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Brain fatigue

Brain fatigue

Oct 18 2011 | comment(s)

Recently, I read an article in the New York Times entitled

Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?


which presents neurological work showing contrary effects in people trying to exercise will power:
more activity in the nucleus accumbens, the brain’s reward center, and a corresponding decrease in the amygdala, which ordinarily helps control impulses.
Glucose levels in the different parts of the brain are implicated here.  This is particularly bad for dieters, because
1. In order not to eat, a dieter needs willpower.
ICARUS Refutes Opera's Superluminal Neutrinos

ICARUS Refutes Opera's Superluminal Neutrinos

Oct 18 2011 | comment(s)

The saga of the superluminal neutrinos took a dramatic turn today, with the publication of a very simple yet definitive study by ICARUS, another neutrino experiment at the Gran Sasso Laboratories, who has looked at the neutrinos shot from CERN since 2010.
Sixth Snarky Puzzle Answers

Sixth Snarky Puzzle Answers

Oct 18 2011 | comment(s)

The sixth Snarky Puzzle Answers leads off with the story of a minor controversy.

[Click or skip this video reading on YouTube.] 
Two related Snarky Puzzles
September 20, "Deriving the Maxwell Source Equations Using Quaternions (2/5)"
A Brief Arthropod Diversion

A Brief Arthropod Diversion

Oct 18 2011 | comment(s)

Here at Squid A Day, we are all about the cephalopods. Specifically, the decapod cephalopods, the ones with ten appendages (eight arms and two tentacles). That's my tenuous excuse for veering off in an entirely different phylogenetic direction this evening . . .

You see, decapods are also a branch of crustaceans--all your friendly ten-legged crabs and lobsters. And crustaceans are arthropods. And the most awesome arthropods are undoubtedly the eurypterids. They're extinct now, but they once grew larger than humans. How is that not awesome?
Want An Ice Bowl? The 5 Best Cities To Watch Football

Want An Ice Bowl? The 5 Best Cities To Watch Football

Oct 18 2011 | comment(s)

Even fans who weren't born yet know about the Ice Bowl - the 1967 conference playoff game between Dallas and Green Bay to determine who would go to the Super Bowl. With a game-time temperature of −15°F and no heating system, the field was as smooth as ice and it snowed the whole time.

But Green Bay is not the worst city for football weather - and by worst I mean the best because football in the snow is just plain better.  If you are a football fan, you probably know what city is the worst; Buffalo, New York, which Jonathan Erdman of the Weather Channel gives a 'worst weather score' of 85.9, far ahead of Cleveland and Pittsburgh and Green Bay.
Calling E. Coli: 1 in 6 British Cellphones Contaminated With 'Fecal Matter'

Calling E. Coli: 1 in 6 British Cellphones Contaminated With 'Fecal Matter'

Oct 18 2011 | comment(s)

One in six cellphones in Britain may be contaminated with fecal matter that can spread E. coli, likely because so many people don't wash their hands properly after using the toilet, according to  researchers at the London School of Hygiene&Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London.

The findings also suggest that many people lie about their hygiene habits. The study authors went to 12 cities and collected 390 samples from the cellphones and hands of volunteers, who were also asked about their hand-washing habits.
Return Of The Weirdest Octopus

Return Of The Weirdest Octopus

Oct 17 2011 | comment(s)

On October 8th, Octopus Day, I wrote about the incredibly strange Seven-arm Octopus, Haliphron atlanticus. I invoked its tremendous size, irregular arms, habitat flexibility, and peculiarly small body as proof positive of its weirdness.

But I didn't provide very satisfying pictures. 

Today I am here to fill that gap with a couple of beautiful photographs taken by Nan Hauser, director of the Cook Islands Whale Research Project. 
Value of Pi computed out to 10 trillion digits

Value of Pi computed out to 10 trillion digits

Oct 17 2011 | comment(s)

Why compute Pi, that pesky mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, out to 10 trillion digits?  Because climbing mountains is hard and plenty of people have already done that.

But Pi?  No one else has done this.  ja0hxv wrote yesterday that he had reached that ridiculous number after starting on October 10, 2010 - but 191 days of actual computing time due to his machine crashing.  Luckily he had a modern computer.  If he even did one calculation per second on paper it would have taken him over 310,000 years.
Why you can't individually control your toes

Why you can't individually control your toes

Oct 17 2011 | comment(s)

Neuroscientist Bradley Voytek recently got asked why a person can't individually control their toes.  Well, I never thought about it before - I don't have great need to use individual toes in some prehensile fashion but perhaps that is only because I can't.

Voytek says the primary motor cortex is the issue and shows us all about Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to boot.


