milhayser | October 4, 2011
The planet-hunting spacecraft known as Kepler has detected the first definitive exoplanet in a binary star system, and lead author Dr. Laurance Doyle has all the details on Life at the SETI Institute. He writes, "Perhaps half the stars in the galaxy are in double star systems. Understanding that planets can form in close binary systems means that these, too, can be targets in the search for habitable worlds." The twin stars have a combined mass less than that of our sun—and the planet is the size of Saturn, in an orbit as close as Venus. Fellow SETI Astronomer Dr. Franck Marchis writes, "…
milhayser | October 3, 2011
On Developing Intelligence, Chris Chatham shares a new study which demonstrates that performing new tasks actually reverses the accustomed workflow between different parts of the brain. Chris writes "Cole et al demonstrate that the causal influence is from [the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex] to [the anterior prefrontal cortex] during the encoding and performance of a novel task. Practiced tasks, by contrast, were associated with a complete reversal of these effects, with APFC primarily influencing DLPFC activation during preparation and performance." These results invite a re-evaluation…
milhayser | September 30, 2011A new paper published in the journal Animal Behavior tackles the origin of the female orgasm—does it have gender-specific advantages, or is it merely a byproduct of male adaptations? Having polled 10,000 twins about their orgasmic tendencies, researchers found "no significant correlation between opposite-sex twins and siblings" and therefore concluded that "selection pressures on male orgasmic function do not act substantively on female orgasmic function." PZ Myers writes "the logic of this experiment falls apart at every level." He points to the inevitable biases that affect self-…
milhayser | September 26, 2011
On Starts With a Bang, Ethan Siegel investigates the hamstringing of the James Webb Space Telescope. Originally scheduled to launch in 2013 at a cost of $5.1 billion, the JWST was pushed to 2015 and $6.5 billion by a government review panel that faulted NASA mismanagement. But the revised numbers counted on timely infusions of cash, and because "a miserly US Congress" withheld them, the cost of the project ballooned to $8.7 billion, with a new launch date of 2018. Although its unprecedented mirrors are nearly finished—along with its electrical instruments and their housing—the JWST still…
milhayser | September 23, 2011
It seems like every time we turn around, there's another new smartphone or robotic butler pouring coffee in our laps. On Uncertain Principles, the engineering breakthroughs du jour are "technical advances in ion trap quantum computing." Chad Orzel explains, "previous experiments have used optical frequencies to manipulate the states of the ions, using light from very complicated laser systems." Such lasers (though effective) are unwieldy, and researchers are now using simple microwaves to perform the same functions. This promises quantum computers on a chip—eventually. Meanwhile, on the…
milhayser | September 20, 2011On Deltoid, Tim Lambert reports that Wolfgang Wagner, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Remote Sensing, has taken personal responsibility for the publication of a "problematic" paper and resigned his role. Wagner writes, "With this step I would also like to personally protest against how the authors and like-minded climate sceptics have much exaggerated the paper's conclusions," in stories such as "New NASA data blow gaping hole in global warming alarmism" (published by Forbes) and "Does NASA data show global warming lost in space?" (published by Fox News). On Class M, James Hrynyshyn asks "…
milhayser | September 14, 2011
Natural disaster struck twice last month on the east coast of the United States: first, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake rattled windows from Atlanta to Boston, and then a waning hurricane whirled all the way to New York City and on to Canada as a tropical storm. The temblor caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, but the storm caused billions, and killed dozens of people. Sharon Astyk provides a firsthand view of the damage in upstate New York, where the storm turned her farm into a swamp, her creek into a raging torrent, and her locust trees into goat fodder and firewood. She…
milhayser | September 9, 2011
Earlier this month, NASA announced the discovery of DNA components in a meteorite. On We Beasties, Heather Olins writes that "while claims of meteorites containing DNA components have been made before, they may very well have been terrestrial contamination. This seems to be different, because the meteorite also contains similar molecules that are never found in biological matter." Specifically, the meteorite contains the nucleobase analogues purine, 2,6-diaminopurine, and 6,8-diaminopurine, leading Claire L. Evans to revisit the ancient concept of panspermia on Universe. Panspermia holds…
milhayser | September 7, 2011
On Starts With a Bang, Ethan Siegel explains that although we see the full range of spectral classes in the night sky—from cool red M stars to blazing blue O's—75% of nearby stars "are the reddest, coolest, M-class stars, including the closest star to us." Only 4.2 light-years away, Proxima Centauri "is invisible even with binoculars, and even with dark skies, a small, 3" telescope would unable to find it." Yet O and B class stars, despite being much rarer and much more distant, are so luminous that they can't be missed. Brightness can be deceiving—even when looking at entire galaxies and…
milhayser | September 6, 2011
On Stoat, a new paper says that misinformation causes confusion about otherwise settled climate science, and suggests that the "direct study of misinformation" can potentially "sharpen student critical thinking skills, raise awareness of the processes of science such as peer review, and improve understanding of the basic science." William M. Connolley looks at more papers in another post, exclaiming "Good grief, the world is full of new science all of a sudden." Two of the papers offer explanations as to why atmospheric methane levels have not increased as much as expected: it could be "…
