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Why Candidates Ignore Science: The Disconnect Between Research And Benefit

Why Candidates Ignore Science: The Disconnect Between Research And Benefit

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

For as long as I can remember, academic scientists have said that applied research is great - for someone else.  But for themselves, they want to do basic research and be creative and not have to worry about any applied / societal benefit.(1)

But another election season is here and, despite $140 billion of taxpayer money being spent on research, no one in either party really gives a hoot about science topics and scientists are concerned neither candidate cares.(2)  
Oxytocin: A Mindreading Hormone?

Oxytocin: A Mindreading Hormone?

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

The hormone oxytocin is well-known as the “bliss hormone” because it is secreted upon stimulation by touch and is known to result in a feeling of calm and physical relaxation. But odder claims are that is is a “mindreading” hormone and recent research set out find if there is any truth in those claims.
Climate Change Freak Out And The Predictable Media Uproar

Climate Change Freak Out And The Predictable Media Uproar

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

Two gray literature studies (translation: good enough for the IPCC, but Science 2.0 should be skeptical until they are peer-reviewed) have different answers on how fast the planet is warming. The first,  from the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project run by physicist Richard Muller, agrees with earlier findings about the pace of global warming, while the second, by Anthony Watts and colleagues, argues that half of the recent warming in the U.S. is artificial.
Power Law Tail Economics And A Physics Way To Redistribute Wealth

Power Law Tail Economics And A Physics Way To Redistribute Wealth

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

Physicists doing economics has gotten a bad rap - a practically worldwide recession will do that - but it's no reason to give up, especially if you are of the world view that redistributing wealth is better than a free market.

Models designed to represent taxation and wealth redistribution could be adjusted to create a target level of wealth distribution, according to mathematical physicists from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. 
Immune Response For Rabies Discovered In The Amazon

Immune Response For Rabies Discovered In The Amazon

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

Our immune systems are funny things. An American traveling to Taiwan, for example, might be warned to get a hepatitis vaccine - unless they grew up on a farm. Rabies is even scarier.  If you are bitten by an unknown animal, it requires a series of painful injections because if clinical disease sets in, it is usually fatal.
Two Events At FestivaLetteratura 2012

Two Events At FestivaLetteratura 2012

Aug 02 2012 | comment(s)

I am very happy to have been invited, by Matteo Polettini, to two events that will take place at Festivaletteratura (literature festival), an important cultural event that takes place in Mantova, a beautiful town in northern Italy, from the 5th to the 9th of September.
Who Owns Your Medical Records?

Who Owns Your Medical Records?

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

For most of our lives; physicians, hospitals, and insurance companies have used paper medical records. They controlled the flow of data, but allowed patients and others access to their records.

Rebellious Kids Correlated To More Drug Addiction

Rebellious Kids Correlated To More Drug Addiction

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

We can't complain that children don't know how to think and act like adults if we homogenize the way children behave...but criminologists wish you would.   If you don't, they could be drug addicts.

Defiant kids are correlated with drug dependence - they include cigarettes along with pot and cocaine, naturally - according to surveys analyzed by psychologists at Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center’s (UHC) Research Center and the University of Montreal, concluded following a 15-year population-based paper published in Molecular Psychiatry.
The Island Of Dr. Benoît Mandelbrot

The Island Of Dr. Benoît Mandelbrot

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

Dr. Benoît Mandelbrot (1924-2010), IBM Research Fellow and later Sterling Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Sciences at Yale University, is a mathematician best known as the father of fractal geometry. 
It Worked! US Energy Emissions Back At 1992 Levels

It Worked! US Energy Emissions Back At 1992 Levels

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

See? America did not need any stinking Kyoto agreement, we just needed for three areas to work in tandem to get greenhouse gas emissions back close to the magic number picked by the Germans and French a decade and a half ago.(1)

The Department of Energy released carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of the energy sector  for Q1 of 2012 and they were the lowest since 1992. American energy is positively green again, just like people wanted. We can thank right-wing energy companies for that, because it has primarily happened due to natural gas.
The Great Pyramid - Did It Have An Elevator?

The Great Pyramid - Did It Have An Elevator?

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

… asks Peter C. Sundt, BSc. in the June 2010) of the journal Elevator World (page 114). Although the article is ‘subscribers only’, an earlier essay by the same author on broadly the same subject (with the same title) is available online here, via The Structural Engineer.

“Most agree that the Great Pyramid at Giza, the last remaining Wonder of the Ancient World, was an amazing job of construction. It’s a great pity, though, that the Egyptians left little or no records of how they did it.”

Four Ferraris And A New Challenge

Four Ferraris And A New Challenge

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

Don't be surprised when you spot four Ferraris at 1 Einstein Drive, Princeton. Four brand new racing machines nicely parked next to each other and next to the entrance of the Institute for Advanced Study. 
Methanogens: Microbes Make Eco-Friendly Methane

Methanogens: Microbes Make Eco-Friendly Methane

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

Most methane comes from natural gas - natural gas used to be loved but once it got popular it got lumped in with mean old fossil fuels so the search is on to find a new, green approach to methane, using microbes that can convert renewable electricity into carbon-neutral methane.

