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Nobel in Physics - Fert and Grunberg

2007 Nobel Prize in physics goes to Fert and Grünberg for Giant Magnetoresistance Fert is at the University of Paris (sud) and Grünberg is at the Jülich research center. This is a classic Nobel prize, since it is for relatively recent research that lead to immediate major practical application - modern hard disk drives, from iPods to your desktop - use GMR for coding the high information density expected nowadays Here is the press release: good one - even if I spectacularly failed to predict it - I didn't think the Academy would award it so soon after discovery.

Rumours of War

"Life goes on as it did before As the country drifts slowly to war" The Torygraph is getting worried: Drum beaters for Iran war should think again "Those in favour of war are now apparently contemplating including Syria, opening not one door into the dark, but two. We should all hope that serious people in Britain are weighing up whether these ventures into the unknown are in this country's deepest and widest interests, a theme crying out for comment from anyone bidding to govern us." Mad. They're all completely bonkers. Seriously.

chip off the old block

dinosaur killer asteroid possibly traced back to specific belt asteroid collision I was going to blog this - Bottke et al Nature paper last week (sub) tracing the K-T impactor to a specific disruption of the ~ 170 km diameter parent body of the carbonaceus chondrite asteroid Baptistina. They also suggest we've been in a impact maximum over the last 100 million years or so, because of the shower - a factor of two above long term average for sizable (1 km) impactors. They argue the Tycho crater on the Moon came from the same event. Interesting, might be right.

NASA veto threat

President threatens veto of NASA appropriations: too much science dontcha know... From NASAwatch: the House appropriations bill on NASA included extra funding for Science and Aeronautics, and restrictions on spending on Exploration and, more importantly, Exploration Development, including new firewalls between Science and ED. "...the Administration does not endorse funding in excess of the request for Aeronautics, Education, and Science, where increases for near-term support would create unsustainable outyear funding requirements" NASA is not just "burning every spare piece of firewood",…

Even its promoters haven't seen it

The horrible Expelled is now available on DVD. I have no plans to view it. However, you can get it from a site called redbox, which has a bizarre synopsis. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Who better to interview fanatics than the hilariously deadpan Ben Stein? Here, the former host of "Win Ben Stein's Money" (and, it should mentioned, trusted Nixon advisor) hosts a documentary in which he sets out to ask the hard questions about the Intelligent Design theory to its most fervent believers. I don't know what they were thinking when they wrote that.

What do computer scientists do anway? Inquiring minds want to know.

Our new Scibling, Jane, is a real life computer scientist. If you've ever wondered what computer scientists really do during the day, Jane will set you straight (I guess they're not playing Nintendo. Darn! Another illusion shattered, just like that.) Jane has also promised to explain why computer science is a science and not engineering. That part hasn't happened yet, but I work with software engineers and I have written a bit about the mysterious things that they do. Databases need to vacuumed? Who knew? I'm looking forward to hearing Jane describe answer the question from the…

the sunspots are back

after hitting a minimum between solar cycles and a zero sunspot count for a brief period, Cycle 24 appears to have started From Soho Soho magnetogram - 24 Sep 2008 Nice big spot on upper right Here is emission image compare with 4 days ago... Here is the current magnetogram movie - it is very interesting, shows the spot emerging into the photosphere a couple of days ago, it does not rotate into view (caveat: dynamic page, view only good this week). Cool. This is the movie archive - look at Sep 20-24 NASA is so excited they put out a press release

galaxy crash

Hubble gallery of galaxy crashes, with added bonus simulations Click here for astonishingly large version Click here for video selection This one gives a very nice set of transitions between a numerical simulation and the images, showing how they are representative of different stages of the merger process After you've done that, trundle over to Hos's place and run your own simulations PS: Hos hisself has the animation embedded from youtube, with added bonus history and context. It is, after all, his simulation, and very nice it is too.

Not Malta, too!

Even the lovely island of Malta is infested with creationists…who have somehow acquired positions of authority in private schools. Far from becoming extinct 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs actually co-existed with early humans, and even helped in the construction of the pyramids. This is the word of Vince Fenech, Evangelist pastor and director of a fully licensed, State-approved Creationist institution which admits children aged between four and 18. I have to wonder what the point of licensing schools is when the process is so porous that flaming incompetents like Fenech can run them.

Kevin Hayden is traveling east

Kevin Hayden, the maestro of the American Street blog, is packing up and moving across the country from Oregon to Massachusetts. Along the way, he's going to be interviewing people and composing a written and video portrait. He needs help, though: he's looking for people along his route who would be willing to be interviewed, or who would put him up for a night, and he's also looking for contributions. He still needs more help, though. Take a look at his project, and if you think you can chip in, do so!

IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine, December 2009

As usual, some interesting stuff from the December 2009 issue of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine (v3i2). Capturing young womens' imagination: Welcome to the Wii generation of Nerd Girls by various Revolutions and Remembrances: Engineering as a bond for diverse groups by Marimuthu, R. Women to Watch: Putting Students First: Furse finds the fun in teaching by Prives, L. Changing the tide of forecasts by Wax, H. Bringing water to the world: Rural Bangladesh Tackling Clean Water Challenges by Taylor, M. An eye for detail: Chen Focuses on Optic Nerve Regeneration by Prives, L.

exiting recessions

everybody had been wondering what would lead personal consumer expenditure out of recession... Apples Shuffles specifically. Drool. But, does it come with its own set of tweezers? Now just give me some of that stimulus grant and I'll get an 8 core custom Mac Pro exercising - what is not to like: it stimulates the Bay Area, ad agencies, UPS, disk manufacturers and semi fabs! And Pennsylvania utilities... I could use 2 or 3, easy... Then we just need the rumoured 10" ebook/netbook from Apple and we're set for another 6-12 months.

Gáttaþefur - The Elfs are Coming Part 11

Gáttaþefur - has a masochistic streak, he just stand by the door and sniffs, and sniffs. If you're not good, he might sniff up all the good smells from the christmas meal. Of course in our frantic state, we burned the (leftover) pizza, so he can sniff all he wants. We went Herwig's Austrian Bistro - Herwig's - where bacon is an herb!. There I learned two things: they now have chocolate covered bacon for dessert, and if you're the last customers, and they have a lot of sachertore left, the portions get bigger. Much bigger.

Around the Web: Innovation, Open textbooks, Suber on self-archiving and more

The Genius of the Tinkerer: The secret to innovation is combining odds and ends A Call for Open Textbooks Self-archiving diary by Peter Suber So what does a science librarian DO? Book Futures: A Crowdsourced Thought Experiment Frontiers, F1000, PLoS One, Mendeley et al., brace yourselves Social Media & Library Advocacy The 9 Worst Ways to Use Twitter for Business Resource Sharing and the Republic of Letters The Mission of Research Libraries The Future of Social-Media Archiving The Age of Big Access The real cost of free From e-books to no books Places of Learning

Drumming Up Love

tags: Parrots in the Land of Oz, parrots, behavior, Australia, nature, ornithology, streaming video Did you know that several species of cockatoos are black instead of white in color? Did you know that the Black Palm Cockatoos, Probosciger aterrimus, use tools -- tree limbs that they use to beat on their chosen nest cavity -- to attract a mate? Below the fold is a clip of the courtship of a pair of Black Palm Cockatoos from the Nature program Parrots in the Land of Oz, which airs on PBS on 19, 20 and 21 October [1:56]

Crystal Healing: Will it Prevent Foot and Mouth Disease?

tags: x-ray crystallography, foot and mouth disease, research, viral research, streaming video Below the fold is an utterly fascinating video that documents the current state of the research in one lab that is developing a drug that stops foot and mouth disease virus from replicating in the host cells. Even better, this beautfully executed video was created by the lab members themselves! I can hardly wait for more scientists and labs to document their research in real-people accessible videos such as these [6:03] This lab has its own blog, so go there!

Unlikely Hummingbirds

tags: Mexican Long-tongued Bats, Choeronycteris mexicana, bats, Image of the Day My good friend, Dave Rintoul, is on a much-deserved vacation camping in the Chiricahuas and Gila Wilderness area at the moment, but he took a little time out from the fun and games to send me a couple images to share with you. Two nectivorous Mexican Long-tongued Bats, Choeronycteris mexicana, help themselves to nectar at a hummingbird feeder in Cave Creek Canyon in the Chirichahua Mountains of Arizona and New Mexico. Image: Dave Rintoul, 2008 [larger view].

Turtle Yoga Chaos (2 of 2)

tags: turtles, turtle yoga, reptiles, Central Park, Image of the Day Turtle Yoga Chaos! Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George [larger]. The photographer, Bob Levy, writes; Ah, how satisfying it was to find that a Central Park turtle rose, or at least lifted its head, to the occasion. Just when they needed it the most a Turtle Yoga master rose from the ranks to bring order out of chaos. Here we see the group under the tutelage of a natural educator artfully performing a cat stretch. Doesn't this satisfy your need for a moment of Zen?

Carnival of Christmas Now Available!

tags: Carnival of Christmas, blog carnivals The 2007 edition of the Carnival of Christmas is now available for you to enjoy. I admit that, even though I am religiously-challenged, I still participated cuz, hey, I love christmas (well, I love any excuse to celebrate, so I love all the holidays)! (And besides, christmas was co-opted from a MUCH earlier heathen holiday, so I am not celebrating christmas in the true sense of the word, I am celebrating the "festival of lights" on one of the shortest days of the year, cuz the lights are what I truly enjoy about christmas).

My First Digital Picture

This is a picture of my friend, Jared, Christmas in NYC, 2007. He wasn't too keen to have his picture taken, so I told him not to worry, I am just learning how to use my new digital camera, so the picture would not look good anyway. Well, I was wrong! I think it looks great. Image: GrrlScientist [larger view] Thanks for the camera, Karen! I can already see that I will be spending some serious time learning how to use this thing, because it is really different from a regular camera -- the kind that uses, you know, film and stuff.

Mission Impossible Squirrel

tags: squirrel, behavior, mission impossible, streaming video I thought I had linked to this video a few months ago, but apparently it disappeared during one of the typical burps that my wifi connection experiences (well, I deserve it since I am piggybacking on someone else's connection, unless I have dragged myself in to the library). Anyway, this video is truly amazing, showing what a squirrel will do to get a nut. It also has a short video clip of another squirrel that has figured out how to steal candy bars from an outdoor candy machine [1:52].

The World's Most Deadly Animal

tags: the world's most deadly animal, streaming video Do you know what the world's most deadly animal (for humans) is? The grizzly bear? Or wolves? Or maybe the humble hippopotamus? There is a streaming video below the fold that answers this question. [1:58] The females of most mosquito species suck blood (hematophagy) from warm-blooded animals. This has made mosquitoes one of the most deadly vectors known to man, killing millions of people over thousands of years and continuing to kill millions per year through the spread of diseases.

TEDTalks: Kary Mullis' Next-Gen cure for Killer Infections

tags: TEDTalks, medicine, infections, new technology, alpha-gal aptomer, antibiotics, Kary Mullis, streaming video Drug-resistant bacteria kills, even in top hospitals. But now tough infections like staph and anthrax may be in for a surprise. In this video, Nobel-winning chemist Kary Mullis, who watched a friend die when powerful antibiotics failed, unveils a radical new cure that shows extraordinary promise [4:42] TEDTalks shares the best ideas from the TED Conference with the world, for free: trusted voices and convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses, all giving the talk of…

Up, up and away

I'm expecting a busy, busy day tomorrow — I have to get up painfully early to drive to Minneapolis and fly off to Atlanta. Y'all remember we've got a Pharyngufest at Manuel's at 6, and I expect everyone to come on down and say hello. I am not looking forward to another run through TSA. There may also be a hatchet job in the Washington Times tomorrow morning — watch for it. I think I'll be reading some science papers on my flight, and do not want to hear another word from loons for a while. Skeptics! GECCO! Science! Excelsior!

Passive Pacifist

For over 20 years I have received Pax, the journal of the Swedish Peace Society. I have always read it as a matter of duty. Rarely has it interested me much. I am a passive pacifist -- a passivist, as a radical relative of mine once wrote me from prison, where he had been put for vandalising a fighter plane. Now Pax has been discontinued. I won't miss it. I'll just continue to pay my membership dues and a monthly donation to investigate the Swedish arms industry. In fact, I'm going to hike the donation up to compensate for inflation.

Pitch-Perfect Pixies Homage

This musical style was invented by the Pixies in the mid 80s. Their early work was a main source of inspiration for Curt Cobain of Nirvana. Now Cage the Elephant have recreated the early Pixies style from its blueprints and written a song about Cobain's birthplace in Washington state. I like it! In other rock 'n' roll news, Fornvännen was just offered a review copy of a book about the Rolling Stones. The journal deals mainly with prehistoric archaeology. I guess Keith Richards has looked like Ötzi for quite some time now, come to think of it.

Gardening Clearance Cairn

I once produced a small shell midden in my kitchen. Just now I made a small clearance cairn in the garden. My wife has ordered a peony bush from Gansu in China via a plant dealer in Turku, Finland, and I picked it up at a trucking firm the other day. Now it fell upon me to dig the hole and plant the thing. While digging I set aside all the stones I came upon, as lo-tech farmers have done for millennia, only at a smaller scale. And thus my little cairn. [More about archaeology, gardening; arkeologi, trädgård.]

Swedish Science Bloggers Interviewed

Universitetsläraren, the journal of the Swedish Association of University Teachers, has an article about blogging scientists in issue 2010:9 on the occasion of an upcoming PhD thesis in Lund about the subject. Scienceblogs.com is mentioned and Ãsa of Ting & Tankar is interviewed. Blogging didn't steal energy from her thesis work during grad school, says Ãsa. On the contrary, "At first I didn't even expect anyone to read the blog. It was my safety valve while I finished my thesis. Writing it was like running once around the house to get some fresh air."

Weekend Fun

Celebrated the 257th anniversary of the Academy of Letters wearing tails. Had a fine sunshine brunch on Folly Hill with my wife. The place was heavily dominated by couples born in the 70s and sporting toddlers / babies / big bellies, all probably from the expensive waterfront housing area nearby. The music was all 90s hits all the time. Watched The Usual Suspects (1995), an OK gangster flick featuring an almost unrecognisably slim and fresh-faced Benicio del Toro who slurs his speech beyond what I thought possible. Played Agricola with friends. And you?

Intellectual Aristocrat

One of the best friends I made during my decade in the Tolkien Society is Florence Vilén; poet, novelist, connoisseuse of art and letters. She recently published a volume of poetry, Purpurpränt. Dikter med rim och reson. And earlier tonight when she visited us she threw out one of the aristocratic one-liners she delights in. Florence once told me off the cuff, "The educated layman became extinct about 1940". Tonight she happily proclaimed, "I have learned my entire vocabulary of obscene English words from the Times Literary Supplement".

Dr. Isis Makes 10,000th Aard Comment

Dr. Isis made the 10,000th comment here on Aard earlier today! Flatteringly, she said that I had made half the women on the Internet lose their shit. I simply know not my own strength. It took two years and almost ten months to get to 10,000. As her prize, I hereby offer to call the good doctor trans-Atlantic at a time to be agreed on and sing her the Queen song (naturally) of her choice. *howls* "I was just a skinny lad, never knew no good from bad, but I knew life before I left my nursery..."

Perks!

This is actually a disappointment. I was sure that scienceblogging gave one lightning quick driving reflexes, phenomenal sexual performance, the powers of the anti-christ, and the ability to write perfect copy with the first draft, but this comic seems to be implying that scienceblogging only gives you an excuse for falling short in those areas. Of course, I already have all of those abilities even without the scienceblogging biz, so this comic must be referring to all those other bloggers. Yeah, that's it. I'll keep telling myself that. (via Chris Rowan, who got it from aphantic)

Less clean coal

Following in the tracks of DeSmog again. So, the $1.8B carbon capture and storage commercial scale demo has fallen apart [archive] due to excess costs (or possibly other things: here is what they say; there seems to be some dispute over the siting. Since this is probably largely a boondoggle, which town gets the jobs is probably an important part of the project). This is bad news for all the people (including Hansen) who are counting on CCS to rescue us from our woes. [Update, 2015: it hasn't got any less dead says Brian at Eli's.

