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Insects Can Leave Voicemail - Using Plants

Insects Can Leave Voicemail - Using Plants

Jun 12 2012 | comment(s)

A few years ago, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) researchers discovered that soil-dwelling and above-ground insects are able to communicate with each other using the ragwort plant as a kind of telephone.

Insects eating plant roots change the chemical composition of the leaves, causing the plant to release volatile signals into the air. This can convince aboveground insects to select another food plant in order to avoid competition and to escape from poisonous defense compounds in the plant.

 Apparently the communication doesn't stop there.
Humble's Miracle Industrial Bleach: MMS Will Heal Autism And Everything Else, Too!

Humble's Miracle Industrial Bleach: MMS Will Heal Autism And Everything Else, Too!

Jun 12 2012 | comment(s)

Bloggers like Orac (his first post, his second post, his third post), Emily Willingham, Autismum and others have covered Autism One's latest quack cure, MMS, in detail.
Bank Of America Gets Taxpayer Bailout, Bails Out Climate

Bank Of America Gets Taxpayer Bailout, Bails Out Climate

Jun 12 2012 | comment(s)

Bank of America was recently so crushed by its risky derivatives investments it needed $45 billion in bailout money from taxpayers - and then proceeded to engage in questionable practices to cover its losses, much like it engaged in questionable practices to acquire the losses.  

Things are so much better now they can afford to fix global warming and are devoting $50 billion to the cause. 
Neil Shubin Alert:: Human Spine Shape Found In Aquatic Eel Fossil

Neil Shubin Alert:: Human Spine Shape Found In Aquatic Eel Fossil

Jun 12 2012 | comment(s)

At Science 2.0, we often joke that biologist Neil Shubin from the University of Chicago can make anything about fish. That's because we've never heard him not able to make anything about fish. His books, talks and research methods show great examples of multidisciplinary research - biology tells us what should have existed, geology tells us the conditions where something might be found and paleontology finds it.

A spine with multiple segments is a feature of land-dwelling animals but the discovery of the same anatomical feature in a 345-million-year-old eel suggests that this complex anatomy arose separately from, and perhaps before, the first species to walk on land.
Diabetes: Positive Results From First Human Clinical Trials Of Artificial Pancreas System

Diabetes: Positive Results From First Human Clinical Trials Of Artificial Pancreas System

Jun 12 2012 | comment(s)

Results from the first feasibility study of an advanced first-generation artificial pancreas system were presented at the American Diabetes Association Meeting in Philadelphia and findings from the study indicated that the Hypoglycemia-Hyperglycemia Minimizer (HHM) System was able to automatically predict a rise and fall in blood glucose and correspondingly increase and/or decrease insulin delivery safely. Currently the most effective method of measuring blood glucose levels is with a blood glucose meter from Dexcom or other suppliers.

The HHM System included a continuous, subcutaneous insulin pump, a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and special software used to predict changes in blood glucose.

Quaternion Scalars, Quaternion Vectors: Life Without An Orthonormal Basis (2/2)

Quaternion Scalars, Quaternion Vectors: Life Without An Orthonormal Basis (2/2)

Jun 12 2012 | comment(s)

Everyone's introduction to quaternions always has the same math one-liner:



This blog will dive into an issue that has bothered me for years, namely that the line assume the only coordinate system that can be used for quaternions are both normal and orthogonal.  It is the later property that stumped me, and I made a small step forward I will report on.
Shared Meaning: Solace By Accident

Shared Meaning: Solace By Accident

Jun 12 2012 | comment(s)

"It takes more work to communicate with someone whose native language isn't the same as yours. And autism goes deeper than language and culture; autistic people are "foreigners" in any society. You're going to have to give up your assumptions about shared meanings." -- Jim Sinclair, "Don't Mourn For Us" 
Not For the Faint of Heart: Parenting

Not For the Faint of Heart: Parenting

Jun 12 2012 | comment(s)

We all say hurtful things to the ones we love. Some things we mean, and others we're just using the other person as a punching bag. Sometimes the damage we do with those words can't be undone and can't be healed, and relationships end. Parent/child relationships are different, though, or should be. As parents, we're supposed to develop thick skins and our children by the age of two are working hard to help us get those thick skins with their repeated cries of "I hate you!" ringing in our ears. Those words and feelings continue on through adolescence as we as parents impose order and rules on our children for their safekeeping.
Wild Salmon, Invasive Species

Wild Salmon, Invasive Species

Jun 12 2012 | comment(s)

Sometimes natural is not good.   Actually, a lot of the time natural is bad but we live in in era where anti-science types have a 'natural' fetish, believing anything natural is good.

But not always. Weeds are natural yet if you leave them alone your vegetables will die.  And that goes for plenty of other invasive species.  Even wild salmon.