Researchers are raising colonies of microorganisms, called methanogens, which have the ability to turn electrical energy into pure methane, the key ingredient in natural gas. The scientists' goal is to create large microbial factories that will transform clean electricity from solar, wind or nuclear power into renewable methane fuel.
Constellation Eridanus And NGC 1187: A Blue Whirlpool In The River

Constellation Eridanus And NGC 1187: A Blue Whirlpool In The River

Aug 01 2012 | comment(s)

NGC 1187, a spiral galaxy about 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus (The River), may look tranquil but it's home to some violent events. NGC 1187 has hosted two supernova explosions during the last thirty years, the latest one in 2007.

NGC 1187 was discovered in England by William Herschel in 1784 and can be seen almost face-on, which gives astronomers a good view of its spiral structure. About half a dozen prominent spiral arms can be seen, each containing large amounts of gas and dust. The bluish features in the spiral arms indicate the presence of young stars born out of clouds of interstellar gas.
Real-Life Robotech Mecha Have Finally Arrived

Real-Life Robotech Mecha Have Finally Arrived

Jul 31 2012 | comment(s)

Suidobashi Heavy Industry of Japan has finally found a way to make (a) work or (b) laser tag interesting to me; put me inside a giant robot. 

But to get the "Kuratas mecha" you will have to spend $1.35 million. You will want to, because they have a polite, hot Japanese girl in shorts in their video. 

Its diesel engine sends it at an elegant 10 KPH clip, basically a decent walking pace.  But these are too cool to run in.  No one looks cool running so until it can fly or turn into a motorcyle, a cool pace will do.

This thing is huge.  Granted, the girl in the video is probably only 4 feet tall but look at the scale of it:
Kinesiotaping Is Basically Magnetic Bracelets For 2012

Kinesiotaping Is Basically Magnetic Bracelets For 2012

Jul 31 2012 | comment(s)

Kinesio tape, developed by Dr. Kenzo Kase decades ago, claims to provide muscle and joint support without restricting movement.  And it's so popular that Kinesio's product website advocates a particular taping technique which practitioners need to learn on a special training course. 4000 in Britain are qualified in this 'art' of Kinesiotaping, but the big question is, does it really work? 
Human Evolution: Speeding? Splitting? Borging? And The Future Of The Olympics

Human Evolution: Speeding? Splitting? Borging? And The Future Of The Olympics

Jul 31 2012 | comment(s)

A number of recent web-notables all seem to revolve (eccentrically) around the question of human evolution.  Whether it continues. Whether there is such a thing as "selection in groups." Whether our technological (cyborg) augmentations and/or increasing numbers of "non-neuro-typical" society members portend a new splitting of human destiny. And it looks as if I should have set Existence just five years in the future, instead of 35!

Aesop's Fable: Is Your Child Smarter Than That Crow?

Aesop's Fable: Is Your Child Smarter Than That Crow?

Jul 31 2012 | comment(s)

If the legend is true, Aesop lived during the sixth century B.C. He was born a slave but was given his freedom as a reward for his wit and intelligence.  

He never wrote anything down but the stories people remembered were so intriguing virtually every moralistic fable before him (and after) got attributed to him.  Now Aesop's Fables number in the 600s.  

One of them, "The Crow and the Pitcher", highlights the 'necessity is the mother of invention' concept. A thirsty crow can't get his beak far enough down into a pitcher of water to drink, so he drops stones in until the water level rises.
Debunked? Hunter-Gatherers Burned More Energy Than Modern People

Debunked? Hunter-Gatherers Burned More Energy Than Modern People

Jul 31 2012 | comment(s)

Modern lifestyles are quite different from those of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. That seems obvious. People looking to apply blame for the obesity rise focus on their own agendas, be it lobbying against GMOs, high fructose corn syrup or video games. Or contend it is because we don't spend our days picking berries.

But what does science say?  There's no way to know but anthropologists are at least taking a shot at it. A new analysis, of modern hunter-gatherers anyway, found that there is no difference between their energy expenditure and Westerners, casting doubt on 'we don spend all day picking berries' hypothesis for obesity.
ATLAS: 5.9 Sigma For A 126 GeV Higgs !

ATLAS: 5.9 Sigma For A 126 GeV Higgs !

Jul 31 2012 | comment(s)

ATLAS has just released a note which summarizes the searches for the standard model Higgs boson in 7-TeV and 8-TeV data. Since July 4th the main improvement is the addition of the WW channel, which had not been shown back then. With it, the combined local significance of the 126 GeV Higgs boson excess in the WW, ZZ, and γγ channels grows to 5.9 standard deviations. In the words of a Facebook friend who's in ATLAS: "if this is not a discovery, I don't know what is".