Scientific American - More Science

Science news and technology updates from Scientific American

The Science of Mysteries: Leave Us the Counterpoint

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:50:00 EST

Note : Last November, a Twitter exchange revealed that certain members of the small subset of science writers who were humanities majors (including your humble cocktail party blogger), also have a shared taste for classic murder mysteries. They thought they would co-post, on their respective blogs, various takes on the science of classical mystery writers. And they had so much fun, they decided to do so again! A full list of links can be found at the end of this post, but be sure to check out the new offerings in particular: Deborah Blum on Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles , and Ann Finkbeiner on Dorothy Sayers’ The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club .

“This kind of thing is the body and bones of music. Anybody can have the harmony, if they will leave us the counterpoint. — Peter Wimsey, Gaudy Night

[More]

Willy Chyr's Neuroplastic Dreams - pop!

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:06:00 EST

Willy Chyr is a fine artist and designer interested in emergent properties and systems: and he sometimes works in balloons.

I’ll be presenting an interview with Chyr here on Symbiartic soon; we met recently over coffee and from such fun, complicated work, Willy is refreshingly unpretentious and creatively versatile.

[More]

My story from the ScienceOnline 2012 banquet.

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:22:00 EST

This year at ScienceOnline , the conference banquet featured storytelling organized by The Monti , a North Carolina non-profit organization dedicated to building community by getting people to share their true stories with each other. Conference goers were asked to share stories on the theme of “connections” . The stories had to be true, and storytellers had to tell them without notes.

The seven stories told at the banquet provided a kaleidoscopic view of what “connections” might mean to a bunch of people involved in doing science, or teaching science, or communicating science, or trying to negotiate their own relationship with science in their personal and professional lives.

[More]

Brain Injury Rate 7 Times Greater among U.S. Prisoners

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

A car accident, a rough tackle, an unexpected tumble. The number of ways to bang up the brain are almost as numerous as the people who sustain these injuries. And only recently has it become clear just how damaging a seemingly minor knock can be. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is no longer just a condition acknowledged in military personnel or football players and other professional athletes. Each year some 1.7 million civilians will suffer an injury that disrupts the function of their brains, qualifying it as a TBI.

[More]

#SciAmBlogs - Science of Mysteries, Plan B, green cities, science-art, and more.

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:02:00 EST

- Jennifer Ouellette – The Science of Mysteries: Leave Us the Counterpoint

 

[More]

Close Super Bowl Boosts Ad At End

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:43:08 EST

Advertisers will drop $3.5 million for a 30-second spot during Sunday’s Super Bowl. But to get the most bang for their buck, they might want to play their ad right after the game ends--not during it. Because if it's a close one, the time slot right after the final gun should have the most sway with viewers. So says a study in the Journal of Advertising . [ Colleen C. Bee and Robert Madrigal, It’s Not Whether You Win Or Lose, It’s How The Game Is Played: The Influence of Suspenseful Sports Programming on Advertising (forthcoming, no link yet)]

[More]

Molecules to Medicine: Plan B: The Tradition of Politics at the FDA

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:39:00 EST

Morning After The Morning's Trash

In my last post , I focused on flaws in the medical device approval process. The Union of Concerned Scientists FDA at a Crossroads meeting also covered problems with drug approval. This is perhaps no better illustrated than by the disappointing decision by Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius to deny the emergency contraceptive, Plan B, over-the-counter status for women under the age of 17 . This was a particular disappointment to many because President Obama had promised that decisions at the FDA would be made based on science, rather than politics. Some of us, naively, hoped that change we can believe in was real, having forgotten that the Tooth Fairy wasn t.

[More]

Science Explainer: The Physics of Football [Video]

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST

Slow-motion replays of deep passes have mesmerized fans of American football for decades. The impossibly long, steady arc of a well-thrown ball is a thing of beauty.  In contrast, players sometimes refer to wobbly passes as ugly ducks, although just why isn't entirely clear, since ducks fly pretty well.

