Culture

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at Stony Brook University have received U.S. Patent Number 7,179,448 for developing chimeric, or "combination," proteins that may advance the development of vaccines and diagnostic tests for Lyme disease. The genetically engineered proteins combine pieces of two proteins that are normally present on the surface of the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, but at different parts of the organism’s life cycle. "Combining pieces of these two proteins into one chimeric protein should trigger a 'one-two-…

"Scientists must improve communication tactics, Science article proclaims" No, I didn't write that headline. The PR firm for an article written by Seed magazine writer Chris Mooney and American University professor Dr. Matthew Nisbet did. They are co-authors of an April 6th Science article titled “Framing Science.” The article suggests that as the 2008 election approaches, scientists should adopt new communication techniques, rather than merely seeking to “get the facts out there.” They highlight global warming, evolution and embryonic stem cell research as politically hot topics that need…

After the events that conspired during the day, the continuum of CINF presentations to which my attention was dedicated, the fitful moments of disgust over $8 sandwhiches in between presentations, amplified by the inability to wait in lines for physically destructive food, I was fortunate enough to be encouraged to partake in the social event that coupled with the evening the sacrement of free food and good company. I do not think I have been to such a formal event before that night, that I can actually remember myself enjoying. The ambience of the like-minded triggers the dopamine response…

Monday morning roles on by at the parent's house, sound asleep til seven AM, still waking up in the darkness of daylight savings time. I gather my personal belongings: 1) Laptop - Check! 2) CD ROM copy of slideshow - Check! 3) My one and only hemp suit - Check! 4) Pocket PC - Oops! Left it at my apartment back in B-Town. There goes one less bright idea to try out. I brew my usual breakfast of Green Tea and hit the road in style with my parent's green minivan, jamming out to their recently installed Sirius radio. (Note to self - satellite radio would make for a sweet way to podcast, but…

The NPR interview on Open Science I discussed two weeks ago has aired and is now available. I think it was very well balanced. The positive aspects of not losing failed experiments was weighed against the difficulties in publishing in some journals and of deriving profit.

Prostitutes, perversions and public scandals – the stuff of the 21st century tabloids was familiar to readers three centuries earlier, according to new research from the University of Leeds. The reading of erotic literature was already a social activity 300 years ago. 18th c. corset. Credit: www.museumofcostume.co.uk Jenny Skipp’s three-year PhD study examined, catalogued and categorised every known erotic text published in eighteenth-century Britain: "I tried to get a grip on just how many were published, detail the various types of sexual behaviour portrayed and find out who was doing…

If this were true, it would make it more difficult to promote a quality website of terrific scientists, right? Maybe - maybe not. Perhaps it is instead the case that information democracy is replacing sources that are hampered by niche fields or ideology or politics. We're at the top of Google! Provided you type in 'Scientific Blogging.' Credit: Google As more and more people are turning to the Internet to find information, important science websites are in danger of becoming buried in the sheer avalanche of facts now available online. Key science sites are failing to register in the top…

To address the high rate of multiple births resulting from in-vitro-fertilization (IVF), researchers at Yale School of Medicine and McGill University have developed a procedure that estimates the reproductive potential of individual embryos, possibly leading to a decrease in multiple-infant births and a higher success rate in women undergoing IVF. Over 100,000 in-vitro fertilization procedures are performed each year in the United States. In 2002, 3.1 embryos on average were transferred in IVF cycles, but only 34.3 percent resulted in pregnancies. Of those successful pregnancies, 29 percent…

Movies and Books about distopia that assume the future becomes this really emotionally  monotonous place ruled by greed and disgust, power and violence, and opression predict an unrealistic future.  I think these books and movies have scared us a lot, and you know, maybe that was for a very good reason.  Who knows.  I am sure the authors had their concerns.   But my point is, the internet and implicatively the future is inherrently a dynamic place, as in it is anything but an emotionally monotnous place.  Does it make sense to just keep uploading the same data…

I find it amazing how much I live for numbers.   Being a physicist maybe I shouldn't be so suprised that numbers seem such a fundamental part of my idenity.   I spend all day thinking about numbers, what they mean, and how they govern everthing I do. Sometimes I will catch myself in a deep thought about numbers.  The thought is so raw and knawing and unfiltered, that when I do catch myself thinking it I can't help but covet the feeling that I had before catching myself thinking it.  Psychologically, it is a round and round process, that has no meaning.  So…