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Skeptical Debunker

Scientists find an equation for materials innovation - 0 views

  • By reworking a theory first proposed by physicists in the 1920s, the researchers discovered a new way to predict important characteristics of a new material before it's been created. The new formula allows computers to model the properties of a material up to 100,000 times faster than previously possible and vastly expands the range of properties scientists can study. "The equation scientists were using before was inefficient and consumed huge amounts of computing power, so we were limited to modeling only a few hundred atoms of a perfect material," said Emily Carter, the engineering professor who led the project. "But most materials aren't perfect," said Carter, the Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Applied and Computational Mathematics. "Important properties are actually determined by the flaws, but to understand those you need to look at thousands or tens of thousands of atoms so the defects are included. Using this new equation, we've been able to model up to a million atoms, so we get closer to the real properties of a substance." By offering a panoramic view of how substances behave in the real world, the theory gives scientists a tool for developing materials that can be used for designing new technologies. Car frames made from lighter, strong metal alloys, for instance, might make vehicles more energy efficient, and smaller, faster electronic devices might be produced using nanowires with diameters tens of thousands of times smaller than that of a human hair.
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    Princeton engineers have made a breakthrough in an 80-year-old quandary in quantum physics, paving the way for the development of new materials that could make electronic devices smaller and cars more energy efficient.
thinkahol *

New MRSA superbug discovered in cows' milk - health - 03 June 2011 - New Scientist - 1 views

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    A new strain of MRSA has been identified in cows' milk and in people, but don't stop drinking milk - the bug is killed off in pasteurisation. However, the strain evades detection by standard tests used by some hospitals to screen for MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), potentially putting people at risk. Laura Garcia Alvarez, then at the University of Cambridge, and colleagues were studying infections in British cows when they discovered antibiotic-resistant bacteria that they thought were MRSA. However, tests failed to identify the samples as any known strains of the superbug. Sequencing the mystery bacteria's genomes revealed a previously unknown strain of MRSA with a different version of a gene called MecA. The new strain was also identified in samples of human MRSA, and is now known to account for about 1 per cent of human MRSA cases.
thinkahol *

TEDxRheinMain - Prof. Dr. Thomas Metzinger - The Ego Tunnel - YouTube - 1 views

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    Brain, bodily awareness, and the emergence of a conscious self: these entities and their relations are explored by Germanphilosopher and cognitive scientist Metzinger. Extensively working with neuroscientists he has come to the conclusion that, in fact, there is no such thing as a "self" -- that a "self" is simply the content of a model created by our brain - part of a virtual reality we create for ourselves. But if the self is not "real," he asks, why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct the self? In a series of fascinating virtual reality experiments, Metzinger and his colleagues have attempted to create so-called "out-of-body experiences" in the lab, in order to explore these questions. As a philosopher, he offers a discussion of many of the latest results in robotics, neuroscience, dream and meditation research, and argues that the brain is much more powerful than we have ever imagined. He shows us, for example, that we now have the first machines that have developed an inner image of their own body -- and actually use this model to create intelligent behavior. In addition, studies exploring the connections between phantom limbs and the brain have shown us that even people born without arms or legs sometimes experience a sensation that they do in fact have limbs that are not there. Experiments like the "rubber-hand illusion" demonstrate how we can experience a fake hand as part of our self and even feel a sensation of touch on the phantom hand form the basis and testing ground for the idea that what we have called the "self" in the past is just the content of a transparent self-model in our brains. Now, as new ways of manipulating the conscious mind-brain appear on the scene, it will soon become possible to alter our subjective reality in an unprecedented manner. The cultural consequences of this, Metzinger claims, may be immense: we will need a new approach to ethics, and we will be forced to think about ourselves in a fundamentally new way. At
thinkahol *

Over 50? You probably prefer negative stories about young people - 0 views

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    "ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2010) - When given a choice, older people prefer to read negative news, rather than positive news, about young adults, a new study suggests. In fact, older readers who chose to read negative stories about young individuals actually get a small boost in their self-esteem, according to the results."
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    How many adults were tested and where? This would validate what I have heard, that adults are children in large bodies. This means that many or most adults never mature emotionally? Of course you'll have to exclude me and others I'm sure out there, because negative news whether about young or old depresses me.
thinkahol *

Smallest atomic displacements ever may lead to new new classes of electronic devices | ... - 0 views

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    An international team of scientists has developed a novel X-ray technique for imaging atomic displacements in materials with unprecedented accuracy, using a recently discovered class of exotic materials - multiferroics - that can be simultaneously magnetically and electrically ordered. Multiferroics are also candidate materials for new classes of electronic devices. The researchers are from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble (France), the University of Oxford, and the University College London.
thinkahol *

