Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by the annoyingly clever and oh-so-realistic House:
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Debunking Medical Myths [podcast]
Disturbing research on orphans from Science
I am a huge fan of randomized controlled trials and about as hard-core as it gets in supporting evidence-based interventions whenever possible. But I was nonetheless troubled by the study Science published last week, in which Romanian orphans were randomized to receive either foster care or to stay in an orphanage.
Unsurprisingly, the research found a large 8 point difference in IQ between those given foster parents and those left behind and confirmed all the results from animal research and unfortunate “natural experiments” which show that the longer a baby languishes without specific parental care, the more damaged he is likely to be.
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Brain Proteins Seal Marine Mammal Feats [podcast]
Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by those incredible, edible otters:
Brain Proteins Seal Marine Mammal Feats
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Do Docs' Gifts Lead To Unnecessary Prescriptions? [podcast]
Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by Phizer:
Do Docs' Gifts Lead To Unnecessary Prescriptions?
Full transcript after the jump...
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Immune System Keeps Your Brain Tidy Too [podcast]
Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by the Felco Pneumatic Pruning Shears (not for use on actual neurons):
Immune System Keeps Your Brain Tidy Too
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Physics of Traffic Jams [podcast]
Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by the fine cities of New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis and Miami:
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'Shock school' inadvertently replicates Milgram's obedience study
What does it take to shut down an abusive school? Perhaps the fact that it has just replicated an experiment notorious both for being ethically problematic and showing how easy it is to get normal people to "just follow orders" to hurt others? Remember Milgram from Psych 101?
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Asteroid has 1 in 75 chance of hitting Mars next month
An asteroid, you know, like the one that flattened a Siberian forest in 1908, has an usually high chance of hitting Mars on January 30, 2008.
"We're used to dealing with odds like one-in-a-million," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near-Earth Object office. "Something with a one-in-a-hundred chance makes us sit up straight in our chairs."
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60 S.S. Giftology: Pluto R.I.P. Shirt!
We all had ourselves a big cry earlier this year as Pluto got demoted from its position as the ninth planet. Suddenly, the phrase "as far away as Pluto" lost its power, now that we were talking about a "dwarf planet." Noooooooooo!
But thanks to today's Giftology item, we don't have to let Pluto go gently into that unofficial, elliptical orbit night. The Pluto R.I.P. t-shirt both helps you maintain your sexy and gives a fond farewell to that frozen chunk of rock and ice we loved so. The science may say otherwise, but the little guy was always more than a wayward object from the Kuiper Belt to us. Tell the world and pour a forty for Pluto with this snazzy t-shirt.
(one more pic after the jump)
Building an artificial human brain, stem cells cancer-causing potential, and an uncrewed Orion spacecraft
Every weekday, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, picks the raddest articles from the mainstream media so we don't have to. Open wide: Today's Science in the News is piping hot.
Lab Comes One Step Closer to Building Artificial Human Brain
from the Guardian (UK): In a laboratory in Switzerland, a group of neuroscientists is developing a mammalian brain - in silicon. The researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), in collaboration with IBM, have just completed the first phase of an ambitious project to reproduce a fully functioning brain on a supercomputer. By strange coincidence, their lab happens to lie on the same shores of Lake Geneva where Mary Shelley dreamt up her creation, Dr Frankenstein. In June 2005, Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain project, announced his intention to build a human brain using one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. "The critics were unbelievable," recalls Markram. "Everybody thought we were crazy. Even the most eminent computational neuroscientists and theoreticians said the project would fail."
Richard Dawkins rechristens 12/25 "Newton Day"
"Rechristens." Get it? This is "A" material, people.
Anyway. Just in time for the holidays, Darwin's Rottweiler, aka Richard Dawkins, has written an essay in which he tots up all the Biblical/historical inconsistencies regarding the birth of Jesus. (Was this published in the Annals of the Galactically Obvious or even Preaching to the Choir Monthly? No, just The New Statesman.)
All by way of proposing instead that we honor December 25th for its real, Brights-approved significance: being the birthday of Isaac Newton.
So, this being the last day I'm posting before the holiday break, I wanted to wish everyone "a Happy Newton Day." Hope you get everything you wished for!
I even found a science-boosting carol to go along with it (courtesy of the nerdily-awesome physics video game Portal). Listen after the jump.
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The magnificence of China's pollution
A new xenith in audio slideshows: Photographer Chang W. Lee and cellist Zoe Keating have collaborated to produce a work of art from, of all things, the overwhelming industrial pollution engulfing China.
More here.
Deep space ménage à trois
Astronomers have taken a snapshot of a cosmic rarity, the merging of three galaxies. And oh what a picture! By combining a 30 minute infrared exposure from the ESO’s Very Large Telescope with data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the stargazers managed to produce this pretty three-color portrait of a galactic hybrid, known as either ESO 593-IG 008 or IRAS 19115-2124, 650 million light years away.
