General
The Surfing Is Great On Titan This Time Of Year
Scientists think that as the seasons change in Titan's northern hemisphere, waves could ripple across the moon's hydrocarbon seas, and hurricanes could begin to swirl over these areas, too. The model predicting waves tries to explain data from the moon obtained so far by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Both models help mission team members plan when and where to look for unusual atmospheric disturbances as Titan summer approaches.
-->
Lightning
In particular the following comment illustrates the problem.
Lightning happens when a really huge negative charge builds up in the ground, corresponding to a positive charge overhead, and the differential becomes sufficient to jump the gap. (and, as others are pointing out repeatedly, air is an excellent insulator, so it takes a whacking huge voltage differential to make the arc.)
-->
How The Immune System Tolerate A Healthy Gut Flora
Atheists In Foxholes? Not Many - And Less The More Soldiers Dislike War
Ernie Pyle, the iconic embedded World War II embedded journalist killed by Japanese machine gun fire in 1945, made famous the adage, "There are no atheists in foxholes."
He was making a point that it's better to be safe than sorry when your life is on the line - not letting the Devil get you cornered, he wrote, was the justification for a soldier who dug round foxholes. Atheists are a tiny minority anyway and there are even fewer in a war zone, Pyle felt. And he knew more soldiers than perhaps any journalist ever will.
The Importance Of The Literature
The public at large, and unfortunately too many writers, do not know how vital a properly conducted survey of the scientific literature can be. We must remember the motto of the Royal Society - nullius in verba - do not rely on anybody's word. If the mythical "everybody" is stating the same "fact" or citing exactly the same source: question it. Reappraise it. Investigate.
This article was inspired by Hontas Farmer's newest blog. It occurred to me that I spend many a happy hour doing literature research but I do not write about it as such.
-->
ATLAS Vs CMS Higgs Results: Which Experiment Has More Sensitivity ?
Good old Shelley inspired me to start today's article with the above verse, taken from his magnificent "Ode to the West Wind". With the weather we are experiencing these days in Geneva and northern Italy, I found it a relieving thought...
So, winter conferences are over, and summer ones are still far away. This is therefore a nice moment to try an assessment on the quality of the results that the two competing CERN experiments have produced on the study of the Higgs boson. Why ? Because we are not going to have to change our conclusions in a short time scale caused by a result about to be published.
How to compare the results
-->
Does Tourism Revenue Help Birds In Protected Areas?
How much does tourism help fund bird conservation? Given the
continuing boom of the "avitourism" industry, this sounds like the sort
of question to which both environmentalists and entrepreneurs should
know the answer.
However, while researchers have performed calculations
investigating the availability of tourism revenues for mammal and frog
conservation efforts, nobody has explored similar trends in other
taxa--or, to be more accurate, nobody had explored those trends
until a group of Australian scientists recently decided to crunch the
relevant numbers.
The results of their analyses were reported earlier
this month in PLoS ONE.
Is Everything You Eat A Drug?
If dihydrogen monoxide doesn't scare you enough, food activists have been rehashing an old term - opiates.
-->
Hot Coffee Enemas - The Dangers
Before continuing, please bear in mind that :
“The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the US Department of the Army, the US Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy or naval services at large.”
-->The Power Of Evolutionary Theory
We hear about "survival of the fittest" and many immediately think of strength. We hear about natural selection and many immediately focus on speciation. Yet, the first claim is simply wrong, while the second isn't the most important element of the theory.
So, if it's not about strength or how species originated, then what is important.
-->
The Evolved Doubly Social Society Should Be Selfish And Deadly
Social structure is an imposition, but by definition one that ‘should’ be imposed, meaning by the origin of the meaning of “should” in the co-evolution of the social with our language.
Helmet Laws, Not Parental Concern, Have Led To Reduced Fatalities In Bicycle-Car Collisions
A 12-year study (1999 to 2010) analyzed fatality reductions in bicycle-car collisions to determine the effect of mandatory helmet laws. 16 states had bike helmet laws in the beginning or the study. The researchers identified all relevant fatalities, totaling 1612, in states with and without bike helmet laws.
Relevance was determined by adjusting for factors previously associated with rates of motor vehicle fatalities (elderly driver licensure laws, legal blood alcohol limit and household income) and, among those, they found that the adjusted fatality rate was significantly lower in states with helmet laws. On average, 900 people die annually in bicycle-motor vehicle collisions — three quarters of those are from head injuries.
Gorillas And The Future Of Crop Biotechnology
There are some really cool improvements coming along in several crops that have been developed using the tools of biotechnology - GMOs if you will.
Some of these innovations have consumer health benefits. Some expand ways to encourage greater produce consumption. Some reduce food waste. Some prevent crop losses through disease and reduce the need for copper sprays.
These traits represent an expansion of biotech beyond the major row crops primarily grown for animal feed or for fiber to crops like apples, oranges, tomatoes, pineapples and potatoes. Whether these new options actually make it to consumers depends a great deal on decisions that will be made by gorillas.
-->
Could Roadways Actually Be Good For Wildlife?
You might interpret roadkill as a sign that highways are bad for wildlife, but it's possible these carcasses actually indicate that roadsides are attractive habitats that can support a large number of individuals. That's one interpretation, anyway, of a new study investigating small mammal populations living along highways in central Spain.
-->
Kentucky Windage, For Science: Using Black Holes To Measure The Universe's Rate Of Expansion
Calibration does not always mean fixing a device, it sometimes means adjusting to solve a problem. In the early years of America, the famous Kentucky longrifles that conquered the frontier (and some British) had fixed sights. Since they couldn't be adjusted, frontiersmen - Kentucky was part of "The West" then - would adjust for wind, elevation and range by experience. If their shot was hitting low and left, they aimed high and right. Inference helped them get a better result.
From – Or To – Japan With Love?
Saffron
In one of my school history books, as I remember, there is a story that saffron was introduced into Europe by a pilgrim from concealing some corms in his staff, to avoid the death penalty if found by the agents of the Sultans who controlled its export. However, the history of saffron, including a 14-week ‘saffron war’, seems much more complicated that this.
A Green Step For Humanity
Under the headline: "Absolute emissions cap proposed for China", Australia's Business Spectator reports that "According to local Chinese media, the government’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has proposed that China adopt an absolute cap on its greenhouse gas emissions by 2016."
RT (TV-Novosti) asks "Is China Going Green?" and notes that the initiative "must now be approved by the Cabinet before it is enacted."
-->
High Fructose Corn Syrup Addictive Like Cocaine, Says Researcher
Is the obesity epidemic due to the addictive qualities in food or that a lot more food is cheap and plentiful than ever before in history?
A paper presented at the 2013 Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience - Association Canadienne des Neurosciences (CAN-ACN), says the problem is addiction rather than food wealth - the authors claim that high-fructose corn syrup can cause behavioral reactions in rats similar to those produced by drugs of abuse such as cocaine. It's the "Food Addiction" hypothesis that has recently become popular, which posits that we could be addicted to food just like drugs.
Magnetism Makes Archaeological Sourcing 'High Definition'
Sourcing of ancient artifacts has gotten a new advance.
While at the University of Sheffield in the years 1965–1972, Professor Lord Colin Renfrew developed a technique that matched stone tools made of obsidian, naturally occurring glass, to their volcanic origins based on their chemical fingerprints. It was considered one of the greatest successes in scientific archeology, matching artifacts to specific volcanoes was a significant leap forward in understanding trade, contact, and cultural change in the ancient world.
-->
Popular Today:
Science 2.0:
Recent Articles:
Create Your Own Releases:
