MetaFilter posts tagged with science

Expeditions to the Polar Regions

netbros — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:01:49 -0800

The Polar Discovery team has documented science in action from pole to pole during the historic 2007-2009 International Polar Year, and covered five scientific expeditions. The science projects explored a range of topics from climate change and glaciers, to Earth’s geology, biology, ocean chemistry, circulation, and technology at the icy ends of the earth. Through photo essays and other multimedia, they explain how scientists collected data and what they discovered about the rapidly changing polar regions. From the awesome folks at WHOI.

Workplace poisonings

emd3737 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:50:18 -0800

Last August, six Harvard scientists went to the hospital after drinking coffee laced with sodium azide, in what appears to be a delibarate posioning. Previous laboratory-related poisonings have occured at other prestigious institutions, although radioactivity is generally the method of choice. In 1998, a Brown graduate student fed two students (one of whom was his ex-girlfriend) a dish of chicken, vegetables, and radioactive iodine. In 1996, an MIT researcher was poisoned with radioactive P-32. In 1995, 27 NIH employees were poisoned with P-32 that was later detected in their kitchen and water cooler. That incident remains unsolved. A brief history of poisoning.

Where the Scent of Yesterday's Vogue Lives

netbros — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:17:31 -0800

Take your nose on a stroll down memory lane with vintage perfumery. The Vintage Perfume Vault features fragrance reviews and articles on perfume history. Perfume Shrine offers articles on perfumery including essays on the science of fragrance and aroma materials, interviews with perfumers and industry professionals, trend-watching. Inspiration in Perfumery profiles Henri Robert, Andre Fraysse, Ernest Beaux and Edmond Roudnitska. More about olfactory delights from 1000 Fragrances. Looking for that special fragrance to make the evening just right? How about: Dregs | Dirt | Earthworm | Funeral Home | Laundromat | Necco | Pinkitude | Redhead in Bed | Sex on the Beach | Stable | or the ever ubiquitous Play-Doh.

Britain Can Make It!

Miko — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:53:28 -0800

Making the Modern World presents a set of twisty little passages through the history of science and invention, from the eighteenth century to the contemporary era, brought to you by the UK's Science Museum.

Learn.Genetics

netbros — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:35:03 -0800

grumblebee's post about cell size and scale the other day was quite fascinating. Pulling back to the home for that site, the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah delivers educational materials on genetics, bio-science and health topics ranging from stem cells to gene therapy, and from epigenetics to heredity. Explore the neurobiology of normal and addicted brains and the genetic contribution to this chronic disease.

The science behind spook hills

cog_nate — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:24:51 -0800

""Anti-Gravity Hills" (also known as "Gravity Hills", "Spook Hills", or "Magnetic Hills") are natural places where cars put into neutral are seen to move uphill on a slightly sloping road, apparently defying the law of gravity. Typically, the "spooky" stretch of road is rather short (50-90 m), only a few meters wide, and surrounded by a natural hill landscape, without nearby buildings. Such places are found in several countries all around the world, and have been tourist attractions for decades. They should not be confused with the "Mystery Spots" [previously] found in amusement parks. These are generally tilted cabins, purposely built as such; a person walking inside feels disoriented, getting a very strong impression of standing at an angle in a perfectly normal room." CSICOP and Discovery News explain the phenomenon, and here's the paper on which the CSICOP article was based (PDF).

What do flaky scalps, skunks, and dead polo ponies have in common?

Wolfdog — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:49:28 -0800

Chemistry in its Element - a weekly podcast from the Royal Society of Chemistry offering an engagingly-narrated stroll through the periodic table, element by element.

"An Epidemic of Fear." Wired takes on the anti-vax movement

zarq — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:48:51 -0800

Wired profiles pediatrician Paul Offit, co-creator of the RotaTeq rotavirus vaccine and a primary target of the anti-vacci nation movement. Dr. Offit published a book,“Autism’s False Prophets” in 2008 but didn't tour, because he had received too many death threats. The profile by Amy Wallace*, is part of a collection of articles on vaccinations, including "The Misinformants: Prominent Voices in the Anti-Vaccine Crusade", "How To Win An Argument About Vaccines", and "A Short History of Vaccine Panic". *Wallace is receiving hate mail for it. She's been twitting about that here. (Vaccines: Previously on MeFi)

Cell Size and Scale

grumblebee — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:50:05 -0800

Cool app lets you zoom in from a coffee bean to a carbon atom, so that you can compare sizes. Along the way, you see a grain of sand, a skin cell and many other tiny things. This is the first time I've ever had a sense of these objects' sizes. Cells are actually bigger than I thought they were. I wish the zoomer would keep going. I want to see some sub-atomic particles on the scale.

We are all connected

bwg — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:01:04 -0800

Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye, sing to us (auto-tuned in a way that I actually don't hate), in We Are All Connected*. *Possibly NSFW owing to sidebar video links. Something similar was mentioned here previously.

Big Brother's just a beetle on the wall

scrutiny — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:54:32 -0800

Cyborg Spy Beetles are no longer a thing of the future. UC Berkeley (funded by DARPA) has created cyborg beetles guided wirelessly via laptop. These spy beetles were created with the intent of bugging actual conversations, literally acting as the "fly on the wall". This, surprisingly, doesn't seem to be a hoax. Here's some more detailed info.

Psychological Science?

escabeche — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:14:44 -0800

"Research has shown that numerous psychological interventions are efficacious, effective, and cost-effective. However, these interventions are used infrequently with patients who would benefit from them, in part because clinical psychologists have not made a convincing case for the use of these interventions ... and because clinical psychologists do not themselves use these interventions even when given the opportunity to do so." In Psychological Science in the Public Interest, psychologists Timothy Baker, Richard McFall, and Varda Shoham argue that clinical psychology needs to embrace its status as a science in order to save itself as a profession. If that's too long, Walter Mischel -- yes, the marshmallow guy -- writes an accompanying editorial. : "The disconnect between much of clinical practice and the advances in psychological science is an unconscionable embarrassment..."

The "boy-killing, man-mutilating, money-making, education-prostituting, gladiatorial sport."

phrontist — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:55:54 -0800

Does american football unavoidably lead to brain damage over time? Does a culture favoring perseverance at the expense of well being begin in high school?

Aaron Beck & Cognitive Therapy

Non Prosequitur — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:05:20 -0800

“The psychoanalytic mystique was overwhelming. It was a little bit like the evangelical movement.” How Aaron Beck and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helped increase empiricism in psychotherapy.

Bio-luminescent Shrooms!

Burhanistan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:59:57 -0800

Bio-luminescent Shrooms! That is all.

The sleep of reason

Artw — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:07:45 -0800

"Common images are bearded, goblin-like demons laughing or whispering sinister speech, a faceless girl (usually covering her face with hair, moving around in bed moaning and feeling my body), hands appearing from the wall and attempting to strangle me. A hung man talking in the corner of the room, and some of the most bizarre experiences may include up to a dozen 'critter' entities (think Gremlins movie) laughing and talking about me. The environment tends to feel like a holographic dollhouse, the experience peaks and then the hallucinations mysteriously vanish when I regain control of my body."- The bizarre world of sleep paralysis, a form of hypnagogia and root of many folkloric figures such as succubi or incubi and the night hag.

Me Go Too Far! Me Am Play Gods!

WCityMike — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:55:50 -0800

Caveman Science Fiction. Me Go Too Far! Me Am Play Gods! Also: Advanced Dungeons and Discourse, You're a Good Man, Charlie Darwin, and the large gaping hole in the center of your chest. All from the smart-funny that is Dresden Codak.

IgNobility 2009

wendell — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:55:45 -0800

This year's winners of the Ig Nobel prizes are a bumper crop of wild and crazy SCIENCE!, featuring sword-swallowing, knuckle-cracking, benefits of cow-naming, pregnant women NOT tipping over, a household use for giant panda poop (take that, Packham), diamonds made from tequila, a brassiere that can be used as TWO gas masks, "Ireland's Worst Driver", Icelandic banks, Zimbabwean currency, and a 'Peace Prize' earned by hitting people over the heads with beer bottles (and comparing the effects of empty vs. full bottles) (related inquiry)

Untying the Pink Ribbon

batmonkey — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:29:26 -0800

October's focus on breast cancer is a curvy pink double-edged sword and those in the fight agree. The public edge is mostly about raising money, too, which is generally committed to research. Many find the other edge of the pink storm to be a cynical marketing blitz. Some products may be a contributing factor. Plastic is a chief concern. Soy products - particularly popular with the health-conscious - may also be part of the problem. Donated profit is often a small percentage of the various costs associated with the items - consumer, production, and ecological . Direct donation and effort contributes far more and goes further. Educating yourself and others can accomplish even more. Know the risk factors and various causes.

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid

Artw — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:57:14 -0800

Is mysticism overtaking science in sci-fi? Does Every SF Show Need Jesus Now?

Monkeys inform humans about walking

scrutiny — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:30:12 -0800

What can we learn from quadrapeds about our own bipedal gait? Recently, a group of researchers has taught rhesus macaques how to walk, and then used neural recordings to develop a model of a functioning brain-machine interface (BMI) designed to take the signals from your brain and use them to interface with a prosthetic leg, which would allow previously paralyzed patients to literally walk again. Here's the abstract:

The ability to walk may be critically impacted as the result of neurological injury or disease. While recent advances in brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) have demonstrated the feasibility of upper-limb neuroprostheses, BMIs have not been evaluated as a means to restore walking. Here, we demonstrate that chronic recordings from ensembles of cortical neurons can be used to predict the kinematics of bipedal walking in rhesus macaques – both offline and in real time. Linear decoders extracted 3D coordinates of leg joints and leg muscle electromyograms from the activity of hundreds of cortical neurons. As more complex patterns of walking were produced by varying the gait speed and direction, larger neuronal populations were needed to accurately extract walking patterns. Extraction was further improved using a switching decoder which designated a submodel for each walking paradigm. We propose that BMIs may one day allow severely paralyzed patients to walk again.

This is not the first time someone has trained a monkey to walk (Mori et. al 2001), but the analysis of what neural signals are required to predict the proper movement is impressive. As of yet, they have only done this in one (right) leg, but they plan to move to both in the near future. After that, I imagine it can't be too far from human trials with paraplegics. For those curious, the researchers implanted electrode arrays into M1 and S1 and typically isolated between 200-300 stable neurons per session.

Ardipithecus: We Meet At Last

HumanComplex — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:45:11 -0800

Ardipithecus: We Meet At Last. (Single Link Carl Zimmer)

Cancer Causing Viruses

mdpatrick — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:10:56 -0800

Paul Ewald, an evolutionary biologist at University of Louisville in Kentucky states his conviction, in one interview with Discover Magazine that, that by 2050 the human species will have found that between 80% and as high as 95% of cancers are caused by viruses. from Discovery Magazine Article:

Viruses push cells to the brink; additional mutations from genetic defects or the environment are needed for full-blown cancer. Keep in mind that the vast majority of mutating agents provoke cells to stop functioning or to die, meaning there is no chance for those mutations to cause cancer. Without an infection, the few mutated cells that could potentially cause cancer stop proliferating after several divisions. But infected cells can reach such high numbers that the progression to cancer is not terminated by the many mutations that kill the cells or make them nonfunctional. The small percentage that are cancer-causing can continue to proliferate.

UK Asylum Seekers: Let The Right Ones In

filthy light thief — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:54:02 -0800

The Home Office, the UK government department responsible for immigration control, has initiated a program to test the DNA from of potential asylum seekers in an attempt to confirm their true nationalities. The initial program is a six-month pilot limited to claimants arriving from the Horn of Africa. The program, currently using forensic samples provided on a voluntary basis, could potentially expand to other nationalities if successful. The Home Office spokeswoman said ancestral DNA testing would not be used alone but would be combined with language analysis, investigative interviewing techniques and other recognized forensic disciplines, but many are decrying the "deeply flawed" program, from refugee support groups to scientists in the genetic forensics fields (via). Sandy Buchan, of Refugee Action:

Many of those who seek asylum are two or even three generations removed from the country of origin of their parents and grandparents, and are fleeing areas other than the nation of their birth. A Zimbabwean farmer fleeing persecution may possess the DNA of British relatives; would they be denied asylum on that basis?

Alec Jeffreys of the University of Leicester, who pioneered human DNA fingerprinting:

The Borders Agency is clearly making huge and unwarranted assumptions about population structure in Africa; the extensive research needed to determine population structure and the ability or otherwise of DNA to pinpoint ethnic origin in this region simply has not been done. Even if it did work (which I doubt), assigning a person to a population does not establish nationality - people move! The whole proposal is naive and scientifically flawed.

See also: Science Insider follow-up post and further reactions from experts in genetic forensic analysis.

Ass, Backwards

Rumple — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:10:08 -0800

It became necessary, one day, at Willet's Point, to destroy a worthless mule, and the subject was made the occasion of giving instruction to the military class there stationed. The mule was placed in proper position before the camera and duly focused. Upon the animal's forehead a cotton bag was tied containing six ounces of dynamite.....

Instantaneous Photography, 1881 style. From Scientific American, September 24, 1881: (a) Text (b) Engravings: Before the Explosion; After the Explosion. (c) Photographs: The Explosion. images from stereoviews.com; link via things magazine.