4410 posts tagged with science.
Displaying 1 through 50 of 4410. Subscribe:
For those of us who find eating ASMR videos horrifying
Research reveals why some find the sound of others eating so irritating: Scans show some brains have a stronger link between the part that processes sound and that which controls the mouth and throat (The Guardian): “What we are suggesting is that in misophonia the trigger sound activates the motor area even though the person is only listening to the sound,” said Dr Sukhbinder Kumar, a neuroscientist at Newcastle University. “It makes them feel like the sounds are intruding into them.” [more inside]
TikTok teen points to inside elbow, bites lip: "Heeeeeeeesch"
A shape's Heesch number is, roughly, the number of times it can be surrounded by copies of itself. 0 is boring: it just can't. Infinity is boring: it tiles the plane. Positive but finite? Now that's the good stuff. Craig S. Kaplan has been looking for specimens and has turned up a bunch of new examples recently. [more inside]
How Washington Got Hooked on Flying Saucers
The threat narrative was a brilliant bit of framing, turning a story of poltergeist hunters battling a cabal of demon-believers into a national security issue. [more inside]
Surveillance Capitalism in the Library and Lab
"For some time now, the major academic publishers have been fundamentally changing their business model with significant implications for research: aggregation and the reuse or resale of user traces have become relevant aspects of their business. Some publishers now explicitly regard themselves as information analysis specialists. Their business model is shifting from content provision to data analytics. This involves the tracking –i.e. recording and storage –of the usage data generated by researchers (i.e. personalised profiles, access and usage data, time spent using information sources, etc.) when they utilise information services such as when carrying out literature searches." [more inside]
I promise this story about microwaves is interesting.
I found an article that said "The microwave was invented to heat hamsters humanely in 1950s experiments." And I thought, no it wasn't. ...was it?
A body without a plan
From Its Myriad Tips: the LRB reviews Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life, exploring the worlds of mushrooms, lichen, and yeasts — and our relationships with them
squidgy
New, incredibly detailed videos capture how the brain jiggles inside the skull as blood and other fluids flow through the squidgy organ (LiveScience): gif, Youtube. "Really, it's a very small motion," typically between about 0.002 inches and 0.015 inches (50 to 400 micrometers) at most, in terms of how far the tissue deforms [...] Making the movements appear about 25 times larger allowed the researchers to assess that motion in greater detail, tracking its direction and amplitude with precision." "Stunning" Brain Movement Detail Possible with 3D Amplified MRI (Diagnostic Imaging)
There's no such thing as a tree
Scientists aren't infallible: airborne transmission of Covid
Airborne transmission is driving Covid, not droplet transmission, which means that certain precautions (avoiding indoor spaces, wearing a mask, ventilation) matter much more than others (staying six feet apart, cleaning surfaces). The WHO and CDC just updated their websites this week to reflect the importance of airborne transmission. Zeynep Tufekci: Why did it take so long for scientists to accept that Covid is airborne? Twitter thread. One part of the answer: in 1910, Dr. Charles Chapin attributed the efficacy of social distancing to droplet transmission. This became the conventional wisdom. And there's often "a higher standard of proof for theories that challenge conventional wisdom than for those that support it." [more inside]
Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer
How Humanity Gave Itself an Extra Life [ungated link] - "Between 1920 and 2020, the average human life span doubled. How did we do it? Science mattered — but so did activism." (NYT, PBS)
[more inside]
Sugar not so sweet in COVID.
Sugar in COVID-19 (YT) from the Blue Brain Project at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland [more inside]
The Hidden Science Making Batteries Better, Cheaper and Everywhere
How Batteries Work: Inside The Batteries Powering Your Car, Phone and More - "From electric vehicles to your cell phone, lithium ion batteries have evolved quickly over the past few years. Bloomberg Green charted the evolution of their makeup and how they work." (Bloomberg: The Next Generation of Batteries | How a New Generation of Batteries Will Change the World) [more inside]
Artificial atoms: quasiparticle designer matter
The Joy of Condensed Matter - "Hard times in fundamental physics got you down? Let's talk excitons."[1] [more inside]
I am not throwin' away my shot
Now on to negative probabilities :P
Physicists Prove That the Imaginary Part of Quantum Mechanics Really Exists! - "A Polish-Chinese-Canadian research team has proven that the imaginary part of quantum mechanics can be observed in action in the real world." [more inside]
Long time till spring
A seedbank-testing experiment that started in 1879 has decades to run. It's a simple experiment, but the simple things are hard: neither losing the seeds nor digging them up too early. From the point of view of the *seeds* the simple thing -- don't germinate until you can grow -- is also getting pretty hard. [more inside]
“Does your cat’s butthole really touch all the surfaces in your home?”
A 6th-grader tackles the age-old question. With lipstick.
minimal cells
Scientists Create Simple Synthetic Cell That Grows and Divides Normally - "New findings shed light on mechanisms controlling the most basic processes of life."[1] [more inside]
Mind the Gap, Handbook of Clinical Signs in Black and Brown Skin, Update
Mind the Gap, a handbook of clinical signs and symptoms in black and brown skin, is available to be downloaded online at no cost. [more inside]
Advanced training for the dance your PhD contest
Professor André K. Isaacs' lab members spend most of their time solving problems in organic chemistry.
They
also
make
short
dance
videos
and sometimes make
other
short
films. There's also a recent short text interview.
WIRED offering non-journalists a residency program
"Between a pandemic, climate change, and advances in technology that continue to reshape almost every way of life, the past year has been a bellwether for work in the US. At WIRED, we believe some of the people best situated to cover this rapid evolution—from growing pains to genius pivots and everything in between—are the people who know those industries from the inside. That’s why we’re launching a new program called the WIRED Resilience Residency." Last month Wired magazine announced that it is "looking for new voices to provide an insider perspective on rapidly changing industries." [more inside]
Opioid Industry Documents Archive Launched
On March 24, UC San Francisco and Johns Hopkins University announced the launch of "the Opioid Industry Documents Archive, a digital repository of publicly disclosed documents from recent judgments, settlements, and ongoing lawsuits concerning the opioid crisis. The documents come from government litigation against pharmaceutical companies, including opioid manufacturers and distributors related to their contributions to the deadly epidemic, as well as litigation taking place in federal court on behalf of thousands of cities and counties in the United States." [more inside]
But how badly will it kill you?
Do you have a young nature nerd in your life? Would they like to watch an enthusiastic older nature nerd, Dr Ann Jones, react to viral videos of Australia’s cute and deadly critters? Would they like to hear scientific tidbits about the animals we love, and those we love to fear? Then you've come to the right place. You've come to How Deadly | Australia. [more inside]
LEGO knows where you live
The LEGO Group Joins Forces with Former Astronaut Dr. Kathy Sullivan to Launch New LEGO® NASA Space Shuttle Discovery Set (LEGO press release, March 21, 2021). The LEGO Group announces new LEGO® NASA Space Shuttle Discovery set – aimed at adults; Officially revealed by former NASA Astronaut Dr Kathy Sullivan who was part of the original NASA STS-31 mission, over 30 years ago, which launched the Hubble Telescope - capturing images of our universe, to help us understand more about the great beyond. [more inside]
Making it easier for published scientists to change their names
Science said last month: "Today we are pleased to announce a seamless, discreet procedure that authors can follow to change their names in previously published papers across the Science family of journals. We join multiple other publishers that have adopted similar initiatives, including the American Chemical Society, Public Library of Science, Royal Society of Chemistry, and Wiley. Authors may have occasion to change their names for various reasons, but recent outreach by, and on behalf of, transgender scientists has impressed upon us the importance of respecting authors’ privacy and autonomy in correcting the scientific record."
Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), FKA Long-Haul Covid
The National Institutes of Health has announced the first phase of its four-year, billion-dollar initiative to learn more about why some Covid-19 survivors have long-term symptoms, even after the virus has left the body. The group of patients is known as the "long-haulers," though the NIH is calling the condition "Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection," or PASC. (The word "sequelae" comes from Latin, meaning a condition that occurs following a disease. The word "sequel" has the same origin.) -- NBC News, Feb. 24, 2021 [more inside]
The Secret Life of Tim
Enjoyed The Secret Life of Machines? Tim Hunkin is back with a new series, The Secret Life of Components – starting with a 47 minute episode on CHAIN (previously)
Blip
Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest in a millennium, say scientists - "Decline in system underpinning Gulf Stream could lead to more extreme weather in Europe and higher sea levels on US east coast." [more inside]
the first example of memory in an organism with no brain
A memory without a brain (Science Daily): "The striking abilities of the slime mold to solve complex problems, such as finding the shortest path through a maze, earned it the attribute "intelligent." The decision-making ability of Physarum is especially fascinating given that its tubular network constantly undergoes fast reorganization -- growing and disintegrating its tubes -- while completely lacking an organizing center." How the Brainless Slime Mold Stores Memories (Smithsonian Mag): "When placed in a new environment, a slime mold sends out a fractal net of oozing tendrils to explore its surroundings. According to the new research, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the slime mold encodes information about what it finds during these searches by changing the diameter of its exploratory tubes." Single-Cell Organism's Memories Twists Our Understanding Of Intelligent Life (Inverse): "But this isn't just a one-time response. Rather, the slime mold has "irretrievably changed" the flow patterns of its tubes, according to the study — a sign of long-term memory formation." [more inside]
Got a box full of letters, think you might like to read
The Brienne Collection (previously) is an astonishing trove of thousands of undelivered 17th century letters, many still sealed since the moment they left their writers' hands. A new paper in Nature explains how a high-resolution dental x-ray, combined with a painstakingly-researched knowledge of letter folding techniques, makes it possible to read these letters without ever opening them.
NASA/JPL drop first-ever video of landing on Mars
On-board cameras catch Perseverance during entry, descent, and landing. Matt Wallace, Perseverance deputy project manager, credited having watched his daughter's GoPro-style footage of doing a backflip for the plan to put ruggedized commercial sports-POV cameras on the Perserverance rover for EDL. [more inside]
iloveyou
Ice, ice baby
With a large swath of the US from Texas to New England under a winter storm warning [WaPo; NWS], now seems like a good time to admire beautiful ice formations resulting from freeze/thaw cycles. If you don't find any in nature, geology professor (and scientific ice aficionado) James Carter has suggestions for extruding your own. [more inside]
Lancet Report Shines Klieg Light on Health Harms of Trump Era
New report details devastating impact of the Trump administration's health-harming policies, calls for sweeping reforms; roughly 40% of the USA’s coronavirus deaths could have been prevented. [more inside]
the ballad of Captain Cowpie
"When I mentioned that male sage grouse often copulate with dried cowpies, I didn't do the situation justice. I will elaborate in a twitter thread. For most males, cowpie copulation is just an occasional indulgence. For others, it's a lifestyle." [more inside]
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
SmarterEveryDay made a cannon that launches a baseball at 1000 mph. Then they did what any good engineer would do. They launched it at a dummy.
science for the people
In the 1930s, as Jewish and dissident scientists were forced from their posts in Nazi Germany, many found refuge in the United States. At the time, American scientists were trying to shield themselves from the winds of politics by honing arguments for the value of ‘pure’ science. On the frontlines of the Nazi assault in Europe, however, a handful of scientists believed that the way to ensure the integrity of science was to enrich and deepen its connection to the public, not to sever it. From where they stood, it sure didn’t look like science was intrinsically democratic when left to its own devices. In response, Schrödinger and his contemporaries converged on a novel and radical principle: the importance of allowing the public to help steer the course of scientific research.
