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On the Pew Science Survey, Beware the Fall From Grace Narrative
This traditional fall from grace narrative about science argues for the need to return to a (fictional) point in the past where science was better understood and appreciated by the public. In the U.S., this point in the past is often referred to as the years just after the launch of Sputnik and leading up to the Apollo moon landing.
Coffee Breakdown: Is There a Link Between Caffeine and Hallucinations?
If you’ve consumed a lot of caffeine—the equivalent to seven cups of coffee—you are three times more likely to hear voices than if you had kept your caffeine intake to less than a cup of coffee, according to psychologists at the University of Durham in England. Their recent study shows that overingesting the stimulant slightly increases your risk of experiencing other hallucinations as well.
Friday Weird Science: Careful With That Toy! (NSFW)
Having conducted an informal poll myself (in this case, known as asking my friends) most women, and some men of my acquaintance, own sex toys. Every woman I’ve ever met has at least HEARD of ‘the rabbit’, and most people know a bit about rings, dildos, beads, or regular vibrators. Studies report that 68% of adults between 18-39 use sex toys more than once a month (Foxman et al, 2006). And yet, they’re the kind of things that most people wouldn’t discuss in public if their lives depended on it, and in private, only with close friends or after a few drinks (or both).
Natural Good, Chemical Bad – Right?
Arsenic sandwich anyone? Mercury soup, deadly nightshade surprise? No? Really? Well, I’m baffled! They’re all natural you know. And as we know, natural is good; natural is pure. Best of all, natural is healthy.
#725: When the Light Turns Green Just as You’re Approaching the Intersection.
Engines revving, drivers idling, traffic lights flash red and stall the scene. Then just as you’re pulling up and about to slow down everything suddenly flicks to green.
U.S. Science Is Tops, But Most Americans Don’t Think It Is.
Only 17 percent of the public feels that U.S. scientific achievements rank first in the world, far less than the 49 percent of scientists who think so. Alan Leshner, chief executive officer of the AAAS, was surprised by the low percentage of both numbers, stating in a telephone press conference today that much of the world considers American science as the standard to seek. He goes on to note that U.S. science papers are still the most frequently cited in the world.
Sex Ed Just Got a Little More Complicated
It’s amazing how the field of stem cell research has advanced so much in such a short amount of time. Today, just a little over a decade after the first stem cell line was produced, scientists announced another breakthrough – turning stem cells into sperm.
Dr. Lozier and his co-authors plugged in the locations of 551 bigfoot sightings and 95 footprint sites reported from 1944 to 2005 using a software package called MAXENT and came up with a possible range that spans from California to Washington, following major mountain chains. At the same time, they plugged in the range data for black bears and found that their habitat and the hypothetical distribution of sasquatches overlaps just about 85% of the time.
A New Way to Make Sensors that Detect Toxic Chemicals
Ohio State University researchers have developed a new method for making extremely pure, very small metal-oxide nanoparticles.
They are using this simple, fast, and low-temperature process to make materials for gas sensors that detect toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) and biological warfare agents.
Windows 7 is the Same as Ubuntu
The other day, I posted a blog titled “Windows 7: Good enough to pay for?” I described how I’d installed the Windows 7 Release Candidate on my son’s computer for his take on the OS after living with Ubuntu 9.04 (and 8.10 before that) for a few months. It’s summer break, so he basically spends every waking moment when he’s not actually interacting face-to-face with friends on the computer. No better time to have a kid do some serious testing, right?
Really? The Claim: Sunscreens Can Increase the Risk of Melanoma
Is it possible that a product meant to protect against skin cancer might actually cause it?
Spanish Scientists Bring Us Closer to Making the Dream of Invisibility True
Making objects invisible always has been a dream of humanity, as can be seen in different works of literature, from “The Invisible Man” by H. G. Wells to Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. Technically, any object could be made invisible if it were covered with something which could make the light surround it, instead of absorbing or reflecting it. Thus it would be impossible to see the object since the light would only pass around it and if one were to look directly at the object, one would only see what is behind it. The object would become imperceptible.
