It’s official: 8 planets

post from Wolverine's Den on 24 August 2006 11:19:00 AM. © Wolverine's Den

The vote is in, and Pluto is out.The IAU members gathered at the 2006 General Assembly agreed that a “planet” is defined as a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) [...]

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Manatee Traveler in Northeastern Waters not
Chessie

post from Science Blog - on 24 August 2006 11:12:07 AM. © Science Blog -

A West Indian manatee has been sighted in various waters of the northeastern United States in the last 5-6 weeks. It took in the sights along the Hudson River traveling up into Harlem, visited Cape Cod, Mass., and was most recently sighted in Warwick, Rhode Island, in Greenwich Bay.

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Oxygen deprived brains repaired and saved

post from Science Blog - on 24 August 2006 11:06:47 AM. © Science Blog -

Scientists from Melbourne's Howard Florey Institute have found special proteins that protect the brain after it has been damaged by a lack of oxygen, which occurs in conditions such as stroke, perinatal asphyxia, near-drowning and traumatic brain injury.

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New genetic link to SIDS identified

post from Science Blog - on 24 August 2006 11:05:07 AM. © Science Blog -

Babies born with specific variants of three key genes are 14 times more likely to die from cot death, new research has found. The findings - published in Human Immunology - build on earlier research by The University of Manchester team that had already associated one of these genes with the condition.

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Reverse Engineering Arithmetic Challenge

post from CR4 on 24 August 2006 11:00:00 AM. © CR4

Jorrie writes: Technical people are normally good at mental arithmetic, but this one can be taxing. I know CR4 members may react with "Oh, come on!" But then, it's intriguing – check it out! Given the following two simultaneous equations, 265x + 235y = 765 235x + 265y = 735, you would have no...

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Disappearing evo bio degree

post from The Island of Doubt on 24 August 2006 10:38:05 AM. © The Island of Doubt

The government spokesthingies say it's just a oversight. "On its own, it's not really a smoking gun," Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education tells New Scientist. "Inadvertant" is the explanation supplied to the New York Times. But the white space where "evolutionary biology" used to be in a list of science majors eligible for federal student assistance sure looks suspicious to me.

Here's a screen grab of the controversial list, taken from a pdf at the AC/SMART grant website.

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Queensland goes Bush league

post from Pharyngula on 24 August 2006 10:31:09 AM. © Pharyngula

If you've been following the Australian lungfish saga, there's a new development, and it's an ugly one. As the Noosa Journal reports (they don't seem to have a web accessible archive, so this issue may vanish soon; here's a screenshot), the Queensland government is actively suppressing scientific information that highlights the environmental costs of building the damaging dams.

The Beattie Government has ordered the shredding of a vital report used to list the unique Queensland lungfish under Federal environmental laws, according to a world authority on the species, Macquarie University's Professor Jean Joss. The shredding order follows suppression of the report shortly after it was published, she said.
If the order is carried out, a vital piece of evidence will have been destroyed to support a challenge to the Mary River Dam under Federal Environmental laws.

The suppressed study analyzed the effects of a small weir that was put on the Burnett River, showing that it had a drastic effect on lungfish breeding and recruitment, and predicted that the greater effect of a dam would "reduce recruitment to a Critically Endangered level, at which extinction is assured."

You know the other side is completely in the wrong when they're reduced to hiding reality. The Queensland government seems to have adopted the American Republican style of policy making.

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ChemWeb Alchemist

In this week’s Alchemist news round up: oscillating carbon fibres could usurp silicon in the world of microscopic video, find out how a sugar molecule seen only on anthrax spores could help defeat the bacterium in the event of a bioterrorism attack. We also report on how the US government has asserted that levels of [...]

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Pluto: No Longer A Planet

Roger Pink writes: In a related story, I no longer recognize the International Astronomical Union as an authoritative organization. Recently I've discovered while searching the web that there are thousands of astronomy organizations out their in a myriad of sizes and locations. After careful...

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Wing In Ground (WIG)

Ram44 writes: What is the biggest obstacle preventing the widespread use of wing in ground effect crafts? This is for a study that I am doing.

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