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Scienceblogs Upgrade

Scienceblogs is upgrading. This site won't allow comments from 10pm Pacific Standard Time on Friday, January 9 until...well until the upgrade is complete (possibly Saturday sometime.) So instead of being frustrated at not being able to comment why don't you instead go waste your time by: By reading some provocative statements about teaching over at the information processors blog. If you need to procrastinate about preparing a referee report, you might check out Michael Nielsen's Three myths of scientific peer review The Statistical Mechanic is back, and discussing thermodynamics,…

To Every Ranking, Spin, Spin, Spin

This morning I received a funny email from a graduate student here at UW, Nicholas Murphy, which made me laugh out loud (reproduced and linkified here with permission from Nicholas): Subject: Times Higher Education Supplement rankings: a study in spin http://www.topmba.com/fileadmin/pdfs/2007_Top_200_Compact.pdf For entertainment purposes, the same news story from different university publications: Harvard: http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=520741 Duke: http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2007/11/13/News/Duke-Stays.13.In.Thes.Rankings-3096978.shtml Yale:…

NASA Earth Observatory Photo Contest

The NASA Earth Observatory site is holding a photo contest to celebrate and popularize their 10th anniversary.  It is a contest in which users vote for their favorite images-of-the-day.  Here's my favorite: style="display: inline;"> This is an image from the href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html">Cassini mission; it's a view of the earth, with the rings of Saturn in the foreground.  This beautiful image of Saturn and its rings looks more like an artist's creation than a real image, but in fact, the image is a composite (layered image) made from 165…

The Monkeys Win

Georgia's State Schools superintendent Kathy Cox has backed down from her ban on the word evolution. While this is excellent news, Georgia is still left with an incompetent superintendent. For one thing, she thinks Intelligent Design is an acceptable theory to teach in schools. For another, she justified removing the word evolution from state science standards by saying: ""By putting the word in there, we thought people would jump to conclusions and think, 'OK, we're going to be teaching the monkeys-to-man sort of thing.' Which is not what happens in a modern biology classroom." In a sense I…

Simpsonian Science

I can't believe Dave didn't cross post this. Someone once gave him a hard time for linking to and across the SCQ and here, but, come on, Dave, this should've made the journey. From The Filter, here is a rundown of Science on the Simpsons, which, true, could be next year's TV on the Radio if given proper support from Pitchfork. The 13 pics are matched to text at Filter, and I'll let you find them there. But there are more that could fit into the collage, more Science on the Simpsons. These three links -- Nature, Seed, SNPP -- can help get you on your way to more. For example, where is…

"Sex Crazed Love Goddesses"

Now, having returned from the Jack Handey bit, go laugh at Steve Martin circa 1977. One of my long-held favorites, reprinted below in full. Sex Crazed Love Goddesses By Steve Martin From Cruel Shoes (1977) Little Billy Jackson had to go to the store for his mother to pick up some postage stamps. When he got there, he found the stamp machine to be out of order, and decided to walk the extra three blocks to the post office. On the way there, he passed a hardware store, a variety store and a lamp shop. The line was short at the post office and he got the stamps quickly and returned home.…

Expertise and opinion

Over at the Pandas Thumb, "ThisIsPerfection" accuses me of using an argument from authority when I posted the composition of the 300 signatories of the DI’s "Dissent from Darwinism" list. I beg to differ. It is the DI itself that is engaging in such an argument. Witness: More than 700 Ph.D. scientists have adopted a statement expressing skepticism of the core mechanism of modern Darwinian theory and urging a careful examination of the evidence (dissentfromdarwin.org). Those scientists include members of the national academy of sciences in several countries, as well as professors at Princeton…

Star Wars for the Uninitiated

Apparently there are still people in the world who have not seen Star Wars. I do not know know what these people have been up to for the past 25 years. My only explanation is that they have been living in caves or are Amish or hate joy...something like that. But there are actually people like this...and one of them helped produce a video that describes the Star Wars trilogy from the point of view of someone who has not seen it (below the fold). It's pretty funny, so watch the whole thing. Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo. This video also…

Human-Sheep Hybrid Created

To baaa or not to baaa? Professor Esmail Zanjani from the University of Nevada unveiled a genetically engineered sheep- well, technically a sheep, we think -that has 15 percent human cells and 85 percent sheep cells this past week. Zanjani injects adult human cells into sheep fetuses to create these chimeras with the eventual goal of "growing" human organs inside the sheep for transplant into humans. In an example given by Zanjani, he hopes one day to take bone marrow cells from a sick patient, implant the cells into a sheep fetus and literally grow bone marrow for the patient inside the…

Further Adventures in Geological Cowardice

Yesterday I blogged about how the National Park Service is selling a young-Earth creationist book about the Grand Canyon in its stores. Today the Washington Post wrote an article on the subject. It contains a response from the National Park Service, which I find pretty unbelievable. They claim that they are in fact reviewing the matter. The review was supposed to be done in February, but it's been delayed while lawyers at the Interior and Justice Departments "tackle the issue." No deadline is set for the decision, and the book will continue to be sold until one is made. Tackle the issue? Do…

Would you care for a cricket chip?

Image of cricket chips called "chirps" from Six Foods. (http://www.sixfoods.com/#product) Crickets are the first insect to now be farmed for human consumption in the United States. I'll admit the thought of snacking on cricket flour-based chips is not exactly appetizing. But the process of farming insects over more traditional livestock seems to be less wasteful. Insect farming is a more efficient way of producing dietary protein as it takes much less feed and water to raise insects as compared to cattle. In addition, greenhouse gas emissions from crickets are much lower than with cattle…

In search of the loneliest whale

Image of the 52 Hertz whale song from Wikimedia Commons, NOAA. According to Discovery News, scientists and filmmakers are on the hunt for what people have called the Loneliest Whale in the World. In 1989 William Watkins (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) discovered the vocalizations of a whale that were unlike that of any other whale. The vocalizations of the mystery whale were 52 Hertz whereas other whales sing in the 17-18 Hertz range, allowing their songs to travel far distances. Beginning in 1992, he and his team started tracking the movements of the 52 Hertz whale using recordings…

Looking for Life in an Ancient Subsurface Lake

Lake Vostok (cross-section) prior to completion of drilling. Credit: National Science Foundation Okay, this may not have anything to do with animal physiology...but then again maybe it does... Russian scientists have just retrieved a core sample of frozen ice from the subsurface Lake Vostok in Antarctica that has been isolated from the outside world for at least 100,000 if not millions of years. The lake was protected by 4,000 meters of ice. The scientists drilled a hole that reached the surface of the lake and allowed the pressure from the lake to raise the water into the hole, where it…

Blogs on Washingtonian

Links from Chris Mooney, Atrios and Buzzflash. Ted Barlow wonders what John Lott has to do to get fired from the AEI. "Sadly, No!" helpfully suggests that with two more personalities Lott can start a boy band. John Quiggin asks "why so few individual conservatives and libertarians have dumped Lott". Kevin Drum says that Lott was stupid for continuing with the sock puppetry after he got caught once. In fact, Lott didn't even pause. On Jan 22 he confessed to using the Mary Rosh sock and wrote "I shouldn't have used it". On Jan 23 his other sock was back posting…

Why Emily Dickinson never published her poetry

I have been reading Emily Dickinson from Everyman's Poetry series. Apart from a few poems published during her initial years (the poems were mangled badly by her editors because they went ballistic on seeing her punctuation, limited men as they were), she never published her poetry. In the poem below she speaks of it. (She never titled her poems, the numbers are the reference if you want to locate it in some other book) Fascicle 17 709 Publication -- is the Auction Of the Mind of Man -- Poverty -- be justifying For so foul a thing Possibly -- but We -- would rather From Our Garret go White…

Dispatches from the Two Americas: Reggie Lal and Janine

With huge profits reported this week from two bailed-out institutions, Sacramento-based real estate investor Reggie Lal is euphoric: JPMorgan Chase & Co. posted a 36 percent jump in second-quarter profit Thursday, easily surpassing analysts' expectations, as strength in investment banking offset higher credit losses. JPMorgan, the second big bank to report stronger earnings this week after Goldman Sachs Group Inc., earned $2.72 billion, up from $2 billion a year earlier. Revenues soared 39 percent to $25.62 billion. Results were driven by record investment banking fees and revenue in its…

Top 5 Neuron Culture Posts for October

A bit early yet, but as I'm traveling the rest of the month, here's my top 5 over the last month. 1. The Weird History of Adjuvants, in which we ponder the inclusion of eye of newt and such in vaccines, and the strangeness of the fact that dirty is good. 2. Why is the swine flu vaccine so late? Who are you to ask such a question? was a close runner-up despite appearing only yesterday. Includes bonus trash-talk from a Canadian. 3. Embargo? Embargo? The case of the missing swine flu paper In which rumor runs not just amok, but quite a bit of policy as well. A particularly interesting…

Do you have a war on drugs problem? The drug Incarcerex may be for you.

