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By Coupling Photons To Atoms In Glass Fiber, Time Is Stopped

By Coupling Photons To Atoms In Glass Fiber, Time Is Stopped

Apr 08 2015 | comment(s)

Light is a useful tool for quantum communication, but it has one major disadvantage - it travels at the speed of light and sometimes things need to be kept in place, or at least slowed down.

Like with trains all sharing a track, you can't have one express line with no brakes for very long. 

A team researchers has demonstrated they can put the brakes on light, and not in some arcane quantum system but rather in glass fiber networks we are already using today. By coupling atoms to glass fibers light was slowed down to train speed - 90 miles per hour - and they even managed to bring the light to a complete stop and to retrieve it again later.
Muscle Performance And High Altitude Adaptation In Highland Mice

Muscle Performance And High Altitude Adaptation In Highland Mice

Apr 08 2015 | comment(s)

Life has adapted to all sorts of extreme environments on Earth, among them, animals like the deer mouse, shimmying and shivering about, and having to squeeze enough energy from the cold, thin air to fuel their bodies and survive.

In a new paper, Scott, Cheviron et al., have examined the underlying muscle physiology from a group of highland and lowland deer mice. Peromyscus maniculatus - deer mice - were chosen because they exhibit the most extreme altitude range of any North American mammal, occurring below sea levels in Death Valley to more than 4,300 meters high in the mountains. 

Parkinson's Disease Halted By Neurons Derived From Stem Cells Treated With A Stomach Cancer Drug

Parkinson's Disease Halted By Neurons Derived From Stem Cells Treated With A Stomach Cancer Drug

Apr 08 2015 | comment(s)

Researchers have taken a step toward using the implantation of stem cell-generated neurons as a treatment for Parkinson's disease.

 Parkinson's, which affect as many 10 million people in the world, is linked to a depletion of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. Current treatments include medications and electrical implants in the brain which cause severe adverse effects over time and fail to prevent disease progression. Several studies have indicated that the transplantation of embryonic stem cells improves motor functions in animal models but the procedure has shown to be unsafe, because of the risk of tumors upon transplantation. 

Goodbye A. Excelsus, Hello Again Brontosaurus?

Goodbye A. Excelsus, Hello Again Brontosaurus?

Apr 08 2015 | comment(s)


A new analysis of the long-necked dinosaur family tree says Apatosaurus excelsus is oh so wrong and Brontosaurus is oh so right.

Just like a hundred plus years ago.
How Do We Solve Science's Credibility Problem?

How Do We Solve Science's Credibility Problem?

Apr 08 2015 | comment(s)

Science is considered a source of truth and the importance of its role in shaping modern society cannot be overstated. But in recent years science has entered a crisis of trust.

The results of many scientific experiments appear to be surprisingly hard to reproduce, while mistakes have highlighted flaws in the peer review system. This has hit scientific credibility and prompted researchers to create new measures in order to maintain the quality of academic research and its findings.

The Season Of Muons

The Season Of Muons

Apr 08 2015 | comment(s)

Particle physics is so cool - you get to build huge detectors with a specific goal clearly stated in your letter of intents and technical proposals, but are then allowed to use them to study many other things.
Plowing Prairies For Grains: Biofuel Crops Replace Grasslands Nationwide

Plowing Prairies For Grains: Biofuel Crops Replace Grasslands Nationwide

Apr 08 2015 | comment(s)

Clearing grasslands to make way for biofuels may seem counterproductive, but University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers show in a study today (April 2, 2015) that crops, including the corn and soy commonly used for biofuels, expanded onto 7 million acres of new land in the U.S. over a recent four-year period, replacing millions of acres of grasslands.

WHO Sodium, Potassium Guidelines Are Unrealistic

WHO Sodium, Potassium Guidelines Are Unrealistic

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)

Is there any point to the World Health Organization (WHO) making a recommendation that 3 people out of 1,000 can achieve? If not, Americans won't take WHO seriously, and the British respect those guidelines even less. Only 1 in 1,000 in the UK can meet WHO's targets for potassium and sodium.

The World Health Organization recommends we consume no more than 2,000 mg of sodium a day - less than a teaspoon of salt - supposedly because of studies showing it impacts heart disease and stroke. And they recommend at least 3,510 mg of potassium daily, again to lower our odds of heart disease and stroke.
Flakka - Chemical Cousin Of Bath Salts Is Legal, Cheap And Dangerous

Flakka - Chemical Cousin Of Bath Salts Is Legal, Cheap And Dangerous

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)


Flakka - "gravel" - is all the rage with amateur druggies in Florida and Texas and wherever else people who have watched a lot of "Breaking Bad" do home chemistry. It is made from alpha-PVP, which is a chemical cousin of cathinone, found in bath salts.
Single Women Seeking Donor Semen Are Not Less Suited To Motherhood

Single Women Seeking Donor Semen Are Not Less Suited To Motherhood

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)


A new study of 311 childless Danish women initiating assisted reproduction using donor semen finds that single women seeking treatment are no different than cohabiting women seeking treatment when it comes to sociodemographic characteristics or attitudes toward motherhood

The authors used baseline data collection in a multicenter cohort study from alll nine public fertility clinics in Denmark to examine sociodemographic characteristics, family backgrounds, reproductive histories, and attitudes towards motherhood in single vs. cohabiting women seeking treatment with donor semen. 
Blood Pressure Directly Linked To Relationship Quality

Blood Pressure Directly Linked To Relationship Quality

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)


If you ever thought your spouse makes your blood pressure go up, you now have a study to show it.

