NCBI ROFL: PhDs agree: bees see like me!

post from Discoblog » NCBI ROFL on 03 May 2012 07:00:12 PM. © Discoblog » NCBI ROFL

Bees perceive illusory colours induced by movement.

“Certain black-and-white patterns, when rotated at appropriate speeds, can create the artificial perception of hues. We report that this illusion is not confined to human vision, but is also perceived by an insect, the honeybee. The findings suggest that certain features underlying the processing of colour information are shared by man and bee.”

Bonus quotes from the main text:

Freely-flying bees (Apis melrifera) were trained to discriminate between two visual stimuli presented in a horizontal plane immediately beneath the surface of a glass-topped table. One of the stimuli bore a reward of sugar water. The locations of the stimuli were interchanged frequently to prevent the bees from using position cues to identify the rewarded stimulus.

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Lightning signature could help reveal the solar
system's origins

post from Top stories on 03 May 2012 06:17:06 PM. © Top stories

Story Source

Every second, lightning flashes some 50 times on Earth. Together these discharges coalesce and get stronger, creating electromagnetic waves circling around Earth, to create a beating pulse between the ground and the lower ionosphere, about 60 miles up in the atmosphere.

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http://machineslikeus.com/news/lightning-signature-could-help-reveal-solar-system
s-origins

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Revolutionary technology enables objects to know
how they are being touched

post from Top stories on 03 May 2012 06:14:39 PM. © Top stories

Story Source

A doorknob that knows whether to lock or unlock based on how it is grasped, a smartphone that silences itself if the user holds a finger to her lips and a chair that adjusts room lighting based on recognizing if a user is reclining or leaning forward are among the many possible applications of To

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http://machineslikeus.com/news/revolutionary-technology-enables-objects-know-how-
they-are-being-touched

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Caption This for 05/04/12

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 03 May 2012 05:45:00 PM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

This week's image:Be sure to vote for your favorite caption! Thanks to ndt-tom for submitting this image.

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http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/19765/Caption-This-for-05-04-12?from_rss=1

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Dawn Journal: Rising from a happily long LAMO

post from Planetary Society Blog on 03 May 2012 04:39:33 PM. © Planetary Society Blog

Marc Rayman's monthly check-in with the Dawn mission describes the achievements of the spacecraft in its Low-Altitude Mapping Orbit (including near-global high-resolution imaging!) and explains what's next.

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http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/marc-rayman/dawn-journal-2012-04-30.ht
ml

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On pseudonymity and wearing half a mask...

post from Supernova Condensate on 03 May 2012 04:37:13 PM. © Supernova Condensate

I was chatting to a friend earlier, and the subject came up in conversation of how the internet is a fairly level playing field. After all, a lot of the time, you aren't even sure who the person you're talking to is, and even then only if you check. This put me in mind of something I've been thinking about quite a lot recently: Internet pseudonyms.

(Read more ...)

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http://invaderxan.livejournal.com/147532.html

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Physics of the Hit: Football Concussions

post from Physics Buzz on 03 May 2012 04:16:26 PM. © Physics Buzz

Earlier this week, Junior Seau, a former star linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, died of an apparent suicide. Some have speculated that a career of hard hits may have contributed to a string of high-profile suicides by former NFL athletes including Seau. Today, 100 former NFL players have filed a lawsuit against the NFL for failing "to take reasonable steps necessary to protect players from devastating head injuries."

For years, teams of researchers have tried to connect the various forces behind a tackle with the extent of head injuries. This research has led to a better understanding of what kinds of hits cause the most damage -- and what can be done to prevent brain injuries.

Image courtesy Keith Allison via Flickr.
"Traumatic brain injury [research] has been underappreciated for decades," D. Kacy Cullen, a biomedical engineer specializing in the biomechanics of neural injuries at the University of Pennsylvania, told Physics Central.

Recent publicity of head injuries in sports and the military has led to a greater appreciation of this field of research, Cullen added.

Cullen's lab has coupled analysis of sports impacts with animal models to better understand the health effects of repetitive minor injuries such as those accumulated throughout an NFL career. Repetitive hits may not lead to obvious signs of structural change in the brain, but they may affect how cells in the brain communicate.

"We're gaining a greater appreciation of some of the very subtle changes that are associated with minor injuries," said Cullen.

Direct hits to the head can cause serious injuries, and modern helmets have generally done a good job of absorbing impact forces that can fracture skulls. Repeated concussions throughout a career, however, may often stem from a different kind of impact.

Certain angles of impact can lead to abrupt rotational forces in the head. The resulting rotation of the head is one of the primary causes of closed head traumatic brain injury, according to Cullen. Rotations around different planes can lead to different biomechanical parameters and injuries varying in severity.

Despite research indicating the importance of these rotation, modern helmets don't absorb rotation well. Helmet standards aren't designed to dampen the blow of forces that cause rotation, and a breakthrough in helmets could come if they accounted for these forces, said Cullen.

Although there is room for improvement, researchers attempting to prevent injury have had difficulty adapting to changing playing styles. As more players lead with their helmet during a tackle, for instance, they become more vulnerable to injury.

"There's an arms race between better protection and evolving techniques," said Cullen.

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of-hit-football-concussions.html

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Why is there something rather than nothing

Just a quick note: if you’re looking to expand your mind enough to make your head explode, then read this very interesting essay by my fellow Hive Overmind Discover Magazine blogger and theoretical cosmologist Sean Carroll on why there’s[...]

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Scientists discover why evolved males mate more
frequently than their primitive counterparts

Sex differences account for some of the most of the spectacular traits in nature: the wild colours of male guppies, the plumage of peacocks, tusks on walruses and antlers on moose. Sexual conflict ? the battle between males and females over mating ? is thought to be a particularly potent force in driving the evolution [...]

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http://cbt20.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/evolution-mating/

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Lessons from the past affect our perception of
the present

In the journal Science this week (online May 3, 2012), UCSF researchers demonstrated that the brain[...]

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http://www.americanbiotechnologist.com/blog/lessons-past/

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