Featured Articles

Poison Becomes Food: Worm Lives On Carbon Monoxide And Sewer Gas

Poison Becomes Food: Worm Lives On Carbon Monoxide And Sewer Gas

Apr 17 2012 | comment(s)

A small marine worm, Olavius algarvensis, is faced with a scarce food supply in the sandy sediments it lives in off the coast of Elba, so it must deal with a highly poisonous menu: it lives on carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide.

O. algarvensis can thrive on these poisons thanks to millions of symbiotic bacteria that live under its skin. The bacteria use the energy from carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide to produce food for the worm, just like plants do by fixing carbon dioxide into carbohydrates - but instead of using light energy from the sun, the symbionts use the energy from chemical compounds like carbon monoxide.
Brangelina: 51% to Last 15 Years

Brangelina: 51% to Last 15 Years

Apr 17 2012 | comment(s)

Last month I wrote an equation with New York Times columnist, John Tierney, calculating the chances a celebrity marriage will last. Some looked rosy (Kate and Prince William) and some looked less rosy (Will Smith and Jada Pinkett are in a dangerous window). Notably absent from the in-depth discussion was Brangelina — last month they were shacking up and this month, well, unless you’ve been living in a boarded-up shack in rural Montana, you know the smell of wedding bells is in the air (or however the idiom goes).

Brangelina’s getting hitched. But will it last?

Stimming isn't About the Parent

Stimming isn't About the Parent

Apr 17 2012 | comment(s)

"These behaviors can be irritating for family members." --on stimming in autistic children


My children stim. I stim--come on, for Pete's sake--every one of us--autistic or not-- STIMS. We all engage in self-regulatory behaviors to calm ourselves. Some of us have small, discrete behaviors that are not necessarily obvious. I swing one of my feet beneath my desk at work. I rub my thumb over my index finger repeatedly. My fingers slide back and forth over the steering wheel while I drive. They're small stims. But they are there, and they are used to regulate myself. 

Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Get A Nanotube Electrode Boost

Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Get A Nanotube Electrode Boost

Apr 17 2012 | comment(s)

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) are easier to manufacture than silicon-based solid-state photovoltaic cells but not as efficient. Some new research may make carbon nanotubes a more efficient alternative for platinum electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells, making them more viable overall.
Up To 60 Percent Of Wikipedia Entries About Companies Incorrect

Up To 60 Percent Of Wikipedia Entries About Companies Incorrect

Apr 17 2012 | comment(s)

Wikipedia is crowdsourced knowledge and therefore discourages people from writing about themselves. As a result, 60 percent of Wikipedia articles about companies contain factual errors, according to research published in Public Relations Journal.

Marcia W. DiStaso, Ph.D., assistant professor of public relations at Penn State University, surveyed 1,284 public relations people from the Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA). Results of the survey indicate a gap exists between public relations companies and Wikipedia concerning the proper protocol for editing entries.
Prepper Advice: Sunlight And Lime Juice Makes Drinking Water Safer

Prepper Advice: Sunlight And Lime Juice Makes Drinking Water Safer

Apr 17 2012 | comment(s)

Whether you are concerned about Mayans, a worldwide infrastructure collapse or an exploding supervolcano, science has some good news for your doomsday preparation - sunlight and a twist of lime are an inexpensive and effective way to quickly improve the quality of your drinking water.

Researchers have found that adding lime juice to water while using a solar disinfection method removed detectable levels of harmful bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) significantly faster than solar disinfection alone. 
Groups of Snarky Puzzle Answers

Groups of Snarky Puzzle Answers

Apr 17 2012 | comment(s)

Looking at the list of snarky puzzles, games with simple groups was a recurring theme.

March 20, A Toy Model For Q8

Snarky puzzle
What is required so that a system undergoing change can be described just as accurately by the group Z4 as by Q8?
Background
The funny thing I realized by building a pipe cleaner model of Q8 is that is too complicated.  There must be a simplifying principle out there...

Answer
H5N1 Avian Influenza Controversy - The Fix Was In?

H5N1 Avian Influenza Controversy - The Fix Was In?

Apr 16 2012 | comment(s)

A closed U.S. Government-requested meeting last month set out to determine the fate of two controversial unpublished papers on the H5N1 avian influenza virus but it was stacked in favor of their full publication, a participant now says. 

The meeting agenda and presenters were “designed to produce the outcome that occurred”, according to a letter leaked to Nature by an anonymous source.

It's open science versus bioterrorism concerns. 
U.S. Forest Service Thanks Environmentalists For Getting Out Of The Way

U.S. Forest Service Thanks Environmentalists For Getting Out Of The Way

Apr 16 2012 | comment(s)

It's taken decades but the U.S. Forest Service is finally being allowed to use science in managing America's natural resources.

Instead of environmental activists tying up science and the government by using other government regulations and red tape to block meaningful improvements, we can actually reduce wildfires, manage water responsibly and protect endangered species, instead of pitting those outcomes against each other, as environmental lawyers had successfully done in the past.
More On Anti-Gravity Developments

More On Anti-Gravity Developments

Apr 16 2012 | comment(s)

It was back in 2005 that inventor  Boris Volfson was granted a US patent for a device which has been erroneously summarised by some as a 'Flying Saucer'. But which is more accurately described as a Space Vehicle Propelled by the Pressure of Inflationary Vacuum State. Although the patent explained at length how  “A levitating, rotating, superconducting disk“ might be able to develop a temporary egg-shaped space-time anomaly sufficient to allow a passenger vehicle to travel faster than light, the exact physics behind the crucial component known as the ‘Phonon Maser’ may have remained opaque to many readers.
Cephalo-fiction!