Are you a politician or currently considering a run for office? Do you agree with Richard Nixon that drugs are "public enemy number one in the United States"? Are you worried that smoking marijuana makes you insane, turns you into a violent criminal or causes death? Do you worry daily about why prohibition failed? Do you think the War on Drugs is a great idea? Are you stressed out about these things and need an easy way out? Incarcerex may be for you! Take a look at this great spoof from drugpolicy.org! Does your politician suffer from Chronic Re-Election Paranoia (CREEP)? Do you think our…

More Bad News - Overfishing

Nature reported last week about more bad news. Daniel Pauly along with SB's very own (Jennifer) and others reported on their new research that documents the underreported fishing impacts of artesianal fisheries around the world. The results are not pretty: the amount of overfishing is very often underreported, sometimes as much as three or four times. One aspect that is contributing to the problem is the fisheries agreements that high-income nations often have with low-income nations. Jennifer describes it as a Robin Hood in reverse, "Instead of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, it'…

Seaweed Scandal Rocks Kits

Kits = Kitslano = Hipster neighborhood lining beautiful False creek here in Vancouver, aka "Hipslano". Manhattan has Prada, Beverly Hills has Louis Vuitton and Kitslano has Lululemon. Lululemon Athletica is high-end designer yoga wear and, since it went public in July, its shareholders have been saying a lot of 'namastes' to Lulu customers across the continent. But a friend pointed out a recent scandal (thanks SCS) that "has Kits in a sweat" (and it's not from too many sun salutations). On Friday, The New York Times uncovered that Lulu's lines, VitaSea, supposedly made from seaweed, looked…

More pebbles: items I (wanted to but) didn't get to

Boing boing spots Virgin Mary in MRI Bird flu round-up, from Great Beyond touches a few stories reporting some unsettling human deaths from bird flu. I think people are scared to cover bird flu these days: There was so much about it 2-3 years ago, then the epidemic didn't come (we're so impatient!), and now a lot of journalists feel they were out shouting wolf. Maybe wolf is still out there. Jonah Lehrer on Governor "Show Me the Money" Blagojevich, greed, and a version of the ultimatum game called -- I love this -- the dictator game. "When the dictator cannot see the responder - they are…

Dumb editors, smart scientists (on purpose)

An article from the Columbia Journalism Review I saw linked from Arts and Letters Daily (where they seem to be upping the number of science links of late) discusses "Why editors must dare to be dumb." The author notes that "In science, feeling confused is essential to progress. An unwillingness to feel lost, in fact, can stop creativity dead in its tracks." Which I thought was an idea worth adding to the conversation on science, metaphor, and poetry that both I and Nick, over at The Scientific Activist, have been talking about. Another choice line, here quoting an unnamed cosmologist: "By…

This will do you no good if you can't read the site

But we do have a little more information from Seed management. Let me apologize again for the problems that many of you and your readers are experiencing. The attack is ongoing, originating from Turkey and Qatar, and until it stops, Rackspace must block IP ranges in order for the site to be accessible to anyone. They are also unwilling to manually unblock hundreds upon hundreds of individual IPs. They have advised that we invest in a firewall and additional services from them, but we are still working out what these will cost and how effective they will be. I am not sure if I was correct…

Euro-update 6: Create your own illusion!

We've been away from the internet for a while now, but finally have a slow connection here in rainy Prague. While in Pisa, however, we were able to avail ourselves of a unique opportunity. The favorite trick of the amateur photographers here is to create the "illusion" of their friend/family member "saving" the tower from falling down, like this, admittedly poor attempt: I've neglected to instruct Nora on the proper angle to hold her fingers, and I should probably have held the camera lower. But a different illusion is both easier to create and, I think, more impressive. A similar photo…

Is Gamede another Gafilo?

One of the most devastating tropical cyclones of 2004 was Cyclone Gafilo, pictured at left, which struck northern Madagascar at full Category 5 intensity, causing destruction that left hundreds of thousands homeless. And while it's too soon to say yet what will happen, this year's G storm in the South Indian, Gamede, could also be quite troublesome. Gamede is currently a Category 3 storm, with a minimum sea level pressure estimated at 956 millibars by Meteo France. It is also a very, very large hurricane, considerably larger than Favio was, as you can see from this satellite image: None of…

What's Up With Hurricane Ioke?

