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Giant milkweed is also known as sodom apple, (Calotropis procera) has medicinal properties and is common plant of arid regions

Giant milkweed is also known as sodom apple, (Calotropis procera) has medicinal properties and is common plant of arid regions

Sep 28 2010 | comment(s)

Giant milkweed is also known as sodom apple, calotrope, French cotton, small crown flower (English), algodón de seda, bomba (Spanish), cotton-france, arbre de soie, and bois canon (French) (Howard 1989, Liogier 1995, Neal 1965, Parrotta 2001).
Needed: Research Funding 2.0 !

Needed: Research Funding 2.0 !

Sep 28 2010 | comment(s)

I always wondered why research findings funded by tax dollars are freely available to pharma companies to make big bucks.

It is a vicious cycle. It starts from taxpayer funding research projects that culminate in publishing papers. And It ends in pharmaceutical companies selling products/drugs designed based on same research findings. Unfortunately, the general public pays for both, and my question is, why should they?

A company, when using research findings from a publicly funded project, should pay for it.
Scientists Tackle The Complexity Of How Females Appear Attractive

Scientists Tackle The Complexity Of How Females Appear Attractive

Sep 28 2010 | comment(s)

A group of scientists say they have conducted a comprehensive study of how different body measurements correspond with ratings of female attractiveness.

Even across cultural divides, women who are young, tall and long armed were considered the most attractive, they found, to little surprise.

According to the researchers, traditional studies of attractiveness used a natural selection framework - an individual will always choose the best possible mate that circumstances will allow (romance of the fitter?).   Those studies focused on torso, waist, bust and hip measurements.
Northwest Houston Is Sinking Fast

Northwest Houston Is Sinking Fast

Sep 28 2010 | comment(s)

In the Houston-Galveston Coastal Subsidence District, a group of researchers have found that a large section of northwestern Harris County, particularly the Jersey Village area, is sinking rapidly.  They analyzed a decade's worth of GPS data measuring ground elevation in the Houston area and found that some points in Jersey Village are subsiding by up to 5.5 centimeters (about 2 inches) a year.
UN is for peace in the world who is there to protect environment

UN is for peace in the world who is there to protect environment

Sep 28 2010 | comment(s)

There is huge dying industry for clothes , there is huge carpet industry for export, there is hand paper industry and there are laws that they dont employ children.

Where are the laws that they comply for pollution control.
Thermo-Electricity: Future Computers Could Run On Their Own Heat Rather Than Electricity

Thermo-Electricity: Future Computers Could Run On Their Own Heat Rather Than Electricity

Sep 28 2010 | comment(s)

A semiconductor material called gallium manganese arsenide has been shown to have an interesting new effect that converts heat into a quantum mechanical phenomenon – known as spin – in a semiconductor.   If developed, the effect could enable integrated circuits that run on heat, rather than electricity.

This research merges two new technologies, thermo-electricity and spintronics.   Researchers around the world are working to develop electronics that utilize the spin of electrons to read and write data - desirable because in principle they could store more data in less space, process data faster and consume less power.
'Evidence-based politics' blogger criticizes science news sites

'Evidence-based politics' blogger criticizes science news sites

Sep 27 2010 | comment(s)

Martin Robbins either has never read the Guardian's science news - or he hates his employer.    In This is a news website article about a scientific paper he itemizes the cliche structure of science journalism but, since his bio lists him as "a Berkshire-based researcher and science writer" who "edits The Lay Scientist, a community blog about science, pseudoscience and evidence-based politics"(! what the hell is that?!) he is likely not a journalist and may not know that all journalism is structured in a fairly cliche way.
One broken ‘green’ CFL bulb contains at least .5 mg of mercury

One broken ‘green’ CFL bulb contains at least .5 mg of mercury

Sep 27 2010 | comment(s)

One broken ‘green’ CFL bulb contains at least .5 mg of mercury, some claim that .5 mg is enough to pollute 180 tons of water but without a doubt mercury poisoning is dangerous to humans and the environment. Most of the CFL lightbulbs available in Australia at present contain at least 4 mg of mercury and this amount varies considerably up to as much as 12 mg in some bulbs.

The Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs otherwise known as the CFL "green" light bulbs or energy-saving bulbs are rapidly becoming accepted, popular and even almost compulsory in many countries, as the old familiar, but less efficient incandescent bulbs are being phased out, and are often now impossible to buy.
Four LHC Experiments, Three Italian Spokespersons

Four LHC Experiments, Three Italian Spokespersons

Sep 27 2010 | comment(s)

With the fresh news of the election of Pierluigi Campana as spokesperson of the LHCb experiment, the Italian participation to the LHC experiments at the CERN laboratories is close to a grand slam: three of the four experiments along the ring are led by Italian physicists. Campana joins Guido Tonelli (CMS), Fabiola Gianotti (ATLAS), and Jurgen Schukraft (ALICE).

Italians have consistently led CERN experiments, so the election of Campana is no surprise to most of us: still, it speaks volumes about the professionality of Italians in high-energy physics and the recognition that they are given by their colleagues abroad.
Climate Code Foundation - Making Climate Science More Transparent

Climate Code Foundation - Making Climate Science More Transparent

Sep 27 2010 | comment(s)

Climate science is in a difficult position.   On the one side, climate scientists like James Hansen say that the data behind IPCC media talking points is too easy to misinterpret so people shouldn't have it, but to hard science people, climate science accuracy, in the science data sense, is far too inaccurate for claims that its people make.    No one in physics could get away with the accuracy levels climate scientists regard as settled.
Segway company owner drives one off a cliff - not all publicity is good publicity

Segway company owner drives one off a cliff - not all publicity is good publicity

Sep 27 2010 | comment(s)

You've heard that classic public relations person rationalization that all publicity is good publicity.  I don't think so.   UN peacekeepers from Denmark trading food to kids for sex didn't do wonders for the credibility of peacekeeping operations by the European military, for example, and the owner of the Segway company driving one off a cliff won't do much for lifting restrictions that keep them off of sidewalks and bike lanes.   And instead on the private estates of kooks.
The Nobel In Physics 2010: Place Your Bets!

