Video: Japan's earthquake rescue robot

post from Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought on 29 May 2009 10:15:16 PM. © Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought

The BBC's Richard Black takes a look at the development of a Japanese robot that could help rescue survivors after an earthquake.

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Link between religious coping and aggressive
treatment in terminally ill cancer patients

post from Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought on 29 May 2009 10:08:55 PM. © Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought

In a new study of terminally ill cancer patients, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that those who draw on religion to cope with their illness are more likely to receive intensive, life-prolonging medical care as death approaches ?? treatment that often entails a lower quality of life in patients' final days.

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Theorists reveal path to true muonium

post from Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought on 29 May 2009 10:04:27 PM. © Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought

True muonium, a long-theorized but never-seen atom, might be observed in future experiments, thanks to recent theoretical work by researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Arizona State University.

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Omega fatty acid balance can alter immunity and
gene expression

post from Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought on 29 May 2009 10:03:10 PM. © Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought

For the past century, changes in the Western diet have altered the consumption of omega-6 fatty acids (w6, found in meat and vegetable oils) compared with omega-3 fatty acids (w3, found in flax and fish oil). Many studies seem to indicate this shift has brought about an increased risk of inflammation (associated with autoimmunity and allergy), and now using a controlled diet study with human volunteers, researchers may have teased out a biological basis for these reported changes.

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How neuronal activity is timed in brain's
memory-making circuits

post from Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought on 29 May 2009 10:00:23 PM. © Machines Like Us - Science at the speed of thought

Theta oscillations are a type of prominent brain rhythm that orchestrates neuronal activity in the hippocampus, a brain area critical for the formation of new memories. For several decades these oscillations were believed to be "in sync" across the hippocampus, timing the firing of neurons like a sort of central pacemaker. A new study conducted by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) argues that this long-held assumption needs to be revised.

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Moving The Public on Climate Action

post from FUTURISM NOW on 29 May 2009 09:28:07 PM. © FUTURISM NOW

The article below is republished from Yale’s E360. There are many reasons why the public does not consider climate change a big deal. That might change as the media catches on and figures out it can make money with disaster-movie style TV shows, such as next week’s “Earth 2100“. It airs on ABC, June 2nd. They can’t just have their news anchors tell us the facts about climate, they have to make 2-hour movies they can fill with ads! (I plan to watch it and review it anyway.)

Still, that’s all well and good and even useful, if only it makes a difference and raises public alarm. We don’t have any more time to waste taking action on climate change. Part of the problem with getting this on the public’s radar has been the official right-wing disinformation campaign, which has now been appropriated voluntarily by this country’s most ignorant citizens (sorry, there is just no other word for them). They are waving their ignorance as a kind of anti-big-government banner. (The stuff of the Tea Parties). Their reasoning seems to be that if lots of people do end up dying of climate change-related causes at least it will be under a small non-intrusive government with low taxes. Turns out though that only 7% of Americans are seriously ignorant on climate change — and it’s because they listen to those as ignorant as themselves: right-wing talk radio and FOX commentators.

Beyond Abstraction: Moving The Public on Climate Action
Most Americans believe climate change is a serious problem but are not committed to making the hard choices needed to deal with it. Recent research begins to explain some of the reasons why.
by doug struck
Humans have been wired by evolution to respond to the most immediate threats, ones they can hear or smell or see ? like the lions approaching our ancestral watering holes in the Serengeti. So in searching for answers as to why society has been so slow to react to one of the greatest threats facing the planet today ? global warming ? this deeply ingrained instinct is a good place to start. Climate change just doesn?t offer those kinds of sensory signals ? at least not yet ? and humans have not felt the need to react, according to researchers.
?Danger brings emotional reactions, dread, a feeling of alarm. Evolution has equipped us with that,? says Elke Weber, director of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University. ?The threats we face today are not of that type. They are psychologically removed in space and time. So cognitively, we know something needs to be done about climate change, but we don?t have that emotional alarm bell going off.?
Weber is one of a handful of researchers trying to unravel a glaring contradiction: Even though global temperatures are rising, the Arctic ice cap is melting, scientists are offering increasingly urgent warnings about climate change, and polls show Americans acknowledging that the threat of global warming is real, we?re still not doing very much about the problem.
Scientists are exploring new theories about what affects behavior concerning global warming, such as people?s decisions to give up their SUVs, weatherize their houses, or support tougher environmental legislation. This research has moved beyond the old theory of rational action that predicted we would make logical changes in our behavior if we were given the right information about a problem.
?We make decisions in lots of different ways, even when we are trying to be rational,? says Anthony Leiserowitz, head of the Yale Project on Climate Change. ?Humans have two ways of processing information: analytical, and experiential.? The analytic system is logical; the experiential system is based on emotions, past experiences, unconscious memory, stories we have heard, and other immeasurable clues.
?These are parallel processing systems, dance partners always interacting with each other,? Leiserowitz says. So while our rational system may tell us to buy a hybrid car that gets great mileage, we may drive away from the car lot with a muscular pickup because we responded to the ads.
Adding to that problem is the inability to see how our individual decisions will solve a problem created by millions of other individual and institutional acts.
?You don?t see carbon dioxide when you turn on the car,? Leiserowitz says. ?You don?t smell it, you don?t taste it, and it?s not poisonous. The experiential system is good at responding to something if I can see it and believe it. That allows us to survive in a more natural world. But we are not good at responding to slow, gradual, incremental effects that we can?t see.?
Changing behavior, then, becomes a complicated process. Leiserowitz, working with the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, recently released research findings showing how complicated the task may be.
Their analysis from an opinion poll of environmental attitudes of 2,164 adults identifies six groups, which they call the ?Six Americas.? Those groups react to different messages, to different messengers, and in different ways to information on climate change. Leiserowitz argues that moving society on this issue will require a tailored approach to each.
The most proactive group, which his researchers call the ?Alarmed,? represent 18 percent of the public. These are people who believe that the threat of global warming is real and already are doing something in their lives to address climate change. The largest group, the ?Concerned,? is 33 percent of the public. They also are convinced global warming is a serious problem, but have not done anything about it and do not seek information to do so.
Research suggests that getting action on climate change will require more than dire stories in the media.
The ?Cautious? at 19 percent, the ?Disengaged? at 12 percent, and the ?Doubtful? at 11 percent, are by steps increasingly less trustful of scientists, environmentalists, and the mainstream media, more reliant on information from friends or family, and more likely to believe the television weatherman, acquaintances, and religious figures when it comes to climate change. Only 7 percent, ?the Dismissive,? flatly disbelieve in human-induced climate change and actively work against global warming measures. This group reads newspapers at half the national average and gets its news from commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O?Reilly.
[the ignorant people I referred to]
The breakdown suggests that getting action on climate change will require more than dire stories in the media. Some groups will be more receptive to the same message delivered by Pat Robertson ? or the corner barber ? than from Al Gore. Some groups will be willing listeners, while others will need the message to be hammered home again and again.
Leiserowitz says the sizeable percentage of those who believe in climate change, whether they have acted or not, should encourage environmentalists. ?I don?t think most policy makers realize how much consensus there is? on global warming, he says. ?It?s latent, sitting there, waiting to be mobilized.?
More worrisome is the politicization of the issue. In another large-scale study on public attitudes, Barry Rabe ? a political scientist and professor of environmental policy at University of Michigan who worked with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia ? found that 83 percent of Democrats believe global warming is happening, while only 53 percent of Republicans do so.
?That really did surprise us,? Rabe said. ?No matter how you asked the questions, there wasn?t much diversity by state, age, income, gender. The one that jumped out time after time was partisan affiliation.?
Politicians have been needlessly timid in calling for public sacrifices to slow global warming.
Rabe, like Leiserowitz, believes that support for action on climate change is greater than many politicians believe and that politicians have been needlessly timid about calling on the public to make sacrifices to slow global warming.
For example, rather than make a case to Americans for tough action ? including a modest carbon tax ? Congress seems intent on watering down carbon cap-and-trade legislation to make it ?politically palatable,? he says. And despite a desperate need in many states for revenue, ?they won?t use the ?T? word? and raise gasoline taxes that would generate funds and cut driving, Rabe notes.
?Most of what has been enacted is really not asking much in the way of behavioral changes, or would cost (people) much,? he says. While many state leaders have moved more aggressively, national leaders have been ?timid, in the sense of not really pushing Americans to confront the complexity of all of this and the possible transitions that may have to be made.?
For example, he asks, ?At what point can we speak with more transparency about the whole question of energy transformation? For any political leader who really wants to take the lead on the issue, there is tremendous reluctance to be very specific about price ramifications.?
Some of Barack Obama?s top appointees, such as Energy Secretary Steven Chu and economic advisor Lawrence Summers, have written about the need for carbon pricing, but have not pushed it aggressively in Washington, Rabe notes. Even good ideas such as basing car insurance or state vehicle registration fees on miles driven gets few advocates willing to espouse a sensible ? yet unpopular ? idea.
Anthony Patt, who studies decision-making and environmental policy at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria, believes our language has not been specific enough. Too much information is indistinct and vague about solutions, he says. He has worked to change environmental policies in developing countries where there are too few information sources. But the same lessons apply to developed countries with an information overload, he says.
?The information is not in a form that people quite trust, or understand, or maybe they see contradictory information,? he says. In Africa, for example, farmers need to know what irrigation practices would help conserve water. In Europe, however, the problem is ?an inability to find the right information. It was confusing for people to decide if it?s even worth their time to worry about global warming.?
The message has to come clearly from a source who has moral authority.
Patt contends that changes in behavior come when people are given information about exactly what they can do to fix the problem. He suggests, for example, creating the energy equivalent of the agricultural extension service, which could advise consumers and businesses on practical ways to save energy, just as the agriculture service advises farmers on the best way to grow crops. Putting a price on the carbon consequences of our choices also makes those decisions much clearer, he says.
And ?the message has to come clearly from a source that has moral authority,? says Columbia?s Weber. ?In Europe, that might be the Green Party, for example. Here, it could be political leadership, or it could be cultural. It could be evangelical churches, reminding their congregants that as Christians, they have a stewardship of the earth. What would Jesus drive? Turns out it?s not an SUV.? [I think Jesus would ride a bike or walk, personally.]
Weber believes that our behavior toward the environment may well change as a result of messages from a multitude of sources. In addition to following personal motivations, she says, individuals adapt their choices to the rules and norms of society. People are affected by what their neighbors drive, what their family thinks, what a television personality says about global warming, advertising, the attitudes of other communities and groups, and, of course, what laws are passed.
?After awhile, these things add up, and changes happen incrementally,? Weber says. ?In the last ten years we have seen tremendous changes in attitude toward climate change. By changing attitudes, I think we will see changes in how people react.?
But that will require overcoming some very basic impulses, she acknowledges.
?People are very unwilling to sacrifice,? she says. They base many decisions on the immediate cost. ?It hurts us a lot to give up whatever we think we are due, such as our standard of living,? Weber notes. Or, she says, we decide based on emotion: ?If something feels good, like impulse shopping, we do it. Emotions are a strong motivator. And technical risks like climate change don?t trigger those emotions.?
Still, Weber believes that a consistent message about a genuine threat ? coupled with social pressure and the right economic carrots and sticks ? can eventually change people?s behavior.
?Society,? says Weber, ?is a way of overcoming the 2-year-olds in all of us.?

People don’t seem bothered that we are considered expendable by those in power, including Big Coal. If we are bothered by it, why are we putting up with it? (See Derrick Jensen’s writing). Even some in Congress are in on the act (Michele Bachmann, etc). The American public is just not paying attention to the facts of climate change, and they are not adequately alarmed. It’s not entirely their fault when the media mostly ignores the threat — other than to treat it as entertainment they can profit from. Why not just level with us? We also need an honest speech about climate change from the great communicator — President Obama.

How global warming could change travel (gadling.com)
Joseph Romm: Must-Read Study: “The Media’s Decision to Play the Stenographer Helped Opponents of Climate Action Stifle Progress” (huffingtonpost.com)
Laura Ingraham Uses Edited Clips to Misrepresent Gore (treehugger.com)

Read The Full Article:
http://www.civilianism.com/futurism/2009/moving-the-public-on-climate-action/

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Save the submersibles!

post from Pharyngula on 29 May 2009 08:09:35 PM. © Pharyngula

Go sign this petition to maintain the tools for sea exploration at Florida Atlantic University. They're trying to get a thousand signatures…we can do that in no time at all.

The Johnson-Sea-Link I & II submersibles are owned and operated by Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Fort Pierce, Florida. They are launched from the HBOI research vessel R/V Seward Johnson, a 204-ft ,purpose built ,state of the art platform redesigned in 1994 which displaces 1282 tons and has a 6,000 nautical mile range. An experienced captain and crew constantly maintain the R/V Seward Johnson as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) Fleet of research vessels. A team of highly skilled sub pilots operate, maintain and upgrade the submersibles according to strict safety protocols. The Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles were built in 1971. Almost four decades, 9,000 dives and continuous upgrades and improvements later, the Johnson-Sea-Link I submersibles and II, along with their support ship the R/V Seward Johnson, remain invaluable platforms for exploring the oceans.
&hellip:
Unfortunately, the current administration of HBOI has announced its decision to sell the R/V Seward Johnson and retire the JSL submersibles in spite of a lack of technologies with similar or better capabilities at HBOI, FAU or any other institution on the East coast of the U.S. While some argue that this expensive technology is outdated and tied to its mother ship, this view is not shared by the scientific community. The Alvin submersible operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts is 10 years older, and still performs between 150 and 200 dives a year. No one considers the Alvin 40-year old technology, or criticizes its dependence on the research vessel Atlantis for its deployment. It is still considered a valuable workhorse. While NOAA has just awarded HBOI a 22.5 million dollars grant to be a Cooperative Institute, in part due to their ability to perform oceanographic study with such tools as the R/V Seward Johnson and JSL submersibles, it is unclear whether these assets will be supported by that grant money. Unless a new source of funding is found to support these technologies, the current administration will continue their plans to abandon these technologies. Maintaining and operating these technologies is expensive, and the HBOI administration lacks the funds to continue to support these assets. Thus, it is critical for the State of Florida to invest in these amazing technologies to further our ocean exploration and our scientific progress.
Since FAU is a state university, the submersibles and research vessel are property of the State of Florida and the taxpayers should have a say in choosing whether these amazing technologies which are helping us discover and protect our underwater assets should be maintained. These are expensive technologies to maintain, but their benefits far outweigh their costs. If you believe that the state of Florida should invest in science, education and technology, please sign this petition to indicate to our legislators that you believe the HBOI ship and submersibles should be saved from sale or retirement and supported by the state of Florida.

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Nerdy Science T-shirt Series 2

It has been long since the last Nerdy Science t-shirts designed by Sam. The tees helped me gained a lot of attention, and this time Sam is releasing his new Nerdy Science t-shirt design!A for AppleB for BoyC 4 BombRecalled from the past experience, the t-shirt is made in China, and the size is Asian [...]

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A Freethinkin’ interview

I was interviewed by the UBC Free Thinkers recently about, well, thinking freely. We talked vaccinations, the JREF, and other topics, including what it means to be a skeptic. They split it into two parts and it’s up on their blog as YouTube videos.[...]

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