[More]

Homeless Project Residents Drink Less If Booze Ban Is Lifted

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:30:00 EST

This Sunday, millions of Americans will sit down in front of their television or computer, crack open a few beers, and watch the Super Bowl. But if those viewers live in a housing project for the homeless, that booze could get them booted back out to the street. Many homeless housing projects have strict abstinence policies, and require residents to be completely sober. Permitting alcohol, many community organizers reason, would enable addictions and promote a downward spiral into continued drinking and declining health.

[More]

More with Maryn: McKenna on Antibiotic Resistance

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:10:08 EST

Journalist and author Maryn McKenna talks about antibiotic resistance in agriculture and human health, MRSA, and a brief return to the subject of fecal transplants. [More]

MIND Reviews: The Righteous Mind

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion [More]

Russian Scientists Poised to be First to Reach Ice-Buried Antarctic Lake

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST

At a tiny outpost in the middle of Antarctica, Russian scientists are poised to become the first humans to reach a massive liquid lake that has been cut off from the sunlit world for millennia, and may house uniquely adapted life forms that are new to science.    

[More]

Artists at the Science Conference: Of Course

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:28:00 EST

ScienceOnline2012 was my 4th time attending the rockstar unconference in North Carolina. For ScienceOnline09, I had approached Bora Zivkovic about attending, mentioning that I know I’m not a scientist or journalist. He leapt at the opportunity to have me, and asked if I could do an art+science session and a workshop on putting images on blogs. I was taken aback – I’d been blogging a couple of years then (coming up on year 5 now!) and had never met Bora in person, or even spoken via Skype. I asked if he was sure: how’d he know I’d be okay speaking in front of a room full of strangers?

[More]

Social Clicks: Sounds Associated with African Languages Are Common in English

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

Some Africans click, but English speakers don’t. That’s been the conventional wisdom about click sounds, which serve as regular consonants in Zulu and Xhosa and a few other African languages but which were presumed to just be used in English for encouraging a horse, imitating a kiss, or expressing emotions such as disapproval or amazement. But researchers have recently found that clicks are far more prevalent in the world’s lingua franca than had been thought.

[More]

#SciAmBlogs Thursday - tsunami debris, groundhogs, apes in suits, kakapos, butterfly drones and more

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:56:00 EST

- Harold Johnson – Tsunami Debris & North America: Is the Tail Wagging the Dog?

 

[More]

Temperatures--Not Acid--Could Cook Coral to Death

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:01:00 EST

One of the biggest natural tragedies of recent years is the deterioration of Australia's Great Barrier Reef , a vast structure of coral off the continent's east coast that supports a profusion of wildlife. In addition to overfishing and nutrient pollution, the world's largest natural structure has suffered from rising ocean temperatures. But, perhaps less well known, Australia's west coast has some massive reefs of its own, offshore in the southeastern Indian Ocean. Massive stony corals of the genus Porites swell to the surface, and new research published February 2 in Science suggests those located in the colder waters farthest south are growing better than ever --thanks to warming ocean temperatures.

[More]

Sunday Photoblogging: Overbaked Sunset

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:56:00 EST

I don’t typically like such “overbaked,” overprocessed photos. [More]

Orange Rinds May Help Rid Cows of E. Coli

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

Name : Todd Callaway [More]

If You Want Me to RSVP, Then You Need to Actually Invite Me

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:58:00 EST

I returned the RSVP card for a wedding earlier this week, and it made my think of this piece from the archives where I struggled with RSVPs for my sister-in-law’s bridal shower. Titled “RSVP A Cultural Construct?,” it examined the obligations that invitations carry. The following has been edited from its original posting for clarity and relevance, and presents a some new thoughts on the matter.

Responde s'il vous plait. | Photo by Ewan, 2009. | Click image for CC license and information.

[More]

Lies We Tell Ourselves: How Deception Leads to Self-Deception (preview)

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

In Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1970 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar , a skeptical Judas Iscariot questions with faux innocence (“Don’t you get me wrong/I only want to know”) the messiah’s deific nature: “Jesus Christ Superstar/Do you think you’re what they say you are?”

[More]