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Ediacara Organisms - New Take On The Controversial Feeding Method Says Osmosis

Ediacara Organisms - New Take On The Controversial Feeding Method Says Osmosis

Aug 20 2009 | comment(s)

Researchers at Virginia Tech believe they have solved the controversy over how the oldest complex life forms, which lived more than 540 million years ago, ate.    Osmosis, they say.

The researchers studied two groups of modular Ediacara organisms, the fern-shaped rangeomorphs and the air mattress-shaped erniettomorphs. These macroscopic organisms, typically several inches in size, absorbed nutrients through their outer membrane, much like modern microscopic bacteria.  The rangeomorphs had a repeatedly branching system like fern leaves and the erniettomorphs had a folded surface like an inflated air mattress to make tubular modules.
Will You Walk In Circles If You Get Lost? The Answer Is ...

Will You Walk In Circles If You Get Lost? The Answer Is ...

Aug 20 2009 | comment(s)

Science fact or urban legend?   If you get lost, you will walk in circles, just like you have seen in too many movies and TV shows to count.

Fact, say researchers from the Multisensory Perception and Action Group at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen writing in Current Biology, though there was no scientific evidence to back that up until now.

And those circular paths are rarely systematic, the researchers say. The same person may sometimes veer to the left, then again to the right, before ending up back where they started from, which rules out one potential explanation for the phenomenon, namely that circle-walking stems from some systematic bias to turn in one direction, such as differences in leg length or strength.
Lesson from the past: Radiation Therapy Overexposure

Lesson from the past: Radiation Therapy Overexposure

Aug 20 2009 | comment(s)


Glasgow radiotherapy accident, 2006
Lisa Norris

Treatment Date: January 5-31, 2006

Location: Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

Type of event: Radiation Therapy Overexposure

Description:
Check Source Program

Check Source Program

Aug 20 2009 | comment(s)

CHECK SOURCE OPERATING PROCEDURE

Prior to performing a radiation survey using the survey meter, the RHSO must first ensure that the instrument is functioning properly. The RHSO must perform an operational check using the check source (Strontium-90) that is affixed to the side of the instrument. The location of the check source is marked with "Caution - Radioactive Material" (CRAM) tape and an "X" to indicate where to position the probe when performing the operational check.
An Equation For Everyday Life - What Are The Chances I Will Spill My Pizza?

An Equation For Everyday Life - What Are The Chances I Will Spill My Pizza?

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

I bought a pizza for the office today.  Don't get all excited and start thinking I am some aging hipster commie pinko, I am not.   I am just smart enough to make sure that in return for people enduring my jokes I  make sure they periodically get fed.   It's not like they can buy food with what I pay them.

So that everyone would appreciate how magnanimous I am for dropping $5 on a Little Caesar's pizza, I wrote on my Faceyspaces and Tweetypages (what, you don't follow me on Faceypages and Tweetyspaces?  Here and here) ...
The Voynich Manuscript Part 8 : Some Notes On Writing Systems

The Voynich Manuscript Part 8 : Some Notes On Writing Systems

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

The Voynich Manuscript Part 8 : Some Notes On Writing Systems
PMC-BioPhysics: A New Open Access Journal

PMC-BioPhysics: A New Open Access Journal

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

“I am very pleased to be working with PhysMath Central as I believe open access is the future for publication of all bio-related research. I am also excited at the prospect that online publishing brings the ability to post video and raw data as supplementary to each article, and hope our authors will make extensive use of this ability.”

Huan-Xiang Zhou, Editor-in-Chief – PMC Biophysics
Class of 2013: the Beloit College Mindset List

Class of 2013: the Beloit College Mindset List

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

Ahh, the annual list that makes you feel old, and makes you nostalgic for the good old days of the late 1990s when cell phones were still non-ubiquitous.

The Beloit College Mindset List is a list of cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives and reference frames of incoming college freshman. These kids were born in 1991 (that hurts a little), the BCML says.
Teaching Geology To Non-Geologists: Are We Reaching Them?

Teaching Geology To Non-Geologists: Are We Reaching Them?

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

As I start my 5th semester here at Auburn University, I will again be teaching introductory labs. I would not say I have a passion for teaching, but it is my deepest desire for the students I teach to learn something about their planet and maybe even consider Geology as a career. However, with the hundreds of students that have passed through my classroom, Only a small handful have been enthusiastic about it. Even a smaller number have switched to major (or minor) in it. 
Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy in Prostate Cancer

Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy in Prostate Cancer

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

One of the emerging techniques in prostate cancer imaging is magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), which provides bio-chemical information from body tissue in a safe and noninvasive method. In the presence of an applied external magnetic field, the atomic nuclei within molecules behave like tiny magnets and resonate at different frequencies at the same magnetic field strength. This is the basic principle of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (1-4).
Taseko Lake Fossil Exploration

Taseko Lake Fossil Exploration

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)



Eleven elite paleo enthusiasts were flown into the Tyaughton area near Castle Peak north of Goldbridge 007-style in a shiny new Jet Ranger helicopter. We were interested in the local geology and fossils from the Jurassic-Triassic exposures high in the alpine.
DNA, Probability And Fallacy

DNA, Probability And Fallacy

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

Today, I was met by a science-debunker (laugh a little, you know you want to.) He didn't know that I work in the field of biotechnology, or that I am a scientist. I am often met with the, "you're too pretty to have a high IQ," mentality, so I tend to take the route of listening to the blather before I correct them. It makes their judgment of my level of intelligence seem so much more embarrassing. Cruel? Perhaps a little.