Cephalo-fiction!

Apr 16 2012 | comment(s)

It's called Knowledge and it's a short story by John Frizell in Nature. Did you know that Nature publishes short stories, one at the back of every issue? They do!
No human could have grasped the squid's name. Human eyes could not distinguish the differences in shades of colour or register the intervals at which they changed to define the unique pattern that was his name. The squid was concentrating hard because he was holding two conversations at once, one deliberately misleading, the other closer to the truth, as he glided through the deep ocean, his mantle pulsing gently, powering him with puffs of water.
Proteins, Denaturing And How Essential Water Is To Basic Life

Proteins, Denaturing And How Essential Water Is To Basic Life

Apr 16 2012 | comment(s)

Proteins are large, organic - in the science sense of organic, not the food marketing sense -  molecules that help us to convert food into energy, supply oxygen to our blood and muscles and drive our immune systems. 

Proteins consist of one or more polypeptides, chains of amino acids held together by peptide bonds. If a protein in water is heated to temperatures approaching the boiling point of water, these chains will lose their structure and the protein will denature (unfold). 
A Double-Blind Test Of Astrology For The 21st Century

A Double-Blind Test Of Astrology For The 21st Century

Apr 16 2012 | comment(s)

When we are talking about anti-science beliefs that fall on the left and the right, we often use astrology and belief in ghosts for left-wing crazies.  But astrology may be as accurate as psychology, at least when it comes to personality assessments (1) so perhaps it deserves more respect.

Neuroskeptic, the, well, neuroscience skeptic, from the UK recently discussed this 2008 update of a 1985 double-blind test of astrology. 
Pseudoscience In The Wall Street Journal Or In Economics?

Pseudoscience In The Wall Street Journal Or In Economics?

Apr 16 2012 | comment(s)

Evolution has various mechanisms and one of them is natural selection. While most religious people have no disagreement with science overall, Biblical literalists contend man cannot have changed or evolved.  Some confusion about evolution is understandable - evolution is darn complex - and the disagreement with evolution does not fall strongly into any demographic except the religious. In America, we hear more about 'the religious right' but primarily we hear about them from the secular left - while noting that 39% of Republicans don't accept evolution they fail to mention 30% of Democrats don't either.
Time Warped: The Mystery Of How We Perceive The Past

Time Warped: The Mystery Of How We Perceive The Past

Apr 15 2012 | comment(s)

We created clocks and calendars to give people a common way to communicate about the future and the past and about when to have dinner.  But time is, as they say, relative.  A clock on top of a mountain moves differently than one at sea level - that's gravitational time dilation. NIST researchers have even been able to show that tall people age differently than short ones. And if you lived your life in a car traveling 20 miles per hour, you would age slower than people who just walk around. Time is not only relative in physics, it is relative in culture.  We feel like time moves faster the older we get.
Roger Ailes Tells Journalism Students To Go Into It For The Right Reasons

Roger Ailes Tells Journalism Students To Go Into It For The Right Reasons

Apr 15 2012 | comment(s)

Journalism used to be about telling the story - I won't rehash the modern history here but basically it became about making a difference. And that is the wrong reason to be a journalist because 'making a difference' is going to come down on where you sit regarding your personal advocacy and advocacy prevents journalists from being trusted guides for the public.
It Never Changes - Boobs Bust Anonymous Hacker

It Never Changes - Boobs Bust Anonymous Hacker

Apr 15 2012 | comment(s)

If you are going to brag about your hacking, don't use a photo of your online honey's boobs and leave the EXIF information intact.

Yes, it is cool you have an online chick who will send you pictures, and that she actually has boobs (webcams don't lie!), but it doesn't take long to track that stuff down.  The FBI saw it, tracked the EXIF data to her and then to him. 

Pwned by the FBI can be his next pic.  



Suspected Anonymous Hacker Busted By FBI — Thanks To A Racy Photo CBS Houston
Competitive Number-Crunching: A Science 2.0 Sport

Competitive Number-Crunching: A Science 2.0 Sport

Apr 15 2012 | comment(s)

When storage is cheap, finding data has value. A $600 hard drive can store all of the world's music so how do you find a song you like?

Math can answer those mysteries, says Kaggle president and chief scientist Jeremy Howard, and in a world of information overload, people who understand making sense of data madness will be paid like rock stars - or athletes. So they are starting now.

The San Francisco startup wants to create a sport for intelligent people.  With the whole world of data at your hands, who can find the best answer will become the stuff of pop culture fame - kind of like a Kardashian, except smart.
Profound Recursion Or Remains The Feeling That Something Profound Remains

Profound Recursion Or Remains The Feeling That Something Profound Remains

Apr 15 2012 | comment(s)

We seem to not be able to “explain” certain aspects like the nature of time, and not for lack of trying. Especially: We cannot explain a single subjective feeling in ways that satisfy many – not subjective sounding of sound, not the redness of the color red, not why pain “really” hurts. In spite of all the science we threw at them, something unexplained seems left about how feeling feels. Do we simply commit another ‘regress-error’ here?


Regress Error versus Recursion