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I came across an interesting study about the consensus in the scientific community on anthropogenic global warming (AGW), i.e. the idea that human activity is very likely causing most of global warming. What makes this study so interesting is the fact that it involved a “citizen science” approach. Volunteers who contributed to the Skeptical Science website were asked to grade the abstracts of 11, 944 scientific papers on global climate change that were published in the years 1991-2011. […]

May 15, 2013

8:23 PM | RIP and good planet hunting, Kepler

A second reaction wheel failed on the exoplanet-hunting telescope

8:10 PM | Carnivorous plant has deleted most of its junk DNA

Genes overlap, share regulatory sequences in order to compact the genome.

May 14, 2013

9:45 PM | Amazon deforestation may undercut South American hydropower projects

Loss of forests reduce rainfall, cutting into generation potential.

8:35 PM | 150,000 cloud virtual machines will help solve mysteries of the Universe

OpenStack, Puppet used to build cloud for world's largest particle accelerator.

6:00 PM | Infecting mosquitos with bacteria could block malaria

Getting Wolbachia bacteria to grow in mosquitos may help human health.

3:40 PM | Birds and the feather did not evolve together

What we know about the origins of feathers, and what we hope to find out.

May 13, 2013

9:25 PM | D-Wave’s quantum optimizer pitted against traditional computers

D-Wave generally comes out on top, but there are some mixed results.

6:50 PM | Supreme Court won’t let farmer dodge Monsanto’s seed patents

Justices rule 9-0 that Indiana farmer can't rely on a "blame-the-bean defense."

May 12, 2013

9:45 PM | Commander Chris Hadfield bids adieu to ISS with “Space Oddity” cover

A David Bowie cover produced in space—genius. This guy is awesome.

8:40 PM | NASA arranges a quick spacewalk to repair leaking space station

Earth crew prepared tirelessly for 48 hours to send astronauts outside.

7:00 PM | The British ‘Atlantis’ is mapped in detail

Using dual frequency identification sonar, the ruins of Dunwich rise again.

May 11, 2013

3:23 PM | Weird Science takes antibiotics to ward off a case of idiocy

But keeps radioactive bacteria around to ward off cancer.

May 10, 2013

8:00 PM | Ammonia leak on space station causes concerns, power re-route

Crew prepares to go outside to put eyes on troublesome ammonia coolant loop.

7:45 PM | The rise of a frog-killing fungus pinned in part on global trade

The disease wiping out amphibians is old, but it's new to some of its victims.

4:52 PM | Proposed bill that would regulate NSF research funding faces backlash

Scientists not amused, bill's backers appear confused.

May 09, 2013

10:45 PM | Of mice and markets

How much you would give up to keep a mouse alive may depend on trade.

6:35 PM | “Vaccine” against heroin keeps it out of the brain

Addicted rats are less likely to relapse.

4:12 PM | Google Earth enters fourth dimension, highlights humanity’s heavy hand

Satellite imagery lets you follow terrain changes over time.

May 08, 2013

6:00 PM | Saving Fermi: NASA’s system for avoiding collisions with space junk

Finding your space telescope has a dead Russian spy satellite coming at it.

2:36 PM | San Francisco gives up on cell phone warning stickers

Reuters' reporting makes a hash of the science.

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‘Is ‘cloning’ mad, bad and dangerous?’ – an argument revisited

Seven years ago, to mark the then tenth anniversary of the announcement of the birth of the folkloric Dolly the sheep, and in the still reverberating wake of the South Korean cloning scandal, I practiced my fledgling/intermittent/debatable/wanton science communication skills with the penning of an article on the issue of ‘cloning.’ It being an anniversary with a ’0′ on the end, combined with topical relevance, suggested I might be lucky enough to get it published. And I was thus very... […]

Tachibana, M., Amato, P., Sparman, M., Gutierrez, N., Tippner-Hedges, R., Ma, H., Kang, E., Fulati, A., Lee, H., Sritanaudomchai, H. & Masterson, K. (2013). Human Embryonic Stem Cells Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.006

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Homeostatic platsicity in a thorny situation

Synapses, the connections between neurons can strengthen and weaken depending on the specific activity at that synapse. This is called synaptic plasticity, and we've talked about it a lot on this blog (here, here, here and here).the strengthening and weakening of synaptic connections corresponds to the spine growing or shrinking (Matsuzaki 2007)However, there is another kind of plasticity that can occur at synapses. This is called homeostatic plasticity. And instead of the synapse strengthening […]

Lee KJ, Queenan BN, Rozeboom AM, Bellmore R, Lim ST, Vicini S & Pak DT (2013). Mossy fiber-CA3 synapses mediate homeostatic plasticity in mature hippocampal neurons., Neuron, 77 (1) 99-114. PMID: 23312519

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Ocean heat puts pressure on poorest fisheries

The first evidence that climate change has affected fishing catches, revealed by William Cheung from the University of British Columbia and his team, shows tropical countries are set to be hardest hit.

Cheung, W., Watson, R. & Pauly, D. (2013). Signature of ocean warming in global fisheries catch, Nature, 497 (7449) 365-368. DOI: 10.1038/nature12156

Payne, M. (2013). Fisheries: Climate change at the dinner table, Nature, 497 (7449) 320-321. DOI: 10.1038/497320a

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Darth DSM-5 and autism

Blue Harvest @ Wikipedia @ Family GuyI need to create a suitable atmosphere for this post, so try this music for size and think Blue Harvest...Right. The wait is over. The discussions / arguments / objections / agreements are all confined to history. Drum roll, spotlight centre-stage... enter DSM-5 and into unknown territory we all go, particularly with autism, sorry.. autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in mind.As you can see from the link above to the new diagnostic guidelines from the […]

Lai M-C, Lombardo MV, Chakrabarti B & Baron-Cohen S (2013). Subgrouping the Autism “Spectrum": Reflections on DSM-5, PLoS Biology, Other: Link

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Ethnocentrism, religion, and austerity: a science poster for the humanities

Artem Kaznatcheev and I presented a poster on May 4th at the University of British Columbia to a highly interdisciplinary conference on religion. The conference acronym is CERC, which translates as Cultural Evolution of Religion Research Consortium. Most of the 60-some attendees are religion scholars and social scientists from North American and European universities. Many […]

Kaznatcheev, Artem & Shultz, Thomas R. (2011). Ethnocentrism maintains cooperation, but keeping one’s children close fuels it., Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 3174-3179. Other: Link

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