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Global Warming Has Made Global Warming Harder To Show

Global Warming Has Made Global Warming Harder To Show

Sep 26 2016 | comment(s)

Postglacial rebound, uplift in Greenland blamed on global warming, has actually made it harder to measure ice loss due to global warming, according to a new paper in Science Advances.
A Book By Guido Tonelli

A Book By Guido Tonelli

Sep 24 2016 | comment(s)

Yesterday I read with interest and curiosity some pages of a book on the search and discovery of the Higgs boson, which was published last March by Rizzoli (in Italian only, at least for the time being). The book, authored by physics professor and ex CMS spokesperson Guido Tonelli, is titled "La nascita imperfetta delle cose" ("The imperfect birth of things"). 
California Methane Caps Could Hurt Organic Farming Most

California Methane Caps Could Hurt Organic Farming Most

Sep 24 2016 | comment(s)

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a new law demanding that dairy cows stop producing so much methane. They are basically giant fracking wells on four legs, after all. 
Third Non-Browning Arctic Apple Approved By USDA

Third Non-Browning Arctic Apple Approved By USDA

Sep 23 2016 | comment(s)

The third non-browning Arctic apple variety - yes, using science - the Arctic Fuji, has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS). Science has shown they are the same as conventional apples, they just won't brown as much, so all of those organic food people will have a lot less food waste.

Except organic food shoppers will never buy these, because they love food waste and environmental strain if it means getting to hate science again.
March Against Monsanto Claims Vaccines Cause Cancer

March Against Monsanto Claims Vaccines Cause Cancer

Sep 23 2016 | comment(s)

In 2012's "Science Left Behind" I noted something that was perfectly obvious to anyone who was not in a progressive ideological bunker - that while both the American left and right were each anti-science about some things, only the right wing got any science media attention about it. And that was despite the fact that the left's anti-science beliefs are far more dangerous.
No Go Area! What? What is that?

No Go Area! What? What is that?

Sep 23 2016 | comment(s)

This is a warning especially to East Asians, most of which have never seen anything like this, because in China for example, there is no such thing and it is unheard of. Now they are warned to avoid Western European cities such as Berlin, London, and Paris. There are No Go Areas in those cities, but the authorities deny this, and so there are for example no warning signs posted around such areas!

Wolves in the backyard

Wolves in the backyard

Sep 22 2016 | comment(s)

In a Youtube video that has been viewed more than 25 million times,  George Monbiot explains with masterful clarity How Wolves Change Rivers. The short film tells the story of Yellowstone National Park, where wolves were reintroduced in 1995 after an absence of 70 years. Heralded as a successful example of "trophic rewilding" (Svenning et al 2015) - whereby missing "trophic levels" in the food pyramid are re-installed to exert top-down control- the returning wolves are credited with controlling numbers and behaviour of herbivores (elk), thereby allowing vegetation to return.

Bialowiezça: the Myth of the Primeval Forest

Bialowiezça: the Myth of the Primeval Forest

Sep 22 2016 | comment(s)

Over the past few weeks there have a been a series of reports raising concerns about the felling of old-growth trees in the ancient Bialowiezça forest in eastern Poland. A recent piece in the Guardian begins

A Win For Clean Energy

A Win For Clean Energy

Sep 21 2016 | comment(s)

Today the House Committee on Ways and Means put a likely end to the production tax credit expiration for nuclear energy by approving H.R.5879 - To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify the credit for production from advanced nuclear power facilities. Since new facilities will be public-private partnerships, and public entities can't be taxed, this was creating a lot of confusion and that meant if nothing was done, the incentive for a company to help build an expensive clean energy plant would be gone. 
Feedback on the Forest Garden

Feedback on the Forest Garden

Sep 21 2016 | comment(s)

My last post dealt with the permaculture edible forest garden, and it received some commentary on a couple of Facebook groups and permaculture forums.

A lot of the responses were, predictably, from permaculture advocates who took umbrage at my having deigned to critique their philosophy at all, but there was one very valid criticism concerning yields: while I had compared weights of different crops per acre, a more useful approach would be to compare calorific yield.

Doing this for the crops I listed gives a result looking something like this:

Ground Squirrels Use The Sun To Hide Food

Ground Squirrels Use The Sun To Hide Food

Sep 21 2016 | comment(s)

Jamie Samson and Marta Manser from the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental 1Studies at UZH studied colonies of Cape ground squirrels (Xerus inauris) in the wild at the Kalahari Research Center in South Africa. The diurnal rodents temporarily store their food reserves in several hiding places. As their habitat is very arid and sparsely vegetated, points of reference in the environment, such as trees or bushes, are few and far between. The UZH researchers have now discovered how the social rodents orient themselves to find their way back to their temporary food stashes. "The squirrels probably use the position of the sun as the most important cue to roughly adjust their direction of movement," explains Samson.

Position of the sun as a rough guide

Alzheimer's Beginnings Prove To Be A Sticky Situation

Alzheimer's Beginnings Prove To Be A Sticky Situation

Sep 21 2016 | comment(s)

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Laser technology has revealed a common trait of Alzheimer's disease - a sticky situation that could lead to new targets for medicinal treatments.

