October 16th, 2015
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Chimeras Under Scrutiny, Silencing Shadowy PERVs, Digital Rats, Cretaceous Furball!, Zebra Chatter, Fruit Fly Nose, Skyrmions, Rearranging Bird Tree, What The Frack, Brain Booster, Tendency To Conspiracy, And Much More…
Chimeras Under Scrutiny
The US NIH has put a moratorium on funding research that involves injecting stem cells into embryos to see how they develop. Researchers are standing by.
Silencing Shadowy PERVs
PERVs, porcince endogenous retroviruses, cause a lot of trouble when it comes to transplanting pig organs into humans. Thanks to new research using CRISPR, the trouble may soon be overcome.
Digital Rats
The Blue Brain project has succeeded in digitally modelling a slice of rat brain.
The Cretaceous Furball
A new fossil find from 125 million years ago describes an early rat-sized mammal with many surprisingly modern traits.
Toxic runoff is killing coho – but there’s hope!
Runoff from roadways is killing coho salmon on the west coast when they travel upstream to spawn, often in less than 24 hours. The good news is that a cheap, easy filtration system renders the water virtually harmless! The question is, will we get these systems in place before the El Nino storms hit??
Zebra finches have a lot to say
Finch calls differ from time of year, to breeding receptiveness, to pair bonding. It turns out they are quite the little chatterboxes!!
The fruit fly nose knows.
Fruit flies leave chemical signals for each other to identify the best food and breeding grounds – which begs the question, what other insects do this as well??
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Rearranging Bird Tree
A new analysis of nearly 200 species has determined that the avian family tree should be redrawn. Turns out that it makes a lot of sense, too.
Skyrmions
A new form of spintronic memory storage under development at UC Davis might have finally left the lab.
Tendency To Conspiracy
Conspiracy theorists are no more likely to see patterns where there are none than other people. However, they are more likely to be left-leaning politically.
Alien Stars
Did aliens build a Dyson sphere?
Unexpected brain booster
Mismatched perceptual information might make our brains more perceptive and discerning according to new research.
What the Frack
More miscarriages occur in areas near fracking operations.
Lifelike robotic finger out of… Florida??
A process of heating and cooling runs this new technology that moves, looks, and feels like a real finger. Neat? Ew? Both?
Familiarity Frequency
Scientists are stimulating rat brains and changing the way they perceive novel or familiar pictures. The findings suggests that familiarity may simply come down to firing frequency.
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October 15th, 2015
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Nobel Prizes!, Giraffe Necks. Naledi Feet, The Cone Zone, Poop Mimicry, Nuptial Gifts, Chernobyl Cheer, Interview on Octopuses w/ Dr. Richard Ross, Psychic Robots, Stimulating Sex, And Much More…
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It has happened again.
Another campus, another mass shooting, another group of families grieving,
while we suffer another round of political chest pounding and promises
to do something, or vows to do nothing…
That it so often takes place while people are seeking education,
performing the act of learning.
An act that propagates knowledge from the past into the future.
The act of learning that preserves our understanding of the
world and maintains all of our collective history.
Education is birthright.
Without it we lose our science, our medicine, our technology,
our history, and our humanity.
It is the one right we share that truly keeps us safe,
and should be defended above all others.
And, if there is any more sacred place on this planet than a classroom,
I’ve not seen it.
Hopefully we won’t end this latest lesson with yet another
moment of silence…
Too much is at stake to make that mistake again.
This week in science…
Coming up next
Nobel Prizes!
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Thomas Lindahl, Aziz Sancar, and Paul Modrich for their work in elucidating DNA repair mechanisms. The Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which show that neutrinos have mass. And, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura for their work on a treatment for roundworm infections, and to Youyu Tou for her discoveries about a malaria treatment.
Giraffe Necks
Elongation of the giraffe’s neck didn’t happen all at once, but rather in stages over evolutionary time.
Homo naledi feet telling us much about it’s strut
Feet and hands of an ancient human ancestor suggest that standing and walking upright was normal, but so was climbing trees.
Speeding up in the cone zone
Researchers have succeed in producing photoreceptors from human embryonic stem cells. When will we be able to fix blindness that results from macular degeneration?
Dung beetles: the ruse of false refuse
Plants have managed to make their seeds appear to be dung, thereby using beetles to disperse and plant their progeny.
