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Biologists May Long For A Life Sciences Higgs Boson - But Shouldn't

Biologists May Long For A Life Sciences Higgs Boson - But Shouldn't

Mar 28 2012 | comment(s)

Dr. Heidi Ledford at Nature says physicists enjoy more generous funding, more commercial interest and more popular support than biologists.  

Thousands of physicists in the United States stopped reading right there.

While biology has an entire National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Johns Hopkins alone gets a $1 billion in research funding for the life sciences, physicists get...what again?  Even the Tevatron is closed. Brookhaven may be older than me.
Placentophagia - Eating Afterbirth As Disgusting As It Sounds

Placentophagia - Eating Afterbirth As Disgusting As It Sounds

Mar 28 2012 | comment(s)

In America, we don't eat cats or snails or brains but a lot of food choices are just cultural.  So it may be with afterbirth.

Placentophagia may offer benefits to human mothers and perhaps to non-mothers and even males, according to a new study in Ecology of Food and Nutrition. Hey, they have devoted a whole issue to Placentophagia so it must be important.  
The Plant

The Plant "Brain" 3: Defense, Avoiding Predators, Attracting Insects, Timed Gene Synthesis

Mar 28 2012 | comment(s)

Previous posts, examined possible plant cognitive functions with the Dodder’s parasitism and the complex ability plants have to communicate with other plants and fungi. More impressive are the elaborate abilities of plants to defend themselves.

Traps and signals

When an animal predator eats the leaves of a plant, some affected plants release chemicals within just five minutes to either repel the predator or trap them.

Heat From Hell May Be Secular Green Energy

Heat From Hell May Be Secular Green Energy

Mar 28 2012 | comment(s)

Krafla, in the north of Iceland, is a caldera ten kilometers wide. It is basically a geological cauldron, created when the core of a volcano collapsed in the distant past. The crater Víti (it means “Hell” in Icelandic) is inside Krafla.
 
In 1724 this crater erupted but now scientists want to use the awesome power of Hell for good; so they have drilled a two-kilometre deep well into the crater to see if they can put a geothermal plant there.   A geothermal plant in Hell?  Who has the last laugh now, Satan?
Solar Power Is Booming - Why Do We Want To Kill It?

Solar Power Is Booming - Why Do We Want To Kill It?

Mar 28 2012 | comment(s)

We'd have to be crazy not to want more solar power - the Sun is limitless energy and, as time and research tackle the science and technology issues, it will get a lot more efficient.

In 2005, when President Bush and a Republican Congress (you know, the people who hated both science and clean energy) authorized the solar investment tax credit, solar panel imports were a paltry $21.3 million. The credit was renewed in 2008 and last year imports of solar panels were in the range of $3 billion.  Yes, that's a 'b' and not an 'm'.
Can The Government Make You Buy Broccoli?

Can The Government Make You Buy Broccoli?

Mar 28 2012 | comment(s)

If the government can make you buy something, why can't it make you buy anything?  You may one day need health care so if they can make you buy health insurance now, why can't they make you buy broccoli, since you will need food? If all people do not buy cars, cars may become more expensive for those who do, so should the government make everyone buy a car?

“Could you define the market — everybody has to buy food sooner or later, so you define the market as food, therefore, everybody is in the market; therefore, you can make people buy broccoli,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said during arguments for health care reform called  the Affordable Care Act, colloquially called ObamaCare.
What Do You Meme?

What Do You Meme?

Mar 28 2012 | comment(s)

“And then I was like FUUUUUU”. This is how stories end nowadays. I dare to make a claim about the flow of stories because I believe the ontology of stories follows a predictable and stable pattern and it is this: I present to you a situation in which I was involved, usually as the protagonist. The story is semantically segmented and usually sequenced in sets of 4-6, which culminate in climactic revelation of emotion. Do you know what I meme when I say emotion? I mean forever alone guy, Y U NO guy, Trollface, rage guy, and the others from the gang.  

