|
|
|
|
Imitation Promotes Social Bonding In PrimatesImitation, the old saying goes, is the sincerest form of flattery. It also appears to be an ancient interpersonal mechanism that promotes social bonding and, presumably, sets the stage for relative strangers to coalesce into groups of friends, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Biologists ID Molecular Basis Of High-altitude Adaptation In MiceA group of scientists have discovered the specific mutations involved in evolutionary adaptation to different environments.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Smile As You Read This: Language That Puts You In Touch With Your Bodily FeelingsLouis Armstrong sang, "When you're smilin', the whole world smiles with you." Romantics everywhere may be surprised to learn that psychological research has proven this sentiment to be true -- merely seeing a smile (or a frown, for that matter) will activate the muscles in our face that make that expression, even if we are unaware of it. Now, according to a new study, simply reading emotion verbs may also have the same effect.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm MRI May Cause More Harm Than Good In Newly Diagnosed Early Breast CancerA new review says using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before surgery to assess the extent of early breast cancer has not been shown to improve surgical planning, reduce follow-up surgery, or reduce the risk of local recurrences.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation: Passive Oxygen Flow Better Than Assisted VentilationArizona researchers compared the survival rates in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients treated with positive-pressure ventilation (bag-valve mask) vs. passive oxygen flow. Survival was higher (38.2 percent) with passive oxygen flow than with assisted ventilation (25.8 percent). This study reinforces the notion that survival of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest might have more to do with circulating the blood through uninterrupted chest compressions than with ventilation.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Graphene Has High Current Capacity, Thermal ConductivityRecent research into the properties of graphene nanoribbons provides two new reasons for using the material as interconnects in future computer chips. In widths as narrow as 16 nanometers, graphene has a current carrying capacity approximately a thousand times greater than copper -- while providing improved thermal conductivity.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Finding May Explain Anti-cancer Activity Of Thiazole AntibioticsResearchers have discovered how some recently approved drugs act against cancer cells. The finding may lead to a more effectively targeted anti-cancer strategy.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Chemists Discover Twisted Molecules That Pick Their TargetsChemists have discovered how to make molecules with a twist -- the molecules fold in to twisted helical shapes that can accelerate selected chemical reactions. The research could yield valuable methods for making pharmaceuticals and other chemicals that require precise assembly of complex structures.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Bypassing Bypass Surgery: New Blood Vessels Grown To Combat Heart DiseaseAlthough open-heart surgery is a frequent treatment for heart disease, it remains extremely dangerous. Now groundbreaking research has shown the potential for an injected protein to regrow blood vessels in the human heart -- eliminating the need for risky surgery altogether.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Antarctic Glacier Thinning At Alarming RateThe thinning of a gigantic glacier in Antarctica is accelerating, scientists report. The Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica, which is around twice the size of Scotland, is losing ice four times as fast as it was a decade years ago. The research also reveals that ice thinning is now occurring much further inland.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 9:00 am Families mourn hundreds of Taiwan typhoon victims (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 4:06 am The Nation's Weather (AP)AP - Scattered thunderstorms were forecast to pop up over the Plains on Saturday as a cold front moves through the region.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 2:45 am China to start cutting carbon emissions in 2050: FT (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:49 am Ancient toolmakers discovered fire treatment (AP)AP - Maybe it was an accident or perhaps an ancient experiment. Many thousands of years ago, early humans somehow figured out they could make better stone tools by treating the rocks with fire. Evidence of that, dating 72,000 years ago, has been found on the southeastern tip of Africa, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:35 am Scientists find rare gene behind short sleepers (AP)AP - Scientists have discovered a gene that helps a mother and daughter stay alert on about six hours sleep a night, two hours less than the rest of their family needs.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:33 am China fires nuclear power head after investigation (AP)AP - The Chinese government fired the head of its nuclear power program after launching an investigation into allegations of corruption, state media said.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Aug 2009 | 12:09 am NASA Completes First Test Rocket to Replace Shuttle (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - NASA has finished building the first of its new Ares I rockets slated to replace the aging space shuttle fleet and return astronauts to the moon - a gleaming white booster due to blast off this fall.