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Hygiea: Asteroid or Dwarf Planet? Using IAU Member Definitions, It's Impossible To Know

Hygiea: Asteroid or Dwarf Planet? Using IAU Member Definitions, It's Impossible To Know

Oct 28 2019 | comment(s)

Once 237 astronomers took it upon themselves to change the definition of a planet so that Pluto did not count - unless a handful of others did count - there is little point in reading a textbook on the matter. The number could change next year and again the year after.

Because "dwarf planet" is entirely subjective and therefore meaningless. In removing one subjective definition of planet and replacing it with another one just over a decade ago the International Astronomical Union created a mess they don't know how to fix. Now they will have to "vote" on science yet again, but they can't deny this one or none of them have any meaning.
On The 100th Anniversary Of Prohibition, The American Academy of Pediatrics Temperance Union Goes After Diet Soda

On The 100th Anniversary Of Prohibition, The American Academy of Pediatrics Temperance Union Goes After Diet Soda

Oct 28 2019 | comment(s)

On this day in 1919, exactly 100 years ago, the Volstead Act introduced Prohibition, which was signed into law and created a ban on alcohol. 

A ban on alcohol was necessary, according to social authoritarian groups like the Anti-Saloon League and Woman's Christian Temperance Union, because companies had created alcohol flavors that too many people liked, it was not safe to have alcohol even at a business, families were being ruined. It was for the children.
FDA Reminds Buyers That The Only Time Homeopathy Does Anything Is When It's Adulterated With Actual Drugs

FDA Reminds Buyers That The Only Time Homeopathy Does Anything Is When It's Adulterated With Actual Drugs

Oct 25 2019 | comment(s)

Homeopathy was a vaguely illogical belief 200 years ago that if you mimicked the symptoms of a disease you could prevent or cure the disease. It's like sitting in a chair pushing an imaginary gas pedal and believing that will get you to Safeway yet it sells to the 'I don't trust medicine but with magic water my flu only lasted for 7.8 days instead of 8' crowd.

I imagine Hahnemann would not believe in something so goofy today ("Why are you still listening to us? We wrote with feathers!") but there is a whole market of kooky customers who believe the Ways Of The Ancients must be superior - even if they make no scientific sense at all.
Jed Rose, Creator Of The Nicotine Patch, Says Vaping Concern Is Overblown

Jed Rose, Creator Of The Nicotine Patch, Says Vaping Concern Is Overblown

Oct 23 2019 | comment(s)

Dr. Jed Rose has spent his entire career trying to get people to smoke fewer cigarettes, and to do so he invented the nicotine patch. He even invented an e-cigarette in the 1980s because he understood how people became addicted to a drug that "doesn't get people visibly high", even when the cigarette smoke that came with it could kill them.

But he has been around long enough to know that "anti-" forces, in business only because of money they got from the Big Tobacco Master Settlement related to cigarettes, a dwindling market, are going to look for new targets and are using a thousand illnesses related to bootleg vaping juice to suppress the legitimate smoking cessation and harm reduction fields.
Rodent Operated Vehicles: A Whole New Kind Of Rat Race

Rodent Operated Vehicles: A Whole New Kind Of Rat Race

Oct 23 2019 | comment(s)

When properly motivated, not only will rats drive cars, they will seem more relaxed after doing so, finds a recent psychology experiment published in Behavioural Brain Research.

Rodent operated vehicles

If we want animals to engage in more complex behavioral tasks, it is important to have enriched environments. That may include humans, if we want to improve therapies for neurodegenerative disease and psychiatric illness. In the meantime, the "rat race" just got a whole lot more interesting.


Credit: Kelly Lambert/University of Richmond
Scary Houses: What Explains The Architecture Of Creepiness?

Scary Houses: What Explains The Architecture Of Creepiness?

Oct 23 2019 | comment(s)

We get creeped out by people who behave in bizarre and unpredictable ways. They violate subtle social conventions that enable us to understand their intentions and that can be scary.

This goes for things as well; dolls that are too lifelike to clowns in places where clowns should not be. What about places?

Yes, this ‘threat-ambiguity theory’ of creepiness also applies to places, according to Knox College psychology professor Francis McAndrew.  Scary places lack what psychologists refer to as ‘legibility' - the ease with which a place can be recognized, organized into a pattern and recalled. A deep dark woods is going to be scarier than a meadow with a stream whose edges you can see.
“One Of The Worst Scientific Scandals Of All Time” Is In Psychology, Not Science

“One Of The Worst Scientific Scandals Of All Time” Is In Psychology, Not Science

Oct 22 2019 | comment(s)

When Hans Eysenck passed away in 1997, he was one of the most influential psychologists of all time, behind only Freud and Piaget. Yet few outside the field had heard of him, which is the problem with conflating citations and actual influence.