As you can see from the image above, courtesy of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, we've got a Cat 5 right now in the Pacific. But it isn't a typhoon, because it didn't form in the western North Pacific. Neither did it form in the eastern North Pacific (the "I' storm from that basin this year is Ileana). Rather, Wikipedia has this to say about Ioke: "It is the first tropical storm to form in the Central Pacific since 2002...Overnight between August 24 and August 25, Ioke strengthened into a Category 5 storm, the first storm with a name from the Central Pacific list to reach that intensity."…

Video game addiction in South Korea

Interesting article in the Washington Post about video game addiction in South Korea (via Slashdot). From the article: An estimated 2.4 percent of the population from 9 to 39 are believed to be suffering from game addiction, according to a government-funded survey. Another 10.2 percent were found to be "borderline cases" at risk of addiction -- defined as an obsession with playing electronic games to the point of sleep deprivation, disruption of daily life and a loosening grip on reality. Such feelings are typically coupled with depression and a sense of withdrawal when not playing,…

Just One Word...Plastics

This one-liner from the 1967 classic "The Graduate" might have made Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) cringe: But 43 years later, it's obvious that Mr. McQuire was onto something. Today, it's hard to imagine life without plastic, from brushing your teeth in the morning to pouring yourself a glass of milk. We produce so much of the stuff, though, that we now face major environmental problems. Conventional plastic is made from crude oil, is not often recycled, and, when put in landfills, can release toxins that enter soil, water, and the food chain. Researchers at Brookhaven and Dow…

Time To Panic Over Cyclone Sidr

Okay, it is time to get alarmist here. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center just released its latest forecast, and this storm still hasn't weakened as has been so endlessly predicted. Instead, it is still a strong Category 4--130 knot winds, or almost 150 miles per hour--according to JTWC. And frankly, the automated Advanced Dvorak Technique says the storm is a Category 5 and still intensifying. This is a nightmare unfolding. The official landfall prediction from JTWC--like we trust them--is 115 knots, or weak Category 4. This is a storm that needs to be evacuated from, but I have no idea whether…

"Well, I'm Back," He Said

Back from Italy, that is. I had a great, relaxing time in Venice and, later, in Udine and the little town of Manzano, where I'd gone for an old friend's beautiful (and entirely secular!) wedding. But no more on that, it's entirely non-science related. This post is just to let you know of my return and, above all, to thank our guest bloggers: Norm Doering, Bryan Mignone, Mark Drapeau....and last but hardly least, Sheril, who I think has an incredible knack for this. I calculate that her posts from last week generated 96 comments! Not bad for a rookie. So feel free to use the comments here to…

William Blake's questions for neuroscientists

From Visions of the Daughters of Albion, a short illuminated text published in 1793: With what sense does the tame pigeon measure the vast expanse? With what sense does the bee form cells? Tell me what is a thought? & of what substance is it made? Tell me what is a joy? & in what gardens do joys grow? And in what rivers swim the sorrows, and upon what mountains wave shadows of discontent? Tell me where dwell the thoughts forgotten till thou call them forth Tell me where dwell the joys of old? & where the ancient loves? And when will they renew again & the…

Do you have an accent?

Take a fun test to see if you have an accent. My friends periodically give me hell because I speak like a newscaster -- or that I have a "professor" voice. Anyway, now there is validation: I actually have no accent. Not shocking...I grew up in Denver. However, I was born in the South, and my Mom is from the Midwest. When I get really tired (or slightly intoxicated) it can slip back in there. What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania…

Encephalon

The first edition of the new neuroscience carnival Encephalon is now up at The Neurophilosopher's Blog, here. There are several good posts, and I actually learned a bit from some of them. I have to admit, though, that I'm particularly partial to this post from BrainTechSci. A sample: It is hard not to notice the fact that an unusually high percentage of Nobel laureates, from Gerald Edelman to Francis Crick turn their attention to the problem of consciousness and formulate embarrassingly ridiculous theories of consciousness. Why is that? Then there are people who are completely outside the…

Next NNB Pub Night - 12/13 Middlesex Lounge

From Corie: You're invited to a pub night for Boston-based scientists, hosted by Nature Network Boston ... the last one for 2007! (For newcomers to NNB, we host monthly, informal events at local pubs for Boston scientists to hang out, have a beer and chat.) It's a great opportunity to meet colleagues from down the road and across the river. Bring your lab, labmates and scientist-friends. Forward this email along and let's make this event the biggest turnout yet! When: Thursday, December 13, 6:30pm Where: Middlesex Lounge, 315 Mass. Ave in Cambridge. Near Central Square on the Red Line. On…

Paper Submitted!