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Aug 2009 | 5:00 pm Send ET a Text Message From Earth (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - Here's a truly long-distance message...one aimed more than 20 light-years away.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Aug 2009 | 4:30 pm SLIDE SHOW: This Week's Top StoriesTake a look at the past week's top stories in the Flashback Slide Show.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Aug 2009 | 4:15 pm NASA Looks to Fly CommercialNASA looks to the private sector for rides to the International Space Station.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Aug 2009 | 3:00 pm Science NationScience for the People: Surprising discoveries and fascinating researchers.Source: Livescience.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:57 pm Green GasolineResearchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources, such as switch grass and poplar trees.Source: Livescience.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:45 pm NASA Drops Probes Into Volatile Volcano (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - High-tech sensor pods were recently air lifted into the mouth of a volcano to monitor hot spots and provide early warning if the peak starts to blow.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:17 pm NASA Drops Probes Into Volatile VolcanoHigh-tech sensor pods were air lifted into the mouth of a volcano to monitor hot spots and provide early warning if the peak is about to blow.Source: Livescience.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 2:01 pm How to Maneuver in a Space Suit Using the ‘Apollo Number’
Next time you’re stuck on the moon and running out of oxygen, you’d better run, not walk, back to your lunar module — especially if you’re wearing a space suit. Scientists say those giant, bulky suits actually make running easier and walking more difficult on the moon. By combing through video and audio recordings from Apollo moonwalks, researchers have devised a mathematical method to explain how space suits affected lunar gait during the Apollo missions, and how future space suits might change the way we get around on Mars. “Space suits are effectively reducing the gravity level by supporting part of the weight of everything that’s being transported,” said space physiology researcher Christopher Carr of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who co-authored the paper published Wednesday in the journal PLoS ONE. “When you’re out there, it’s like wearing a backpack with a bunch of helium balloons attached to it.” People choose whether to walk or run at a certain speed based on what’s more efficient, Carr said. Without a space suit, this so-called “walk-run transition” can be calculated using a mathematical model based on gravity, leg length and velocity. But inside an Apollo space suit, the researchers found that the model doesn’t hold up. “Being in a space suit is like being inside a balloon,” Carr said. “When you take a balloon and bend it, it wants to spring back into its original state.” That springiness comes from the pressurized breathing gases inside the suit, which make the garments quite stiff but also help support their weight. The bounce helps astronauts bound from leg to leg as they run, and it encourages a third kind of gait called loping, which looks like a modified version of skipping.
Without extra support from the gas-filled suit, combined with the moon’s lower gravity, astronauts could never have maneuvered in their 220-pound exoskeletons. But the self-supporting suits have disadvantages as well: While running in a suit is easier, it’s a lot harder to walk or bend over to pick things up, as shown in the video of astronaut Charles Duke below. The moon’s low gravity already makes astronauts start running at a lower speed than they would on Earth, but space suits tip the balance even further. “We see astronauts in Apollo videos running or loping around at very low speeds,” Carr said. Using data collected from the lunar missions, the researchers calculated a new equation to describe how space suits change gait dynamics on the moon, called the Apollo Number. The same equation could be used to come up with a “Mars Number,” which could help NASA design space suits for optimal locomotion on the red planet. Because gravity on Mars is more than twice that on the moon, Carr said the run-walk transition could be quite different. “When we get to Mars, we don’t know exactly which gaits we’d use,” he said. “Where we would run on the moon, we might be able to walk on Mars.” But based on their calculations, the researchers say space suits will have to get a lot lighter before they could be practical on Mars. “For sure, we need to have a lower mass suit,” Carr said, “to achieve self-support.” One possibility would be to use a nylon-spandex suit that applies pressure, he said, instead of filling the suits with a pressurized bag of gas. Although there are improvements to be made, Carr said he has tremendous respect for the designers who created the Apollo suits. “It’s 1960s technology, but there has really been a ton of detailed design work that’s gone into the the space suits to make them comfortable,” he said. “This is literally a small spacecraft.” Image: Eugene Cernan during Apollo 17. NASA/Harrison Schmitt. Equation: Self-support of a space suit depends on the pressure of the suit, its cross-sectional area and tension in the suit’s materials/PLos ONE. Video: Self-support of the Apollo space suits, as demonstrated by Charles Duke during the Apollo 16 mission. He drops a hammer on the lunar surface and must jump repeatedly to bend the knee joint of his suit and pick it up/PLoS ONE. See Also:
Follow us on Twitter @wiredscience, and on Facebook.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:58 pm Mathematical Model for Surviving a Zombie Attack
It is possible to successfully fend off a zombie attack, according to Canadian mathematicians. The key is to “hit hard and hit often.”
Oh yes, somebody actually did a study on mathematics of a hypothetical zombie attack, and published it in a book on infectious disease. So, while we still don’t know what to do if a deadly asteroid takes aim at Earth, an unlikely but technically possible situation, we now know what to do in case of a zombie attack. “An outbreak of zombies is likely to be disastrous, unless extremely aggressive tactics are employed against the undead,” the authors wrote. “It is imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly, or else we are all in a great deal of trouble.” Having spent a fair amount of time mixing science with beer in the wee hours while trying to finish a thesis, I’m guessing that at some point, a graduate student who had spent far too many hours tweaking a mathematical model of infectious disease in the basement of a Canadian university said something like this: “What would happen if we made it so they could come back to life?” This was followed by the other math students in the basement gathering around the computer, happily creating a plausible model for the outbreak of infectious zombie disease, and then brainstorming on how to make their model relevant. “Clearly, this is an unlikely scenario if taken literally,” they wrote. “But possible real-life applications may include allegiance to political parties, or diseases with a dormant infection.” Right.
Anyway, the model focuses on modern zombies, which are “very different from the voodoo and the folklore zombies.” It takes into account the possibility of quarantine (could lead to eradication, but unlikely to happen) and treatment (some humans survive, but they still must coexist with zombies), but shows that there is only one strategy likely to succeed: “impulsive eradication.” “Only sufficiently frequent attacks, with increasing force, will result in eradication, assuming the available resources can be mustered in time,” they concluded. And if we don’t act fast enough? “If the timescale of the outbreak increases, then the result is the doomsday scenario: an outbreak of zombies will result in the collapse of civilization, with every human infected, or dead,” they wrote. “This is because human births and deaths will provide the undead with a limitless supply of new bodies to infect, resurrect and convert.”
Maybe being a mathematician wouldn’t be so bad, after all. Citation: “When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection,” [pdf] by Philip Munz, Ioan Hudea, Joe Imad and Robert J, Smith. In “Infectious Disease Modelling Research Progress,” eds. J.M. Tchuenche and C. Chiyaka, Nova Science Publishers, Inc. pp. 133-150, 2009. Image: Flickr/Mark Lobo Photography
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:34 pm Space review panel says moon, Mars out of reachCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 will not happen without a big boost in NASA's budget, leaving only the International Space Station as a viable target for the country's human space program, according to a presidential review panel.Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:27 pm Number of active rigs up by 2 (AP)AP - The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States went up by two this week to 968.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Aug 2009 | 1:04 pm Drug compound kills breast cancer stem cellsCHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have discovered a compound that can kill breast cancer stem cells, a kind of master cancer cell that resists conventional treatment and may explain why many cancers grow back, they reported on Thursday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Aug 2009 | 12:54 pm SLIDE SHOW: How Stars DieNASA's Stefan Immler talks about how star deaths both destroy and help create life.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Aug 2009 | 11:53 am WATCH: Space Tourism FearsFind out the biggest fears of one space tourist as he embarks on a sub-orbital flight.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Aug 2009 | 11:25 am Air Pollution Travels, Kills Thousands AnnuallyAir pollution wafting in from overseas kills 6,600 people in North America every year.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Aug 2009 | 10:25 am Long-Sought Remnants of Massive Stars FoundAstronomers identify planetary nebulas of massive dead stars.Source: Livescience.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 9:42 am Wobbling Earth Triggers Climate ChangeWobbles in the Earth's tilt caused warming episodes in between prehistoric ice ages.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Aug 2009 | 9:05 am From the NASA Archive: Early Apollo Lander Model
The engineers were particularly concerned with the unknown nature of the moon’s surface, and worried about such things as how engine exhaust would affect the dust layer. Complicating matters, scientists disagreed about probable surface characteristics, including the depth of the dust layer. The 1961 sketch below shows an artist’s concept of a smaller lander that would carry just one man on top of the vehicle. This “shoestring” vehicle could spend two to four hours on the moon. NASA also designed an “economy” model that could carry two men and stay on the surface for 24 hours and a “plush” module that would allow a week-long visit.
