vhughes | July 31, 2007
Last Friday, NASA released a report on astronaut health care that revealed two incidents of on-the-job alcohol abuse. Even though NASA rules forbid drinking alcohol while in orbit, a New Scientist article published online on Tuesday suggests that a few astronauts have done it (including Buzz Aldrin, who sipped communion wine from a chalice after landing on the Moon).
But in a zero-gravity environment, could an astronaut (or a space tourist) really enjoy beer's frothy bubbles?
Yes, explains the New Scientist article:
The answer, Dutch researchers suggested in 2000, is to store beer in a…
vhughes | July 25, 2007
For 34 years, Nikon has sponsored the "Small World" photomicrography competition to showcase, as they put it, "the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope."
The official judging for the 2007 contest took place on May, and now website visitors may rate the top 100 entries. Winners will be announced this fall.
The site also showcases winning entries from previous years. The deadline for entries in next year's competition is April 30, 2008. First prize gets $3,000 toward the purchase of Nikon equipment.
Shown here are two of the top entries from the 2007 competition…
vhughes | July 25, 2007
We city dwellers tend to shudder at the sight of the beady-eyed, black rat. Its kind invades our subways, trash cans, and water systems and may carry dangerous diseases.
But science writer Natalie Angier defends the oft-loathed rat in Tuesday's New York Times, pointing out that basic rat research on major organs, physiological systems, and cancers has undoubtedly saved many thousands of human lives. What's more, new studies reveal that rat behaviors are surprisingly humanlike: The critters laugh when tickled, get addicted to drugs, and know the difference between good and bad sex. They even…
vhughes | July 22, 2007
This time around we're talking to marine biologist, band chick and political junkie Sheril Kirshenbaum, Chris Mooney's new co-blogger at The Intersection.
What's your name?
Sheril Rose Kirshenbaum
What do you do when you're not blogging?
Sometimes marine biology. Other times, I make the rounds on Cap Hill. I love music and play drums in a girl band. I also love riding my bike, reading everything, singing, painting, daydreaming, wandering the wilds of South Africa lately, and getting into mischief in North Carolina with friends.
What is your blog called?
The Intersection
What's up…
ksharpe | July 19, 2007Please welcome the newest addition to ScienceBlogs, Angry Toxicologist.
As the Toxicologist says in an introductory post,
I am a Ph.D. scientist in the public health sector with a good amount of toxicology and regulatory knowledge. I'm not going to be dishing about projects I am privy to, but I am much freer to make my opinions known anonymously, than I could do in a completely public forum.
Although other topics will probably be brought up from time to time (Friday is no day for science), this blog will be focused on public health and the science behind it and will be written for the non-…
vhughes | July 17, 2007Mapping the universe wouldn't be possible without technological marvels like the Hubble Telescope. But a new census of one million galaxies also requires the talents of the human eye.
Last week, astronomers from the University of Oxford, the University of Portsmouth and Johns Hopkins University launched the Galaxy Zoo project, a website that showcases stunning images of galaxies and asks visitors to help classify them.
Why do they need you, you ask? Well, the human brain is better at recognizing patterns than a computer. "Any computer program we write to sort our galaxies," the website…
ksharpe | July 13, 2007In this video by Seed video producer Jacob Klein, Seed's art director, Adam Billyeald, narrates the creation of the cover art for the August 2007 issue of Seed—from special E. coli-covered stamps and an agar-filled petri dish.
The cover art hails author and ScienceBlogger Carl Zimmer's feature article, "The Meaning of Life."
vhughes | July 11, 2007
This time we sat down with the ever-elusive Dr. Signout, of Signout.
What's your name?
Ooooh. Sorry, can't tell you that.
What do you do when you're not blogging?
Why, I provide compassionate, evidence-based patient care at a high rate of speed. If I'm not doing that, I'm probably traveling, reading, drinking coffee, or cooking flamboyantly.
What is your blog called?
Signout.
What's up with that name?
When residents hand off the care of their patients to other residents, they're supposed to summarize each patient's medical background, issues, and potential for change in clinical status in a…
ksharpe | July 6, 2007On July 1, ScienceBlogs welcomed a new addition: Neurophilosophy, by Moheb Costandi.
Science writer, Englishman, and former student of developmental neurobiology (and future student of neuroscience) Costandi covers all matters brain-related, with special attention to good stories from history. Recent posts at Neurophilosophy discuss Dostoevsky's epilepsy and the extraordinary case of Phineas Gage, whose nearly-fatal 1848 injury by a piece of railroad equipment turned him into a neurological curiosity as fascinating as those brought to the page by Oliver Sacks.
Head over and say hello. Don't…
vhughes | July 4, 2007
This time around, Page 3.14 interviews the ever-moving Chris Mooney, Seed Washington Correspondent and blogger at The Intersection and Speaking Science 2.0. Mooney's new book about hurricanes and global warming, Storm World, hit bookstore shelves on Sunday.
What's your name?
Christopher Cole Mooney. Aka Chris Mooney.
What do you do when you're not blogging?
If my blog is dormant, it usually means I'm traveling. If you mean hobbies when I'm at home, I'm a hanging out kinda guy. I like to go out to long dinners and bars. And I exercise a lot. My specialty is watching Star Wars movies while…
vhughes | July 2, 2007
Starting Monday, you'll notice green boxes in the sidebars of all of our blogs announcing our first reader survey. Go ahead, answer it! We figure the best way to make our site better is to hear from y'all.
Oh, yeah, and did I mention that one lucky survey respondent will win a *free* iPod Nano?
vhughes | June 30, 2007
Started on June 3 by medical writer, "20-something geek," and ScienceBlogs fan Mina Murray, Weird Science is a blog written specifically for adolescents. But with posts on levitating light bulbs, antidepressants for pets, and new fingerprinting techniques, Weird Science will tickle kids of any age who are interested in the hows and whys of new scientific discoveries. We recently asked Mina about science education for kids and how her readers have responded so far.
Who's your target audience?
I wanted to focus on kids who are in the 'tween' and 'teen' groups.
Why start a science blog for…
ksharpe | June 28, 2007Talk about your daily candy. This is the video for Fujiya & Miyagi's single "Ankle Injuries," directed by Wade Shotter, and it's all done with...dice!
vhughes | June 26, 2007The August issue of Seed hits newsstands today, and ScienceBlog's own Carl Zimmer wrote the cover story: "The Meaning of Life" (page 68), which explores the interface between philosophy and science.
Also in the new issue: PZ's column, this time discussing mammalian vertebrae (page 24); an essay by Chris Mooney on the role of science writers in the developing world (page 26); and a feature by Jonah Lehrer about the bizarrely biological dynamics of our cities (page 54).
vhughes | June 23, 2007
Can you name the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?
(Neither could I. To refresh your memory, they are, in chronological order: The Great Pyramids of Giza, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Phew!)
The famous list was composed by Philon of Byzantium in 200 B.C. Could it be time for an update?
The New7Wonders foundation thinks so. In 2001, Swiss-born Canadian filmmaker, museum curator, aviator, and explorer Bernard Weber…
vhughes | June 19, 2007When does a large crowd become a dangerous mob? Where should architects put emergency exits to best anticipate how people will react under sudden fear? It's hard for scientists to answer these questions, mostly because the environmental situations that incite crowd behaviors can't be simulated in real life. As Arizona State University geographer Paul Torrens explains: "You couldn't stage a realistic rehearsal of an evacuation because people are not going to panic appropriately."
One way to get around this is to model the situations in virtual reality. Below are screenshots of scenes produced…
ksharpe | June 11, 2007This deserves a read: University of Chicago professor Jerry Coyne has published an essay at Edge taking on Republican presidential hopeful Senator Sam Brownback's (R-KS) views on faith and evolution, as expressed in Brownback's May 31 New York Times op-ed.
The Senator, who raised his hand at a Republican presidential debate in May to indicate that he 'didn't believe in evolution,' wrote in the Times that there "cannot be any contradiction" between faith and science. Specifically, he claims to "reject arguments for evolution that dismiss the possibility of divine causality," even as he accepts…
vhughes | June 8, 2007Say hello to Google Ancient Earth? Today's high-resolution satellites are now snapping photos of millennia-old archaeological sites, and may be the key to their preservation.
Every year, tourists flock to Egypt to see the Great Pyramids and the Temple of Luxor. But experts estimate that more than 99 percent of the region's archaeological sites are still buried, leaving them at risk of being lost to looting and urban sprawl.
Using images taken by satellites—and commercially available on the internet—a research team led by archaeologist Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham…
ksharpe | June 6, 2007Have you ever heard someone claim that a piece of paper can't be folded in half more than seven times?
We had, and we were suspicious. So we thought about putting it to the brain trust, in the form of an 'Ask a ScienceBlogger' quesetion. Molecule of the Day responded immediately with a great anecdote about successfully folding a piece of paper in half not seven, but eight times, to win a bet in college.
He posted about his myth-busting triumph, here.
The upshot: with a piece of paper big enough, a lot of things are possible. Now could someone explain how this legend got started?
Image by…
vhughes | June 3, 2007
Above, Elvis's famous coif has been pasted over the faces of three famous people. Does the hair make it more difficult to recognize them?
You may un-coif the faces at the online "Memory" exhibit produced by San Francisco's interactive museum, Exploratorium.
The website includes loads of these kinds of visual demonstrations and memory games, webcasts of lectures from cognitive scientists who specialize in memory research, even an interactive dissection of a sheep's brain.
Another section features the paintings and drawings of a local San Francisco artist, Franco Magnani. Magnani, who…