The Nobel In Physics 2010: Place Your Bets!

Sep 27 2010 | comment(s)

A week from now, Tuesday October 5th, the winner(s) of the 2010 Nobel Prize for physics will be announced. Predicting the Nobel laureates in physics is notoriously difficult. As part of their overall Nobel prize predictions, each year Thomson Reuters attempts to predict the winners in physics, but despite their habit of listing multiple candidates, so far they never managed to hit any of the annual winner(s).

This year Thomson Reuters might, for the first time, be lucky.
Andrew Pickering

Andrew Pickering

Sep 27 2010 | comment(s)

Pickering is quite a name in the philosophy of science, or science studies, sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK), or science and technology studies (STS).

He is especially interested in physics and writes about so called “old” versus “new” science.  He means and to this day insists on the difference being soft versus hard scattering in particle collider experiments, the latter being something that happened around the time he started to look into physics more than 30 years ago (oh coincidence).
Nitric Oxide Study May Mean A Nutritional Treatment For Metabolic Syndrome

Nitric Oxide Study May Mean A Nutritional Treatment For Metabolic Syndrome

Sep 27 2010 | comment(s)

A new study says sodium nitrate, like you get if you eat plenty of vegetables, reverses features of metabolic syndrome in mice.   

Metabolic syndrome is the list of risk factors of metabolic origin that increase likelihood of getting cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

As obesity has increased, and the number of people with metabolic syndrome right along with it, various attempts have been made to identify a common underlying molecular mechanism for metabolic syndrome.   One group has pointed to a defect in endogenous synthesis and bioavailability of nitric oxide (NO) and their new study says one contributing issue in metabolic syndrome is a decrease in the amount of nitric oxide from endothelial NO synthase (eNOS).
Anti-Depressants And Morality: The Serotonin Effect On Harm Aversion

Anti-Depressants And Morality: The Serotonin Effect On Harm Aversion

Sep 27 2010 | comment(s)

We know people have positive social behavior in part because of emotional reactions to real or imagined social harm  - we may not like seeing others slighted or we may not want to be perceived as the kind of person who does that sort of thing.

But some are a lot more sensitive than others and a new study says that the neurotransmitter serotonin can directly alter both moral judgment and behavior through increasing our aversion to personally harming others, rather than just controlling violent impulses or helping you sleep.
Cost Of Complexity Gets A Little Cheaper

Cost Of Complexity Gets A Little Cheaper

Sep 27 2010 | comment(s)

Ronald Fisher, evolutionary biologist and statistician who introduced the method of maximum likelihood and the fiducial interval into life sciences, said basically that the more complex a plant or animal is, the more difficulty it should have adapting to changes in the environment. 

But there are well-adapted, complex organisms, orchids, humans, you name it, and confusion about 'cost of complexity' offers ammunition to proponents of Creationism, who hold that  intricacy could only arise only through the efforts of a divine designer and not natural selection. 
Never Exercise Again - Optogenetics Is A Literal Light Workout For Muscles

Never Exercise Again - Optogenetics Is A Literal Light Workout For Muscles

Sep 26 2010 | comment(s)

Unable to exercise?   Some new research may be hope in keeping muscles from atrophy.   Researchers from Stanford University have shown how to use light to induce muscle contraction.

But don't cancel your gym membership just yet.  The study used bioengineered mice whose nerve-cell surfaces were coated with special light-sensitive proteins.

They used a technology known as optogenetics, which involves the insertion of a specialized gene derived from algae into the genomes of experimental animals. This gene encodes a light-sensitive protein that situates itself on nerve-cell surfaces. Particular wavelengths of light can trigger nerve activity in animals endowed with these proteins, modifying nerve cells' firing patterns at the experimenters' will.
A quick lesson for the public on what scientific theories are and are not.

A quick lesson for the public on what scientific theories are and are not.

Sep 26 2010 | comment(s)

If you are a scientist in any field you have had to deal with a member of the public who did not understand the word theory.  This blog post intends to be a simple explanation for the willing but confused. 
What are theories how are they arrived at? 

The word theory has it's roots in the scientific method.  (In order to divorce this from creationism or the theory that the ancient Egyptians were really black Africans and other emotionally charged topics I shall write in Abstract terms. )

The scientific method has several basic steps.  

  1. Observation of some phenomena.    


Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Fails - Republicans Blamed

Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Fails - Republicans Blamed

Sep 26 2010 | comment(s)

Maybe I am confused, but when you have a bulletproof Congressional majority, the kind Republicans have never had, you should be able to get things done - that's what 60 Senators mean.   But they squandered it on nonsense few wanted, and that will help far less than 10 million people, and now the blame falls solely on Republicans because the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy instituted by Clinton hasn't been repealed.
Some Thoughts And Questions On Csikszentmihalyi's Flow

Some Thoughts And Questions On Csikszentmihalyi's Flow

Sep 26 2010 | comment(s)

'Flow', or the 'flow state', refers to what you might know as being 'in the zone'. It is that state where you are wrapped up in the activity that you are doing, so much so that you are 'one' with it (in the sense of being fully engaged that is; not a strange zen thing).

The main researcher of flow is the delightfully unpronounceable Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Chick-sent-me-high). Generally it is associated with more intrinsic motication for the activity in question, and although you lose sense of yourself and time while you are in flow, you are said to return with a stronger sense of self afterwards.

Conceptualisation of Flow