Archives for October, 2011
What do Donald Prothero, Dinosaurs, Climate Change and Bigfoot have in common?
Posted by Greg Laden on October 6, 2011 I’m very excited to have the opportunity to interview Don Prothero this coming Sunday on Atheist Talk Radio. If you are local to the Twin Cities, you can listen in on AM 950. If not, you can get there via the Minnesota Atheist web site (where you will have to pretend you live in a…
How A Virus Invades Your Body
Posted by Greg Laden on October 6, 2011 What are the adverse effects of vaccines?
Posted by Greg Laden on October 6, 2011 A study incorporating over 12,000 prior peer reviewed publications, addressing the question of vaccine safety, is due for release by the National Academies of Science. The study attempts to understand adverse effects of vaccines and to assign causality to supposed negative outcomes. The 667 page study covers a large number of vaccines. And yes, it…
Christoph Adami: Finding life we can’t imagine
Posted by Greg Laden on October 6, 2011 How do we search for alien life if it’s nothing like the life that we know? At TEDxUIUC Christoph Adami shows how he uses his research into artificial life — self-replicating computer programs — to find a signature, a ‘biomarker,’ that is free of our preconceptions of what life is Timing is everything.
A River Runs By It: Children growing up with science all around them
Posted by Greg Laden on October 6, 2011 Look at this map, of a small part of the state of Minnesota: See the wide channel that runs from left to right with the windy river in it? You are looking at one of the most amazing stories in geological history ever. I’d like to tell you about it.
Desperado
Posted by Greg Laden on October 6, 2011 First, the version by the Eagles: And now, LeRoy Bell (and some other people):
“Science Denialism” a special presentation by Prof. Donald R. Prothero
Posted by Greg Laden on October 5, 2011 I’ll be interviewing Don on the radio in the AM, then, later that day: Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011, 1:30 p.m. Party Room of Larpenteur Estates 1276 Larpenteur Ave. W. St. Paul, MN 55113 (Park in the back of the apartment complex and go to the gap between buildings near the east end. Signs will point…
Steve Jobs has died
Posted by Greg Laden on October 5, 2011 He was 56, and just recently stepped down from his position at the helm of Apple.
Which SSD Should I Get For My Laptop?
Posted by Greg Laden on October 5, 2011 This is important if you are considering that choice:
Here be Monsters
Posted by Greg Laden on October 5, 2011 Did you know that the British scientific journal Nature publishes a section, called Futures, edited by Henry Gee, which presents a short science fiction story every issue? Well, if you go to this week’s Futures in Nature, which is available on line (and not behinda firewall) you will see something special. I’m not going tell…
Japan Nuclear Disaster Update # 37: Glow in the dark fish, and the meaning of “Power”
Posted by Analiese Miller and Greg Laden on October 5, 2011 As a result of our last posting on Fukushima, we had a discussion initiated by commenter Daedelus2u about radioactive istopes of Cesium becoming concentrated in fish. I thought I’d take this opportunity to expand on that discussion a little. This relates to the possibility that radioactive elements spilled or spewed from a nuclear reactor site…
Ben Goldacre: Battling bad science
Posted by Greg Laden on October 5, 2011 Every day there are news reports of new health advice, but how can you know if they’re right? Doctor and epidemiologist Ben Goldacre shows us, at high speed, the ways evidence can be distorted, from the blindingly obvious nutrition claims to the very subtle tricks of the pharmaceutical industry.
“There can be no such creature” – Chemistry Nobel: Daniel Shechtman
Posted by Greg Laden on October 5, 2011 The finding for which this year’s Chemistry Nobel was awarded earlier today was sufficiently unexpected and counter to the orthodoxy of the time that today’s prize winner was tossed out of his own research group for reporting it. His 1982 discovery has to do with how atoms are organized in solid matter, and is based…
Amazon Kindle: Promises Broken, But I Still Want One. Well, Two.
Posted by Greg Laden on October 4, 2011 The Amazon Kindle originally promised a technology that would improve your reading experience, at the same time cutting the cost of books in half. Those books would arrive on your Kindle through the magic of the Whisper Net, a free space age delivery service. The Kindle itself would be easier to use, lighter weight, and…
Michael Mann … the Hockey Stick guy … speaks to the deniers
Posted by Greg Laden on October 4, 2011 … Martin Hertzberg did a grave disservice to your readers by making false and defamatory statements about me and my climate scientist colleagues … It’s hard to imagine anyone packing more lies and distortions into a single commentary. Mr. Hertzberg uses libelous language in characterizing the so-called “hockey stick” — work of my own published…
Even Better than a Halloween Costume: Life Size Cutouts!
Posted by Greg Laden on October 4, 2011 I went to graduate school to study Anthropology, so naturally, there was very little funding. Some semesters, I paid the bills working as an administrative assistant for one Harvard Muckimuck or another, often at the Kennedy School of Government, but for a while, at the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on the Press, Politics and Public…
Nobel Prize for Physics: Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, Adam Riess
Posted by Greg Laden on October 4, 2011 “In 1998, cosmology was shaken at its foundations as two research teams presented their findings. Headed by Saul Perlmutter, one of the teams had set to work in 1988. Brian Schmidt headed another team, launched at the end of 1994, where Adam Riess was to play a crucial role. … “The two research teams found…
Software Needed: WordPress Linked Comments Plugin
Posted by Greg Laden on October 3, 2011 Threaded comments have advantages but they also have disadvantages. I won’t mention the disadvantages because if you don’t know what they are already than they aren’t disadvantages to you. The advantages are: 1) You can keep track of a sub-conversation in a comments stream; 2) You can refer to a specific upstream comment easily (which…
I need your help to CRUSH all the other bloggers!!!!
Posted by Greg Laden on October 3, 2011 Remember last summer’s tornado in North Minneapolis? North is one of the more challenged neighborhoods in the region, with a high poverty rate and where the schools are struggling against all odds. One of the schools in North Minneapolis that needs your help is one of the schools damaged by that tornado. So they got…
“It’s just a big old tree … with moose heads.”
Posted by Greg Laden on October 3, 2011 Oh great, it’s got healing powers. Thank you news person for reporting that as though it wasn’t insane.
2011 Nobel Prize for Medicine: Beutler, Hoffmann, Steinman for work on the Immune System
Posted by Greg Laden on October 3, 2011 The prize went to Bruce Beutler, Jules Hoffmann, and Ralph Steinman for their work on the immune system. Beutler and Hoffmann’s work enhanced our understanding of the activation of innate immunity in humans. In other words, the link between cytokine and swelling and related issues. Among other things, this work resulted in the development of…
The Three Best Halloween Costumes
Posted by Greg Laden on October 2, 2011 With a science connection. OK, I admit not much of a science connection, but really, it’s hard to find them. I’m trying to cover all the bases here, so I’ve got a suggestion for an adult, a child, and a dog. For the adult, the obvious choice is this “Man in a Cage” costume, wherein…
Jen Hancock on Atheists Talk
Posted by Greg Laden on October 1, 2011 Scott Lohman will be talking to Jen Hancock, the author of Handy Humanism Handbook. Jen blogs at Happiness Through Humanism. She is an author, blogger and humanist activist. Her website is at Jen-Hancock.com. Scott is the president of the Humanists of Minnesota. Atheists Talk is produced with funding from the Minnesota Atheists, the Humanists of…
Magnetic resonator piano demo
Posted by Greg Laden on October 1, 2011 Free Thought Blogs Dot Com Grows!!!
Posted by Greg Laden on October 1, 2011 Freethoughtblogs.com has just added seven new bloggers, and I thought you’d want to know. With this new group of bloggers, FTB.com has become too big for our own sidebar listing us! Gonna have to go drop down soon. Here’s the rundown:
, which is now available for the 