milhayser | September 2, 2011
Greg Laden reports that scientists have sequenced the genome of the Tammar Wallaby, which boasts "the longest period of embryonic diapause of any known mammal, highly synchronized seasonal breeding and an unusual system of lactation." The new research "provides a hitherto lacking understanding of marsupial gene evolution and hopes to have identified marsupial-specific genetic elements." Dr. Dolittle shares more amazing research on Life Lines, telling us seals can cool off their brains while diving to conserve oxygen. They do this by shunting blood "to large superficial veins allowing heat…
milhayser | September 1, 2011
Evidence that life on Earth is very old (and of humble origin) continues to accrue, but some beliefs are insurmountable. On EvolutionBlog, Jason Rosenhouse refutes the argument that the evolution of complex molecules and organisms is highly improbable. He notes that if we "imagine evolution proceeding by selecting genotypes entirely at random, then the probability is vanishingly small that we shall ever find one that produces a functional, complex organism." But since natural selection only builds upon what works, it's a smaller wonder that we're here to argue about it. On Dispatches…
milhayser | August 31, 2011
On Brookhaven Bits & Bytes, Steve Kettell brings us up to speed on a new research project taking place beneath a mountain in southern China. The object of study is the neutrino, which can "pass through the Earth and through much of the universe without interacting with anything." Ethan Siegel explains on Starts With a Bang: "Neutrinos only interact gravitationally and through the weak force. They have no electromagnetic interactions." And because they have no charge, neutrinos are free to pass between the atoms that make up tangible matter. Steve writes that neutrinos from the sun…
milhayser | August 30, 2011
It's mid-August, and the school year is nigh. On Dynamics of Cats, Steinn Sigurðsson provides a blueprint for a successful academic term, and yes, you should take notes. Steinn writes, "Ideally, the primary teaching delivery would be a wise person at the end of a log [...] unfortunately wise people are in desperately short supply." More often the wise person is on the floor of a crowded auditorium. But Steinn believes the lecture is a strong foundation for learning—as long as students build on it "after class, over coffee, on the library steps, over lunch, drinking beer and during the…
milhayser | August 29, 2011
On We Beasties, Kevin Bonham tells us all his thoughts on GoD—the Generation of Diversity that enables B-cells "to make antibodies that recognize almost any chemical structure that has ever existed or will ever exist." By recombining three essential pieces of an antibody (with 100, 30, and 6 variants respectively), using enzymes to slice up DNA and stitch it back together, and owing to a little extra variation from our parents and a dash of random nucleotides, B-cells can fabricate about 10 billion different antibodies to intercept viruses, bacteria, and other intruders. On ERV, Abbie…
milhayser | August 19, 2011
On Pharyngula, PZ Myers reports that the curling and packing of intestines (which in humans grow to over twenty feet long) follows "simple mathematical rules" akin to "the Fibonacci spirals we see in the head of a sunflower or the coils of a nautilus shell." Researchers successfully recreated the characteristic curves of a chick gut using lifeless rubber simulacra, and also predicted them using computer models, proving that although every species has its own stereotypical pattern of gut construction, DNA is not the architect. And in an older post on Dean's Corner, Dr. Jeffrey Toney shares…
milhayser | August 18, 2011
On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess, Dr. Isis reports that drug-maker Lundbeck "will no longer provide Nembutal to prisons in states where lethal injection is legal." Nembutal is a barbiturate used in conjunction with two other drugs to execute capital offenders, and an alternative to Sodium Pentothal, which since 2010 has been in short supply. While Lundbeck may stand on merciful principles, Dr. Isis worries that Nembutal will no longer be available as a therapeutic option at U.S. prisons. On Dispatches from the Culture Wars, Ed Brayton writes that Alabama has a higher per-…
milhayser | August 16, 2011
On Universe, Claire L. Evans looks back on the starry-eyed futurism of the 1970's, when Gerard O'Neill envisioned "massive colonies of human habitation in space—self-sustaining environments capable of hosting hundreds of thousands of people." These colonies, housed in spinning cylinders, "would float in space at Lagrangian points, points of stable gravitational equilibrium located along the path of the moon's orbit." Today our ambitions are a bit less grand—and perhaps we should focus on taking care of the perennial spaceship Earth. But with unlimited room to grow and plenty of solar…
milhayser | August 15, 2011
NASA's last shuttle mission has flown, and with no administrative fervor to put a human on Mars, what is humanity's place in space? On Life at the SETI Institute, Dr. Cynthia Phillips says that for scientific exploration of our solar system, "robots don't need food or water, they can withstand much more damaging radiation, and, perhaps most importantly, they don't need to come home at the end of the mission." Plus, "for the cost of putting two astronauts on the surface of a planet like Mars for a few days or weeks, you could afford an army of robots that could comb the surface of the…
milhayser | August 12, 2011
On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess, Dr. Isis solicits hypotheses for the increase in the number of A's awarded to students at American universities. In 1960's, one out of six students got an A (and C used to be the most Common). Now an A is most common, and the number of C's (and D's) has fallen by half. Dr. Isis says, "It's interesting that the real change in grading appears to have occurred in the period between 1962 and 1974, probably coinciding with the increase in conscription for the Vietnam War." Mike the Mad Biologist offers, "I think it's pretty obvious what happened:…