Featured Articles

The Physics Of Resurrection

The Physics Of Resurrection

Mar 05 2013 | comment(s)

Understanding and explaining how the Universe works has always been a ultimate goal for mankind. It is impossible to live our conscious existence without asking ourselves whether there is a meaning, a design, or if our existence is just the result of chance; and to avoid asking ourselves what happens after we die, if we will live again, and similar questions. Accepting our mortality is really hard without embracing a potential explanation, a hope, or some kind of faith.
Species Size Follows A Universal Distribution?

Species Size Follows A Universal Distribution?

Mar 05 2013 | comment(s)

A new paper says that flocks of birds, schools of fish, and groups of any other living organisms might have a mathematical function in common - body sizes are distributed according to the same mathematical expression, where the only unknown is the average size of the species in an ecosystem. 

Consciousness: How The Brain Loses And Regains It

Consciousness: How The Brain Loses And Regains It

Mar 05 2013 | comment(s)

Doctors have used drugs to induce general anesthesia in patients undergoing surgery since a medical doctor became a legitimate profession in the mid-1800s.  But little has been known about how these drugs create such a profound loss of consciousness. We don't understand why aspirin works either, but it does.  Yet the search for answers about the brain is ongoing. 

Central Fatigue: Why The Brains Of Athletes Give Out Before The Bodies Do

Central Fatigue: Why The Brains Of Athletes Give Out Before The Bodies Do

Mar 05 2013 | comment(s)

When a marathon runner approaches the finish line of race but suddenly collapses, it's reasonable to assume it is because of a muscle issue. It might also be a braking mechanism in the brain which swings into effect and makes us people tired to continue. What may be occurring is what is referred to as 'central fatigue'.

Survey : Public Supports Government Action On Obese People

Survey : Public Supports Government Action On Obese People

Mar 05 2013 | comment(s)

A survey analysis finds both that the public is supportive of government action to curb obesity, diabetes, and other noncommunicable diseases - but don't like interventions that appear intrusive or coercive.

The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) analysis also found that support was higher for interventions that help people make more healthful choices, such as menu labeling requirements, than for interventions that penalize certain choices or health conditions, such as charging higher insurance premiums for obese individuals.

Lymphoid Cells Benefit: Eating Leafy Vegetables Now Has A New Science Basis

Lymphoid Cells Benefit: Eating Leafy Vegetables Now Has A New Science Basis

Mar 04 2013 | comment(s)

If your children stump you with 'cite your data' claims on why they need to eat leafy green vegetables, even though we got to the top of the food chain so we wouldn't have to do that, here is good news; a new study found that that an immune cell population essential for intestinal health could be controlled by leafy greens in your diet.

The Plot Of The Week - Higgs Windows Of Opportunity

The Plot Of The Week - Higgs Windows Of Opportunity

Mar 04 2013 | comment(s)

Last week a new important paper appeared in the Arxiv: "MSSM Higgs Boson Searches at the LHC:Benchmark Scenarios after the Discovery of a Higgs-like Particle", by M.Carena, S.Heinemeyer, O. Stal, C.Wagner, and G.Weiglein. The paper fills a void that was created after the discovery of the Higgs particle last July by the ATLAS and CMS experiments: a thorough assessment of what constraints on the allowed chunks of SUSY parameter space in the light of the existence of a neutral scalar at 125 GeV.
Math Puzzle Column On Science 2.0

Math Puzzle Column On Science 2.0

Mar 04 2013 | comment(s)

Richard Mankiewicz, our man in Bangkok, also known as Red Man (see his profile – no no, not because of Bangkok’s red light district - that would be Stickman, not Red Man!) has started a Math Puzzle Column on Science2.0, first entry: Circles Stuck in a Triangle.

Cosmology in context: A summary of big bang, inflationary cosmology.

Cosmology in context: A summary of big bang, inflationary cosmology.

Mar 03 2013 | comment(s)

The technical details of Big Bang, inflationary cosmology, and selected alternative theories are on offer.  Popular accounts of the big bang theory, cosmic inflation, and the creation of the universe often leave out details a consumer of science would like to know.  Scholarly monographs published the old fashioned way can cost hundreds of dollars per copy, and too often are locked away in university libraries.  For general public availability, I present my monograph on the cosmology of the early universe.


Anything At All Concerning About Brain Mapping?

Anything At All Concerning About Brain Mapping?

