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Childhood Wheezing With Rhinovirus Can Increase Asthma Odds 10-foldInfants who experience viral respiratory illnesses with wheezing are known to be at increased risk for developing asthma later during childhood. Using new molecular techniques to identify different viruses, researchers now believe they have pinpointed the biggest culprit: rhinovirus.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Physicists Find That Size Matters When Initiating An Object's Movement Through GrainsPhysicists have discovered that the size of grains, such as sand, above a buried object is important in determining the force required to begin raising the object. No one, until now, has discovered how much force is required to initiate an object's movement through grains. The discovery may be useful for engineering foundations for objects such as power-line towers, or for designing industrial mixer blades, such as those used in pharmaceutical processing.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Brain Pathway Responsible For Obesity Found: Too Many Calories Send Brain Off KilterAn overload of calories throws critical portions of the brain out of whack, reveals a new study. That response in the brain's hypothalamus -- the "headquarters" for maintaining energy balance -- can happen even in the absence of any weight gain, according to the new studies in mice.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Remembrance Of Tussles Past: Paper Wasps Show Surprisingly Strong Memory For Previous EncountersWith brains less than a millionth the size of humans', paper wasps hardly seem like mental giants. But new research shows that these insects can remember individuals for at least a week, even after meeting and interacting with many other wasps in the meantime.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Musicians Use Both Sides Of Their Brains More Frequently Than Average PeopleSupporting what many of us who are not musically talented have often felt, new research reveals that trained musicians really do think differently than the rest of us. Psychologists have found that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and also use both the left and the right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Bullying Common In CyberspaceCyberbullying is common among teens who are frequent internet users, with 72 percent of respondents reporting at least one incident during the past year.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 6:00 pm Step Right Up, Let The Computer Look At Your Face And Tell You Your AgeLike an age-guesser at a carnival, new computer software can fairly accurately estimate a person's age. But, unlike age-guessers, who can view a person's body, the software works by examining only the person's face.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 3:00 pm What HIV Needs: Identification Of Human Factors May Yield Novel Therapeutic Targets For HIVScientists have found 295 host cell factors that are involved in human immunodeficiency virus infection. Their research could lead to the development of a new class of HIV therapeutics aimed at disrupting the human-HIV interactions that lead to viral infection.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 3:00 pm Link Between Weight Gains During Pregnancy And Dieting HistoryWomen with a history of dieting or other restricted eating practices are at risk of gaining an inappropriate amount of weight during pregnancy. Researchers report that restrained eating behaviors prior to pregnancy were associated with weight gains above IOM recommendations for normal, overweight and obese women, and weight gains below recommendations for underweight women.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 3:00 pm Six Environmental Research Studies Reveal Critical Health Risks From PlasticExposure to Bisphenol A, phthalates and flame retardants are strongly associated with adverse health effects on humans and laboratory animals. A special section in the October 2008 issue of Environmental Research -- "A Plastic World" -- provides critical new research on environmental contaminants and adverse reproductive and behavioral effects.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 3:00 pm Otter Decline a Mixed Blessing for Bald EaglesAs Alaska's sea otter population plummets, local bald eagles are thriving. But why?Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 3 Oct 2008 | 2:58 pm CERN unveils computer grid linking 7,000 scientistsGENEVA (Reuters) - CERN, the world's biggest particle physics laboratory and creator of the Worldwide Web, on Friday unveiled a new computer network allowing thousands of scientists around the world to crunch data on its huge experiments.Source: Reuters: Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 2:32 pm Scientists learn space lessons from Antarctic basesSINGAPORE (Reuters) - In the depths of the Antarctic winter, expeditioners at Australia's research bases might as well be on the moon. Or on their way to Mars.Source: Reuters: Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 2:27 pm Sunken WWII Sub FoundNavy confirms wreckage found off Aleution Islands is sunken WWII sub.