milhayser | January 10, 2010
It's Friday, time to kick back and let ScienceBlogs do your homework for you. On Cognitive Daily, Dave Munger wonders how outfielders are so good at running to the right spot to catch a fly ball—are they calculating trajectories in their heads, or making optical deductions? To answer this question, researchers put virtual reality helmets on skilled ball players, then made the virtual balls break the laws of physics as the players tried to "catch" them. On Built On Facts, Matt Springer calculates the energy required to raise the mass of the world's tallest building into the sky, all so "…
milhayser | January 8, 2010
ScienceOnline 2010 will take place January 15-17, and ScienceBloggers Janet Stemwedel and Dr. Isis will co-lead a session on "online civility." Janet sparks the discussion on Adventures in Ethics and Science, asking if civility online entails something different than it does in real life. On Bioephemera, Jessica Palmer responds that an "us/them mentality" already fosters misunderstanding in the real world, and unless we want the internet to be "a bunch of bickering echo chambers," we should listen to each other with respect. On A Blog Around The Clock, Coturnix notes that written language is…
milhayser | January 7, 2010
ScienceBloggers liked Avatar, but that hasn't stopped them from picking the science apart from the science fiction. On The Scientific Indian, Selva wonders how communication between the humans and their avatars could take place inside the "vortex," when all other kinds of transmission are disrupted. PZ Myers on Pharyngula lauds the detailed flora and fauna imagined for Pandora, but laments that the natives ended up looking so safely human in an otherwise alien world. On Greg Laden's Blog, Greg turns a critical eye to the film's anthropological undercurrents, comparing the representation…
milhayser | January 6, 2010
On the first day of Christmas, one might gift his or her true love with a certain bird in a certain fruit tree...unless one's true love is geology. On Highly Allocthonous, Chris Rowan runs down a seasonal list of twelve geologic features, forms, and phenomena that interest him more than drummers drumming or lords a-leaping, concluding on the traditional twelfth day of Christmas—January 5—with folds a-plunging. From reversing streams and melting glaciers to the flipping of Earth's magnetic poles, Chris probes our planet from pole to pole, serving up a rich holiday feast of geologic goodness…
milhayser | January 5, 2010
With the new year hot out of the gates, ScienceBlogs wishes everyone a wonderful 2010. Dr. Isis on On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess shares a study with us waistline watchers, comparing two approaches to calorie reduction. One group of overweight individuals consumed 25% fewer calories while the other group ate only 12.5% less but burned the other 12.5% through exercise. Both groups lost the same amount of weight, but only the exercisers "improved their fitness, saw a decline in diastolic blood pressure and LDL and improved insulin sensitivity." Getting in shape is well and good…
milhayser | January 4, 2010
Galileo transformed Western knowledge, but the Catholic Church vehemently opposed his "heretical" heliocentric observations. Inspired by author Thomas Dixon, ScienceBloggers debate whether the Church's beef with Galileo was motivated by political power or by the competing principles of science and religion. On EvolutionBlog, Jason Rosenhouse writes that while the conflict was "played out in the political arena," it was actually ideological in nature since it pitted the Pope's "privileged relationship with God" against science's popular means to knowledge. On The Questionable Authority,…
milhayser | December 30, 2009
Although it is illegal to sell in most states, raw milk is gaining popularity as claims about its healthfulness multiply. Proponents of raw say the heat of pasteurization destroys beneficial enzymes and probiotic bacteria, while homogenization damages the natural structure of milk. Sharon Astyk drinks raw milk on Casaubon's Book, but only from animals she raises herself. She says raw milk "tastes better," "is easier to digest," and "should be available for sale everywhere." But she also acknowledges the inherent bacterial risks of rawness, warning that it is not for everyone and requires…
milhayser | December 29, 2009
Racists often cite IQ as a genetically determined trait, attempting to justify and promote their supremacist attitudes. Even if IQ tests do not favor specific cultural or educational standards, is intelligence coded in our genes, or related to the color of our skin? Greg Laden answers an emphatic "no," explaining that although intelligence may be heritable--that is, passed from generation to generation like a language--there is no evidence that it is specifically inherited, or genetically determined. On Gene Expression, Razib Khan parses data on African-American ancestry, revealing a…
milhayser | December 28, 2009On Collective Imagination, Joe Salvo declares the Information Age is done for, writing: "a period of history can be characterized by the dominant technology that separates the leaders from the followers." He believes humanity has approached a tipping point where the separation between leaders and followers will cease to exist, as the internet democratizes the planet and good information becomes ubiquitous. So what's up next? Salvo calls it a "Systems Age," which involves "sensing, collecting, and manipulating data in near real-time with little to no human supervision." Sounds like a lot of…
milhayser | December 23, 2009If you've got a great idea, and you like money, here's your chance to win:
Carbon14, (www.c14time.com), a new outdoor and active lifestyle brand, is celebrating the launch of its three new lines of watches--AIR, WATER, and EARTH--by hosting a competition that will award $50,000 to one deserving contestant selected by the public! Whether you're developing solar technology, working to promote animal rights, or developing a product designed to positively impact the environment, you are eligible to win this competition!