Birds Prophesying Spring

For the past two weeks I've been hearing more and more birdsong. The bullfinch is singing his characteristic snowmelt ditty, and the woodpecker is making territorial drumrolls. Some other species of small bird is having these noisy cocktail parties where they fill a tree and chatter for hours. But the winter is far from over yet. We have lots of snow and it was -9ºC this morning. It must be the lengthening daylight that triggers those bird brains. And today two magpies have started fussing absentmindedly about the big nest outside our bathroom window.

Experience by osmosis

Okay, when I first heard this about McCain's VP pick, Sarah Palin: I figured it was just an unscripted blunder by a marginal participant. But now I see this: After I stopped laughing, I realized it is actually going to be one of their wingnut talking points. Sarah Palin knows about foreign policy because she lives close to Russia! Could you be any more ridiculous? Now excuse me, I am going to go put a few particle physics texts under my pillow so I can solve the mystery of Dark Matter in the morning.... [h/t to Dispatches from the Culture War]

Gorenfeld's Video Blog on Rev. Moon

John Gorenfeld has a video blog up at Talk to Action showing scenes from the Rev. Moon's 1996 world tour with former President George HW Bush. It shows footage of a banquet hosted by a sycophantic Pat Boone kissing up to this leader of a decidedly anti-Christian cult, and it shows a Moon conference with speakers like Beverly LaHaye, Gary Bauer, and Ralph Reed. And it also shows footage of the crowning ceremony for Moon held in a Senate office building a few years ago. This is a story that absolutely needs more coverage in the media.

Hello, New Yorkers!

So, there's about 30 or so of the ScienceBlogs clan gathered in New York City this weekend. We've been busy, ummm, bonding or something, and also having some serious discussions, but now we're more or less free. We're kind of dispersed in a chaotic fashion, but some of us, including at least me and Bora, and probably several others, are planning to meet at the BBar and Grill, at 40 East 4th St., from about 7:00 on. All are welcome, come on down and join us!

Stem Cells Without Destroying Embryos

A new report in Nature says that a California company has found a way to extract stem cells from embryos without destroying them. It's not perfected yet, but apparently has some promise. I'll make a bet: even if the technique is perfected and stem cell lines can be created through that technique without destroying any embryos, even ones that will be thrown out anyway, the religious right still won't accept embryonic stem cell research. Everyone sing along with me: Every cell is sacred, every cell is great. If a cell is wasted, God gets quite irate."

Balko on Hotel Porn Ban

A coalition of conservative groups took out full page ads around the country urging the justice department to ban porn movies in hotel rooms. Radley Balko has the perfect response: Here's an idea, fundies: Don't order the boobies. If you don't order them, they won't show up in your room. Although, ironically, there was a report from a hotel manager a few years back whose hotel hosted a big religious right conference. He said that the hotel actually set a record for most money made on hotel room porn that weekend. I'm sure it was just for research purposes.

The Holy Eggplant of Boothwyn

If Pastor Drake's curses are fizzling, I know exactly what he needs: a blessed medallion made from an eggplant to potentiate his jebus-power. It's true: this miracle occurred spontaneously, and is exactly the holy artifact any righteous smiter would want on his side. I will also call your attention to an important and obvious fact: this eggplant did not say "Gott" or "Dieu" or "Dios" or "Ðог" or "Deus" or "Dio" or "ç¥" or "اÙÙÙ" — no, it says "God". Therefore, God chooses to speak in English. Either that, or it's the natural language of eggplants.

Bottomless Stupidity

Scalzi has the proper response to the Bush Administration's latest insult to the collective intelligence. New York has no national monuments or icons, according to the Department of Homeland Security form obtained by ABC News. That was a key factor used to determine that New York City should have its anti-terror funds slashed by 40 percent--from $207.5 million in 2005 to $124.4 million in 2006. But it's the Democrats who aren't serious about national security. Honestly, every time I think these people have hit rock bottom, they find a way to tunnel a little deeper.

It's Global Warming, Stupid?

