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Rediscovered Dark Quanta

Rediscovered Dark Quanta

Sep 13 2017 | comment(s)

Abstract

Two and a half centuries ago, scientist discovered solutions of the wave equation that represent dark quanta.

The Voynich Wikiwars - Episode 2

The Voynich Wikiwars - Episode 2

Sep 13 2017 | comment(s)

The Voynich Wikiwars - Episode 2

This is a follow-on to my previous article about an opinion piece in the Times Literary Supplement which news media at first accepted uncritically as fact.
CMS Reports Evidence For Higgs Decays To B-Quark Pairs

CMS Reports Evidence For Higgs Decays To B-Quark Pairs

Sep 12 2017 | comment(s)

Another chapter in the saga of the search for the elusive, but dominant, decay mode of the Higgs boson has been reported by the CMS collaboration last month. This is one of those specific sub-fields of research where a hard competition arises on the answer to a relatively minor scientific question. That the Higgs boson couples to b-quarks is indirectly already well demonstrated by a number of other measurements - its coupling to (third generation) quarks being demonstrated by its production rate, for example. Yet, being the first ones to "observe" the H->bb decay is a coveted goal.
Genetic Quality Of Fathers Influences Gender Of Offspring

Genetic Quality Of Fathers Influences Gender Of Offspring

Sep 11 2017 | comment(s)

In determining the gender of offspring, fathers may be getting shortchanged.

Because mothers can influence their offspring in a number of ways, from copulation to birth, while fathers have control over sperm only, it has long been assumed mothers are more important. In mammals, it is also believed that offspring sex ratios can only be determined by the mother, since fathers have always been thought to inseminate an equal proportion of X and Y sperm, having a random effect on offspring sex that they could not shift from equality, or 50:50.
Brain-Computer Interface Turns Thoughts Into A Musical Score

Brain-Computer Interface Turns Thoughts Into A Musical Score

Sep 11 2017 | comment(s)

Brain-computer interfaces can replace bodily functions to a certain degree and now they can even compose music. At least in a sense.

Derived from an established brain-computer interface method which mainly serves to spell - more accurately - write, a team writing in PLOS One has shown how they developed a new application by which music can be composed just through the power of thought. All that is needed is a special cap which measures brain waves, composition software. Before you start to think you'll be the next Haydn, keep in mind it can't create musical knowledge.

NASA's NOT RISKY Plan - Drill Into BASE Of Yellowstone Magma Chamber - Generate Electricty - Stop Eruptions CENTURIES From Now

NASA's NOT RISKY Plan - Drill Into BASE Of Yellowstone Magma Chamber - Generate Electricty - Stop Eruptions CENTURIES From Now

Sep 11 2017 | comment(s)

This is a good example of a story that has morphed and changed as it gets passed from one paper to another. They all cite the same source, from the BBC but the reporters haven’t read the source. I think they just read each other. The science is actually rather interesting. But just about everything they say is the opposite of what the original story says. And actually the original paper suggests trying this at Long Valley in California rather than Yellowstone.

This is the original story on the BBC:

Gibbs, Voynich, Wikiwars and the Times Illiteracy Supplement

Gibbs, Voynich, Wikiwars and the Times Illiteracy Supplement

Sep 11 2017 | comment(s)

Gibbs, Voynich, Wikiwars and the Times Illiteracy Supplement

Declaration of interest: I have been an independent researcher of the Voynich Manuscript since it was made available on the web by the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library.  This article contains no sour grapes whatsoever, but you may wish to check at the foot of this web page.

The media has been all abuzz recently about how Nicholas Gibbs has solved the puzzle of the Voynich manuscript, according to the Times Literary Supplement.
On Turtles, Book Writing, And Overcommitments

On Turtles, Book Writing, And Overcommitments

Sep 09 2017 | comment(s)

Back from vacations, I think I need to report a few random things before I get back into physics blogging. So I'll peruse the science20 article category aptly called "Random Thoughts" for this one occasion.
My summer vacations took place just after a week spent in Ecuador, where I gave 6 hours of lectures on LHC physics and statistics for data analysis to astrophysics PhD students. I did report about that and an eventful hike in the last post. Unfortunately, the first week of my alleged rest was mostly spent fixing a few documents that the European Commission expected to receive by August 31st. As a coordinator of a training network, I have indeed certain obligations that I cannot escape. 
If Regular Farming Is Now

If Regular Farming Is Now "Factory" Style, Why Do Only 0.4% Of Farms Pay Estate Taxes?

Sep 08 2017 | comment(s)

The President has declared he is against the Estate tax, and he is not alone. For decades it has seemed punitive to levy a special tax on wealth people already paid taxes on just because the person who paid the taxes died. 

In North Dakota, President Trump said he would "protect small businesses and family farmers here in North Dakota and across the country by ending the death tax" and that would ease the "Tremendous burden for the family farmer, tremendous burden. We are not going to allow the death tax or the inheritance tax or the whatever-you-want-to-call-it to crush the American Dream.”
Hurricane Information Updates

Hurricane Information Updates

Sep 08 2017 | comment(s)

Hurricane Information Updates

A site which has been providing potentially life-saving updates about the hurricanes, Neven Curlin's Arctic Sea Ice Forum appears to have been hacked.  If so, it is an act of an evil mind.  The hack may cost lives.

[edit]

Neven's site is back up again.  For regular hurricane updates please go to -

Hurricane Season 2017

Until the site is up and running again I am inviting the contributors to the hurricane thread to post comments here.
BPA Exposure In Canada - How Low Can You Go?

BPA Exposure In Canada - How Low Can You Go?

Sep 06 2017 | comment(s)

A recent analysis of published data on human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA

In Early Stage Breast Cancer, Even Small Tumors Can Be Aggressive

In Early Stage Breast Cancer, Even Small Tumors Can Be Aggressive

Sep 05 2017 | comment(s)

Even small tumors can be aggressive, according to a study in patients with early stage breast cancer presented at the ESMO 2017 Congress in Madrid.  They found that nearly one in four small tumors were aggressive and patients benefited from chemotherapy. Aggressive tumors could be identified by a 70-gene signature.

Can JP Aerospace's Future Giant Airships Slowly Accelerate To Orbit? Looking At The Numbers

Can JP Aerospace's Future Giant Airships Slowly Accelerate To Orbit? Looking At The Numbers

Sep 01 2017 | comment(s)

Untitled Document

A while back I wrote my article "Can Giant Airships Slowly Accelerate to Orbit Over Several Days" . It lead to a lot of discussion and as usual whenever you discuss John Powell's ideas, there were physicists and aeroengineers saying it is impossible.

The 1970s GMO - Insulin

The 1970s GMO - Insulin

Aug 31 2017 | comment(s)

It may seem like olden days to millennials, but the late 1970s were a lot like today. America was divided due to an unpopular President, gas was expensive, the movie industry was at death's door ... and genetic engineering was a big concern.

Hurricane Harvey And The Risk To Criminal Evidence

Hurricane Harvey And The Risk To Criminal Evidence

Aug 31 2017 | comment(s)

The story that won't be told in the wake of Harvey's wrath is the incredible risk to the thousands upon thousands of items of physical evidence being stored in police departments and crime laboratories throughout Texas - especially in Houston.  Any damage to this evidence may derail the state's pursuit of justice. 
IAU Planet Definition Has

IAU Planet Definition Has "Use Before Date" - Within Decades - Let's Call Pluto, Ceres & Our Moon Planets Right Now!

Aug 31 2017 | comment(s)

Untitled Document

The IAU famously decided that Pluto is not a planet any more, calling it a "dwarf planet" instead, along with Ceres. However, their definition works as well as it does only because of a historical accident of our solar system and the bodies we have discovered in it so far. There are good reasons for thinking it has a "use before" date too, as we'll see.

Cold Houses Are Far More Likely To Kill Us Than Heat Waves

Cold Houses Are Far More Likely To Kill Us Than Heat Waves

Aug 30 2017 | comment(s)

A pervasive myth in Australia is that hot weather is the greatest danger to our health. In reality, it’s more likely cold weather will kill you.

For all our concern about the dangers of heatwaves, simple analysis of mortality data suggests the cold months present a much greater health risk. Almost 7% of deaths in Australia from 1988 to 2009 were attributable to cold weather. Less than 1% of deaths were attributable to heat.

The Myth Of The “Bee-pocalypse”

The Myth Of The “Bee-pocalypse”

Aug 30 2017 | comment(s)

Should we ban cars because of their potential to crash? Or stop selling painkillers in case someone takes too many? If we take the logic the EU applies to regulating pesticides, then the answer should be a resounding “yes”. Thankfully, EU lawmakers have looked at the weight of evidence and concluded the risk of driving cars and taking painkillers is acceptable – no ban needed.

Pesticides get different treatment though.

Take the class of insecticides so much in the news, neonicotinoids, that some have blamed for problems with bee health. Didn’t the European Union ban them claiming they were posing unacceptable risks to bees? Isn’t that case closed?
Debunked:The Planetary Protection Racket - Zubrin's Claim That There Is No Need To Protect Earth From Mars Microbes

Debunked:The Planetary Protection Racket - Zubrin's Claim That There Is No Need To Protect Earth From Mars Microbes

Aug 28 2017 | comment(s)

This is an article by the space engineer and Mars colonization enthusiast Robert Zubrin, The Planetary Protection Racket claiming that we don’t need to protect Earth from Mars microbes or Mars from Earth microbes. This is not the first time he has said controversial things like this, and they are not taken seriously by the planetary protection experts. Let’s go back to summer 2000, when he put forward similarly forceful arguments in print that there is no need to protect Earth from Mars microbes

This is what he wrote back then:

Patterns of Latin in the Voynich Manuscript

Patterns of Latin in the Voynich Manuscript

Aug 28 2017 | comment(s)

Patterns of Latin in the Voynich Manuscript

The Voynich manuscript, more properly identified as Beinecke MS 408, has been a puzzle to many researchers for a few hundred years.  The first evidence of attempts to understand it consists of letters between owners and decryption experts.  There have been very many efforts made by linguists and cryptographers since the manuscript was brought to public attention in 1912.