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Blowing Hot Air: The Methane Hydrate Delusion

Blowing Hot Air: The Methane Hydrate Delusion

May 10 2012 | comment(s)

Last week, word came from Prudhoe Bay that sent chills through me as surely as if I’d been standing in the Alaskan North Slope drilling outpost myself. The United States Department of Energy – in collaboration with energy giant ConocoPhillips and the Japanese nationalized minerals corporation – reported success from a month-long test extraction of methane gas tucked into an icy lattice below the permafrost.
Tycho Supernova Remnant 55 Light Years Wide

Tycho Supernova Remnant 55 Light Years Wide

May 10 2012 | comment(s)

Type Ia supernovae are important for measuring the universe because they're bright enough to be seen across large distances and similar enough to be a reference, an an object of known luminosity - but astronomers still don't know what star systems make Type Ia supernovae.

Two very different models might explain the possible origin of Type Ia supernovae and different studies support each model. Some new evidence says both models are correct because some supernovae are produced one way and some the other.
Marcellus Shale Fracking Wastewater Harmful

Marcellus Shale Fracking Wastewater Harmful

May 09 2012 | comment(s)

A new paper by Natural Resources Defense Council says hydraulic fracturing (fracking) generates massive amounts of polluted wastewater in in the Marcellus Shale that threatens the health of drinking water supplies, rivers, streams, and groundwater - and that federal and state regulations have not kept pace with the dramatic growth of fracking and must be strengthened to reduce the risks of health issues throughout the Marcellus region.
Physics is hard. No Duh?

Physics is hard. No Duh?

May 09 2012 | comment(s)

It seems that one Toby Cubitt,  a quantum physicist, has done research which proves mathematically that physics is hard.  Well no duh.  Physics is the subject sane people avoid in college.  Compare the conceptual complexity of Louis DeBroglie's work on the wave nature of "solid" material particles to a study of Dr. Shaquille O'Neal Ed.D. on how bosses use humor in the workplace.  
Traumatic Insemination - How Bugs Get Over It

Traumatic Insemination - How Bugs Get Over It

May 09 2012 | comment(s)

If bugs have their own Tori Amos, she is likely writing about sexual conflict and how reproduction exists at all given that it can be so costly, especially to females. One aspect of this conflict concerns how females respond to increased mating events that are of more benefit to males than to themselves. 

New work discusses how some males, instead of mating conventionally, take the awkward step of piercing and penetrating their mate through her body wall. This mating behavior is known as traumatic insemination and it potentially comes at a great physiological cost to the female.
How Handedness Happens

How Handedness Happens

May 09 2012 | comment(s)

Many proteins and other functional molecules in our bodies display a striking characteristic: They can exist in two distinct forms that are mirror images of each other, chirality or "handedness", like your right hand and left hand, and each of our bodies prefers only one of these molecular forms. 

Researchers have been exploring how and why chirality arises, and new findings on the physical origins of the phenomenon were published in Nature Communications. 
Pentamode Metamaterials - Metafluids For Transformation Acoustics

Pentamode Metamaterials - Metafluids For Transformation Acoustics

May 09 2012 | comment(s)

Pentamodes, proposed in 1995 by Graeme Milton and Andrej Cherkaev, have been purely theoretical but three-dimensional transformation acoustics ideas, for example inaudibility cloaks, acoustic prisms or new loudspeakers, could become reality in the near future.

The mechanical behavior of materials like water (or even gold) is expressed in terms of compression and shear parameters. For examples, water as an incompressible fluid that can barely be compressed in a cylinder is described through the compression parameter, but that it can be stirred in all directions using a spoon is expressed through the shear parameters.
Solid-State Laser Weapons - Because America Is Not Far Enough Ahead Of The Rest Of The World

Solid-State Laser Weapons - Because America Is Not Far Enough Ahead Of The Rest Of The World

May 09 2012 | comment(s)

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) wants to develop a solid-state laser weapon prototype that will demonstrate multi-mission capabilities aboard a Navy ship, officials announced May 8.

In case you were worried that America was only 25 years ahead of the rest of the world in military capability, this is good news.

The proposed solid-state laser weapon would help sailors defeat small boat threats and aerial targets without using bullets. So, people who hate bullets will be thrilled.

ONR will host an industry day May 16 to provide the research and development community with information about the program. A Broad Agency Announcement is expected to be released thereafter to solicit proposals and bids.
What Poor Africans Need: Anti-Malaria Fashion

What Poor Africans Need: Anti-Malaria Fashion

May 09 2012 | comment(s)

Poor people in developing nations have been caught in a cultural tug-of-war over how to best keep them from dying of Malaria.  What they need to break the impasse between anti-science acolytes who think "Silent Spring" had any science in it and corporate chemical manufacturers is...a fashion show.

Frederick Ochanda, postdoctoral associate in Cornell's Department of Fiber Science&Apparel Design and a native of Kenya, teamed up with Matilda Ceesay, a Cornell apparel design undergraduate from Gambia, to create a hooded bodysuit embedded at the molecular level with insecticides for warding off mosquitoes infected with malaria, a disease estimated to kill 655,000 people annually on the continent.
Teenager Invents Anti-Aging, Disease-Fighting Compound Using Tree Nanoparticles

Teenager Invents Anti-Aging, Disease-Fighting Compound Using Tree Nanoparticles

May 09 2012 | comment(s)

Here's a pretty good kickstart for a science resume; inventing a disease-fighting, anti-aging compound using nano-particles from trees at age 16.
Sports Leads To Advanced Civilization

Sports Leads To Advanced Civilization

May 09 2012 | comment(s)

The so-called 'reality-based community' hates popular culture, unless they like it ironically. Sports most of all.

But, argues George Washington University Professor of Anthropology Jeffrey P. Blomster, the ballgame is associated with the rise of complex societies, so understanding its origins also illuminates the evolution of socio-politically complex societies.
The Little Petition That Could: Stop the Judge Rotenberg Center from Shocking Clients

The Little Petition That Could: Stop the Judge Rotenberg Center from Shocking Clients

May 08 2012 | comment(s)

How do you effect change, change that's big, change that's lasting? Can you, can one person, have that kind of impact? I remember arguing adamantly with my grandfather nearly 24 years ago that one person can change the world. We argued back and forth for a good long while, my grandfather getting more agitated but also more resolute that one person couldn't make any difference at all. "Jesus Christ!" I yelled at him, frustrated but not taking the Lord's name in vain. One man made all the difference. One man's followers changed the world. My grandfather wasn't having any of it. Lincoln. Surely, he would concede that Lincoln freeing the slaves, waging the civil war made a difference? John Wilkes Booth made a difference, as well, changed the course of the nation, possibly.
Delayed Sexual Maturity Linked To Longevity In Females

Delayed Sexual Maturity Linked To Longevity In Females

May 08 2012 | comment(s)

The sexual maturation of female mice has been linked to longevity by researchers. 

They had previously established that mouse strains with lower circulating levels of the hormone IGF1 at age six months live longer than other strains. In new work, scientists report that females from strains with lower IGF1 levels also reach sexual maturity at a significantly later age. 

The researchers conclude that IGF1 may co-regulate female sexual maturation and longevity. They showed that mouse strains derived from wild populations carry specific gene variants that delay sexual maturation, and they identified a candidate gene, Nrip1, involved in regulating sexual maturation that may also affect longevity by controlling IGF1 levels.
Are Jews A 'Race'? Can DNA Explain High Jewish IQ?

Are Jews A 'Race'? Can DNA Explain High Jewish IQ?

