Featured Articles

Humboldt Squid on the East Coast!

Humboldt Squid on the East Coast!

Feb 04 2011 | comment(s)

The Squids 4 Kids outreach program I helped to start up is going strong! We've been doing a number of local dissections, both in and out of classrooms, and shipping squid around the country. They made the news in Florida:
With cameras flashing and video rolling Wednesday, six Canterbury Upper School seniors dissected a 4-foot-long Humboldt squid.
and North Carolina:
Daphnia Pulex - More Genes Don't Make You Better But They May Help The Environment

Daphnia Pulex - More Genes Don't Make You Better But They May Help The Environment

Feb 03 2011 | comment(s)

Humans have about 23,000 genes and we are at the top of the food chain but the animal with the most genes is the near-microscopic freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex, or water flea, clocking in around 31,000.

Daphnia is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced.   The findings are part of a comprehensive report by members of the Daphnia Genomics Consortium, an international network of scientists led by the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics (CGB) at Indiana University Bloomington and the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute.
Coffee Is Good For You - But Not With 21 Teaspoons Of Sugar

Coffee Is Good For You - But Not With 21 Teaspoons Of Sugar

Feb 03 2011 | comment(s)

Coffee can be quite good for you, as any number of studies have shown.   But you still have to take some personal responsibility for moderation because companies like Starbuck's are not going to do it for you.    They're not in the personal responsibility business, they are in the drink business, so when they roll out a new size - the "Trenta" - this spring, all 31 ounces of it, they want you to buy it in any form you want.
Coaches Help Teach Athletes Ethics Also

Coaches Help Teach Athletes Ethics Also

Feb 03 2011 | comment(s)

There are exceptions, of course - some athletes will never be ethical no matter how much coaching they receive and not all coaches are ethical, but overall coaching helps athletes become more than better athletes.   

New survey data from Concordia University says coaches exert moral influence over athletes and how athletes respond.
Biodiesel No More Harmful Than Regular Diesel - Hardly A Great Endorsement

Biodiesel No More Harmful Than Regular Diesel - Hardly A Great Endorsement

Feb 03 2011 | comment(s)

Biofuels were all the rage in the 1990s, with Vice-President Al Gore declaring them the Holy Grail of fossil fuel replacement.    Unfortunately, no quality science agreed with that assessment yet they have been passed into law anyway by anti-science politicians who saw a way to please part of the voter base.
Found: 54 Potentially Habitable New Planets

Found: 54 Potentially Habitable New Planets

Feb 03 2011 | comment(s)

New papers in arXiv show that the Kepler space telescope continues to fulfill its mission of searching for exoplanets, especially those in the 'habitable' zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface, around stars.
Ancient Astronauts?

Ancient Astronauts?

Feb 03 2011 | comment(s)

Despite the various claims surrounding the idea of alien visitation in the past, one of the primary arguments has been the creation of immense structures in the past that have been argued as being impossible to create without sophisticated modern technologies.  More to the point, the argument even suggests that it would take quite advanced technologies (even beyond our abilities today), to produce such construction projects.

Invariably the size of the blocks is mentioned (on the order of several tons to several hundred tons), as well as the issue of moving them, positioning them, and of course the precision involved in their placement.
LHCb Observes Bs Decays To J/psi F0 Pairs!

LHCb Observes Bs Decays To J/psi F0 Pairs!

Feb 03 2011 | comment(s)

A recent paper in the arxiv describes the observation, in 7 TeV proton-proton collisions produced by the LHC collider in the core of the LHCb detector, of a new decay mode of the particle called "B-sub-s", a meson which is a bound state of a anti-bottom-quark and an s quark.
The Fundamental Nature Of Light

The Fundamental Nature Of Light

Feb 03 2011 | comment(s)

Did you ever wonder why both, Einstein’s relativity theory and quantum physics, in theory as well as experiment, seem obsessed with the nature of light? The velocity of light, light clocks, entangled photons, and so on – why is it always light? This preoccupation is no coincidence. It comes directly from the fact that light does not actually exist. Think I am nuts yet?

Summer Squid Season In The Southern Hemisphere

Summer Squid Season In The Southern Hemisphere

Feb 02 2011 | comment(s)

FIS (Fish Information and Services, the "most comprehensive website for the commercial fishing industry") has a run of recent squid news.

Let's start with Illex argentinus, the Argentinian shortfin squid with a history of contention between fishers from Argentina and the Falkland Islands. After a 2009 crash, Illex rebounded somewhat in 2010 (possibly due to shifting environmental conditions), but so far the catch from the Falklands this year isn't looking good:
We Are All Makers, a TED Talk by Dale Dougherty

We Are All Makers, a TED Talk by Dale Dougherty

Feb 02 2011 | comment(s)

The fundamental evolutionary advantage of human beings over all other species on this planet is our ability to make things. We make tools to make more complex tools to make end products that help us survive, thrive, and develop. Pre-humans may have started making simple tools over 2 1/2 millions years ago and serious complex tool-making took off during the Bronze Age just a brief 5,000 years ago.

