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Human Animal Hybrids Grown In UK Labs

Human Animal Hybrids Grown In UK Labs

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)

The controversy over human embryonic stem cell research was a policy one more than a science one; with so many diverse scientists there had to be an ethical standard created by society, just like with animal testing and the environment.

Since the introduction of the 2008 Human Fertilisation Embryology Act in the UK, with standards much looser than the US and most of Europe, 155 ‘admixed’ embryos, containing both human and animal genetic material, have been created according to the Daily Mail.
The Say Of The Week

The Say Of The Week

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)

"A blind use of tail-area probabilities allows the statistician  to cheat, by claiming at a suitable point in a sequential  experiment that he has a train to catch. This must have been known to Khintchine when he proved in 1924 that, in sequential binomial sampling, a "sigmage" of nearly sqrt(2 log(log n)) is reached infinitely often, with probability 1. (Weaker results had been proved earlier by other mathematicians.) But note that the iterated logarithm increases with fabulous slowness, so that this particular objection to the use of tail-area probabilities is theoretical rather than practical.
Let The Gifted Fly

Let The Gifted Fly

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)

One fundamental myth of gifted education is "you can't put all the smart kids together, because the less-smart need the smarties around to challenge the others".  You can reword that as "it's okay to drag down the smarter kids for the sake of the group", but let's tackle the basic premise first.  Does the presence of smarter kids help the middle of the Bell Curve do better?
I Let My Computer Use My Brain

I Let My Computer Use My Brain

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)

The most prestigious journal in the field of microscopy published an article by us this year and the work also already spawned a book chapter. Apart from the work not being critical of anything and having many cute pictures, the reason for it making it into a respectable journal may be partially due to it actually being interesting:

Censorship And Deleting Comments

Censorship And Deleting Comments

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)

I oppose any and all forms of censorship. At least so I thought.

   

(www.web-censorship.org)

   

Now, I’m not so sure anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still honestly think I do, but I am beginning to question whether my actions corroborate this, or, in fact, disprove my words and thoughts.

Bloggers Vs. Journalists In A Cultural Death Roll

Bloggers Vs. Journalists In A Cultural Death Roll

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)

But...but...you have to love journalists, according to journalists.  Only we hold government accountable and gotcha videos and bloggers rehashing what we come up with or they see in press releases can't be the same thing, they insist.

Well, it can, actually.  Journalists stopped being trusted guides long ago and the public caught on.   Journalists can complain about how much more vitriolic the discourse has gotten, but that's really only because the Internet has made it possible for both sides to get coverage.    

"The Miroir Des Simples âmes" Marguerite La Porete

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)

"The miroir des simples âmes" Marguerite la Porete

The first of June 1310, in Paris, the heart of medieval culture, to the mill the Saint-Antoine, after the burning of 54 Templars sentenced for heresy, Margherite la Porète was burnt alive as heretic together with his book "The miroir des simples âmes" (the mirror of simple souls), of which the Church ordered the destruction.

‎"Le miroir des simples ames anienties et qui seulement demeurent en vouloir et desir d'amour" today represents one of the vertices of religious thought speculative, a manifesto of the nobility of the soul.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Fruit Flies

Teenage Mutant Ninja Fruit Flies

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)


A tipping point in ethnic advertising - hail to the F(ail)

A tipping point in ethnic advertising - hail to the F(ail)

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

We've all heard that that the population of whites in the U.S. will be surpassed by non-white minorities in the not-so-distant future.1 Advertisers have adjusted to the demographic growth and shift by creating multicultural campaigns, and that's great - if you're targeting a particular group. 
But what about when we reach the tipping point, when Hispanics and Asians and African-Americans and Caucasians and all sorts of folks make up the population without one being so dominant - there's a 'general' marketplace? Do you continue to market to each ethnic group separately, or do you just make one big ad that appeals across the board? 
Big Kahuna Donut Burger coming to a state fair near you (if you live in New York state)

Big Kahuna Donut Burger coming to a state fair near you (if you live in New York state)

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

No one cares about progress and society like the New York State Fair. Check out this beast: a quarter-pound of hamburger between slices of a grilled, glazed doughnut. Throw in cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato and onion and you’ve got yourself a 1,500-calorie meal, including the major food groups, for $5.

Big Kahuna Donut Burger - I want one – at ScienceAndSupermodels.com




Talking Plant? How A Flower Communicates With Bats

Talking Plant? How A Flower Communicates With Bats

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

Just as some flowers use bright colors to attract insect pollinators, other plants may use sound to lure in nectar-eating bats.  One rain-forest vine has a dish-shaped leaf located above a cluster of flowers that appears to help bats find them (and the plant's tasty nectar) by reflecting back the calls the flying mammals send out, new research indicates. 