Nominations and submissions will be accepted until February 28th, 2010.…
milhayser | December 23, 2009
Yesterday was the winter solstice, meaning the sun concluded its six-month southward course and seemed to "stand still" before beginning its journey north. Of course, this being a heliocentric neighborhood, the tilt, orbit, and rotation of Earth are what really move the sun through the sky. But don't let that stop you from appreciating colorful crayon diagrams of the ancient "two-sphere" model of the heavens with Dr. Free-Ride on Adventure in Ethics and Science. If that's not a useful enough approximation, you can get a modern understanding of solstices and seasonal dynamics from Anne…
milhayser | December 22, 2009Erik Klemetti on Eruptions solicits your suggestions for the titular honor:
2009 is almost over and it has been quite a busy year, volcanically speaking. This is not to say that is was anomalously volcanic - more that many of the volcanic events captured the media's attention. I'll be putting together a "Volcanic Year in Review" for 2009 and at the end I'll award the 2009 "Volcanic Event of the Year" (a Pliny?) ... but now its your turn to nominate events for the award.
Suitable entries include "eruptions, signs of an eruption, a big research article, a media debacle/success" or just about…
milhayser | December 22, 2009
The climate summit in Copenhagen came to a tenuous conclusion on Friday, as five nations pulled a non-binding "agreement" from thin air. This agreement recognizes the threat of rising temperatures and pledges financial aid for developing countries, but sets no emission guidelines and is not legally enforcible anyway. On Casaubon's Book, Sharon Astyk fears what global warming will do to Santa's Workshop, writing that the major players at Copenhagen were "afraid to do hard things," and content to "pretend to do something" instead. Meanwhile, Greg Laden on his blog points out that Copenhagen…
milhayser | December 21, 2009
Darren Naish inspects "trace fossils" on Tetrapod Zoology, geologic records of footprints and other indentations left behind by animals. Although these telltale signs can "provide excellent information on behaviour and lifestyle," it can sometimes be hard to tell what kind of creature made them in the first place. Such is the case with a set of mysterious parallel grooves preserved in a Jurassic sandbar, which may have been formed by the snouts of ancient sea monsters trolling for snacks. On Laelaps, Brian Switek reconsiders unilinear assumptions of cetacean evolution, citing "a…
milhayser | December 18, 2009
On Casaubon's Book, Sharon Astyk raises her hackles at the sight of Monsanto, a company which over the last century has churned out artificial sweeteners, sulfuric acid, myriad plastics, herbicides such as DDT, the pernicious defoliant Agent Orange, bovine growth hormone, PCBs, and other chemical wonders. Since their first genetic modification of a plant cell in 1982, Monsanto has shifted increasingly to biotechnology, and now control 90% of the world's seed genetics. Balking against this growing monopoly on our food crops, Astyk advises "Seeds are powerful. Get some good ones, save them…
milhayser | December 17, 2009
As we shiver in the northern hemisphere, holiday cheer isn't the only thing in the air—there are also flu, cold, and other contenders just waiting to hit a mucous membrane. Revere questions H1N1 terminology on Effect Measure, citing "10,000 deaths, 47 million infections and over 200,000 hospitalizations" caused by the virus, with the "heart of flu season" still to come. On The White Coat Underground, PalMD reports more CDC data, revealing a "death rate from influenza in American Indians/Native Alaskans" that is almost four times the rate of other ethnicities. Rhinovira are also out in…
milhayser | December 16, 2009
With medical marijuana now legal in thirteen states, and President Obama's Attorney General advising Feds not to waste resources on users in compliance with state law, the tide of tetrahydrocannabinol seems to be on the rise. On The Scientific Activist, Nick Anthis reports that the American Medical Association has recently altered its view of the drug, calling for a revised federal classification and more research into its potential medical benefits. PalMD for one will wait and see, writing that "the available clinical data do not give a doctor a clear way to evaluate the risk/benefit…
milhayser | December 15, 2009
On Aardvarchaeology, Martin Rundkvist tells us that the Geminid meteor shower is peaking tonight, so if you've got any wishes on the back burner, now's your chance to make them. Of course these shooting "stars" are really bits of extinct comet 3200 Phaethon's "sandy exhaust trail" burning up in the atmosphere—if you prefer some main sequence hydrogen-fusing affairs, head over to Greg Laden's Blog to learn about Alcor and Mizar. This binary star system in the constellation Ursa Major has been known since antiquity, but—surprise!—Mizar is actually four stars, and Alcor is now known to be two…
milhayser | December 14, 2009
'Tis the season, time for many of us to eat as much as we swore we wouldn't. But before you cozy up beside the fire with a pound of chocolates and a quart of egg nog, see if these articles won't sate your appetite. First, on Casaubon's Book, Sharon Astyk cites a recent statistic that America wastes 40% of its food supply, and offers practical ways for us to improve our eating efficiency. Then on The World's Fair, Benjamin Cohen says that for sustainable eating to really take off, we must "reduce costs by reconfiguring price structures based on local economies." On Tomorrow's Table,…
milhayser | December 11, 2009
Tensions are mounting in Copenhagen over the so-called "Danish text," a draft agreement that would allow developed countries such as the United States and China to emit nearly twice as much carbon per capita as "third world" or developing countries. Meanwhile, scrappy island nation Tuvalu stood up for a stricter resolution, only to be scolded by the economies-that-be. Eric Michael Johnson on The Primate Diaries writes that the Danish text would "effectively stifle the growth of poor nations while allowing wealthy nations to continue their disproportionate levels of carbon pollution." In a…