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Triclosan: Antibacterial Handsoap Chemical Poses Risks In Animal Models

Triclosan: Antibacterial Handsoap Chemical Poses Risks In Animal Models

Aug 13 2012 | comment(s)

Triclosan, an antibacterial chemical widely used in hand soaps and other personal-care products, may impair muscle function. It hinders muscle contractions at a cellular level, slows swimming in fish and reduces muscular strength in mice, according to research from the University of California, Davis, and the University of Colorado. 
It's Simple; Shale Gas Is Our Best Short-Term Climate Fix

It's Simple; Shale Gas Is Our Best Short-Term Climate Fix

Aug 13 2012 | comment(s)

Current policies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions are inadequate for dealing with the threat that they pose - for every emission that America alone reduced (and we have reduced a lot, we are back at 1992 levels) China added that and more, and India would also like to have air conditioning.

Yet anyone who contends there has to be a hard stop on fossil fuels has basically eliminated themselves from a rational policy discussion - the energy density of gasoline is unmatched and we would need to create a nuclear power plant worth of clean energy every day for the next 50 years to meet our energy needs right now.  
...and this is why I once saw an iguana outside my classroom.

...and this is why I once saw an iguana outside my classroom.

Aug 13 2012 | comment(s)

Invasive species have been something of a pet peeve of mind ever since I found about them several years ago.  Who knew that the honeysuckle I enjoyed as a child actually belonged in Japan?  While some invasive species have proven more harmful than others (snakehead fish vs. brown trout, for example)- and some can more correctly be called "non-native species"- in general, they are a huge headache.
Is Your Duck Too Fat?

Is Your Duck Too Fat?

Aug 13 2012 | comment(s)

The BBC (cue: Land of Hope and Glory!) has just started yet another series on Chinese food.  In Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure, two famous chefs, the illustrious Ken Hom OBE and the rising star Ching-He Huang (黃瀞億) (neither of whom has an entry in Chinese Wikipedia) are travelling around China, and so far have been travelling around the region of Beijing, encountering a Grandmaster of Peking Duck.  Crisp skin and moist meat are essential, but the Chinese are becoming increasingly health-conscious, and over half of the ducks they eat are now of a reduced-fat v

Contrarian View: Science Standards In School Won't Help?

Contrarian View: Science Standards In School Won't Help?

Aug 13 2012 | comment(s)

I will tell you a secret. The loudest partisan progressives, some even in the science community, can find a way to hate anything if a Republican is involved.  So George Bush doubled NIH funding?  He still hated biology, we were told. No Child Left Behind improved scores for minorities every year it was in effect and girls achieved math parity with boys for the first time in history.  Who gets credit for that achievement?  Well, the bill was bipartisan, both Ted Kennedy And John Boehner signed off on it, but Bush was president so it sucked, according to partisans.
The Wildcard Of Renewable Energy

The Wildcard Of Renewable Energy

Aug 13 2012 | comment(s)

One renewable energy source is easily available as waste from from construction, agriculture, landscaping, logging and sawmills. And it's already used in domestic and district-level heating systems.

It is the main solid biomass fuel source used for combined heat and power production, known as co-generation, a definite advantage as an energy source.

It's wood chips, but you don't hear much about them.
2012 Olympics and the Ghosts Of Empire

2012 Olympics and the Ghosts Of Empire

Aug 13 2012 | comment(s)

The Olympics are coming to a close and now the British get to reflect on what, if anything, has changed in the world due to a gaming event designed to make the world a smaller and better place.
Why The Higgs Is A Bad Ballerina

Why The Higgs Is A Bad Ballerina

Aug 12 2012 | comment(s)

The Higgs boson, whose discovery was confirmed by CERN on July 4th to the exacting 5-sigma level required in particle physics (meaning that the probability that the bulge in the data indicating a particle with mass-energy in the range of ~125 GeV is a random fluke is less than 1 in 3.5 million), is the first and only boson to be predicted to be a very bad ballerina--it can't twirl around! 

Why Race Is Pseudo-Science

Why Race Is Pseudo-Science

Aug 12 2012 | comment(s)

Recently several posts have played the "race" card and elicited all manner of responses, but at its root, the fundamental premise had not actually been examined.  Is "race" a valid concept?

I know that many people will immediately experience a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of discussing "race" as pseudo-scientific, because they either have a vested interest in advancing their own "race", or because they wish to use it as a lever against other "races".
Let’s Recap The ‘DNA Games’: At The London Olympics, Segregation Returns With A Vengeance (And That's Not So Bad)

Let’s Recap The ‘DNA Games’: At The London Olympics, Segregation Returns With A Vengeance (And That's Not So Bad)

Aug 12 2012 | comment(s)

Led by 100-meter world record holder Usain Bolt, Jamaican men swept the sprinting events at the London Olympics. It was a stunning feat for the small Caribbean nation. But as part of a broader trend, it’s hardly surprising. Runners of West African descent are the fastest humans on earth.

For decades, a bushel of developing countries—Jamaica, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Kitts, Barbados, Grenada, Netherlands Antilles and the Bahamas in the Caribbean and Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Namibia in western Africa, as single countries, have each produced more elite male sprinters than all of white Europe and Asia combined. Yet West African descended runners are laggards at the longer races.