While there is other evidence that plants use bats' sonar systems to attract them, this is the first time scientists have shown that a plant can produce an "echo beacon" that cuts through sonic clutter of reflected echoes, and that this signal can cut a bat's search time for food in half, according to the researchers, led by Ralph Simon, a research fellow at the University of Ulm in Germany.
Your Cancer Treatment Future, Courtesy Of A Black Hole

Your Cancer Treatment Future, Courtesy Of A Black Hole

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

Heavy metals emit low-energy electrons when exposed to X-rays at specific energies, researchers  have found, which raises the possibility that implants made of gold or platinum could allow doctors to destroy tumors with low-energy electrons, while exposing healthy tissue to far less radiation than is possible today.
 
A prototype device shows that specific X-ray frequencies can free low-energy electrons from heavy-metal nanoparticles.  The researchers' computer simulations suggest that hitting a single gold or platinum atom with a small dose of X-rays at a narrow range of frequencies produces a flood of more than 20 low-energy electrons.
Trading Human Cadavers And What It Tells Us About Morality

Trading Human Cadavers And What It Tells Us About Morality

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

Sometimes how humans trade goods are as important as what is traded.    Even when it comes to trading dead humans.

Human cadavers are a legitimate market?  Sure.  Commerce in human cadavers was created centuries ago and is done now by medical schools because of the need to train future doctors in anatomy, requiring the dissection of a cadaver. Finding an adequate supply of cadavers is an ongoing challenge, one which has been answered by both academically-housed programs and by independent, for- and non-profit ventures that are not affiliated with higher education or research institutions.

And we have all seen "Frankenstein" - sometimes small business owners get involved.
Regenerative Medicine - Scientist Converts Human Skin Cells Into Functional Brain Cells

Regenerative Medicine - Scientist Converts Human Skin Cells Into Functional Brain Cells

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

Sheng Ding, PhD, has shown a new method for transforming adult skin cells into neurons that are capable of transmitting brain signals - one of the first documented experiments for transforming an adult human's skin cells into functioning brain cells.

Ding, of the Gladstone Institutes, said his work builds on the cell-reprogramming work of another Gladstone scientist, Senior Investigator Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD.  Yamanaka's 2006 discovery of a way to turn adult skin cells into cells that act like embryonic stem cells has advanced the fields of cell biology and stem-cell research.     
See A Solar Twister - 150,000 Kilometers High

See A Solar Twister - 150,000 Kilometers High

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

A NASA satellite has caught a stunning, yet eerie, video of a huge plasma twister rising up from the surface of the sun.  The video, taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows a plasma eruption that swirls up like a tornado to a dizzying height of up to 93,206 miles (150,000 kilometers) above the solar surface.

"Its height is roughly between 10 to 12 Earths," solar astrophysicist C. Alex Young of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told SPACE.com.

Look To Squid In Hard Economic Times

Look To Squid In Hard Economic Times

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

No, I'm not suggesting that when a recession hits, you should go out and invest in squid fisheries. (But I'm not not saying that. I'm--oh, forget it.) Rather, in the words of my PhD advisor William Gilly:
Making good from bad is something that we need to learn more about, and perhaps economics theorists can learn from the strategies of the Humboldt squid.
In his latest blog post at Scientific American, Gilly tells a very curious story about how Humboldt squid in the Gulf of California responded to an "ecological recession," and how they're recovering. 
An Argument Against Basic Research? 9% Of Monkey Studies Have No Benefit

An Argument Against Basic Research? 9% Of Monkey Studies Have No Benefit

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

Most scientists and science journalists argue vehemently for basic research - and even more taxpayer money should be devoted to it, they say.   Politicians usually disagree and feel like taxpayer-funded research should have a goal or at least a defined result in its framework.
Farewell, Archaeopteryx

Farewell, Archaeopteryx

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

It's not often that paleontology makes the news. This week, however, it did - in a big way. And let me tell you, it wasn't the edgy paper on a new assemblage of South American bivalves ("Barremian Bivalves from the Huitrín Formation, West-Central Argentina: Taxonomy and Paleoecology of a Restricted Marine Association") that was all over the rolling news channels.

No; it's the news that Archaeopteryx may be knocked off its pedestal as the earliest bird in the fossil record, based on a new phylogeny by Xu et al. Archaeopteryx is now deemed to be just another deinonychosaur; probably closer to velociraptor than to birds.
O-H-oh-no: Catching My Breath In America’s Most Toxic Air?

O-H-oh-no: Catching My Breath In America’s Most Toxic Air?

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

COLUMBUS, OHIO -- After a full day in and out of airplanes and airports, there’s really nothing like stepping out of the terminal and taking your first breath of unfiltered, unconditioned, unpressurized air.  Sure, the curbside may be cluttered with exhaust fumes, and filled with the noise of honking taxi drivers, but it’s still undeniably fresh.

Too bad that last Sunday, I took that breath in the state with the worst air pollution record in the country.
Climate Data: National Sovereignty Ignored By UK Ruling

Climate Data: National Sovereignty Ignored By UK Ruling

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

According to a press release from Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, a UK ruling forces the release of other nations property, in this case climate data. We are talking about some legal left-overs in the so-called Climategate case where scientists were wrongfully accused of refusing to share data (national and international).