His fame was built on work concerning intelligence and personality testing, called psychometrics. He maintained the hereditability of IQ and personality traits and came under fire for that, but also published work validating astrology. 
Akagi or Soryu? Another Japanese Carrier Sunk During Battle Of Midway Found

Akagi or Soryu? Another Japanese Carrier Sunk During Battle Of Midway Found

Oct 21 2019 | comment(s)

In December of 1941, Japan launched an attack on America at Pearl Harbor, worried that if they didn't do something quickly to cripple the American fleet, they would be starved of oil slowly and lose if America eventually entered anyway.

Oddly, Germany then declared war on America to support its Axis ally.

Both countries underestimated American manufacturing capacity. 

In April, the Doolittle Raid bombed Tokyo, in May the world saw its first combined air-sea battle, the Battle of Coral Sea, and in June the U.S. Navy intercepted a Japanese invasion fleet heading for Midway Island.

Yolo! Hookahzz Founder Janell Thompson Convicted In Tainted Vaping Illnesses

Yolo! Hookahzz Founder Janell Thompson Convicted In Tainted Vaping Illnesses

Oct 21 2019 | comment(s)

At least some of the illnesses caused by putting tainted products into nicotine vaping devices has a source; synthetic marijuana, also called K2, Spice, and other things, sold in a product called Yolo and made by Janell Thompson, co-founder of the companies called Hookahzz and Mathco Health Corporation.
EPA Publishes List Of Terpenes In Marijuana Vaping That May Be Causing Illnesses And Deaths

EPA Publishes List Of Terpenes In Marijuana Vaping That May Be Causing Illnesses And Deaths

Oct 19 2019 | comment(s)

Marijuana oils, many illegal or of suspect origin, used in nicotine vaping devices ("e-cigarette" devices) have cause numerous health issues and even deaths recently, and so the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency has told consumers who are putting marijuana juice into nicotine vaping devices to stop immediately.

To help toxicologists narrow down what is causing these illnesses and deaths, and why so many occurred in a cluster this year, the EPA Computational Toxicology group has published a list of 37 chemicals found in the marijuana plant that give strains their aromatic and flavor profiles. 
HERstory: Christina Koch And Jessica Meir Conduct First All Female Spacewalk

HERstory: Christina Koch And Jessica Meir Conduct First All Female Spacewalk

Oct 18 2019 | comment(s)

Sure, a woman first walked in space 35 years ago but she didn't do that with another woman, and we are in a media culture increasingly desperate to create "firsts" and a NASA that needs to distract Congress from its decade of delays and budget overruns on the James Webb Space Telescope, so it makes sense that NASA would co-opt HERstory for what should be a non-event.

Seriously. Some will try to frame that as #triggerwarning sexism, but it's just the opposite. We should want a culture where there is no gender mention, because it's irrelevant. You know what gets no attention? That the women are engineers and biologists. Because being a scientist astronaut is pretty routine.(1)
E-6B Mercury 'Doomsday' Aircraft: Bird Strike Grounds Plane Meant To Survive Nuclear Armageddon

E-6B Mercury 'Doomsday' Aircraft: Bird Strike Grounds Plane Meant To Survive Nuclear Armageddon

Oct 18 2019 | comment(s)

The E-6B Mercury aircraft, a Navy "doomsday" plane, was grounded after a "touch-and-go" training maneuver (just what it sounds like, they land on the runway and take off again) resulted in a misfortunate bird strike that took out an engine and $2 million in damage.

The E-6B Mercury is a Boeing 747 modified to be shielded from EMPs (electromagnetic pulses) that would result in a nuclear strike, but more recently can also be directed to take out electronic systems. Like submarines, it also has low-frequency communications to communicate, which means it can launch Minuteman III ICBMs buried in mountain fortresses.
Frostpunk: The Dystopian Global Cooling Apocalypse Comes To Xbox

Frostpunk: The Dystopian Global Cooling Apocalypse Comes To Xbox

Oct 16 2019 | comment(s)

I've had "Frostpunk" on my Steam wishlist since early 2018 and though it has gone on sale numerous times I didn't buy it. The reason is not hesitance about the game itself; I work on a PC all day, the last thing I want to do is sit at a desk at night.

