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How Is The Date Of Easter Calculated? The Science Answer

How Is The Date Of Easter Calculated? The Science Answer

Apr 22 2011 | comment(s)

If you Google calculating the date of Easter, you are likely to get any number of top responses from SEO-friendly content farms that go something like "Easter is the first Sunday after the first full Moon following the vernal equinox", which is great for trivia but the how of that is great Easter science.
Clinical Phase IIb Study Of ATH008 In Hand-Foot Syndrome (Palmar-Plantar Erythrodysesthesia Syndrome)

Clinical Phase IIb Study Of ATH008 In Hand-Foot Syndrome (Palmar-Plantar Erythrodysesthesia Syndrome)

Apr 22 2011 | comment(s)

ADVANCELL has initiated a phase IIb clinical study of the Company's ATH008, for the treatment of the palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia syndrome, also known as hand-foot syndrome, a painful side-effect of certain chemotherapies such as capecitabine and fluoropyrimidines. No treatment currently exists for this condition. ADVANCELL expects to launch the product on the market by the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016. 

Vaccine-Autism Researcher Poul Thorsen Indicted For Fraud - So?

Vaccine-Autism Researcher Poul Thorsen Indicted For Fraud - So?

Apr 22 2011 | comment(s)

Based on last week's indictment of vaccine-autism researcher Dr. Poul Thorsen for money laundering and mail fraud, the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs (CoMeD), a Maryland-based non-profit organization, is calling for further investigation. 

Open Letter To Crackpots

Open Letter To Crackpots

Apr 22 2011 | comment(s)

Dear earnest wingnut,

Thank you for sending me a copy of your 20-page monograph containing your brilliant new paradigm which The Physics Establishment are seeking to squelch,  Having been squashed at times by the T.P.E., I can heartily sympathize.

I am writing back to you because you don't seem as crazy or scary as most.  Also, your paper had good spelling and grammer.  Your elementary English teacher told the truth-- spelling matters.  So I read the thing.  And by 'read' I mean I fully read the first page and the conclusion, but sort of skimmed the middle.  It'll have to do.
Inside the BIG problem of the new Enlightenment

Inside the BIG problem of the new Enlightenment

Apr 22 2011 | comment(s)

Whether your reading posts at science20, watching talks at TED, reading any of the self help books on the bestseller lists, watching Oprah, talking with your neighbors, or just turning on the news, be you a scientist or layman, zealot to atheist, of any particular walk of life, (at least in western society,) you have, by now, heard of the "new Enlightenment."

It might not have been called such, it might be an "awakening" or a "quest for authenticity," a "seeing," an "understanding," perhaps something else.

The point is, everyone is figuring out how full of shit we all are, as are our designs.
The U.N. Is The Enemy Of Climate Science

The U.N. Is The Enemy Of Climate Science

Apr 22 2011 | comment(s)

Many might want to believe the United Nations, a world political mediation body created in the aftermath of World War 2, would be a friend of climate science since they are the governing body behind the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - but they are instead advocates.
  
When advocates take center stage and make cringe-worthy statements over and over again, they actually hurt the science they are advocating.   The UN has said baffling things to such an extent they have hurt the reputation of climate science, resulting in backlash about climate change because no one knows what to believe any more.
   
LHC Breaks World Intensity Record for Hadron Colliders

LHC Breaks World Intensity Record for Hadron Colliders

Apr 22 2011 | comment(s)

It was bound to happen, and well predicted in advance, but it still feels good to report it here. The LHC last night exceeded by a good 15% the previous record instataneous luminosity for hadron collider beams, previously held by the Tevatron collider at 4.024x10^32 cm^-2 s^-1. The new record (soon to be surpassed by the LHC itself, anyway) is now 4.67x10^32.
Did Atlas Just See The Higgs ?

Did Atlas Just See The Higgs ?

Apr 22 2011 | comment(s)

Note: updated list of links at the bottom.

(Older Note: Bet on this signal! See at the bottom of the article! Odds are two to one in your favour now!)

(Older note: Update at the bottom.)

It seems I am late on this one -an internal note by the Atlas collaboration seems to contain the discovery of a bump in the diphoton mass distribution from data collected in 2010 and 2011. They find a signal that seems consistent, in mass and resolution, with what one would expect from a Higgs decay, if the Higgs were sitting at 115 GeV, the value at which LEP II found some hint (a 1.7 standard deviation signal) before being shut down in 2001.
Orphan Drug Status For LPA1 Antagonist AM152 For Treatment Of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Orphan Drug Status For LPA1 Antagonist AM152 For Treatment Of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Apr 22 2011 | comment(s)

Amira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that AM152, the company's lead LPA1 antagonist, has been granted an orphan drug designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Commonly referred to as IPF,  
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosisis scarring or thickening of the lungs without a known cause.   This fibrotic disease affects the lungs of patients and their ability to breathe. 

No one knows what causes pulmonary fibrosis or why some people get it but the condition is believed to result from an inflammatory response to an unknown substance. "Idiopathic" means no cause can be found.     