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Oct 2008 | 2:23 pm Uganda wildlife park gets new gorilla family (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 2:22 pm Exotic Dancers, Armadillos Top Ig NobelsOther studies that won: Coke as a spermicide and more expensive placebos.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 3 Oct 2008 | 2:20 pm Video: Entering the World of WarcraftResearchers look at the educational benefits of the World of Warcraft game. Credit: Livescience.com, Blizzard Entertainment, Constance Steinkuehler.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Oct 2008 | 2:14 pm Seed bank 'running out of funds'Groundbreaking projects at the Millennium Seed Bank could be axed because of a £100m shortfall.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Oct 2008 | 2:06 pm Remains found in Fossett's planeUS investigators find possible human remains among the wreckage of adventurer Steve Fossett's plane in California.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Oct 2008 | 2:00 pm Exxon-led project faces Russian lawsuit over endangered whales (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 1:55 pm Where Life Found Refuge During Mass ExtinctionScientists find the last hiding place of life during Earth's worst apocalypse.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 3 Oct 2008 | 1:50 pm Pollution Makes Oceans Noisier (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - The ocean may soon begin to sound more like New York City to dolphins and whales.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 1:47 pm Pollution Makes Oceans NoisierIncreasing carbon dioxide levels making oceans more acidic, noisier.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Oct 2008 | 1:33 pm Bacteria Think AheadBacteria may be humble single-celled creatures, but they're sophisticated enough to anticipate regular events.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Oct 2008 | 1:24 pm Gut Reaction: Digestion Revealed in 3-DA study of nutrient transport and macro-micro mixing in the small intestine is going 3-D.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Oct 2008 | 1:12 pm Grief: The Price of LoveWe pay dearly for the evolutionary advantage of our social connections.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Oct 2008 | 1:11 pm Rare insect found safe on beachOne of the UK's rarest insects has been rediscovered on the beach where debris from the MSC Napoli was washed up.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Oct 2008 | 1:06 pm Greens welcome new climate deptGreen groups welcome the creation of a new energy and climate department in Gordon Brown's government reshuffle.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Oct 2008 | 11:38 am Dim But Visible: Seeking out UranusThis week will be a fine time to seek out planet Uranus.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Oct 2008 | 10:59 am World of Warcraft Video Game Succeeds in SchoolStudents find fun learning in the online game World of Warcraft.Source: Livescience.com | 3 Oct 2008 | 10:49 am Astronaut's diary goes on display in Jerusalem (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 10:45 am Tropical Storm Marie in the Eastern Pacific (weather.com)weather.com -Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 10:06 am Giant tooth found in wreck of paleontologist's homeFound in debris after hurricane Ike, tooth is thought to be that of a Colombian mammoth from 10,000 years agoSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 3 Oct 2008 | 9:35 am The 'knot' so astonishing research honoured with Ig Nobel PrizesWhy wires tie themselves in knots and other astonishing research are honoured with Ig Nobel Prizes.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Oct 2008 | 9:00 am Andrew Brown: Science shows religion makes us more honest and trustingScientific research shows religion makes us more honest and trusting – at least when we think God is watching.Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 3 Oct 2008 | 8:55 am Colonial clue to the rise of HIVThe arrival of colonial cities in sub-Saharan Africa at the dawn of the 20th Century may have sparked the spread of HIV.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Oct 2008 | 8:40 am The brain creates illusions and superstitions at times of stressThe mind naturally creates illusions and superstitions at times of stress - and this could be adding to the global financial crisis, say scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Oct 2008 | 8:32 am Navy confirms lost WWII sub has been found (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 7:45 am Strippers, armadillos inspire Ig Nobel winners (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 1:04 am New twist in brain obesity riddleThe discovery of another way in which the body appears to control how much it eats could shed fresh light on obesity.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 3 Oct 2008 | 12:19 am Plant Tweak Could Let Toxic Soil Feed Millions
