Featured Articles

3 Reasons We Can Stop Spending $5 Billion To Recruit Scientists

3 Reasons We Can Stop Spending $5 Billion To Recruit Scientists

Jul 13 2012 | comment(s)

Sometimes Science 2.0 has to swim against the stream. The stream, in this case, has been the long-standing irrational belief that America 'needs' more scientists.
Teaching Inorganic Nomenclature(Part 2) to Non-Chemistry Majors: The 5-Step, 5-Cycle Teaching Model

Teaching Inorganic Nomenclature(Part 2) to Non-Chemistry Majors: The 5-Step, 5-Cycle Teaching Model

Jul 13 2012 | comment(s)

According to Grossman and Loeb (2010),“the variation in teacher preparation pathways can propel understanding of how best to prepare teachers.” (p.22). Using this premise, I was able to synthesize the different pathways of actual teaching deliveries by the teachers who are teaching chemistry topics for engineering programs.

Kissing In Amsterdam

Kissing In Amsterdam

Jul 13 2012 | comment(s)

“…what happens if a person who prefers to kiss with the head turned to the right attempts to kiss a person who prefers to kiss with the head turned to the left.“?

This potentially awkward social situation is the subject of a new scientific analysis from researchers at the MOVE Research Institute based at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

GT3D: Eye Controller May Let Amputees Play Video Games With Their Eyes

GT3D: Eye Controller May Let Amputees Play Video Games With Their Eyes

Jul 13 2012 | comment(s)

If the millions of people suffering who have Multiple Sclerosis or muscular dystrophy could have one wish, it probably wouldn't be that they could use play video games - but until cures can be found, using a computer might make it a little better.  costs less than £40.
Tony Smith: My Two Bets With TD

Tony Smith: My Two Bets With TD

Jul 12 2012 | comment(s)

As I explained yesterday, I am in the process of receiving payment for a few bets on possible discoveries at the LHC. Two such bets were on between me and Tony Smith, a long time reader of this blog and a lawyer with deep interest in particle physics (and a few interesting ideas). Tony now concedes them. These are for a total of $200 and a bottle of Strega (an italian liquor); the latter has been agreed to be turned into a bottle of good wine, much closer to my taste. I will post here a picture of the wine as I get it; in the meantime, Tony agreed to write something to describe the heart of the matter to readers of this blog. So the text below is from him.

LEARNING FROM LOSING
 
Peer Review: The Nuts And Bolts

Peer Review: The Nuts And Bolts

Jul 12 2012 | comment(s)

Sense About Science, the British charitable trust that tries to educate the community on the correct handling of scientific claims, and to "work in partnership with scientific bodies, research publishers, policy makers, the public and the media, to change public discussions about science and evidence", has produced today a very interesting booklet on peer review.
Terror Tactics By The Left

Terror Tactics By The Left

Jul 12 2012 | comment(s)

It's no secret that an alarming number of left-wing people hate science - and scientists.  But why do far-left anarchists really hate science, enough to get violent about it? And why don't the right do anything more than be Freedom of Information Act pests?

Sure, more people on the right than on the left deny evolution, but they aren't shooting evolutionary biologists, we just have to be embarrassed that fringe sectarian zealots in backwater counties try to teach children how God planted fossils as some sort of faith-based head fake. There is no physical danger.

But science is deadly if you get a left-wing group after you.
Higgs or not Higgs, that is the matter!

Higgs or not Higgs, that is the matter!

Jul 12 2012 | comment(s)

Has LHC observed "the" Higgs boson or do we have to deal with something more exotic? After the seminar held on July the 4th at Cern, many online newspapers have published titles reporting the "discovery" of the Higgs boson, better the "god particle", but there are questions whether it is or not the Higgs boson or if we are dealing with a more exotic particle belonging to an unknown physics.

First Effects Of Cuts To HEP Research

First Effects Of Cuts To HEP Research

Jul 12 2012 | comment(s)

I cannot resist stealing the picture below, courtesy "IoNonFaccioNiente", the blog of Paolo Valente. Some context for foreigners is needed: the Italian government, in a rather untimely and shocking move, announced a 10% budget cut to the 2013 INFN, the italian institute for nuclear physics that pays my salary and significantly contributed to the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN.
Thoughts On Inspiration Porn, Disability, And Teaching Acceptance

Thoughts On Inspiration Porn, Disability, And Teaching Acceptance

Jul 12 2012 | comment(s)

A recent blog on an Australian news site on inspiration porn has had me taking notice of the images that come across my facebook feed, had me looking at the content and the messages that different people take away from the photos of disabled persons smiling, running, laughing, being.

Stella Young, in her piece, takes away a clear message from what she has called (she's not the first to term it so) inspiration porn: 

What Locksmiths Can Teach Us About Reforming Social Psychology

What Locksmiths Can Teach Us About Reforming Social Psychology

Jul 11 2012 | comment(s)

Social Psychologist Dave Nussbaum at the University of Chicago is one of the good guys; in the criticisms heaped on social psychology this year, the one silver lining is that it has been insiders tripping up the frauds like Diederik Stapel and Dirk Smeesters.
Supercapacitors: Making Renewable Energy Viable

Supercapacitors: Making Renewable Energy Viable

Jul 11 2012 | comment(s)

No matter how much spin you hear and read from highly-paid lobbyists and clueless advocates, green energy is not viable. It will be, though science would get there faster if the Department of Energy would stop throwing money at solar panel companies and instead throw it at basic research, like battery technology.

