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cortex | June 18, 2009I think one of the most important tests of behavioral economics will arrive in the next few years, as we attempt to persuade consumers to improve energy efficiency in the home. Just imagine if, instead of installing granite on every kitchen countertop, we'd instead spent that money on better window seals and insulation. Of course, if people were rational agents, we wouldn't need cleverly constructed "choice environments," since the vast majority of efficiency improvements pay for themselves with reduced energy bills within a few years. (According to Energy Star, buying more efficient…
grrlscientist | June 17, 2009
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is a blog carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days. To send your submissions to Scientia Pro Publica, either use this automated submission form or use the cute little widget on the right (sometimes that widget doesn't upload when the mother site is sick). Be sure to include the URL or "…
razib | June 17, 2009Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?:
Instead, he suggests, a core exercise program should emphasize all of the major muscles that girdle the spine, including but not concentrating on the abs. Side plank (lie on your side and raise your upper body) and the "bird dog" (in which, from all fours, you raise an alternate arm and leg) exercise the important muscles embedded along the back and sides of the core. As for the abdominals, no sit-ups, McGill said; they place devastating loads on the disks. An approved crunch begins with you lying down, one knee bent, and hands positioned beneath your…
palmd | June 17, 2009I'd like to direct your attention toward an excellent discussion of today's news about the cold "remedy" Zicam. Dr. Novella and the commenters have hit on all the major points; I can't improve on it.
I would, however, like to give you a personal look at anosmia, or the absence of a sense of smell. It is not at all OK. I have rather nasty seasonal allergies and I also get a lot of upper respiratory tract infections (presumably due to my constant exposure). Several years ago, I came home from the hospital with a nasty cold, had some soup, and went to bed. The next morning I got up and made…
grrlscientist | June 17, 2009tags: books, fiction, novels, public libraries
I am back at home, ill, but I managed to mooch a neighbor's uncharacteristically open wireless connection so I have been talking with one of my readers about one of our favorite topics: books. I love reading fiction when I am sick, and currently, I am trying to resist my urge to begin reading the entire Harry Potter series again (for the 14th or 15th time now. Reading HP is a 4-6 week investment that tends to keep me from doing what I should be doing: writing book reviews). During this conversation, I lamented the fact that I've not read many…
cortex | June 17, 2009Yesterday was Bloomsday - the day Leopold Bloom wandered around Dublin - and so I drank a pint of Guiness and read some Joyce. Now that Ulysses is part of the modernist canon it's easy to forget what a radical shift in form and content the novel represented. (Even Virginia Woolf thought Joyce went too far: "I don't believe that his method, which is highly developed, means much more than cutting out the explanations and putting in the thoughts between dashes," she wrote.) Once upon a time, the mind was seen as a fundamentally coherent machine - our thoughts unfolded in logical chains, like a…
mspringer | June 17, 2009A reader in the thread on Snow Crash came up with an interesting exercise. In the book, Hiro Protagonist has a pretty awesome car. He'd better - he uses it for time-critical deliveries for the Mafia.
The Deliverator's car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the Asteroid Belt.
A metaphor, like the decibel thing we discussed earlier? Maybe, maybe not. Let's work it out and see.
The first thing to notice is that there's several levels of complication involved depending on how much detail we want. Roughly speaking there's two sources of gravity…
hrynyshyn | June 17, 2009.. climatologists are right when they say we should be worried about what we're doing to the global heat balance.
A commenter on my previous post asked
What aspects of the science do you feel are most convincing in demonstrating the link between fossil fuel emissions and rising global average temperatures?
To which I offered one glib and one sincere but pass-the-buck response. I want very much to get past the whole "what's the evidence for climate change" thing. But on reflection, it's important to remind those who are new to the debate, especially younger participants, just why we have as…
cortex | June 17, 2009There was a telling moment yesterday on the NYTimes.com website. It was just after 10:30 in the morning and the top of the site featured a breaking news article about the S&P 500 heading into higher territory. The article offered the usual litany of explanations, from better than expected news on housing starts to a surprising uptick in retail sales. But here's the catch: by the time I glanced at the article it was already obsolete, with the Dow and S&P down by a significant amount. A few hours later, a new article made its way to the top of the NYTimes site, explaining why the market…
sciencepunk | June 17, 2009
Researchers at the University of Washington have woven together chitosan and polyester to create a new material that can help to repair severed nerves. Chitosan, found in the shells of crabs and shrimp, was mixed with an industrial polyester; the hybrid fibre combines the biologically favourable qualities of the natural material with the mechanical strength of the synthetic polymer.
"A nerve guide requires very strict conditions. It needs to be biocompatible, stable in solution, resistant to collapse and also pliable, so that surgeons can suture it to the nerve," said lead author Miqin…
gregladen | June 16, 2009Help out Chad with his latest data collection effort:
Of course, I can't very well ask people to leave comments about how messed-up the comments are, so I've been forced to resort to something higher-tech...
A POLL!!
gregladen | June 16, 2009Cloud Appreciation Society agrees. Scientists skeptical, but considering the possibilities ....
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
As Bill Nye says, it could all be a matter of perspective ...
gregladen | June 16, 2009Maddow on torture. "I make up stories."
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
We need to just get these documents out now, in full.
gregladen | June 16, 2009
Deborah Halber, News Office Correspondent
April 11, 2007
The public persona of the Atom is mild-mannered physics professor Ray Palmer, who fashioned a lens that enabled him to shrink any object to any degree he wished. The lens's secret ingredient is a chunk of a white dwarf star, and a 1960s version of the Atom comic book shows the professor in a grassy field, huffing and puffing as he carries a grapefruit-sized piece of the star (which has miraculously fallen to Earth) to his car.
Palmer seems undaunted by the fact that a sphere of white dwarf star that size would weigh 500,000 tons.
Jim…
gregladen | June 16, 2009For those of you interested in Super Heroes, check this out:
Superhero alter-ego Steve Rogers - the original Captain America - is to come back from the dead in a new five-part Marvel Comic series.
The first part of Captain America Reborn will be out in the US on 1 July, but its makers will not say how Rogers will come back to life.
Rogers was apparently shot and killed in 2007 on the steps of a courthouse.
Since then, the 68-year-old series has continued with Rogers' sidekick Bucky Barnes taking on the superhero mantle.
bbc
Which reminds me, I've been meaning to repost my old post on Jim's…
sb admin | June 16, 2009When discussing the costs of various healthcare reform proposals, itâs crucial to keep one thing in mind: doing nothing would be a financial disaster. If we donât change the rate at which healthcare costs are growing, total health spending is projected to double over the next 11 years, from an expected $2.6 trillion this year to $5.2 trillion in 2020. Medicare and Medicaid will eat up a growing share of the federal budget; employers will stop offering insurance as premiums become harder to afford; and families will struggle to pay for needed healthcare. These problems all exist today, and…
pharyngula | June 16, 2009It's nothing personal, but we're getting a little worried about the economic competition you've been delivering lately, so we need to even the playing field a little. A couple of Christian evangelical real estate billionaires have created a Noah's Ark tourist attraction in Hong Kong. Pretty soon you'll be as stupid as we are.
Oh, wait! "Tourist attraction"? It's supposed to poison the minds of the locals, not traveling Westerners! Dang. Maybe we can ship a few container ships full of Bibles and Chick tracts over there instead.