Science News

UCAS says numbers applying for physics has gone up

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:32:49 +0000

According to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service there has been a raise in the number of students applying for physics courses at university this year in the UK. This is despite an overall decrease across the board. Physics is up by 8.3% as compared to last year.

See the IOP news report here.

It seems that the number of students applying for a university place in England has gone down 9.9% as compared to last year. Wales and Scotland, who have different levels of student funding have different statistics. The drop in Scotland is about 1.5%, Wales 1.9% and Northern Ireland 4%.

See the BBC news report here.

Invisibility Cloak?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:26:10 +0000

Breakthrough?

Did Bonobos tame themselves?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:05:51 +0000

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tame-theory-did-bonobos&WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20120125

Ocean acidification

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:25:35 +0000

Terrible, this ocean acidification is huge! Life underwater will be in serious danger if it keeps growing and growing!

�When Earth started to warm 17,000 years ago, terminating the last glacial period, atmospheric CO2 levels rose from 190 parts per million (ppm) to 280 ppm over 6,000 years. Marine ecosystems had ample time to adjust. Now, for a similar rise in CO2 concentration to the present level of 392 ppm, the adjustment time is reduced to only 100 � 200 years.� From United Academics

Mars

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:31:15 +0000

I read the other day some scientists theorise that we hade a second moon witch collided with our existing moon, made me think ?

Here goes my theory !!!

Mars was millions of years a lot closer to earth, maybe also supported life. Then a huge piece of space rubble smashes into its moon witch in
turn smashed into mars knocking it out of orbit.

This will explane : The odd forms of the Mars moons ( Puzzle them, they fit ! )

The extinction of dinosaurs on Earth ( Cosmic dust storm that blocked out sunlight for a thousand years )

Marsian rocks found on our blue planet.

Evidence of old rivers & seas on Mars.

The odd irregular density of our moon on only one side. ( Cosmic dust again ! If your smart enough you can use that to calculate where the collision took place ! )

Now non of my theory's is science fact. What I hope to achieve is a fun debate if this at all possible, come play a bit of devils advocate !

Two studies hinting at the negative effects of online 'addiction'.

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:33:47 +0000

"Internet addiction has for the first time been linked with changes in the brain similar to those seen in people addicted to alcohol, cocaine and cannabis. In a groundbreaking study, researchers used MRI scanners to reveal abnormalities in the brains of adolescents who spent many hours on the internet, to the detriment of their social and personal lives. The finding could throw light on other behavioural problems and lead to the development of new approaches to treatment, researchers said."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/addicted-scientists-show-how-internet-dependency-alters-the-human-brain-6288344.html

Bizarre.

Coupled with this foul nugget:

"Scientists have found that compulsive internet use can produce morphological changes in the structure of the brain.[24] A study which analyzed Chinese college students who used a computer around 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, found reductions in the sizes of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, rostral anterior cingulate cortex, supplementary motor area and parts of the cerebellum as high as 10-20%.[24] On the other hand, increases in the density of the right parahippocampal gyrus and a spot called the left posterior limb of the internal capsule were also found.[24] It has been theorized that these changes reflect learning-type cognitive optimizations for using computers more efficiently, but also impaired short-term memory and decision-making abilities—including ones in which may contribute to the desire to stay online instead of be in the real world.[25]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Addiction#cite_note-24

And the study that's based on:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3108989/?tool=pmcentrez

Does it look sound to you guys?
I'm a complete amateur science buff, so...

Thanks. Edit: Since I'm on the 'Alarmist Sky Is Falling Internet Wagon', thought I'd include another link.
This time to a blog from Scientific American, enjoy your nightmares!

(might help if I actually included the link, duh!)

Here:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/01/06/can-sitting-too-much-kill-you/

Professor Steven Rawlings found dead

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:36:52 +0000

Professor Steven Rawlings of Oxford University was found dead at the home of Dr Devinder Sivia. Both men had co-authored books together.

Read more details (Daily Mirror)here.

The BBC news report can be found here.

Join the Dark Side- Shadow Based Microscope

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:53:41 +0000

Hi all,

video links first

Some UCLA research group using LED, pinhole, and webcam to make microscope (from more videos in the same account). It feels easy to make, but it looks like it's the home made microscope (some youtube how to video) + holographic microscope (wikipedia).
I think the only difference to the home-made one is just the pinhole and CMOS resolution, UCLA one can see blood cells. If that is the only difference, feels like anyone can re-create it easily tho. Just that holographic shadows... even though it says "simple algorithm," it might be hard to do it still...

High water in the Netherlands

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:50:49 +0000

First of all, there's no real danger to people. The problems I describe below are minor. And the main problem is excess rainwater, which cannot drain away because we're below sea level. We've had a pretty wet december, and last week we've had strong winds and lots of rain on top of it. It's been wind force 8-9 for 3 days in a row now. Nothing really out of the ordinary, and the types of problems below are also something that will occur almost once every year in some form or another.

But still, it's in the news all over the country, and I thought this would be entertaining to read.

So, the situation is the following: we've had lots of rain. All that rainwater collects in the smallest canals, which form a grid in a certain area, called a polder. Then it must be pumped into the main canals by many relatively small pumps. And then this water must be pumped out to sea or a large lake (which itself drains into the sea) by other larger pumps. The problem now is that (1) we've had lots of rain, and (2) the water in the lake/sea is a little higher than normal because of a strong wind from the northwest, making it harder to pump water out. Also, the wind can actually also push the water up in a canal. And in addition, the land must be kept dry, so we can't stop pumping water into the canals - certainly not in the populated areas.

So, because of all that, the canals into which the water is being pumped are getting so high in some areas that they can flood back into the land. Sounds a little weird to be at risk of flooding from a canal. But we are. 85 people have been evacuated (article in English). It's a small area, but frontpage news.

The officials are considering to deliberately flood some parts of the country to temporarily store water.

The risk of floods is so real that the largest still operational steam pumps in the world have been started up to remove the water from those canals in low lying parts. Here's a movie, with commentry in Dutch, but pictures speak for themselves. It runs on fuel oil, and can pump 4,500 m3/minute with a head of 1 meter (it pumps that water up by 1 meter). This pump is not in the same region as the highest risk of flooding... but it is getting pretty wet everywhere.

In addition, a large inflatable rubber dam (balgstuw) has been activated to protect some other parts of the country. This site shows it still under construction, and here's a picture of the finished dam being tested. Strong winds push water and increase water levels on our biggest lake (not the sea), so this is not so much to get water our, as to prevent more water from coming in.

Later this week, the rivers are expected to reach their peak flows, and high water is expected along the river dikes when the water from Germany comes down through the Netherlands on its way to sea. At the moment that's nothing to worry about though.

The funny thing is that none of the waterworks mentioned here are on the coast. All the problems occur inland because of excess rainwater. I believe I read somewhere that the seawater is also +2.3 meters above average, but nobody seems worried about that.

Chi b (3P)?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:26:53 +0000

I was listening to the news yesterday morning, and I heard a short mention that the gang down at the LHC had discovered a new particle, the Chi_b (3P) particle, as they call it, which is composed of a bottom - antibottom pair. It's is supposedly involved in the Nuclear Force, somehow, and I have always had an extremely deep interest in particle physics and fundamental forces, so I'd be excited to know how this particle is involved. If anyone knows anything about it, or has any links to experimental documents, I'd be very interest, and I'm sure the rest of the forum would be too.

Evolution of Menstruation

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 23:53:27 +0000

Pharyngula (PZ Myers) has a really interesting post about a recent paper in Bioessays concerning the evolution of menstruation.

My favourite line: "I suppose we could blame The Curse on The Fall, but then this phylogeny would suggest that Adam and Eve were part of a population of squirrel-like proto-primates living in the early Paleocene. That's rather unbiblical, though, and what did the bats and elephant shrews do to deserve this?"

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/12/why_do_women_menstruate.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PeerReviewOnScienceBlogs+%28Peer+Review+on+Science+Blogs%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Highly Contagious Flu Strain Developed

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:14:04 +0000

Quote

The fear is that if you create something this deadly and it goes into a global pandemic, the mortality and cost to the world could be massive," a senior scientific adviser to the US Government told The Independent, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The worst-case scenario here is worse than anything you can imagine."

For the first time the researchers have been able to mutate the H5N1 strain of avian influenza so that it can be transmitted easily through the air in coughs and sneezes. Until now, it was thought that H5N1 bird flu could only be transmitted between humans via very close physical contact.

The Independent UK

(emphasis is my own - jimmy)

Some may ask: 'What is the bloody point?'

Gumby-like flexible robot crawls in tight spaces

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:15:48 +0000

Quote

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Harvard scientists have built a new type of flexible robot that is limber enough to wiggle and worm through tight spaces.

It's the latest prototype in the growing field of soft-bodied robots. Researchers are increasingly drawing inspiration from nature to create machines that are more bendable and versatile than those made of metal

For freedom / a young scientist being imprisoned for 5 years in dungeon set up by several people from MPI-polymer and ISSP in China

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:22:15 +0000

In wissen.blog.com

K. Muellen (Prof of MPIP) � T. Weil (Prof of Uni-Ulm & KM�s PhD student) � U. Ziener (TW�s associate & collaborator of KL) � K. Landfester (Prof of Uni-Ulm & MPIP)

From G Lu
Sent: 2011-05-19 14:56
To: E. P. K
CC: Eagling
Re: Accusation on paper b816751f

Dear Prof. Kundig,
I acknowledge you for your kind comfort and sincere counsel on the rules in scientific activities. As I told you before, I was actually kidnapped by the institute that I am currently staying in, so it is impossible for me to carry out research under such circumstances. I had also attempted twice to publish my paper b719277k to JACS and then Chem. Commu.. However it was unfortunately rejected directly by the editors without sending to referees. And Dr. Yue Li, who is a totally stranger to me, was selected to implement the work in order to cover the facts that the ideas were from me. Nonetheless some evidences still shed light on that the ideas do not belong to the authors themselves; for example, that Y. Li left Korea in Oct. 2006 contradicts with the availability of the funds.

As shown in the main body of b719277k, the work on the synthesis of cation-loaded polymer nanosphere via miniemusion was actually carried out and mostly completed in spring 2005. On May 30, 2005 I showed all the results that I had got in a presentation given in our group seminar. I noticed that most audience was PhD students and postdocs from our group with Prof. Wegner at the scene. Only one young asian man seated himself at the last row was unknown. When I finished the report, he came to me and introduced that he came from another group, whose head is considered as one of the leaders in contemporary chemistry world. He requested to make a photocopy of the slide (I gave the presentation in printed slides), where the synthesis scheme was presented and I agreed him. However, I discovered a paper from that group using the same idea as mine was published at the beginning of 2006 and the authors claimed they owned the idea themselves.*

As I repeated many times, I have never shared the ideas that I conceived in the Beijing conference in 2007 inside or outside the institute of ISSP. But I found out again this group published several papers employing these ideas with the assertion that the ideas were created by the authors. An invisible connection between this group and people from ISSP can be detected as well.**

I retrospect the history of some parts of my work because I wish similar case would never happen on me again. I am weak and powerless as an individual, so I look forward to the understanding from conscientious people, which will bring me more hope for my life.

Thank you very much for your valuable time once more.
Best regards,
G Lu

(*)�10.1002/marc.200600027″

(**)http://wissen.blog.com/science-intrigue/

Some listeners at Wegner group seminar on May 30, 2005: Dr. R. Munoz-Espi, Dr. T. Seibel, Dr. M. Demir, Dr. I. Lieberwirth, Prof. G. Wegner, Dr. F. Laquai ��

From: E. P. Kundig
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 3:17 PM
To: G. Lu
Cc: Eagling
Subject: Re: Accusation on paper b816751f

Dear Dr. Lu,

Over the past months I have followed your e-mail exchange with Dr. Eagling regarding violations of intellectual property. Since, as you report, the adverse party continues to publish extensively I presume that they report work carried out in their own research group. You have to realize that once you discuss an idea with another person you run the risk that he/she will go and adopt it for his/her own work. It is not elegant, especially if they do not acknowledge you, but there is nothing you can do about it if you do not have taken out a patent on the invention. It happens all the time and particularly so in science. I have witnessed numerous cases where a large and well funded research group has �taken over� a bright idea of someone else and, by the sheer power of their possibilities have made it their own. In other words, once you discuss an idea, you better be the first to publish results. When published or presented � in private or in public, the idea is in the open domain and it is a �free for all�. If you are the first to publish you can refer to this publication in subsequent papers and show that others have picked up and further developed your idea. If you have not published first, you have lost and any time devoted to claim back the idea and publications, patents, etc is time lost. It is then often better to concentrate on something new than to poison you life by trying to undo what cannot be undone. For an editor and a referee, all that can be done is to make sure that precedent publications are properly cited, that results that heve been previously published are not again published as �new�, and that publications are stopped when it the data are �copy/paste� take-over from the competition. Other than that the check is purely on whether the results are of interest to the journal�s readers and whether the claims made are fully corroborated by the data.

With sympathies and best regards,

Prof. P. Kundig

MIT's trillion frames per second light-tracking camera

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:20:00 +0000

Quote

A camera capable of visualising the movement of light has been unveiled by a team of scientists in the US.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16163931
http://web.media.mit.edu/~raskar/trillionfps/

I would be curious as to how they deal with storing the frames. If we assume 1kb/frame, which is probably way less than the actual size, we get 30 PB of data per second, which according to WA is about 1/30 of the estimated data content of the internet.

4 days ago

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:14:41 +0000

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/mercury-ufo_n_1135855.html

Theoretical new type of galaxy

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:02:36 +0000

What's going on with these mysterious, ultra-red galaxies

http://io9.com/58649...ra+red-galaxies

From their appearance astronomers cannot explain such old appearing very red galaxies accordingly within the first ~700 million years of the universe, according to the Big Bang model. Discuss your mainstream ideas/ possibilities on this thread.

If you have a non-mainstream alternative explanation, discuss them here in the speculation forum.
//

NASA finds planet outside of our solar system eerily similar to Earth

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:16:55 +0000

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-finds-planet-thats-just-life-180545298.html

NASA has found a new planet outside Earth's solar system that is eerily similar to Earth in important aspects.

Scientists say the temperature on the surface of the planet is about a comfy 72 degrees (22 Celsius). Its star could almost be a twin of Earth's sun. It probably has water and land.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Holy chit!

Alzheimer's brain damage Reversed

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 03:30:07 +0000

half in horror ten yrs ago finally begins to pay off.-

http://www.alzinfo.org/08/alzheimers/reversing-nerve-cell-damage

'Taking the Chance out of chance encounters'

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 03:19:27 +0000

http://www.newscientist.com/mobile/article/mg21228403.300

I say creepy, it's too weird, imo.--You?