Featured Articles

Mono-a-mano: Thoughts on Illness, Loss, and Letting Go of Stage Models of Grief

Mono-a-mano: Thoughts on Illness, Loss, and Letting Go of Stage Models of Grief

Feb 09 2012 | comment(s)

It's been a rough two weeks--tears galore, bright spots, strep, then mono, and days passed in bed, sleeping hour after hour, as if in a week, I managed to make up for 22 years of child-created sleep debt. I'm pretty sure there's still some sleep debt remaining, as I remain wiped out, with a shower and getting dressed this afternoon taking all the energy I had and depleting it.
How To Choose An Elementary School By The Numbers

How To Choose An Elementary School By The Numbers

Feb 09 2012 | comment(s)

Lately, my wife and I have been staring slack-jawed at elementary school options, little ropes of drool hanging zombie-like from the corners of our mouths  – and so we’ve decided to cede our choice to the numbers.

But when you peel back the data, things like high test scores mean next to nothing about school quality – isn’t it likely that socioeconomics and not the school itself created these high test scores? My wife and I want education causation and not just correlation – a school that creates more education than should be predicted by our (reasonable) genetics and (low) income.

Wild Salmon Numbers Are Dropping, But Science Can Fix It

Wild Salmon Numbers Are Dropping, But Science Can Fix It

Feb 09 2012 | comment(s)

While anti-science politicians in Washington, D.C. block science solutions to harvesting more fish, a crucial piece of information about salmon isn't being considered; the numbers without a science solution only look good because of the massive influx of hatchery-raised fish that return to spawn in the wild. Only about ten percent of the fall-run Chinook salmon spawning in California's Mokelumne River are naturally produced wild salmon.
Scottish Suicide: The Looming Crisis

Scottish Suicide: The Looming Crisis

Feb 09 2012 | comment(s)

Recent research examined suicide rates north and south of the border between 1960 and 2008 and revealed the widening gap in suicide rates between Scotland and England and Wales is largely due to the number of young Scottish men taking their lives.

The suicide rate for both men and women was lower in Scotland than the rest of the United Kingdom until around 1968 when it overtook the other two but suicide rates among men continued to rise on both sides of the border until the early 1990s when rates in England and Wales began to fall. The gap between north and south widened markedly.
Anti-Science Europe Being Left Behind On Food Security

Anti-Science Europe Being Left Behind On Food Security

Feb 08 2012 | comment(s)

Efforts at obfuscation and fomenting false concerns by kooky anti-science food activists aren't working.  They spent the better part of the last decade blocking science advancements in food security insisting 'the science isn't settled' and muttering Frankenfood denialist jingoisms, but it seems to be failing. Farmland devoted to improved crops went up over eight percent last year, to 395 million acres. Agriculture strongholds like Brazil, India and Canada join the U.S. in picking science over advocacy.
Hardwired For The Mystical?

Hardwired For The Mystical?

Feb 08 2012 | comment(s)

The gap between atheists and the religious seems at times to be an impossible divide, almost as if believers and non-believers come from different species. What separates the secular from the sacred? An "Ask the Brains" question on the Scientific American site recently inquired as to any differences between the brain of an atheist and the brain of a religious person. Andrew Newberg, the director of research at the Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital in Philadelphia, responded that, yes, in fact, there are some small but perceptible differences between the brains of believers and non-believers.
Earliest Animal Fossils? Uhhh, No

Earliest Animal Fossils? Uhhh, No

Feb 08 2012 | comment(s)

Every 6 months or so these days it feels like we find the earliest animal life. More often than not, said life is something ugly that turns up in a bucket after dissolving rocks in acid.

Well, it's been a while, but here is the latest candidate:



Treatment for cough cold and asthama ? Try and tell.

Treatment for cough cold and asthama ? Try and tell.

Feb 08 2012 | comment(s)

If you have developed  cough and cold  and asthamatic symptoms due to excessive exposure to differing temperatures and from dust allergies . If you have tried  allopathic medicines and they have helped  you  cure some part of it but some part of it  still continues.  One can try this traditional remedy with some modifications made by me   (   However one should confirm that one does not have pathological infection in chest as per x ray reports and doctors advice) Once  it is  confirmed that   there is no other chest problem one can try this formulae 
If you trust in traditional medicine just try this out and tell if it helps . 
1. Take two cups of water and boil it
The Rise Of Open Access Scientific Publishing

The Rise Of Open Access Scientific Publishing

Feb 08 2012 | comment(s)

Accessing the absolute latest in scientific communications directly by the independent amateur or citizen scientist has been a financially daunting prospect for decades; practically impossible.
Updated Temperature Charts

Updated Temperature Charts

Feb 07 2012 | comment(s)

I found a problem where the original data from NCDC lost the tenth of a degree place during importing. So I corrected this problem and regenerated my graphs.
Also based on emails with Dr Roy Spencer, he suggested that I remove stations that are not present through the majority of the time period analyzed. This was done for NH,SH and Tropics charts, where to be included the station had to have 240 days of data over at least 40 years from 1940-2010.

