Category Archives: Science

Science Interview with John Edwards

Interview with Senator John Edwards on Science-Related Topics

How would you address the current problems of scientific research in the USA – stopping the brain-drain, attracting foreign students, energizing young Americans to consider careers in science, the need for balance between basic and applied research, and encouraging development of science in other countries (with free flow of information between nations as well as between scientists and the public in the USA) while still retaining the US dominance?

There are so many things we can and must do. The president can send a signal that science is the cornerstone of American innovation and will support it, free from political agendas and distortions, send a signal that that the United States wants to lead the way in scientific inquiry, not close doors to certain avenues of research.

We must have a sensible policy towards attracting young scholars. International students are a valuable part of our higher education community, and I support our student visa programs. We need to do a better job tracking student visas, but we ought to be able to do that without creating long lines. U.S. consulates have been asked to interview more applicants personally, but have not been given enough resources.

The answers overall seem to be lacking in specifics. While providing a show of support for science they don’t seem to offer much else.

Interesting Lobsters

Is there a 400 pound lobster out there?

Lobsters sometimes bury their food and eat it over several days. They use teeth located in their stomachs, eat their molted shells (full of calcium) and can shed appendages if attacked, wounded or surprised, only to regenerate them later. Finally, lobsters live in a hierarchy and it’s the females who do the courting.

But there’s one lobster fact that trumps them all: lobsters show no apparent signs of aging. They don’t slow down or become weaker or more susceptible to disease. They don’t get infertile — older lobsters are actually more fertile than younger ones. Most lobsters seem to die because of something inflicted upon them and not because a body part failed or broke down. They’re such hardy creatures that scientists aren’t even sure how old lobsters can get. Add in that lobsters grow throughout their lives, and one has to ask: Is possible that a lobster born before Napoleon and as heavy as an NFL lineman is chowing down on the seafloor?

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2007

Top 3 students - Intel ISEF 2007

Can These Kids Save American Science?

Jose Manuel Otero realized that science was his goal in 1996, when he went to ISEF with a project on filtering diesel from water using charcoal that he made from leaves and grass. Otero, the son of Spanish immigrants who never finished high school, took first place in the Connecticut state fair and went on to the internationals, winning third place in his division. “I didn’t know I wanted to be a scientist until I got to ISEF,” he says.
…
Where students in previous generations built robots in their basements or sampled pond water in the local park, the majority of today’s winning projects showcase research done in a lab under the supervision of a mentor, an academic at a university or corporate research institute. Students get their own portion of the lab’s investigation. If they discover anything of significance, they might be rewarded as a co-author of a paper the professor submits to a journal, or they might share in a patent that the lab takes out on their work. One team project from Stony Brook’s summer program on detecting individual cancer cells by how hard or soft they are is up for a patent and has been submitted to the journal Science.

The top three winners of the ISEF receive a $50,000 scholarship and $4 million in cash and scholarships are awarded. Related: Intel ISEF Awards 2006 – Science Fair Project on Bacterial Growth on Packaged Salads – Amber’s Science Talent Search Blog – Science Fair Directory

Obesity Epidemic Explained – Kind Of

Graphic: percentage of population over 15 with a body-mass index greater than 30, for more see Wellington Grey

Obesity Epidemic Explained – Kind Of

So maybe everyone else already knew this and I am like, bumpkin girl, but I just have to take a moment and point everyone to this USDA research site on the massive inflationary trend in daily caloric consumption over the past three decades.

1970 – Americans ate an average of 2170 calories per day
2000 – Americans ate an average of 2700 calories per day

I don’t think most people know that. It does seem odd to me that so much effort is put into trying to come up with explanations that are much more complicated. Most of the complicated suggestions (usually some explanation that indicates it is some biology issue and not eating to much or exercising too little) don’t explain why there is an increase in the incidence of obesity over time – at least I don’t see how they do. It seems to me the base requirement for improving the health issue of increasing obesity is to have an explanation of what has caused the incredible increase.

I can certainly believe biological issues impact how easy it is to become obese or how difficult it is to maintain a healthy weight. But it seems to me the proportion of the population that is obese has drastically increased over time (or different regions of the globe with a similar genetic makeup) and the logical place to look for an explanation is behavior differences that created this change (not some biological issue that has changed). If 5% of the population was predisposed obesity in 1950 to obesity I can’t see any rational reason to think that has increased to 30% today.

Chocolate Every Day Will Keep the Doctor Away

We need more news like this: A Bite of Chocolate a Day May Keep Blood Pressure at Bay:

Chocolate lovers can rejoice again: More research has found that the antioxidants in dark chocolate can help slightly lower blood pressure. But the good news comes with a caveat — the chocolate portions have to be limited to 30 calories a day, which works out to slightly more than one Hershey’s Kiss.

Such small amounts of the flavanol-rich cocoa found in dark chocolate “may be a promising behavioral approach to lower blood pressure in individuals with above-optimal blood pressure,” the German researchers reported in their study. Unlimited quantities of chocolate won’t work, they added, because “the potential blood pressure reduction contributed by the flavanols could be offset by the high sugar, fat and calorie intake with the cocoa products.”

Ok, I’ll admit I am eating a bit more than that but I have cut back my Mountain Dew from 2 day a couple years ago to maybe 3 a week now so I figure I have some leeway ðŸ™‚ Remember it has to be the dark chocolate with flavanol – given the recent positive press those the packaging usually makes the point of mentioning that the good stuff is included if it is.

Learn Physics with Free Space Flight Simulator

The free, Orbiter Space Flight Simulator, is not a typical computer game.

The emphasis is firmly on realism, and the learning curve can be steep. Be prepared to invest some time and effort to brush up on your orbital mechanics background. Good starting points are JPL’s Basics of Space Flight, and R. Braeunig’s Rocket & Space Technology.
…
Improved physics: Gravity-gradient torque effects are now implemented. Vessels in low orbit will now experience torques as a result of their mass distribution. Orbiter’s model of angular motion has also been extensively overhauled.

via: Space Simulator Related: So You Want to be a Computer Game Programmer – Physics Concepts in 60 Seconds – PhysicsQuest – Non-Newtonian Fluid Demo

Single Electron on Video

Researchers Catch Motion of a Single Electron on Video

Maris and Wei Guo, a doctoral student, took advantage of the bubbles that form around electrons in supercold liquid helium. Using sound waves to expand the bubbles and a coordinated strobe light to illuminate them, Guo was able to catch their movements on a home video camera.

A free electron repels the atoms that surround it, creating a small space, or bubble, around itself. In conventional liquids, the bubble shrinks to nothing because the surface tension of the liquid works against the repulsive force. Superfluid helium has very little surface tension, so the bubble can become much larger. The two opposing forces balance when the diameter of the bubble is about 40 angstroms – still far to tiny to see.

The researchers used a planar transducer – basically, a loudspeaker that produces flat, not focused, sound waves – to pummel the whole volume of liquid helium with sound. As each wave overtook an electron bubble, it alternately increased and decreased the surrounding pressure. Under negative pressure, the bubbles expanded to about eight microns, the size of a small speck of dust, then shrank again as the next wave of high pressure washed over them. A strobe light, synchronized to the sound pulse, illuminated the bubbles without overheating the chamber.

Running a camcorder in “super night mode,” Guo and Maris were able to record the approximately 2,000 photons they estimate were scattered by the expanded bubbles, producing a series of electron-bubble images on each frame of videotape.

Pretty amazing. My pictures are of a bit larger things.

Try to Answer 6 Basic Science Questions

The Guardian newspaper (UK) asked 8 people (including 3 scientists) answer science questions such as: why does salt dissolve in water, why is the sky blue? and roughly how old is the earth?:

Q: Is a clone the same as a twin?
Will Self No.
Iain Stewart Yes, er, I think… oh God, it’s probably not. But I think it has to be, doesn’t it?
John O’Farrell No. How could it be the same? That’s not how cloning works, is it?
Susan Greenfield Yes. An identical twin.
Daisy Goodwin As an identical twin? That’s quite interesting. No. Well, I’m not sure about that. I’d say no. But maybe yes. I’m baffled.
Kirsty Wark No. But there’s two different kinds of twin. You have to give me a point for that!
Robert Winston Well, not necessarily. It’s not genetically the same actually, no. You see, it depends on the kind of twin. Do you mean an identical twin? Identical twins are different in all sorts of ways. It’s different epigenetics and there’s different mitochondrial DNA, so it’s a different organism. Actually, what we’re beginning to understand is that the epigenetic aspects of cloning are fundamentally very important. And twins are rather more dissimilar than people imagine, too. For example, they have different fingerprints from each other, so there are quite interesting and subtle differences.
Marina Warner Yes it is. Well, identical twins are clones, not non-identical twins.
Answer: Yes, up to a point (see Robert Winston’s answer).

Science Focus in New UK Government

Science wins champion in shake-up

Mr Brown often warned as Chancellor that Britain needed a strong scientific base to punch above its weight in an increasingly competitive global market. By including innovation and science in the higher education brief for England the new prime minister is throwing his weight behind the sector for the long term. Although Britain’s scientific research is regarded as among the best in the world, the decline in the numbers studying science has sounded alarm bells throughout academia and industry. A string of universities have closed physics or chemistry departments in recent years because of a lack of would-be students.
…
This has sparked fears that the country’s science and engineering base may not be able to cope with the ever-increasing competition from nations like China and India.

As I have stated numerous times previously I believe those countries that manage to gain (or retain) centers of science and engineering excellent will gain significant economic advantage.

Singapore Research Fellowship

Singapore National Research Foundation Research Fellowship (updated link which was broken – why can’t web site stop breaking links?) offers complete freedom and a 3-year research grant of up to US$1.5million, with possible extension for another 3 years for talented scientists and researchers at or under the age of 35 years at the date of application. This is another example of Singapore investing in creating a scientific and engineering community to strengthen their economy.