That ain’t no box o chocolates
Decorator crickets give a special “nuptial gift” to females before sperm transfer, and it turns out that gift may alter key chemical processes in the female, even making her less likely to mate with others – now THAT is an aphrodisiac!
Chernobyl less disruptive than humans
Wildlife is thriving at the site of Chernobyl, despite radiation issues. It appears that the presence of humans is worse than a massive nuclear disaster…
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Interview with Dr. Richard Ross, Senior Biologist at the Steinhart Aquarium in the California Academy of Sciences in honor of World Octopus Day, which was celebrated on October 8th (Get it? Octopus… October? 8 legs… the 8th?). We talked about cephalopods in general, but specifically discussed the mating habits of the Larger Pacific striped octopus. Interesting stuff!
And, more science news…
Cactus: the new panda
Cacti are among the largest groups of endangered species, and people need to know.
Psychic Robots!
Researchers are developing algorithms that can determine your intentions, and act on them.
Raven Cooperation
They do cooperate, but not with everyone.
Sex Is Stimulating!
Two studies investigating the effect of sexual activity on the female immune system found that women who engage in sexual activity have specific changes to immune system protein and antibodies that are not seen in abstinent women.
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October 2nd, 2015
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Tears Of Mars, Moon Water, Big Dry Trees, New CRISPR Tool, A Viral Tree, Fake Blood, Bee Tongues, Fish Lovin’, Light Damage, BRAINy News, Memory Prosthetics, No Gravitational Waves, Proper Speaking, Sex Acts, Light Sabers, And Much More…
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If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break…
Yes if it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break
When the levee breaks…
we got water on Mars!
Pack your bags kids, turn off the pilot light,
drop the pets off at the neighbors!
Tell the boss so long,
cancel my subscription to the resurrection,
put on your shades, and free your caged bird.
Mars-ifest-destiny!
Spread the word…
We… Are… outta here!!!!
Well…
maybe not all of us, and not anytime soon.
But, the discovery of free flowing water on mars has opened up
the possibility of human colonization of a second planet in our solar system…
And, regardless of how you answer the question:
Would you go?
Enough of us will say yes to the challenge ahead that one day…
One historic day that is already echoing into its past…
Mankind will settle the red planet.
And when we do, the one thing we will thank for getting us there is
The week in week out work of scientists.
And nowhere else does the does the week in week out work
of scientists echo more loudly than
This week in science…
Coming up next
Tears Of Mars
NASA announced that salty water has been discovered flowing on the surface of Mars. What does this mean for the possibility of life on Mars?
Water on the moon too…
Not just hiding in cold, dark shadows, water appears to be more available on the moon than previously thought, AND it came from asteroids.
Big Dry Trees
A study published in Nature indicates that large trees suffer the most during droughts. This is bad news since bigger trees significantly affect ecosystems and carbon storage.
New CRISPR Tool
A new protein called Cpf1 that is able to cut human DNA – potentially with greater accuracy than Cas9 – has been discovered by scientists at the Broad Institute, and might lead to scientific and intellectual property advances in the field.
Virus tree of life…
New evidence adds more strength to the idea that viruses might be alive.
Fake blood from under the sea…
Do the oxygen-binding components in deep-diving whales have the potential to revolutionize the artificial blood field?
Bees evolving quick and dirty to survive climate change
High altitude bees have lost half their tongue length to survive with new flora moving skyward, showing they may make it through this dramatic change – but it’s not looking so good for the flowers!!
Fish know how to treat their lovers
Rabbitfish “watch eachothers’ backs” when feeding – proving a complex social behavior that was previously not expected in these cold, scaly, unintelligent creatures…
Artificial light hurts more than migratory birds
Wallabies are troubled by artificial light coming in from urban areas – what is it doing to us, then??
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BRAINy News
Certain lifestyle and cognition abilities suggest that your brain may be connected to talk to itself while at rest.
Memory Prosthetic
A new device may be on the way to help people with damage to the hippocampal brain regions form new memories.
How height makes you more, or less sexually active
Researchers used self-reported data on number of lifetime sexual partners to look for a link between height and BMI and sex in humans.
Missing Gravitational Waves
The latest experiment in the search for gravitational waves has come up empty handed.
