Science News

Lots of controversy over at Scienceblogs.com. Apparently, someone thought it would be a good idea to start up a nutrition blog authored by... PepsiCo . This isn't a joke. The scienceblog authorship isn't taking this lightly and some have already quit. What do you think? A golden opportunity for SFN blogs?

Brian Cox has be awarded the Kelvin medal "For communicating the appeal and excitement of physics to the general public through the broadcast media." The medal and award is presented by the Institute of Physics. Cox, a professor at Manchester has also been awarded a OBE this year. Kelvin medallists include John D Barrow (2009) and Simon Singh (2008). The announcement can be found here. --------------------------------------- A personal note: I met Cox at a particle physics seminar in Manchester a few years ago and was quite friendly with one of his PhD students for a while. This was before I knew he was "famous"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8767763.stm This is about Earth's gravity level newly released. Reading this article, I have a question: If a person who is living in a region of gravity level 100 (from the map at the article) moves to a region of gravity level -100, is it possible for the person to feel the subtle change in gravity level?

Brian Cox is will be made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. It will be for his services to science. Brian Cox is a professor at the University of Manchester and is now well-known for his TV and radio programmes about science. Also, Athene Donald will become a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) and Jerry Cowhig, will be made Member of the British Empire (MBE). The IOP new report can be found here.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/sections/news/Details.aspx?NewsId=26358 I just read about this today. I didn't know it existed. Sure, the news is from around November of last year. Regardless, I think a few of you might find it interesting. I'm not seeing anything on Wikipedia about it yet. I'm guessing there is a RAM type of technology for Blu-Ray. Maybe these should be called Blu-RAM discs?

n an article available online in the journal Cancer, Dr. Jeffrey Cadeddu, professor of urology and radiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, reported the outcomes of more than 200 patients who were treated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Once the diagnosis of tumor is confirmed and the RFA technique is agreed upon, a needle-like probe is placed inside the tumor. The radiofrequency electricity waves passing through the probe heat up tumor tissue and destroy it. Surgeons view the RFA procedure with the aid of imaging devices such as computed tomography (CT scan). Of the 208 patients who underwent the RFA procedure, 160 were diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma…

Yesterday a paper was published that describes the use of genotyping arrays to detect genetic determinants of autism: Here the abstract: Pinto et al. Nature (2010) (online) One interesting finding is that no single locus was found to be responsible for the condition, but that many pathways are involved. However, the identification of these pathways may prove to be crucial for the understanding of the underlying mechanisms.

From BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10139906.stm http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=908 From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiversity

someone knows some agar to Bacillus pumilus to show me their colony morphology...pleaseeee

https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/sussex/healthprofessionals I am currently studying at the University of Sussex and am conducting research for my Health Psychology MSc. I would be really grateful if you would spend less than 10 minutes completing my online questionnaire by clicking on the above link. ***By completing the questionnaire you will be entered into a draw to win £50, and you will also be contributing to valuable psychology research*** In order to take part, you must be fluent in the English language and also work in the healthcare profession. Please contact me by emailing eloise.harris@sussex.ac.uk if you have any questions. This research is being…

http://edge.org/discourse/creation/creation_index.html I'll just leave this here. But really, though, thoughts? Predictions?

according to the BBC News.

http://swns.com/new-evidence-suggests-dinosaurs-wiped-out-by-big-freeze-231717.html So apparently dinosaurs could have been wiped out by a sudden drop in temperature. But what might have caused the drop?

See the IOP news report by Michael Banks here. Here is the BBC news report by Jonathan Amos. He is Member of Parliament for Havant. He has his own website. Here is what Wikipedia says.

This has been in the news lately. "Getting less than six hours sleep a night can lead to an early grave, UK and Italian researchers have warned." I've been getting lots of non-sciency people asking me about this as they're very skeptical. Does anyone have the reference for the paper this refers to so I can be a bit more informed? As far as I can tell, the results of this study were actually published in 2007.

STS-132 is going to be the last planed flight of the space shuttle Atlantis. The launch time is 2:20 p.m. EDT - May 14, 2010. It will however be made ready for flight if needed for the planned flight of Endeavour in November. Have a look at what Jonathan Amos of the BBC says about this here. STS-133 by Discovery in September will be the penultimate shuttle mission. Endeavour's flight STS-134 will be the final mission of any space shuttle and marks the end of an era.

Interesting article that correlates to politics but since it's science news I'll post it here.. Lemme know what you thinks Cheers

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/57997/title/Pigeons_usually_let_best_navigator_take_the_lead This article just blows me away, and begs the question, how do the members of the flock know what bird has the best navigational skills. This must imply some level of communication and/or observation amongst the birds that is then remembered.

UK scientists were told just before Christmas that the funding for their work will stop. This is despite NASA saying that the mission will be extended until 2017, when the spacecraft will be commanded to plunge into the ringed planet's atmosphere. STFC is trying to save money over the next few years. What other astronomy projects will suffer? See the BBC news report here.

The manifesto itself can be found here.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/58275/title/Backward_planets_may_have_flipped_into_place I read through and I though interesting article. Maybe systems like this are more common than we previously thought. I wanted to find out some more about the individual systems, specifically how far some of these systems were from Earth. So I followed the link to the other article in the third paragraph down, that further explained the information gathered on extra solar planets. http://www.sciencenews.org/index/generic/activity/view/id/46658/title/Extrasolar_planets_at_full_tilt There I found a few of the names of the extra solar planets COROT-Exo-1b …

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/58095/title/Copycats_prevail_in_computerized_survival_game Pretty interesting little article, here is a peak, I wanted to know what you guys think. Does this study accurately reflect nature? On another point. I am guessing the independent thinkers, however, do play a necessary role in the game, despite the copycats being more successful. The reason I say this, is because someone has to break the ice initially and try something. However beneficial or detrimental the actions of a bold individual are serves as a lesson to the other individuals in the environment. Even though the risk takers/individuals may have a …

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/04/scienceshot-animals-that-live-wi.html?rss=1 So, life can exist without oxygen. Does this mean there are far, far more possible places (and planets) that can support life?

UC Santa Barbara geologist correlates patterns in sediment cores to climate cycles, particularly glaciation periods........ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100406133707.htm