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MakerBot Brings Back The Mix Tape For The 21st Century

MakerBot Brings Back The Mix Tape For The 21st Century

Jul 29 2012 | comment(s)

The downside to an MP3 culture is that its pretty solitary. If I want to make a mix for the wife, I have to buy an .mp3 player and just give it to her - or I have to go retro and burn a CD. It's better than the 1990s, when people made cassette mix tapes - but they certainly showed you care. It was no trivial thing.  You can bet if I told my wife today I made a mix tape for another woman, she would be going to get her pistol.

Makerbot has brought them back - but with a modern twist.  You can make it in your house on a 3-D printer.  But it won't work in a cassette player, it is still basically a USB drive.
Do Not Bet On Quantum Physics (in Public)

Do Not Bet On Quantum Physics (in Public)

Jul 29 2012 | comment(s)

If the odds are in your favor, why not bet some money? There have been plenty of high profile bets in physics. Bets spice up stuff. Moreover: If nobody is willing to take your offer, they effectively publicly admit defeat.


If Laplace believes in a deterministic, classical universe, if he believes to have a method to use his knowledge to force a certain outcome, he is not only consistent when he bets his first born on that outcome. His bet could prove something about nature!


Dick knows that Brian will lose a certain bet with 99% probability, because that is what quantum mechanics tells. Dick proposes a bet, but can this bet prove anything?

Vegetarian Diet Dooms Olympians

Vegetarian Diet Dooms Olympians

Jul 29 2012 | comment(s)

Chinese athletes had been warned by the country's Sports Ministry to avoid meat because it may contain clenbuterol, banned by the International Olympic Committee as a performance-enhancing substance.  China bans clenbuterol because of the chemical's noxious long-term effects on human health.  The World Anti-Doping Agency issued a warning last year about clenbuterol-tainted meat in China. Mexico also has a serious issue with it but pork farmers in China still use it because it produces leaner meat so the choice was avoidance or take risks. 
Claims Require Evidence, Not Hyperbole

Claims Require Evidence, Not Hyperbole

Jul 28 2012 | comment(s)

One of the things I emphasize to my students in composition classes is that claims require evidence. All claims in a paper should be backed by evidence. Not simply stated and assumed true. Not propped up by fallacies. Backed by evidence.
FDA Advisory Committee RecommendsOcriplasmin For Symptomatic Vitreomacular Adhesion (VMA)

FDA Advisory Committee RecommendsOcriplasmin For Symptomatic Vitreomacular Adhesion (VMA)

Jul 28 2012 | comment(s)

ThromboGenics NV , a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing ophthalmic medicines, today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drugs Advisory Committee has recommended that the FDA grant ocriplasmin approval for the treatment of symptomatic Vitreomacular Adhesion (VMA).

HEP Cartoons: A New Entry

HEP Cartoons: A New Entry

Jul 28 2012 | comment(s)

The communication of science to the general public is a subject dear to me, but unfortunately one that the majority of my colleagues neglect to consider as one to which to devote time and efforts.

In the last decade blogs have started to fill the huge gap that exists between scientific journals and general news media, a gap that no popularization magazine can bridge, given their restricted scope. More recently, I see efforts that employ video and graphics more heavily than before, and this is of course a step in the right direction - reading is harder, or at least less immediate, than watching an image or following a video clip.
Ted Deutch And The Goofy Cancer Free Label Act

Ted Deutch And The Goofy Cancer Free Label Act

Jul 28 2012 | comment(s)

Can you be sure no one will get cancer if they only use cancer-free products?

Of course not, but anti-science kooks don't understand how cancer risk factors work and so Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) has proposed H.R. 6191, which would allow companies to apply to the government to allow their products to bear a "cancer-free" label. . It says approved labels would state, "This product does not contain known or likely carcinogens that increase your risk of cancer."
Reviewing Kimberly Gerry-Tucker's memoir on living with Asperger's

Reviewing Kimberly Gerry-Tucker's memoir on living with Asperger's

Jul 28 2012 | comment(s)

Kimberly Gerry-Tucker's memoir is not just another Asperger's autobiography; it is much more than that. From rich recollections of a childhood where things were often more real than people, where words often failed to come out, where one call almost feel the textures Kim paints with her words to the story of a how a family copes with the diagnosis, illness, and subsequent death of the husband and father from ALS, Under the Banana Moon is a window into Kim's world and her unique way of seeing and experiencing it.

Do Cuttlefish Dream Of Aquatic Sheep?

Do Cuttlefish Dream Of Aquatic Sheep?

Jul 27 2012 | comment(s)

Last night I had a sappy mama dream about holding and nursing my baby. Half-waking from it, I found myself wondering if the baby--scheduled to remain comfortably ensconced in my womb for another four months--might have had the same dream.
Pyrite: Fools’ Gold And The Sulfur Cycle Get Some Atmospheric Respect

Pyrite: Fools’ Gold And The Sulfur Cycle Get Some Atmospheric Respect

Jul 27 2012 | comment(s)

Sulfur has been portrayed as a secondary factor in regulating atmospheric oxygen - carbon gets all the press - but new findings suggest that sulfur’s role may have been underestimated.