Mar 03 2013 | comment(s)

In President Obama's most recent State of the Union address, he mentioned neuroscience three times. One was a stated commitment to ensure top-quality mental healthcare for returning soldiers. One was the reference to the effect of early education on child learning and performance (I know it's a stretch, but I'm counting it. They aren't learning with their livers.) And third was a reference to brain mapping that could "unlock the answers to Alzheimer’s". A short time later, the President proposed a new, ambitious federal Brain Activity Map project. You may question many of the President's positions, but he's clearly pro-brain, and that's good.
Saturday in Space: Stellar Gas

Saturday in Space: Stellar Gas

Mar 02 2013 | comment(s)

Gas looks so pretty in space, don't you agree?
The Downside To Cap-And-Trade For Carbon

The Downside To Cap-And-Trade For Carbon

Mar 02 2013 | comment(s)

The problem with the cap-and-trade schemes advocated by economists who know how to do a Monte Carlo analysis just well enough to be wrong is that the real world never matches up.

Europeans, who boldly venture into every anti-science idea that more reasonable regions avoid, is now scrambling not to kill its economy even more due to its mandated cap-and-trade program.
On The Causal Completeness Of Physics, Part I

On The Causal Completeness Of Physics, Part I

Mar 02 2013 | comment(s)

As readers of this blog know, I am not sympathetic to extreme reductionism, and reject both it and determinism in favor of a robust concept of emergence.
Circles Stuck in a Triangle

Circles Stuck in a Triangle

Mar 02 2013 | comment(s)

I would like to start a new column of mathematical puzzles. Scientific American has one; New Scientist has one; so I hope Science 2.0 will be happy to host one!

Preamble over, here's your "started for 10".



The diagram shows five circles, each with integer radius, all touching the base of the large triangle. The four smaller circles all touch their two neighbouring circles, with the large circle touching all four. The two sides of the triangle each touch two of the circles.

Let the radii of the circles be a, b and c, such that a > b > c.
Activists Cheer American Nuclear Power Exit - While They Ignore Climate Change

Activists Cheer American Nuclear Power Exit - While They Ignore Climate Change

Mar 02 2013 | comment(s)

Though staunchly opposed to nuclear power in some respects, like the controversial decision to scuttle the Yucca Mountain project, the Obama administration said in 2012 that it was "jumpstarting" the nuclear industry.

When It Comes To Cancer Survival, Quality Still Matters

When It Comes To Cancer Survival, Quality Still Matters

Mar 02 2013 | comment(s)

While America moves toward an egalitarian approach to medical care, another study has found that the quality of cares matters in things like advanced head and neck cancers.

The paper in Cancer says that patients who were treated at hospitals that saw a high number of head and neck cancers were 15 percent less likely to die of their disease as compared to patients who were treated at hospitals that saw a relatively low number. The study also found that such patients were 12 percent less likely to die of their disease when treated at a National Cancer Institute -designated cancer center.
 

Found: Lost, Ancient Continent Under The Indian Ocean

Found: Lost, Ancient Continent Under The Indian Ocean

Mar 01 2013 | comment(s)

There is evidence of an ancient micro-continent buried beneath the Indian Ocean. The ancient continent is a thousand miles in length and extends from the Seychelles to the island of Mauritius. It contains rocks up to 2 billion years old - much older than the Indian Ocean itself, which has formed only in the last 165 million years. 

The research team believe that this micro-continent, which they have named Mauritia, was split off from Madagascar and India between 61 and 83 million years ago as one single land mass rifted apart to form the continents around the Indian Ocean that we know today.

Much of it was then smothered by thick lava deposits as a result of volcanic activity and submerged beneath the waves.

Why Didn't Global Warming Make The Globe Warmer? Volcanic Aerosols, Says Study

Why Didn't Global Warming Make The Globe Warmer? Volcanic Aerosols, Says Study

Mar 01 2013 | comment(s)

Why didn't the Earth warm as much as estimates and numerical models projected would happen between 2000 and 2010? A new paper says now thinks the culprits are hiding in plain sight; they are dozens of volcanoes spewing sulfur dioxide. 

Pregnancy Really Does Change Foot Size

Pregnancy Really Does Change Foot Size

Mar 01 2013 | comment(s)

Pregnant women have long said that being pregnant changes their foot size - a new confirms that but also found that the size and shape change is permanent.

Flat feet are a common problem for pregnant women. The arch of the foot flattens out, possibly due to the extra weight and increased looseness (laxity) of the joints associated with pregnancy. A new paper in the American Journal of Physical Medicine&Rehabilitation suggests that this loss of arch height is permanent.

A Third Van Allen Radiation Belt Discovered Circling Earth

A Third Van Allen Radiation Belt Discovered Circling Earth

Mar 01 2013 | comment(s)

Earth's radiation belts, called Van Allen belts, were discovered after the very first launches of satellites in 1958 by James Van Allen. Subsequent missions have observed parts of the belts but what causes such dynamic variation in the belts has remained something of a mystery. Seemingly similar storms from the sun have at times caused completely different effects in the belts, or have sometimes led to no change at all.