But at the end of last week it went on sale for consoles and I was happy to literally pay twice as much just to sit on a couch and not use a mouse and keyboard. And it was worth the wait. 

Frostpunk is Steampunk, except when Global Cooling brings a new ice age
Nurses Can Identify Different Infections By Smell

Nurses Can Identify Different Infections By Smell

Oct 16 2019 | comment(s)

A scholar who spent five months at a cancer ward in a hospital that had roughly 5,000 employees studied how nurses use knowledge on the job and found something interesting;  they can smell infections.

I don't mean leprosy, or something really obvious, they can smell a type of infection.

“A urinary tract infection is very distinct. I can recognize that smell out in the corridor,” wrote one, while another said, "a urinary tract infection, or clostridium. It's super easy to smell!”
TIME Magazine Must Hate Greta Thunberg

TIME Magazine Must Hate Greta Thunberg

Oct 15 2019 | comment(s)

I just read an article about an Irish military vet who played a posthumous prank on his funeral attendees, which got a laugh out of them, exactly as he wanted.

TIME put in the URL and I am going to click on it, because Irish people always sound funny to me, and at funerals I bet they are even funny.
Online Gaming Is The Great Equalizer For People With Disabilities

Online Gaming Is The Great Equalizer For People With Disabilities

Oct 15 2019 | comment(s)

Esports, competitive video game tournaments, have risen to prominence. You can watch an Apex Legends tournament on television and the commentary might make you dizzy, with the jargon and the rapid pace, but there is no denying the skill.

Twitch and Mixer are overwhelmingly dominated by Fortnite, a loot and shoot game, to such an extent that online groups went into spasms when Fortnite took itself offline for two days (via an asteroid, which even blew up their Twitter feed) to generate some buzz for the new season. And it was already huge after Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf won the $3 million Fortnite World Cup this summer.

Apex is rolling out Halloween characters for its upcoming event, Dracula and the Wicked Witch, among others.
Multiverse Speculation By Theoretical Physicists Sets A Dangerous Precedent: Science-y Claims Without Evidence

Multiverse Speculation By Theoretical Physicists Sets A Dangerous Precedent: Science-y Claims Without Evidence

Oct 15 2019 | comment(s)

Once upon a time theoretical physicists were regarded as smarter than their experimental brethren. Because they didn't need laboratories. 

Not everyone was convinced. Heisenberg, the uncertainty principle guy(1), only got his Ph.D. because his score was averaged out. He had to take an experimental physics course and part of the final grade was Q&A. He couldn't answer any of the questions one professor, Wilhelm Wien, asked, so Professor Wien threw him a bone; how does a battery work?
California Forced PG&E To Shut Off Power During Risky Conditions - Now All Those Portable Generators Mean Air Pollution

California Forced PG&E To Shut Off Power During Risky Conditions - Now All Those Portable Generators Mean Air Pollution

Oct 13 2019 | comment(s)

Worldwide, a billion people still use things like fire and wood for energy, and in more developed areas they may have gas or diesel generators.(1) Both are terrific sources of pollution but if it's all you have, you are going to use it.
One Giant Bite For All Mankind: A 3-D Printer Makes Meat In Space

One Giant Bite For All Mankind: A 3-D Printer Makes Meat In Space

Oct 09 2019 | comment(s)

A successful experiment on the International Space Station in September led to a bioprinter producing fish, rabbit, and beef.

Cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka manned the 3-D printer that used magnetic fields in microgravity to print meat for the first time.

Bioprinting Solutions, founded by Invitro of Russia, was the laboratory that created the bioprinter. The cells were provided by Israeli and US food-tech companies and a U.S. company 3-D printer launched to the station in July can manufacture human tissue.

Lithium-Ion Battery Development Wins 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry For Whittingham, Goodenough, and Yoshino

Lithium-Ion Battery Development Wins 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry For Whittingham, Goodenough, and Yoshino

Oct 09 2019 | comment(s)

In the 1970s, oil-producing countries in the OPEC cabal had the ability to control western countries using prices and supply. After a series of such crises in the 1970s, Americans began to develop two things; modern synthetic oil and lithium-ion batteries. First in line to get off the petroleum fixation was Exxon

Stanley Whittingham of Exxon was interested in superconductors and discovered that a titanium disulphide cathode could store lithium ions. Using a battery containing metallic lithium (lithium was discovered by humans in 1817 and valuable because it will readily release electrons) held a lot of promise, but the metallic lithium was explosive. This was not pure lithium, it was a salt, so no labs were burned down in the process.