Science News

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2011/04/13/2003500609 Video of wave: So now that we are at Level 7, What does that mean exactly? what will put this at level 8? Should we be scared to eat things from the ocean at this point? Will this have a larger effect on the environment than Cherynobyl because of it's proximity to water? Or was Cherynobyl worse because of the initial explosion? How much danger is Hawaii, Alaska, and the West coast in? How bout the east coast?

Can someone summarize it for me? I don't have the time to watch it but judging by the comments it's pretty scary.

Primordial Weirdness: Did the Early Universe Have One Dimension? Scientists Outline Test for Theory Scientists have outlined a test for "vanishing dimensions" hypothesis, which, if proven, would address major problems in particle physics. (Credit: iStockphoto/Mihail Ulianikov) ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2011) — Did the early universe have just one spatial dimension? That's the mind-boggling concept at the heart of a theory that University at Buffalo physicist Dejan Stojkovic and colleagues proposed in 2010. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110420152059.htm

ScienceDaily (Apr. 12, 2011) — Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco have pinpointed a reason older adults have a harder time multitasking than younger adults: they have more difficulty switching between tasks at the level of brain networks. Juggling multiple tasks requires short-term, or "working," memory -- the capacity to hold and manipulate information in the mind for a period of time. Working memory is the basis of all mental operations, from learning a friend's telephone number, and then entering it into a smart phone, to following the train of a conversation, to conducting complex tasks such as reasoning, comprehension and learning. "…

Pointing at Boundaries: Integrating Computation and Cognition on Biological Grounds Spurred by the advancement in synthetic biology (Gibson et al., 2010) at the J. Craig Venter Research Institute the editors of Cognitive Computation Journal (Springer) invite submissions to a special issue on biological substrates as a computational diaphragm. This topic leads to further research questions on computation and the bio-signals produced by living organisms. We anticipate submissions will contribute to the identification of a new breed of technologies: 1.) bio-computing applications (synthetic biology); 2.) chemical/microbial induced biological configurations;3.) enhanc…

How harmful is nuclear radiation? It depends on the dose/density received. Tsunami-related Fukushina accident will probably renew debates about nuclear electricity. Such debates should be based on what is known about negative effects of nuclear radiation. Numerical data below should be useful in that context. The effect of penetrating radiation on a person depends on the dose density received. The common unit of dose density is Sievert (Sv). Smaller doses are expressed in milliseverts (mSv) or microseveret. The old unit of dose density, rem, is also used widely (1Sv=100 rem) A dose density of 10 Sv will most likely results in death, within a day or two. …

That is really a lot of new people. A lot of extra mouths to feed. A lot of extra educations to take care of. A lot of towns and cities to build. A lot of everything must be built! 181 million people... hard to imagine. According to wikipedia, India has an annual growth rate of 1.38%. Doesn't sound like much, but it means they will hit the 2 billion people in only 37 years! I wonder if the Indians themselves have any idea where they are going with their country. Is there a limit to growth? Although I have a lot more questions, I think I'll ask only that. In the specific case of India, is there any limit to their growth?

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/31/scientists-fight-flames-with-electric-wand/ "When the amplifier was turned on, the wand-like wire, serving as an electrode, generated an oscillating electric field that essentially pushed the flame off its fuel source. This extinguished it, said chemist and lead author Ludovico Cademartiri, a postdoctoral fellow who presented the findings in California on Sunday at a meeting of the American Chemical Society." This is so cool. Discuss?

Martin Cooper – The Father of Mobile Phone Martin Cooper CEans, He changed the world of communications forever. His invention in 1970s helps you keep in touch with your near & dear ones no matter where you are. This MENSA International member is also the pioneer of portable hand-held police radio. His ideas helped Motorola mass-produce the first crystals for use in wrist watches. He's the one & only Mr. Martin Cooper – The Father Of Mobile Phone. Mr. Cooper is the CEO, Founder of ArrayComm & former Vice President Of Motorola Corporation. In our Special Anniversary Edition Small Talk Mr. Cooper shares the story of…

At this moment (01.40 AM, CET) a Dutch newspaper (link in Dutch) reports that Japan plans to drop water onto the Fukushima #4 nuclear reactor in order to cool it. It seems quite desperate, so I thought I'd tell you about it. Wikipedia at the moment (01.40 AM on Wed, CET) also has the same info, including 3 references for it: Other sources mention that this plan was deemed impractical, and instead: The situation in Japan is really confusing. News agencies keep updating their websites and pages, so linking is quite unreliable. One moment the info is there, the next it's gone. Bottom line to me is: The situation in Japan is quite desperate. Dropping stuff…

Big brains and spineless penises How DNA deletions may have produced uniquely human traits The spiny genitalia of the Callosobruchus analis beetle Hundreds of deletions in non-coding DNA have helped sculpt human evolution, including an increase in brain size and the loss of sensory whiskers and penis spines, proposes a study published this week in Nature. Read more: Big brains and spineless penises - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/58044/#ixzz1G8lmspjU

LINK: http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/70/70ra14.abstract Abstract Evidence from behavioral and self-reported data suggests that the patients’ beliefs and expectations can shape both therapeutic and adverse effects of any given drug. We investigated how divergent expectancies alter the analgesic efficacy of a potent opioid in healthy volunteers by using brain imaging. The effect of a fixed concentration of the μ-opioid agonist remifentanil on constant heat pain was assessed under three experimental conditions using a within-subject design: with no expectation of analgesia, with expectancy of a positive analgesic effect, and with negative expectancy of analgesia…

