ScienceBlogs
Where the world discusses science. 73 blogs, 110,250 posts, and 1,589,523 comments.
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Envoronment
July 5, 2009
Built on Facts
Sunday Function I first met this function sometime in the year 2001 in the manual for a graphing calculator. The manual said that the function had no "closed-form analytic antiderivative" but nonetheless the calculator could integrate it numerically. At the time I...
Uncertain Principles
Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson I've been enjoying Tom Levenson's "Diary of a Trade Book" series quite a bit (the latest post is on cover art), so when I say a stack of copies of Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the...
A Blog Around The Clock
Lindau Nobel interview: Fenja Schopke A brief interview with one of the young researchers attending the Lindau Nobel conference - Fenja Schopke of RWTH Aachen, Germany....
July 4, 2009
A Blog Around The Clock
Lindau Nobel conference - Thursday Thursday morning was the Biofluorescence morning, with lectures by the three most recent Nobelists who received their prize for the discovery and first uses of the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and its derivatives that glow in other colors. It's hard...
A Blog Around The Clock
Lindau Nobel - interview with Matthew Siebert A brief interview with one of the young researchers attending the Lindau Nobel conference - Matthew Siebert of the University of California, Davis, USA:...
Mike the Mad Biologist
Crazy Fun with Silly Putty Not only will you want to see what happens when you drop fifty pounds of silly putty off a building, but you'll actually learn some science!
July 3, 2009
A Blog Around The Clock
Lindau Nobel - interview with Bente Flier A brief interview with one of the young researchers attending the Lindau Nobel conference - Bente Flier of the University of Constance, Germany:...
A Blog Around The Clock
Lindau Nobel conference - the Lindau island It's a beautiful place:...
Built on Facts
In Which Your Host Witnesses a High-Speed Chase Last night I saw a classic conservation of momentum problem in person. It was about midnight, and I was on a service road beside west Houston's Beltway 8 (avoiding the tolls) when I slowed down to stop at a red...
The World's Fair
What is a transmon qubit? Science Scout Twitter Feed Somebody recently tweeted the term "transmon qubit" to the Science Scout twitter account, and (for the life of me) I cannot wrap my head around what it is exactly (other than a piece of delicious...
Uncertain Principles
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Contest Winners After a long baby-induced delay, we are finally ready to announce the winners of the How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Caption Contest and Poetry Contest. I've obtained a few more copies of the bound galleys from the publisher,...
Starts With A Bang
Could we Garden on Mars? Earlier this week, the most obvious scientific news in recent memory was reported: there's Uranium on the Moon. This has been, pretty much, a slam-dunk since Apollo 11. Why? Because we've brought moonrocks back to Earth, and we've analyzed them...
July 2, 2009
Eruptions
Rockfall "snuffs out" the Halema'uma'u vent? The glow at Halema'uma'u Crater on Kilauea's summit has been blocked by a rockfall that has clogged the vent with debris. Now, the question is what caused the rockfall and what effect it might have activity at the summit of the volcano.
Eruptions
New eruption in Ethiopia! Did an Eruptions reader find a volcanic eruption before anyone else? Maybe so for the new eruption going on at Manda Hararo in Ethiopia.
The Quantum Pontiff
ArXiview 1.2 for iPhone OS 3.0 Out ArXiview, my arXiv browsing iPhone app, has been updated for the new iPhone OS 3.0. New features include:Search fields now accept boolean queries and exact phrase queries. Touch the little (i) icon to get info on this feature from the...
Pharyngula
Richard Royce Schrock: Recent Advances in Olefin Metathesis Catalyzed by Molybdenum and Tungsten Alkylidene Complexes Uh-oh. I'm trying to follow this talk, but it's one for the chemistry purists: I don't understand the words he's saying, starting with "olefin" and continuing with "metathesis". You'll have to look to one of the other Lindau bloggers...
