Genes Important To Sleep Found By NC State Study

post from ZAMP Bionews on 23 February 2009 08:28:38 AM. © ZAMP Bionews

For many animals, sleep is a risk: foraging for food, mingling with mates and guarding against predators just aren’t possible while snoozing.How, then, has this seemingly life-threatening behavior remained constant among various species of[...]

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Unlocking the Secrets of the Superconductor

post from Physics Buzz on 23 February 2009 08:14:00 AM. © Physics Buzz

High temperature superconductors are a "hot item" of study these days, and scientists at the Queen Mary, University of London and the University of Fribourg have recently announced that they are one step closer to understanding how it all works.

When electricity travels through a metal (or "conducts") there is always some resistance in the material that converts a portion of the electricity to unusable heat. The less resistance the less energy lost. However when temperatures get mighty cold, within a couple of degrees above absolute zero, materials tend to lose all of their resistance. Electricity is able to flow through these materials without losing any of their energy, hence the term "superconductor." Certain iron-arsenic based materials have been found to superconduct at much higher temperatures (though still only as high as a frosty -130 degrees C), but the reasons behind it have baffled scientists for decades.

Last year a whole new breed of high temperature superconductors based on copper-oxygen compounds was discovered. Scientists comparing the two compounds noticed that their superconductive property seemed to emerge from a specific magnetic state. With further research and exploration, this find could unlock the secrets of superconductors.

This would be huge. Already cold temperature superconductors are used in things like MRIs and power colliders like the LHC, almost anywhere where high powered precision magnets are needed. If we could find out exactly what makes superconductors tick, room temperature superconductors could be around the corner.

The uses for these would be tremendous. Right now it's estimated that between 8 and 10 percent of electricity sent over the grid is converted heat and wasted. Think about it, that's entire power plants worth of energy wasted. Test programs in labs have found none of this electricity would be lost in superconductive wires. These kinds of wires are unfortunately impractical right now because the energy needed to refrigerate them is far greater than the energy saved.

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Show Time Again, but for Who

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 23 February 2009 08:08:00 AM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

In the U.S., it will soon be show time for the machine tool industry. The bandwagon starts off later this month with Westec, to be followed by Eastec in May and later, in October, South-Tec. But will anyone be buying, and if so what? Will your company be cutting back on spending or will it be lookin

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Buy New or Used

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 23 February 2009 08:08:00 AM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

If you can't replace it, then rebuild it. Much like the issue of buying a new versus a used car, engineers are now considering the advantages of buying re-manufactured power transmission equipment. Can you save 60% by buying a re-manufactured power train group? Are there real advantages to purchasin

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Thick Skinned Geordies

post from Sciencebase Science Blog on 23 February 2009 08:00:05 AM. © Sciencebase Science Blog

A week or two ago the British media was full of the story of scientists hoping to discover why the indigenous people of Tyneside are wont to few clothes even in the briskest of breezes and the worst of winter cold snaps. If you’ve been out on the town in Newcastle any time of year, [...]

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Snow Geese On the Skagit

post from Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) on 23 February 2009 07:59:59 AM. © Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

tags: Snow Geese, Chen caerulescens, Skagit Flats, Fir Island, Seattle, streaming video

This streaming video, by Seattle birder, Doug Plummer, documents the hundreds of thousands of migratory Snow Geese, Chen caerulescens, who winter on the Skagit Flats, a floodplain that is located north of my home, Seattle [1:39]

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Desperate space filler, Oscars edition

post from Pharyngula on 23 February 2009 07:47:58 AM. © Pharyngula

No, my work is not yet done, and my deadlines haven't yet been met, but I'm confident that I'll reach my goals by this afternoon. Bear with me with patience, please. Until this afternoon, when I slap these puppies and ship them off to their destinations, I'll leave you with something to discuss among yourselves: the movies!

Last night was Oscar night, and I had the awards yammering in the background while I was pounding the keys. I have to get out more; I've seen virtually none of the nominated movies this year. There's something called "Slumdog Millionaire" that's getting a lot of buzz? Shows what I know. I hadn't even heard of it until last night. My pop culture cred just took a nosedive.

As for the awards show, Hugh Jackman was pretty and congenial, which I guess is the role of the emcee. The format was grating: at each award, they'd have five past winners come out on the stage and slather flattery on each nominee, while the camera locked onto each one, simpering and squirming under the barrage of praise. This was not good; Hollywood already has a reputation of being the domain of the vain, and amplifying the effect with a prolonged demonstration of how happy these people are to be fawningly serviced in public had me cringing.

The high point, I thought, was Sean Penn's acceptance speech for best actor in which he shamed the people who don't want to see equal rights for everyone, gay or straight.

On a related note, Bill Maher was one of the presenters for best documentary, and what did he do? Plugged his movie, Religulous, while moaning over the fact that it was not nominated. Bad form, Bill, very bad form. Maybe it just wasn't good enough.

I did finally see Religulous a few days ago, and I confess to being a bit disappointed. It consisted of a series of short interviews with, for instance, truckers at a truck stop chapel, Catholic priests, an "ex-gay" minister, a Muslim rapper, etc., and it was all capped with excellent and scathing monologue that strongly criticized religion. Don't get me wrong, it was good, and there were some funny bits, but something nagged at me throughout, and only when I saw the conclusion did I realize what it was.

Maher cheated. He had a clear idea of what his opinion was, but he wasn't sharing it with the people he was interviewing. They were left to flounder and make poor arguments in part because there are no good arguments for religion, but also because they were left in the dark about what they were arguing against. It may be funny, but it's no fair; contrast that with the Dawkins' documentaries on religion, which are less funny, but more honest, because the people on camera know (or should know) exactly what they are wrestling with.

A better Religulous would have recorded the closing monolog first, and sent that to each of the potential interviewees with a note saying, "Here's my position. Are you willing to argue against it on camera?" That would have made for a much more interesting movie, and Maher would have had to break a sweat to address criticisms…and it would probably be less funny. There's a reason Maher wasn't nominated for an Oscar, and I think it's because his documentary took no risks, and didn't probe very deeply.

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Pharyngula Fail

post from TDG - Science, Magick, Myth and History on 23 February 2009 07:44:34 AM. © TDG - Science, Magick, Myth and History

After taking some time on the weekend, I noticed today that the recent poll I posted regarding evidence for an afterlife suddenly had a lot more votes, and nearly all of them apparently clicked "There is no evidence". Hmmm, I thought to myself, I wonder what obnoxious atheist blogger with nothing better to do than crashing polls could have linked to us? Sure enough, the only one I could think of: P.Z. Myers, of the biggest science blog this side of[...]

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News Briefs 23-02-2009

post from TDG - Science, Magick, Myth and History on 23 February 2009 07:07:50 AM. © TDG - Science, Magick, Myth and History

My evil plan to take over TDG seems to be working. Muahahahah!What to do about all that space junk? Keep an eye on it with the Google Earth Satellite Database (3rd from top).If it's not on Google Earth, is it here? Track UFO's in real time with the UFOstalker. U.S. map of the top UFO hotspots and how to report a sighting.What's that buzzing sound? Mosquito survives in outer space. How many kinds of alien are there on Earth?Plate tectonics could be[...]

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http://www.dailygrail.com/node/7292

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The Wakefield Scandal Thickens...

When I wrote a week ago about Andrew Wakefield, I approached it from a research ethics perspective: about data falsification, the retraction of an article, the colleagues who didn't stand by him on his Lancet paper, etc etc....but as the...

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