Greenpeace - Apple Is Least Green Tech Company

Greenpeace - Apple Is Least Green Tech Company

Apr 22 2011 | comment(s)

Apple is the kind of marketing machine that will be discussed in business classes for decades to come.  It is a mega-giant corporation that makes its young, progressive users feel individualistic and rebellious.   Its chairman, Steve Jobs, gives almost no money to charity, was caught illegally obtaining stock options (yet got no penalty) and controls what you can put on Apple tools but is fondly regarded as a man of the people while Microsoft chairman Bill Gates donates billions and is reviled as a monopolist even though people can install Flash or anything they want on their PCs.
Harvesting Fog - A New Way To Bring Water To Poor Nations

Harvesting Fog - A New Way To Bring Water To Poor Nations

Apr 21 2011 | comment(s)

Access to water is a pressing global issue; the World Health Organization and UNICEF estimate that nearly 900 million people worldwide live without safe drinking water.   Taking a cue from the beetle Stenocara gracilipes, researchers from MIT think one solution to providing water in dry regions may be doing what the Namib beetle does - harvest fog for water.

The Namib Desert is on the west coast of Africa and when the morning fog rolls in, the Namib Beetle collects water droplets on its bumpy back, then lets the moisture roll down into its mouth, allowing it to drink.
Fukushima: Could A Similar Disaster Strike Closer To Your Home?

Fukushima: Could A Similar Disaster Strike Closer To Your Home?

Apr 21 2011 | comment(s)

If you're not one of the 172,000 Japanese people living within a dozen miles of the Fukushima Daiichi plant who have been advised (read: forced) to leave, you are breathing a sigh of relief while you hope things turn out okay.

But a new analysis carried out by Nature and the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center at Columbia University says two-thirds of the world’s 211 nuclear power plants have more people in the same radius than the ones who have had to flee their homes in Japan.  They're not all on known earthquake faults, obviously, but disaster concerns are an important public policy issue in times of disaster.
Nephila Jurassica: 165-Million-Year-Old Giant Spider Fossil

Nephila Jurassica: 165-Million-Year-Old Giant Spider Fossil

Apr 21 2011 | comment(s)

Nephila, orb web weavers of golden silk traps up to five feet in diameter that snare bats in tropical regions, have a new relative that lived with the dinosaurs 165 million years ago and named it Nephila jurassica.   

The previous oldest member of the family found was Cretaraneus vilaltae from Spain and the new find stretches nephila genus evolution back another 130 million years - and to Mongolia, when the north China block was part of the Pangaeasupercontinent.

Nephila jurassica is also only the second female fossil nephilid to be described.
Tsunami vs. Squid?

Tsunami vs. Squid?

Apr 21 2011 | comment(s)

So this is puzzling. The headline is Jumbo flying squid feels impact of tsunami, but after reading the article about a dozen times, I still can't tell what the "impact" is.
What Are The 10 Most Polluted Places On Earth?

What Are The 10 Most Polluted Places On Earth?

Apr 21 2011 | comment(s)

Outside of Chernobyl, you may not have heard of these 10 most polluted places on Earth.   But luckily Our Amazing Planet has and Earth Day seems like a good time to highlight it.

Progressives won't be thrilled at the common denominator in 7 of them - communist control - and the other two are in socialist countries, which means it's unlikely government can solve problems related to the environment.    All 10 of them were or are very poor which reaffirms the point that if Earth Day advocates would focus on helping poor people first instead of telling everyone to go back to the Dark Ages, we would get greener.
Big Solar Power Projects Or Anti-Environmental Boondoggles In The Making?

Big Solar Power Projects Or Anti-Environmental Boondoggles In The Making?

Apr 21 2011 | comment(s)

If you followed renewable energy in the 1980s and 1990s, all you heard about was ethanol.  Despite a lack of evidence it would be beneficial, activists - and a government point guard in Vice-President Al Gore - insisted ethanol would save us from fossil fuels.

In 2005, ethanol was finally mandated and subsidized but activists can't take the blame - it was President Bush and a Republican Congress that passed it.   Only then did environmentalists and their staff scientists finally give it a critical look and ethanol turned out to be expensive, inefficient and worse for the environment.
This Earth Day, Let's Think About People

This Earth Day, Let's Think About People

Apr 21 2011 | comment(s)

It's Earth Day tomorrow, a day when environmentalists want to remind you that you are a parasite ruining a pristine ecology and there should be less of us.   Well, by 'us' they mean you - they can't be killed or no one would be around to care about the environment.
Cracks In The Fundaments Of Quantum Physics

Cracks In The Fundaments Of Quantum Physics

Apr 21 2011 | comment(s)

In its first years the development of quantum physics occurred violently. As a consequence some cracks sneaked into the fundaments of this branch of physics. A careful investigation brings these cracks to the foreground. The endeavor to repair these cracks delivers remarkable results.

In the early days of quantum physics much attention was given to equations of motion that were corrections of classical equations of motion. The Schrödinger approach was one and the Heisenberg approach was another. Schrödinger used a picture in which the state of a particle changes with time. Heisenberg uses a picture in which the operators change with time. For the observables this difference makes no difference.
Mix Science And God Correctly Or Don’t!

Mix Science And God Correctly Or Don’t!

Apr 21 2011 | comment(s)

Mixing Science and Religion is always a hot topic. Recently, there was for example a debate between Sam Harris and Robert Winston in the Guardian, about, you guessed it, science versus faith! Harris is all for science:

We have Christians believing in the holy ghost, the resurrection of Jesus and his possible return -- these are claims about biology and physics which, from a scientific point of view in the 21st century, should be unsustainable.

A Little Beauty

A Little Beauty

Apr 21 2011 | comment(s)

In Texas, you've no doubt heard, wildfires rage, and hundreds of thousands of acres have been burned. The smoke from nearby fires leave the sky hazy and the smell of it invades lungs and causes coughing. We've been lucky where I live with fires in the neighboring counties, but none here. We've had hot, hot weather with near 100 degree days. 


With all that's going on, it's nice to stop and appreciate the pockets of beauty.