Astronomers find 50 new exoplanets: Richest haul of planets so far includes 16 new supe... - 1 views

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    ScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2011) - The HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile is the world's most successful planet finder [1]. The HARPS team, led by Michel Mayor (University of Geneva, Switzerland), have announced the discovery of more than 50 new exoplanets orbiting nearby stars, including sixteen super-Earths [2]. This is the largest number of such planets ever announced at one time [3]. The new findings are being presented at a conference on Extreme Solar Systems where 350 exoplanet experts are meeting in Wyoming, USA.
Erich Feldmeier

Bora Zivkovic, Michael Nielsen: Books: 'Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked... - 0 views

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    "or those of you who do not have the patience to read the whole review, but are interested in the way new technologies, especially the Internet, are changing the way science is done, I can say - go now and buy yourself a copy of Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science. It is excellent. Worth your investment in time and money."
Erich Feldmeier

BBC News - Artificial human ear grown in lab - 0 views

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    First artificial ear, tissueengineering Lab grown kidney: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22123386 First synthetic organ transplant: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14047670
thinkahol *

Science Friday Archives: Meditation and the Brain - 1 views

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    New research looks at the effects of studying a form of meditation on brain connectivity. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, researchers in China and the University of Oregon describe experiments on 45 students, some of whom were taught a meditation technique known as integrative body-mind training (IBMT). The researchers used brain imaging techniques to examine fibers connecting brain regions before and after training. Students trained in the IBMT approach for 11 hours or more appeared to develop new fibers in a part of the brain that helps a person regulate behavior. Control subjects did not form the new fibers. But what does the presence of those fibers actually mean -- and what is the meditation technique doing? We'll talk about it.
thinkahol *

YouTube - Sam Harris SALT - 2 views

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    December 9th, 02005 - Sam Harris"The View From The End Of The World"This is an audio only presentation. This talk took place in the Conference Center Golden Gate Room, San Francisco. Quote: With gentle demeanor and tight argument, Sam Harris carried an overflow audience into the core of one of the crucial issues of our time: What makes some religions lethal? How do they employ aggressive irrationality to justify threatening and controlling non-believers as well as believers? What should be our response? Harris began with Christianity. In the US, Christians use irrational arguments about a soul in the 150 cells of a 3-day old human embryo to block stem cell research that might alleviate the suffering of millions. In Africa, Catholic doctrine uses tortured logic to actively discourage the use of condoms in countries ravaged by AIDS. "This is genocidal stupidity," Harris said. Faith trumps rational argument. Common-sense ethical intuition is blinded by religious metaphysics. In the US, 22% of the population are CERTAIN that Jesus is coming back in the next 50 years, and another 22% think that it's likely. The good news of Christ's return, though, can only occur following desperately bad news. Mushroom clouds would be welcomed. "End time thinking," Harris said, "is fundamentally hostile to creating a sustainable future." Harris was particularly critical of religious moderates who give cover to the fundamentalists by not challenging them. The moderates say that all is justified because religion gives people meaning in their life. "But what would they say to a guy who believes there's a diamond the size of a refrigerator buried in his backyard? The guy digs out there every Sunday with his family, cherishing the meaningthe quest gives them." "I've read the books," Harris said. "God is not a moderate." The Bible gives strict instructions to kill various kinds of sinners, and their relatives, and on occasion their entire towns. Yet slavery is challenged nowhere in the New or
thinkahol *

Peak Oil and a Changing Climate | The Nation - 2 views

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    Peak Oil is the point at which petroleum production reaches its greatest rate just before going into perpetual decline. In "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate," a new video series from The Nation and On The Earth productions, radio host Thom Hartmann explains that the world will reach peak oil within the next year if it hasn't already. As a nation, the United States reached peak oil in 1974, after which it became a net oil importer. Bill McKibben, Noam Chomsky, Nicole Foss, Richard Heinberg and the other scientists, researchers and writers interviewed throughout "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate" describe the diminishing returns our world can expect as it deals with the consequences of peak oil even as it continues to pretend it doesn't exist. These experts predict substantially increased transportation costs, decreased industrial production, unemployment, hunger and social chaos as the supplies of the  fuels on which we rely dwindle and eventually disappear. Chomsky urges us to anticipate the official response to peak oil based on how corporations, news organizations and other institutions have responded to global warming: obfuscation, spin and denial. James Howard Kunstler says that we cannot survive peak oil unless we "come up with a consensus about reality that is consistent with the way things really are." This documentary series hopes to help build that consensus. Click here to watch the introductory video, and check back here for new videos each Wednesday.
thinkahol *

