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Peru's Mountain Of Humboldt Squid

Peru's Mountain Of Humboldt Squid

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

In an obituary for biologist Robert Clarke published recently in Marine Mammal Science, I read a rather curious passage about this scientist's observations of Humboldt squid:
Electronic Health Records Could Potentially Accelerate Systems Biology Research

Electronic Health Records Could Potentially Accelerate Systems Biology Research

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

At first sight, the hand held tablets and screens hosted on nurse tables and held dearly to the palms of able clinical staff, may appear to be incongruous with the functional obligations of their owners and you could be forgiven to mistake them for Apple’s new iPad.

Yet, it is not an uncommon sight, to find them as reverential backpacks and requisite arsenal in the hands of medical personnel, almost akin to the ubiquitous mobile phone. Electronic health records or EHRs as they are widely known across the medical community have largely served as useful substitutes of patient case pads and potentially replaced enormous paperwork with electronic file cabinets that could store a humungous amount of history around a patient.
The Looming Peanut Butter Riots

The Looming Peanut Butter Riots

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

On Halloween, your Planter's peanut butter is going to skyrocket in price; as much as 40%.  I predict riots that will make this Wall Street 1% stuff pale in comparison because all of them eat peanut butter (and Ramen) and a whole lot more of us as well. Maybe not. We once thought Americans would not tolerate $4 gas either, cheap gasoline was such an American right that some claimed George Bush went into Iraq for cheaper oil (yet when the price of oil rose, they claimed he went into Iraq to make oil more expensive for his buddies - life is good when you just make stuff up) but people are fine with expensive gas and rampant unemployment so far.  CO2 emissions are down, at least, so that is a big win for global warming.
Computational Analysis: What Are The Word Choices Of Psychopaths?

Computational Analysis: What Are The Word Choices Of Psychopaths?

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

If words are windows into the soul, scientists are learning to be Peeping Toms: Computerized text analysis shows that psychopathic killers make identifiable word choices beyond their conscious control when talking about their crimes and that insight could lead to new tools for diagnosis and perhaps law enforcement and social media.

The words of psychopathic murderers match their personalities, which reflect selfishness, detachment from their crimes and emotional flatness, says Jeff Hancock, Cornell professor of computing and information science, and colleagues at the University of British Columbia.

EGCG: Green Tea May Help Lose Weight Too

EGCG: Green Tea May Help Lose Weight Too

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

Once a product starts to get credit for doing everything, there is a chance you may be in the crackpot zone.  If so, look for the downfall of green tea in 2012 because a new study says the Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) in green tea prevents weight gain.  Add that on to claims that EGCG prevents arthritis, Alzheimer's, diabetes and breast cancer and even slows AIDS.
Yucca Mountain: The 'Scientization' Of Politics

Yucca Mountain: The 'Scientization' Of Politics

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

We've all heard of politicizing science, like when tobacco companies cast doubt on the scientific evidence for a connection between tobacco and lung cancer or environmental groups try to cast doubt on the benefits of GMO foods.

But in the case of Yucca Mountain, the reverse happened: Government officials "scientized" politics. They made decisions that were largely political but cloaked them in the garb of science.
Steve Jobs' Death And The Meaning Of Life

Steve Jobs' Death And The Meaning Of Life

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

On October 5th, Steve Jobs died. At first I was surprised at how choked up I got at his death—it’s not like I ever met him—until I realized that I wasn’t the only one. From special issues of The New Yorker and Wired magazines, to spontaneous memorials of flowers and candles at Apple stores, and front page articles everywhere, it seems that the world has taken a moment to mourn the loss of Jobs. The outpouring of sorrow and grief, in the era of Occupy Wall Street, may seem astonishing. Steve Jobs was, after all, a cantankerous stranger who ran a corporation, at a time when little love is lost for corporations. Why do we care? Why all the sorrow?
Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Is Not Buying The Singularity

Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Is Not Buying The Singularity

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

Paul Allen knows a thing or two about computers; he built the company that is the definition of the operating system for modern PCs.

He's as optimistic about the power of technology and its ability to shape culture as anyone can be but, like us, he is more skeptical that it will translate into actual human evolution.  Like us, he notes that Ray Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns is just an optimistic black box based on a 'law', like Moore's Law, that is not a law at all, it is simply matching past topology to an idea and extrapolating it into the future.
Dethinking The Unpossible

Dethinking The Unpossible

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

Dethinking The Unpossible

A closed mind is totally incapable of being shown real world facts.  Lead a person with a closed mind step by step through a very logical process; show them a simple experiment in actual progress; show them what every kid learns in science class: what happens?  The closed mind, having seen proof that a thing is real, must employ a strange chain of illogic to show that the proof was not merely impossible but unpossible.  A thing which has just been shown to be possible can only be shown to be unpossible by a reverse logic in which thoughts themselves are shown to be unpossible.  It takes a special thinking process to deconstruct a scientific proof and replace it with diametrically opposed dogma.
Are There Mental Health Effects Related To Abortion?

Are There Mental Health Effects Related To Abortion?

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

Abortion is not a contentious issue in America these days - campaign platforms primarily center on differences in taxation and the scope of government but, for the most part, abortion for the left and the 2nd Amendment for the right are really only invoked to whip the fringes into a frenzy.
Spatial Navigation - The GPS In Our Brains

Spatial Navigation - The GPS In Our Brains

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

Rhythmic activity of nerve cells supports spatial navigation, say a group of researchers who recently showed that cells in the entorhinal cortex, important for spatial navigation, oscillate with individual frequencies. These frequencies depend on the position of the cells within the entorhinal cortex.
Finding Bad Apples - Using Artificial Vision

Finding Bad Apples - Using Artificial Vision

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

Rotten oranges can be detected manually in dark rooms with the help of ultraviolet light that illuminates the essential oils in damaged rind through fluorescence but that type of light poses some risk on fruit quality, like a reduction in vitamin C.

