science

Low serotonin levels may prompt mysterious sudden infant death syndrome The most common cause of death of U.S. infants before their first birthday is the nebulous complication known as sudden infant death syndrome (or SIDS), according to the Mayo Clinic. The underlying causes of this condition , in which no immediate cause of death is revealed in an autopsy, remain unknown, vexing scientists and parents alike. [More]
Post Date:02/02/2010 14:01:00
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Obama Budget Increases Funding for Energy Research and Nuclear Power Nuclear energy and energy research are among the big winners in the proposed $28.4 billion Energy Department fiscal 2011 budget the White House unveiled today.The almost 5 percent increase in funding from fiscal 2010 covers a $36 billion boost in loan guarantee authority for nuclear power facilities for a total of $54 billion, $300 million for an innovative energy research program, and a $226 million increase in funding for the Office of Science for research and development of "breakthrough" technologies for a total of $5.1 billion. [More]
Post Date:02/02/2010 12:00:00
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Over the Top: Data Shows "Green" Roofs Could Cool Urban Heat Islands and Boost Water Conservation NEW YORK--Through the rain-pocked window of his Prius heading east on the Queensboro Bridge, Stuart Gaffin sees a black, watery sea of missed opportunities. [More]
Post Date:02/02/2010 10:45:00
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Climate retreat Was Copenhagen the 'Munich of our times'?
Post Date:02/02/2010 09:36:24
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Microsoft's Hands-Free Answer to the Nintendo Wii Editor's note: The online version of this story was posted on January 7. When Nintendo’s Wii game console debuted in November 2006, its motion-sensing handheld “Wiimotes” got players off the couch and onto their feet. Now Microsoft hopes to outdo its competitor by eliminating the controller altogether: this past January it revealed details of Project Natal, which will give Xbox 360 users the ability to manipulate on-screen characters via natural body movement. The machine-learning technology will enable players to kick a digital soccer ball or swat a handball simply by mimicking the motion in their living room. [More]
Post Date:02/02/2010 06:00:00
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Foamy Invention Could Save Energy And Lives Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei is fluent in three languages. She's studied everywhere from Tehran to Tokyo to Cambridge, Mass. And she's invented a space-age material so light and strong that it could revolutionize everything from vehicle bumpers to armor to biomedical devices.The ultra-high-strength composite metal foam created by Rabiei is a highlight of a well-traveled career during which the researcher has tried to learn everything she can about advanced materials. The result: a brand new material that can save energy and lives.(via Neatorama) The Presurfer
Post Date:02/01/2010 23:44:00
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Bonobo Chimps Stay Childlike When your kids misbehave, maybe you tell them to stop acting like a bunch of chimps. Well, that would be an insult to the familiar common chimp, Pan troglodytes , which actually grows up pretty fast. Now bonobos, the other chimp species, or Pan paniscus , enjoy horsing around well into adulthood. And a study in the journal Current Biology suggests that their laid-back development keeps bonobos forever young. [More]
Post Date:02/01/2010 22:03:08
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Beetle-based bonding By Daniel CresseyA sticky species of beetle has inspired researchers to develop a device that uses switchable 'liquid bridges' to attach to a variety of surfaces.Bioengineers Michael Vogel and Paul Steen, of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, based their device on a technique used by the leaf beetle, which sticks to leaves using the combined surface tension of many drops working in concert to generate an adhesion force of more than 100 times its own body weight. [More]
Post Date:02/01/2010 18:34:00
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Less than a pretty face: Brain scans show how a disorder leads individuals to perceive themselves as Despite living in a culture obsessed with physical flawlessness, most people in the U.S. have a relatively realistic perception of their own form and face--blemishes, bulges and all. About one to two percent of the population, however, suffers from a recognized psychological illness, known as body dysmorphic disorder (or BDD), which causes them to be preoccupied with physical defects that they think make them look repugnant. Such tendencies can lead some people to extreme and frequent plastic surgeries and even suicide. [More]
Post Date:02/01/2010 14:01:00
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Thinking Outside the Boxes: Robotic Pallet-Stacking Challenge Aims to Create an Automation Benchmark Anyone who has ever loaded a moving van knows how difficult it is to safely stack boxes of different sizes, weights and levels of fragility, all while minimizing the amount of space those cartons take up. Imagine an endless stream of such boxes and a business that lives and dies by the efficiency of their stacking, and you have an idea of the challenge facing warehouses that process large volumes of cargo onto pallets for shipping. [More]
Post Date:02/01/2010 11:55:00
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THE NEW YORK TIMES: Obama Calls for End to NASA's Moon Program The budget would cancel the program to replace the space shuttles in favor of developing new technology.
