February 1st, 2012
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Jumping Neutrons, Trojan Tactics, Avian Illusions, Splitting Bonobos, Atomic X-ray Lasers, Lingering Lineages, Money For Values, Group Think, And Much More…
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A hundred years ago we thought the universe was a really big place.
But we were wrong.
As it turns out, what we thought was the universe was but a single galaxy called the Milky Way.
Since then we’ve discovered billions upon billions of galaxies
And now we know with certainty that the universe is really, really, really, a whole lot bigger than anything we could have previously conceived of and even now that we know the scope of the scale of the thing… it still boggles our ability to comprehend.
Seventy sextillion stars in the known universe at present, and by some estimates even this number falls far short of the full accounting…
The basis of human comprehension in earth bound terms, is hard wired to conceive of scale in terms of comparisons… a dolphin is big when compared to a mouse, a planet is big when compared to a computer, our solar system is quite massive when compared to a grain of sand…
And 70 sextillion solar systems in the known universe makes our solar system but one grain of sand compared to all the grains of sand from all the beaches on planet earth…
Or ten trillion stars for every human being alive today. 700 billion stars for every human that has ever lived in the history of the planet.
And while the day to day push and pull of our earthly days plays out under but one sun, we can see far beyond our own terms of existence now… and in doing so have unlocked a point of perspective in our thinking is truly beyond compare…
The star stuff that we are made of is everywhere, and everywhere is big, even when it’s all in your head here on…This week in science… coming up next…
Do neutrons trip the light fantastic?
Neutrons might jump between universes. There are ways that we could actually test whether these neutrons take alternate universe vacations, which would potentially indicate existence of other universes. Far out, dude…
Trojan viruses
Trojan horse tactics have been discovered in viruses against bacteria. Viruses trick bacteria with what looks like a gift, but is actually a copy of their own genes to duplicate. They are then destroyed after the job is done. Harsh, but effective – not unusual for a virus.
Dating trickery
Great bower birds from Australia have a very specific way of organizing their trinkets within the avenue of their bower. It appears that they orient the stones from smallest to largest, to create an optical illusion. There is an almost perfect correlation between mating success and the smoothness of the gradient of the orientation of the stones. Are the girls getting confused, impressed, or hypnotized by this parlor trick?
Bonobo tame thyself
What led to the split between bonobos and their close cousin (and ours), chimpanzees? The differences between the two species are paralleled by the differences between domestic and wild animals. A new theory states that an environmental divide could have caused a large variance in environmental pressures which in turn resulted in different social behaviors that affected mating choices.
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Are you reading along with the TWIS Bookclub? This month, check out ‘Fool Me Twice’ by Shawn Lawrence Otto.
I’ve got… an atomic x-ray gun…
In 1967, a prediction was made that an atomic x-ray gun could be fabricated. After a long wait, we have one. Each powerful x-ray pulse is one billion times brighter than any before.
Mommy?
Through analysing mitochondrial DNA, we can look closer at who exactly is related to whom. Native Americans appear to share ancestry from Siberia, Mongolia, and Southern Asia.
Sacred values
How much do you think your sense of right and wrong is worth? There is a distinct cognitive process for problem solving within the brain that helps us to decide when to violate our own personal morals. In fact, we use cost-benefit analysis. However, we all have our own “high value” or “sacred” beliefs that cost more to betray.
Also, small group dynamics can reduce your IQ!
When we work together, do we get less intelligent?
Can Black holes boost super-civilizations
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Tags: Dr. Kiki, Justin Jackson, Kirsten Sanford, news, podcast, radio, science, talk, technology, This Week in Science, TWIS, TWIS Bookclub
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January 24th, 2012
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Serial Killer Math, Permafrost Problems, Happy Meals?, Snake Senses, Creepy Cold Fingers, Interview W/ Eugenie Scott From NCSE, And Much More…
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This week in science… coming up next…
The math of a serial killer
UCLA scientists have analyzed the behavior of a serial killer in the Ukraine – they believe that a pattern in neuron firing influenced the timing of his murders. When new serial killers are discovered, can we predict when they will murder again?
Permafrost Problems
Carbon Dioxide and Methane were found trapped in permafrost – as the polar ice caps melt, more greenhouse gasses will be released into the atmosphere.
happy meals
Blair’s Animal House
Two stories this week about animals! Energy Conservation tactics within extreme feeding adaptations in:
Snakes
Snakes can sense their prey’s heartbeat, so they can acquire their food with as little strength and time of constriction as possible.
And Aye-Ayes
Aye-Ayes can restrict blood flow to those creepy extra-long middle fingers when not in use, so as to reduce heat loss through the large surface area of the digit.
Get a free audiobook at Audible.com!
Are you reading along with the TWIS Bookclub? This month, check out ‘Fool Me Twice’ by Shawn Lawrence Otto.
Interview with Eugenie C. Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education
– NCSE tackles Climate Change –
NCSE is known for its defense of evolution-inclusive science curricula, but recently announced that they are expanding their assistance to cover climate change. NCSE hired some climate scientists to help them in their quest to spread “good science,” and they hope to bring scientific literacy to youth in the US. Unfortunately, there are people who would like to push forward bills that would prohibit or inhibit the instruction of climate change in schools. Science alone cannot stop climate change, so we need more people to believe and understand the issue in order for them to help initiate change. Best of luck to NCSE!
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Tags: Dr. Kiki, Eugenie Scott, Justin Jackson, Kirsten Sanford, NCSE, news, podcast, radio, science, talk, technology, This Week in Science, TWIS, TWIS Bookclub
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January 19th, 2012
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TDR TB!, Frying E. Coli, Food In Science, Extreme Caffeine, Extinct Tortoises Exist, Protein Resurrection, Lots Of Stars, Cheap DNA Sequencing, Andromeda Up Close, Guns And A-holes, And Much More…
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The world as we know it is not the world as it is but the world as we have learned it
This learning of the world which we people engage in comes in several basic forms which can then be sub-categorize-able and infinitely cross referenced throughout a lifetime
Pulling from memory, from experience, from structured study, from second hand here-say, and from circumspect suspicion of nostalgic superstitious notions… we form knowledge of the world.
Making how we learn as important as what we learn…
Over many tens of thousands of years we humans have been learning and this has led to many interesting conclusions, almost all of which had to be proven wrong in order for the right answers to be found…
And finding the right answers became the passion and purpose of generations of scientists, working out the facts, trimming off the false…
Until we reached the modern age of knowing the world!
A world that still has as much room for exploration as there are minds ready to explore it…
And if this wasn’t enough, we have discovered that for every one of the 70 sextillion stars in the newly known universe, there are several more worlds in orbit around them…
It seems the work of knowing about a world… has just begun
Just like this week in science… coming up next
TDR TB!
WHO found drug resistant TB last spring. Predicted 2 million cases of MDR (first-choice drug resistant) and XDR (resistant to three first-line drugs) by 2012. Instead, we’ve now found TDR TB… that is to say, totally drug resistant TB.
Frying E. coli
“A short burst of low voltage” could kill even large amounts of e. coli in meat that has been contaminated. The method promises a way to sterilize beef without harsh chemicals. Could this be used for other hazardous bacterium in other food products?
Food in Science…
Cheese
The fungus on cheeses with thick rinds could be isolated to coat household surfaces to keep it clean. Cheese-counter, anyone?
Salmon
Isolated DNA from Salmon could be used as “memory/data storage.”
What other examples of food being used in science do you know about? Let us know! Email me at kirsten@thisweekinscience.com or post a comment on our website.
Extreme caffeine
A new study shows that people who drink four or more cups of coffee a day have a 50% less chance of developing Type II Diabetes.
Get a free audiobook at Audible.com!
Are you reading along with the TWIS Bookclub? This month, check out ‘Fool Me Twice’ by Shawn Lawrence Otto.
Finding extinct tortoises
A thought-to-be-extinct lineage of Galapagos Tortoise has been found again! That-is, one-fifth of all Galapagos tortoises sampled had DNA from this lineage. In fact, the DNA from many of the tortoises indicated they were first-generation hybrids, so these tortoises should still be around (even though we can’t find them), as they live around 150 years!
And, ancient molecules
A “timeline of protein history” was developed by analyzing single-fold proteins. The first appearance of aerobic processes in organisms occurred around the same time as the first oxygen-generating enzyme – manganese catalase. This most-likely was produced in response to a high level of hydrogen peroxide in glacial melts.
Many Earths
The majority of the 100 billion stars in the milky way have planets like Earth, Venus, Mercury or Mars. The estimate is that 10 billion of these stars appear to have planets in the “habitable zone.”
Affordable DNA sequencing???
The $1000 genome has arrived! The “Ion Proton Sequencer” should be available within a year and could sequence your genome within a day. Will more readily available DNA sequencing revolutionize medicine?
Hubble Sees Andromeda
The Hubble Telescope has taken the sharpest visible-light image ever made of an external galaxy. Andromeda actually has a “double nucleus” due to a super-massive black hole.
Thank you NCBI ROFL. Guns and people.
A recent study concluded through saliva testing that interaction with guns most likely makes you more aggressive.
Climate change
And, scientists completed the world’s largest quantum calculation taking 84 qubits and 270 milliseconds.
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January 11th, 2012
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Happy New Science Year!!! Celebrity Science Stumbles, TWIS Recaps 2011 Predictions, Predicts 2012, And Much More…
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Swaddled in election year politics,
Nursing on the bosom of post war recovery
The newborn year has arrived
And the future looks bright by the light of those eyes…
Even with a diaper full of debt
The new year offers new opportunities to engage in humanity’s most sacred of duties.
To learn… to teach what we have learned… and to pursue new knowledge
For just like a newborn baby, knowledge is a living thing.
And just like human reproduction, knowledge must constantly be reproduced in order to survive.
It must be communicated in order continue, encouraged in order to grow, and performed in order thrive.
When we do this, the knowledge of one becomes the knowledge of the many.
There is then no greater principal we can aspire to than this.
To produce more than we consume.
It is a method and model of intellectual sustainability that we seek to engage in each week here on
This week in science… coming up next.
Some celebrity science stumbles
We also recapped our 2011 predictions… just how well did we do???
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We predict the science for 2012! Let us know what you think below…
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January 1st, 2012
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Merry TWISmas And A Happy New Year! TWIS Recaps The Top 11 Science Stories Of 2011…
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On this week’s show: we have 11 stories. The science stories that we feel are the cream of the crop from the past year… the TWIS Top 11.
Number 11:
– Quantum teleportation
– entanglement
– light from nothing
Number 10:
– The fight against aging, or The year of the vampire
Number 9:
The fight against diseases!!!
– HIV antiretroviral treatment
– Malaria vaccine
– MIT universal virus cure
– avian flu fiasco
– Black death bacteria identified
Number 8:
– Fracking
Number 7: Taking a new look
– The Big Splat
– Dark matter
– New standard candle
– hayabusa
Get a free audiobook at Audible.com!
Number 6:
– robots replacing us (Watson, lab AI, hypothesis generator)
– or, the robots will be us – – carbon nanotubes make synapse… bionics…
Number 5:
– Humans did it –
– microbiome
Number 4: The Earth…
– Arctic sea ice loss
– Extreme weather
Number 3:
– LHC finds a particle … and the search for the Higgs
– Trapping antimatter
Number 2:
– Potentially FTL neutrinos
Number 1: Planets
– Kepler and Earthlike (potentially habitable) planets
– Mercury Messenger
– New Dawn
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December 27th, 2011
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Merry TWISmas!!!, LHC Finds Chi, Fluoride Fighters, Neti Dangers, Maggot Medicine FTW!, Buffed Mole Rats, Techie Devices, Universal Validation, RNA Magic, Floating Drugs, And Much More…
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‘Twas the night before Twismas, when all thro’ the house,
Many studies were stirring, even one on a mouse;
The stories were stacked by the webcam with care,
In hopes that their moment soon would be there;
The minions were nestled all snug in their beds,
While science-y visions danc’d in their heads,
And Kirsten with her baby, and I with my pabst,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap-
When out on the internet arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my slumber to see what was the matter.