But this is no time to rest ... Tuesday I'm giving the first talk of our inaugural New England RNA Data Club (yes we've renamed it to the New England RNA Data Club ... we're having folks from out of state). There will be a total of 3 talks in this first assembly, mine + two on miRNAs. I'll let you know how it goes. But now that the paper is out, perhaps I can compose all these little entries I've been wanting to write. 1) Gunnar von Heijne's paper in Science from way back in February/March on how membrane proteins evolved. (I should add that Dan wrote something about it.) 2) The new Hegde…

Friday Deep-sea Picture (Oct. 4 2007)- Stamp from Haiti

This is one of the stamps Dr. Frederick "Ted" Bayer painted for a coral reef series from the country of Haiti. Dr. Bayer passed away earlier this week. This stamp is part of his legacy. The image depicts the deep-sea scleractinian cup coral Stephanocyathus diadema, one of the most ornate and beautiful cup coral skeletons. The skeletons are small. Most specimens could fit easily in the palm of your hand. Stephanocyathus is known from 220-2553 m, S. diadema from 795-2553 m, so it is the deepest in its genus of 14 spp. (S. Cairns, NMNH, pers. comm.). It's remarkable that Dr. Bayer put a…

Breaking News: Cows Point North!

After reviewing thousands of images of cows on Google Earth, the new gold standard in data collection, scientists have determined that cows generally point north. Lest you think this is some crap news my brother grabbed from the Daily Mail, Dr. Sabine Begall and colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen published this discovery in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. When you Google "Cow Compass" this is what happens. After factoring out variations like wind, terrain, sun, time of day, time of year, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, dew point, breed of…

Institute for Creation "Research" gives up bid to provide teacher's MA's

The Institute for Creation "Research" moved from California to Texas a few years ago in part, it is believed, to set up a masters program for teachers in life sciences. I'm guessing they figured they could get Texas to certify a bogus Masters program more easily than California. They did make some progress, but it went to court, and just recently they lost that case and had to give up on the idea. Subsequently, they've pulled another rabbit out of the hat: A degree in "Christian Apologetics" which would serve a similar purpose as the Creationist MA (and it would have a "Creation 'Science…

Oh goody. Homeopathy awareness week begins

I bet you didn't know this (maybe because of homeopathic publicity), but today is the first day of Homeopathy Awareness Week, which runs from June 14 to 21. It turns out that I'm torn over whether to mention or do much about this. On the one hand, publicizing the magical, mystical thinking that is homeopathy serves a purpose in emphasizing time and time again just how utterly implausible from a scientific standpoint homeopathy is, how most studies showing and "effect" from homeopathy are seriously flawed, and how the best quality studies of homeopathy show it to be no more effective than a…

Miranda Devine spreads DDT hoax

John Quiggin catches Miranda Devine spreading the DDT Hoax in the Sun Herald. If DDT is banned, how come this company will sell you some? They say: In the past several years, we supplied DDT 75% WDP to Madagascar, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Africa, Namibia, Solomon Island, Papua New Guinea, Algeria, Thailand, Myanmar for Malaria Control project, and won a good reputation from WHO and relevant countries' government. I was particularly impressed by this argument from Devine: Advertisements of the time, which today seem preposterous, extolled it as a benefactor of all humanity, with…

No link between cosmic rays and global warming

At Wired Science Fraser Cain reports on the latest research on global warming and cosmic rays. There is no link: But T. Sloan from the University of Lancaster and A.W. Wolfendale from Durham University have looked carefully at the evidence and found it unconvincing. They published their results in a new paper called Cosmic Rays and Global Warming. Their research will be presented at the 30th International Cosmic Ray Conference, held in Merida Mexico from July 3 - July 11, 2007. According to Sloan and Wolfendale, the 2000 paper highlighting the connection between cosmic rays and low-level…

The Australian's War on Science V

The Australian doesn't just make war on climate science, they don't like epidemiology either, printing Anjana Ahuja's hatchet job on the Lancet study. Greta at Radio Open Source has posted a response from Les Roberts: The two main criticisms which were in both the Nature article and The Times article are completely without merit. They said there wasn't enough time to have done the interviews. We had eight interviewers working ten hour days for 49 days, they had two hours in the field to ask each household five questions. They had time. The other criticism was that our people stayed close to…

