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Carter Constant - A 40 Year-Old Einstein Mystery Gets Some Insight From Newton

Carter Constant - A 40 Year-Old Einstein Mystery Gets Some Insight From Newton

Feb 23 2009 | comment(s)

The rotating black hole has been described as one of nature's most perfect objects.  As described by the Kerr solution of Einstein's gravitational field equations, its spacetime geometry is completely characterized by only two numbers — mass and spin — and is sometimes described by the aphorism "black holes have no hair.''

A particle orbiting a rotating black hole always conserves its energy and angular momentum, but otherwise traces a complicated twisting rosette pattern with no discernible regularity.
2008 Cool Off - A US Blip Or An End To Global Warming? James Hansen Has Some Answers

2008 Cool Off - A US Blip Or An End To Global Warming? James Hansen Has Some Answers

Feb 23 2009 | comment(s)

The ten warmest years on record have all occurred between 1997 and 2008 but the 2008 temperature in the US was not much different than the 1951-1980 mean, which makes it cooler than all the previous years this decade, say climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City.
Bioluminescence - Luminescent Krill Due To 'Light Switch' Muscles

Bioluminescence - Luminescent Krill Due To 'Light Switch' Muscles

Feb 23 2009 | comment(s)

The phenomenon of light emission by living organisms, bioluminescence, is quite common, especially in marine species. It is known that light is generated by chemical reactions in which oxygen molecules play an important part. In the animal world, these chemical reactions take place in special luminescent cells called photocytes. These are aggregated into complex light organs, in which the intensity of light is regulated by nerve impulses, and in which light can be modulated with the help of reflectors, lenses and filters. By these means, organisms can adjust the wavelength, diffusion and intensity of light according to need. But the exact mechanisms behind these processes remain shrouded in mystery.
Macropinna Microstoma Mystery Solved - The Transparent Head And Tubular Eyes Of The Barreleye Fish

Macropinna Microstoma Mystery Solved - The Transparent Head And Tubular Eyes Of The Barreleye Fish

Feb 23 2009 | comment(s)

Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute recently solved the half-century-old mystery of a fish with tubular eyes and a transparent head. Ever since the "barreleye" fish Macropinna microstoma was first described in 1939, marine biologists have known that its tubular eyes are very good at collecting light. However, the eyes were believed to be fixed in place and seemed to provide only a "tunnel-vision" view of whatever was directly above the fish's head. A new paper by Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler shows that these unusual eyes can rotate within a transparent shield that covers the fish's head. This allows the barreleye to peer up at potential prey or focus forward to see what it is eating.

Transtel Intermedia Announces Extension Of Private Offer To Exchange And Solicitation Of Consents To March 13, 2009

Transtel Intermedia Announces Extension Of Private Offer To Exchange And Solicitation Of Consents To March 13, 2009

Feb 23 2009 | comment(s)

CALI, Colombia, February 23 /PRNewswire/ --

The Bowron Lakes: Geologic Gems V

The Bowron Lakes: Geologic Gems V

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

The wind favours us now as we paddle the last of the Bowron Lake circuit. We'd rigged kayak sails on both the single and double kayaks and are excited to use them to add an extra knot of oomph to our efforts. 

Reaching the golden land of safety-in-numbers, we leap from our kayaks, happy to see the smiling faces of Mary and Adele, the new friends we'd met before running the river earlier in the trip.  

Cardiac Bypass, Angioplasty and Stenting

Cardiac Bypass, Angioplasty and Stenting

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

Coronary angiogram cardiac cath cardiology LAD left anterior descending









No Reduction in Mortality or Heart Attacks  


Neandertals 2.0

Neandertals 2.0

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

The commercials featuring the Geico caveman made it seem as if a Neandertal (also neanderthal) could readily interact within a Homo sapiens society.... we may soon find out if that is true.

Recently, scientists at the Max Plank Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig Germany announced that they had completed the sequencing of the Neandertal genome.
MyCode Seeks To Be A BioBank For Personalized Medicine

MyCode Seeks To Be A BioBank For Personalized Medicine

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

People differ from one another in millions of ways. For starters, there is eye color, hair color, body build, and tendencies toward certain diseases and conditions. We know that genes determine these differences. Now, we also are learning that genes affect how our bodies respond to disease. Through the study of genetic links between patients and chronic diseases, Geisinger Health System researchers are hoping to gain a better understanding of how to prevent, diagnose and treat these diseases. 
Figuring Out Short Term Perceptual And Memory Storage Processing

Figuring Out Short Term Perceptual And Memory Storage Processing

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

People voluntarily pick what information they store in short-term memory. Now, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers can see just what information people are holding in memory based only on patterns of activity in the brain.

Psychologists from the University of Oregon and the University of California, San Diego, reported their findings in the February issue of Psychological Science. By analyzing blood-flow activity, they were able to identify the specific color or orientation of an object that was intentionally stored by the observer.
Gravitational Lensing: 'Einstein's Telescope' In Understanding The Cosmos

Gravitational Lensing: 'Einstein's Telescope' In Understanding The Cosmos

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

Scientists are harnessing the cosmos as a scientific “instrument” in their quest to determine the makeup of the universe.   Evalyn Gates calls from the University of Chicago calls it “Einstein’s telescope” but she actually means the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, which acts as a sort of natural telescope.

