Science News

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

Of lice and men: An itchy history By Emily Willingham Ponder the louse. Consider its plural, lice. Try now not to scratch the multiple itches that have just populated your head at the very thought of these near-microscopic insects crawling around in that forest of hair follicles, laying eggs, sucking blood, and generally creeping you out. The thing is, your head may not be the likeliest place to feel the itch. After all, we’re home not only to the louse, but to lice, plural. As in two genera of lice, and three different kinds. One of those, the pubic louse, appears to trace back to contact between the Homo lineage and the gorilla, but more on that in a bit. …

LINK: http://www.plosbiolo...al.pbio.1000570 Abstract Inappropriate recollections and responses in stressful conditions are hallmarks of post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety and mood disorders, but how stress contributes to the disorders is unclear. Here we show that stress itself reactivates memories even if the memory is unrelated to the stressful experience. Forced-swim stress one day after learning enhanced memory recall. One-day post-learning amnestic treatments were ineffective unless administered soon after the swim, indicating that a stressful experience itself can reactivate unrelated consolidated memories. The swim also triggered inter-hemisp…

Research Predicts Future Evolution of Flu Viruses ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2011) — New research from the University of Pennsylvania is beginning to crack the code of which strain of flu will be prevalent in a given year, with major implications for global public health preparedness. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110217171336.htm

Oldest Fossils of Large Seaweeds, Possible Animals Tell Story About Oxygen in an Ancient Ocean These images are part and counterpart of a macroscopic Lantian fossil, probably a seaweed, with differentiated morphologies including a distinct root-like holdfast to secure the organism on sea bottom, a conical stem, and a crown of ribbon-like structures. Scale bar is 1 centimeter. (Credit: Photo by Zhe Chen) ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2011) — Almost 600 million years ago, before the rampant evolution of diverse life forms known as the Cambrian explosion, a community of seaweeds and worm-like animals lived in a quiet deep-water niche under the sea near what is now Lantian…

A study by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has carried out the first Spanish study into the emotional differences between the sexes and generations in terms of forgiveness. According to the study, parents forgive more than children, while women are better at forgiving than men. "This study has great application for teaching values, because it shows us what reasons people have for forgiving men and women, and the popular conception of forgiveness", Maite Garaigordobil, co-author of the study and a senior professor at the Psychology Faculty of the UPV, tells SINC. This study, which has been published in the Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, is the …

Understanding and managing how humans and nature sustainably coexist is now so sweeping and lightning fast that it's spawned a concept to be unveiled at a major scientific conference today. Meet "telecoupling." Joining its popular cousins telecommuting and television, telecoupling is the way Jack Liu, director of the Human-Nature Lab/Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability at Michigan State University, is describing how distance is shrinking and connections are strengthening between nature and humans. The "Telecoupling" of Human and Natural Systems" symposium will be 1:30-4:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18, at the American Association for the Advancement of Sc…

Professor Marshall Stoneham passed away on the morning of the 18th. He was president of the Institute of Physics. Due to his illness the immediate past President Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell will continue to act as President of the Institute. Professor Stoneham had been very active within the IOP for a number of years. I am sure he will be greatly missed. The IOP news report can be found here.