Thursday, June 24, 2010
Brain Structure Corresponds to Personality
ScienceDaily (June 23, 2010) — Personalities come in all kinds. Now psychological scientists have found that the size of different parts of people's brains correspond to their personalities; for example, conscientious people tend to have a bigger lateral prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain involved in planning and controlling behavior.
Drug Mitigates Toxic Effects of Radiation in Mice
ScienceDaily (June 23, 2010) — While radiation has therapeutic uses, too much radiation is damaging to cells. The most important acute side effect of radiation poisoning is damage to the bone marrow. The bone marrow produces all the normal blood cells, and therefore a high dose of radiation can lead to low blood counts of red cells, platelets and white blood cells. Humans that receive a lethal dose of radiation as in the setting of an accidental exposure die of bone marrow failure. While there are a few drugs that will decrease toxicity when given before exposure to radiation ("radioprotectants"); currently, no effective therapy exists to mitigate bone marrow toxicity of radiation when given after radiation exposure ("radiomitigants"). The identification of successful human radiomitigants is a top research priority of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and National Institutes of Health.
Gut Bacteria Could Be Key Indicator of Colon Cancer Risk
ScienceDaily (June 22, 2010) — The human body contains more bacteria than it does cells. These bacterial communities can have a positive effect on our health, by training our immune systems and helping to metabolize the foods we eat. But they can also set us up to develop digestive disorders, skin diseases, and obesity.
Google Voice Free for All
Google opens its innovative Voice application to all comers, letting anyone get a single number to catch calls from their landlines, cellphones and work phone numbers.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
High Levels of Fructose, Trans Fats Lead to Significant Liver Disease, Says Study
ScienceDaily (June 23, 2010) — Scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have discovered that a diet with high levels of fructose, sucrose, and of trans fats not only increases obesity, but also leads to significant fatty liver disease with scar tissue.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
New method for producing graphene paves way for mass production of nanomaterial
Researchers have developed a simple new method for producing large quantities of the promising nanomaterial graphene. The new technique works at room temperature, needs little processing, and paves the way for cost-effective mass production of graphene.
http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/igw0t2gz2hc/100621122132.htm
Monday, June 21, 2010
Ford, Edison and the Cheap EV That Almost Was
Henry Ford and Thomas Edison both believed electricity was the future. Here's the story of the car they almost built.
Why Being Wrong Makes Humans So Smart
Hugh Pickens sends in an excerpt in last week's Boston Globe from Kathryn Schulz's bookBeing Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error."The more scientists understand about cognitive functioning, the more it becomes clear that our capacity to make mistakes is utterly inextricable from what makes the human brain so swift, adaptable, and intelligent. Rather than treating errors like the bedbugs of the intellect — an appalling and embarrassing nuisance we try to pretend out of existence — we need to recognize that human fallibility is part and parcel of human brilliance. Neuroscientists increasingly think that inductive reasoning undergirds virtually all of human cognition. Humans use inductive reasoning to learn language, organize the world into meaningful categories, and grasp the relationship between cause and effect. Thanks to inductive reasoning, we are able to form nearly instantaneous beliefs and take action accordingly. However, Schulz writes, 'The distinctive thing about inductive reasoning is that it generates conclusions that aren't necessarily true. They are, instead, probabilistically true — which means they are possibly false.' Schulz recommends that we respond to the mistakes (or putative mistakes) of those around us with empathy and generosity and demand that our business and political leaders acknowledge and redress their errors rather than ignoring or denying them. 'Once we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity, or evil intent, we can liberate ourselves from the impossible burden of trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition that we could be in error, without deeming ourselves idiotic or unworthy.'"
When Do Newborns First Feel Cold?
ScienceDaily (June 17, 2010) — Cold sensing neural circuits in newborn mice take around two weeks to become fully active, according to a new study.
Polar Oceans Key to Temperature in the Tropics
ScienceDaily (June 17, 2010) — Scientists have found that the ocean temperature at Earth's polar extremes has a significant impact thousands of miles away at the equator.
New Air Conditioner Process Cuts Energy Use 50-90%
necro81 writes"The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory has announced that it has developed a new method for air conditioning that reduces energy use by 50-90%. The DEVap system (Desiccant-Enhanced eVaporative air conditioner) cools air using evaporative cooling, which is not new, but combines the process with a liquid dessicant for pulling the water vapor out of the cooled air stream. The liquid dessicant, a very strong aqueous solution of lithium chloride or sodium chloride, is separated from the air stream by a permeable hydrophobic membrane. Heat is later used to evaporate water vapor back out — heat that can come from a variety of sources such as solar or natural gas. The dessicants are, compared to typical refrigerants like HCFCs, relatively benign on the environment."
What US Health Care Needs
Medical doctor and writer Atul Gawande gave the commencement address recently at Stanford's School of Medicine. In it he lays out very precisely and in a nonpartisan waywhat is wrong with the institution of medical care in the US — why it is both so expensive and so ineffective at delivering quality care uniformly across the board."Half a century ago, medicine was neither costly nor effective. Since then, however, science has... enumerated and identified... more than 13,600 diagnoses — 13,600 different ways our bodies can fail. And for each one we've discovered beneficial remedies... But those remedies now include more than six thousand drugs and four thousand medical and surgical procedures. Our job in medicine is to make sure that all of this capability is deployed, town by town, in the right way at the right time, without harm or waste of resources, for every person alive. And we're struggling. There is no industry in the world with 13,600 different service lines to deliver. ... And then there is the frightening federal debt we will face. By 2025, we will owe more money than our economy produces. One side says war spending is the problem, the other says it's the economic bailout plan. But take both away and you've made almost no difference. Our deficit problem — far and away — is the soaring and seemingly unstoppable cost of health care. ... Like politics, all medicine is local. Medicine requires the successful function of systems — of people and of technologies. Among our most profound difficulties is making them work together. If I want to give my patients the best care possible, not only must I do a good job, but a whole collection of diverse components must somehow mesh effectively. ... This will take science. It will take art. It will take innovation. It will take ambition. And it will take humility. But the fantastic thing is: This is what you get to do."
Thursday, June 17, 2010
NASA Says Moon Has More Water Than Great Lakes
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 17, @03:37AM
from the water-and-cheese dept.
from the water-and-cheese dept.
jerryjamesstone writes"The US Great Lakes have some competition: the moon. Yes, that old thing in the sky may hold more than all of the water contained in the Great Lakes, according to a NASA-funded study. From the article: 'Scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, along with other scientists across the nation, determined that the water was likely present very early in the moon's formation history as hot magma started to cool and crystallize. This finding means water is native to the moon.'"
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
22% of fish mislabled
This is from 3 FCPS students that found 22% of the fish in a local market were mislabeled!
Solar Powered Ultralight To Try 24-Hour Flight
transportationfrom the mehr-licht dept.
blair1q writes"When the solar aircraft Solar Impulse lifts off from an airfield in Switzerland on a sunny day at the end of June, it will begin the first ever manned night flight on a plane propelled exclusively by power it collects from the sun. Former Swiss Air Force pilot Andre Borschberg and round-the-world balloonist Bertrand Piccard developed the aircraft, and Borschberg will be the pilot for this mission. 'The flight will require a lot of attention and concentration — the plane doesn't have an auto-pilot, it has to be flown for 24 hours straight.' For him, the most exciting part of the venture is 'being on the plane during the day and seeing the amount of energy increasing instead of decreasing as on a normal aircraft.'"
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Turning a painkiller into a cancer killer: Pain reliever redirected to trigger death pathways in cancer cells
Without knowing exactly why, scientists have long observed that people who regularly take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin have lower incidences of certain types of cancer. Now, in a new study, researchers have figured out how one NSAID, called Sulindac, inhibits tumor growth.
