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John Baez on Math Blogging

John Baez on Math Blogging

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

Baez has been blogging about math and physics since the pre-blog era. He's got some thoughts on whether mathematicians should blog (PDF):

Should you blog about mathematics? Judging from what I’ve seen, you should do it if you like explaining things, enjoy public discussions, and can deal calmly but firmly with arguments that get out of hand, or the occasional troublemaker. Some mathematicians are too worried about making a fool of themselves in public to enjoy blogging. Others are too afraid of offending people. And if my joke about “idiots” bothered you, blogging may be too hard-knuckled for you.


The Fallacy Of The Average

The Fallacy Of The Average

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

The Fallacy Of The Average


A fallacy is a pattern of logical reasoning which appears on its surface to be a pattern of sound reasoning.  The fallacy of the average is based on the false notion that the effect of a thing averaged out on a large scale is equivalent to an effect of the same thing on a small scale.

A drop of rain falling anywhere in the Pacific is self-evidently insignificant as a matter of scale.

But what if that single drop of rain falls into the mains supply circuit of a radio?

Netherton Syndrome NS Or Bamboo Hair

Netherton Syndrome NS Or Bamboo Hair

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

Netherton syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive genodermatosis of unknown cause characterized by: erythroderma, trichorrhexis invaginata (TI) (bamboo hair), ichthyosis linearis circumflexa (ILC), atopic diathesis and failure to thrive.



The syndrome is named either as Netherton or as Comel and Netherton.

IQ and common sense

IQ and common sense

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

Someday ,when the building block thoughts of the mind, the picture thoughts Temple Grandin wrote about and the ones high functioning autistic people build upon are generally known about , common sense will be common for every one. In fact it will be able to be "learned".

Man's mind (if we are right) is one big photo album that talks. The picture toughts that make us function do everything from mr/dd type of thoughts to indeed the Einsten things. There are several sections of the mind (the picutre thoughts that play below the surface of the mind all the time) that are dedicated to social interactions and even speech. If Psychology knew of them ,no kidding, part of 6th grade could well be a course on common sense.
Can The Internet Really Win The Nobel Peace Prize?

Can The Internet Really Win The Nobel Peace Prize?

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

Nominations for this year's Nobel Peace Prize have closed and, amongst a record 237 nomination, it includes "The Internet". All of it, apparently! Every computer, every server, every router that is part of the global phenomenon that is the Internet. But can it win?
CERN Liquid Containment Unit Leaks on Camera

CERN Liquid Containment Unit Leaks on Camera

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

One of CERN's liquid containment units - a coffee mug - is shown to leak profusely when an attempt is made to put it into commission. A hapless pair of PR gurus bought their mugs at CERN's gift shop and only discovered the faulty design once it was tested back home. Mercifully, CERN does not currently have an online shop so this isolated accident should not alarm the rest of the public.

UV Exposure Stabilized In 1998, Satellite Data Show

UV Exposure Stabilized In 1998, Satellite Data Show

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

New satellite data reveal that the amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching Earth's surface increased markedly from the period 1979 to 1998 and then stabilized, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.  

The primary culprit: decreasing levels of stratospheric ozone, a colorless gas that acts as Earth's natural sunscreen by shielding the surface from damaging UV radiation.
Controlled Burns Could Cut US Carbon Emissions

Controlled Burns Could Cut US Carbon Emissions

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

A new study in Environmental Science and Technology suggests that controlled burns release substantially less carbon dioxide emissions than wildfires of the same size and could be used to help the United States reduce its contribution to climate change.

Drawing on satellite observations and computer models of emissions, the researchers concluded that widespread prescribed burns can reduce fire emissions of carbon dioxide in the Western U.S. by an average of 18 to 25 percent, and by as much as 60 percent in certain forest systems.
Study Links Smoking Bans And Fewer Heart Attacks

Study Links Smoking Bans And Fewer Heart Attacks

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

Legislation restricting or banning smoking in public places reduces heart attacks, a study in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health suggests.

The study examined trends in acute heart attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand following the enactment of legislation which made smoking illegal in all workplaces including bars and restaurants.

Three years after a smoking ban in all workplaces was introduced hospital admissions for heart attacks among men and women aged 55-74 fell by 9 per cent. This figure rose to 13 per cent for 55-74 year olds who had never smoked.

Overall, the research showed heart attacks among people aged 30 and over fell by an average of 5 per cent in the three years following the ban.
The Key To Silk's Pound-For-Pound Toughness: Beta-Sheet Crystals

The Key To Silk's Pound-For-Pound Toughness: Beta-Sheet Crystals

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

The key to silk's pound-for-pound toughness, which exceeds that of steel, is its beta-sheet crystals, the nano-sized cross-linking domains that hold the material together, say researchers writing in Nature Materials.

Using computer models, researchers simulated how the components of beta sheet crystals move and interact with each other. They found that an unusual arrangement of hydrogen bonds--the "glue" that stabilizes the beta-sheet crystals--play an important role in defining the strength of silk.
Fastest Color Vision Belongs To Bumblebees

Fastest Color Vision Belongs To Bumblebees

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

Bees see the world almost five times faster than humans, giving them the fastest color vision of all animals, according to new research appearing in the Journal of Neuroscience.

The ability to see at high speed is common in fast-flying insects; allowing them to escape predators and catch their mates mid-air. However, until now it wasn't known whether the bees' full colour vision was able to keep up with their high speed flight. This research sheds new light on the matter; suggesting that although slower, it is also much faster than human vision.
Video Games Help Teens With Cerebral Palsy Regain Hand Function

Video Games Help Teens With Cerebral Palsy Regain Hand Function

Mar 17 2010 | comment(s)

Indiana and Rutgers researchers have modified Playstation 3 video game systems to help teenagers with cerebral palsy improve their hand functions. In a pilot trial with three participants, the system improved the teens' abilities to perform a range of daily personal and household activities.

The modified system combined the gaming console with a Fifth Dimension Technologies 5 Ultra sensing glove, a flat-panel television, mouse, keyboard and digital subscriber line modem for Internet communication. Researchers reprogrammed the Playstation console using the open-source Linux operating system and developed games written in Java3D.
The Say of the Week

The Say of the Week

Mar 16 2010 | comment(s)

"A male astrophysicist talks physics to the astronomers and astronomy to the physicists, but then he meets another astrophysicist, and they discuss women."

Unknown
Calliope Art Attack

Calliope Art Attack

Mar 16 2010 | comment(s)

I'm launching a satellite to make music from the ionosphere. But what would that look like, in a dramatic sense? In an evocative sense?

In a perfect world, I could just ask a couple of children to draw me their impression of what 'a satellite making music out of the ionosphere' would look like. Since we live in a perfect world, I did that.

The absolute coolest thing to come out of this was a new Calliope tagphrase: 'Around the world in 48 beats'.
 
 'Around the world in 48 Beats', by Ivy
and
How do you feed your science addiction?

How do you feed your science addiction?

Mar 16 2010 | comment(s)

Carl Zimmer want to know where you get your science news. Go take his survey and let him know.

Why a survey? The science writing business is changing rapidly, and aspiring writers need some guideposts:

We writers, in case you didn’t know, are scratching our heads about what exactly to do next... Each writer has to figure out how best to use the twenty-four hours in a day.
A Problem in the Philosophy of Neuroscience: Introspection

A Problem in the Philosophy of Neuroscience: Introspection

Mar 16 2010 | comment(s)

Neuroscience has a problem. It may appear to be a mere philosophical problem but has practical implications for the broader philosophy of science and the scientific method.
A Queer by Any Other Name: The effect of humanizing labels on the conferral or denial of civil rights in national surveys

A Queer by Any Other Name: The effect of humanizing labels on the conferral or denial of civil rights in national surveys

Mar 16 2010 | comment(s)

Do you favor or oppose homosexuals serving openly in the military? If you’re like the majority of Americans recently polled by the New York Times/CBS, odds are you oppose it. In fact, only 44% of participants responded in favor of the idea. Now what if I asked you exactly the same question using the label “gay men and lesbians” instead of “homosexuals”? Suddenly the tables have turned…and the ayes have it!
The New Science of Love and Attraction

The New Science of Love and Attraction

Mar 16 2010 | comment(s)

If you ever wanted to shine at a dinner party you could do worse than to bring up the scientific study of love, sex, and attraction. No longer are we left to rely on poets, philosophers, or our grandmothers to tell us what love is all about. For better or worse,researchers have taken love into the lab and their findings are often startling. Once you broach this topic, your hungry dinner audience is likely to raise the very same questions that intrigue scientists. The answers below draw on recent findings from neuroscience and social and evolutionary psychology.
Timing Is (almost) Everything When It Comes To Scene Memory

Timing Is (almost) Everything When It Comes To Scene Memory

Mar 16 2010 | comment(s)

The ability to remember a briefly presented scene depends on a number of factors, such as its saliency, novelty, degree of threat, or behavioral relevance to a task. Generally, attention is thought to be key, in that people can only remember part of a visual scene when paying attention to it at any given moment.

University of Washington researchers, however, say that memory for visual scenes may not depend on attention level or what a scene contains, but when the scene is presented. Their study, they say, shows how visual scenes are encoded into memory at behaviorally relevant points in time.

The results are published in PLoS Biology.
Media Exaggerates Progress In Cancer Research

Media Exaggerates Progress In Cancer Research

Mar 16 2010 | comment(s)

Though people tend to give journalists a hard time for reporting overly negative news, the media is a little too optimistic when it comes to cancer research, experts say.

A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine reports that newspaper and magazine coverage of cancer research is more likely to discuss aggressive treatment and survival, than treatment failure, adverse events or death, and unlikely to mention end-of-life palliative or hospice care.