Aetles + science   15

MIT's Freaky Non-Stick Coating Keeps Ketchup Flowing | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation
Watch never-before-seen videos of an amazing new condiment lubricant that makes the inside of bottles so slippery, nothing is left inside. This means no more pounding on the bottom of your ketchup containers--and a lot less wasted food.
science 
3 days ago by Aetles
Texas's war on history | Katherine Stewart | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Don McLeroy, chairman of the Texas State Board of Education from 2007 to 2009, is a "young earth" creationist. He believes the earth is 6,000 years old, that human beings walked with dinosaurs, and that Noah's Ark had a unique, multi-level construction that allowed it to house every species of animal, including the dinosaurs.

He has a right to his beliefs, but it's his views on history that are problematic. McLeroy is part of a large and powerful movement determined to impose a thoroughly distorted, ultra-partisan, Christian nationalist version of US history on America's public school students. And he has scored stunning successes.
usa  science  history  texas  revisionism 
8 days ago by Aetles
James Cameron Completes Record-Breaking Mariana Trench Dive
At noon, local time (10 p.m. ET), James Cameron's "vertical torpedo" sub broke the surface of the western Pacific, carrying the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker back from the Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep—Earth's deepest, and perhaps most alien, realm.


The first human to reach the 6.8-mile-deep (11-kilometer-deep) undersea valley solo, Cameron arrived at the bottom with the tech to collect scientific data, specimens, and visions unthinkable in 1960, when the only other manned Challenger Deep dive took place, according to members of the National Geographic expedition.
sea  ocean  diving  explore  science 
8 weeks ago by Aetles
Aging of Eyes Is Blamed in Circadian Rhythm Disturbances - NYTimes.com
Researchers in Sweden studied patients who had cataract surgery to remove their clouded lenses and implant clear intraocular lenses. They found that the incidence of insomnia and daytime sleepiness was significantly reduced. Another study found improved reaction time after cataract surgery.

“We believe that it will eventually be shown that cataract surgery results in higher levels of melatonin, and those people will be less likely to have health problems like cancer and heart disease,” Dr. Turner said.
science  research  health  eyes  aging  human 
february 2012 by Aetles
Zap your brain into the zone: Fast track to pure focus - life - 06 February 2012 - New Scientist
It's the very simulation that trains US troops to take their first steps with a rifle, and everything about it has been engineered to feel like an overpowering assault. But I am failing miserably. In fact, I'm so demoralised that I'm tempted to put down the rifle and leave.

Then they put the electrodes on me.

I am in a lab in Carlsbad, California, in pursuit of an elusive mental state known as "flow" - that feeling of effortless concentration that characterises outstanding performance in all kinds of skills.
science  brain 
february 2012 by Aetles
The Status of the P Versus NP Problem | September 2009 | Communications of the ACM
What If P = NP?
To understand the importance of the P versus NP problem let us imagine a world where P = NP. Technically we could have P = NP, but not have practical algorithms for most NP-complete problems. But suppose in fact we do have very quick algorithms for all these problems.

Many focus on the negative, that if P = NP then public-key cryptography becomes impossible. True, but what we will gain from P = NP will make the whole Internet look like a footnote in history.
math  science  research 
february 2012 by Aetles
BBC News - Science decodes 'internal voices'
Researchers have demonstrated a striking method to reconstruct words, based on the brain waves of patients thinking of those words.

The technique reported in PLoS Biology relies on gathering electrical signals directly from patients' brains.

Based on signals from listening patients, a computer model was used to reconstruct the sounds of words that patients were thinking of.

The method may in future help comatose and locked-in patients communicate.

Several approaches have in recent years suggested that scientists are closing in on methods to tap into our very thoughts.
science  brian  thoughts 
february 2012 by Aetles
Walking through doorways causes forgetting: Further explorations
Work on event cognition has revealed a locationupdating effect, which is the finding that when people pass through a doorway to move from one location to another, they forget more information than if they do not make such a shift (Radvansky & Copeland, 2006; Radvansky, Tamplin, & Krawietz, 2010). In this work, the environments
people moved through were virtual ones.
science  research 
january 2012 by Aetles
Baby sharks birthed in artificial uterus
After mating, a female produces as many as 40 fertilized embryos, separated between two separate wombs. The embryos take nearly a year to fully develop, but they begin hunting long before that. After about two months, their own yolk sacs go dry. Hungry, they start eating their brothers and sisters. After the rampant in utero cannibalization, only one shark—the biggest and strongest—is left in each womb.

At birth they’re three feet long and experienced hunters, with a good chance of survival. But the tiny brood size, nearly year-long gestation period, and relatively restricted maternal capacity—after giving birth, mothers must wait a year to reproduce again—limit the number of young sharks.
science  biology  fascinating 
september 2011 by Aetles
Why I am not worried about Japan’s nuclear reactors. | Morgsatlarge – blogorific.
I am writing this text (Mar 12) to give you some peace of mind regarding some of the troubles in Japan, that is the safety of Japan’s nuclear reactors. Up front, the situation is serious, but under control. And this text is long! But you will know more about nuclear power plants after reading it than all journalists on this planet put together.

There was and will *not* be any significant release of radioactivity.

By “significant” I mean a level of radiation of more than what you would receive on – say – a long distance flight, or drinking a glass of beer that comes from certain areas with high levels of natural background radiation.

I have been reading every news release on the incident since the earthquake. There has not been one single (!) report that was accurate and free of errors (and part of that problem is also a weakness in the Japanese crisis communication). By “not free of errors” I do not refer to tendentious anti-nuclear journalism – that is quite normal these days. By “not free of errors” I mean blatant errors regarding physics and natural law, as well as gross misinterpretation of facts, due to an obvious lack of fundamental and basic understanding of the way nuclear reactors are build and operated. I have read a 3 page report on CNN where every single paragraph contained an error.
japan  science  tsunami  earthquake  nuclearreactors 
march 2011 by Aetles
NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life - Yahoo! News
Aliens exist, and we have proof.
That astonishingly awesome claim comes from Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who says he has found conclusive evidence of alien life — fossils of bacteria found in an extremely rare class of meteorite called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites. (There are only nine such meteorites on planet Earth.) Hoover’s findings were published late Friday night in the Journal of Cosmology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
science  space 
march 2011 by Aetles
Novelty Seekers and Drug Abusers Tap Same Brain Reward System<BR>
People who are constantly looking for the thrill of new experiences and the cocaine user in search of a "high" may have something in common, according to NIDA-funded researchers. In a series of studies with rats, the researchers have shown that the search for novel experiences activates the brain's reward system in the same way that drugs of abuse do.
dopamine  rewards  science 
february 2011 by Aetles
Odds Are, It's Wrong - Science News
For better or for worse, science has long been married to mathematics. Generally it has been for the better. Especially since the days of Galileo and Newton, math has nurtured science. Rigorous mathematical methods have secured science’s fidelity to fact and conferred a timeless reliability to its findings.

During the past century, though, a mutant form of math has deflected science’s heart from the modes of calculation that had long served so faithfully. Science was seduced by statistics, the math rooted in the same principles that guarantee profits for Las Vegas casinos. Supposedly, the proper use of statistics makes relying on scientific results a safe bet. But in practice, widespread misuse of statistical methods makes science more like a crapshoot.

It’s science’s dirtiest secret: The “scientific method” of testing hypotheses by statistical analysis stands on a flimsy foundation. Statistical tests are supposed to guide scientists in judging whether an experimental result reflects some real effect or is merely a random fluke, but the standard methods mix mutually inconsistent philosophies and offer no meaningful basis for making such decisions. Even when performed correctly, statistical tests are widely misunderstood and frequently misinterpreted. As a result, countless conclusions in the scientific literature are erroneous, and tests of medical dangers or treatments are often contradictory and confusing.
science 
december 2010 by Aetles
Let your imagination run wild and you may eat a few less M&Ms
Imagine eating an M&M, taking one out of a bowl in front of you, popping it in your mouth, chewing it, enjoying the delicious chocolate flavor, and swallowing it. Now, imagine eating another. And another. Now, here’s the question: after imagining eating 30 of these scrumptious treats, given the chance to actually dive into a bowl of M&M’s, how many would you eat? According to a study in Science last week, you’d eat far fewer chocolates after this mental exercise than you would if you hadn't used your imagination.
science  eating 
december 2010 by Aetles

Copy this bookmark:



description:


tags: