Featured Articles

The Hidden Heart Problem - 75% In UK Know Nothing About Arrhythmia

The Hidden Heart Problem - 75% In UK Know Nothing About Arrhythmia

May 27 2009 | comment(s)

As many as 700,000 people in the UK suffer from a heart abnormality called arrhythmia, a potentially fatal condition, which the majority of Londoners have never heard of - according to a recent survey conducted by YouGov[1]. Many of the deaths associated with arrhythmias could be prevented due to advances in the identification and treatment of high risk patients.

Care About Global Warming? It's In Your Genes, Says Researcher

Care About Global Warming? It's In Your Genes, Says Researcher

May 27 2009 | comment(s)

A genetic link to caring about global warming?   Al Gore has truly jumped the shark, you may be thinking.    But humans may be programmed by evolution to care about their environment, suggests research published today, because it impacts reproduction and fitness.

Dr Peter Sozou of the University of Warwick suggests that individuals may have an innate tendency to care about the long-term future of their communities, over timescales much longer than an individual's lifespan. This in turn may help to explain people's wish to take action over long-term environmental problems.
Neural Mechanisms Of Strategic Decision Making

Neural Mechanisms Of Strategic Decision Making

May 27 2009 | comment(s)

A new study demonstrates that when faced with a difficult decision, the human brain calls upon multiple neural systems that code for different sorts of behaviors and strategies. The research in the May 28th issue of Neuron provides intriguing insight into the mechanisms that help the human brain rise to the formidable challenge of adaptive decision making in the real world.
A Smaller World For Humans Means Natural Selection Will Favor More Dangerous Parasites - Nature Study

A Smaller World For Humans Means Natural Selection Will Favor More Dangerous Parasites - Nature Study

May 27 2009 | comment(s)

Are parasites evolving to be more or less aggressive depending on whether they are closely connected to their hosts or scattered among more isolated clusters of hosts?  Research led by Geoff Wild, an NSERC-funded mathematician at the University of Western Ontario, with colleagues from the University of Edinburgh.

They decided to move the arguments from words to harder science and developed a formal mathematical model that incorporated variable patch sizes and the host parasite population dynamics. It was then run to determine the underlying evolutionary mechanisms. 
Not Your Dad's Holodeck - Really Virtual Reality

Not Your Dad's Holodeck - Really Virtual Reality

May 27 2009 | comment(s)

Far from being geeky and exotic, virtual reality could be the key to a new range of innovative products. European researchers and industrialists have come together to build a world-leading community ready to exploit that promise.

Made famous by the ‘holodeck’ in Star Trek: The Next Generation, virtual reality (VR) has long had the reputation of being slightly frivolous. Yet Europe’s VR industry is emerging as a world leader thanks to new efforts to coordinate developments on a continental scale.
Creationism Axed - Again !

Creationism Axed - Again !

May 27 2009 | comment(s)

Creationism Axed - Again !

The stone axe from 400,000 years ago which has been described as "the most important stone tool in the establishment of the geological antiquity of humankind" was mislaid for many years.  It has been  rediscovered thanks to the efforts of  Professor Clive Gamble, an archaeologist in the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Missing Historical Climate Data - A New Formula Says It Can Fill In The Gaps

Missing Historical Climate Data - A New Formula Says It Can Fill In The Gaps

May 27 2009 | comment(s)

Studies of climate evolution and the ecology of past-times are often hampered by missing information – lost variables needed to complete the picture and thought untraceable have made too many assumptions necessary.   Scientists writing in in the June issue of New Journal of Physics have created a formula which they say will fill in the gaps in our knowledge and will help predict the future.

A new method of reconstructing missing data will shed new light on how and why our climate moved us on from ice ages to warmer periods as researchers will be able to calculate lost information and put together a more complete picture. 
The great thing about science is the uncertainty

The great thing about science is the uncertainty

May 27 2009 | comment(s)

Brian Greene on science as the ultimate adventure:


Science is about immersing ourselves in piercing uncertainty while struggling with the deepest of mysteries. It is the ultimate adventure. Against staggering odds, a species that has walked upright for only a few million years is trying to unravel puzzles that are billions of years in the making. How did the universe begin? How was life initiated? How did consciousness emerge? Einstein captured it best when he wrote, "the years of anxious searching in the dark for a truth that one feels but cannot express." That's what science is about.
The Daytime Astronomer on Power and Authority

The Daytime Astronomer on Power and Authority

May 26 2009 | comment(s)

A post-doc is extremely low on the totem pole of authority.  The ranking goes roughly: Principal Investigators and Branch Heads, Staff Scientists, Secretaries, Soft-Money Scientists, Technical Staff, Support Staff, Janitors, the stray cats in the garage (yes, we have them!), Post-docs, Students.

Naturally the branch head asked me to manage the pre-launch efforts to ensure our science pipeline would be ready on time and able to produce scientific results from day one.

I found the situation extremely amusing.  There I was, a newcomer to the group and a lowly post-doc to boot, assigning tasks to senior scientists, shifting people to must-do items, and chiding them for missing deadlines.  And you know what?  Everyone was fine with that.
Digging Beneath the Surface of Grammar

Digging Beneath the Surface of Grammar

May 26 2009 | comment(s)

Digging Beneath the Surface of Grammar

How does language work?
Return To The Land - Not With These Numbers

Return To The Land - Not With These Numbers

May 26 2009 | comment(s)

It is often envisioned that humans could return to a simpler, more rural way of life and thereby live a more environmentally friendly existence. This is not only unrealistic, but in examining the numbers it becomes clear just what a predicament our human population growth has put us in.