Away to my windows I flew like a kite,
Clicked open the browsers, and signed into my skype.
The tweeters were a twitter, the inbox was full
Facebook was liking it, Google was too
According to NASA, something new had appeared
A satellite tracking of a sleigh and rein-deer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I thought for a moment it must be a trick.
For much faster than photons this UFO came,
And whistled, and shouted, and call’d out by name:
“Now! Copernicus, now! Newton, now! Einstein, and Bohr,
“On! Darwin, on! Huxley, on! Watson and Crick;
I read he exclaimed this, then I got a text
Happy Twis mas to all from this week in science… coming up next
LHC finds Chi particle
fluoride resistant bacteria
Why Neti Pots Are Bad For Your Brain
Medical maggots
Naked mole rats feel no pain when exposed to acid
Get a free audiobook at Audible.com!
Techie devices
Validating the universe
RNA to DNA
Drugs In the Air
Hormones make women more sensitive to cute babies
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December 23rd, 2011
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Hiding Higgs, Fracking Up The Water, Science 8-Ball, PTSD Shot, Spider Science, Chest Waxers Beware, Ant Warfare, Sheep Politics, Tetrapod Trickiness, A Mini Stirling, And Much More…
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Look! at the world we live in
Consider the history of human advancement across the ages,
Tremendous progress over thousands of years, against great odds and overwhelming opposition
Progress which pales in comparison to the drastic changes over the last hundred years, over the last ten years, or
sometimes the great changes can even take place between episodes of this show….
Ask yourself,
In a world like this, with people like us, is anything impossible?
Nothing can be unachievable by a people who have achieved such greatness over and over again.
Yes there are politics, yes there is a recession, yes mans inhumanity to man continues…
Times are tough, but they’ve been tougher.
The road ahead looks rough, but it’s looked rougher
And with our look back in time,
We can see what mysterious force of in history unlocked in the modern age
that put such distance between the promise of the present and the struggles of the past…
We can see it then and watch it now,
as it continues to shape the future civilization here on…
This week in science… coming up next
Still no Higgs…
Fracking water
Fracking wells
New research tool to accelerate correlative data studies
A PTSD shot???
Get a free audiobook at Audible.com!
Spider science
Democracy for the Sheeple, by the Sheeple
Protect against bedbugs… grow hair!
Chemical warfare in Antville!
Tracks of tetrapods
Shrinking the Stirling engine
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December 21st, 2011
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Arsenic Bacteria Genome, Cheap Solar, Touchy Feely Chimps And Rats, Bad Science, Thank You Video Games, Mammoth Cloning, Inheriting Worms, Old Marbles, Vaccines, Vitamins, And Much More…
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Science rewards the scientist with great personal satisfaction.
The labor of learning is a labor of love, and those that make further discovery find the greatest satisfaction in what was already a rewarding endeavor.
When first announced, new discovery can be met with tremendous resistance from the general public. Fear of the unknown presuming unknown danger, or fear of real danger, ignoring potential benefits.
This has happened often enough throughout history that we can wonder how many times fire must have been discovered by some happy inventor…
Only to have it stamped out by the feet of fearful cavemen thinking some evil spirit had been released
But as time passes the unknown becomes the ordinary.
Eventually they accept fire as fire, and move on to worshiping the shadows at the back of the cave wall
Those who benefit from the warmth and light of scientific labor know little of the long hours of work, or the great joy and triumph of discovery and so …value it as ordinary
As though all the scientific discovery of the past centuries was inevitable,
as if knowledge simply leaks out into the world through an eventual randomness of time.
But it simply is not so.
It requires the dedication and knowledge of scientists across the globe to make progress happen.
Without this hard work we couldn’t even have something as simple as…
This Week in Science… Coming up next.
Arsenic Bacteria genome?
Solar power is cheaper than you think
Chimpanzee synesthete
Empathic rats?
The worst science paper of the year…
Get a free audiobook at Audible.com!
Video games make kids smarter
Cloning a mammoth?
Worm inheritance
Vitamin D and MS
A vaccine for Ebola
A sleeping pill for waking?
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