Mind-reading scan identifies simple thoughts - health - 26 May 2011 - New Scientist - 3 views

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    A new new brain imaging system that can identify a subject's simple thoughts may lead to clearer diagnoses for Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia - as well as possibly paving the way for reading people's minds. Michael Greicius at Stanford University in California and colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify patterns of brain activity associated with different mental states. He asked 14 volunteers to do one of four tasks: sing songs silently to themselves; recall the events of the day; count backwards in threes; or simply relax. Participants were given a 10-minute period during which they had to do this. For the rest of that time they were free to think about whatever they liked. The participants' brains were scanned for the entire 10 minutes, and the patterns of connectivity associated with each task were teased out by computer algorithms that compared scans from several volunteers doing the same task. This differs from previous experiments, in which the subjects were required to perform mental activities at specific times and the scans were then compared with brain activity when they were at rest. Greicius reasons his method encourages "natural" brain activity more like that which occurs in normal thought.
Janos Haits

INFOdocket - 0 views

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    Information Industry News + New Web Sites and Tools ..
Erich Feldmeier

Ilseung Cho, Martin Blaser wissenschaft.de - Gewichtige Folgen - 0 views

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    "Es ist möglich, dass eine frühzeitige Exposition gegenüber Antibiotika den Stoffwechsel von Kindern umprogrammiert, sodass Übergewicht im späteren Leben entstehen kann", sagt Co-Autor Martin Blaser von der New York University School of Medicine. Er betont, dass noch weitere Forschung nötig sei, um diese Theorie zu bestätigen. Klar sei aber bereits: Alles was die Darmflora beeinflussen kann, sollte vorsichtig behandelt werden. Ilseung Cho (New York University School of Medicine) et al.: Nature, doi:10.1038/nature11400"
Erich Feldmeier

New Theory on Why Men Love Breasts | Breast Evolution | LiveScience - 0 views

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    "But Young's new theory will face scrutiny of its own. Commenting on the theory, Rutgers University anthropologist Fran Mascia-Lees, who has written extensively about the evolutionary role of breasts, said one concern is that not all men are attracted to them. "Always important whenever evolutionary biologists suggest a universal reason for a behavior and emotion: how about the cultural differences?" Mascia-Lees wrote in an email. In some African cultures, for example, women don't cover their breasts, and men don't seem to find them so, shall we say, titillating. Young says that just because breasts aren't covered in these cultures "doesn't mean that massaging them and stimulating them is not part of the foreplay in these cultures. As of yet, there are not very many studies that look at [breast stimulation during foreplay] in an anthropological context," he said. Young elaborates on his theory of breast love, and other neurological aspects of human sexuality, in a new book, "The Chemistry Between Us" (Current Hardcover, 2012), co-authored by Brian Alexander."
Ivan Pavlov

New Carnivore Discovered, Rare With Teddy Bear Looks - 0 views

  • A fuzzy fog-dweller with a face like a teddy bear is the first carnivore found in the Western Hemisphere in more than three decades, a new study says.The 2-pound (0.9-kilogram) creature, called an olinguito, didn't make itself easy to find. The orange-brown mammal lives out a solitary existence in the dense, hard-to-study cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador,
thinkahol *

Short Sharp Science: Today on New Scientist: 13 October 2010 - 0 views

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    The universe bounces back, & robots fight humans: Today on New Scientist: stories from 13 October 2010
Charles Daney

New Type Of Adult Stem Cells Found In Prostate May Be Involved In Cancer Development - 0 views

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    A new type of stem cell discovered in the prostate of adult mice can be a source of prostate cancer, according to a new study by researchers
Skeptical Debunker

Flightless mosquitoes developed to help control dengue fever - 0 views

  • Dengue fever causes severe flulike symptoms and is among the world's most pressing public health issues. There are 50 million to 100 million cases per year, and nearly 40 percent of the global population is at risk. The dengue virus is spread through the bite of infected female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, and there is no vaccine or treatment. UCI researchers and colleagues from Oxitec Ltd. and the University of Oxford created the new breed. Flightless females are expected to die quickly in the wild, curtailing the number of mosquitoes and reducing - or even eliminating - dengue transmission. Males of the strain can fly but do not bite or convey disease. When genetically altered male mosquitoes mate with wild females and pass on their genes, females of the next generation are unable to fly. Scientists estimate that if released, the new breed could sustainably suppress the native mosquito population in six to nine months. The approach offers a safe, efficient alternative to harmful insecticides.
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    A new strain of mosquitoes in which females cannot fly may help curb the transmission of dengue fever, according to UC Irvine and British scientists. Great idea or frankensketter?
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