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The 'Jew' In All Of Us

The 'Jew' In All Of Us

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

This is not a story of Lost Tribes, but of lost history--the discovery of "Jewish genes" in Hispano Christian populations of the American Southwest. Jon Entine, author of Abraham's Children: Race, Identity and the DNA of the Chose People, reports.

“Let us remember all of our Jewish brothers and sisters, who through their faithfulness to One God, inspired all Christians.”

National Reconnaissance Office Donates Two Hubble-Sized Telescopes To NASA

National Reconnaissance Office Donates Two Hubble-Sized Telescopes To NASA

Jun 05 2012 | comment(s)

If we want to start cutting budgets, Republicans are not wrong for noting that the Education Department and the Department of Energy could disappear without any consequence at all to America beyond the government union employees working there.

But one darling of the right, the military, could do some cutting as well.  America has 16 different intelligence agencies and one of them you likely never heard of, the National Reconnaissance Office, has donated not one but two Hubble-sized military telescopes to NASA because, darn it, they just don't need them after all.
Chimera Molecular Modeling System

Chimera Molecular Modeling System

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

At my kid's graduation party on Sunday I had a chance to meet Tom Goddard who, it turns out, works on a tool used to look at the spatial organization of chromosomes in the cell nucleus and protein structures determined by electron cryo-microscopy.

The tool is called Chimera (a fun name by any measure) and it is developed/maintained by the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics (RBVI) group at UC San Francisco.
Afrasia Djijidae - About As Old As Afrotarsius But Thousands Of Miles Apart

Afrasia Djijidae - About As Old As Afrotarsius But Thousands Of Miles Apart

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

Researchers announced the discovery of Afrasia djijidae, a new early anthropoid fossil.

The 37-million-year-old Afrasia djijidae resembles another early anthropoid, Afrotarsius libycus, recently discovered at a site of similar age in the Sahara Desert of Libya. That close similarity between Afrasia and Afrotarsius indicates that early anthropoids colonized Africa only shortly before the time when these animals lived. The colonization of Africa by early anthropoids was a pivotal step in primate and human evolution, because it set the stage for the later evolution of more advanced apes and humans there. 
Why Don't We Have Giant Insects Today?

Why Don't We Have Giant Insects Today?

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

There was a time when giant insects ruled the skies and it corresponded to high oxygen levels.

After the evolution of birds, about 150 million years ago, insects got smaller - despite rising oxygen levels.  What gives?

Insects reached their biggest sizes about 300 million years ago during the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods. This was the reign of the predatory griffinflies, giant dragonfly-like insects with wingspans of up to 28 inches - creepy. The leading theory attributed their large size to high oxygen concentrations in the atmosphere (over 30 percent, compared to 21 percent today), which allowed giant insects to get enough oxygen through the tiny breathing tubes that insects use instead of lungs. 
How To Tell Two Squid Apart

How To Tell Two Squid Apart

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

Dear squid blog, I am sorry that so many other projects have been keeping me from you lately! My love for squid remains undimmed. Just to prove it, I will share with the world a helpful chart that I drew several years ago and recently unearthed.

The Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) and the purpleback flying squid (Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis) can look very similar. If you're fishing in a location where only one of them lives (like Indonesia for Sthenoteuthis or California for Dosidicus), no problem. But in certain areas of the Pacific Ocean--oh look I have a map--their ranges overlap, so there is confusion. Panic. Mayhem. Which squid is it?
How Accurate Are The 'Science Education Is Dismal' Claims?

How Accurate Are The 'Science Education Is Dismal' Claims?

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

Every two years an international standardized test is given and a lot more often than that we get treated to mainstream media claims about how bad science education is.  

They never want to say students are dumb - it is just the ammunition in their culture war against...someone.  Mostly taxpayers, it seems, since they are buying into propaganda by well-funded education lobbyists that hiring more teachers or spending more money will solve the problem.
How To Use The Transit Of Venus To Determine The Astronomical Unit

How To Use The Transit Of Venus To Determine The Astronomical Unit

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

Michael Richmond of  Rochester Institute of Technology created a simple example for how to determine the astronomical unit - the distance from Earth to the Sun and therefore the basis for all modern measurements in space  for the CLEA workshop in 2004, the last time we had a transit of Venus - and it won't happen again in our lifetimes so tomorrow is the last chance to see it.
Venus Approaching The Sun

Venus Approaching The Sun

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

For the second and last time this century, the planet Venus will pass over the visible disk of our Sun for observers located in the Americas (in the evening of June 5th) and western Europe (in the morning of June 6th). The event has a noteworthy scientific value -particularly for exoplanetary searches-, but it is also quite spectacular to observe, if you have some modest equipment (but you should be able to spot it with your naked eye, provided you only look through a thick-smoked glass; never look at the Sun directly!). The added value is that probably none of us will be around the next time this event occurs, in 2117.
Will Punjab will be a desert in 38 years ?

Will Punjab will be a desert in 38 years ?

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

 A visit to Punjab made any one happy . The prime reason has always been  to see canals, good roads, hardworking people, basic cleanliness. Chandigarh  a  Union Territory  represents all of Punjab, Haryana and even HP . While waiting for a flight at Chandigarh I saw the news paper report about Punjab. Experts of PAU have reported (Daily Post Monday 4th June) ground water table is being lowered in the last one and half years at an alarming rate and state is facing acute shortage of water now.
Are Pine trees major source of forest fires ? Its people who burn trees.