Caffeine Reverses Memory Impairment in Alzheimer’s Mice
Back-to-back studies published online today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, show caffeine significantly decreased abnormal levels of the protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, both in the brains and in the blood of mice exhibiting symptoms of the disease.
Bombs Bursting In Air: What’s In Those Fourth of July Fireworks, Anyway?
Red, white and blue aside, how green will this weekend’s firework festivities be? Not very, argue some.
The dazzling displays owe their colors to traces of metal compounds: strontium for red, aluminum or magnesium for white, copper for blue and barium for green.
Measuring the Carbon Footprint of a Charcol Grill
Researcher Eric Johnson recently revealed that charcoal grills leave a much larger carbon footprint than their gas-powered counterparts.
Fear of Saying the Wrong Thing Sometimes Makes Us… Say the Wrong Thing.
Harvard psychologist Daniel Wegner suggests that the embarrassing phenomenon of putting your foot in your mouth comes from your brain’s overzealous attempt to avoid social gaffes.
Quit Smoking (and Junk Food?) Through Exercise
You see a recent study published last year in the journal Psychopharmacology demonstrated that smokers who were nicotine abstinent for 15 hours, when faced with images of smoking had their mesocorticolimbic systems light up like Christmas trees. Yet Those same smokers, when exposed to 10 minutes of exercise prior to the smoking images showed no such lighting.
Well, the temperature of space is, at its coldest, just the temperature of the leftover glow from the Big Bang. This radiation, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background, bathes the entire Universe in a temperature of only 2.7 Kelvin. That’s less than 3 degrees above absolute zero, or -455 degrees Fahrenheit! But there’s also — literally — no pressure in space. So, what happens? Who wins? Does the water freeze or boil?
The Evidence on Online Education
Online learning has definite advantages over face-to-face instruction when it comes to teaching and learning, according to a new meta-analysis released Friday by the U.S. Department of Education.
The study found that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. Further, those who took “blended” courses — those that combine elements of online learning and face-to-face instruction — appeared to do best of all. That finding could be significant as many colleges report that blended instruction is among the fastest-growing types of enrollment.
Working to Conserve Endangered Playboy Bunnies
Rosanna Tursi, a master’s student and graduate teaching assistant, is using population genetics to aid in the conservation of the Lower Keys marsh rabbits (Sylvilagus palustris hefneri), which were declared endangered in 1990. It is estimated that less than 300 rabbits remain today.
Researchers Find Vibrator Use to be Common, Linked to Sexual Health
The studies, led by researchers at the Center for Sexual Health Promotion in IU’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, are the first to publish data about vibrator use from nationally representative samples of the U.S. population. This lack of data has existed despite a longstanding practice by many physicians and therapists to recommend vibrator use to help treat sexual dysfunctions or to improve sexual enjoyment.
Cooperative learning methods top list of effective approaches for secondary mathematics
“The findings of this review suggest that educators as well as researchers might do well to focus more on how the classroom is organized to maximize student engagement and motivation, rather than expecting that choosing one or another textbook by itself will move students forward,”
Where Can You Contain An Explosive Molecule? In a Molecular Cage, of Course
Scientists have found a way to safely store notoriously dangerous white phosphorus on the atomic scale: in a cage made of atoms that can only be unlocked by a specific molecule, according to a study published in the journal Science.
It was just one week ago, as the Beer Goddess and I were sharing an LTD 03 at the Brewers Games, that I first heard about Session Black. In the span of that time, everyone’s heard about it: Full Sail had separate launch parties in Hood River and Portland, and there’s yet another release cum meet-the-brewers at Saraveza next Thursday.
There Are Two Types of Scientists…
Assigning any group to one of just two categories is usually little more than an exercise in stereotyping.
Friday Weird Science – Sex: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
I’m sure by now most of us are aware of how sexual reproduction works.
The twin questions of how and where life could begin from prebiotic chemistry are pretty big ones.
When this year’s version unfolds, I’m looking at two things: 1) are enough new organic beers available to give the fest variety year-by-year, and 2) is the quality still so high? To the second question, only the tongue and nostrils will decide. To the first, however, a glance at the beer list gives a clue.
So, this is a novel in which cosmology becomes personal: How would you live if you knew, for sure, that everything will be destroyed when you’re 36 years old?
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