He had heard through friends that I am an atheist (according to him, this is synonymous with devil worship, and he wished only to save me from an eternity in hell.) We proceeded to have a half-religious-half-philosophical conversation discussing the bible, stoicism and how misguided I am, but that's a story for another entry.
Going Back In Time Using Gravitational Waves, Probes The Early Universe

Going Back In Time Using Gravitational Waves, Probes The Early Universe

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

The Big Bang is believed to have created a flood of gravitational waves that still fill the universe with information about its existence immediately after the Big Bang. These waves would be observed as the "stochastic background," analogous to a superposition of many waves of different sizes and directions on the surface of a pond. The amplitude of this background is directly related to the parameters that govern the behavior of the universe during the first minute after the Big Bang.

What The Mystery Of Teeth Can Tell Us About Future Airplanes

What The Mystery Of Teeth Can Tell Us About Future Airplanes

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

Our teeth can withstand an enormous amount of pressure over a period of decades but tooth enamel is only about as strong as glass. The mystery of teeth may become a solution to future aircraft design concerns, according to a a new study by Prof. Herzl Chai of Tel Aviv University's School of Mechanical Engineering and colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and George Washington University. The automotive and aviation industries already use sophisticated materials to prevent break-up on impact. For example, airplane bodies are made from composite materials ― layers of glass or carbon fibers — held together by a brittle matrix.
Water In Earth's Mantle May Be Responsible For Unexpected Conductivity

Water In Earth's Mantle May Be Responsible For Unexpected Conductivity

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

A team of scientists from Oregon State University has created the first global three-dimensional map of electrical conductivity in the Earth's mantle and their model suggests that that enhanced conductivity in certain areas of the mantle may signal the presence of water.

What is most notable, the scientists say, is those areas of high conductivity coincide with subduction zones – where tectonic plates are being subducted beneath the Earth's crust. Subducting plates are comparatively colder than surrounding mantle materials and thus should be less conductive. The answer, the researchers suggest, may be that conductivity in those areas is enhanced by water drawn downward during the subduction process.

Results of their study are being published this week in Nature.

Save Money With Climate Science By Giving It To Us - Climate Scientists

Save Money With Climate Science By Giving It To Us - Climate Scientists

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

Bernie Madoff recently got a jail sentence for promising a huge return on investment in defiance of common sense.

New research published by scientists from the UK's National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) in the Bulletin for the American Meteorological Society shows they apparently don't follow the American press because they say that investments made now can lead to as much as 10-20% improvement in climate predictions for the UK and Europe in the coming decades - and up to 20% across the rest of the globe. 
Fat Studies: Is it about body acceptance and self esteem, or jealousy?

Fat Studies: Is it about body acceptance and self esteem, or jealousy?

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

The goal of a world where body weight was not cause for discrimination or denigration is a nobel one, but at what cost?  In the zero sum game point of view some activist have it seems that for people of high BMI to gain, those who are of normal BMI must loose?  
Carbonyl Sulphide - When Greenhouse Gases Saved The Earth

Carbonyl Sulphide - When Greenhouse Gases Saved The Earth

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

When Earth was cooling from its fiery creation, the sun was faint and young, far too weak to keep the oceans of earth from freezing without some help from greenhouse gases; they kept water, essential for the creation of life, liquid on our young planet. 

But what were they?    A team of researchers from Tokyo Institute of Technology and University of Copenhagen's department of chemistry say ancient rocks have provided a possible answer, and they report the results in PNAS.

"The young sun was approximately 30 percent weaker than it is now, and the only way to prevent earth from turning into a massive snowball was a healthy helping of greenhouse gas," says associate Professor Matthew S. Johnson of the Department of Chemistry at University of Copenhagen.
RCW 38: Did Our Solar System Originate In A Supernovae Hell?

RCW 38: Did Our Solar System Originate In A Supernovae Hell?

Aug 19 2009 | comment(s)

RCW 38 is a dense star cluster about 5500 light years away in the direction of the constellation Vela (the Sails). Like the Orion Nebula Cluster, RCW 38 is an embedded cluster, in that  clouds of dust and gas still envelop its stars.

Inside RCW 38, young stars bombard fledgling suns and planets with powerful winds and blazing light and some short-lived, massive stars explode as supernovae, whick sometimes cooks away the matter that would otherwise form new solar systems.

Did our own solar system form  in that sort of hellish environment?
Hamilton's Rule - Again

Hamilton's Rule - Again

Aug 18 2009 | comment(s)

Not only is Hamilton's Rule not a rule, it isn't even a strong suggestion.  The relationship c < rb (1), doesn't begin to qualify as a meaningful description of anything.

The first problem one encounters is that all the variables are highly subjective.  It is also problematic in describing what a cost and benefit actually is in a quantifiable way.  In a book describing the research of white-fronted bee-eaters, this helpful piece of information was provided: