purepedantry | July 23, 2006Fanged killer kangaroo fossils discovered:
Forget cute, cuddly marsupials. A team of Australian palaeontologists say they have found the fossilized remains of a fanged killer kangaroo and what they describe as a "demon duck of doom".
A University of New South Wales team said the fearsome fossils were among 20 previously unknown species uncovered at a site in northwest Queensland state.
Professor Michael Archer said on Wednesday the remains of a meat-eating kangaroo with wolf-like fangs were found as well as a galloping kangaroo with long forearms that could not hop like a modern kangaroo.
"…
purepedantry | July 23, 2006Roger Pielke Jr. from Prometheus has posted his recent Congressional Testimony before the House Government Reform Committee. I am big fan of him simply because I think he is genuinely looking for solutions in a debate that is stuck in an impasse.
Here are some choice morsels:
Take Home Points
1. Human-caused climate change is real and requires attention by policy makers to both mitigation and adaptation - but there is no quick fix; the issue will be with us for decades and longer.
2. Any conceivable emissions reductions policies, even if successful, cannot have a perceptible impact on the…
purepedantry | July 23, 2006Synapse #3 is up at The Neurophilosopher's Blog. Thanks to everyone that submitted.
The next Synapse is at Neurotopia, hosted by fellow Scienceblogger Evil Monkey. It is on August 6th.
Submission guidelines here.
purepedantry | July 21, 2006If you could have practiced science in any time and any place throughout history, which would it be, and why?...
OK, so this is going to sound incredibly trite, but my answer is right now...
...but I have a reason, and it doesn't involve kittens.
I am happy to be a scientist right now because we are going through an incredible Renaissance in neuroscience. We are beginning to understand the brain in ways that no one ever thought possible, and this understanding is translating -- slowly -- into a real ability to cure patients that were previously incurable. I remember at least some people…
purepedantry | July 21, 2006Whereas Merriam-Webster has been adding words to the dictionary like unibrow and drama queen, Time Out New York has some more interesting words. Check out definitions for underboob, aireoke, etc.
Hat-tip: Gawker.
purepedantry | July 21, 2006Hybrid vehicles clearly have better gas mileage than many SUVs on the market, but does the gas mileage as a figure accurately represent the total energy usage required to build, market, use and destroy the vehicle?
Art Spinella, in a huge study by CNW Marketing Research, has endeavored to find the "Dust-to-Dust" energy cost for cars and trucks to determine whether we are gaining or losing ground by adopting hybrids. His study was described in this article by the Reason Foundation's Shikha Dalmia:
According to Art Spinella, the uber-auto analyst and President of CNW Marketing Research, hybrid…
purepedantry | July 20, 2006This article is not my fault. It is in the NYTimes Business Section; therefore, this constitutes real news that I have to report, dammit. It just happens that the real news is about bull semen.
I love the title.
Farmers Use Bull Semen to Inseminate Cows
The article is about artificial insemination, but the title seems to imply surprise that they would use bull semen. What else are they supposed to use? Glitter. Frozen yogurt. Hopes and dreams.
Hopes and dreams don't make new cows, my friend. Only bull semen can.
It goes on to this rather astonishing paragraph:
The number of units…
purepedantry | July 20, 2006Reminder: The Synapse #3 is being hosted on Sunday at The Neurophilosopher's Blog. Submission information is available here.
purepedantry | July 20, 2006In an earlier post about Bush's stem cell veto, I mentioned that I am a libertarian. One of the comments got me thinking, and I want to answer it in detail. Posted by Quitter:
Libertarian? And you're a scientist? Where do you think your funding comes from?
Usually big "L" Libertarian is defined as believing government's only job is defense and law enforcement. When you find one of these guys under a rock they usually bitch about the department of education, say the FDA has killed more people than Hitler and then proceed to tell you how a oregano suspension cured their strep throat.
Maybe…
purepedantry | July 20, 2006Kate Hudson sues magazine for pictures that made her look too skinny:
Actress Kate Hudson accepted libel damages on Thursday from a magazine that printed a photo making her look too skinny, alongside an article that said her movie star mother Goldie Hawn wanted her to eat more.
Hudson had sued the UK Enquirer magazine over the article which appeared last October under the headline "Goldie Tells Kate: Eat Something!"
Her lawyer, Simon Smith, told Britain's High Court the story and pictures implied Hudson had "recklessly and foolishly endangered her health by deliberately starving herself."