Many Layered Comet
Comet 67P is probably made up of two comets that collided at some point in the past. Additionally, it is eroding from the periodic build up and melt of ice in the shadows on its surface.
Giving pause to proper speaking
Proper pauses in speech make it easier for people to understand you.
Portabella batteries
Engineers are creating carbon nanofibers for energy storage out of mushrooms.
Great news for tazzies!!
First vaccinated tasmanian devils have been released into the wild – this could be an amazing success story after a nearly 100% fatal disease began spreading across the species!
One step closer to a light saber
Be afriad… be very afraid… OF SHOUTYBLAIR WITH A LIGHT SABER!! Or, not. It’s still going to take a lot of work to miniaturize the tech to light saber size.
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September 24th, 2015
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Stressful Science, Urine From A Pig, Personal Microbe Space, Old Climatia News, Giant Killer Lizards, Nurture Effects Nature, Death By Noise, Nanobot Helpers, Rethinking Memory, Polar-saurus, Stingy Rich, Mystery Afoot!!, Humming Giraffes!, Dangerous Spanish Fly, And Much More…
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As the pope landed on US soil today,
the media excitement
around the visit was pope-able.
What most interested those science minded observers,
was the amount of discourse given to the popes message on global warming…
He even published a paper on the subject,
not in a scientific journal,
but rather an encyclical…
which is a sort of required reading for all bishops within the church entitled
“Our care for our common home”
Which reads very much like a scientific synopsis of the
issues and dangers of global warming.
In the past this pope has even confirmed his belief
in the big bang and the process of evolution.
But what brings a pontiff to pontificate so prolifically on scientific subjects?
long before being called into priesthood…
long before being summoned to step in as standard bearer of the holy see…
The now Pope Francis, then was a student of science and
worked as a food chemist.
And once a scientist… always…
you will understand that science works, and is awesome.
So before we can be too irritated that a man of god is
heard, where thousands of men and women of science were ignored…
Let us appreciate the message getting heard…
the messenger for delivering it…
And the power that an early education in science can have on
the world here on
This Week In Science…
Coming up Next
Stressful Science
Several labs working together have determined that cellular stress was the source of error in last year’s fantastical and retracted STAP cell papers that resulted in the resignation of one researcher and the suicide of fanother. Some cell types glow faintly, so-called autofluorescence, when stressed out.
Urine From A Pig
Japanese researchers have grown working kidneys from human stem cells with a urine excretion system composed of ureters and a bladder, and shown them to work in mice and pigs.
Personal Microbe Space
You are surrounded by a unique microbial cloud. In effect, we are all Pig Pen.
Global Warming is nothing new…
We’ve been seeing the signs for decades.
Giant killer lizards of Australia…
They once roamed the continent, possibly terrorizing the Aboriginal people as they populated the new land.
Nurture effects nature, when it comes to parenting.
Good parents beget good parents, and good dads are likely to be exploited by bad moms.
Noise could KILL YOU
Turn that radio down, and move to the suburbs! Birds exposed to high levels of noise had noticeable shorter telomeres, meaning potentially shorter lives – but why?
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De-carbonating the oceans with nano-bots
Researchers are designing nanobots that could reverse the process of ocean acidification.
Rethinking Memory
Do we really understand how memories are recalled? Recent work using amnestics suggests that the drugs don’t wipe our memories, but rather add themselves to the memory mix. Memories remembered while given an amnestic were more likely to be recalled when on the amnestic again.
Polar-Saurus…
It’s an Arctic dino discovery!
Rich And Stingy
The rich think about sharing finances differently than everyone else.
Mystery Afoot!!
People have a lot of trouble telling their toes apart. Weird stuff! (Now everyone prod each other’s toes)
Humming Giraffes!
Giraffes hum at night.
Dangerous Spanish Fly
Don’t eat beetles on a dare is the moral of the story. Also, Spanish fly is a real thing, and it causes kidney damage.
Do You Hear?
Or see? Musicians hear music when they read it.
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Tags: Blair Bazdarich, Dr. Kiki, Justin Jackson, Kirsten Sanford, new media, news, Patreon, podcast, radio, science, science news, science podcast, talk, technology, This Week in Science, TWIS
Posted in animals, anthropology, arthropods, australia bashing, bioethics, bioethics, biology, biotechnology, birds, cell biology, chemistry, cognitive psychology, cognitive science, crustaceans, ecology, emergent behavior, end of the world, engineering, evolution, genetics, global warming, insects, KDVS, mammals, marine biology, medicine, microbiology, molecular biology, nanotechnology, neuroscience, paleontology, pharmacology, physiology, podcast, psychology, recreational drugs, reptiles, robots, science, science and politics, Science Education, science history, Science Music, sexy scientists, stem cells, technology, therapies, world robot domination, z-Broadcasts | No Comments »
September 18th, 2015
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Another Hominid?, Oats For Paleos!, Global Oceans, Viral Babies, Panda Upside, Caterpillar Poop, Monogamy And Bird Love, Pheromoned Fruit Flies, Ultrasound For Brains, Basque Links, Cholesterol Trouble, Colliding Black Holes, School Lunch Redux, Prothesis With Feeling, And Much More…
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Science is wrong!
Well, not wrong so much as, perhaps woefully incomplete…
And by woefully I maybe should have said enjoyably…
Yes science is enjoyably incomplete.
If we knew it all, if all mysteries that could be solved had been solved,
then what a boring world it would be…
So boring in fact that its inhabitants could only be
dullards content with a world where knowledge never changes…
or mad men, who’s questioning nature has driven them to delusion,
frustrated that every question has an answer, giving them nothing interesting
to think about…
Maybe I should have said thankfully…
Yes, thankfully science is incomplete…
And there are so many avenues of scientific inquiry left to drive down…
Even when we make a wrong turn, we might enjoy a discovery
or two…
And while scientific discoveries don’t just fall from the sky
They sometimes do…
Like a meteor fragment, or a neutrino from a distant star…
Other times we must climb, crawl and dig our way to new knowledge
Like a new dinosaur fossil… or a new species of human
recently discovered that…
Wait… another new species of human was discovered?
Thankfully it’s time for This Week in Science
Coming up next…
Another Hominid For the Tree
In a deep, hard to reach cave in Africa, the bones of a new hominid species and potential human ancestor have been found.
Oats For Paleos!
Evidence of oat and grain processing during Paleolithic times suggests that the Paleo diet did consist in part of these starchy foods.
Global Oceans
The Saturnian moon Enceladus holds a vast ocean beneath its frozen surface separating the crust from the core.
Babies go viral…
Lots of viruses on and in newborns. Who knew? But, why?
The other upside of Panda conservation
Protection of other species!!!
Catepillar poop fools plants
The poop, or “frass,” tricks the plant into thinking it is being attacked by a fungus, not eaten, and thus the pesky insect can feast on the now defenseless plant.
Pheromones – they’re not just for attraction anymore.
It turns out that the genes related to pheremone production in fruit flies are also related to fertility. What’s more, when their pheremones are not acting as they should, all flies in the area have lower fertility. Competition is required to have babies, so it seems…
Secret to penguins’ success with monogamy: Lots and lots of alone time.
Rockhopper penguins have successful monogamous pairings due in part to the fact that they spend 3/4 of the year apart. Sounds like these penguins don’t get lonely!
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Ultrasound For Brains
Devising a method similar to optogenetics, where nerves are stimulated by light, scientists have used ultrasound to stimulate the nerves in a simple flatworm. Could this method be used to stimulate deep structures in the human brain?
Where did the Basque people come from?
Ancient genomes link early farmers to Basques.
Cholesterol And The Brain
A new target for Alzheimer’s disease research has been discovered. Based on recent mouse trials, human trials are proposed to retrovirally infect sufferers with a gene to increase production of an enzyme that breaks down cholesterol into a form that can be removed from a brain.
Let the school lunch drama continue – kids need longer lunch periods!
Students given at least 25 minutes to sit and eat (after traveling to the cafeteria, waiting in line, and rushing through to get time to play) consume more healthy foods and less garbage foods. Longer lunches, people!!
When black holes collide
Astronomers are observing two black holes slowly collide. In the process, they are producing what appears to be an oscillating quasar as they orbit around one another into oblivioun. Expected impact in 100,000 years.
Prosthesis With Feeling
DARPA research has shown that sensory information from a prosthetic hand can be conveyed back to the sensory cortex of the brain to provide useful information to the user.
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September 11th, 2015
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Far Away Galaxies, Common Structures, Magnetic Wormholes, Golden Science, Metal-Eating Microbes, Froggy Love Songs, Froggy Sex Mess, New Reef discovery, Midwife Magic, Baby Brains, Monkey Brains, Sisters For Rhinos, Irreproducible Results, Life Makes Clouds, Life Kills Life, And Much More…
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The world of man is a world of bias…
Be it racial, gender, political, body type, age, height,
birth nation or religious affiliation…
Bias abounds… and as the new NFL season approaches,
it’s peak bias season for the world of Football
And in football we can see clearly the bias of hope
that comes with rooting for the home team.
32 teams begin to do battle this week…
Each will play 16 games in their attempt to be the best.
No matter how well one team does, or how poorly another performs.
The league average will be 8 wins and 8 losses… a tie or two doesn’t change that much.
That’s just how math works, the NFL is no exception.
And yet, collective polling across the sport found home team
fans predicting an average of nearly 10 wins per team.
Journalists assigned to certain teams faired a little better
at about 9 wins per team…
Either way the sports fans and the experts are bound to be
at least a little disappointed on average…
But in science we seek to find answers unbiased by man…
The scientific method is designed to allow us to see a world
simply as it is…
As complicated as that can get…
In labs around the world, results are only as good as their
methods and methods are only as ggod as their execution… in science, it’s the
system, not the team or individual players that matter…
That is until game day… when research results light up the
TWIS-o-Tron, the fans go wild and a cheerleader starts a chant of…
This Week In Science…
Coming up next.
Far Away Galaxies
500 million years after the Big Bang, there were possibly 10 times as many primordial galaxies previously estimated, according to a new analysis of light from the Hubble telescope.
Common Structures
An analysis of protein interactions has found common structure and interactions across species for over 1000 proteins, showing the common blueprint for all kinds of structures.
Magnetic Wormholes
So, they aren’t really wormholes, but rather devices wherein the path between magnetic monopoles is magnetically undetectable.
Science is golden…
New use for gold in discovering pathogenic dna
Metal Eating microbes = life on earth?
Froggy Love is Complicated
Female tungara frogs know what they like, and have no problem evaluating which suitor is best. Until, that is, you give them a choice between 3 instead of 2. Suddenly they do not pick the best option – but why?!
Female Frogs on the Upturn
Feminization of frogs isn’t just in industrial areas, they also seem to be on the rise in areas with suburban gardens, meaning their endocrine system may be way more sensitive than we thought
Newly discovered reef rivals great barrier
This new reef could have a greater biodiversity than the famous Great Barrier Reef – which just proves what wonders still wait to be discovered in the deep blue…
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The value of midwifery
C-Section rates drop when midwives are made available.
Baby Brains
Recording from baby heads, scientists find that different areas of the motor and ensory cortex are activated by touch, movement, and viewing of others.
Monkey Brains
Researchers found evidence that the macaque brain is set up to connect face-detecting brain areas with other information and emotion processing areas, suggesting that the human ability to infer emotions goes way back.
Sisters are doing it on their own… For rhinos!
Mostly female anti-poaching unit wins UN environmental prize
Reproducing results of climate change denier studies…
It doesn’t work.
Ocean Cloud Life
Photosynthetic organisms in the oceans release compounds into the atmosphere that cause cloud formation.
Critters Created Catastrophe
The burst of life during the Cambrian explosion possibly gave rise to the first mass extinction the world saw with the death of the Ediacarians.
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September 4th, 2015
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Psychology Studies Repeated, Drop CO2 Cuz It’s Hot, CO@ Gas?, Wyoming Crocs?, Seahorse Mommy-Daddy, Self- Medicating Bees, Visualizing Echolocation, Radioactive Coal Ash, Runner’s No-Fat High, Fat And Guts, Bronze Age Brass, Biological Potential, Get Some Sleep!, And Much More…
Disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer!
It’s time for a dose of reality. For millennia, humans have searched for the answers to life’s eternal questions, and I have one of them right here. Why are humans different from other forms of life on this planet?
The answers have been varied over the centuries; some philosophers pointed to our creation and appreciation of art, others our conscience, and yet more said it was our use of language, or our superior intellect.
And time and time again, science has shined a light on the natural world, and then back at humankind, and shown how perhaps we are not so superior; perhaps we are not so different. Art? elephants can create artwork, and show preference for some pieces over others. Conscience? Many social animals protect each other and act selflessly; rats will rescue friends in peril, while monkeys will share food when they receive no reward. Language? Birds build songs just as we use words, and one african grey had a larger lexicon than most of us. The last bastion was our intellect – we, certainly have greater brain power than the beasts that roam the wild!
But, as we discovered last week, certain monkeys can master fractions, better than many of us ever will. Fractions, people! So what is it? What do we have that the others do not? What makes us special? Are we even special? One thing stands between us and the wild. One thing has brought us our modern conveniences, our technologies, our complex societies, our medicines, and even our view of ourselves – the same thing that has also been used to prove we are not so dissimilar – SCIENCE. Science has taught us how much the same we all are, and in turn has set us apart. We do science, we live science, and we talk science… On This Week in Science, coming up next!!
Psychology Studies Repeated
In the Center for Open Science’s massive effort to replicate 100 psychology experiments, the results are in… and fewer than half of the studies could be repeated successfully. The results suggest that replication should be more of a focus in science, and that no single study should be taken as the last word on anything.
Drop CO2 Cuz It’s Hot
A new estimate of future temperatures and CO2 levels using more complicated computer climate models than were utilized for the IPCC report (i.e. taking more variables into account) suggests that climate will continue to warm longer than expected even if we reduce CO2 emissions as prescribed.
Tracking crocodiles in Wyoming and Canada
Yes, crocodiles. Yes, that kind of crocodile. Yes, Wyoming and Canada… yes that Canada… all thanks to a potential blanket of clouds.
CO2 into natural gas?
A new cheap and efficient method of turning waste CO2 into natural gas using solar energy looks promising for long-term energy needs.
Seahorses and humans have something in common, and it’s pregnancy
New research shows that what male seahorses and female humans provide for their babies during pregnancy is actually very similar, adding something new to the list of “convergent traits.”
Self-medicating bees
Bees infected with parasites favor a certain compound found in some of their favorite flowers, essentially self-administering medicine.
Echolocation seen clearly
Bats have given us a little bit of a better idea on how echolocation works – they play to their strengths, and avoid the areas they’re not great at “seeing.”
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Coal might make you glow
Radioactive coal ash is currently unregulated, and a new study suggests that those coal ash waste ponds might be even more dangerous than we thought.
Runner’s No-Fat High
Turns out low levels of leptin, which is produced by fat cells, might be the driving force behind the Runner’s High. It’s not a high, your body just wants you to go find food.
Fat And Guts
Mice fed a lard-based diet gained more weight than controls fed a fish oil diet, and showed signs of inflammation and metabolic disease. Microbes seem to hold the key to this metabolic disaster.
Bronze age brass gets 3-d printering job
No butts about it… the irish were musical folks.
Blueberry Beats Biofilm
An analysis of blueberry extract as a therapeutic agent against periodontal disease causing bacteria demonstrated significant antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects.
Wasps Against Cancer
Wasp venom contains a compound that is a potent destroyer of tumor cells. Turns out that the effect depends on a strange conformation of the tumor cell membrane that differentiates them from normal cells.
Pthalate Association
While only an association, scientists have detected a correlation between pthalate blood levels and risk of miscarriage.
We’re in the wrong galaxy…
Ellipticals are probably better for fostering life.
Jurassic National Park
We are for it!
Timing of sleep just as important as the amount
Mice who got plenty of sleep, but at an unusual time, had more trouble fighting off illness. Yet another reason to pay shift workers more…
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Tags: Blair Bazdarich, Dr. Kiki, Justin Jackson, Kirsten Sanford, new media, news, Patreon, podcast, radio, science, science news, science podcast, science radio, talk, technology, This Week in Science, TWIS
Posted in alternative energy, animals, anthropology, arthropods, astrobiology, astronomy, astronomy, biology, cancer, cell biology, chemistry, cognitive psychology, cognitive science, conservationism, cosmology, ecology, emergent behavior, end of the world, energy, engineering, evolution, exploration, fish, galaxies, genetics, global warming, insects, KDVS, mammals, marine biology, medicine, molecular biology, nutrition, paleontology, pharmacology, physiology, podcast, psychobiology, psychology, science, science and politics, Science Education, science history, Science Music, sexuality, sexy scientists, sleep, solar power, space, space exploration, technology, therapies, z-Broadcasts | No Comments »
August 27th, 2015
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:22:58 — 76.4MB)
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One Jab To Rule, Evolution And Vaccines, No Omega-3 Benefits, Skydiving Spiders, Pestering Guppies, Monkey Brains for Fractions, Fusion Power Headway?, Hawking Information, Kids Lunch, Mendelian MS + D, Female Viagra Approved!, And Much More…
Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer…
You’ve come a long way, baby. On a summer’s eve, no less…
And, yes, ladies, I’m talking to you.
From once being told we could only be mothers, or teachers, or secretaries.
Or, being told to mind our p’s and q’s.
From cinching corsets tightly almost every nightly
And, pinching cheeks to blush
in the hopes that a dashing young man would sweep us off our feet.
And, yes, that was why we went to college in the first place.
Now, we get to have desire.
Thank you FDA for making female desire ok.
Thanks you for validating a lifetime of orgasms of the female persuasion.
We were waiting for you.
But, not really, you sillies.
We are scientists.
We are managers of our own lives.
We will desire where and when we please,
And, without a black box warning if so we choose.
We will educate ourselves.
And, the next generation
to be stronger and wiser than you ever expected from the weaker sex.
Hats off to you, ladies of the world,
on this Women’s Equality Day.
We have faith that you will do more
and live better than you ever thought you could
with or without the female viagra
Here on This Week in Science
Coming up next…
One Jab To Rule
The universal flu vaccine is on its way. Two papers this week report different methods of creating a vaccine using an important and relatively unvariable protein from the H1N1 flu virus strain. Both were 100% effective in protecting mice from the deadly and distantly related H5N1 strain.
Evolution And Vaccines
But, what happens when vaccines are not 100% effective? A recent analysis suggests that imperfect vaccines that allow for disease transmission from vaccinated yet infected hosts promote evolutionary responses that could eventually render those vaccines useless.
No Omega-3 Benefits
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found absolutely no benefit from taking fish-derived omega-3 supplements on aging-related cognitive health.
Monkeys have an innate sense for fractions… Unlike your third-grader…
Monkeys can easily identify fractions and compare them, even with mixed denominators. Now how can we get our human children to understand?!
Skydiving spiders
Need I say more? These spiders can steer to their home tree when in free-fall. I am never going to Peru.
Pestering guppy men help females tone muscle
Male guppies that gave females a hard time actually forced them to build up the muscles and endurance to outswim them later in life. Now there’s a whole new reason to go to the gym!
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Fusion Power Headway?
As reported by Science’s News portal, a company called Tri-Alpha Energy has succeeded in creating a device to contain plasma using a field-reversed configuration for 5msecs with no deterioration. Their goal is to increase the temperature and power input to succeed in creating hydrogen-boron fusion. They have their work cut out for them, but seem to be ahead of the startup pack.
Hawking Information
Stephen Hawking says he has solved the information paradox of black holes. He posits information is stored as a hologram of material that has entered the black hole at its event horizon. As photons escape they randomly transfer some of that information back into the universe. Information escapes, it’s just totally and completely useless to us.
NEWS FLASH: Children hate fruits and veggies
Despite requirements for students to pick up fruit or veggie items from the lunch line, the majority of those items end up in the trash before the students even sit down at the lunch table. So, how do we get them to eat their broccoli?!
Mendelian MS + D
Researchers have linked genetic susceptibility to low vitamin D levels to one’s risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS).
Female Viagra Approved!
With a black box warning… don’t drink and desire.
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Tags: Blair Bazdarich, Dr. Kiki, Justin Jackson, Kirsten Sanford, new media, news, Patreon, podcast, radio, science, science news, science podcast, talk, technology, This Week in Science, TWIS
Posted in alternative energy, animals, anthropology, arthropods, astrophysics, avian flu, bioethics, bioethics, biology, biotechnology, Black Holes, cancer, clinical trials, ecology, emergent behavior, energy, engineering, evolution, FDA, fish, fusion power, genetics, infectious diseases, KDVS, mammals, marine biology, medicine, molecular biology, nanotechnology, nutrition, pharmacology, physicists, physics, physiology, podcast, robots, science, science and politics, Science Education, science history, Science Music, sexuality, sexy scientists, sleep, space, technology, theoretical physics, therapies, wormholes, z-Broadcasts | No Comments »