In general relativity, mass can warp space and create gravitational fields that bend light - confirmed in  by Arthur Eddington during a solar eclipse, when he saw that the light from stars that passed close to the sun was slightly bent, making them appear out of position.
The Quest For The First Moments Of The Universe

The Quest For The First Moments Of The Universe

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

During the next decade, some cosmologists say a delicate measurement of primordial light could reveal evidence for the cosmic inflation hypothesis, which proposes that a random, microscopic density fluctuation in the fabric of space gave birth to the universe in a hot big bang approximately 13.7 billion years ago - it also predicts the existence of an infinite number of universes.   The hypothesis was first proposed by Alan Guth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979 but cosmologists currently have no way of testing this prediction.
The Echo Of Mass Extinction From 65 Million Years Ago

The Echo Of Mass Extinction From 65 Million Years Ago

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

Paleontologists can still hear the echo of the death knell that drove the dinosaurs and many other organisms to extinction following an asteroid collision at the end of the Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago.

"The evolutionary legacy of the end-Cretaceous extinction is very much with us. In fact, it can be seen in virtually every marine community, every lagoon, every continental shelf in the world," said University of Chicago paleontologist David Jablonski. It is, he said, "sort of an echo of the big bang for evolutionary biology."
Going Green Cosmic Style - The Lulin Comet

Going Green Cosmic Style - The Lulin Comet

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

We hear a lot about 'going green' these days and it seems even the Universe can't endure one more moment of Al Gore putting his hands together, as if in prayer, and guilting us into investing in carbon trading companies, one of which he happens to own stock in.

As a peace offering, the cosmos is offering comet Lulin, which is making an appearance in the nighttime sky this month - and it's green.  Literally. Don Yeomans of JPL, manager for NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, answers a few questions about this odd comet.

comet lulin

Sky chart showing comet Lulin on Feb. 24, 2009. Image credit: NASA/JPL

R-Rated Movies Linked To Smoking In Kids

R-Rated Movies Linked To Smoking In Kids

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

A new study says that kids who are allowed to watch R-rated movies are much more likely to believe it's easy to get a cigarette than those who aren't allowed to watch such films. 

The researchers found that parental permission to watch R-rated movies was one of the strongest predictors of the perception that cigarettes are available, about as strong as having friends that smoked. If allowed to watch R-rated films, nonsmokers were almost twice as likely, and smokers were almost three times as likely to say it would be easy for them to get cigarettes. 
Lab-Made Proteins Neutralize Multiple Strains Of Seasonal And Pandemic Flu Viruses

Lab-Made Proteins Neutralize Multiple Strains Of Seasonal And Pandemic Flu Viruses

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

Scientists have identified a small family of lab-made proteins that neutralize a broad range of influenza A viruses, including the H5N1 avian virus, the 1918 pandemic influenza virus and seasonal H1N1 flu viruses.

These human monoclonal antibodies, identical infection-fighting proteins derived from the same cell lineage, also were found to protect mice from illness caused by H5N1 and other influenza A viruses. Because large quantities of monoclonal antibodies can be made relatively quickly, after more testing, these influenza-specific monoclonal antibodies potentially could be used in combination with antiviral drugs to prevent or treat the flu during an influenza outbreak or pandemic.
The Evolution Of Teeth

The Evolution Of Teeth

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)


Show Me The Science Month Day 19



Some fish have two sets of teeth: oral teeth, set towards the front of the mouth (like ours), and so-called pharyngeal teeth, set far back in in the throat in a strange, second set of jaws. Based on what we learn from the fossils of ancient jawless fish, it appears that teeth first appeared on these deep pharyngeal jaws. So how did most vertebrates come to have the more common set of oral teeth? A group of scientists based in Georgia and Tennessee used paleontology and modern genetics to show that tweaks to an ancient gene regulatory network enabled the evolution of  oral cavity teeth possessed by most vertebrates.

pharyngeal jaw pharngula evolution teeth

Figure 1 from Fraser, et al.

Relativistic Addition Of Velocities

Relativistic Addition Of Velocities

Feb 22 2009 | comment(s)

Someone on this site recently posed the following thought experiment questioning the postulate of special relativity that no object can travel faster than the speed of light - c.  Imagine a one dimensional problem in which two travelers, move close to the speed of light, but in opposite directions - one moving close the speed of light in the positive direction and the other traveler moving close to the speed of light in the negative direction.  

Wouldn't these observers perceive the relative velocity of the respective other as exceeding the speed of light (i.e., approx. 2c)? 


Special relativity posits the following:
Natural World: A Farm For The Future?

Natural World: A Farm For The Future?

Feb 21 2009 | comment(s)

Last night, I watched on BBC Television Natural World, 2008-2009 - 14. A Farm for the Future in which

Wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking investigates how to transform her family’s farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future, and discovers that nature holds the key.
The Evolution Of Evolution

The Evolution Of Evolution

Feb 21 2009 | comment(s)



Show Me The Science Month Day 19

Merriam-Webster's dictionary says the word 'evolution' originated in 1622 and derives from the Latin evolutio, "unrolling, from", as in a parchment, and this is actually the perfect way to think of both Darwin and Evolution in their context.