Sociological and epidemiological papers have long linked stress and negative marital quality to changes in mortality and blood pressure but there has not been much to show how those correlate to married couples over time. Using systolic blood pressure as a gauge, researchers assessed whether an individual’s blood pressure is influenced by their own as well as their partner’s reports of chronic stress and whether there are gender differences in these patterns.
Suicides Under-Reported In Western Countries - And That Has Consequences

Suicides Under-Reported In Western Countries - And That Has Consequences

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)


Japan is famous for committing suicide - as many people kill themselves using rope as Americans, with a much larger population, do with guns - but they may have more accurate numbers than western countries, according to a new paper. 

In western countries, suicide or accident is determined by a coroner. When it's a drug overdose versus a suicide is subjective, only guns are sure to be consistently implicated in a suicide, because gun control is part of a control war, where no one is quite sure what to make of drugs.
Adolescent Eating Disorders Correlated To Socioeconomic Consequences

Adolescent Eating Disorders Correlated To Socioeconomic Consequences

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)

A new paper links eating disorders in adolescent females with lower levels of educational attainment and personal income in early adulthood. They were also less likely to own a home.
Sarcopenia: Creating Diagnostic Criteria For Age-Related Muscle Loss

Sarcopenia: Creating Diagnostic Criteria For Age-Related Muscle Loss

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)

Osteoporosis is a medical condition characterized by bones becoming brittle and fragile. Age-related loss in muscle mass and strength is considered analogous to osteoporosis but this “sarcopenia” is not recognized as a clinical condition even though it is linked to impaired physical function and contribute to disability, falls, and hospitalizations. Lower muscle mass and strength are also associated with lower bone mineral density and greater risk for osteoporotic fractures.

Why isn't sarcopenia more accepted? No valid diagnostic criteria whereas osteoporosis can be diagnosed based on widely accepted clinical standards.
We Can Fix The Great Barrier Reef - Here's How

We Can Fix The Great Barrier Reef - Here's How

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)

An Australian Government report into the state of the Great Barrier Reef found that its condition in 2014 was "poor and expected to further deteriorate in the future". In the past 40 years, the Reef has lost more than half of its coral cover and there is growing concern about the future impacts of ocean acidification and climate change.

But science could restore the Great Barrier Reef to its former glory through better policies that focus on evidence-based policies, according to paper in Nature Climate Change. But all the stressors on the Reef need to be reduced for it to recover, so nothing is off the hook.

35 Percent Of Breast Cancer Patients Concerned About Genetic Risk, Though Only 5 Percent Have Such Risk

35 Percent Of Breast Cancer Patients Concerned About Genetic Risk, Though Only 5 Percent Have Such Risk

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)

A new study finds that many women diagnosed with breast cancer are concerned about a genetic predisposition for developing other cancers and the chances of a loved one developing cancer.

California Government Is The Big Water Management Problem

California Government Is The Big Water Management Problem

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)

It is raining in California as I write this but most of it will do little good. The rain is going to go to a gutter and the gutter will go to a stream and that will go to an ocean.

Yes, much of the fresh water that California has runs into the Pacific Ocean. You might wonder why the Pacific Ocean needs so much, since 96 percent of Earth's water is already in oceans, but the oceans are not asking for it. Instead, it is due to anti-science policies lobbied for by well-heeled California environmentalists.
Magnetic Fields Don't Cause Alzheimer's Disease

Magnetic Fields Don't Cause Alzheimer's Disease

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)

Magnetic fields such as those generated by overhead power lines are considered a potential health risk because epidemiological papers correlate them to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Like other concepts that catch the attention of a certain segment of the public, such as GMOs causing cancer, vaccines causing autism, or cell phones causing cancer, it relies on a kernel of scientific truth that is extrapolated out to be a broad effect: Our bodies run on our internal electricity and magnetic fields shape how electricity behaves.
The Mystery Of Fairy Circles In The Namibian Desert - And Why They Look Like Skin Cells

The Mystery Of Fairy Circles In The Namibian Desert - And Why They Look Like Skin Cells

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)

Many people have heard of the Golden Ratio, a ratio that is the midpoint between asymmetry and symmetry - when "the whole is to the larger as the larger is to the smaller". In numerical terms, it is 1.618. 
MRSA Exposed To Cigarette Smoke Becomes More Aggressive

MRSA Exposed To Cigarette Smoke Becomes More Aggressive

Apr 07 2015 | comment(s)

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an antibiotic-resistant superbug, can cause life-threatening skin, bloodstream and surgical site infections or pneumonia - a new reports finds that cigarette smoke may make things even worse.

"We already know that smoking cigarettes harms human respiratory and immune cells, and now we've shown that, on the flipside, smoke can also stress out invasive bacteria and make them more aggressive," said senior author Laura E. Crotty Alexander, MD, assistant clinical professor of medicine at UC San Diego and staff physician at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.