60 Second Science

Congress on cell phones in planes: "We have the technology, but it'd be reaaaaal annoying."France offers "zen-zones" on its high-speed trains, Vienna just ordered public transit users to keep the phone on silent, and more and more U.S. states are banning cell phone use while driving. Emirates Airlines, though, is giving obsessive communicators another place to gab: coach. Beginning in March, the airline rolled out technology designed to let users operate cell phones at low enough levels to avoid completely futzing up the plane's navigation and ending the conference call with a bang. Now in the U.S., we look at the Arab world and say, "You can take your excessive freedoms and shove it. We're on a banning spree." It's not a part of the constant cancer/no-cancer debate over cell phones. (They cause tumors! No they d
» 17 Apr 2008, 2:24 pm

The Monitor #10: The All-Green, Eco-tastic EpisodeWe hit double digits. Champagne all around! In this episode: A timelapse video of the U.S.'s carbon footprint, a plan to turn pollution into DVDs (and fleece Al Gore?), a warning against nanotoxic socks, and a duel between two green-tech press releases. Created, written & designed by John Pavlus / Screencasts produced by Smashcut Media / Music by Jeff Alvarez Subscribe to our original video feed via iTunes or RSS.
» 16 Apr 2008, 10:28 am

In the future we'll all ride the Internet with our 3D camera SegwaysOkay, maybe not, but Mitch Kapor, designer of Lotus 1-2-3, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and generally near-prescient entrepreneur is sending the resources of Kapor Enterprises in that direction. Kapor currently serves as the Chairman of the Board for Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life. One of the biggest complaints about virtual worlds--and we'll skip the tired flying penis jokes--is that it's hard to navigate in a 3D environment using a mouse and keyboard. His solution is to use a 3D camera to register movement and let users ride their avatars as if they were riding Segways. Video of developer Phillipe Bossut flapping his hands to fly after the jump. It may look a little strange at first, but you h
» 11 Apr 2008, 1:54 pm

A few words from NexiFrom the people who brought us Kismet… Meet Nexi, an oddly expressive robot from MIT's Media Lab.
» 11 Apr 2008, 10:37 am

The music of disasterIn 1999, Hurricane Gert formed on the eastern side of the Atlantic and began the long trip to Bermuda. Along the way, it happened to pass over a hydrophone (an underwater microphone) planted half a mile deep in the mid-Atlantic. And made a little noise. A hurricane’s intense wind whips the waves into a churning frenzy, and deep below the surface of the ocean the turbulence creates a “rushing sound whose volume is a direct indicator of the storm's destructive power,” according to an MIT press release. MIT engineering professor Nicholas Makris, in a paper from a forthcoming Geophysical Research Letters, takes data from Gert's cacophonous performance and proposes a new way to gauge the destructive power of an oncoming cyclone.
» 11 Apr 2008, 10:25 am

Nature and cognitive enhancement: Beginning of end of drug war?Nature just revealed the results of an informal internet poll of its readers, finding that a full one-fifth have used or currently take drugs or supplements for "cognitive enhancement." 2/3 report taking Ritalin for this "non medical" purpose; 44% have taken the newer stimulant modafinil. But the most interesting finding is that 80% believe healthy adults should be permitted to take these drugs if they wish to do so. Now, this is just an internet poll and we all know the self-selection issues that mar these. However, if 80% of those who care enough to write into Nature on this issue believe that essentially recreational drug use should be legal, the war on drugs has lost a great deal of its legitimacy.
» 10 Apr 2008, 8:16 am

The Monitor #9: showcasing small, cute mammalsWe were down for a week there, but we're back, baby! In this episode: The cutest animal ever to be trained to use tools in a laboratory setting; rogue Olympians whose genes may let them pass doping tests; suspended animation via sewer gas; and a another reason feel superior for buying that overpriced laptop (besides the fact that it fits in an envelope). Created, written & designed by John Pavlus / Screencasts produced by Smashcut Media / Music by Jeff Alvarez Subscribe to our original video feed via iTunes or RSS.
» 8 Apr 2008, 4:45 pm