There's long been precautionary principle hysteria that farm-raised salmon - created so we could all benefit from the health effects of eating fish without risking overfishing - would cause disease among the wild population.  Who knew that they were so delicate after millions of years of evolution?  
Summary Of Day 1 At ICFP 2012

Summary Of Day 1 At ICFP 2012

Jun 11 2012 | comment(s)

The International Conference on New Frontiers in Physics (ICFP) 2012 started today with a rich program of experimental and theory talks. I should be swimming in the Cretan sea in front of the nice conference venue (which is 40 meters away from the water), but my sense of duty forces me to give you some impressions of the presentations I heard.
ICFP 2012 Day One

ICFP 2012 Day One

Jun 11 2012 | comment(s)

The island of Crete, in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, is home to ICFP 2012, a conference in high-energy physics. I arrived yesterday night and this morning I woke up with a gorgeous view of the sun rising over a blue sea.




(The picture shows a beach not far from here, which I'll visit on Wednesday. It is called "Balos beach" and it is a wonderful place).
Evolutionary Psychology - As it Should Be

Evolutionary Psychology - As it Should Be

Jun 11 2012 | comment(s)

Bill Bryson edited a very good book in 2010 titled, “SEEING FURTHER – The Story of Science and the Royal Society”.
Unravelling The Mystery Of The Glycome

Unravelling The Mystery Of The Glycome

Jun 11 2012 | comment(s)

New chemical compounds that can make key modifications to common sugar molecules - glycans - which are found on the surface of all cells in our body are new tools for investigating treatments for chronic inflammation, autoimmune diseases, cancer metastasis and related conditions.

A new study describes compounds that selectively block the attachment to the cell of two types of sugar building blocks, sialic acid and fucose, which are found at the tips of cell surface glycans and can be critical to cell function. 
Why do trolls always resort to ad hominem attack when the subject is evolution or anthropomorphic warming??

Why do trolls always resort to ad hominem attack when the subject is evolution or anthropomorphic warming??

Jun 10 2012 | comment(s)

People never fail to amaze me: when they think they are anonymousthey will say the nastiest things to each other.  I have been reading a number of the commentson articles about evolution vs creationism and global warming.  Those opposed to the science presented havebecome like Rabid Dogs attacking the author of the article rather than thesubstance of the article.

In learned debate, the party resorting to an ad hominemattack is acknowledged to be boors who have no manners AND have lost thedebate. When you result to a personal attack on the author it is clear you havenothing further to contribute to the discourse.

So if you want to win friends and influence the debate,present well research facts and be polite even a middle school student knowsthat.

Astronomical Unit

Astronomical Unit

Jun 09 2012 | comment(s)

Last Transit of Venus was more fruitful than could be expected. Thousands of amazing images were taken and this is just enough to appreciate the high point of the event. Things more physical or astronomical were also concluded from it, of course.
Driving While Sleep Deprived

Driving While Sleep Deprived

Jun 09 2012 | comment(s)

Having come across this article, "Sleepy medical staff run increased risks of accidents driving home after a night shift", I couldn't help but be struck by two obvious questions.

(1).  Since when does being a medical staff member make any difference in the risks of driving while sleep deprived?  If it doesn't matter, then it seems that the study is being unnecessarily specific for something which is common, obvious knowledge.

(2).  More importantly, if the risks are dramatically higher for "sleepy medical staff", one has to wonder what the risks are to patients. 
Cosmological Constant

Cosmological Constant

Jun 08 2012 | comment(s)

Cosmological Constant - it's the blog's title, but something more, As you may know, Einstein himself called it his greatest blunder. Why did he say these words? Let us see...
When Albert Einstein developed his General Theory of Relativity he found out that the Universe was expanding... Eh? Yes! Galaxies are moving away each other. He thought this was not possible because his working model was a perfectly spherically symmetric one. To stop this expansion (well from a mathematical point of view) he modified the equations and to get a stationary universe. This modification was carried out by the so called cosmological constant.
New CERN Results On Rare B Decays: A Tombstone To SUSY ?

New CERN Results On Rare B Decays: A Tombstone To SUSY ?

Jun 08 2012 | comment(s)

The CERN average of searches for rare B decays to muon pairs has been shown yesterday in a talk given by Mitesh Patel at the "Physics at the LHC" conference, which is being held in Vancouver (BC) this week. And the results are not very encouraging for supporters of Supersymmetry: the data is compatible with a Standard Model signal, but there is almost no space left for additional contributions due to the exchange of virtual SUSY particles in the loops producing the decays.
Of Quantum Non-Locality And Green Cheese Moons In Many Worlds

Of Quantum Non-Locality And Green Cheese Moons In Many Worlds

Jun 08 2012 | comment(s)

The fourth FQXi essay contest “Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?” is underway.

 

Induced pluripotent stem cell research faces many challenges- but persistence pays off

Induced pluripotent stem cell research faces many challenges- but persistence pays off

Jun 07 2012 | comment(s)

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) research in the last 2 years has faced many twists and turns. With scientists uncovering a number of disturbing genomic abnormalities in these cells, the future of iPSC technology looked like a sea of despair.

But lucky for those who persisted in this field of research, recent findings based on deep genome sequencing data revealed that these so-called "genomic abnormalities" simply reflect the normal genomic quirks of the original somatic cells from which iPSCs were derived. 

References:
Cheng et al, 2012 (Cell Stem Cell 10, 337–344)Young et al 2012 (Cell Stem Cell 10, 1-13)