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Zapping Antihydrogen To Get An Anti-Atomic Fingerprint

Zapping Antihydrogen To Get An Anti-Atomic Fingerprint

Mar 08 2012 | comment(s)

The elusive antihydrogen atom has been manipulated using microwaves, providing the first glimpse of an "anti-atomic fingerprint." 

Antimatter is a staple of science fiction, but it also stands out as one of the biggest mysteries of science fact. Fundamental theories predict perfect symmetry between matter and antimatter, but the glaring absence of antimatter in our universe suggests there might be a difference. Enter microwave spectroscopy, one of the most sensitive techniques for probing the structure of atoms.

Moving Targets: DARPA Space Capture Satellite Challenge Opens

Moving Targets: DARPA Space Capture Satellite Challenge Opens

Mar 08 2012 | comment(s)

The absence of gravity presents a significant challenge for precision robotic maneuvering and operations in space.Overcoming some of that challenge may be possible through the development of computer algorithms to simultaneously compensate for this limitation while directing precision operations.

Synthetic Caffeine? A New Marketing Gimmick For Organic Food

Synthetic Caffeine? A New Marketing Gimmick For Organic Food

Mar 08 2012 | comment(s)

If you're an anti-science hippie obsessed with the notion that 'natural' is always superior to whatever 'inorganic' means to people who know nothing about science or medicine or food or generally what carbon-based life means, I have good news for you; you may soon be able to determine if that caffeine in your Organic, Free-Range Red Bull is really natural.

What? Organic, Free-Range Red Bull doesn't exist?  Well, it should. Farmer's Market shoppers will dutifully line up for that, I can just feel it.
Experimental Biology 2012 Meetings In April

Experimental Biology 2012 Meetings In April

Mar 08 2012 | comment(s)

Six scientific societies will hold their joint scientific sessions and annual meetings, known as Experimental Biology (EB), from April 21-25, 2012, in San Diego. This meeting, EB 2012, brings together the leading researchers from dozens of life-science disciplines.

The Genome Question - What Do We Have In Common With A Gorilla?

The Genome Question - What Do We Have In Common With A Gorilla?

Mar 08 2012 | comment(s)

Researchers have completed the genome sequence for the gorilla, the last genus of the living great apes to have its genome decoded. The results confirm that our closest relative is the chimpanzee but much of the human genome more closely resembles the gorilla than it does the chimpanzee genome.

For the first time, scientists can compare the genomes of all four living great apes: humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. This provides a unique perspective on our own origins and is an important resource for research into human evolution and biology, as well as for gorilla biology and conservation.  

Biofuels : Jatropha curcas in retrospect and prospect

Biofuels : Jatropha curcas in retrospect and prospect

Mar 08 2012 | comment(s)

• Climate change is any long-term significant change in average temperature, precipitation and wind patterns. Climate change takes place due to emissions of greenhouse gases which causes environmental damage to any given area. .Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gas and increasing the use of biomass for energy is an important option for reducing CO2 emissions. Photosynthetic organisms use solar energy to generate reducing equivalents and incorporate atmospheric CO2 into organic molecules. This helps in carbon sequestration. First generation biofuels - ethanol and biodiesel are predominantly produced from corn kernels, sugarcane or soybean oil rape seed oil, palm oil etc.
Simple Stats Let You Win More Than You Lose When Playing The Lottery

Simple Stats Let You Win More Than You Lose When Playing The Lottery

Mar 07 2012 | comment(s)

So goes popular opinion: the lottery’s an egregious societal evil implemented and overseen by shape-shifting, blood-drinking reptilian aliens. And that may be largely true – designed to slowly and quietly bleed dry your pockets – that is, unless you learn to drive it.

Assuming drawings actually are random, all the science in the world can’t help you pick the winning numbers. But some fiendishly simple stats can make the dollar you put down likely to win back that dollar and more.

Ahhh! Run, Little Squid!

Ahhh! Run, Little Squid!

Mar 07 2012 | comment(s)

The Telegraph's first picture of the day is a terrifying action shot of a huge dolphin's toothy maw, about to chomp down on a sweet little red squid. Go look at it! Right now! But it's not my fault if you get nightmares. 
Dolphins are so scary.

(As this picture was shot in the Bahamas, the squid is most likely a Caribbean Reef Squid.)
Forensic Astronomy - Maybe The Moon Sank The Titanic

Forensic Astronomy - Maybe The Moon Sank The Titanic

Mar 07 2012 | comment(s)

With the hundredth anniversary of the maiden voyage, and subsequent sinking, of the RMS Titanic (covering April 14th-April 15th, 2012) fast approaching, you probably expect someone in the world of 2012 to implicate global warming.

Donald Olson, a physics professor at Texas State University, has a more interesting idea. Along with fellow TSU member Russell Doescher and Roger Sinnott they lay out the hypothesis in Sky&Telescope that the Moon was involved. And the Sun too.
Biodegradable Transistors Are Made From...You

Biodegradable Transistors Are Made From...You

Mar 07 2012 | comment(s)

The basis of the computing revolution is silicon but that popularity has led to e-waste.  We are okay with iPads being made in Chinese child labor sweat shops but we don't want to damage American landfills after we replace them.

A team from Tel Aviv University may have a solution; biodegradable transistors that are protein-based, essentially composed of organic materials found in...you.
Measuring Leg-Length Attractiveness (Using Stick Figures)

Measuring Leg-Length Attractiveness (Using Stick Figures)

Mar 07 2012 | comment(s)

“In Western culture there are countless examples of reference to female legs as a factor in sexual attraction”.

Tevatron Higgs Results Confirm LHC Signal!

Tevatron Higgs Results Confirm LHC Signal!

Mar 07 2012 | comment(s)

2.2 standard deviations. That is what the combination of CDF and DZERO searches for the Higgs boson yield, according to a release of the interactions news wire.

The talks on Higgs searches are scheduled for this morning at the Moriond Electroweak conference in La Thuile, a nice ski resort in the Italian alps.

The money plot is the one below, which shows the upper limit on the Higgs boson production rate, in units of the Standard Model expectation (y=1 on the vertical axis corresponds to the SM Higgs production rate, for the particular mass identified by the abscissa in the graph).


Want To Become A Pirate? Go To MIT

Want To Become A Pirate? Go To MIT

Mar 07 2012 | comment(s)

With the tantalizing possibility of guaranteed, unlimited student loans the past 20 years, colleges have gotten silly about some of the options they offer - Columbia'a $89,000, two-year Environmental Journalism program comes to mind - but MIT at least has one that sounds cool: piracy.
Unofficially, for at least 20 years any MIT student who completes courses in pistol, archery, sailing, and fencing is considered a pirate. More recently it became official. 
Requiem for Humanity — Prolog

Requiem for Humanity — Prolog

Mar 06 2012 | comment(s)

Introduction
Pten Lets Mice Eat Anything And Remain Cancer Free

Pten Lets Mice Eat Anything And Remain Cancer Free

Mar 06 2012 | comment(s)

Utopia is a perfect world where we can eat to our heart's content without without getting heart disease or diabetes or even cancer.  In mice, Utopia may be coming closer. Mice with an extra dose of a known anti-cancer gene called Pten lose weight even as their appetites grow. They also live longer - but not just because they aren't getting cancer.

One of the animals' youthful secrets is hyperactive brown fat, which burns energy instead of storing it. The findings add to evidence that tumor suppressors aren't designed only to protect us against cancer, the researchers say. They also point to new treatment strategies aimed to boost brown fat and fight aging.
How to win hearts (votes) and approval in democracy ?

How to win hearts (votes) and approval in democracy ?

Mar 06 2012 | comment(s)

If scientists could develop modelling system to predict the yield of a crop in particular area and time by calculating parameters of soil moisture, soil pH, rainfall, temperature range etc there should be some psychological method to gauze the mind of a voter or how to win heart of a voter in a democratic system by permissible means ? Perhaps its too early to suggest this but sooner or later this is going to happen that science will be able to read mind of person opposite to you.
Shale Gas Faux Danger

Shale Gas Faux Danger

Mar 06 2012 | comment(s)

One of our popular topics last year was earthquakes.  That makes sense, with the earthquake in Japan.  It's not like there was some greater instance of earthquakes but if you are a Doomsday fearmonger, any event is a good event; that means anti-science activists determined to send us back to the 13th century looked for ways to make earthquakes result from fracking.

If you dispute that, you get meaningless gibberish responses like 'you can't prove the earthquakes did not come from fracking', which is true, in the same way you can't prove I am not the disembodied brain of Adolf Hitler writing this piece from my Antarctic Fortress where I am plotting the Fourth Reich - but it's sort of silly to live your life believing it.
Bs To μμ: LHCb Getting There!

Bs To μμ: LHCb Getting There!

Mar 06 2012 | comment(s)

The Moriond EWK conference is in full swing and results are being shown of the recent new searches for rare decays of the Bs meson. The Bs is a hadron made up by a bottom quark and a (anti)strange one. The peculiar composition of this particle and its zero electric charge make it a very interesting probe of new physics in its decays: new physics processes might give a sizable contribution to the rate of decays yielding pairs of muons, which are both very rare in the standard model, and very easy to identify in the detector.
Snark Attack Avoided with Answers

Snark Attack Avoided with Answers

Mar 06 2012 | comment(s)

Jan. 23, Slit Experiments and Coherence Patterns
Snarky Puzzle
The coherent source is often modeled as a plane wave. Write the quaternion valued plane wave like so:

where
A0 is the amplitude
omega is an angular frequency
k is a wave vector