too

Beer That’s Good For The Planet - It Creates Clean Energy Too

Aug 22 2012 | comment(s)

Americans learned this week that the leader of the free world likes to brew his own “superb” beer. The Washington Post reported that President Obama likes microbrews “so much so that he bought a beer-making kit (with personal funds) for the White House.”

Now the White House can take the next step and slash its electricity bill, too.
Dinosaur Track Found At Goddard Space Flight Center

Dinosaur Track Found At Goddard Space Flight Center

Aug 22 2012 | comment(s)

Here's an episode of "Futurama" waiting to happen; a nodosaur roamed suburban Washington about 110 million years ago and evidence has just been found.

You'd think the ground near a sidewalk at the Goddard complex in Greenbelt, Maryland, home to 7,000 employees engaged in astrophysics, heliophysics and planetary science, would be pretty well covered but dinosaur tracker Ray Stanford found the 14" wide track this summer.
New Clues On How Parkinson´s Can Affect Memory

New Clues On How Parkinson´s Can Affect Memory

Aug 22 2012 | comment(s)

The recent discoveries that α-Synuclein(α-Syn), a central player in Parkinson´s disease (PD) brain destruction, can not only pass from one neuron to another but also exist outside neuronal cells, has led to a rethink of the disease. A study investigating α-Syn effects out of the cell has found that the protein can interfere with the normal functioning of the hippocampus, the brain area for memory and learning, what might start explaining the cognitive and memory problems seen in so many PD patients. 

Are Animals Intelligent ... Enough?

Are Animals Intelligent ... Enough?

Aug 22 2012 | comment(s)

A recent, fascinating recent study is Decoding Animal Languages, by Con Slobodchikoff.  At one level, it is an inspiring demonstration of how new technologies can liberate us from preconceptions and open new avenues of empathy, helping humans to understand the other species who co-inhabit this planet with us.

Cy-ber Young: High School Students Robot Gets To Throw First Pitch At Tigers Game

Cy-ber Young: High School Students Robot Gets To Throw First Pitch At Tigers Game

Aug 22 2012 | comment(s)

There's good stuff happening in Detroit too.  While journalists make political theater about golfing their way through the abandoned parts of the city (Detroit is the home of Great Society economic interference, where they advocated that janitors in car factories were $50 an hour union jobs, the same sort of micromanagement advocates claim will fix it) high school students are still getting cool things done.
Microbes Use Excess Wind Power To Make Cleaner Natural Gas

Microbes Use Excess Wind Power To Make Cleaner Natural Gas

Aug 22 2012 | comment(s)

We’ve long depended on coal-fired and natural gas power plants to convert chemical fuel into electricity. Now, scientists have found a way to convert electricity into a fuel using excess power from renewables like wind and solar.

Scientists from Stanford and Pennsylvania State universities have discovered a process to convert electricity into methane, the main constituent of natural gas, using microbes. The fuel is carbon neutral and can use the excess electricity from renewable sources.

Peter Singer, Group Selection, and the Evolution of Ethics

Peter Singer, Group Selection, and the Evolution of Ethics

Aug 22 2012 | comment(s)

In 1981 the philosopher Peter Singer published a book titled The Expanding Circle – Ethics, Evolution and Moral Progress. The book was inspired by EO Wilson’s Sociobiology – The New Synthesis, because although Singer claimed to find fallacies in Wilson’s book, he saw Wilson’s work as nevertheless providing a sound basis for exploring the evolution of ethical behaviour. Singer saw the need to republish with added notes in 2011 due to the appearance of fresh ideas on the subject.