Alzheimer's statistics are always staggering. The neurodegenerative disease affects an estimated 5 million Americans, one in three seniors dies with Alzheimer's or a form of dementia, it claims more lives than breast and prostate cancers combined, and its incidence is rising.

To help fight this deadly disease, Lisa Lapidus, Michigan State University professor of physics and astronomy, has found that peptides, or strings of amino acids, related to Alzheimer's wiggle at dangerous speeds prior to clumping or forming the plaques commonly associated with Alzheimer's.

Saying Sorry Not Enough When Trust, Gender Roles Broken, Just Ask Clinton And Trump

Saying Sorry Not Enough When Trust, Gender Roles Broken, Just Ask Clinton And Trump

Sep 21 2016 | comment(s)

TORONTO, September 12, 2016 - Public figures such as United States presidential candidates Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump may have to do a lot more than just say sorry to win back public trust after a misdeed, said a York University researcher whose study on trust was published today.

"Whether it's a boss, co-worker or the public, saying sorry is not always enough to win back broken trust, especially when gender stereotypes are also broken. Both have happened with Clinton and Trump in the last few months," said Shayna Frawley, PhD candidate in human resource management at York U who led the study with York U alumna Jennifer Harrison, now at NEOMA Business School in France.

TSCA Reform Casualties Likely Start with Asbestos

TSCA Reform Casualties Likely Start with Asbestos

Sep 20 2016 | comment(s)

With the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform passed into law, environmental activists are developing lists of chemicals they want banned in short order. Asbestos are near the top of the list, as easy targets. After all, it seems logical to get rid of such obvious carcinogens, but it isn’t that simple. In fact, some bans could actually undermine public health and safety.
Study Links Intelligence And Chess Skill

Study Links Intelligence And Chess Skill

Sep 20 2016 | comment(s)

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Intelligence -- and not just relentless practice -- plays a significant role in determining chess skill, indicates a comprehensive new study led by Michigan State University researchers.

The research provides some of the most conclusive evidence to date that cognitive ability is linked to skilled performance -- a hotly debated issue in psychology for decades -- and refutes theories that expertise is based solely on intensive training.

Group Work Can Harm Memory

Group Work Can Harm Memory

Sep 20 2016 | comment(s)

A new study by psychologists from the University of Liverpool and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) reveals that collaborating in a group to remember information is harmful.

The research, conducted by Dr Craig Thorley, the University's Department of Psychological Sciences, and Dr Stéphanie Marion, from UOIT's Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, statistically analysed 64 earlier collaborative remembering studies and found that groups recall less than their individual members would if working alone.

The same study also found that collaborative remembering boosts later individual learning: people who previously recall in a group remember more than those who do not.

A Doctor's Take On Hillary Clinton's Bill Of Health

A Doctor's Take On Hillary Clinton's Bill Of Health

Sep 19 2016 | comment(s)

Democratic Presidential contender Hillary Clinton is back on the campaign trail after the 68-year-old rested at her home in Chappaqua, New York for a few days last week following what appeared to be a dizzy spell during a visit to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2016.

Sorry David Attenborough, We Didn't Evolve From Aquatic Apes

Sorry David Attenborough, We Didn't Evolve From Aquatic Apes

Sep 19 2016 | comment(s)

Occasionally in science there are theories that refuse to die despite the overwhelming evidence against them. The “aquatic ape hypothesis” is one of these, now championed by Sir David Attenborough in his recent BBC Radio 4 series The Waterside Ape.

The hypothesis suggests that everything from walking upright to our lack of hair, from holding our breath to eating shellfish could be because an aquatic phase in our ancestry.

Are There Two Higgses ? No, And I Won Another Bet!

Are There Two Higgses ? No, And I Won Another Bet!

Sep 19 2016 | comment(s)

The 2012 measurements of the Higgs boson, performed by ATLAS and CMS on 7- and 8-TeV datasets collected during Run 1 of the LHC, were a giant triumph of fundamental physics, which conclusively showed the correctness of the theoretical explanation of electroweak symmetry breaking conceived in the 1960s.

The Higgs boson signals found by the experiments were strong and coherent enough to convince physicists as well as the general public, but at the same time the few small inconsistencies unavoidably present in any data sample, driven by statistical fluctuations, were a stimulus for fantasy interpretations. Supersymmetry enthusiasts, in particular, saw the 125 GeV boson as the first found of a set of five. SUSY in fact requires the presence of at least five such states.
Nano Bubbles Unexplained Mysteries And One Big Mystery

Nano Bubbles Unexplained Mysteries And One Big Mystery

Sep 19 2016 | comment(s)

The physics of nanometer sized bubbles is mysterious and controversial. Gas bubbles in liquids are unstable.[2] Also large air bubbles in water are not stable. Even if we keep them somehow from rising to the surface and popping, the surface tension of the bubble itself presses the air out of the bubble and into the liquid! The physicist calls this ‘Laplace pressure’.[3] We do not notice this with large bubbles. However, with a nanobubble, the Laplace pressure dissolves it in a few micro seconds.