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More Info From LIGO, Not So Fast, Not Star Stuff, Not Scottish Deer, Fiddler Poker Crabs, Agro Salmon, Cyborg DNA?, Getchyer Veggie Genes!, Bouncy Metal Glass, Juice Those Cells, Nightmare Juice, Few Human Cuckoos, Do Robots Turn You On?, And Much More!
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The world loves a mystery…
And perhaps more than a good mystery, the world loves to solve mysteries…
Of all the mysteries out there, one seems to always be lurking in the darkness…
On the edges of our understanding…
In the peripheral of our perception…
Further out than our furthest most fathomable faculties can affirm…
Just barely beyond the best guesses of our most brilliant scientific minds…
And that edgy, peripherally unfathomed, lurking mystery has a name…
Next…
Because there is not really one mystery lurking out there…
Just the next one…
And with each mystery we solve another takes its place…
And another… and another…
So many that there will likely never come a day when we don’t have reason enough to say
This week in Science
Coming up … Next.
More Info From LIGO
After finding evidence of the first gravitational wave, scientists from LIGO are using the information gleaned from their single data point to estimate future balck hole merger findings, which they think will be pretty common and easy to pick up with our instruments in about 3-4 years.
Not So Fast
Turns out last year’s fast radio burst finding, which researchers thought had an extended afterglow that helped them to pinpoint the burst’s galaxy of origin, didn’t actually have a glow. New analysis find the glow to emanate from a supermassive black hole in a distant active galactic nucleus.
Not Star Stuff
A computer simulation of the formation of super-massive black holes finds that they do not and cannot form from the merger of stellar black holes, but are different beasts entirely. What kind is as yet unknown.
Scottish Deer, not so Scottish after all
But, where the come from is unclear.
Fiddler crabs would be good at poker
Expert bluffers, they can intimidate competitors despite being less than a whole original crab.
Agro salmon
Salmon act more agressive in lighter-colored tanks. This could help aquaculture in a big way. But could it also tell us something about ourselves??
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Building a cyborg from the DNA up…
This story isn’t really about cyborgs, but new diodes made from DNA that might just help us exceed Moore’s Law.
Getchyer Veggie Genes!
Drinking milk is not the only dietary pressure that seems to have influenced human genetic variation. A recent study from Cornell found a high likelihood that a specific segment of DNA has made its way into lineages of vegetarians, while it is missing from that of Inuit fish eaters.
This study was also an example of This Week in Totally Getting It Wrong
Many outlets in the mainstream media got this news wrong. At least, the headline writers did, and suggested that eating a vegetarian diet would lead to changes in individual genomes OR that having the so-called vegetarian allele would make you more prone to cancer and heart disease. The first is totally untrue, while the second is mostly untrue.
BMG = Bouncy Metal Glass
Is this the new transparent aluminum we have been waiting for?
Juice Those Cells
Preliminary research with rats suggests that microvessicles extracted from stem cells can protect brains from injury.
Nightmare Juice
Nightmarish larvae ward off bacteria by being extremely pokey. Now, how can we use this info to our advantage??
White nose on the west coast
…It finally happened… Will we beat it in time??
Few Human Cuckoos
Turns out guys know when they are raising someone else’s kid.
Do Robots Turn You On?
Science says yes.
Hope for Florida yet…
Kind of.
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I'm the host of this little science show. 
Justin’s rant about doctors being the last ones to take advantage of new science like genome analysis would be justified except for the NIH Precision Medicine Initiative that is focused on bringing genome analysis into mainstream medicine as quickly as possible. Precision medicine is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person.
One aspect of precision medicine that lies beyond genomics is the push for patient directed research. An interesting example is the creation of an open source artificial pancreas. (See https://openaps.org for details.) Currently anyone trying to make money off of a concept like this can easily run afoul of a slew of regulations for medical devices but there seems to be nothing preventing do-it-yourself devices. The Precision Medicine Initiative embraces this trend as well.
Thanks so much for your comment. You are right, there are initiatives like the one you mention to get doctors up to speed with the rapidly developing technologies at their disposal. The biggest problem is the continuing education of doctors to make them aware of the possibilities. Let’s hope it all works, so that patients can benefit in the near term rather than the distant future.
Regarding your Black Hole Episode April 6th, Discovery of Gravity Wave eminating from 2 Back Holes colapsing into each other.
Proof/Existence of Gravity Waves can now postulate that the Universe has a Spin, and thus an equatorial plane. This would lead to incontravertible proof of Singular Big Bang or Multi Big Bangs. How?
If object fired straight up should come down back into the launcher. But Earth rotates and circles the Sun, thus launcher has moved. Also the friction force of the air alters trajectory as well. Gravity Waves are detectable thus place a force on matter (friction somewhat).
Hurricanes in Northern Hemisphere vs Southern rotate opposite directions. Same with toilets, ask Bart Simpsons phone bill.
Observe and catalogue galactic spins, nebula, and black hole spins. Note location and time relative to center of Universe. If Singualr Big Bang Equatorial plane should be singular, with only a few outliars. Even our solar system has an outliar.
If multi bang then multiple equatorial planes will be found.
If Gravity Waves have no significant influes over 15 Billion years then it will be random.
Always enjoy your show. Sorry if I commentted in the wrong place. I am blind and just grabbed this one. Love your shows and yes I have shared a few with my friends as well.
P.S.- I bet Jesse wil love this possiblity of a Universal Merry-Go-Round. Love you all, and Blair I love your funny animals.