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Science Is Curiosity, Slow And Sneaky, Growing Family Tree, Dolphins Got Culture, Booster!, LHC Update, TWIWRD, Bacterial Babies, Mean Tweets, Digital Sarcasm, And Much More…
Disclaimer, Disclaimer, Disclaimer!!!
People today…
Don’t want to do algebra because it’s too hard.
What will they use it for anyway?
Oh, what’s that?
Maybe there is an intrinsic value in learning to think in abstractions?
And, while we’re on it…
Why do doctors need to learn physics?
Huh?
Maybe learning to break down a problem into smaller parts
in order to learn about a larger system
will help them learn to not kill the wonderful human system they work on?
Maybe.
Or, maybe we should all just go back to watching Olympic beach volleyball
while NASA lands a laser wielding robot the size of a Mini Cooper on Mars.
Maybe you’re just too old.
Or, maybe… this is…
This Week in Science… coming up next!!!
Mars Curiosity!!! Entry, Descent, Landing!
SPERM: It’s best slow and sneaky
In a study with fruit fly sperm, the slowest samples were best at out-competing other sperm for space in storage for later insemination. See boys? Faster isn’t always better!
The Human Family Tree Grows
Blair’s Animal Corner
Dolphins are Snobs
Dolphins have been observed exhibiting what scientists are calling “culture,” meaning that they form associations with one-another based on their interests. In this case, the interest is “sponging,” or using a sea sponge to help find prey amongst pokey rocks. These “spongers” make up about 5% of the population, and dolphins appear to be able to identify fellow “spongers” even if they haven’t been seen using one. Those elitist dolphins…
And while we’re anthropomorphizing
We need to be careful about the words we use when talking about animal behavior. However, it is still important to be interesting enough for the public to be curious, or the entire endeavor is useless…
A quick note – Get your pertussis booster shot!
Get a free audiobook at Audible.com!
A Robot Hand
We have a face, some lips, a butt, skin that can feel, and now a hand. We are well on our way to a robot frankenstein!
Celebrities don’t always help endangered species…
Should we be upset that famous people with many faithful followers make jokes about animal cruelty in the social media info sphere? No, I’m asking YOU…
..and a quick word in memorium for the oldest Hippo ever…
Sarcasm?
Do you get it?
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I'm the host of this little science show. 
So we’re gonna have our Higgs boson party at 6.0?
Please consider the history of particle physics.
The discovery of a theorized particle is a rare and momentous event!
This candidate discovery is worthy of a party, indeed!
Consider also how special this 125 GeV particle is.
It’s a boson, but not a GAUGE BOSON! (Not spin-1)
Such a thing has never been seen before!
It is heavy enough to be the Standard Model Higgs, but not much heavier than necessary.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and tastes like a duck, then it’s the Higgs Boson!
The radical skepticism you hear from people like Justin is unscientific.
The Higgs doesn’t fit his picture of the world, so he wastes air time weasels around.
Kirsten, on the other hand, is paraphrasing the last paragraph of Sean Carroll’s article.
It was the least interesting paragraph.
The interesting news is that the two-photon discrepancy has gone down a bit.
Also, the sigma-value is so high, that further increases matter little.
Something is there, it’s no statistical artifact.
The question remains, what are the spin (0 or 2) and cross-section of this particle?
The LHC wasn’t designed to find out.
Stay tuned for the ILC.
http://www.linearcollider.org/
Thanks so much for playing a clip of Bye, Bye Higgs Boson on this episode! We’ll be releasing that song soon on our 7″ “Winter” record as part of our seasonally-tied series on life and science.
Sounds like we’ll all be replaced by robots pretty soon, but until then keep making science accessible and fun for everyone!
Ben Nixon
Locomotive Ghost