Author Archives: curiouscat

Can Brain Exercises Prevent Mental Decline?

Last month we posted about: Short Mental Workouts May Slow Decline of Aging Minds. Now here is another article on the same topic: Little proof that brain exercises can prevent mental decline by Alice Dembner

Richard Suzman, who oversees behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging, said the downside of using the programs include “harm to the wallet or false hope,” or health setbacks if people spend time brain-training instead of getting physical exercise. But others say, despite the lack of evidence, that the programs may be worth trying, particularly in conjunction with other activities that may help with brain health such as a healthy diet, exercise, managing stress, and keeping up social contacts.
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And only last month did the first rigorous study suggest that brain training could positively affect daily-life activities and might delay age-related declines in everyday functioning. Even in that large, government-funded study, the evidence was far from conclusive.

In the original post we mentioned: “Another Paper Questions Scientific Paper Accuracy (just a reminder that the conclusions of many studies are not confirmed in future studies).” That is always important to keep in mind, even though we don’t post that reminder every time.

Attracting Women to Engineering

Colleges focusing on attracting women to engineering

Mahera Philobos, director of Georgia Tech’s Women in Engineering program and a civil and environmental engineering professor, said she’s had success getting women to enroll in some areas of engineering, like biomedical and industrial. Both are perceived by women as fields that make contributions to the world, she said.

While frustrated by the stagnant enrollment, Philobos knows change happens slowly. She said the key is reaching the girls when they’re in middle and high school to encourage them to take rigorous math and science courses.
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That does not translate into a national trend. Women received 18 percent of the 78,200 engineering degrees given out in 2003-04, the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Education. That’s the same percentage as in 1998 and only slightly more than the 16 percent in 1996.

Applied Engineering Education

Classroom projects translate into immediate workplace gains for working professionals in engineering

In the final semester of his UW–Madison master’s degree, Bob Aloisi didn’t just earn a letter grade in his quality engineering class: He saved his company $50,000. It wasn’t the typical classroom outcome — but it wasn’t a typical classroom. As a student in “Quality Engineering and Quality Management,” Aloisi accomplished a major class project in quality improvement at his own workplace.

The project is the capstone experience in the College of Engineering’s award-winning distance-education program, the Master of Engineering in Professional Practice (MEPP). Designed for mid-career engineers who live and work all over the country, MEPP’s Internet-based curriculum strives to provide knowledge students can apply immediately at their companies.
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“Our project was a very good example of the Kaizen approach,” says Aloisi. “It wasn’t one specific thing, a home run type of thing, that we changed to make our improvements.” Instead, his team met its targets through many small steps, including adjustments to equipment settings and better training for machine operators.

Human Embryo Hybrids

Embryo hybrids are used to grow human stem cells (for a few days) in eggs from animals. Public debate on embryo hybrids

Allowing DNA from humans and animals to be mixed should be put to a public debate, a regulatory body has said.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which oversees embryo research and fertility treatment, said the research could fall under its remit and would not be prohibited by law after a meeting of experts on Wednesday.

Door left open for creation of hybrid embryos:

Two teams of British scientists have applied for licences to create “hybrid” embryos that would be about 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent animal to produce embryonic stem cells — the body’s building blocks that can grow into all other types of cells.
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They want to use stem cells to understand and develop therapies for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cystic fibrosis, motor neurone disease and Huntington’s. The hybrid embryos would be destroyed within 14 days when they were no bigger than a pinhead.

Gene Study Finds Cannibal Pattern

Deep in the recesses of the human heart, lurking guiltily beneath the threshold of consciousness, there may lie a depraved craving — for the forbidden taste of human flesh. The basis for this morbid accusation, made by a team of researchers in London, is a genetic signature, found almost worldwide, that points to a long history of cannibalism.

The signature is one that protects the bearer from infection by prions, proteins that can be transmitted in infected meat and attack the nerve cells of the brain. Prions can be acquired from eating infected animals, as in the case of the mad cow disease that in 1996 spread to people in England, but they spread even more easily through eating infected humans.
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The researchers then examined DNA from various ethnic groups around the world and found that all but one, the Japanese, carried the protective signature to some degree, and that the Japanese are protected by a different signature in the same gene.

Various genetic tests showed that the protective genes could not be there by chance, but were a result of natural selection. This implies that human populations in the past must have been exposed to some form of prion disease, the researchers say.

Want to be a Computer Game Programmer?

You need to understand math, physics and more to become a computer game programmer. Things You Need to Know before Interviewing for a Game Programming Position:

You do need to have very good linear algebra skills. If you don’t know what the formula for a dot product is (a dot b = a.x * b.x + a.y * b.y + a.z * b.z ) and what it means geometrically (|a| * |b| * cosine of the angle between a and b), then there’s no chance you can get a job. You need to know how to project a vector onto another vector (a projected onto b = ( a dot b ) / |b|^2 * b) and onto a plane. You need to know what the cross product is (a x b = [a.y * b.z – a.z * b.y, a.z * b.x – a.x * b.z, a.x * b.y – a.y * b.x]) and what it means geometrically (a vector perpendicular to the vectors with a length equal to the sine of the angle between them).
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You should be very familiar with all the projectile equations. If you can’t either derive or remember d = v0 * t + 0.5 * a * t^2, you’ll be in trouble when you interview or take a programming test. Any problem that involves a projectile with gravity should be easy for you to solve. Whether the unknown is gravity, launch angle, y velocity, xz velocity, time, distance or any combinations that are solvable, you should have no problems determining the solution. You should also be familiar with momentum and kinetic energy for elastic and inelastic collisions. Drag and friction should be concepts you understand also.

If that all looks like great fun to you, perhaps game programming is the career for you.

2006 Science Blog Anthology

SciBlog Anthology suggestions so far

Neat idea to create an anthology of great science blog posts from 2006. via: Confessions of a Science Librarian

$100 Laptop Update

Green $100 Laptop photo

Public can purchase $100 laptop. I am not sure I understand the headline – this seems a more accurate picture of situation: OLPC aims for mass production in third quarter, 2007. At this time the cost each is about $150 and you will have to pay for 2 (you buy one for yourself and one for the developing world). The aim is to reach the $100 price level, but that has not quite been achieved yet.

The first countries to sign up to buying the machine, which is officially dubbed XO, include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand.

The XO’s software has been designed to work specifically in an educational context. It has built-in wireless networking and video conferencing so that groups of children can work together. The project is also working to ensure that children using the laptop around the world can be in contact.

The project continues to move forward even with the bumps along the road – it is quite an ambitious plan. Take a look at this great story: What kids can learn when you just give them access to a computer.

Engineering A Cleaner River

I Eat Rubbish:

“I eat rubbish!”, the notice fixed to it claims that it collects 40 tons of rubbish every year; the equivalent of 800,000 plastic bottles. Called a “passive debris collector”, nine of them have been bobbing along the river for the past five years. Each captures tons of floating litter; bottles, cans, and plastic, that otherwise would have flowed out to sea and killed fish and birds. It was initiated by Thames21, an environmental charity…

Help Choose the New PBS Science Program

PBS Science:

Here’s the experiment: Throughout January, PBS will broadcast three new science programs. Only one program will become a regular science series on PBS. We want you to help us decide. Watch the programs on your PBS station or, beginning January 1st, visit the companion sites below to watch each pilot show. Then tell us what you think

Wired Science – “brings WIRED Magazine’s cutting edge vision, stylish design, and irreverent attitude to the screen with breakout ideas, recent discoveries, and the latest innovations”

Science Investigators – “Full of information told through compelling stories, the series is presented by four young, lively hosts armed with the latest gadgets and technology, who make this a science show with attitude for the blog generation.” From WGBH, producers of NOVA

22nd Century – “Science fantasy or futuristic nightmare? 22nd Century takes you to the forefront of technology and hears from people on the cusp of a scientific revolution.”