Images: NASA See Also:
Follow us on Twitter @betsymason and @wiredscience, and on Facebook.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 14 Aug 2009 | 9:02 am US probe captures Saturn equinoxRaw images of the moment Saturn reached its equinox have been beamed back to Earth by Nasa's Cassini spacecraft.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Aug 2009 | 8:10 am Robotic Systems Help People with DisabilitiesRobotic mobility and manipulation devices are being crated to assist people with disabilitiesSource: Livescience.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 7:38 am Facebook Can Incite JealousyFacebook users have access to lots of information on romantic partners that can cause jealousy.Source: Livescience.com | 14 Aug 2009 | 7:21 am Gene Allows People to Get Less SleepA newly found gene allows people to sleep less each night with no ill effects.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Aug 2009 | 7:05 am Pearl-Producing Proteins UncoveredThe discovery of two proteins could allow for the production of larger pearls in less time.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Aug 2009 | 6:05 am Hans Christian Ørsted: Thanks for all the gedankenexperimentenThe 19th century Danish scientist, whose birthday we celebrate today, taught us a valuable lesson: you don't need a massive budget to do great science Today we're celebrating the birthday of Hans Christian Ørsted, who as I'm sure you know is principally remembered for discovering that electric currents create a magnetic field. What you may not know is that the 19th century Danish physicist and chemist was also the first to describe and put a name to a scientific technique that requires no special equipment, hazardous chemicals or even a laboratory. Anybody can try. It won't cost you a penny and you needn't move from your armchair. You can even do it in bed. Ørsted called it a "gedankenexperiment", which literally means "experiment conducted in the thoughts". Of course Ørsted didn't invent the thought experiment, which had been deployed by philosophers since the Ancient Greeks and was put to good use by Galileo. But Ørsted put the technique into words and legitimised a whole new avenue of scientific endeavour, famously explored by the 16-year-old Albert Einstein when he chased a beam of light and Erwin Schrödinger when he imprisoned a cat in a box and declared that it was simultaneously alive and dead. In the midst of a global recession with research budgets under pressure and the likelihood of further human space exploration in our lifetime fading fast, perhaps it's time to dim the lights, close our eyes and just think: what if? Happy Birthday Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851). guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Aug 2009 | 6:03 am Facial expressions 'not global'A new study suggests that people from different cultures might read facial expressions differently.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Aug 2009 | 5:18 am But WHY?Your answers to 10 tricky questions posed by childrenSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Aug 2009 | 5:09 am Russia could scrap troubled sea missile: reportMOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia may halt the development of its accident-prone Bulava sea-based nuclear missiles and opt for another system if future tests fail to work successfully, Interfax reported Friday, quoting industry sources.Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Aug 2009 | 4:43 am Stowaway mosquitoes threaten Galapagos wildlifeLONDON (Reuters) - The unique wildlife of the Galapagos Islands is under threat from disease-carrying mosquitoes arriving on board growing numbers of aircraft and tourist boats, researchers said on Wednesday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Aug 2009 | 4:28 am Bird watcher makes meal of midgesA woman is asking people to send her expired midges so she can add them to food balls for wild birds.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Aug 2009 | 4:28 am Return to the moon in doubtSpace experts tell Obama that Nasa will have to scrap lunar and Mars missions without big increase in budget Nasa's plans to land astronauts back on the moon by 2020 are about to disappear into a giant black hole, according to a panel of space experts appointed by Barack Obama. Less than a month after the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's first lunar landing, the group will tell White House advisers today that the space agency simply does not have enough money to do it again. Without a significant increase in funding – unlikely with the federal deficit approaching $1.3tn – Nasa will almost certainly have to scrap the next-generation Ares I rocket that has already cost more than $9bn to develop. The longer-term part of the agency's $81bn Constellation project – to land humans on Mars by the middle of the century, touted by George Bush in his 2004 vision for space exploration – will remain in the realms of science fiction, at least for now. "This is a big surprise," said Edward Ellegood, a space policy analyst at Florida's Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "Up until this point Nasa, privately at least, was confident that Constellation was a little behind schedule but on track. Now this changes everything. That it no longer fits within the budget is disturbing." The pessimistic outlook for America's manned spaceflight programme comes from a panel of experts and former astronauts led by the retired Lockheed Martin chairman Norman Augustine and appointed by Obama to analyse Nasa's spending and operations. The group has come up with broad-based scenarios for the future direction of the agency in a report to be published next week and outlined to presidential staff at a briefing in Washington today. Among the options are to extend the working life of the ageing space shuttle fleet beyond next year's scheduled retirement until 2015, while developing a cheaper transport to the moon; pressing ahead with Constellation as quickly as existing funding allows; or creating a new, larger rocket that would allow exploration of the solar system while bypassing the moon. None of the options meet Nasa's stated goal of returning to the moon by the end of the next decade, or even leaving lower Earth orbit for at least another two decades, because the space agencies existing annual budget of about $18bn is spread too thinly, the panel says. Nasa is committed to seven final shuttle missions by next summer, maintaining the international space station until at least 2016, developing Ares and myriad unmanned scientific projects. "It will be difficult with the current budget to do anything that's terribly inspiring in the human spaceflight area," Augustine said. Nasa's budgetary woes are also hampering efforts to keep an eye on asteroids that might travel too close to Earth. The agency needs about $300m to expand a network of telescopes and meet the government's target of identifying, by 2020, at least 90% of the giant space rocks that pose a threat to Earth. Congress has not come up with the money and is unlikely to, according to the National Academy of Science. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Aug 2009 | 3:46 am The power of prayerI feel no closer to JC after six weeks on this course, as the value of prayer dominates the group's thoughts Today, no facts, no hearsay, no tenacious gripping of far-from-convincing evidence, and frankly, not much evangelical Christianity. This is a huge relief. The Alpha course this week takes us far from the crutch of historicity and into the realm of prayer. We begin, as we do each week, with a talk from Toby, and as ever it is engaging stuff. We discuss the meaning of words such as "amen" and the use of the Aramaic word that Jesus uses to describe God: "abba". It means "daddy" or "papa", and we talk about how this childlike language reflects the relationship we can have with God. I wonder what Freud would make of that. We break down the Lord's prayer line by line. This is a perplexing exercise. Like every person above a certain age who went to a Christian-ish school, I can vomit forth the Lord's prayer quicker than Usain Bolt can do his thing. Having regurgitated it pretty much every school day from the age of five, I'm not sure I have ever considered what any of the words mean. This, yet again, galvanises my emerging belief that Christianity relies heavily on being culturally ingrained, but only superficially analysed by the flock. The Alpha course likes to state that many more people pray than are Christians. There is a forceful emphasis on the notion that Christianity is a "relationship with God". But I don't know what that means. Prayer, Toby says, coupled with reading the Bible, is the best way to nurture this relationship. He tells us that we are "hardwired for prayer". Now, there certainly is plenty of scientific research into the neuroscience of religiosity, but it is a murky, new and difficult field. And I'll be damned to fiery Hades if I'm going to accept this assertion from a vicar, albeit an extremely bright one. The press, understandably, love the science of religious belief, and love to repeat the meme that we are "hardwired for religion". My problem with this is that I most certainly am not. The discussion moves away from what prayer means in religious terms, and into how it actually works. Toby tells us of William Temple, the archbishop of Canterbury during the second world war, who once said, "When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't pray, they don't." Temple's maxim, as any first-year psychology undergraduate knows, is willing submission to the quintessentially human characteristic known as "confirmation bias". Simply, we tend to notice things that affirm our prejudices and tend to ignore or forget those that don't. Everyone does it, and astrologers have wrested a multibillion-pound business out of this human foible. When we split into groups, discussion about this phenomenon dominates, as it seemed rude to simply interrupt Toby when he was talking and tell him that his answered prayers were simply a psychological quirk. And besides, very little I could say or show would alter his faith that his prayers are sometimes answered. It's all too easy to write off prayer as simply pointlessly talking at ghosts. Certainly, ignoring well-understood phenomena such as confirmation bias and blindly believing that prayer results in increased coincidence is silly. But the truth is that I, and I guess most people, don't spend nearly enough time simply being quiet and still and thinking in peace. Prayer has no external effect, just like blowing candles on your birthday cake doesn't. But that doesn't mean there is no value in it. The humility of asking for help is a thing to be cherished, even if that is simply giving yourself the space to work things out for yourself. The flipside to this is when just listening to the thoughts in your head results in justification for hideous acts. So when Lucinda, an almost-Christian from an evangelical family, specifically raises this week's titular question, Toby's answer is a sentiment that I like, but one that is rare in religion: "I don't know. You have to work it out for yourself." I'm not feeling any closer to JC after six weeks on this course, and I'm not getting sucked in. I don't think anyone is, yet. The numbers have dwindled to six after six weeks. When I check against the official Alpha doctrine, and compare our discussions to the books and DVDs that are part of the curriculum, but which we don't use, ours are far more freeform and interesting. But I felt very positive about this session. There was none of the futile grasping at unexceptional evidence for extraordinary claims. Instead there was a sense of how being calm and still can help you sort out your thoughts. This moment was lost, like tears in rain, when a smelly drunk burst into the church and growled at us for not being more welcoming to him. Next week, Toby notes, we'll lock the door. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Aug 2009 | 3:30 am
|
How fast do we need to deal with the outbreak? Here’s the equation they used, where S = susceptibles, Z = zombies and R = removed. If an infection breaks out in a city of 500,000 people, the zombies will outnumber the susceptibles in about three days.