DZERO Confirms New Chi_b(3P) State

DZERO Confirms New Chi_b(3P) State

Mar 28 2012 | comment(s)

While most High-Energy Physicists nowadays are kept busy with the idle search for non-existent new physics beyond the standard model in the form of improbable Supersymmetric particles, phantom leptoquarks, fairy Z' resonances, putative colorons, invented gravitinos, and what not, the subset of lucky experimentalists who decided to go against the flow and kept their feet on the ground are provided with endless entertainment in the study of resonances that are as real as your breakfast today. 
Atheist David Albert destroying Dumb New Book by naïve Atheist Krauss

Atheist David Albert destroying Dumb New Book by naïve Atheist Krauss

Mar 28 2012 | comment(s)

I do not usually shoot of little posts re-tweeting stuff I found, but the total destruction that is David Albert’s New York Times book review “On the Origin of Everything” reviewing “A Universe From Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing” by Lawrence M.

Want Bugs With That Starbucks Frappuccino? Of Course You Do

Want Bugs With That Starbucks Frappuccino? Of Course You Do

Mar 28 2012 | comment(s)

It's the biggest news in fast food - Starbucks Frappuccinos have bugs.  On purpose.

The company has started using cochineal extract to supply its Frappuccinos’ strawberry color - hey, that beats using strawberries.  The extract is derived by exploiting developing nation insects, namely grinding up the dried bodies of cochineal bugs found primarily in Mexico and South America. They aren't the first to do so.  European colonialists began using cochineal dye as a coloring agent in the 15th century.
ATREX: 5 Rockets In 5 Minutes

ATREX: 5 Rockets In 5 Minutes

Mar 27 2012 | comment(s)

Last night, off the coast of Virginia, NASA launched five small rockets in five minutes as part of the ATREX (Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment), to test the winds of the upper atmosphere. The rockets flew up to a height of about 100 km (60 miles) and released a chemical that was blown by those winds, forming an amazing, milky, ghostly scene:

ATREX, for Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment.
Graphene: 'Wonder' Material May Revolutionize DNA Sequencing

Graphene: 'Wonder' Material May Revolutionize DNA Sequencing

Mar 27 2012 | comment(s)

In the era of Big Science, it is often assumed that cutting-edge research can't be done cheaply.  Yet even now a piece of tape can lead to a Nobel prize.  Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov  got one that way, for their discovery of graphene, a type of carbon one atom thick but more than 100 times stronger than steel.

Sure, we all know graphene will lead to bendable computer screens and ultralight materials but it turns out graphene may also revolutionize genetic sequencing. 
Acacia catechu Willd. or kattha used in Pan in India has anti-HIV properties ?

Acacia catechu Willd. or kattha used in Pan in India has anti-HIV properties ?

Mar 27 2012 | comment(s)

Acacia catechu Willd. Vernacular Names :- Assam : Kat, Khair, Khoira, Koir ; Bengal : Khayer, Kuth ; Bombay : Khaderi, Khaira, Khera ; Central Provinces : Khair ; Ceylon : Karangall, Kashukutta, Kodalimurungai, Voadalam, Deccan : Katha, Khair, Khairbabul ; English : Black Catechu, Cutch Catechu, Pegu Catechu ; Gujrat : Kher, Kherio, Kheriobaval ; Hindi : Katha, Khair, Khairbabul, Khyar ; Sanskrit : Bahushalya, Balapatra, Balaputra, Balatanaya ; Tamil : Kadiram, Karangalli, Karungali, Kodam ; Telgu : Kasu, Khadiram, Mallasandra, Podalamanu, Sandra, Sundra. Family :- Mimosaceae. Distribution :- It is found throughout India. Morphology :- Perennial tree, bark grey white to dull black. Leaves bi-pinnate ; leaflets minute, linear and sessile. Flowers white and fragrant.
PETA Versus Greenpeace: The Looming War Over Kittens

PETA Versus Greenpeace: The Looming War Over Kittens

Mar 27 2012 | comment(s)

Could the big split among anti-science hippies occur over a cute little cat?

PETA loves animals.  Greenpeace hates genetic modification and science in general because changes are only 'natural' if high-energy cosmic rays mutate things at random. What about when scientists use unnatural science to help save an endangered species?

An African Black-footed Cat was born February 6, 2012, at the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans. The cool science aspect, or the creepy FrankenKitten aspect if you are a progressive, is that it was born to an ordinary domestic cat - the first of its kind to be born from inter-species embryo transfer.
Why Dark Matter isn't what we thought it was

Why Dark Matter isn't what we thought it was

Mar 27 2012 | comment(s)

Although for at least 10 years, since the WMAP satellite first measured the amounts of dark matter in the universe, scientists have known the recipe for the universe (4.5% Matter,22.5% Dark Matter, 73% Dark Energy) but really didn't have a clue as to what the Dark Matter and Energy of the universe actually is. One theory of dark matter is a WIMP, a weakly interacting massive particle left over from the big bang, is the lightest super-symmetric particle, LSP. That theory fit in well with the prevailing super-string and super-symmetry theories of particle physics, and the numbers actually worked out when physicists tried predicating how much dark matter the big bang might make. But recently three separate observations in astronomy seem to have ruled this model out.
Even HuffPo Science Can't Resist Being Anti-Science

Even HuffPo Science Can't Resist Being Anti-Science

Mar 27 2012 | comment(s)

Huffington Post is right up there with Psychology Today in its willingness to post absolute nonsensical woo.  But they seemed to have been trying to get better (HuffPo, that is.  Psych Today, whatever), even going so far as to create an actual science section.

It has to be science in a science section, right?  Well, no.  If you get some humanities pseudoscience crank determining what science is, its easy to lose sight of what a science site is.
2012 Personalization Summit April 19th

2012 Personalization Summit April 19th

Mar 27 2012 | comment(s)

I'll be with approximately 200 CEOs at the Mission Bay Conference Center April 19th in San Francisco for the 2012 Personalization Summit. Obviously personalization will grow into a vital component for Science 2.0 so this will be interesting stuff.

Here's the blurb:

As Personalization redefines itself in businesses, technology, and society today, it’s important to realize just how we arrived back at personalization, how to adapt to the new environment, and
how to stay current, given the new technologies that are constantly evolving.
Sunscreen's War On Women?

Sunscreen's War On Women?

Mar 27 2012 | comment(s)

Do you use sunscreen?  If not, you aren't as crazy as those anti-science hippies who are trying to give their kids smallpox or starve poor nations, but you are not exactly up on the literature of the last 30 years either.

However, you may be no worse off, especially if you are a woman who might like to keep her uterus working. The uterus - that special place where a baby grows(1) when a woman gets pregnant - can sometimes have its tissue misplaced.  That's called endometriosis and it is when the tissue that normally lines the uterus is instead growing somewhere else. It can lead to heavy periods and even infertility.  While researchers know what it is, they don't really know why it happens.
Can Getting Drunk Make You More Conservative?

Can Getting Drunk Make You More Conservative?

Mar 26 2012 | comment(s)

Wait, a study claims drinking alcohol makes you less likely to throw cultural caution to the wind and spend stupidly? Does. Not. Compute.

Unless it's social psychology, but even then no one is believing it unless they are one of the people writing about how screwed up Republicans are, i.e., need some new framework for the confirmation bias of their audience. 
Human Gene Fight Rages On - Supreme Court Overturns Breast & Ovarian Cancer Gene Patents

Human Gene Fight Rages On - Supreme Court Overturns Breast & Ovarian Cancer Gene Patents

Mar 26 2012 | comment(s)

A lower appeals court ruling allowing human genes to be patented has been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, which sends the case back down for a continuation of the battle between those who believe that genes carrying the secrets of life should not be exploited for commercial gain and companies who argue that a patent must be the reward for years of expensive research that moves science forward.

The ruling again overturns patents belonging to Myriad Genetics Inc. of Salt Lake City on two genes linked to increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Myriad's BRACAnalysis test looks for mutations on the breast cancer predisposition gene, or BRCA.  Now they must go back for a rehearing and the impact could be substantial.