As sulfur cycles through the land, the atmosphere and the oceans, it undergoes chemical changes that are often coupled to changes in other such elements as carbon and oxygen. This affects the concentration of free oxygen. 
In CNN, I Discuss How We're Not Under-Investing In Science Education, And US Kids Aren't Dumb

In CNN, I Discuss How We're Not Under-Investing In Science Education, And US Kids Aren't Dumb

Jul 27 2012 | comment(s)

It's a recurring theme that we're failing American students, but then the chief critics of U.S. kids say the solution is to throw more money at the government union machine that controls education.
Fareed Zakaria argued on CNN that the U.S. economy is struggling in part because President Obama gutted federal research and development funding, and that American students have fallen behind in science education.

Ecopsychology - For People Who Think Social Psychology Is Too Credible

Ecopsychology - For People Who Think Social Psychology Is Too Credible

Jul 27 2012 | comment(s)

If only there were a field that examines the spiritual, therapeutic and psychological aspects of human-nature relationships, I'd abandon my graduate studies in Theoretical Phys Ed and embrace this new discipline instead.

Luckily, there is. For those of you dumb enough to have spent $80,000 for a two-year program in Environmental Journalism at Columbia but now can't (they closed it - even unlimited student loans reached a gullible student limit), Ecopsychology is here.
European Commission Approves Fycompa® (Perampanel) For Partial-onset Seizures

European Commission Approves Fycompa® (Perampanel) For Partial-onset Seizures

Jul 27 2012 | comment(s)

European Commission (EC) has issued Marketing Authorisation Approval for the use of Fycompa® (perampanel) as an adjunctive treatment of partial-onset seizures, with or without secondarily generalised seizures, in people with epilepsy aged 12 years and older.[1] With the EC's approval, the European Union is the first region in the world to approve Eisai's perampanel.

Debunking The 'America Does Not Invest Enough In Science' Myth

Debunking The 'America Does Not Invest Enough In Science' Myth

Jul 27 2012 | comment(s)

Fareed Zakaria of CNN writes the Global Public Square column and expressed concern recently that America was losing ground in science because of research funding and education.  
Academic Hospitals Show 100 Percent Increase In MRSA Over 5 Years

Academic Hospitals Show 100 Percent Increase In MRSA Over 5 Years

Jul 27 2012 | comment(s)

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections doubled at U.S. academic medical centers between 2003 and 2008, according to a new report published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

MRSA infections, which cannot be treated with antibiotics related to penicillin, have become common since the late 1990s. These infections can affect any part of the body, including the skin, blood stream, joints, bones, and lungs.  The findings run counter to a recent CDC study that found MRSA cases in hospitals were declining. The CDC study looked only at cases of invasive MRSA—infections found in the blood, spinal fluid, or deep tissue. It excluded infections of the skin, which the new study includes.
The Insulin-Dependent Rules Of Beetle Attraction

The Insulin-Dependent Rules Of Beetle Attraction

Jul 27 2012 | comment(s)

The horns of creatures as different as elk and rhinoceros beetles - along with other decorative, mate-attracting structures -  are sensitive to changes in nutrition. They aren’t diabetic, but they are insulin-dependent; if they want to grow big horns and therefore attract mates.
Oocytes: Maybe That Biological Clock No Longer Ticks

Oocytes: Maybe That Biological Clock No Longer Ticks

Jul 26 2012 | comment(s)

Is there a 'biological clock' that women recognize innately, and act on accordingly? New research casts some doubt on that.
Social Engineering

Social Engineering

Jul 26 2012 | comment(s)

Prior to World War II and dating back to the 1890s, the phrases “social technology” and “social engineering” carried strong connotations of central planning. This became particularly true in the Soviet Union, where the terms appeared in various tracts.
Bill Nye The Science Guy Gets Political - Guess Who He Endorsed?

Bill Nye The Science Guy Gets Political - Guess Who He Endorsed?

Jul 26 2012 | comment(s)

Why would anyone on a science site bother to mention that a scientist has endorsed a Democrat?  It's only news when a scientist does not endorse a Democrat - well, if anyone in science media were to report it.

In 2008 76 Nobel laureates endorsed Senator Obama and, of course, blasted Bush. What has Obama done differently?  Not much, he simply replaced conservative anti-science positions with progressive ones.  Did he have science reports edited to match his ideology? Check. Do we still limit federal funding for hESC research?  Check.  Subsidize the president's pet energy projects?  Check.

"Meatless Mondays" - USDA Called 'Extremist Vegetarians'

Jul 26 2012 | comment(s)

The Agriculture Department is supposed to promote agriculture, including meat, but it seems someone in there once read a flawed metric that claims it takes a gallon of gas to produce a pound of beef and recommended USDA employees go meatless to save the world.

Is there any truth to it?  No, but maybe they are counting on another four years of anti-science, advocacy-based leadership and getting a head start. In their agency newsletter, they provided tips on how to reduce environmental impact while eating in the department cafeteria - they suggested not eating meat.