Featured Articles

Grilled Cheese Gamification Can Get You Fired

Grilled Cheese Gamification Can Get You Fired

Aug 03 2013 | comment(s)

Until last week, I worked at a food truck downtown. We sold grilled cheese and milkshakes. One of the unusual things about this particular food service job was that the owner used customer comments and pictures on social media—especially Twitter and Instagram—to monitor his workers. Grilled cheese: gamified.

And it was explicitly framed as a game for workers. Members of whichever 'crew' got the most positive feedback on social media each month would win a $25 iTunes gift card.

But compliments are hard to track online. Even if a customer thinks she is paying a compliment online, she might not be. Like if you enjoyed your sandwich enough to Instagram it, but the color of the grilled bread wasn't exactly right, we’d hear about it.
Babes Against Biotech: We'll Exploit Women Until You Hate Science

Babes Against Biotech: We'll Exploit Women Until You Hate Science

Aug 02 2013 | comment(s)

What do anti-science groups do that science never seems to do?

Trot out naked women.

PETA - constantly, Greenpeace - sure, using cheescake to raise money for their corporate agenda is nothing new for groups that have neither data nor reason nor ethics.

But Babes Against Biotech is not even hiding behind a pretense of caring about a naturalistic fallacy. It is so ridiculous and goofy I at first assumed that some evil corporation had created it to make anti-science hippies look sexist.
Baby Bird Sleep Patterns Are A Lot Like Baby Humans

Baby Bird Sleep Patterns Are A Lot Like Baby Humans

Aug 02 2013 | comment(s)

The sleeping patterns of baby birds are similar to that of baby mammals they even appear to change in the same way as it does in humans.

Studying barn owls in the wild, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and the University of Lausanne discovered that this change in sleep is strongly correlated with the expression of a gene involved in producing dark, melanic feather spots, a trait known to covary with behavioral and physiological traits in adult owls. They speculate that sleep-related developmental processes in the brain contribute to the link between melanism and other traits observed in adult barn owls and other animals.

Artificial Intelligent Update: Supercomputer Achieves Largest Neuronal Network Simulation To Date

Artificial Intelligent Update: Supercomputer Achieves Largest Neuronal Network Simulation To Date

Aug 02 2013 | comment(s)

The K Computer has been used by researchers from the RIKEN HPCI Program for Computational Life Sciences, the Okinawa Institute of Technology (OIST) in Japan and Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany to carry out out the largest general neuronal network simulation to date:  1.73 billion nerve cells connected by 10.4 trillion synapses. 

The simulation was made possible by the development of advanced novel data structures for the open-source simulation software NEST.

VERIS: 15 Minutes To Study The Sun

VERIS: 15 Minutes To Study The Sun

Aug 02 2013 | comment(s)

In August 8th, the VERIS rocket is going to launch from the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico.

VERIS is short for Very high Resolution Imaging Spectrometer and its 15-minute trip will carry an instrument that can measure properties of the structures in the sun's upper atmosphere down to 145 miles across, some eight times clearer than any similar telescope currently in space.

The President's Behavioral Insights Project Wants You

The President's Behavioral Insights Project Wants You

Aug 02 2013 | comment(s)

There are two ways to influence the public - basically carrots and sticks. A stick is, of course, taxes and fees and regulations and armed federal agents at your house should you choose not to obey the law.

A carrot is to create a Behavioral Insights project, similar to one that exists in the United Kingdom, tasked with using the awesome power of social science to create the behavior they want - it's like framing on steroids. 
Comet ISON: A Tadpole Swimming In A Celestial Sea

Comet ISON: A Tadpole Swimming In A Celestial Sea

Aug 02 2013 | comment(s)

In this Hubble Space Telescope composite image taken in April 2013, the sun-approaching Comet ISON floats against a seemingly infinite backdrop of numerous galaxies and a handful of foreground stars.

The icy visitor, with its long gossamer tail, appears to be swimming like a tadpole through a deep pond of celestial wonders.

In reality, the comet is much, much closer. The nearest star to the Sun is over 60,000 times farther away, and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way is over thirty billion times more distant.

These vast dimensions are lost in this deep space Hubble exposure that visually combines our view of the universe from the very nearby to the extraordinarily far away.
Verification Junkie - Tools For Verifying, Fact-Checking And Assessing The Validity Of Social Media

Verification Junkie - Tools For Verifying, Fact-Checking And Assessing The Validity Of Social Media

Aug 02 2013 | comment(s)


Verification Junkie is a growing directory of apps, tools, sites and strategies for verifying, fact checking and assessing the validity of social media and user generated content.

Says creator Josh Stearns:
We're From The EPA And We're Here To Help The Economy

We're From The EPA And We're Here To Help The Economy

Aug 02 2013 | comment(s)

In the upside-down is back-and-forth and cows-can-whinny department, we present the new head of the EPA saying that by taking over control of CO2 emissions and allowing unelected partisan officials to bypass Congress and directly implement the personal policies of the president, they can help the economy.

Honestly, as we approach 5 years into this presidency, do we really think anyone in the White House is helping the economy?  Good guy and all, funny, smart about most things, but bonkers when it comes to money. 
Little Scientific Benefit To Herbal Supplements During Breastfeeding

Little Scientific Benefit To Herbal Supplements During Breastfeeding

Aug 01 2013 | comment(s)

Since the United States lacks regulatory guidelines or a standardized risk assessment for herbal supplement use, it falls on pediatricians to try and recognize what natural pharmaceuticals could be impacting the health of mothers and children during breastfeeding.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Could Aid Skin And Oral Cancer Treatment

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Could Aid Skin And Oral Cancer Treatment

Aug 01 2013 | comment(s)

Omega-3 fatty acids, contained in oily fish such as salmon and trout, selectively inhibit growth and induce cell death in early and late-stage oral and skin cancers, according to a new paper.

Oxytocin, You Are So Two-Faced

Oxytocin, You Are So Two-Faced

Aug 01 2013 | comment(s)

Oxytocin, the warm, fuzzy miracle hormone that promotes feelings of love, social bonding and well-being, isn't quite as simple as those miracle-cure-of-the-week newspaper stories want you to believe.

It turns out that correlation is not causation, which surprises no one in science, and that oxytocin is also linked to emotional pain. Maybe someone will call this other form Dark Oxytocin, because stressful social situations continue to haunt you and and even trigger fear and anxiety in the future, you can blame hormones. And putting Dark in front of mysterious things is popular.

How Do Quenched Galaxies Continue To Grow?

How Do Quenched Galaxies Continue To Grow?

Aug 01 2013 | comment(s)

When some galaxies stop forming new stars, they become "quenched".

Quenched galaxies in the distant past appear to be much smaller than the quenched galaxies in the Universe today, which is something of a science mystery; how can these galaxies grow if they are no longer forming stars?
Hubble COSMOS survey results may have delivered a surprisingly simple answer to this long-standing cosmic riddle.

B Meson: New Physics Gets Some Confirmation, Say Researchers

B Meson: New Physics Gets Some Confirmation, Say Researchers

Aug 01 2013 | comment(s)

The Standard Model has some gaps and is unable to explain phenomena like dark matter or gravitational interaction between particles. Some physicists are seeking what they call "New Physics", something more fundamental, but there has been no direct proof of its existence, only indirect observation of dark matter, as deduced, among other things, from the movement of the galaxies.
Clinical Trial: Ultrasound Band-Aid Heals Venous Ulcers

Clinical Trial: Ultrasound Band-Aid Heals Venous Ulcers

Aug 01 2013 | comment(s)

A small clinical study showed promise for a new method of treating chronic wounds; an ultrasound applicator that can be worn like a band-aid.

The applicator delivers low-frequency, low-intensity ultrasound directly to wounds, and was found to significantly accelerate healing in five patients with venous ulcers, which are caused when valves in the veins malfunction, causing blood to pool in the leg instead of returning to the heart. This pooling, called venous stasis, can cause proteins and cells in the vein to leak into the surrounding tissue leading to inflammation and formation of an ulcer. 

The Plot Of The Week - Top And W Boson Masses

The Plot Of The Week - Top And W Boson Masses

Aug 01 2013 | comment(s)

The CDF and DZERO experiments recently produced a combination of their precision measurements of the W boson mass, and proceeded to include the LEP II results to obtain a "world average" of that very important parameter of the Standard Model.

The measurement is described in detail in a paper which explains the combination procedure (not trivial, since there are a number of systematic uncertainties that are partly correlated between the experiments). The Tevatron inputs are as follows:

CDF Run I (107/pb, 1.8 TeV): M_W = 80432+-79 MeV
CDF Run II (2.2/fb, 1.96 TeV): M_W = 80387+-19 MeV
DZERO Run I (95/pb, 1.8 TeV): M_W = 80478+-83 MeV
The Development Of Social Monogamy In Mammals

The Development Of Social Monogamy In Mammals

Aug 01 2013 | comment(s)

Two papers published this week have proposed explanations regarding the evolution of social monogamy among mammals and especially primates.  Of three competing hypothesis, one proposes that a driving force in establishing social monogamy was the protection of offspring by preventing male infanticide, while the other proposes that social monogamy is the result of female intolerance towards each other and a low population density that simply prevents males from adequately "guarding" females from other males (1).
If National Review Wants Scientists To Take Conservatives Seriously, Jettison The Discovery Institute

If National Review Wants Scientists To Take Conservatives Seriously, Jettison The Discovery Institute

Aug 01 2013 | comment(s)

How would editors at National Review regard the credibility of a controlled market publication that had its economic policy articles written by astrologers using the stars as their evidence?

They might not like it but so what? Can they prove astrologers can't make economic policy? No, it's just flawed logic, sort of like me challenging someone to prove I am not an alien from space. That is the problem with National Review paying someone from the Discovery Institute to spout anti-science nonsense about 35-year-old science under the guise of 'ethics'. Because misunderstanding and logical head-faking is the strategy the Discovery Institute uses to promote doubt about biology in general and evolution in specific.
Pizza PLEASURE: A First World Solution To A First World Problem

Pizza PLEASURE: A First World Solution To A First World Problem

Jul 31 2013 | comment(s)

Pizza may be symptomatic of many First World problems: 50% of Europe is overweight or obese and there is concern about hypertension, type 2 diabetes, stroke or certain cancers linked to nutrition.

So what do European politicians do? They set out to fund pizza science so that it still tastes great but is less likely to kill you instead of, you know, eating less pizza. 

Don't get me wrong, I love capitalism. I have zero problem with Sugar Frosted Chocolate Bombs on Saturday morning cartoons or some guy from "The Sopranos" telling me women will like me more if I pour tequila from a bottle cap, and I have no problem with someone selling a healthier pizza.  It just seems like there is an easier solution.
How Will True Wireless Power Transfer Work?

How Will True Wireless Power Transfer Work?

Jul 31 2013 | comment(s)

True efficient wireless power transfer, not just giant machines in a lab or tiny mats under a cell phone, are what we all dream about. Getting rid of cords that force airport travelers to huddle around power outlets like cavemen around an Arctic fire has been the goal for a hundred years.

There are real-world obstacles to overcome, such as what happens to a resonant wireless power transfer system in the presence of complex electromagnetic environments, like metal plates.