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Bats Gave Us Mumps: Multiple Infectious Agents Discovered In 'Virus Reservoir'

Bats Gave Us Mumps: Multiple Infectious Agents Discovered In 'Virus Reservoir'

Apr 27 2012 | comment(s)

Researchers have discovered the probable cause of  several infectious agents at the same time. Paramyxoviruses originate from bats and from there the pathogens have spread to humans and other mammals. In total, the new study tested 9,278 animals for viruses, among them 86 species of bats and 33 rodent species, leading to the discovery of an enormous number of new virus species. This could make eradicating many dangerous diseases significantly more difficult than had been thought. For bats provide a reservoir from which viruses could come back after vaccination campaigns. 
CMS Discovers New Xi Baryon !

CMS Discovers New Xi Baryon !

Apr 27 2012 | comment(s)

No, unfortunately not yet the discovery of the century. Still, the new particle found by CMS in its 2011 dataset is a very important piece of the puzzle of low-energy spectroscopy. Here "low" should be taken with a pinch of salt: the new particle, an excited state of the Ξ_b series, has a mass only slightly lower than six GeV, and is thus "heavy" if compared to most other hadrons.
Hello Again... And Bye Bye...

Hello Again... And Bye Bye...

Apr 27 2012 | comment(s)

It's been a while. And now I'm back only to say goodbye. Well, not really. It's just that I've decided to go on to a more personal blog at (drumroll, please):   

The Beast, the Bard, and the Bot.


Why? What's wrong with Science 2.0, I hear you ask? Nothing at all. Like I said, I wanted something more personal. It was time to move on. Nevertheless, thank you Science 2.0 (and the people behind it), I enjoyed my time here. My first blogging experiences here were interesting and rewarding in more than one way. 
One step nearer to fusion?

One step nearer to fusion?

Apr 27 2012 | comment(s)

Isn’t it nice when someone does your work for you?  For some years now, NIL Technololgy have been sending me science news emails as a form of advertising.  Mostly these are to do with nanotechnology, but the most recent directed me to this:
 
Scientists propose a solution to a critical barrier to producing fusion
Watching Soccer Increases Hormone Levels

Watching Soccer Increases Hormone Levels

Apr 26 2012 | comment(s)

Both testosterone and cortisol levels increased for Spaniards who watched as Spain beat Holland during the 2010 World Cup. 

In this study, they analyzed the psychobiological response of men and women watching sports - when the competition’s outcome, victory or defeat, is basically out of their control. Fifty supporters of the Spanish team watched the final in a public space or at home, with their families or friends. The researchers asked for their expectations and feelings before the match, and they checked their testosterone and cortisol levels before, during and after the match.
Wobbly Tables - The Math

Wobbly Tables - The Math

Apr 26 2012 | comment(s)

Mathematical theory describing the problem of four-legged wobbly tables stretches back at least as far as 2005, when a paper on the subject of  “The Intuitive Table ‘Theorem’ “, was published in the math journal Viniculum.
On Shifting Sands: Our Growing Coastal Erosion Problem

On Shifting Sands: Our Growing Coastal Erosion Problem

Apr 26 2012 | comment(s)

Every once in a while, I like to go for a run on the beach. One of my favorite spots to hit the sand is San Gregorio State Beach – it lies just across the Santa Cruz range, is invariably quiet early on weekday mornings, and offers a good stretch of hard-packed sand along a southern route toward Pomponio State Beach.

At least, when the tide is out.
Are Republicans Psychologically Inferior?

Are Republicans Psychologically Inferior?

Apr 26 2012 | comment(s)

I've talked tangentially about a new book by Chris Mooney called The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science -- and Reality, but only because of specific studies he used in doing op-eds to promote the book.  
Spot The Higgs In The DZERO VZ Mass Plot

Spot The Higgs In The DZERO VZ Mass Plot

Apr 26 2012 | comment(s)

When I started a career in particle physics, joining the CDF experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton collider about two decades ago, the search for a particle decay signal into hadronic jets was not something one would undertake lightly at a hadron collider: jets are omnipresent when you collide hadrons at high energy, so they constitute a irreducible background. Just as a detective looking for a blonde thief with swedish accent in Sweden, you would be close to clueless.
Stress Up The Stress

Stress Up The Stress

Apr 26 2012 | comment(s)

I was away from the site for a while now. I have a good excuse for it since all this while- I got my Ph.D. award, my work recognized by my peers and took up a new job – all at one time. Dynamics of my life were seemingly distracting me from writing. However, now I have settled, I am back to writing and blogging. Reading the opening lines, you may have realized that I was quite stressed up with my life, grappling all the frontiers together in a single time frame.
Get Radical - And Maybe Be A Better Scientist

Get Radical - And Maybe Be A Better Scientist

Apr 25 2012 | comment(s)

In an open science community like Science 2.0, people will feel like they can just sign up and babble about anything and if you protest that what they are doing is not really science (wormholes, brand new theory of everything, social psychology, etc.), they will object with a few predictable responses certain to make everyone chuckle. They go something like; Galileo was oppressed too, Einstein did his best work as a patent clerk, etc.
Former ACS President Denies Charges He Plagiarized Himself

Former ACS President Denies Charges He Plagiarized Himself

Apr 25 2012 | comment(s)

Ron Breslow of Columbia University in New York has denied charges he plagiarized...himself.