Scientists at the Valencian Institute of Agrarian Research (IVIA, Spain) have created prototypes for machines that not only detect and automatically separate rotten oranges, but can also detect mandarin segments according to quality and helps citrus fruit pickers out in the field. All the prototypes use computer vision to automatically inspect the fruits.
The Plot Of The Week - The 327 GeV ZZ Anomaly

The Plot Of The Week - The 327 GeV ZZ Anomaly

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

Higgs boson hunters often catch themselves dreaming of the boson having a mass high enough to give rise to the spectacular decay into two Z bosons, and then four charged leptons in the final state. At a hadron collider -let's talk of the LHC to be specific- such a signature is the only one providing events which, once properly selected, are more likely signal than background.

The situation of observing an event display being able to tell for sure what it represents, among the infinite possibilities and the intrinsic indetermination of quantum processes, is reassuring and gives a physicist a feeling of power. God did not play dice this time: those two are 100% Z bosons, and their combined mass is exactly the one of the Higgs.
50,000 years ago, we all talked like Yoda

50,000 years ago, we all talked like Yoda

Oct 14 2011 | comment(s)

Long ago, in a galaxy very, very near (because it was this one) we all talked like Yoda from "Star Wars", one hypothesis suggests.

The original "proto-human language", linguists contend, used subject-object-verb (SOV) ordering, with some variation.  So when prehistoric men met prehistoric women, he likely said, "Make out with me you will."

The researchers came to their conclusion after creating a language family tree, which shows the historical relationships between all the languages of the world.

The Original Human Language Like Yoda Sounded by Natalie Wolchover, Life's Little Mysteries
Spaying: Depression in Dogs and Cats?

Spaying: Depression in Dogs and Cats?

Oct 13 2011 | comment(s)

In today's world where far too many people already defer spaying/neutering of pets, we have an article that provides another rationalization for those people.  Apparently, we should be concerned about our pets experiencing increased anxiety levels and even depression as a result.

I suppose we can ignore the fact that animals that are not spayed/neutered will experience higher risks for ovarian and testicular cancers. Equally, we can ignore the problems that are often accompanied by having sexually intact members of such species and the higher attendant behavioral risks that this often entails.  One can just imagine the fun and games of people keeping only stallions instead of geldings.
Evolutionary Psychology: Bad Economy Means More Sex For Men

Evolutionary Psychology: Bad Economy Means More Sex For Men

Oct 13 2011 | comment(s)

There may be a sexual upside to an economic downside; more sex.  Maybe 'stimulus plan' means different things to different people.

Omri Gillath at the University of Kansas says men are likely to pursue short-term mating strategies when faced with a threatening environment, according to sexual selection theory based on evolutionary psychology.  How did he determine that?  He and colleagues told men to think about their own deaths, which mimics conditions of 'low survivability' and they found that men responded more vigorously to sexual pictures and had increased heart rates when viewing them, compared to when they thought about dental pain.
Did Alternative Medicine Woo Help Kill Steve Jobs?

Did Alternative Medicine Woo Help Kill Steve Jobs?

Oct 13 2011 | comment(s)

Add Steve Jobs to the list of famous people who died treating terminal diseases with woo rather than with medicine.

It turns out Jobs had been treating his pancreatic cancer with a special diet prescribed by the alternative medicine promoter Dr. Dean Ornish instead of opting for early surgery. 

A Lesson in Treating Illness by Brian Dunning, Skeptoid
Refusal Of Neutrino Results Supports Global Warming Denial As Predicted

Refusal Of Neutrino Results Supports Global Warming Denial As Predicted

Oct 13 2011 | comment(s)

While people are busy with their own knee-jerk reactions trying to stifle my criticizing the scientific community, the Wall Street Journal did what was predicted by that very criticism, namely turning the way that the scientific community deals with the faster than light neutrino results into an asset for global warming denial:


Robert Bryce in “Five Truths About Climate Change”:

Coming Soon from a Science Festival Near You

Coming Soon from a Science Festival Near You

Oct 13 2011 | comment(s)

In the last couple of years STEM organizations from across the nation have come together in an effort to engage the next generation in potential science and engineering careers.

Gaining in popularity rapidly, local and national science firms have created some very cool exhibits to showcase the work they do.

So if you're a scientist or engineer and you want to show your kids what you do - these are the events to do it at. You're likely to find everything from a toddler structuring a DNA model with toothpicks and marshmallows, to an exhibit where kids can climb into the cockpit of a virtual reality space shuttle and fly it.
Talking Bacteria Could Affect Climate

Talking Bacteria Could Affect Climate

Oct 13 2011 | comment(s)

Particulate organic carbon (or POC) is an important factor in the ocean’s carbon cycle. When these tiny particles hit the water, they sink and attract bacteria. These bacteria can feed on the particles, releasing carbon into shallow waters and the atmosphere.

A new study has found that bacteria communicate about whether or not to begin feeding on the particles through quorum sensing (QS), simply put, a process where bacteria release signaling molecules, which, in turn can influence the activity of other bacteria. Or, in the authors’ words: