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Fabled 'Vegetable Lamb' Plant Contains Potential Treatment For OsteoporosisThe "vegetable lamb" plant -- once believed to bear fruit that ripened into a living baby sheep -- produces substances that show promise in laboratory experiments as new treatments for osteoporosis, the bone-thinning disease.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm Gene Linked With Human Kidney AgingA gene has been associated with human kidney aging, according to researchers. Their approach, which combines sequential transcriptional profiling and eQTL mapping, can be applied to any phenotype of interest to help find other genetic associations.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm Being A Standout Has Its Benefits, Study ShowsStanding out in a crowd is better than blending in, at least if you're a paper wasp in a colony where fights between nest-mates determine social status.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm Increasing Severity Of Bicycle Injuries Leads To Concerns About Cycling InfrastructureRecord-high gasoline prices, the slowdown in the economy, and increasing environmental sensitivity are leading more people to bike to work or for play. But an adequate infrastructure may not be in place to protect cyclists from serious injury according to surgeons who recently presented a new study on the issue.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm Quantum Computer Chips Now One Step Closer To RealityIn the quest for smaller, faster computer chips, researchers are increasingly turning to quantum mechanics -- the exotic physics of the small. The problem: the manufacturing techniques required to make quantum devices have been equally exotic. That is, until now.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm Juggling Enhances Connections In The BrainLearning to juggle leads to changes in the white matter of the brain, a new study has shown. ‘We tend to think of the brain as being static, or even beginning to degenerate, once we reach adulthood,’ says the researcher who led the work. ‘In fact we find the structure of the brain is ripe for change. We’ve shown that it is possible for the brain to condition its own wiring system to operate more efficiently.’Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm Gentle Touch May Aid Multiple Sclerosis PatientsPhysical therapists studying persons with multiple sclerosis found that excessive force often used for gripping can be eased by gently touching the hand or arm in use, raising the possibility of new therapy approaches.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am Seeing Blue: Fish Vision Discovery Makes Waves In Evolutionary BiologyResearchers have identified the first fish known to have switched from ultraviolet vision to violet vision, or the ability to see blue light. The discovery is also the first example of an animal deleting a molecule to change its visual spectrum. The findings on scabbardfish link molecular evolution to functional changes and the possible environmental factors driving them.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am Bioengineering Of Nerve-muscle Connection Could Improve Hand Use For Wounded SoldiersProsthetic hand devices used by wounded soldiers have limited motor control and no sensory feedback. But a bioengineered interface, made of muscle cells and a nano-sized polymer, could go a long way in creating prostheses that move like a normal hand. Animal studies show the interface may possibly restore a sense of touch.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am Link Between Genetic Defect And Brain Changes In Schizophrenia DemonstratedResearchers have found that the 22q11 gene deletion -- a mutation that confers the highest known genetic risk for schizophrenia -- is associated with changes in the development of the brain that ultimately affect how its circuit elements are assembled.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am The nation's weather (AP)AP - A developing low pressure trough will sweep the eastern third of the U.S. and provide an early glimpse of wintry weather.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 3:58 am Biggest economies try again to strike climate deal (AP)AP - The world's 17 biggest and most polluting nations meet in London on Sunday in an attempt to break a deadlock on financing efforts to contain climate change and reducing harmful gases causing global warming.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 3:33 am Maldives cabinet makes a splashMaldives government ministers hold an underwater cabinet meeting to highlight the effects of global warming.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Oct 2009 | 3:13 am 'Toxic waste' report gag liftedLawyers for oil trading firm Trafigura end attempts to keep secret a report about toxic waste dumping in the Ivory Coast.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 17 Oct 2009 | 3:10 am Maldives government dives for climate change (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 2:59 am Maldives holds first underwater cabinet meeting (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 2:38 am EU officials warn of disappearing cod (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 17 Oct 2009 | 1:45 am Black storks downThe battle to end illegal bird hunting in EuropeSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Oct 2009 | 10:27 pm 25 Amazing Ancient BeastsArtist renderings of extinct creatures that have been discovered through their fossils.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Oct 2009 | 7:18 pm EPA plans to veto surface mining permit in W.Va. (AP)AP - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it planned to use its authority for the first time to revoke a previously issued permit for a West Virginia surface mine.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Oct 2009 | 6:50 pm WATCH: Freemason Symbols and SecretsAre Freemasons as mysterious as some popular culture depictions would have us believe?Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2009 | 5:35 pm BLOG: Blue Shark Nursery Found Near BrazilSmall, juvenile blue sharks were discovered in the Southwest Atlantic near Brazil.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2009 | 4:10 pm SLIDE SHOW: The Week's Top StoriesTake a look at the past week's top news in the Flashback Slide Show.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2009 | 3:35 pm NASA flies over Antarctica to measure icemelt (AP)AP - Hoping to better understand how a melting Antarctica could swamp the planet, a NASA plane outfitted with lasers and ground-penetrating radar made its first flight over the icy continent on Friday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Oct 2009 | 1:56 pm NASA Finally Spots Plume from Moon Impact (SPACE.com)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Oct 2009 | 1:45 pm Planet PowerSustainable energy technologies: How they work and where they come from.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Oct 2009 | 1:13 pm Chupacabra? Creationist Museum Displays Mystery Beast (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - Last week a most unusual animal made its world premiere in an equally strange museum in the small town of Phoenix, New York.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Oct 2009 | 1:09 pm Small Asteroid to Fly Past Earth TonightA small asteroid will miss Earth but will pass inside the moon's orbit.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Oct 2009 | 12:49 pm Hare coursers 'flout Hunting Act'A BBC investigation suggests illegal hare coursing is on the rise despite its ban under the 2004 Hunting Act.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Oct 2009 | 12:39 pm Americans Flunk News QuizAmericans score well below a D grade, at 44 percent, on some current events.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Oct 2009 | 12:20 pm The Electric InterGrid - Why A Smart Power Grid is EssentialAmerica's electric infrastructure is undergoing a massive make-over. To save energy and cut carbon, it must develop Internet-style intelligence. Part 1 of 2Source: Livescience.com | 16 Oct 2009 | 12:03 pm How the Power Grid Gets Smart: The Electric InterGrid Pt.2To create an Internet-style power system, every electric device has to learn when to listen and how to talk to every other device on the grid. Part 2 of 2Source: Livescience.com | 16 Oct 2009 | 12:02 pm Great Science HoaxesTake a look at some of the greatest scientific hoaxes in history.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pm Why Does Soda Taste So Good?Sour-sensing taste buds interact with carbon dioxide to give soda its flavor.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2009 | 11:25 am Missed Kicks Make Brain See Smaller Goal Post
Flubbing a field goal kick doesn’t just bruise your ego — new research shows it may actually change how your brain sees the goal posts. In a study of 23 non-football athletes who each kicked 10 field goals, researchers found that players’ performance directly affected their perception of the size of the goal: After a series of missed kicks, athletes perceived the post to be taller and more narrow than before, while successful kicks made the post appear larger-than-life. Professional athletes have long claimed that their perception changes when they’re playing well — they start hitting baseballs as large as grapefruits, or aiming at golf holes the size of a bucket — but many scientists have been slow to accept that performance can alter visual perception. “The reason why this is so radical is that perception has always been conceived as being all about information received by the eye,” said pychology researcher Jessica Witt of Purdue University, who co-authored the paper published last month in Perception. “In my studies we keep all the optical information constant, so the eye is seeing the exact same info — but it looks different depending on performance.”
According to visual perception researcher Maggie Shiffrar of Rutgers University, who was not involved in the research, Witt’s conclusions are troubling to many scientists because they suggest that computer studies of perception might not be a reflection of reality. “If Witt is right that what we see depends upon what we can do, then it logically follows that many of us have spent our lives studying perception in the WRONG WAY,” Shiffrar wrote in an e-mail. “In the vast majority of studies conducted in my lab, for example, observers view displays on a flat computer screen and make simple, dichotomous judgments about their perceptions of those displays. Thus, subjects in my studies don’t do anything other than push a button. The results of Witt’s studies suggest that the results that I’ve collected and the corresponding theoretical conclusions that I’ve drawn won’t generalize to perception in the real world. In the real world, people look at objects so that they can do something with those objects.” Although many scientists are surprised, Witt says subjective perception is a concept most of us are already familiar with. For example, she said, when running around a track, you may know logically that long, straight stretch is always a constant 100 meters — but by the end of a run, those same 100 meters appear to stretch on forever. Witt and her colleague, graduate student and former football player Travis Dorsch, chose to experiment with field goal kicks because they wanted to study the disconnect between what people think they can do and what they can actually accomplish. “When you watch college and pro football, field goal kicks seem so easy,” Witt said. “But when I went out with Travis to try it myself, it was actually really hard to do.”
The players’ pre-performance estimations didn’t correlate at all with their subsequent success rate. But after 10 field goal attempts, their perceived goal size was highly correlated with peformance. Interestingly, the change in players’ perception didn’t just depend on how many goals they missed — it also mattered how they missed their goals. Folks who failed because they didn’t kick high enough perceived the crossbar to be taller, while those who kicked to the side viewed it as more narrow. Previous studies by Witt and her colleagues have shown that performance can also influence perception among golfers and softball players. But the researchers say this is the first time that particular performance errors have been correlated with specific effects on perception. “One of the things that has been asked of us in our research is, if you’re playing well, do you just see everything as bigger, does the whole world look like it’s expanded?” Witt said. “But this research shows that changes in perception are specific to what you’re acting on.” Next, Witt hopes to look at whether professional athletes can improve their performance by changing their pre-game perceptions. For instance, are golfers who see a larger hole more likely to make the shot? “Currently, we’re testing this using visual illusions in golf that make the hole look bigger or smaller,” Witt said. Image 1: Flickr/sethhenry1. Image 2: Jessica Witt/Purdue University. From “Kicking to bigger uprights: Field goal kicking performance influences perceived size,” Perception, 2009, Vol 38: 1328-1340. See Also:
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Source: Wired: Wired Science | 16 Oct 2009 | 11:20 am Lip Plumper Truly SucksA web site offers a thing called JolieLips Lip Plumping. Don't try this at home.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Oct 2009 | 11:14 am Barking Dogs ExplainedIs a barking dog driving you nuts? There are reasons behind the noise, researchers find.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2009 | 11:10 am Carbon capture plant backed by EUThe European Commission have backed plans for a carbon capture power station in South Yorkshire.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Oct 2009 | 10:47 am Nigeria rebels says 'oil war' resuming (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 16 Oct 2009 | 10:42 am Sea secretsUncovering the remains of an ancient civilisationSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Oct 2009 | 10:38 am Rabbit Droppings Part of Nuclear CleanupRabbits burrowing at nuclear waste sites have carried the contaminants in their digestive tracts.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Oct 2009 | 10:25 am Balloon Boy Saga Offers Lesson in Eyewitness TestimonyLost in all the finger-pointing and confusion: A lying (or mistaken) eyewitness was at the root of the concern.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Oct 2009 | 10:09 am Chupacabra? Creationist Museum Displays Mystery BeastLast week a most unusual animal made its world premiere in an equally strange museum in the small town of Phoenix, New York.Source: Livescience.com | 16 Oct 2009 | 9:32 am Ribbon of Particles Seen at Solar System's EdgeNew all-sky maps reveal an odd ribbon between our solar system and interstellar space.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2009 | 9:10 am Why Eggs Could Be Getting Harder to Peel
Consider the farm-fresh egg, the pristine symbol of the simple days of pre-industrial farming. People love them, but there’s a problem: They seem to be getting harder to peel. And though I’ve messily discovered this on my own, there’s some science to back this idea up. Here in food-crazed San Francisco, fresh eggs are everywhere. After purchasing some of these just-collected treasures for hard boiling, I found it nearly impossible to peel off their shells without pockmarking them. My once-beautiful eggs ended up with more craters than the moon. It couldn’t be my fault, I told myself. I’d been hard-boiling eggs for decades, most intensively during a six-month egg-salad kick in ninth grade. I got my technique down and everything. What happened, then? As an egg ages, it loses some carbon dioxide through tiny pores in the shell, making the egg white more basic. At the same time, it loses moisture, which increases the size of the “air cell” at the bottom of the shell, between the inner and outer membranes. The dynamics of this process are, in the words of a University of California, Davis agriculture publication, “not completely understood,” but the combination of these changes makes an old egg a lot easier to peel than a one that is fresh out of the bird.
“The best guarantee of easy peeling is to use old eggs!” wrote Harold McGee, in his monster 800-page tome, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. “Difficult peeling is characteristic of fresh eggs with a relatively low albumen pH, which somehow causes the albumen to adhere to the inner shell membrane more strongly than it coheres to itself.” The USDA provides a complementary explanation more focused on the air cell, which you can see in the schematic, sitting between the outer and inner shell membranes. “As the contents of the egg contracts and the air cell enlarges, the shell becomes easier to peel,” the USDA Shell Eggs from Farm to Table fact sheet states. “For this reason, older eggs make better candidates for hard cooking,” McGee also suggests an easy cooking chemistry solution. “If you end up with a carton of very fresh eggs and need to cook them right away, you can add a half teaspoon of baking soda to a quart of water to make the cooking water alkaline (though this intensifies the sulfury flavor),” he wrote. While I’ve noticed the Peeling Problem most distinctly with superfresh farm eggs, the eggs you buy at the supermarket could be getting fresher too. Most American eggs are produced and distributed by agribusiness concerns like Cal-Maine and Rose Acre, which each have more than 20 million hens cranking out eggs just for you. Statistics on the time it takes for an egg to go from hen to supermarket have not been calculated, a USDA representative told Wired.com, but there’s some reason to believe that new production techniques could be delivering eggs to markets faster. A 1998 report by the agency found that big consolidated chicken egg facilities, which wash and package the eggs on-site instead of sending them to a separate processing location, could reduce the time from farm to store from 100 hours to 53 hours. And, according to Cal-Maine’s SEC filings, the industry continues to centralize, squeezing out the old facilities in favor of the new ones. Eggs tend to sit on the retail shelf longer than they spend in processing and distribution, so the few extra days of freshness might not make the eggs as dramatically hard to peel as farm eggs. But if you have any trouble, consider another technofix: automatic Eggstractor egg peeler, anyone? Image: 1) YoAmes/Flickr. 2) University of California, Davis. See Also:
WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Google Reader feed, and green tech history research site; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 16 Oct 2009 | 8:39 am Bad memories written with lasersScientists use lasers to write bad memories onto the brains of flies, revealing some of the brain circuitry responsible for learning.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Oct 2009 | 8:05 am LHC gets colder than deep spaceThe Large Hadron Collider experiment has reached its operating temperature, colder even than deep space.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Oct 2009 | 7:46 am Future presentWhy teleportation and time travel are real... perhapsSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Oct 2009 | 7:18 am Hurricane History Recorded in Earth's NoiseSeismic noise could shed light on whether warming has caused an uptick in hurricanes.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2009 | 7:10 am Barnacles' sticky secret revealedResearchers discover that supremely sticky barnacle glue binds together in the same way as clotting human blood.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 16 Oct 2009 | 6:06 am
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