retrospectacle | February 22, 2007Save. Us. All.
Westin Hotel in Seattle on Friday, February 23 from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m.
You've been warned.
retrospectacle | February 22, 2007Fetal alcohol syndrome---where the developing fetus is exposed to high levels of ethanol in the womb---has far-reaching negative effects on neural development. Now environmental and biological factors of parental alcohol abuse might also retard brain growth, according to a new study published in Biological Psychiatry.
Many studies have shown that alcohol-dependent men and women have smaller brain volumes than non-alcohol-dependent individuals. It is widely believed that this is due to the toxic effects of ethanol, which causes the alcoholic's brain to shrink with aging to a greater extent…
retrospectacle | February 22, 2007 NASA loves to use weird science to make useful stuff.....even proteins found in the inner ear, in the hair cells to be exact. The protein is called prestin, which is the motor protein on hair cells, which may also find a new use powering space suits. If prestin is combined with electricity-producing microbes (geobacter) in a suit, NASA hopes it will result in the physical motion of the astronaut (and even gusts of wind) being converted into energy. Cool!
Outer hair cells can contract and expand in response to sound, which results in an amplification of auditory stimulus. Prestin changes the…
retrospectacle | February 21, 2007Google co-founder Larry Page has some pearls of wisdom for scientists: get off your lazy bums and do something.
Scientists need more entrepreneurial drive and could benefit by doing more to promote solutions to big human problems, Google Inc. co-founder Larry Page told a meeting of academic researchers.
"There are lots of people who specialize in marketing, but as far as I can tell, none of them work for you," Page told researchers at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science late on Friday.
"Let's talk about solving some worldwide problems. Let's get…
retrospectacle | February 21, 2007
All you geekly girls out there, send in your most nerdtastic pictures and rock this contest .
Deadline is 2-28-07.
retrospectacle | February 21, 2007Ann Arbor's heartache plastered on a shirt: the closing of the Pfizer lab/factory in my home town has "liberated" several thousand people of their jobs. One of these is my friend Kyle "Coney Dog" Kuzzpit who sent me this hilarious t-shirt.
A lucky, lucky few will be transferred to Pfizer's main headquarters in Groton, CT. The majority are gonna be applying for unemployment.......which has led to this even slightly more hilarious t-shirt.
(Hat tip, Kyle.)
retrospectacle | February 20, 2007YouTube, the open-source video upload site, is as popular as ever following its buyout from Google. However, today I came across a deliciously snarky editorial about YouTube's blatant use of copyrighted material. Is what YouTube doing really illegal? Can you REALLY get free egg rolls??
(Continued below the fold)...
Specifically, the author (Simon Dumenco at Advertising Age) is particularly irked at YouTube's response to Viacom's demands that 100,000 clips from their various media/shows/etc be taken down.
Right before Google came a-courting last fall, I described YouTube in this column as…
retrospectacle | February 20, 2007The 2007 Koufax Award nominees are up, with many blogs at ScienceBlogs in the Best Expert Blog category. Thanks to whomever nominated me, its a great cohort.
retrospectacle | February 20, 2007What's the point of this ad?
Your parents do it. They are probably doing it right now. But you don't want to know that. Just like you don't want to know what happens to chicks and chickens on factory farms. You don't want to know that behavioral scientists have discovered that the cognitive abilities of a chicken rival that of cats, dogs, and even young humans. But, whatever, as long as it tastes good, right?
Why would they want us to associate our parents doing the dirty with their campaign? Talk about a terrible brand association.
retrospectacle | February 19, 2007 Earlier PZ Myers disputed the claim that the recently-notorious 4-legged duck was the product of "genetic changes" as reported by the media. Taking a look at the morphology of the poor bird's extra legs, it much more likely that the duck suffers from a phenomenon known as "parasitic limb" or "parasitic twin" in humans. For example, this child was born in Detroit with an extra leg, which was actually the remnant of a twin who never properly separated during development (below).