The researchers already knew that the stellar smash-up involved two galaxies, but three? (See next page for an image where you can clearly count all three galactic nuclei.)
The span of this beast is about 100,000 light years.
Science's Breakthrough of the Year [podcast]
Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by The Kool-Aid Man:
Science's Breakthrough of the Year
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Science teacher on YouTube = the Ken Burns of climate change
OK, user-generated content is, like, so over. Supposedly. But what pro media outlet would finance a SIX HOUR documentary on the global warming debate?
Greg Craven, a science teacher in Oregon, did just that. On his own. In SIX WEEKS. (He downed a lot of energy drinks, apparently.)
OK, so what? Al Gore already covered that territory, right? Well, yes. But hardly this comprehensively. And certainly not this... what's the word... normal-guy-ily. The dude is actually damn entertaining.
That's just the beginning.
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Bush takes away light bulbs; sends America back to Dark Ages
How many representatives does it take to change a light bulb? 314 to 100, plus one President!
Rim shot! No, seriously, Bush is taking away your light bulbs, but he's replacing them (or making you replace them) with even better bulbs! A massive energy bill that passed the House on Tuesday and was signed yesterday, set higher fuel economy standards for the first time in 32 years, called for 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022, and, most importantly, set a goal for getting rid of the incandescent light bulb within 10 years.
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Active glaciers on Mars, a mysterious cosmic explosion and whales came from...deer?
Every weekday, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, picks the raddest articles from the mainstream media so we don't have to. Open wide: Today's Science in the News is piping hot.
'Active Glacier Found' on Mars
from BBC News Online: A probable active glacier has been identified for the first time on Mars. The icy feature has been spotted in images from the European Space Agency's (Esa) Mars Express spacecraft. Ancient glaciers, many millions of years old, have been seen before on the Red Planet, but these ones may only be several thousand years old. The young glacier appears in the Deuteronilus Mensae region between Mars' rugged southern highlands and the flat northern lowlands. "If it was an image of Earth, I would say 'glacier' right away," Dr Gerhard Neukum, chief scientist on the spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) told BBC News. "We have not yet been able to see the spectral signature of water. But we will fly over it in the coming months and take measurements. On the glacial ridges we can see white tips, which can only be freshly exposed ice.
Errors Make Up Part of Expertise [podcast]
Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by The Three Tenors:
Errors Make Up Part of Expertise
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Sibling Conflict Around the Holidays [podcast]
Today's 60 Second Psych Podcast is brought to you by Ralph and Randy Parker:
Sibling Conflict Around the Holidays
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No duh dept.: College students smoke weed to 'relax,' 'enjoy themselves.' Related: sky is blue
In a near-complete waste of Australian time and money, researchers at Griffith University surveyed students 18-29 about their motivations for using or not using marijuana. Users reported that they smoked up to "fit in with their friends, feel relaxed, forget their worries, and enjoy themselves." Non-users, meanwhile abstained because "work and study" remained powerful deterrents. Wow, Griffith U. — got any more brain-busters?
60 S.S. Giftology: Wi-Fi Detector Shirt!
Today's Giftology item is guaranteed to make you the most popular person ever at your local cafe, bookstore or street corner: The Wi-Fi Detector Shirt features an animated design on front with signal bars that actually glow blue as the signal strength increases. You'll be like the infallible Johnny Depp/Scarlett Johansson of horn-rimmed glassed-chicks/dudes everywhere you go!
The $29.99 shirt runs "for hours" on 3 AAA batteries and is machine washable, though you'll have to disassemble the glowing, animated decal, battery pack and all the other glitchy components. If you're contemplating wearing a Wi-Fi shirt, I think you can handle it.
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China's anti-graft website not corrupt, just broken
So I wouldn't want to be the IT administrator for a Chinese graft-reporting website for all the tea in, well, China. I might however do it for all the server space in China if, that is, the servers weren't monitored by corrupt, grafty politicians.
The website, now live again, was launched on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Corruption Preventio to collect information on corrupt activities. The server crashed one day later. Apparently China is either incredibly corrupt or so boring that complaining ranks as one of the most popular past times. I.e., it's like the 1969 Whitehouse or my Grandparent's retirement center. Oh wait. It's the former.
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Eat it, raw foodists: Cooking can boost nutrional value of vegetables
I live near the mountains, which attracts all types of people who seek to be closer to nature in lifestyle without really being prepared for it — most don't know how to stay warm in the winter, and if they had to, they couldn't even slay an elk with their bare hands, like me. But basically, it means while waiting in line at Vitamin Cottage I have to listen to all sorts of yupster hippies complain about all of us rubes who cook our food, thereby robbing it of Mother Nature's natural nutritional gifts. (The raw foodists look like they're talking amongst themselves, but all along I see them shooting sidelong glances at me. So what if I still have steak in the corners of my mouth? I don't complain about your licey dreads; I just cut them off while you sleep.)