One…
purepedantry | July 20, 2006Who says that being smart hurts your reproductive success?
Albert Einstein had half a dozen girlfriends and told his wife they showered him with "unwanted" affection, according to letters released on Monday that shed light on his extramarital affairs.
The wild-haired Jewish-German scientist, renowned for his theory of relativity, spent little time at home. He lectured in Europe and in the United States, where he died in 1955 at age 76. But Einstein wrote hundreds of letters to his family.
Previously released letters suggested his marriage in 1903 to his first wife Mileva Maric, mother of his…
purepedantry | July 20, 2006Does anyone actually believe this is going to work?
Japan is planning ultra long-range 30-year weather forecasts that will predict typhoons, storms, blizzards, droughts and other inclement weather, an official said Tuesday.
The project, to start next year, will harness the powers of one of the world's fastest supercomputers and is an offshoot of ongoing research by the country's science ministry to map global warming trends for the next 300 years.
Using the Earth Simulator supercomputer, housed in a hangar-sized building in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, Japan's science ministry hopes to…
purepedantry | July 20, 2006Scientists ask twins to comment on clones, twins smack scientists upside head:
A cloned human would probably consider themselves to be an individual, a study suggests.
Scientists drew their conclusions after interviewing identical twins about their experiences of sharing exactly the same genes with somebody else.
The team said the twins believed their genes played a limited role in shaping their identity.
The UK/Austrian research will shortly be published in the journal of Social Science and Medicine.
First of all, you don't need to ask twins to find this out. Second, asking whether a clone…
purepedantry | July 19, 2006Keith Richards pardoned for crimes he cannot entirely recollect:
The state of Arkansas is prepared to pardon Keith Richards for being a reckless driver, 31 years later.
The state Parole Board on July 3 approved an application for clemency submitted on behalf of Richards, the 62-year-old guitarist for the Rolling Stones, by Gov. Mike Huckabee.
The board posted the official notice Tuesday, and the pardon will be forwarded to Huckabee within 30 days. When the governor signs it, it will clear Richards' record in Arkansas.
I suspect Richards can no longer identify the state of Arkansas. In fact,…
purepedantry | July 19, 2006AP is reporting that Bush has indeed vetoed the stem cell bill:
President Bush cast the first veto of his 5 1/2-year presidency Wednesday, saying legislation easing limits on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research "crosses a moral boundary" and is wrong.
"This bill would support the taking of innocent human life of the hope of finding medical benefits for others," Bush said at a White House event where he was surrounded by 18 families who "adopted" frozen embryos not used by other couples, and then used those leftover embryos to have children.
"Each of these children was still…
purepedantry | July 19, 2006Now I study oligodendrocyte development, and if you ask me they are a truly unappreciated cell type. Here is yet one more piece of evidence: synapses have been detected between neurons and oligodendrocytes in CA1 of the hippocampus AND these synapses can undergo a kind of LTP.
Glial cells in the central nervous system (CNS) constitute a heterogeneous population of cell types. Macroglia-like NG2 cells express the chondriotin sulfate proteoglycan NG2 and have been described as oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) or given other names. NG2 cells in the CA1 area of the hippocampus receive…
purepedantry | July 19, 2006Nifty:
Astronauts travelling beyond the Earth's orbit would be at risk of cancer and other illnesses due to their long term exposure to cosmic rays. Some of these energetic particles are spewed forth during outbursts from the Sun. Others come from outside our solar system and are more mysterious in origin.
Slough says the problem could be solved with just a few grams of hydrogen in the form of a plasma surrounding the spacecraft. NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) recently awarded Slough's team $75,000 to explore the feasibility of the idea.
The details still need to be worked out…
purepedantry | July 19, 2006Huh:
Representative Jim Kolbe wants to do away with the penny - and for a second time has introduced legislation that would effectively kill it.
The Currency Overhaul for an Industrious Nation (COIN) Act would force the rounding off of all cash transactions to the nearest 5 cents, making the penny coin useless for everyday transactions.
The move is in part a reaction to the rising cost of zinc - the penny's main ingredient - which at current prices brings the cost of making the coin to 1.4 cents each.
Kolbe introduced similar legislation in 2001 when prices for metals weren't as high. The…
purepedantry | July 18, 2006You have to read this post at The World's Fair. It is too funny. It is summaries of exhibits at a 2001 Creationist Science Fair.