Thanks to a genetic breakthrough, a large portion of Earth's now-inhospitable soil could be used to grow crops -- potentially alleviating one of the most pressing problems facing the planet's rapidly growing population. Scientists at the University of California, Riverside made plants tolerant of poisonous aluminum by tweaking a single gene. This may allow crops to thrive in the 40 to 50 percent of Earth's soils currently rendered toxic by the metal. "Aluminum toxicity is a very limiting factor, especially in developing countries, in South America and Africa and Indonesia," said biochemist Paul Larsen. "It's not like these areas are devoid of plant life, but they're not crop plants. Among agriculturally important plants, there aren't mechanisms for aluminum tolerance." The planet is rapidly running out of room to grow food, and scientists say that the world's booming population -- expected to swell by half in the next 50 years -- will outstrip food production. There's no more room for farms in the developed world; demand for cropland is fueling deforestation in the rain forests of Latin America and Africa; and the limits of the Green Revolution, which increased global food production through the use of pesticides and industrial farming techniques, have been reached. Another revolution, say agronomists, is needed. In an effort to salvage currently infertile land, scientists have tried to understand the basic mechanisms of aluminum toxicity, and to find resistant food crops, but with little success. Larsen's research, published Thursday in Current Biology, could change that. He identified a gene in Arabidopsis -- a flower used as a model organism in basic plant research -- that affects plants' sensitivity to aluminum. When the gene is modified, seedlings that would normally have died in aluminum-rich soils instead flourished. There's no guarantee that the tweak will prove successful and safe -- but if it does, it could provide food for millions. Larsen and postdoctoral student Megan Rounds started with an especially aluminum-sensitive Arabidopsis strain, then used a DNA-scrambling mutagen to produce 200,000 seedlings with various mutations. When they scanned the genomes of a few that proved able to grow in aluminum-rich cultures, they found a common factor: a damaged gene called AlATR. The gene appears to produce an enzyme that -- when exposed to aluminum -- stops cell division, preventing roots from growing. "It was always believed that once aluminum got into the tissue" of a non-tolerant species, said Larsen, "it was 'game over' for the root. It would accumulate toxic effects, and wouldn't grow. Here you change one gene, reduce the function of one protein, and all of a sudden you have a plant that can, for the most part, thrive in an aluminum-toxic environment. It was shocking." "People have been studying aluminum toxicity for years. People say it binds to the cell wall. Others say it interacts with proteins. Others, that it damages the plasma membrane. Or that it screws up cytoplasmic calcium, or screws up the cytoskeleton, or binds the DNA, or mimics magnesium," said Leon Kochian, a Cornell University plant physiologist. "This mechanism seems to supersede the others. It renders them immaterial." Developing resistant plants may not be easy. Though defusing AlATR protected the plants' roots, it made their leaves more sensitive to radiation. But Larsen suggests a workaround: Engineer plants that express the modified gene only in their roots, not their leaves. If that works, the plants will still need to be proven safe. Such tampering is bound to raise concerns, but Larsen is hopeful that modifying the gene will have few other effects. He suspects the mechanism exists to prevent plants from accumulating aluminum-induced mutations, and passing them to future generations -- protecting the genes of a population by sacrificing an individual. Most modern crops are replanted from year to year, so altering the mechanism wouldn't affect them. Kochian said that genetic engineering may not even be necessary. In so-called smart breeding, farmers use genome sequencing to identify plants with the best AlATR alleles, then breed those to create resistant strains. "You can do that with molecular tools, not biotechnology," said Kochian. Larsen is currently trying to patent the technique, and said that he'll make it available to researchers in the developing world. "I don't expect to make any money off it," he said. "I'd like it to trickle down to the people who need it. He does worry that the technique could be used as an excuse to clear rain forests from currently aluminum-toxic soil. Instead of this, said Larsen, already-cut land could be made more productive. "If we can make use of the land that's available now, maybe we can make it so we don't have to cut forests down in the future," he said. Aluminum-Dependent