Citizen Scientist 2.0

Citizen Scientist 2.0

Oct 17 2011 | comment(s)

What does the future of science look like? 
About a year ago, I was asked this same question. My response was: Transdisciplinary collaboration. Researchers from a variety of domains—biology, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, economics, law—all coming together, using inputs from each specialized area to generate the best comprehensive solutions to society's more persistent problems. Indeed, it appears as if I was on the right track, as more and more academic research departments, as well as industries, are seeing the value in this type of partnership. 
How They Networked In The 1600s

How They Networked In The 1600s

Oct 17 2011 | comment(s)

Networking and prompt sharing of knowledge are aspects commonly associated with the development of the Internet but intense intellectual exchange and joint work on projects over large distances happened as early as Habsburg times.

The manuscripts of Court Librarian Peter Lambeck, head of Vienna´s Hofbibliothek (Imperial Library), show he was an expert in content management and social networking. The evaluation of his life and work now traces Austria´s role in the "Republic of Letters" - the combined expertise of Europe´s intellectual elite - as early as the 17th century.
Edward O. Wilson’s New Theory of Everything

Edward O. Wilson’s New Theory of Everything

Oct 17 2011 | comment(s)

Edward O. Wilson is arguably the world's most famous myrmecologist - he studies ants, but most people have not heard of myrmecology.  They may have heard of entomology and almost certainly have heard of evolutionary biology.

Wilson has long held that his study of ants can tell us about people and that hasn't been without controversy.  His acrimony with paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, who likewise extrapolated his knowledge into the social working of mankind, never ended, even after Gould died.
Zombies: The Safer Terrorists

Zombies: The Safer Terrorists

Oct 17 2011 | comment(s)

How can you test for disaster without freaking out all your co-workers?  Assume the best way to test for a disaster is to simulate it.  Now factor in that a typical co-worker, if they overhead that a chlorine tanker overturned in DC or that terrorists are storming the building, will likely freak out.  Is there a safe way to simulate an emergency?
Happy National Failure Day, Finns!

Happy National Failure Day, Finns!

Oct 16 2011 | comment(s)

Due to difficult economics and an aging population that needs social services, Finland is finding itself desperate for workers, but jobs cannot simply be created by giant corporations anymore and the only way to sustain the welfare state seems to be through new ventures and entrepreneurship.  Except government restrictions and regulations that discourage giant corporations hurt small businesses most, and Finns are conservative when it comes to risk anyway.

The Icebreaker Yermak

The Icebreaker Yermak

Oct 15 2011 | comment(s)

The Icebreaker Yermak

Vice-Admiral S. Makaroff of the Imperial Russian Navy was primarily an oceanographer.   His paper On some Oceanographic Problems, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Vol. XXII, contains, amongst detailed reports of his oceanographic investigations, an explanation of why the icebreaker Yermak* was built.  Quite simply, the ship was intended to promote seaborne commerce where Arctic ice had always been a barrier.  It seems that Makaroff had an idea that perhaps, one day, after much experience had been gained, an icebreaker might just possibly reach the North Pole.
Less May Not Be the More You Think

Less May Not Be the More You Think

Oct 15 2011 | comment(s)

Watch Graham Hill; I'll wait. According to Hill, our shopping obsession has led to more credit card debt, CO2 emissions and stress. I'm pretty sure that most of us will agree that CO2 emissions is weirdly placed.
David Eagleman's Incognito: Not The Masters Of Our Destinies

David Eagleman's Incognito: Not The Masters Of Our Destinies

Oct 15 2011 | comment(s)

"[W]ho you are depends on the sum total of your neurobiology." --David Eagleman


Modern neuroscience is making advances in knowledge that our society is not keeping up with, may not be able to keep up with. David Eagleman explores these new inroads in what we know about the brain, the conscious mind, and free will in the interesting (and at times frustrating) Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain.

Reconstructing The Black Death Pathogen's Genome

Reconstructing The Black Death Pathogen's Genome

Oct 15 2011 | comment(s)

The genome of the medieval form of Yersinia pestis, the pathogen responsible for the Black Death in Europe between 1347 – 1351, has been reconstructed. A surprising finding is that the genes affecting its virulence apparently haven’t changed all that much between then and now.

A research team has used teeth gathered from a burial ground know to contain a lot of Black Death victims to reconstruct the genome of the medieval form of Y. pestis. After the genomic reconstruction, the researchers compared their ‘ancient pathogen’ to the extant forms of the bacterium (see figure 1). In their words:

Ethnobotanical studies can help human welfare

Ethnobotanical studies can help human welfare

Oct 15 2011 | comment(s)

Ethnobotany is a distinct branch of natural science dealingwith various aspects such as anthropology, archaeology, botany, ecology,economics, medicine, religious, cultural and several other disciplines.Ethnobotany is usually defined as anthropological approach to botany. There areseveral methods of ethnobotanical research and those relevant to medicinalplants are archaeological search in literature, herbaria and the field studies.This term was coined by J.W. Harshberger in 1895 to indicate plants used by theaboriginals. It deals with the study and evaluation of plant-human relations inall phases and the effect of plant environment on human society.