Are Pine trees major source of forest fires ? Its people who burn trees.

Jun 04 2012 | comment(s)

Are Pine trees major source of forest fires ? Its people who burn trees. Recently I had a chance to visit Solan and read a local news paper. A news item in The Tribune Chandigarh date June 3rd 2012 reported a statement of forest official that Pine trees are responsible for forest fires. According to the Conservator of Forest Dharamshala circle Pine trees are major source of forest fires. According to him and some of his “ experts” the Governmane should ban future plantation of pine trees in the mid Himalayan region. This would reduce the percentage of Pine forest. What a solution to this problem. This is just like cutting the nose to spite the face.
Dark matter density near Earth? An informal defense of Moni Bidin et al.

Dark matter density near Earth? An informal defense of Moni Bidin et al.

Jun 03 2012 | comment(s)

The issue of how dense the dark matter is near Earth is far from settled. Recent work by Moni Bidin, Carraro, Mendez and Smith holds that the density of dark matter near Earth is 0.04 gigaelectron volts per cubic centimeter, the work of Bovy and Tremaine says it should be more like 0.3 gigaelectron volt per cubic centimeter. The problem is that Bovy and Tremaine make a basic logical error at the outset which invalidates what on the face of is otherwise a masterful work of theoretical astronomy/cosmology. Unfortunately that logical error of circular logic falsifies their counter argument.

Cool Blue Manganese Compound Has 40 Percent Heat Reflectivity

Cool Blue Manganese Compound Has 40 Percent Heat Reflectivity

Jun 03 2012 | comment(s)

A new durable, environmentally-benign (we all hope) blue pigment has also been found to have unusual characteristics in reflecting heat - it's much better at it than most blue pigments in use.  The compound just received patent approval and was discovered by Oregon State University scientists who were instead studying some materials for their electrical properties.
China needs to change its economic model?

China needs to change its economic model?

Jun 03 2012 | comment(s)

Count on economics, the dismal science, to claim that the one economy not crippled in 2012, is in peril.

Change it must, argues political scientist Victor Shih of Northwestern University in Financial Times, because its net exports to GDP is falling rapidly. Since its trade surplus, the cheap engine of its financial machine, has shrunk, they must consider
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Monster V. 2.0

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Monster V. 2.0

Jun 03 2012 | comment(s)

Is immortality really ideal? Is the confusion and befuddlement worth surviving the times and ages?  Much like Mary Shelley’s monster that arose from the dead, would we be wretched, dejected, and distraught by the prospects of a future that we can’t even hope to fathom? Frankenstein’s monster is composed of the separate body parts found at a morgue, the monster has lived in a previous era and was spawned in Frankenstein’s time. His creation had once died but was reborn in the future.

A Skeleton Key For Network Complexity

A Skeleton Key For Network Complexity

Jun 03 2012 | comment(s)

Very different complex networks, like global air traffic and neural networks, share very similar 'backbones', say a group of mathematicians, and by stripping each network down to their essential nodes and links, they found each network possesses a skeleton which shares common features, much like vertebrates do.

Mammals have evolved to look very different despite a common underlying structure and now it appears real-world complex networks have common descent in a similar way.
How The Transit Of Venus Still Helps Astronomers Today

How The Transit Of Venus Still Helps Astronomers Today

Jun 03 2012 | comment(s)

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 at 3:03 PM PDT (California), Venus will do something we on Earth will have witnessed for only the eighth since the invention of the telescope - it will cross in front of the sun. This transit is among the rarest of planetary alignments and it has an interesting cycle. Two Venus transits always occur within eight years of each other and then there is a break of either 105 or 121 years before it happens again.
Gymnopollisthrips - Bee Precursor From 100 Million Years Ago Found In Amber

Gymnopollisthrips - Bee Precursor From 100 Million Years Ago Found In Amber

Jun 03 2012 | comment(s)

What evolutionary reason would tiny insects 100 million years ago have for collecting and transporting Gingko pollen?  They had highly specialized hairs with a ringed structure to increase their ability to collect pollen grains. Their ringed hairs cannot have grown due to an evolutionary selection benefiting the trees so ancient thysanopterans, so-called thrips (a group of minute insects of less than 2 mm in length) must have fed their larvae with pollen. This suggests that this species formed colonies with larvae living in the ovules of some kind of gingko for shelter and protection, and female insects transporting pollen from the male Gingko cones to the female ovules to feed the larvae and at the same time pollinate the trees.
Thanks But No Thanks For AIDS Comparison, Say Chagas Disease Experts

Thanks But No Thanks For AIDS Comparison, Say Chagas Disease Experts

Jun 03 2012 | comment(s)

"Chagas Disease: “The New HIV/AIDS of the Americas”" screams the headline of an editorial in the open access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, written primarily by two principal investigators of a vaccine against Chagas disease - and it has resounded with a thud among the actual people they think they are helping.
End Of Joy Christian Affair Or Of Scientific Discourse

End Of Joy Christian Affair Or Of Scientific Discourse

Jun 03 2012 | comment(s)

Almost exactly a year ago, I made a medium storm in the water glass by publishing my exchange with what I ironically called the "Future King of Physics". I then asked Perimeter Institute in Canada, Oxford University, and FQXi, to distance themselves from Joy Christian instead of any further supporting his pseudoscience.