July 1, 2009
Greg Laden's Blog
NASA, Japan Release Most Complete Topographic Map of Earth From a NASA Press Release: NASA and Japan released a new digital topographic map of Earth Monday that covers more of our planet than ever before. The map was produced with detailed measurements from NASA's Terra spacecraft....
Greg Laden's Blog
Ulysses Solar-Polar Spacecraft Put To Sleep A press release from NASA: Ulysses, a joint NASA and European Space Agency mission, officially ceased operations today, after receiving commands from ground controllers to do so. The spacecraft, which operated for more than 18 years, charted the unexplored regions of space above the poles...
EvolutionBlog
Cincinnati, Part Two Thursday morning started bright and early, since the first talk was at eight. It goes against my grain to be out of bed at that hour, but sometimes in life you just have to make sacrifices. I was at the...
A Few Things Ill Considered
How does this fit? Just wondering how the conspiracy theories about the climatological-industrial complex handle this: Funding cut for UK climate research? Hadley's climate research was not alarmist enough?...
Eruptions
SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Report for 6/24-30/2009 Catch up on the week's volcanic events with the USGS/SI Volcano Report.
Starts With A Bang
Second Light: Herschel and Hubble together Just a few weeks ago, the Herschel Telescope was launched into space and successfully deployed. Herschel is larger than the Hubble Space Telescope, but instead of measuring visible light, it measures far-infrared light. This means that, when you look at...
All of My Faults Are Stress Related
Pretty rock pictures at Photo Synthesis This month's featured photographer at Photo Synthesis has mineral pictures. Pretty!
Uncertain Principles
Plagiarism, Garbling, and Superluminal Motion Are Los Alamos scientists really claiming to have made light move faster than light? No. They're just the victims of bad writing and worse copying.
Pharyngula
Wednesday morning at Lindau I'm here for another long session of talks. Unfortunately, this is Big Chemistry day, and I'm struggling to keep up with the unfamiliar. I need more biology for it all to make sense! Rudolph Marcus: From 'On Water' and...
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“First of all, let's use the term 'caldera' and get away from using the media-hyped term 'supervolcano', made famous by Hollywood. We are big boys and girls, and can use correct scientific terminology.” Tucker on Mt. Saint Helens: Supervolcano?
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PZ Myers 07.04.2009
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Orac 07.04.2009
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revere 07.05.2009
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ERV 07.04.2009
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SB Basics
Avian Flu
The recent swine influenza outbreak has brought the fear of a global pandemic to the forefront of the public consciousness. But before pigs, the suspected carriers of the next pandemic were of the avian species. But what does it mean to have swine or avian influenza and how do they differ from the regular flu? Can you be vaccinated against it? How do these viruses spread from animals to humans? Read the ScienceBlogs posts below to find out!
Effect Measure December 28, 2008
Another flu paper that "unlocks the secret" of 1918 virus virulence
We're learning important things. This evidence strongly suggests that some feature of the polymerase complex allowed the virus to invade the lower respiratory tract and lung tissue of ferrets. Understanding that is a big step forward, a direction different than we have been looking up to now, where much work has gone into the difference between bird and human receptors in the upper and lower respiratory tracts.
Not Exactly Rocket Science June 21, 2008
Round peg, square hole - why our bird flu drugs are a fluke
The world's nations are stockpiling two drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, to counter the threat of a bird flu pandemic. These drugs work by blocking a key protein that allows the virus to spread. But two years ago, a study revealed the structure of this protein and in doing so, shown that both Tamiflu and Relenza only work through a fortunate fluke.
Effect Measure August 6, 2008
What killed people in the 1918 flu?
Most people in 1918 who got flu didn't die of it and the ones that did probably died mostly from secondary bacterial pneumonias. But now we have to ask what this has to do with today's pandemic planning assumptions.
Aetiology January 26, 2006
Pandemic Influenza Series
Day 1: History of Pandemic Influenza. Day 2: Our adventures with avian flu. Day 3: Challenges to pandemic preparedness. Day 4: 1918 influenza virus reconstructed. Day 5: How ready are we, and what can YOU do?