Anyway, put down that buckwheat stalk, Sunshine, and listen up: New evidence by Italian researchers shows that cooking certain types of food might actually boost its nutritional value. In the Dec. 26 issue of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Nicoletta Pellegrini and colleagues from the University of Parma tested the effects of boiling, steaming and frying on the nutritional components of carrots, zucchini and broccoli. Not surprisingly, frying reduced the antioxidant compounds of the vegetables, but boiling and steaming maintained antioxidant levels across the board. In broccoli, steaming actually increased the content of glucosinolates, a group of plant compounds lauded for their cancer-fighting abilities.
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Mapping solar power, a physics professor becomes an Internet guru, and labels for 'clone-free' milk
Every weekday, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, picks the raddest articles from the mainstream media so we don't have to. Open wide: Today's Science in the News is piping hot.
from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required): OSLO -- Southern California is sunny, the French Riviera is sunny, but NASA says the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the Sahara Desert in Niger are the sunniest places -- and the information could be worth money. America's space exploration agency has located the world's sunniest spots by studying maps compiled by U.S. and European satellites. The maps can also gauge solar energy at every other spot on the planet and already have been used to help businesses site solar panels in Morocco, for instance, or send text messages to tell sunbathers in Italy to put on more cream. "We are trying to link up observations of the Earth to benefit society," said Jose Achache, head of the 72-nation Group on Earth Observations, which seeks practical spinoffs from scientific data ranging from deep-ocean probes to satellites.
You really are more like your mom (or dad)
image cc Sa_ku_ra
A recent paper in Science has revealed that what you learned in your high school biology class -- that you inherit genes from both your mother and father, and their relative contributions are equal -- is more or less bunk.
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The only thing worse than letting addicted docs practice is banning them...
The AP is reporting on controversy in California over the way treatment for addicted doctors is handled by the state medical board.
California recently scrapped its system for anonymously treating addicted doctors without informing patients of their physicians’ condition-- following outrage over botched surgery by an addicted plastic surgeon. But its new cure for the problem may be worse than the disease.
For one, what the AP doesn’t mention is that treatment for addicted doctors is one of the shining successes in the addiction world: virtually all treatment (even programs known to contain elements that are ineffective or harmful) produces impressive outcomes.
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Watch evolution vs. creationism in split-screen duel
We loves us some animated infographics here at 60SS, so this video, called DUELITY, is a must-watch.
We can't embed it here because it uses this badass split-screen effect to pit The Big Two origin stories against each other: That of "The Book of Darwin" and "the records of the General Organization and Development [GOD] labs".
The mind-flip concept is refreshingly cheeky (archaic biblespeak for the evolutionists, sleek technojargon for the creationists). But the visuals are just awesome.
[I personally don't think this video is advancing any kind of "teach the controversy" b.s... it's clearly an ironic send-up of the fact that there IS any controversy. But that's just me. Agree or disagree? Comments are open as always! Theirs, too.]
Meteors May Set Off Explosions of Biodiversity [podcast]
Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by The American Meteor Society:
Meteors May Set Off Explosions of Biodiversity
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New journal on obesity costs almost as much as the real thing
Determined to double down on double diabetes, the good folks at our sister co., Nature Publishing Group, are about to add to their already-tumescent, ever-swelling cache of journals this little chestnut:
Like actual obesity, Obesity: A Research Journal will cost those who are afflicted with it around $400 a year.
Related:
Obesity: Bigger than terrorism?
Americans stop getting fatter
Cost of healthy food rising five times as fast as inflation
Backpacker killed in creationism vs. evolution fight
Since when was using an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence to prove your point worth being killed for? An English backpacker was sentenced to five years for manslaughter by an Australian court after stabbing a Scottish man and fellow backpacker last January. The Englishman befriended the Scottish couple, who were both biomedical scientists, but an evening argument over creation vs. evolution erupted, with the Scottish couple on the side of evolution vs. the Englishman on the side of the Bible and sharp objects.
Both camps seemed to agree to disagree, until the discussion reignited later, this time with drunkenness to fuel the fight. The Englishman lost it during dinner and went Michael Myers on the Scotsman, though he claims he used the knife in self-defense against the evolutionist.
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60 S.S. Giftology: Robot sommelier!
Everyone has that one super high-class, uppity, early-adopter friend who has the latest cool gadget before you do. He bought the world's fastest yacht before you did. His car runs on his own sense of self-satisfaction. You bought an iPhone? His was personally implanted into his frontal cortex by Steve Jobs and came preloaded with the finest escort services on five continents already on speed dial.
Today's Giftology item ensures that you get him something this year he can't possibly have: His very own robot sommelier! Scientists at Japan's NEC company and Mie University have garnered an entry into the 2008 Guinness Book of World Records by creating the world's first robot sommelier. The cute lil' robot "tastes" wine via an infrared sensor in its hand that can identify different types of wine by irradiating it at different wavelengths. The robot can identify types of wines, grape ingredients, and even the level of sweetness or dryness. It can do the same with fruits and cheese, making it an all-purpose garden-party robot.