amillikan | April 24, 2009
Swiss astronomers recently discovered the small exoplanet, Gliese 581 e, calculated to have a minium mass less than twice that of our own dear planet. This planet resides within the same solar system as Gliese 581 d, which scientists speculate could be capable of supporting life. "With a minimum age of these planets of 7 billion years, you can bet that if life did form there, it's probably awfully interesting by now," ventured ScienceBlogger Ethan Siegel from Starts With a Bang.
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amillikan | April 23, 2009
Hundreds of research supporters rallied on UCLA's campus Wednesday to protest acts of terrorism directed at scientists by animal rights activists. The event, organized by the UCLA chapter of Pro-Test, a group founded in Oxford, England to support animal testing for the pursuit of science, drew an estimated 800 people to the rally. A simultaneous anti-research rally only drew about 30 people. For continued discussion on the rally, ScienceBlogger DrugMonkey has an open discussion thread on his blog.
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amillikan | April 22, 2009
Today is Earth Day, and here on ScienceBlogs our bloggers are observing it by sharing their reasons for caring about our planet and its environment. ScienceBlogs' newest blog, Guilty Planet, launched today in timing with the occasion. Written by Jennifer Jacquet, formerly of Shifting Baselines, the blog will explore human patterns of consumption and what can be done to make them sustainable. "It will seek reason amidst the irrational madness of destroying one's only home," writes Jacquet. Also check out Mike Dunford's Earth Day meme on The Questionable Authority and a meditative audio…
amillikan | April 21, 2009
With news headlines prompting readers to question if Twitter causes a decay in one's moral fabric, ScienceBloggers are attempting to set the record straight. As Jessica Palmer from Bioephemera explains, the mainstream media got wind of a press release from the University of Southern California, the author of which jumped to conclusions based on hypothetical speculations in the 'future applications' section of a neuroscience paper unrelated to Twitter. The press release claimed the networking tool "might reduce the frequency of full experience of such emotions, with potentially negative…
amillikan | April 21, 2009
Following through with President Obama's executive order issued March 9, Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells (link to PDF), the NIH has released a draft of guidelines revising the NIH's position on how it may fund "responsible, scientifically worthy human stem cell research, including human embryonic stem cell research." The funding only extends to human embryonic stem cells derived from embryos created in excess at fertility clinics. ScienceBlogger Nick Anthis from The Scientific Activist views the creation of these guidelines as a "significant…
amillikan | April 20, 2009
As apex organisms in the scope of Earth's multi-tiered web of life, most of us go about our day-to-day activities oblivious to the fact that bacteria are literally everywhere. Microorganisms can thrive in the most surprising locales—places totally inhospitable to human life. Recently, scientists from Harvard documented a flourishing bacterial ecosystem buried under 400 meters of ancient glacial ice; more common bacteria, Salmonella may lurk on your dinner plate, as a report citing 48,600 infections across ten states in 2008 attests; and if it's any indication from this scientific pursuit,…
amillikan | April 16, 2009While historical accounts of the Spanish Hapsburgs dynasty have suggested that prevalent inbreeding likely contributed to the family's downfall, such suspicions weren't supported by genetic data--until now. In a new paper in PLoS One, researchers traced the genes of the Hapsburgs through more than 3,000 individuals over 16 generations to calculate the "inbreeding coefficient," a value that is highly correlated with genetic defects. The study found that much of the family's infertility could be explained by genetic defects propagated by first-cousin inbreeding.
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amillikan | April 16, 2009A proposed law to protect native species and habitats from invasion by nonnative animals is scheduled to be heard April 23 in the U.S. House of Representatives, and ScienceBloggers are voicing strong--and contending--sentiments about the bill. House Resolution 669, the Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Protection Act, would prevent the importation and trade of invasive animal species, but ignores invasive exotic plants that can cause "tremendous economic, environmental, and habitat damage," in the words of GrrlScientist. She raises a number of other objections to the bill, but Mike Dunford of the…
ksharpe | April 14, 2009Originally posted by Scicurious
On April 8, 2009, at 12:02 AM
As I'm sure everyone knows by now, Sci LOVES getting books in the mail. Even if I paid for them, I still love seeing them show up in a box. Even better is when I pick them out of a store and get to cuddle them on the way home. So you can imagine how happy Sci was to see this show up at the door:
I've always wanted a specialized psychiatric dictionary, almost as bad as I've wanted a specialized pharmacologic dictionary. It's a good thing to have handy, and is an even cooler thing to get in the mail. So Sci pranced around…
amillikan | April 13, 2009
Researchers in Canada are contemplating a recent report that suggests it is more expensive to review and reject applications for small baseline grants than to simply provide the grant without conducting a review. According to this study, if the review process was eliminated, the Canadian government could save money while funding the projects of every qualified applicant of baseline grants. Bora from A Blog Around the Clock speculates that foregoing review could promote "truly innovative science," and discusses the feasibility of implementing such a plan in the U.S.
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amillikan | April 9, 2009How accurately can medical professionals distinguish post-traumatic stress disorder from related conditions? Is it better to be safe than sorry, or is overdiagnosis hurting patients rather than helping them? These are some questions that ScienceBlogger and freelance journalist David Dobbs addressed in his article in the April edition of Scientific American, bringing light to data that suggests PTSD may be grossly overdiagnosed in soldiers returning from combat. The article's publication has prompted thoughtful discussion with counter examples that led Dobbs to the conclusion that PTSD is…
amillikan | April 8, 2009In the wake of Monday's earthquake in the L'Aquila region of Italy that killed over 200 people, news emerged that one Italian scientist had predicted the earthquake less than two weeks earlier. Giampaolo Giuliani's predictions were broadcast on March 28 but was dismissed by Italian authorities--and rightly so, according to ScienceBloggers. The radon-measurement technique Giuliani based his prediction on has proven to be unsuccessful in the past. "Any geologist would be celebrating a genuine, proven, method of earthquake prediction," said Chris Rowan of Highly Allochthonous, "but we're clearly…
ksharpe | April 8, 2009Originally posted by Brian Switek
On April 6, 2009, at 8:10 AM
One of the unwritten rules of creating a good horror yarn is that the location your story takes place in has to be as frightening as your monster. The setting almost has to act an an extension of the bloodthirsty antagonist; a place that can more easily be seen as its lair than a place of human habitation. In Lincoln Child's latest novel Terminal Freeze that place is Fear Base, a rotting military facility shivering the the shadow of Fear Glacier, and it is stalked by something utterly horrifying.
Readers of The Relic, another…
amillikan | April 7, 2009The more moral you believe yourself to be, the less moral you may be inclined to act, according to a new study in Psychological Science. Psychologists evaluated the moral self-image of subject participants and then presented them with a variety of scenarios in which they were asked to donate money to charity and to choose between business practices that were either environment-friendly or cost-effective. The subjects who described themselves as being more ethical both donated less to charity and opted for cheaper, more harmful business practices compared to subjects who described themselves…
amillikan | April 5, 2009While the rumor that Google is in "late stage negotiations" to acquire Twitter, the social networking website based on text message-style entries of 140 characters, hasn't been confirmed, the feasibility of such a notion says volumes about Twitter's massive rise in popularity over the past years. Now the third-largest social networking website (behind facebook and myspace), Twitter has revolutionized the way information is generated and communicated. Naturally, ScienceBloggers are no stranger to this micro-blogging phenomenon. Bora from A Blog Around the Clock reflects on how social…
ksharpe | April 5, 2009Originally posted by Jessica Palmer
On April 1, 2009, at 7:00 AM
I've been as eager as a brain-starved zombie to get my hands on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the Jane Austen mash-up concocted by Seth Grahame-Smith for Quirk Books. It sounded a like Regency Buffy: zombie-slaying Lizzy Bennet indulges in arch quips while skewering zombies and ninjas with her Katana, all in time for the Netherfield ball. The obvious question was, could this conceit actually work for the length of a novel?
The answer: yes - sort of. P&P&Z is no Buffy. But it will be entertaining for a particular…
amillikan | April 3, 2009While the robotic title character in WALL-E inhabited an Earth of the future, robots are here now, in our labs, factories, and even art galleries. At Aberystwyth University in Wales, a robot named Adam is designing and carrying out genetic tests on yeast, modifying the experiments on its own as it records and processes data. At the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, robots methodically analyze frozen slices of the brain to create a genetic map of the entire organ. And in art galleries across Europe and North America, artist Wim Delvoye's "Cloaca" machines mimic natural human waste…
ksharpe | April 3, 2009Originally posted by Grrlscientist
On March 30, 2009, at 2:55 PM
Unlike most people who were raised in a religious household and grew up surrounded by religious people, I never experienced a "crisis of faith" since I never believed there was a god any more than I believed there was a Santa Claus or a Tooth Fairy. However, some of my friends are religious and because I value them as people, I have listened to them from time to time as they pondered aloud the deep questions that all of us face in the wee hours or after experiencing a significant loss or other life-changing event -- the same…
amillikan | April 2, 2009In an article in The New York Times Magazine Sunday, Freeman Dyson—best known for his work in theoretical physics—discussed his belief that climate change is an issue that should be approached with skepticism. ScienceBloggers responded with thoughtful consideration. Dyson stated in the Times piece that while prevailing dogmas about climate change may be right, they deserve to be challenged. "That they do," conceded ScienceBlogger James Hrynyshyn from The Island of Doubt. "My only quibble is they are best challenged by those with a good grasp of the latest findings."