Post Date:02/01/2010 10:50:04
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Bees Can Recognize Human Faces Bees’ bread and butter is flowers--there’s no reason they should be able to distinguish human faces. But they can. Back in 2005, Arian Dyer at Monash University showed that bees could identify people who they associated who with sugary snacks. But could they recognize humans, or did they just see them as weird flowers? [More]
Post Date:02/01/2010 08:08:08
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Rotten Research By studying a macabre collection of decaying lampreys, scientists have found that certain body features rot away before others - and that the bits that are first to go are the most useful to palaeontologists.
Post Date:02/01/2010 08:04:33
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Scientific American launches "World Changing Ideas" video contest Got an idea for a better tomorrow? Enter it into our video contest . Continuing the theme of Scientific American 's December 2009 cover story, “ World Changing Ideas ,” which highlighted the power of science and technology to improve the world around us, we are encouraging readers to submit video entries about innovative ways to build cleaner, healthier, smarter ways of life.   [More]
Post Date:02/01/2010 07:00:00
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Cleopatra's Alexandria Treasures Renowned archaeologist Franck Goddio talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky [ left ] about his efforts to recover artifacts from the ancient cities of Alexandria, Heracleion and Canopus, with special attention to discoveries related to Cleopatra and her reign. [More]
Post Date:01/31/2010 18:20:08
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Rotting Fish Spoil Ideas about Early Life-Forms' Simplicity Five hundred million years ago, spineless chordates slunk through Earth's Cambrian oceans. These unassuming creatures would eventually give rise to more complex vertebrates such as fish, dinosaurs and even us, so they are crucial evidence for scientists trying to trace animal evolution's early steps . But because these organisms lacked bones or shells, the soft-tissue features that managed to survive the fossilization process have made the specimens look very primitive, possibly excessively so. [More]
Post Date:01/31/2010 11:01:00
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Speculation about NASA's future swirls in advance of Obama's budget request President Barack Obama is expected to deliver his budget request for fiscal year 2011 on February 1, but to hear many commentators tell it, the sky has already fallen on NASA. [More]
Post Date:01/29/2010 17:25:00
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festival of lasers Fifty years ago, a handy little device was invented that would go on to change the world. I'm talking about the laser: without it, there would be no DVDs or BluRays, no laser light shows, no handy laser pointers to highlight the relevant portion of one's PowerPoint slide, no fiber optic communications systems, no corrective eye surgery, no supermarket scanners, tattoo removal, and so on. The laser is ubiquitous to modern technology, which is why the physics community is celebrating Laser Fest all this year, kicking off this past weekend in Berkeley with a special exhibit at the Lawrence Hall of Science. ?Laser,? for those who aren't inclined to Google it, is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation -- quite the mouthful, so you can see why everyone just decided to call it a laser. It describes any device that creates and amplifies a narrow, tightly focused beam of light whose photons are all traveling in the same direction, rather than emit
Post Date:01/24/2010 19:10:11
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MSU contributes to new research on star formation “Crazy” and “cool” are two of the words Michigan State University astronomer Megan Donahue uses to describe the two distinct “tails” found on a long tail of gas that is believed to be forming stars where few stars have been formed before.
Post Date:01/20/2010 22:00:00
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shameless self-promotion So, the science blogosphere is all a-flutter about this weekend's Science Online 2010, pretty much the Woodstock of Science Blogging, or as I like to call it, Bora!-Fest 2010. And oh yes, Jen-Luc-Piquant and I will be there -- I missed last year's confab due to a slight case of launching a national outreach program. I'm thrilled at the prospect of seeing all my blogging buddies again, and making new ones. Bora! even interviewed me (and numerous others) after Science Online 2008. This time around, I'll be co-chairing a panel -- on science, Hollywood, the changing landscape of online multimedia, and what that might mean for blogging -- with the lovely Tamara Krinsky, all-around Renaissance woman of science and entertainment. Ironically, even though Tamara and I live in the same city (Los Angeles) and have several acquaintances in common, we met through Bora!, who lives 3000 miles away. That's why he's King of the Blogosphere. Our panel, called Science and Enterta
Post Date:01/14/2010 14:34:15
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