After cost and efficiency, storage is the biggest obstacle preventing widespread use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. The ability to store energy when it is produced is an essential waypoint on the road to turning alternative energy into regular energy. The current U.S. energy grid system is used predominantly for distributing energy and allows little flexibility for storage of excess or a rapid dispersal on short notice. 
The Necessity of Mind Uploading and Machine intelligence

The Necessity of Mind Uploading and Machine intelligence

Jul 11 2012 | comment(s)

Issues of “mind uploading” and “machine intelligence” have been in the tech. news of the futurist variety lately which got me thinking about these concepts and led me to write this blog post on the topic.  The first version of which was a bit of a “tongue in cheek” attempt which my partner said read like it was done by an“evil” genius.

So this is a revised post to clarify some misunderstandings based on the feedback I have received and also to clarify my own position.

Bob Marley Gets Species Named After Him - Steel Pulse Enraged

Bob Marley Gets Species Named After Him - Steel Pulse Enraged

Jul 11 2012 | comment(s)

A small parasitic crustacean blood feeder that infests certain fish that inhabit the coral reefs of the shallow eastern Caribbean is the absolute perfect species to name for a pleasant Jamaican stoner - and so it came to pass.  The little critter has been designated Gnathia marleyi.
Paleo-Experimental Evolution: Resurrecting A 500-Million-Year-Old Gene

Paleo-Experimental Evolution: Resurrecting A 500-Million-Year-Old Gene

Jul 11 2012 | comment(s)

Researchers have resurrected a 500-million-year-old gene from bacteria and inserted it into modern-day Escherichia coli(E. coli) - the bacterium has now been growing for more than 1,000 generations, which has given the scientists a front row seat to observe descent with modification in action.

It's paleo-experimental evolution.
Dairy Cows Stressed Out By Global Warming

Dairy Cows Stressed Out By Global Warming

Jul 11 2012 | comment(s)

'Got less milk?" is unlikely to resonate with consumers in the heartland, but it may be so, says a new projection.

The group behind the model found that a possible decline in milk production due to climate change will vary across the U.S., since there are significant differences in humidity and will be impacted by how much the temperature swings between night and day across the country. The humidity and hot nights make the Southeast the most unfriendly place in the US for dairy cows right now. That's not new, scientists and obviously farmers have long known about and studied the impact of heat stress on cows' milk production.
Nematode Worm C. Elegans Muscles Improve During Spaceflight

Nematode Worm C. Elegans Muscles Improve During Spaceflight

Jul 11 2012 | comment(s)

Spaceflight is tough on humans, due to weightlessness and radiation exposure. But if it bothers the nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, they aren't talking.

Researchers writing in Nature Scientific Reports say they were interested in seeing how C. elegans reacts to living in space because it was the first multicellular life form to have its full genetic structure mapped. They found the astronaut worms showed less toxic proteins in their muscles than if they had stayed on Earth. Further investigation revealed that seven genes were less active in space; living on the Space Station led to certain genes not functioning normally.
What Would You Name P5, Pluto's New Moon?

What Would You Name P5, Pluto's New Moon?

Jul 11 2012 | comment(s)

For not being a planet, according to 2 percent of astronomers, Pluto sure has a lot of moons.

Now it has one more, joining Charon, which was discovered in 1978, Nix and Hydra, discovered in 2006, and P4, found in 2011. 

Pluto’s new-found moon, provisionally designated S/2012 (134340) 1, or P5, is tiny and only visible as a speck of light in Hubble images, so it is estimated to be irregular in shape and between 10 and 25 kilometers across. It is in a 95,000 kilometer-diameter circular orbit and assumed to lie in the same plane as Pluto’s other known moons.
God Does Play Dice With The Universe (And The Dice Are Fair)

God Does Play Dice With The Universe (And The Dice Are Fair)

Jul 11 2012 | comment(s)

Want to get into a bar fight at a physics conference? Argue that quantum mechanics is the best way to predict outcomes. Or argue the opposite.

A new paper argues that quantum mechanics is close to optimal in terms of its predictive power but even if all the information is available, the outcomes of certain quantum mechanics experiments generally can't be predicted perfectly beforehand. Optimal but unpredictable? The best but often not good enough? Quantum mechanics is a confusing dichotomy, basically the LeBron James of the physics world.

Dark Galaxies: Building Blocks Of Modern, Star-filled Galaxies Spotted

Dark Galaxies: Building Blocks Of Modern, Star-filled Galaxies Spotted

Jul 11 2012 | comment(s)

Dark galaxies, theorized but unobserved, may have been spotted. 

Dark galaxies are essentially gas-rich galaxies in the early Universe that are very inefficient at forming stars and astronomers think they have detected these elusive objects by observing them glowing as they are illuminated by a quasar. They are predicted by theories of galaxy formation and are thought to be the building blocks of today’s bright, star-filled galaxies. They may have fed large galaxies with much of the gas that later formed into the stars that exist today.