Healthy diet associated with lower risk of cataracts in women
Women who eat foods rich in a variety of vitamins and minerals may have a lower risk of developing the most common type of cataract that occurs in the United States, according to a new study.
Mars May Have Been 1/3 Ocean
coondoggie sends in a snippet from Network World, as is his wont:"It's possible that a huge ocean covered one-third of the surface of Mars some 3.5 billion years ago, a finding likely to reignite an old argument about that amount of water on the red planet, according to a new report. The study by the University of Colorado at Boulder is the first to integrate multiple data sets of river deltas, valley networks and topography from a cadre of NASA and European Space Agency orbiting missions of Mars dating back to 2001, the researchers claim."The National Geographic coverage of the news gives some air time to those doubtful that this study will prove definitive.
More Cold and Snowy Winters to Come in Europe, Eastern Asia and Eastern North America
ScienceDaily (June 11, 2010) — A warmer Arctic climate is influencing the air pressure at the North Pole and shifting wind patterns on our planet. We can expect more cold and snowy winters in Europe, eastern Asia and eastern North America.
Inertial Mass Separate From Gravitational Mass?
CPerdue writes with this excerpt from the MIT arXiv blog:"The equivalence principle is one of the more fascinating ideas in modern science. It asserts that gravitational mass and inertial mass are identical. Einstein put it like this: the gravitational force we experience on Earth is identical to the force we would experience were we sitting in a spaceship accelerating at 1g. Newton might have said that the m in F=ma is the same as the ms in F=Gm1m2/r^2. ... All that changes today with the extraordinary work of Endre Kajari at the University of Ulm in Germany and a few buddies. They show how it is possible to create situations in the quantum world in which the effects of inertial and gravitational mass must be different. In fact, they show that these differences can be arbitrarily large."
Starbucks Frees Wi-Fi
CWmike sends in this excerpt from Computerworld:"Free unlimited Wi-Fi is coming to nearly 7,000 company-operated Starbucks stores in the US beginning July 1, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said on Monday. Schultz also said that Starbucks is partnering with Yahoo! to debut the Starbucks Digital Network this fall. Starbucks customers will have free unrestricted access to various paid sites and services, such as wsj.com, as well as other free downloads Starbucks didn't detail. A spokeswoman said the access will be 'unlimited' and 'simplified, one-click.' By comparison, first-time Wi-Fi users in Starbucks stores now get up to two hours free after registering, but then must purchase additional time at the rate of $3.99 for two consecutive hours. That Wi-Fi access is already free to AT&T DSL home customers and AT&T mobile customers, according to the Starbucks website, but the connection process requires up to nine steps. McDonald's added free Wi-Fi to 11,500 locations earlier this year."
Newsweek Easter Egg Reports Zombie Invasion
danielkennedy74 writes"Newsweek.com becomes the latest in a long list of sites that will reveal an Easter egg if you enter the Konami code correctly (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, enter). This is a cheat code that appeared in many of Konami's video games, starting around 1986 — my favorite places to use it were Contra and Life Force, 30 lives FTW. The Easter egg was probably included by a developer unbeknownst to the Newsweek powers that be. It's reminiscent of an incident that happened at ESPN last year, involving unicorns."
Monday, June 14, 2010
Brand Preference May Be in the Drink, Not in the Head, Vodka Study Shows
ScienceDaily (June 7, 2010) — Those social drinkers who order super-premium vodka in every martini or vodka-and-cranberry, and disdain that default "well" liquor. Are they just vodka snobs, who pay $60 for a bottle of a "tasteless" beverage that can't possibly taste much different than its $6 counterpart? Or is there really a scientific basis for the differences that drinkers claim to taste in America's favorite hard liquor?
What's wrong with the sun?
SUNSPOTS come and go, but recently they have mostly gone. For centuries, astronomers have recorded when these dark blemishes on the solar surface emerge, only for them to fade away again after a few days, weeks or months. Thanks to their efforts, we know that sunspot numbers ebb and flow in cycles lasting about 11 years.
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