Tory voters found to have larger 'primitive' lobe in brain An MRI scan of the brain. The right amygdala - an ancient part of the brain - was larger in those people who described themselves as conservative. It's located where the yellow area meets the red in the centre of the picture Our political allegiances could be hard-wired into our brains, neuroscientists believe. Researchers have found evidence that the brains of conservatives are a different shape to those of Left-wingers. Scans of 90 students’ brains at University College London uncovered a ‘strong correlation’ between the thickness of two particular areas of grey matter and an individual’s polit…

A researcher with the name of Dr. Million Mulugeta might have found a way to make a million or much more. It's very early yet but Dr. Mulugeta of UCLA reports that while conducting a study on stress he and his research team managed to find a cure for baldness in mice. They released their findings in February of 2011. Dr. Mulugeta says the compound they used on the mice was not intended to do anything at all for hair loss, or rather fur loss, but for stress. The mice had experienced their hair/fur loss while being genetically altered to produce extra stress hormones for the purposes of the research. Read more at Suite101: Feb. 2011 Study: Hair Loss in Mice R…

Fossils of Cyanobacteria in CI1 Carbonaceous Meteorites: http://journalofcosmology.com/Life100.html

So, I was reading one of my favorite online news papers, News of the Weird, and I thought that this deserved a blog! There was recently a 6.6 earthquake in California right next to an egg farm. The egg farm produced about one million eggs daily. The total damage of the egg farm was only one cracked egg! Cool, right?

3 Days National Workshop on Structural Bioinformatics Tools and Applications 23 April 2011 - 25 April 2011 Introduction Structural bioinformatics was the first major effort to show the application of the principles of bioinformatics to question macromolecular structures, molecular interaction, prediction of protein structures, prospects of coupling drug design, discovery and delivery. Additionally, it focuses on how the application of bioinformatics to these life science issues can improve healthcare by accelerating drug discovery and development. Advances in high-throughput technologies and the wealth of information generated with these projects have radical…

EDMONTON — A University of Alberta astronomer and his team have uncovered “weird” physics inside a neutron star in the Milky Way Galaxy. Craig Heinke and his colleagues have discovered the core of the Cassiopeia A neutron star — the remains of a supernova — contains a frictionless superfluid that seems to defy gravity, as well as a superconductor that keeps electricity flowing without ever losing energy. Scientists had long suggested this “weird state of matter” might exist inside the cores of neutron stars, but there had been no direct evidence of it before, Heinke said Sunday. Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/Weird+physics+found+fri…

Historically, the male has been charged with the responsibility of providing shelter for his family. That's a little bit difficult before a baby is born, however, since – by definition – the womb can be considered – without being too facetious, mom's domain. But dad's always ready to give advice about building materials. MHC is from Mars, uNK is from Venus. It turns out that paternal MHC – major histocompatibility complex – cells in the placenta communicate with uterine NK – natural killer – cells. While NK cells circulating in the blood are responsible for fighting off infections, a specialized uterine subgroup of these cells uNK cells (you guessed it – uterin…

Abstract Scientific paradigms have a tendency to rise fast and decline slowly. This asymmetry reflects the difficulty in developing a truly original idea, compared to the ease at which a concept can be eroded by numerous modifications. Here we formulate a model for the emergence and spread of ideas which deals with this asymmetry by constraining the ability of agents to return to already abandoned concepts. The model exhibits a fairly regular pattern of global paradigm shifts, where older paradigms are eroded and subsequently replaced by new ones. The model sets the theme for a new class of pattern formation models, where local dynamics breaks the detailed balance in …

I have a new discovery and it has been published, does this releas like a new of science? please give me an instruction!

Jack Smeltzer broke a record in the tractor pull championships in Columbus, Ohio, in January -- doing a "full (track-length) pull" of 692 pounds. Jack is 7 years old. The National Kiddie Tractor Pullers Association (holding 80 events a year for ages 3 through 8) uses bicycles instead of motors. Ms. Brooke Wilker, 5, was the youngest champ, lugging 300 pounds 28 feet. [Columbus Dispatch, 1-31-2011] This article courtesy of newsoftheweird.com

Ancient body clock discovered that helps to keep all living things on time ! Moderator Note Quote snipped; copyrighted material. Use the link to read the whole article

Oil droplets mimic early life Lack of genetic material no hindrance to life-like behaviour. By Jo Marchant Oil droplets that creep purposefully through their watery environment, metabolize fuel, sense their surroundings and perhaps even replicate--could these be precursors to life? That's the claim of a chemist with a controversial approach to modeling how Earth's first organisms scraped themselves together. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=oil-droplets-mimic-early-life&WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20110224

Ret. Col. Says UFOs Are Real, but Denies Government Cover-Up Whether you believe or disbelieve the notion that UFOs are visitors from another planet, a former highly decorated military officer now comes forward with information that may infuriate those on both sides in the ongoing ET debate. http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/23/retired-army-colonel-says-ufos-are-real-but-denies-government-c/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl3%7Csec3_lnk2%7C203095