Root-Growth Inhibition in Arabidopsis Results from AtATR-Regulated Cell-Cycle Arrest [Current Biology] WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 3 Oct 2008 | 12:13 am Spermicide Coke, stale chips research wins Ig NobelsWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A researcher who figured out that Coke explodes sperm and scientists who discovered that people will happily eat stale chips if they crunch loudly enough won alternative "Ig Nobel" prizes on Thursday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 3 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am Obituary: John ThodayObituary: Cambridge geneticist who studied how species adaptSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 2 Oct 2008 | 11:02 pm Religion helps foster trust, say psychologistsStudy shows that trust is higher when religious groups involve a greater degree of commitmentSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 2 Oct 2008 | 11:02 pm Solved: scientific riddles of flea hops, armadillo digs and lap dancers' tipsBritons gain plaudits at the Ig Nobel awards, an irreverent highlight of the academic calendarSource: Science | guardian.co.uk | 2 Oct 2008 | 11:02 pm Genes pinpoint people at risk for gout: studyWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have pinpointed three genes related to the high blood levels of uric acid that cause gout in a step that could help identify people at special risk for this common and painful type of arthritis.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Oct 2008 | 10:31 pm Genes pinpoint people at risk for gout: study (Reuters)Reuters - Scientists have pinpointed three genes related to the high blood levels of uric acid that cause gout in a step that could help identify people at special risk for this common and painful type of arthritis.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Oct 2008 | 10:31 pm Cuvier sightingA glimpse of five whales brightens a Canaries morningSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Oct 2008 | 10:07 pm UK urged to fund climate projectIndustry calls on the UK government to invest more in Kopernikus, the world's biggest environmental monitoring project.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 2 Oct 2008 | 9:40 pm Google Earth Sleuther Zooms In on Fossett's Crash Site
To narrow down his search, Frank Taylor, writer of Google Earth Blog, pieced together information about the characteristics and general location of the crash site. He then learned from a commenter on his blog that the FAA put out a temporary no-fly restriction to prevent pilots from flying over the area in support of the investigation. Taylor deduced that must have been where the crash occurred, and he zoomed in on the FAA's coordinates. The final piece that completed the puzzle was a photo of the crash site from the Los Angeles Times. Because Google Earth's 3D terrain is rich in detail, Taylor believes he was able to make a very close match. "I went into Google Earth to maneuver my view around to match where that photo was taken," Taylor said in a phone interview. "I estimate the location where I put that now is about 250 feet of where that photo was taken."
In addition, another commenter on the blog said he found what appeared to be the mine site where hikers discovered Fossett's belongings and recreated Fossett's flight in Google Earth. By virtually "flying" there, he said he found a "dead-end canyon" with very little room for a plane to turn.
Other than tracking down missing persons, authorities and searchers have used Google Earth's detailed imagery to virtually learn the terrain — familiarizing themselves with lakes, craters and rough terrain, for example — before embarking on their rescue operations. Taylor wasn't alone in his virtual search for Fossett, either. Hundreds participated in trying to track down the missing pilot using Google Earth last year, but when authorities called off the search, most of the online sleuthers gave up, too. Fossett, a millionaire adventurer, was last seen the morning of Sept. 3, 2007. He reportedly said he was planning to fly over the Sierra Nevada. His disappearance prompted not only hundreds of online trackers to search for his plane, but also thousands of volunteers and hundreds of authorities searching from above and below — to no avail. Authorities suspended the search in October 2007. On Wednesday, investigators found his crashed plane on the area near Mammoth Lakes on the Sierra Nevada after hikers there found Fossett's ID card, a sweat shirt and cash. Authorities have not found Fossett's body. Updated 3 p.m. PDT Thursday: Google Earth users can download Taylor's KMZ file to view his findings. Location of Plane Wreck of Steve Fossett [Google Earth Blog] See Also:
Photo: Frank Taylor Source: Wired: Wired Science | 2 Oct 2008 | 8:56 pm How the Telescope Changed Our Minds
Four hundred years after its invention, the telescope has become an essential scientific instrument, an icon of science. But it is more than just an extension of our senses — the telescope is an instrument of thought as well. Throughout its 400-year history, the telescope has changed our view of the universe and our view of ourselves. Never more so than at the very beginning. News of Hans Lippershey's 1608 patent reached Galileo Galilei the following year. Within one day, he had made his own telescope, and, in 1610, published a short, still very readable, book, Siderius Nuncius, (The Starry Messenger). This remarkable work changed everything. Galileo's telescope made clear that the universe was far larger than had been imagined — and our place in it far smaller than had been imagined. The public impact was immediate. The poet John Donne, in 1611, wrote of "Galileo … who of late hath summoned the other world, the stars to come nearer to him, and give him an account of themselves." But this new other world, as Donne also saw, had a negative side. The old universe of unity and proportion, crowned by a perfect heaven scaled to human proportion, was threatened: "New philosophy calls all in doubt." Today you can buy a better telescope than Galileo's for under a hundred dollars, and a careful replica of his telescope for a great deal more. An ordinary pair of binoculars will show just about all that he saw (DON'T try to use them to see the sunspots!). But you can only imagine how unsettling this modest instrument was in the early 17th century. We now take for granted that science gives us otherwise invisible worlds. We have wonderful instruments that do this — the telescope, the microscope, fMRI brain scans, the Large Hadron Collider. We now see many invisible worlds: tiny bacteria in our water, shifting patterns of blood flow in the brain, submicroscopic particles (some hope) that haven't been seen since the first microseconds of the universe. Some doubted what Galileo had seen. Was this really observation? Or a trick of the instrument? Were the spots on the sun? Or on the lens? Galileo was brilliant at answering these doubts partly because he was not merely revealing facts; instead, they were facts in the context of new theories about the universe, especially the Copernican theory, that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the universe. The old theory, that the universe centered on the earth, just could not be sustained in the face of the telescope's revelations. These were hard questions then, just as hard questions today still cluster about science. How do we know that a black hole sits at the center of our galaxy? No light escapes from a black hole — we can only detect them by their effects on nearby matter. Telescopes are important in proving their existence, but the telescopes used are very different from Galileo's, and they carry their own burden of doubt, theory and proof. Science isn't literal seeing. Instead, observation in science is something richer and more complex, a series of mental acts supported by inferences, experiments, suppositions, deductions and sometimes dense filigrees of arcane mathematical symbols. Galileo showed us mountains on the moon, but we only "see" them when we accept that the telescope is doing what it ought to do — magnifying while leaving the "real" entities unchanged. You can accept the mountains as real only if you accept this principle, and this was hard for Galileo's contemporaries. Here we touch upon the meaning of the telescope, and also upon the reason why its iconic value is appropriate. It was earth-shaking in its day and continues to be so today. It changed the way the universe looked (as science more generally has done, continually, for the 400 years since then). But it required something from us as well — the need to learn about the telescope as an extension of our mind, not just our senses, before we can understand the things it shows us. Ryan D. Tweney is an
emeritus professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University, Ohio,
and is the author of several books on scientific thinking. His recent
research has focused on the scientific diaries and methods of Michael
Faraday. He is also the father of Wired.com's Gadget Lab editor Dylan Tweney.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 2 Oct 2008 | 7:54 pm Lack of control seen fueling superstitionsCHICAGO (Reuters) - Lack of control can lead rational people to see patterns even where no true pattern exists, a finding that explains seemingly irrational behavior, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Oct 2008 | 7:45 pm Russian Claim to Arctic Seafloor Becomes Palin IssueQuestions arise about Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience with Russia.Source: Livescience.com | 2 Oct 2008 | 7:42 pm Researchers find that tuna swim across Atlantic (AP)AP - Bluefin tuna from both sides of the Atlantic get together as juveniles, a discovery that could affect how the tuna fishery is managed. While North American and Mediterranean bluefin return home to spawn, a study published in Friday's edition of the journal Science reveals that as youngsters the fish travel long distances to intermix.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Oct 2008 | 7:37 pm Young Bluefin Tuna Cross AtlanticResearchers find that juvenile bluefin tuna from opposite sides of the Atlantic intermix.Source: Livescience.com | 2 Oct 2008 | 7:27 pm High-Tech Analysis Obscures Presidential Debate
If you watch tonight's vice-presidential campaign on CNN, make sure not to confuse pretty graphics with political insight. The Perception Analyzer, used by the network to measure the response of a selected audience to the candidates, isn't — in the words of Daily Show host John Stewart — "a patronizing piece of made-up technology." But the network's use of the technology leaves much to be desired. "It might be revealing, but probably not enough to justify it getting as much screen attention as the debate itself," said University of Virginia psychologist Brian Nosek. At worst, rather than reflecting viewers' reactions to the debates, the technology could impact viewers' perceptions. "Rather than being insulated from the spin, it could serve as a form of spin," said University of Nebraska political scientist Kevin Smith. "I'm sure both presidential candidates would love to have one of their 'persuadables' in that group." The analyzer itself consists of a dial turned from zero to 100 in accordance with a user's impressions. It's typically used to test marketing campaigns, but last Friday night the messages came from Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. The analyzers will again be used tonight and during the remaining presidential debates. In its first presidential deployment, CNN gave analyzers to 32 registered voters, somewhat equally divided between Democrats, Independents and Republicans, who claimed to be undecided. They turned the dials as they watched the debate, and their average impressions showed up as three colorful lines scrolling beneath the candidates and across the TV screens of 7.4 million viewers. The methodology was only thinly described by CNN correspondent Soledad O'Brien, and wasn't apparent to anyone who didn't watch the pre-debate coverage, prompting confusion among viewers. "You see the lines on the bottom of the screen, and if you're the viewer, you don't know what they mean," said David Paull, vice president of MSInteractive, the Perception Analyzer's developer and marketer. He said the company was not responsible for CNN's implementation of the technology. Many experts were only slightly more charitable than Stewart: The Perception Analyzer is a valid way of measuring real-time reactions, but real-time reactions have limited political significance — and CNN's test group was too small to represent anything more than itself. "It's not scientifically generalizable, or representative of populations at large, unless they used some type of representative sampling technique," said John Tedesco, a political communications researcher at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. "With a small group, like 32, you're not going to get representation." Whether real-time impressions actually determine a voter's final perception of a debate, much less their vote, is questionable. Nosek said that judgments tend to be made retroactively, influenced by a few especially powerful moments. Tedesco cited research showing that people's opinions don't solidify until they've heard post-debate media analysis or participated in a focus group. But if real-time impressions do matter, then CNN's viewers' own real-time impressions would have been influenced by 32 dial-turning people. "That real-time feedback has the potential to itself become a persuasion device," said Nosek — and in such a small group, a single person turning their dial all the way up or down can warp the average.
Paull was not concerned about outliers skewing the results, but said that serious statistical research would require a considerably larger test audience. The use of the Perception Analyzer for political news entertainment, he said, involves "different methodology from how researchers and pollsters will use the technology." Image: Eyeliam See Also:
WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 2 Oct 2008 | 7:06 pm Calorie overload sends the brain haywire: studyWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Overeating makes the brain go haywire, prompting a cascade of damage that may cause diabetes, heart disease and other ills, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Oct 2008 | 7:05 pm Mobile, Networked Radiation Detectors Help the Law Find Dirty Bombs
LIVERMORE, California — What do you get when you cross California nuclear chemists with New Jersey policemen? A mobile, and wirelessly networked, radiation detector jammed into the trunk of a Chevy Suburban called the RadTruck. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and their business partners, Textron Defense Systems, demoed the $250,000 trucks yesterday to reporters and revealed they'd been patrolling the streets and sensitive infrastructure of Jersey for the past year.
"It's a spectroscopic system," said Howard Hall, a Livermore nuclear chemist who helped develop the radiation detector. "Most current systems say there's radiation and how much of it there is. This tells you that there's radiation, how much of it and what it is." Another (intentionally) unidentified western state has deployed more than a dozen RadTrucks on its highways as well. While scientists have been able to easily detect radioactive sources for decades (think: the Geiger Counter), Livermore's adaptable radiation area monitor allows your average cop to tell the difference between Cesium 137, a dangerous possible component of a "dirty bomb," and pedestrian radioactive sources like the potassium in your bananas or kitty litter. Each radioactive element has a specific energy signature that scientists can use to tell scary sources of radiation — like plutonium, used to build nuclear bombs — from the mundane sources used in medical procedures and regular products. "Now, cargo containers of toilets can set off alarms," Hall said. The radiation detector in the RadTrucks can use a large crystal of sodium iodide to detect gamma rays and a tube of a special helium gas isotope to detect neutrons. Monitoring radioactive sources at high speeds requires fast data processing, and indeed, Dave Trombino, a nuclear engineer at LLNL, described the real technological breakthrough of the system as lying more in its code than its chemistry. "The technological breakthrough of this system is buried in the software, which controls the data collection and analysis," said Trombino, in a release to reporters. The company that's licensed the LLNL system is attempting to turn the radiation detector into a node on the law enforcement network. The detectors in the RadTrucks can be configured to send text messages to police officers and can communicate via any wireless network from standard WiFi to military channels to cell phone networks. "Give me a USB cable, laptop and detector and I can set this up anywhere," said Brian Adlawan, program director for detection systems at Textron Defense Systems. Questioned about security for the networked system, Adlawan said that standard precautions were taken and that there are decided cost advantages to using commercial technologies instead of military or proprietary protocols. "You've got to secure your network," he said. "But taking advantage of that TCP network lets you do it for a fraction of the cost." Image: Jon Snyder/Wired.com. 1. The trunk of the RAD system. 2. Howard Hall of LLNL. WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and webpage; Wired Science on Facebook. Source: Wired: Wired Science | 2 Oct 2008 | 6:49 pm Radiation shut down EU test satellite for two weeks: ESA (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 2 Oct 2008 | 6:34 pm Insecure Minds Wired for Pattern-FindingWhen people lack control of a situation, they see patterns where none exist.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 2 Oct 2008 | 6:20 pm Double win for Britain at the Ig NobelsIt's that time of year again, when scientists around the world wait nervously to hear who has joined that elite list of winners of the most prestigious prize in the business. But enough of the real Nobel prizes. They can wait until next week.Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 2 Oct 2008 | 6:14 pm Scientists close to cracking wheat's genetic codeLONDON (Reuters) - Scientists believe they have found a way to map the hugely complex genetic code of wheat, the staple food for 35 percent of the world's population.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Oct 2008 | 6:07 pm Dark matter and nanotech may vie for Nobel prizesLONDON (Reuters) - A scientist who helped prove the existence of dark matter and a researcher who used the power of jellyfish to glow green in experiments may win Nobel prizes, Thomson Reuters said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Oct 2008 | 5:09 pm Study pushes back origin of AIDS pandemicCHICAGO (Reuters) - The deadly AIDS virus first began spreading among humans at the turn of the 20th century in sub-Saharan Africa, just as modern cities were emerging in the region, U.S. researchers said Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 2 Oct 2008 | 4:47 pm GPS 'Spoofing' Could Threaten National SecurityA fake transmitter exposes a weakness in our growing GPS dependency.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 2 Oct 2008 | 3:40 pm Mercury Gets Second MESSENGER FlybyMESSENGER gets a second shot at the solar system's smallest planet.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 2 Oct 2008 | 2:30 pm Tiny Plastic Bits Pose Marine HazardMarine life is increasingly threatened by the accumulation of so-called microplastics.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 2 Oct 2008 | 1:50 pm
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