Knock, knock
Oregon health care workers were stuck in a snowstorm with expiring vaccines. So, they gave shots to strangers caught in traffic. (Pharmacy Today, January 29, 2021) [more inside]
Moon Rock in the Oval Office
Apollo 17 Lunar Sample 76015,143: chipped off a lunar boulder in 1972, now sitting on a table in the White House after a long, long journey.
If a shrunk-down hand were to squeeze the coronavirus...
Physical virology (SLNYT) Of all the pandemic questions bedeviling scientists, the one that Juan Perilla is asking might be among the strangest: If a shrunk-down hand were to squeeze the coronavirus, would it squish, or would it shatter?
searching for cave women
"Let's begin at the start. Hold two crumple-faced newborn girls, one human, one Neanderthal, and you’d have to look closely to see differences. Both equally vulnerable, fitting the smallest-size onesies, their skin velvety-soft. The Neanderthal baby doesn’t yet have heavy brows and, lit by a hearth’s dull glow, her eyes are probably as slate-dark and limpid as any human newborn’s. But cradle her downy head, and it will feel slightly longer, with a bony nobble discernible above her neck." Archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes explores what we know about the lives of female Neanderthals for Aeon.
Let's watch Sodium and Chlorine do a Line Dance (NaCl) (table salt)
Two novel techniques, atomic-resolution real-time video and conical carbon nanotube confinement, allow researchers to view never-before-seen details about crystal formation.Crystal close up | The University of Tokyo [more inside]
Bad science, computational imperialism, and the economy of attention
Bad science, computational imperialism, and the economy of attention. Problems with the attempts to predict complex human traits like sexual and political orientations from facial features.
Finally (9) virgins in space
On Sunday afternoon, Virgin Orbit joined the rare club of companies that have privately developed a rocket and successfully launched it into orbit. [more inside]
An organized rogue editor network!
One way to hack a scientific journal. A group of researchers convinced a scientific journal to organize a special issue about the “Role of Nanotechnology and Internet of Things in Healthcare.” The content turned out to be bad and the organizers disappeared. [more inside]
Early radiosonde. Laboratory measuring cylinder. Probe?
The UK's Science Museum Group, which includes the Science and Industry Museum, the National Science Museum, the National Railway Museum, and Locomotion, have digitized a quarter of their collection and made some cool digital tools to explore it, including a traditional search engine, the Random Object Generator and a random object described by machine learning, What the machine saw. Now, you can also be the first person to digitally see an object that's never been seen.
When you don't notice there aren't bugs on your windshield anymore
Insect populations suffering death by 1,000 cuts, say scientists - "'Frightening' global decline is 'tearing apart tapestry of life', with climate crisis a critical concern."[1,2] [more inside]
Vandalism in the name of science.
Jungle Lab
The machete-wielding scientists ventured into the Amazon, hacking through dense jungle as the mid-morning temperature soared past 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 C). Soaked in sweat, the small group of men and women sawed and tore trees limb from limb. They drilled into the soil and sprayed paint across tree trunks.
A Brazil-wide map of secondary forests over the past 33 years can help regrow Amazon rainforest, stop fires, and curb carbon emissions.
A Brazil-wide map of secondary forests over the past 33 years can help regrow Amazon rainforest, stop fires, and curb carbon emissions.
Learning from Nature's Gift Economy
"This abundance of berries feels like a pure gift from the land. I have not earned, paid for, nor labored for them. There is no mathematics of worthiness that reckons I deserve them in any way. And yet here they are—along with the sun and the air and the birds and the rain, gathering in the towers of cumulonimbi. You could call them natural resources or ecosystem services, but the Robins and I know them as gifts. We both sing gratitude with our mouths full." Botany professor and enrolled member of the Citizen Potowatomi Nation Robin Wall Kimmerer on abundance, scarcity, community, and gifts.
2020 has been a year like no other
Nature presents their selection of the best science images of 2020: A new virus, wafer-thin solar cells, gene‑edited squid and more.