These are the updated graphs.
Global averages all stations:
Sex Education Doesn't Work For Anyone, So Conservatives Are Stupid

Sex Education Doesn't Work For Anyone, So Conservatives Are Stupid

Feb 07 2012 | comment(s)

"Sex education is failing to reduce adolescent birthrates in conservative states, according to a new study" begins a somber Livescience piece. Oooh, that's juicy.  We all want to talk about how dumb conservatives are. And if it's a study - and it is, the writer says it right there - they are not injecting any personal bias.
Perfluorinated Polar Bears?

Perfluorinated Polar Bears?

Feb 07 2012 | comment(s)


Perfluorinated Polar Bears!

 
No, this is not an exasperated exclamation by Captain Haddock, but might well be a shout of surprise at learning that Canadians have been searching for compounds of that nature in these snowy animals.  But why should Scott Mabury and his group at the University of Toronto be looking for them?
 
The simple answer is that they are terribly persistent in the environment.  Bit odd, one might link, considering that Fluorine is the most reactive of all the elements in the periodic table.  So reactive[1], in fact, that
 
ATLAS And CMS Publish 2011 Higgs Results

ATLAS And CMS Publish 2011 Higgs Results

Feb 07 2012 | comment(s)

You have seen it already two months ago, but those were "preliminary" results. Now both CMS and ATLAS have produced full-fledged documents (CMS here, ATLAS here) describing their respective combinations of different Higgs boson searches, using data collected in 2011 by the two experimental apparata at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.
Can we take Ocimum sanctum in medicine ? Can dudi make women fertile ?

Can we take Ocimum sanctum in medicine ? Can dudi make women fertile ?

Feb 07 2012 | comment(s)

Some time I get queries from the readers of Science2.0 blogs and I feel encouraged that my blogs are read across the world. Some time people ask for advice also for their thesis work or literature etc. Through this I wish to answer in general only and specific answers I can give to individuals 

1. How much Ocimum sanctum one can take ? 
 Ocimum sanctum is a sacred plant and traditionally all Hindu families or at least those at place of worship or religious minded families should has this small plant in their house. 
Last of the Mohicans Soldiers Still Not Buried

Last of the Mohicans Soldiers Still Not Buried

Feb 07 2012 | comment(s)

For decades, tourists visiting Lake George, N.Y. could view the skeletons of soldiers from nearby French and Indian War sites depicted in James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans". 

In 1993, though, a reburial ceremony put the 18th century remains to rest. Except that never happened.  The collection of remains was taken to Arizona and Canada for study and never returned.  Even Robert Blais, mayor of Lake George since 1971, didn't know. He learned about tit from The Associated Press, who spoke to archaeologists who have dug at the site, fort officials and the anthropologists who have the remains to confirm that the bulk of the skeleton collection is not at the fort.
A Question About Gauge Symmetry and the Interaction Term

A Question About Gauge Symmetry and the Interaction Term

Feb 07 2012 | comment(s)

I spent the week seeing if I could give the good old college try and find a "way that worked" for the gauge games I have been playing. Nothing panned out. Bummer, I had a blog to write. While collecting crumpled paper, there was an old issue I wasn't able to figure out. The answer was probably known a hundred years ago. The blog will explain where I got stuck, and who knows, maybe someone will provide the answer.

Mouthwash? Not A Great Idea - Unless You Make Your Own

Mouthwash? Not A Great Idea - Unless You Make Your Own

Feb 07 2012 | comment(s)

Put mouthwash in your mouth?  Some of the ingredients you don't even want to put down your drain.

Nothing tells you what you need to know about government wishful thinking than efforts to stick flouride in everything.  Sure, it fights cavities but it is also linked to cancer and neurological diseases.  You'd best stay away from it until the science is more clear.

Want a simple recipe for mouthwash that won't kill fish due to alcohol content or give you brain damage?

Mouthwash Recipe:

Warm water
Baking soda or sea salt
A drop of peppermint

Really, that's it.
Thoughts on the Superbowl and UK football

Thoughts on the Superbowl and UK football

Feb 06 2012 | comment(s)

I watched a bit of the superbowl last night.

Not for the football game, you'll have to understand. I struggle with rugby at the best of times. American football to me just looks like an all out war, only the soldiers for some reason are not allowed weapons, or to punch or kick, so their only way of attacking seems to be to slam into one another head first. Oh, and like rugby there's a perversely shaped ball being chucked around the place.

So, yeah; I was in it for everything other than the game itself. I watched it as an intrigued outsider. And, I really enjoyed it! I gather that it's almost like the cultural equivalent of the royal wedding over here. Only more popular, and a little bit more traditional.
Technological Symbiosis

Technological Symbiosis

Feb 06 2012 | comment(s)

After reading Sascha's excellent article [Robopocalypse Now] regarding the effect and direction of robotic/AI development and its coevolutionary influences, it occurred to me that perhaps a shift in how we view such developments could promote a more intuitive understanding of what is occurring.
How My New Favorite Game Can Prevent Alzheimer's And Save The World

How My New Favorite Game Can Prevent Alzheimer's And Save The World

Feb 05 2012 | comment(s)

Last week I was introduced to an intriguing little brain game that could very well prevent Alzheimer's disease, with the nice side effect of helping to save the world.  The game was demonstrated no less than three times by a commenter on a previous article reading between the lines of some recent science-related news.