Science News

Awesome.

Scientists have produced the world's most powerful optical microscope, which could help us to understand the causes of many diseases. Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the team have created a microscope which shatters the record for the smallest object the eye can see, beating the diffraction limit of light. Previously, the standard optical microscope could only see items around one micrometer -- 0.001 millimeters -- clearly. But now, by combining an optical microscope with a transparent microsphere, dubbed the 'microsphere nanoscope', the Manchester researchers can see 20 times smaller -- 50 nanometers ((5 x 10-8m) -- under normal light. This is beyond t…

Deep-Earth devil worms A newly identified species of nematode lives miles deep in the tight, hot crevices of the Earth's crust Halicephalobus mephisto Property of the University Ghent, Belgium - Gaetan Borgonie Scientists have identified a new species of microscopic worms living in the ground below South African mines, isolated from fracture water gushing up from miles below the Earth's surface. It is the first multicellular organism to be found at such depths. The discovery of the tiny nematode (named Halicephalobus mesphisto after Mephistopheles, a literary nickname for the Devil), published in this week's issue of Nature, challenges the assum…

So a German Mathematician, Gerhard Opfe, released a pre-print in which he claims to have prove the veracity of the Collatz Conjecture. The paper has not yet been accepted for publication, but it is getting some notice on the internet. "An Analytic Approach to the Collatz 3n+1 Problem"

Hydrocarbons Deep Within Earth: New Computational Study Reveals How A snapshot taken from a first-principles molecular dynamics simulation of liquid methane in contact with a hydrogen-terminated diamond surface at high temperature and pressure. The spontaneous formation of longer hydrocarbons are readily found during the simulations. (Credit: Eric Schwegler, Lawrence Livermore National Lab) ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2011) — A new computational study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals how hydrocarbons may be formed from methane in deep Earth at extreme pressures and temperatures. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/…

A device helps a man paralyzed from the waist down make an 'unprecedented' recovery, taking steps on a treadmill and regaining other key functions. The treatment could potentially allow 10% to 15% of people with spinal cord injuries to regain some use of their legs. Read more here http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-spinal-cord-20110520,0,1799162.story

Quote from this page at Beeb http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-13462926

http://www.dailytech.com/Richard+Branson+Announces+Virgin+Oceanic+Submarine+/article21307.htm The official website is here: http://www.virginoceanic.com/ It's worth noting that the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the ocean, is only 36,000 feet deep; Branson's vessel (which has already been built) will be able to explore any part of the ocean floor. There has only ever been one manned vessel to reach the bottom of the Trench -- the Trieste. If Branson pulls this off, it will almost certainly be pretty awesome. Damn, I want to be fabulously rich so I can build myself a submarine.

Ant age Amp Md is a newly lunched technology by Rodan + field Anti age which removes wrinkles and blotches and all the age factor effects which causes due to old age.It has been available for general public since October 2nd,.2010.

The study is the world's first investigation of how real-time functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) feedback from the brain region responsible for higher-order thoughts, including introspection, affects our ability to control these thoughts. The researchers find that real-time brain feedback significantly improves people's ability to control their thoughts and effectively 'train their brains.' "Just like athletes in training benefit from a coach's guidance, feedback from our brain can help us to be more aware of our thoughts," says co-author Prof. Kalina Christoff, UBC Dept. of Psychology. "Our findings suggest that the ability to control our thinking improves …

at Discovery article on mystery particle. Excerpt: I'd like some feedback on this from you. What do you think?

Easily distracted people can stop blaming their lack of focus on the royal wedding, Facebook feeds and hilarious YouTube videos of honey badgers. Rather, a small network of cells in the back left part of the brain may be the culprit, researchers report in the May 4 Journal of Neuroscience. Knowing how the brain focuses on what’s important — and filters out noise — may help scientists come up with ways to counteract attention disorders. “Attention has a huge effect on our lives,” says cognitive neuroscientist Carmel Mevorach of the University of Birmingham in England, who was not involved in the study. “Everything we do — literally, everything we do — is affected b…

It can take smarts to survive in the big city. Especially for birds. The urban environment is very different from the one in which their ancestors were born and fledged. But do city birds really need more gray matter to make it? Scientists surveyed 82 species of passerine birds, including sparrows and anything that perches, in and around 12 cities in central Europe.* They classified the birds as those that breed in the heart of the city or those that avoid the hustle and bustle. And then they compared the bird brains.The results? Birds that prosper on the city streets have larger brains than their pastoral relations. So it seems that novel environments, including urb…

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Jump in Communication Skills Led to Species Explosion in Electric Fishes In the top group of fishes, species in the genus Paramoryrops that has the complex signal-processing brain, discharges have changed quickly, resulting in dramatically different pulses among closely related species. In the bottom group of fishes, species in the genus Petrocephalus whose midbrain is more simply structured, all of the species have similar pulses. The difference arises because the top group has the anatomical features needed to exploit the signal space -- such as the anatomy needed to make different pulses and the sensory and analytical ability to perceive small differences in puls…

http://www.gizmag.com/new-material-steel-plastic/18013/ Apparently, it is now possible to combine the strength of metals with the flexibility of plastics. However, these new materials still require large amounts of expensives metals for synthesis...even so, might be a useful intermediate along the way to developing organic polymers with the same strength properties.

A fun little something to share with your friends/freaked-out relatives. As a somewhat-related side comment, the manager of my local food co-op (I live in Michigan, mind you--Michigan) said that she'd had several people coming in aiming to buy up all of the sea kelp supplements, with the intention of preventing radiation poisoning. She'd said a friendly e-mail had come across the national co-op listserv with some helpful information to provide such customers: to properly saturate your thyroid enough to prevent iodine uptake, you'd need approximately ten bottles of the stuff. Oh yeah, and also, the sidewalk concrete is currently flooding us here in f#%*ing Michigan w…

I was wondering what peoples opinions were on this kid: http://www.indystar.com/article/20110320/LOCAL01/103200369 i know next to nothing in mathematics and physics so i have no gauge on how far along he actually is compared to his peers (university level) or how much potential he has, but he sounds impressive enough to a layperson. are people like him rare, or is this something (slightly) more common that the media is playing up? does being a prodigy really give the person a benefit over an entire career, or does it just put them at a headstart, before his catch up? also the reporter is a little grating, just bear with it lol.

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?