Hey, science is tough.  You have to cite pretty thoroughly. There are lots of instances where entire papers have been sent back from peer review because authors did not cite the reviewers or their friends enough times. It's pretty competitive out there.  
Live Longer, Thanks To Evolution

Live Longer, Thanks To Evolution

Apr 25 2012 | comment(s)

Researchers have documented the first fossil-based evidence supporting an evolutionary theory of aging, which predicts that species evolving in low mortality and resource-limited ecosystems tend to be more long-lived.

But that is not an endorsement of banning guns and caloric restriction. It's a little more complicated than that.
Judge Rotenberg Trial Ends In Settlement: Nothing Changes For The JRC, Though

Judge Rotenberg Trial Ends In Settlement: Nothing Changes For The JRC, Though

Apr 25 2012 | comment(s)

Although the jury had the case, the Judge Rotenberg Center settled with Andre McCollins' mother yesterday. Fox 25 News in Boston has covered this case diligently, and its article about the settlement writes, "But the attorney representing the Judge Rotenberg Center is not owning up to any mistakes."
Natural: LED Bulb Changes Color Like The Sun

Natural: LED Bulb Changes Color Like The Sun

Apr 25 2012 | comment(s)

Take a look at the photos from your last sun-soaked vacation: the morning light is warm and reddish while the midday sun is much hotter and blue.

Now compare that happy spectrum with the monochrome lights in your home or office, which are the same all day. No wonder you felt glum after you flew home. “Our biology is dependent on the variability of light through the day and through the seasons,” says Gary Allen, a lighting physicist at GE. “Artificial lighting is the same all day long.”

DARPA's Hypersonic Technology Vehicle - So Fast Its Own Skin Peeled Off

DARPA's Hypersonic Technology Vehicle - So Fast Its Own Skin Peeled Off

Apr 25 2012 | comment(s)

Is 20 times the speed of sound fast?  Yeah, that's fast.  So fast it seems likely that it caused the  unmanned arrowhead-shaped Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2) contracted by Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) to suddenly crash in the Pacific a few minutes after slicing through the sky at Mach 20 last August.

The engineers don't know exactly why but they have an educated guess; "impulsive shock waves"  were "more than 100 times what the vehicle was designed to withstand" and some skin peeling off actually resulted in all of it being lost. 
G-Spot Found By Gynecologist Who Was Really Looking

G-Spot Found By Gynecologist Who Was Really Looking

Apr 25 2012 | comment(s)

For centuries, women have been reporting engorgement of the upper, anterior part of the vagina during the stage of sexual excitement - but it took an 83-year-old cadaver to prove the existence of a G-spot.

That's right, I said 83-year-old cadaver.  If you expected something sexier by that title, you can stop reading now.
To Adapt Throughout Deep Time, Stay Diversified

To Adapt Throughout Deep Time, Stay Diversified

Apr 25 2012 | comment(s)

Climate change is in its fifth decade of being the big concern. In the 1960s and 70s, it was a cooling worry but now there is a warming one.  A constant in mammal's surviving numerous climate upheavals throughout earth history has been diversity - the relative range and distribution of mammalian families remained strikingly consistent throughout major climate changes over the past 56 million years.
Spaniards Ate Elephant Meat 80,000 Years Ago

Spaniards Ate Elephant Meat 80,000 Years Ago

Apr 25 2012 | comment(s)

During the Middle Palaeolithic, between 127,000 and 40,000 years ago, humans that lived along the banks of the river Manzanares (now Madrid, Spain) ate pachyderm meat and bone marrow, according to a study that found percussion and cut marks on elephant remains in the site of Preresa.

So if you want to try a fad paleolithic diet, get a cheap spear and see how you do bringing one of those babies down first.

A Zero-Sum Game Of Squid?

A Zero-Sum Game Of Squid?

Apr 24 2012 | comment(s)

I may have mentioned before that squid fishermen of the Falkland Islands go after two very different species: Illex argentinus, the shortfin squid, an open-ocean animal that migrates between Falkland and Argentinian waters, and Loligo gahi, the Patagonian squid, which is present in both Falkland and Argentinian waters but doesn't move much between the two.