Living Forever - Boring?

Living Forever - Boring?

Aug 11 2012 | comment(s)

Living Forever - Boring?

A recent article ["Would it be boring to live forever"] raised the question that if science could resolve the problem of dying and prolong human life indefinitely, in a healthy state, would we become bored with such an existence and look at death more favorably.  

The two perspectives are essentially expressed in the following quotes.
Ekso Bionic Walking Suit Brings New Levels Of Autonomy

Ekso Bionic Walking Suit Brings New Levels Of Autonomy

Aug 11 2012 | comment(s)

Ekso Bionics has begun shipping an upgraded version of their Ekso bionic suit that powers up patients with spinal cord injuries and pathologies to get them standing and walking again. Each Ekso now comes equipped with three new walking modes for progressive rehabilitation options, and EksoPulse, a wireless networked usage monitor. Patients will have new challenges as they master each level and more control of the suit as they become more adept. 

Why We Judge Personalities On Appearance - It Works

Why We Judge Personalities On Appearance - It Works

Aug 11 2012 | comment(s)

Most people claim they don't make judgments about people based on appearance, and most people who say that are lying. 

'First impressions' became a term for a reason. Everyone knows appearance counts in first impressions, and first impressions count overall, that is why it is better to wear a tie to a job interview than pajamas but how much are people really able to tell about someone else based on physical aspects, aside from whether or not they are wearing pajamas instead of a tie or if they look like George Clooney? 
The Linguist Implications Of The Word

The Linguist Implications Of The Word "Uhm . . ."

Aug 11 2012 | comment(s)

What does “Uh(m)” mean?
Professional linguists from a selection of highly respected international academic institutions have pondered the question in some detail over the years, but now a new paper from Emanuel A. Schegloff, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, goes considerably further towards consolidating the answer(s).
The Quote of the Week: Ask Questions!

The Quote of the Week: Ask Questions!

Aug 11 2012 | comment(s)

The way to get people to know you, attach your name to your face, and realize you are knowledgeable is, maybe suprisingly, to ask questions at meetings, as often as possible. You do not understand something about a plot your colleague is showing during his talk ? Ask about it. The x-axis labels are missing ? Ask what the heck are the units, even if Groucho's child of five could understand it. You arrive before the last slide and the speaker is saying she measured x with two inverse femtobarns ?
David Brin Interview: Yoda Is A 'Horrible Little Oven Mitt'

David Brin Interview: Yoda Is A 'Horrible Little Oven Mitt'

Aug 11 2012 | comment(s)

Self-righteousness is a form of addiction?  Bags of urine in interstellar commerce? An autism plague?

Astrophysicist, futurist and author David Brin gets interviewed in the Wired Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast and you can read a transcript here.

He goes after George Lucas, the kind of succinct evisceration we all imagine in our minds but lack the clarity to pull off, and clobbers Yoda too: 
Positive DSMB Review Of Ongoing RetinoStat And StarGen Clinical Studies

Positive DSMB Review Of Ongoing RetinoStat And StarGen Clinical Studies

Aug 11 2012 | comment(s)

Oxford BioMedica plc biopharmaceuticals and its partner Sanofi announced a positive interim review of the RetinoStat(R) Phase I study in neovascular "wet" age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and the StarGen(TM) Phase I/IIa study in Stargardt disease by the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB); an independent panel of specialists in the fields of ophthalmology, virology and vectorology. RetinoStat(R) and StarGen(TM) were designed and developed by Oxford BioMedica using the Company's proprietary LentiVector(R) gene delivery technology. 

Why You Shouldn't Count On Rachel Maddow For Science

Why You Shouldn't Count On Rachel Maddow For Science

Aug 10 2012 | comment(s)

There is a subsection of the science community that loves Rachel Maddow; she is literate and she has the right politics.  But most of science is doing a facepalm because her slippery slope reasoning about 'fracking', if applied to any field of science, would call a halt to research all over the country.
Humanities Aren’t A Science (Social Sciences Either) So Stop Treating Them Like One

Humanities Aren’t A Science (Social Sciences Either) So Stop Treating Them Like One

Aug 10 2012 | comment(s)

Writing on Scientific American blogs, Maria Konnikova makes a point numerous scientists have made, yet one that makes science journalists and many psychologists bristle with irritation.
The Mercenary Intent Behind Proposition 37's GM Food Labeling

The Mercenary Intent Behind Proposition 37's GM Food Labeling

Aug 10 2012 | comment(s)

The US Food and Drug Administration says requiring special labels for foods that contain ingredients from genetically modified crops would be "inherently misleading" to consumers - that is exactly what proponents of GM food labeling are hoping for. People inherently side with the precautionary principle and there is no requirement that ballot initiatives be written clearly or well; the assumption is the public will figure it out.

The American Medical Association agrees with the USDA and wrote two months ago, "There is no scientific justification for special labeling of bioengineered foods."

And yet we are going to get it, and the cost, because spin doctors are calling it 'awareness'.