Dispatch from the road (a Panera's, actually): Formatting oddities

From deep in Northwest Ohio, where at my in-laws' house there is no Internet access save for dialup (and then it's a toll call), I've managed to find a Panera's. I've also managed to notice that, for some reason, if you're using Safari, you may not be seeing my spiffy "repost" logo that's supposed to appear in the upper left hand corner of each repost from the old blog, for reasons that I haven't figured out yet. However, on Firefox it works OK. Please let me know if it does or does not show up for you on your browswer in the comments here, and when I get better Internet access in a day or…

3.3 million years old, 3 years old

Say hello to Selam, or DIK-1-1, a new and very well preserved member of the family discovered in Dikika, Ethiopia. She belongs to the species Australopithicus afarensis and is being called Lucy's little sister. She was only a toddler when she died about 3.3 million years ago, and from the teeth the authors estimate that she was about 3 years old. Most of the skeleton is intact, but doesn't seem to have yet been fully extracted from the matrix. Some of the surprises: the hyoid bone is chimpanzee-like, and implies chimp-like vocalization abilities. She had a long way to go before she could…

AskaSciBlogger Question for July 13th

Is every species of living thing on the planet equally deserving of protection? By protection dost thou mean protection from the human species, or from other species, or from certain other somewhat psychologically unstable members of the same species? Whosoever asketh this question must be hinting around that Homo sapiens is a highly embarrassing example of a creature that ravages less intelligent species without any regard to the value that other unique living organisms bring to Mother Earth. Giveth me a break. Long after the human race has become extinct there will still be acrobatic…

Headscarf ruins a basketball game

You may know that a while ago the swiss voted to ban any new minarets from being built. And now comes this. A local court in Switzerland has upheld a basketball headscarf ban. From the beebs: A Muslim woman has failed to overturn a ban stopping her from wearing a headscarf during league basketball matches in Switzerland. Sura al-Shawk, 19, was told she could not wear a headscarf by the basketball association (ProBasket) in August 2009. A local court in Lucerne has upheld the ruling on safety grounds. ProBasket also argued the sport needed to stay religiously neutral. Personally, I will…

Domesticated Phages

There's more to learn about the viruses that infect bacteria over at Discover. This time, it's Ed Yong talking about the bits of DNA that can be leftover in bacterial genomes from viral infections, and how they might actually be helping their hosts: These captives are called cryptic prophages and they can make up a fifth of a bacterium's DNA. Their existence is puzzling. Bacteria are known for having small, streamlined genomes, yet in they have foreign and potentially harmful viral DNA loitering among their genes. Why? To find out, Xiaoxue Wang from Texas A&M University found all nine…

Hello World!

Hello! I'm so excited to be joining the ScienceBlogs community! I'll be focusing mostly on synthetic biology, defined in the past decade as two main approaches to life science research: One uses unnatural molecules to reproduce emergent behaviours from natural biology, with the goal of creating artificial life. The other seeks interchangeable parts from natural biology to assemble into systems that function unnaturally. Either way, a synthetic goal forces scientists to cross uncharted ground to encounter and solve problems that are not easily encountered through analysis. (from Benner and…

Gaza Fulbright Scholarships Reinstated

After a rapid media outcry, the US and Israel have come together to reinstate the Fulbright Scholarships initially revoked from several students from Gaza due to Israel-imposed travel restrictions. From The New York Times: JERUSALEM -- The American State Department has reinstated seven Fulbright grants offered to Palestinians in Gaza for advanced study in the United States, reversing a decision to withdraw the scholarships because of Israel's ban on Palestinians' leaving Gaza for study abroad. The American Consulate in Jerusalem sent e-mail messages on Sunday night to all seven telling them…

Photo: F-35 Jet Blast Deflector Testing

From Lockheed Martin, a shot of an F-35 (the US stealth-capacity joint strike fighter) torching a blast deflector. I'd love to know what causes those bands in the exhaust flare. Also, check out the badass fireman in the foreground! From source: LAKEHURST, N.J., July 7th, 2011 -- F-35C Lightning II carrier variant aircraft CF-2 is performing Jet Blast Deflector (JBD) tests at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. The JBD, located behind the catapults aboard aircraft carriers, deflects high energy exhaust from the engine to prevent damage and injury to other aircraft and personnel…