A parasitic twin results from the same general process which results in normal identical (monozygotic) twins: the…
retrospectacle | February 19, 2007 What's very bad for one parrot turns out to be great for the species. A rare night parrot in Queensland, Australia was flying and struck a barbed-wire fence which instantly killed it, its headless body found the next day. However, ornithologists already had believed the parrot species to be extinct, so finding the dead parrot happily confirmed that Australia's most elusive parrot was still around. The night parrot is Australia's only nocturnal parrot, and it feeds and nests on the ground. Populations crashed in the 19th century, probably due to the introduction of non-native species which…
retrospectacle | February 19, 2007I love video games. Hell, I was raised by Mario, Luigi, Sonic, and Yoshi and eagerly anticipated every new upgrade of the Nintendo console. My parents understood, they were of the Atari generation and saw video games as harmless fun on a rainy Florida afternoon, and perhaps even "good" for improving hand-eye coordination. I played outside like any normal kid, had friends, did schoolwork, grew up, and went to college. However, video games followed me through all of it. And while I don't play much anymore, a new Final Fantasy game or a Wii demo at Best Buy is still capable of raising my blood…
retrospectacle | February 15, 2007Wouldn't you think that NASA would use the most rigorous psychological test to screen for tough minds in potential astronauts? How then does the soap-opera-esque debacle with astronaut Lisa Nowak (you know, the one in the love triangle who's been arrested for attempted murder) even come to such a boiling point? That it *did* happen has brought into question NASA's ability to monitor the psychological state of the people who go into space. In response to increased scrutiny, NASA has promised to review its psych testing practices. The only lucky break in this situation is that Lisa Nowak "…
retrospectacle | February 14, 2007The cat's been out of the bag about Jennifer Ouellette (of Cocktail Party Physics) and Sean Carroll (of Cosmic Variance) being engaged, and now a feature story on the two of them is on Nature news today. Specifically, she's asking advice from other scientists about how to keep a relationship together when the significant others both have demanding science careers. Jennifer is a science writer, and is relocating to California to be with Sean, although she says:
Alas, scientists who marry scientists can't always get it together quite so easily. There is a daunting obstacle to be overcome: they…
retrospectacle | February 14, 2007
A great learning tool online is Promenade 'Round the Cochlea, which is in both French and English. I've just been swamped during the conference, but my presentation went great yesterday and I got lots of feedback to keep me busy with experiments forever and ever Ramen. Anyway, check out the app, as it does a great job of explaining some aspects of inner ear biology with pictures. Also, Happy Valentines!
retrospectacle | February 13, 2007 Remember those old Speak & Spells in the 80s, the ones made by Texas Instruments? Well, that and Simon were probably my favorite games as a kid (oh, and Rubix cube). There's actually a cool Speak & Spell emulater on the web that I came across, check it out and enjoy the 'say it' feature. Wasn't there also a Math version? What perfectly lovely toys for burgeoning nerdlets.
(Hat tip, Kyle)
retrospectacle | February 12, 2007As mentioned, I'm currently at the ARO MidWinter Meeting in Denver, and have taken a few pictures of this beautiful city. I also managed to meet up with Karmen of Chaotic Utopia (I found out why she named it that!) for dinner and hang out with her fascinating cornucopia of friends. (Thanks Karmen!) Through her I got to meet a couple local poltical mavens: Ben Gelt from PAX Students, and Mason Tvert who was the impetus behind the notorious Amendment 44 in Colorado. And a generous reader, Charlie, took me out for a delicious meal of raw fish and sake last night (Thanks Charlie!). Unfortunately…
retrospectacle | February 12, 2007The guys over at the World's Fair are at it again (blasted creativity!), this time they've developed a new club: the Order Of The Science Scouts Of Exemplary Repute And Above Average Physique. I encourage you all to join post-haste and wallow in scientific silliness and irreverent badges for dubious accomplishments (I contributed a few badges myself to the pot). I'll have to dig through and list my badges on my sidebar soon, when this conference is over, that is. Got an idea for a badge? Well, suggest one!
The "I Blog About Science" badge.
Also, the 8th edition of the International Carnival…
retrospectacle | February 11, 2007We've all heard of Mad Cow disease (bovine spongiform encephaly) in the media. A few years back it was as big a sensation as bird flu and twice as scary. The colloquial understanding of the disease was poor: what it was, how humans (or cows) could get it, what should be done to curb its spread, and whether or not there was any treatment. This disinformation led to small-scale hysteria when it came to beef, with some countries (eg Japan) completely banning all beef from nations that were even suspected of having a "mad cow." The beef industry as a whole took a hit, as pubic perception held…
retrospectacle | February 10, 2007Your results:You are Poison IvyPoison Ivy 74%Dr. Doom 71%Magneto 65%Mystique 64%Catwoman 63%The Joker 60%Apocalypse 59%Riddler 57%Green Goblin 52%Lex Luthor 51%Dark Phoenix 51%Two-Face 48%Mr. Freeze 46%Venom 39%Kingpin 39%Juggernaut 36%You would go to almost any length for the protection of the environment including manipulation and elimination.
Click here to take the Super Villain Personality TestVia Pharyngula, Afarensis.