First let’s consider the raw numbers regarding human impact on the planet and see where that leaves us. There are about 57,500,000 square miles of land available on the entire surface of the earth. There are also about 6,671,226,000 people on the planet as of July 2007. A simple calculation shows that this results in about 116 people per square mile on the entire surface of the earth.
Genetic Fitness - Biological Bias, Not Societal, Explains Promiscuous Men And Chaste Women

Genetic Fitness - Biological Bias, Not Societal, Explains Promiscuous Men And Chaste Women

May 26 2009 | comment(s)

In general, science is like an episode of "LOST"; one question gets answered but that answer raises two more questions. The discovery of DNA and genes has answered many questions about who we are and why we are, but to what degree remains a mystery.

'Nature Versus Nurture' has been an argument for decades. Nature proponents state that genes are primarily responsible for everything, including our eventual personalities and behaviors, and that they can all be explained by certain sequences of DNA. The Nurture argument instead says that although genes and DNA play a part of our anatomy and other physical aspects, our environment, exposures and experiences are determines our personalities and behavior.
Morning Science Quote

Morning Science Quote

May 26 2009 | comment(s)

The displacement of the idea that facts and evidence matter by the idea that everything boils down to subjective interests and perspectives is - second only to American political campaigns - the most prominent and pernicious manifestation of anti-intellectualism in our time.

- Larry Laudan, Science&Relativism p. x











Get Ready For The Best Gravity Data Ever: GOCE Goes Drag-Free

Get Ready For The Best Gravity Data Ever: GOCE Goes Drag-Free

May 26 2009 | comment(s)

GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer), launched in March and currently progressing through the commissioning phase, has achieved a first in the history of satellite technology; an electric propulsion system able to keep the satellite completely free from drag as it cuts through the remnants of Earth's atmosphere.

GOCE is set to measure Earth's gravity field with unprecedented accuracy but doing so means that the satellite has to orbit Earth as low as possible, where the gravitational signal is stronger but also where the fringes of the atmosphere remain.  
EPOXI And The Hunt For Alien Oceans

EPOXI And The Hunt For Alien Oceans

May 26 2009 | comment(s)

Astronomers have found more than 300 alien (extrasolar) worlds so far. Most of these are gas giants like Jupiter, and are either too hot (too close to their star) or too cold (too far away) to support life as we know it.

Sometime in the near future, however, astronomers will probably find one that's just right – a planet with a solid surface that's the right distance for a temperature that allows liquid water -- an essential ingredient in the recipe for life.

But the first picture of this world will be just a speck of light. How can we find out if it might have liquid water on its surface? If it has lots of water – oceans – we are in luck.
Social Recognition Improves Worker Performance - Praise From The Boss, Not So Much

Social Recognition Improves Worker Performance - Praise From The Boss, Not So Much

May 26 2009 | comment(s)

Employees who have some influence at work perform better service but praise and encouragement from managers has no particular significance in terms of loyalty toward the employer.

Social recognition, recognition as an individual whose expertise and input are appreciated, is crucial for how well employees in service companies perform their job assignments. Tómas Bjarnason, a doctoral student in sociology from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, studied over 900 employees in service organizations for his thesis.   He states that social recognition contributes to increased self respect, which means that employees make a greater effort to act in the company’s best interests. 
Robots May Be Your New Neighbors

Robots May Be Your New Neighbors

May 26 2009 | comment(s)

A new robot house will be launched at the University of Hertfordshire tomorrow, Wednesday 27 Mayth.

Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn and her team at the University’s School of Computer Science have taken their robots out of their laboratory and have them “living” in a house in Hatfield, so that the academics can develop them as personal companions.  The academics will open the robot house to the media tomorrow, before launching it to the public in early June.

At the event, the academics will showcase the work they are doing to advance the relationship between robots and humans as part of the European project LIREC – Living with Robots and Interactive Companions. Different robots with mechanical and/or humanoid features will be shown.
Army Announces 60 Percent Of U.S. Chemical Weapons Destroyed

Army Announces 60 Percent Of U.S. Chemical Weapons Destroyed

May 26 2009 | comment(s)

U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) officials have announced the destruction of 60 percent of the U.S. declared stockpile under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). This milestone was achieved Saturday, April 25. CMA reached the 50 percent milestone in December 2007 and is poised to destroy its two-millionth munition in the coming months. 
Some Free Genetic Counseling

Some Free Genetic Counseling

May 26 2009 | comment(s)

I happened to get my hands on some interesting literature on pre-natal genetic screening, literature that amply reinforces my impression that clinical genetic testing is still in the dark ages.

Let's say you (or your wife/fiance/girlfriend) are pregnant, and you're interested in taking a blood test to see if your baby is going to develop a neural tube defect, like spina bifida. Should you take the test?

In this case, it's a no-risk test (unlike amniocentesis) that involves measuring a blood protein called AFP. Here's what the pamphlet I've got says:

- There is a 1:1000 chance that your baby will have spina bifida.
- The blood test can identify 80% of spina bifida cases.
Chess

Chess

May 26 2009 | comment(s)