Or so says Bloomberg (h/t Tamino and TP). And they should know? Well, maybe not; I'll wait for something more definitive, perhaps from RC. But maybe indicative of how opinion is shifting, at least this week. As I've said before (but can't find now) people - the great unwashed masses I mean - are unlikely to "believe" in GW until something dramatic and possibly unrelated happens. DA presents the skeptical case (with a genuine "k"). Refs * Serendipity * The Onion * Bloomberg brings climate change out of the closet in stunning snub to Romney

On a lighter note

Continuing the theme of "how not to edit wikipedia" I bring you Anouncement [sic] of damnation of wiki: That because in conspiracy of a group of Darwinists the encycopledia in practical effect surpresses [sic] freedom of expression, I hereby damn the encyclopedia. from User:Syamsu [1]. Amusingly, that's in an unblock request; I don't think it will be successful. Its all about some argument at [[Free Will]]: people always have silly opinions about such things. [Ah, that didn't take long: on to the next stage, talk page access revoked.]

Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge?

"Learn more" is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more: SOPA and PIPA are just indicators of a much broader problem. We are already seeing big media calling us names. In many jurisdictions around the world, we're seeing the development of legislation that prioritizes overly-broad copyright enforcement laws, laws promoted by power players, over the preservation of individual civil liberties. We want the Internet to be free and open, everywhere, for everyone. Refs * Google * Beeb * Wikipedia blackout forces students to copy from printed 'hardcopy websites'

Glad Tidings of Great Joy

Well, I need to do a Happy Christmas posting (and here it is, folks!) so this message from wonkroom seems rather festive: New psychological research finds that dire messages about the threat of global warming will strengthen people's acceptance of climate science when combined with solutions, which is the approach taken by leading climate activists. For some people, their response to dire messages is strongly dependent on whether hope is offered. (ht: Chairman Brian). Which means, I need to present you with The Solution. And that is clearly, dress up as Father Christmas and go rowing:

climatecode.org

climatecode.org is a new project from the clear climate code folks - go have a look. And maybe even do something :-). It am all de rage at the moment to dothis stuff, and it will be interesting how "open source" attempts mesh together with more heavyweight government backed efforts. What next - "clear climate reviews" to replace the next IPCC report? ps: sorry abut the silly slider-bar thingy at the bottom, if it is still there when you see this: I think that Seed must be experimenting with some new widgety stuff. I wish they wouldn't do that.

Snowed in / school's out

A blizzard strikes the UK, depositing the once-in-5-years 4" of snow, and chaos breaks loose. In this case, chaos means the school is shut. Daniel had fun in the snow all day and ended up happily exhausted, having built an igloo with friends. Miranda had a brief bit of early snow before deciding that snow is cold, and indoors is warm. Here is the view from inside; PS provides the mood music: To relieve the spoon gloom, there is a do-it-yourself atheist bus campaign generator, which made me:

063/366: Photobomber

ScienceBlogs had some back-end Issues for a few days, which delayed the photo-a-day project. This one's from two days ago, when I was taking a picture of the bare branches of a tree next door because I liked the way they looked against the sky. I ended up with a high-altitude photobomb, though: Airplane and bare tree in the early morning. I ended up liking the contrast of the tiny lit plane and the great big black branches, so this was the photo of the day. Not much else to say about that.

049/366: Frozen Fractals

We've had a serious cold snap over the last few days, with temperatures dropping from the 60F kind of range down to 40F. And with that comes, well: Frost on the windshield of my car. Happily, it's going to warm back up over the next couple of days, but it won't be long before I need to extend nearly every morning's routine by a few minutes to clear a thick layer of frost off my car. For the moment, though, I can still enjoy the novelty of the cool spikes and stuff. Oh, and here, have an earworm:

GMOs Are Interesting

The podcast for my interview with Anastasia Bodnar is now available HERE. There are also a couple of links there that you might find of interest. We focuses on the actual process and science of GMOs and spent very little time on the usual issues. I hope many of you find the interview different and refreshing. Total change of pace from the usual yammering, or at least, that was my intent. Also, for those of you who heard the first interview, I assure you, this time the sound quality is excellent! Enjoy.