New Evidence That Humans Make Aspirin's Active Principle -- Salicylic Acid

Scientists are reporting evidence that humans can make their own salicylic acid -- the material formed when aspirin breaks down in the body. Salicylic acid, which is responsible for aspirin's renowned effects in relieving pain and inflammation, may be the first in a new class of bioregulators, according to a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Dec 2008 | 1:00 am

Visual Areas Of Brain Respond More To Valuable Objects, Brain-imaging Shows

Dollar signs for eyes -- cartoonists have been drawing them for years, and the artists, while whimsical, may have been onto something. According to new research, areas of the brain responsible for vision respond more strongly to objects of value.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Dec 2008 | 1:00 am

Quiet Bison Sire More Calves Than Louder Rivals

During bison mating season, the quietest bulls score the most mates and sire the most offspring while studs with the loudest bellows see the least action, according to a surprising new study. The researchers also found that the volume of a bull's bellow was not related to its weight or age.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Dec 2008 | 1:00 am

Published Reports Inaccurate Concerning Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy, Experts Warn

A national alcohol research group is concerned that the media's misinterpretation of a recent British research study could encourage pregnant women to be more at ease with temperate alcohol consumption.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Dec 2008 | 1:00 am

Hormones Increase Frequency Of Inherited Form Of Migraine In Women

Familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) is an inherited form of severe migraine that is accompanied by visual disturbances known as aura. As with other types of migraine, it affects women more frequently than men. New research in mice has now provided insight into events in the brain that lead to FHM and demonstrated that hormones produced by the ovaries increase susceptibility to FHM.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Dec 2008 | 1:00 am

Enhancing Solar Cells With Nanoparticles

Deriving plentiful electricity from sunlight at a modest cost is a challenge with immense implications for energy, technology and climate policy. A new article describes a relatively new approach to solar cells: lacing them with nanoscopic metal particles. The method helps solar cells harvest light more efficiently.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 27 Dec 2008 | 1:00 am

Protein Shown To Be Major Component Of Synapse Construction

Nitric oxide gets neurons together. And it seems to do it backward. New research suggests that a protein called PSD-95 prompts nitric oxide release from postsynaptic dendritic spines, prompting nearby presynaptic axons to lock on, and develop new synapses.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 26 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm

Immune Cells Contribute To Development Of Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that impairs movement, balance, speech, and other functions. Although immune cells accumulate in the brain of individuals with Parkinson's disease, these cells were not thought to have a role in the development of disease. However, new research has now shown that immune cells known as CD4+ T cells make a significant contribution to the development of disease in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 26 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm

Shape Changes In Aroma-producing Molecules Determine The Fragrances We Detect

Shakespeare wrote "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." But would it if the molecules that generate its fragrance were to change their shape?
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 26 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm

Genetic Diseases More Complicated: Mechanism Underlying Alternative Splicing Of Premessenger RNA Into Messenger RNA Discovered

A professor of medicine and biochemistry has discovered an unexpected mechanism governing alternative splicing. The new mechanism suggests that curing the more than half of genetic diseases that are caused by mutations in the genetic code that in turn create mistakes in alternative splicing may be considerably more complicated than researchers have previously assumed.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 26 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm

Why Our Outlook for 2009 Is Sunny

It's been a hard year, a scary year, but we'll all be OK, won’t we?
Source: Livescience.com | 26 Dec 2008 | 2:21 pm

Prayers and tears as Asia marks tsunami anniversary (AFP)

AFP - Bereaved families across Asia wept and prayed on Friday as they marked four years since a huge tsunami devastated the shores of the Indian Ocean in one of the worst ever natural disasters.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 26 Dec 2008 | 12:33 pm

SNP calls for spaceport in Moray

The Scottish National Party is calling for an RAF airbase in Moray to become the UK's first commercial spaceport.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 26 Dec 2008 | 9:20 am

Hobbyists are trying genetic engineering at home (AP)

AP - The Apple computer was invented in a garage. Same with the Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working at home with the basic building blocks of life itself.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 26 Dec 2008 | 2:38 am

Russia launches three new navigation satellites: report (AFP)

AFP - A Russian Proton-M rocket was launched into space Thursday with three new satellites for Moscow's GLONASS navigation system, aimed at competing with US and European systems, a report said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 25 Dec 2008 | 9:12 pm

Michele Hanson: Quantum physics and me

Quantum physics is a bit of a black hole to me. You jump in and where do you get? Nowhere. But I am not alone. Not even the quantum physicists seem to get anywhere particular. Apparently they can't see what the quanta (discrete unit quantities of energy) are doing, because as soon as you look at them they stop doing what they normally do, and if you look at them while they're doing it, you can't see what they are, so that seems like a bit of a non-starter to me. Schroëdinger was sorry he'd ever got involved with it in the first place. So how am I meant to understand quantum physics theories, if none of them are complete because the physicists haven't worked out what reality is, because they haven't worked out what the measuring device is, which measures the reality?

I'm not sure that the physicists are choosing their projects wisely. Perhaps they're aiming a little too high – trying to find out when the universe splits; trying to divide infinity into infinity; trying to observe particles in waves when they know they can't because the particles can be in two places at once, jump up and down and change into something else when you're not looking at them. It reminds me of an annoying boy I used to know at art school who would keep asking me how I knew the school was still there when I went home. Then he jumped out of a second floor window to give us a fright, because he knew there was a lorry underneath it; then he married a fundamentalist Catholic, which made me wonder about the calibre of people who ask that type of question.

I wonder whether there weren't better things physicists could have been doing over the last century. Just look where their work has got them. Niels Bohr, whose research led to quantum mechanics theories, went off to work on the Manhattan Project, and we all know where that got us. Thank you Oppenheimer, Bohr et al for the atom bomb.

I tell my friend Clayden that in my opinion, quantum physics is a bit of a waste of time, or a lot of a waste of time, whatever time is. He has a special electronic clock, so his time is more right than my time.

"You are an arrogant Luddite," says Clayden in a temper, describing the history, purpose and uses of physics, and then the business with the quanta and waves, which seems to be the main stumbling block in quantum physics, and which I can't get my fluffy little head around. "They came up with solutions based on a mathematical analysis," says he, "but the mathematics defied common sense. Their predictions worked out, they got a result, but they couldn't work out how they worked."

Exactly. How can you not know how something worked if you've just worked out how it worked, and made it work?

Clear as mud. So I asked another friend out with her dog. Her knowledge of plain, never mind quantum, physics was fairly basic. "Apples fall on your head," she said. "Heat rises except in my oven, and E = mc²."

I can manage that, except for the last equation. Let's not go there.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 25 Dec 2008 | 7:00 pm

Tenn. Sludge Spill Challenges 'Clean Coal' Future

A massive spill at a Tenn. power plant illustrates the risks of clean coal tech.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 25 Dec 2008 | 3:13 pm