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Blogs about: Science

If you’re reading these words, you can thank science. Today’s society is flush with examples of how the scientific method pays off, from that ordinary pain medicine sitting in your cabinet to the big ole internet to futuristic vehicles whiz down the highway. For science lovers, it’s a mystery why so many students have to be goaded, coaxed and pushed into studying it. Especially when their lives are surrounded by it (even M&Ms in a candy jar can become science).

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My Carbon Footprint
More from this author

Lily In Canada Science was never my thing. And by “never my thing” I mean that I loathe it. Earth Science=rocks are dumb. Physics = velocity squared times I don’t care. Chemistry = Periodic Table of Death. Biology = the bane of my existence. I only failed one class during my college career and that was Bio. I re-took it and got a D-. I was clearly enthused about learning. Photosynthesis and cells and plant life are sooooooo boring. I have no time for that. However, I believe that my teacher initially failed me for one reason and one reason only–the size of my carbon footprint. Me in every science class. I have pretty big feet. And you know what big feet mean…big shoes! Hah yeah everyone makes that joke, but it’s somehow funnier when I say it, don’tcha think? My size 11 feet make pretty large footprints, so shouldn’t it make sense that my carbon footprint would be above average? It seems pretty straight forward. My teacher made us take a quiz online to m

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First Circuit Strikes Down DOMA And Definition Of Marriage As Between A Man And A Woman
JONATHAN TURLEY

In a major victory for gay rights, the United States Court of Appeal for the First Circuit in Boston has found the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional in a unanimous ruling. The court found that the 1996 law discriminates against homosexual couples. The law was supported by Bill Clinton and by the Obama Administration until the latter recently reversed its position in court and withdrew support for the law before the Court. The case is Gill v. Office of Personnel Management. Notably, the decision did not rule on the key issue of full faith and credit — whether states without same-sex marriage can be forced to recognize gay unions or divorces from states where they are legal. The law was struck down as denying the right of the state to determine how to define marriage and denies gay couples federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples. The case sets up an extremely likely Supreme Court review on the issue with the same-sex case in the Ninth Circuit moving toward the

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Historical botanical illustration of the day
nat waddell's blog

Magnolia grandiflora, commonly known as the southern magnolia or bull bay, is a tree of the family Magnoliaceae native to the southeastern United States. It was one of the many species first described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in his seminal work Systema Naturae, initially published in 1735. The illustration above is dated 1743 and was painted by long-term Linnaean collaborator Georg Dionysius Ehret (right). In Systema Naturae, Linnaeus had become the first scientist to classify plants not according to the way people used them, but rather by the physical similarities between their reproductive parts. His ‘sexual system’ grouped species with the same number of male stamens together, with sub-groups determined by the number of female pistils. Linnaeus believed he was classifying ‘God’s creation’. He is frequently quoted as having said “God created, Linnaeus organised.” Ehret, a German artist, dominated the field of botanical illustration in the 18th century an

How babies learn: It’s all in the porridge
Mark Sloan M.D.

“She’s just using a ‘principled inferential process’, dear.” How do babies decide what to concentrate on as they learn the ways of the world? And how do they keep from being overwhelmed by a world in which everything is new? Surprisingly (or maybe not), they act a lot like adults. Writing in the journal PLoS ONE, Celeste Kidd and colleagues at the University of Rochester describe how babies learn: they use a “principled inferential process” and “appear to allocate their attention in order to maintain an intermediate level of complexity.” Say what? Fortunately Kidd saves the day by naming the process “the Goldilocks Effect.” (Quick refresher: Goldilocks stumbles into the bears’ cottage, finds their porridge to be either too hot or too cold, whines about her porridge-fate until she finally discovers a warm-ish bowl that’s “just right.” She eats it, settles into a “just right” bed, and go

Science Today (Love and Lust explained by Science)
Love and Fearless

Science Today (Love and Lust explained by Science) Introduction: This blog attempts to explain, how Science is dwelling for the betterment of our emotion well being and survival. Meat: 1. Astrophysics (Far: About Stars, Aliens and Fairies if they exist) Caught in the Act: Herschel Detects Gigantic Storms Sweeping Entire Galaxies Clean (Strange behavior observed when one is young) 2. Quantum Mechanics (Small: Of young children, new thinking and the world of small things for people who prefer perfection) Theoretical Breakthrough: Generating Matter and Antimatter from Nothing (Scientist create matter out of nothing) 3. Nobel Prize (Talent: People who did great discoveries in Science and are given a prize so that you don’t forget them) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1911 Allvar Gullstrand The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1911 was awarded to Allvar Gullstrand “for his work on the dioptrics of the eye”. (How the eye works of the brain in short) 4. Brain (You:

A surprise teaching moment with kids!
GPS in East Africa
The Birmingham connection
All That Remains
Third Eye: mysteries and reveals
Learning Mind
New Optical Illusions Expose More Foibles of the Brain | Best Illusions of 2012
Illuminutti
SpaceX planning more private launches into space
Nosʏ Neɪɢʜʙoʀ
Truth in Evolution
citizenfable
Histories mysteries
The Gifted Revere

Mysteries and ‘what happened to’ stories have always intrigued me. Part of our human nature is the need to learn and discover. I suspect it is one of the driving reasons why we have evolved and accomplished so much in our limited existence. I say limited, because in the grand scale of things, we have not been around for but a blip of history. Many mysteries will never be solved, but you never know when the smallest thing can turn a search around, over backwards. That is the part of the mystery that fascinates. Interesting read: What happened to Amelia Earhart? Amelia Earhart raised the spirits of Depression-era America as she soared into the aviation record books with feats of altitude, distance and endurance. The mood took a gloomy turn, however, when she and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937, during a much-heralded attempt to fly around the world. Their fate remains one of aviation’s greatest unsolved mysteries. Theories ab