May 08 2012 | comment(s)

Are modern Jews a ‘race’—the descendants of an ancient tribal people, as Biblical lore has it? Or do they trace their ancestry to Eurasia as Shlomo Sand, author of The Invention of the Jewish People, and Arthur Koestler in The Thirteenth Tribe, claim?

The latest DNA research offers extraordinary insights into the origins of the Jewish people and its impact on each of us. I addressed this controversy a few years ago in my book, Abraham’s Children: Race, Identity and the DNA of the Chosen People.
Orbital Debris And Space Weather?

Orbital Debris And Space Weather?

May 08 2012 | comment(s)

I've some background in space weather-- the influence of solar activity on Earth and near-Earth orbits.  My new job as a professor at Capitol College has brought me into contact with several bright students working on using picosatellites to test our orbital debris removal concepts.  Further, the number of other groups doing balloon and picosatellite work is increasing (yay!)  So it's time to update this column more frequently with not only my progress, but stories of other pico teams.
Hawaiian Island Beaches Eroding

Hawaiian Island Beaches Eroding

May 08 2012 | comment(s)

Over the past century, 70 percent of beaches on the islands of Kaua'i, O'ahu, and Maui have had long-term erosion, according to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and University of Hawai'i (UH) report released today.

They studied more than 150 miles of island coastline (essentially every beach) and found the average rate of coastal change – taking into account beaches that are both eroding and accreting – was 0.4 feet of erosion per year from the early 1900s to 2000s. Of those beaches eroding, the most extreme case was nearly 6 feet per year near Kualoa Point, East O'ahu.
Frictionless Sharing And The Perils Of Social Reading

Frictionless Sharing And The Perils Of Social Reading

May 08 2012 | comment(s)

You're in luck. To the consternation of advertisers, we gather almost no information about you so if you are concerned about outsiders learning a lot about you from your visit to this article, fear not.  If we were that clever, this site would make a lot of money.

What Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls “frictionless sharing” - like sharing music and book choices with the Internet - isn’t really frictionless – it forces on us the new frictions of worrying who knows what we’re reading and what our privacy settings are wherever and however we read electronically. It’s also not really sharing; real sharing is conscious sharing, a recommendation to read or not to read something rather than a data exhaust pipe of mental activity. 
GR versus QFT, Discuss

GR versus QFT, Discuss

May 08 2012 | comment(s)

Since 1930, efforts have been made to get our best theory for gravity - general relativity (GR) - to work with our best theory for atoms - quantum field theory (QFT) in the forms quantum electrodynamics (QED) and quantum chromodynamics (QCD).  In this comparatively short blog, I will frame the struggle and let people provide their own speculations in the comments (mine will reside there too, so it will be easy to skip if you would like :-)


Consider three physicists: Feynman, Weinberg, and Hawking.
Margination Gets The Integrated Circuit Treatment To Fix Sepsis

Margination Gets The Integrated Circuit Treatment To Fix Sepsis

May 08 2012 | comment(s)

Integrated circuit techniques can do just about anything - perhaps even help cure sepsis.

Margination is natural phenomenon where bacteria and leukocytes (white blood cells) move toward the sides of blood vessels. Now it's the inspiration for a novel method of treating sepsis, a systemic and often dangerous inflammatory response to microbial infection in the blood.
Do herbal drugs harm human health ?

Do herbal drugs harm human health ?

May 07 2012 | comment(s)

News papers don’t stop reporting anyone get side effects of herbal drugs or side effects of taking uncontrolled amount of herbal drug. Allopathic drugs also harm or give reactions sometime but I have not seen any adverse report on allopathic drugs. The question is do herbal drugs harm. My simple question is do fruits and vegetables harm human body ? There was report in Hindustan Times about someone developing higher rate of palpitation by taking excessive cups of green tea. There was some report of side effects of taking excess of fenugreek. Put simple logic how much salad do we eat each day or how much fruits we eat each day. Almost all plants form some kind of medicine for good health. The question is what we eat in what manner and with what ailments.