Victorian Secret: Girls Of Steampunk

Victorian Secret: Girls Of Steampunk

Feb 02 2011 | comment(s)

If you're a Steampunk fan, you are not used to seeing hot girls.   Oh, and you think it's 1995.

Just kidding, there is no better time than going to a local coffee house and seeing a Steampunk club meeting.   It's creative stuff.   But the girls do need work.  So this month at Antarctic Press, Ben Dunn, teaming up with fellow illustrators Fred Perry and David Hutchison, release "Victorian Secret: Girls Of Steampunk" - to maybe teach Steampunk girls how to look.    The site is designed for true Steampunk fans, in that the first page is a useless shockwave Enter button that serves no purpose and after that no modern human could actually figure out how to order anything.
Spartans At Agincourt: Writing Proposals

Spartans At Agincourt: Writing Proposals

Feb 02 2011 | comment(s)

I've been busy with proposal work instead of Calliope.  I have to fund this satellite somehow, and earning money writing corporate proposals is enjoyable work.  Proposal writing is also a strange world. Whether for business, for government, or for grants alike, it's just not quite human.

In face to face conversation, a deal is pretty simple.  "I need you to defeat Henry V." 'We can do it-- we just bested the Persian Army.'  "Deal!"  But not so lucky in proposal world.

Response to customer Request for Proposal "Conquer England" by Spartans&Co.
Logical Proofs: An Easy-To-Understand Guide

Logical Proofs: An Easy-To-Understand Guide

Feb 02 2011 | comment(s)

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal tackles logic for those of you who don't like Latin:

A Call to Action

A Call to Action

Feb 01 2011 | comment(s)

It is just before dawn. The raft has rotated on its mooring and aligned to the new direction of the tidal flow. The hydro generator has just come on-line again, and its low whine pervades the silence of the surrounding area. Nothing stirs, no fish nor bird, in this barren landscape. The surrounding waters are dead, rank with the accumulation of salts, minerals and the rotting remains of the life forms, that had been so abundant here. The sun raises, and heralds another day of relentless heat. The air-conditioning struggles in a vain, to achieve equilibrium, and the desalination plant begins the daily task of watering the plants growing in the green house, which pervades much of the area of this small floating kingdom.
On The Origin Of Physical Dynamics And The Reason Of Existence Of Special Relativity

On The Origin Of Physical Dynamics And The Reason Of Existence Of Special Relativity

Feb 01 2011 | comment(s)

The origin of physical dynamics and the reason of existence of special relativity are explored. This endeavour is started by analysing the logic of nature. Next, only mathematics is used in order to explore the dynamics of this model of physical reality.

The model that is described here annihilates the old reality and creates a new reality at each dynamic step. Hilbert space cannot treat dynamics. It contains nothing that supports dynamics.
The Say Of The Week

The Say Of The Week

Feb 01 2011 | comment(s)

"The only use I know of a confidence interval is to have confidence in it"

L. J. Savage, in "The foundations of statistical inference", Methuen, London (1962).
Dr. Paul Offit: Polarizing Figure Only On The Fringe

Dr. Paul Offit: Polarizing Figure Only On The Fringe

Feb 01 2011 | comment(s)

Dr. Paul Offit is the Hillary Clinton of the autism world. Or is he? It seems really unfair that a well-respected pediatrician and infectious disease expert who has devoted his career to saving lives is the recipient of the vitriol that places like Age of Autism and people like its editors and followers heap on him, all because he has the courage to stand up to their intimidating tactics and speak out honestly about vaccines. He's one of the first to admit that vaccines have caused damage; he writes openly and honestly about the live polio vaccine causing polio, about Cutter laboratories. 

Why Do More Environmentalists And Organic Food Shoppers Believe Vaccines Cause Autism?

Why Do More Environmentalists And Organic Food Shoppers Believe Vaccines Cause Autism?

Feb 01 2011 | comment(s)

I enjoyed a drink one time with a fellow who was, even for science blogging, left of left.    I won't name names because it doesn't matter, he is a talented writer and a good guy but I always feel like he loves politics more than science and his persistent belief that Republicans/conservatives/right wing neo-cons/Nazis/(insert your favorite term here) are anti-science and progressives are not seemed rather odd.   But I have written about the Democratic War On Science many times.
Everyone Loves Giant Squid

Everyone Loves Giant Squid

Feb 01 2011 | comment(s)

Today I am going to send you over to Deep-Sea News for your squid fix. Because Dr. M has just made the compelling case that Giant Squid Are Awesomesauce.

There's really not room for debate. (There might be room for a couple of grammatical edits.)





It is important to point out that giant squid share many of their awesome features with other, smaller squid species. Chitin-ringed suckers, an aimable siphon, esophagus-through-the-brain, and other traits may lead us to conclude that, in fact, all squid are awesomesauce.