Are You My Mummy? (See, It’s Funny Because This Post is About a Mummified Child… Get It? GET IT?!)
Epistula Rasa

Some people get drunk and sleep with strangers. I get drunk and read about diseased dead things. …I love me. Anyway, an Israeli-South Korean scientific team recently discovered a 16th century mummified child with rather intact organs, which enabled them to perform a liver biopsy and genetic analysis on the little mummy. The cool thing about this (you know, beyond the fact that they are performing a fucking liver biopsy on a little guy that’s been dead for, oh, 500 years or so) is that, in that genetic analysis, the team discovered enough DNA sequences to piece together the oldest full viral genome recorded to date- an ancient strain of hepatitis B. The particular strain of hep B is known as a genotype C2 sequence and is quite common in Southeast Asia. So, our scientists compared this ancient strain to more modern hep B strains. By studying the mutations and changes (due to environmental pressures), the scientists pinpointed the reconstructed strain’s origin at between

Liquiglide – MIT
coufme

It’s just ketchup and mayonnaise, besides the frustration of getting it out what’s the big deal? With condiment bottles there’s still a bunch of food left in the bottle when you throw it out. By our calculations, about 1 million pounds of food gets thrown out each year worldwide. Also, those squeeze bottles need a big cap. By eliminating the need for such a big cap, we’d save 25,000 tons of petroleum-based plastics each year. Won’t people buy fewer bottles if they’re able to get every last bit of food? Isn’t this bad for food companies? How long has that almost-empty bottle been sitting in the side door of your fridge because it doesn’t look empty? Some condiments are so sticky that the sides are completely covered, even though the bottle is nearly empty. A LiquiGlide coating will let you see exactly how much food is left in the bottle! http://www.liqui-glide.com

Mission 1 in action
GPS in East Africa
That Really Gets My Vote
Shouts from the Abyss

This post is directed at Romney voters. Obama voters may leave the room. Go form up into a control group if that floats your boat. I don’t really care what you do. You just can’t be here. We’re about embark on some science. Today I have a series of questions for you in the name of political science. I appreciate your participation and sincere responses to this test battery. Don’t worry. The questions will be brief, are multiple choice, and you don’t have to explain your answers. Also, the battery is grounded so there is no risk of electrocution. This isn’t one of those science experiments. Q. Imagine it is November 2012 and the following are your choices on the ballot for President of the United States. Using a ballpoint pen or pencil, indicate which of the choices would get your vote. — A. Barack Obama B. Mitt Romney (This is a control question. Since we’re all Romney voters here, Romney should win here by a landslide.) — A. Barack

Astronomy Pictures of the Fortnight L
The moon in daylight

Big recent milestone:  privately funded Dragon capsule docks with ISS (May 25th). Venus will transit the Sun at sunset this Tuesday (June 5th). Prometheus opens in U.S. theaters Friday (June 8). Click to view slideshow.

Treasure your seagrass
Dragon Hunters

A recent paper was published saying that seagrass beds can store up to 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, compared to the meager 30,000 metric tons per square km of a terrestrial forest. Seagrass beds have long been acknowledged as being important ecologically, since they act as nursery habitat for the juvenile stages of many marine and some terrestrial species, they filter sediment, and prevent erosion. This is yet another reason to treasure your seagrass beds. One way you can do this is by being careful with marine boats; propeller scars can be very damaging to seagrass beds, not unlike in coral reefs. So be aware! Seagrass beds are important–not to mention that they are home to seahorses and pipefish, my study organisms!!

How to Reduce Your Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease
Radientlife's Weblog

People are often told that there is very little that can be done to prevent Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. A recent study has results to show that those with greater life purpose and some specific nutrition approaches can result in the maintenance of better cognitive ability. By: PF Louis, NaturalNews.com (NaturalNews) A study led by Dr. Patricia Boyle of Rush University Center in Chicago has concluded that people with greater life purpose maintained cognitive ability better than those who weren’t leading a purposeful life. Dr. Boyle and her team wanted to establish a strategy for avoiding Alzheimer’s consequences rather than attempting to find a way of keeping brain plaques and tangles from accumulating. After following 246 senior citizens — with up to ten years of annual cognitive exams and neurological testing — and quizzing them about life missions and then doing brain autopsies after their deaths, they reached a conclusion. 1 Life purpose/

Transit of Venus
We Interrupt This Workday

On June 5th, Venus will eclipse the sun and for a few hours, appear as a small, black blemish across the face of the sun. Obviously, you can’t stare at the sun so buy some eclipse glasses or welder’s #14 glasses to look directly at the sun. Why is this such a big deal? Why isn’t it!?!? According to Space.com– Due to the tilt of the planet’s orbit, transits of Venus are some of the rarest astronomical sights because they only occur in pairs eight years apart, once every 100 years or so. The last Venus transit occurred on June 8, 2004, and the next one will not be visible again until the year 2117, more than 100 years from now. Venus will cross the face of the sun on June 5, 2012, and will be visible from many parts of the world. Since the event takes place across the International Date Line, the transit will occur on Wednesday, June 6 in Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe. Check out more information here– www.transitofvenus.org — and even downlo