New blood test can predict futureWhen Charlton Heston passed away last weekend, somehow not from an accidental gunshot wound, he had been battling Alzheimer’s for six years. US-based biotech company Power3 Medical Products claims to have developed a test that can detect Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s six years before the diseases reveal themselves. Had Heston been offered the luxury of such far-sighted diagnosis between the time of his christiological walking tour and ascension to NRA straight-shooter, his most infamous utterance would possibly still be an eventuality. The NuroPro test, despite being in the early stages of development, will be marketed to physicians in the United States and Greece later this year. Its creators claim 90% accuracy, thoug
» 8 Apr 2008, 1:50 pm

This just in: cure for AIDS found in FloridaOf all the hair-brained policies we’ve had to endure as a nation over the past eight years, abstinence-only sex education has to be right near the top of the list. The idea that explaining the complexities of sexual reproduction and disease prevention will prove a greater aphrodisiac than exploding teenage hormones is logic at its most crocked. As a federally mandated ideological agenda item it’s shortsighted and asinine, and, as more than a few folks prognosticated, potentially harmful. But really, how harmful did even the most cynical of us think it could be? Worst case is some kid misses the memo on condoms, goes happily philandering about, ends up like poor Telly from Kids and spends the rest of his life pissed at the world becaus
» 3 Apr 2008, 12:17 pm

Hawaiians sue to stop Large Hadron Collider / save the worldSo I'm a technological optimist. By and large, I think that, ultimately, technology will solve all my problems. That is, of course, if it doesn't destroy the world first. Because, let's face it, science is kind of scary. At the top of my list of things that frighten me (followed shortly by a super-flu that turns people into zombies) is the sort-of-fact that the Large Hadron Collider could spew out strangelets and turn the Earth into a black hole, summon aggressive time travelers from the future, or plop us into a mediocre sci-fi movie. Thank the good lord Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho have their heads screwed on right. They've filed suit in a federal court in Honolulu to stop CERN from powering up the LHC until it's produced safety
» 31 Mar 2008, 2:42 pm

It's not you, it's physics: The Wallpaper ProblemThere you are again, at the 11th hour, wrapping that present. Off comes the price tag, ‘snip’ goes the scissors, and you peel off a piece of tape. Except that the tape, sensing your hurry, tapers down to a point and leaves with a useless, triangular piece. So you try again, once you find the point that was left on the tape roll. And once again, you find your piece of tape narrowing, narrowing, narrowing. The same *!@#$ phenomenon happens with wallpaper, too. You can’t just peel it off in a nice, even swath; no, it has to peel away from the wall in those deterministically infuriating triangles. Well, for what it's worth, it’s not you, it’s physics. Now, an MIT mathematician and his international team of colleagues off
» 31 Mar 2008, 12:55 pm

EurekAlert!

More maize ethanol may boost greenhouse gas emissionsMandated increases in the production of maize-derived ethanol will lead to land-use changes that boost carbon dioxide emissions enough to make the fuel a worse environmental option than burning gasoline, according to an analysis published in the March issue of BioScience. The new analysis refines the conclusion of a controversial estimate that was published by Timothy Searchinger and colleagues in 2008.
» 10 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

Study: Kidney disease a big risk for younger, low-income minoritiesChronic kidney disease (CKD) afflicts a large number of younger minority adults receiving medical care in settings that serve the uninsured and under-insured (settings collectively known as the health care safety net). Poor, minority adults with moderate to severe CKD are also two to four times more likely to progress to kidney failure than non-Hispanic whites. These are the findings from a study published online in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
» 10 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

Knee replacement in elderly patients shown to improve balanceTotal knee replacement (TKR) successfully relieves pain and improves function in patients with advanced knee arthritis, according to a study presented today at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).
» 10 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

First whole genome sequencing of family of 4 reveals new genetic powerThe Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) has analyzed the first whole genome sequences of a human family of four. The findings of a project funded through a partnership between ISB and the University of Luxembourg was published online today by Science on its Science Express website. It demonstrates the benefit of sequencing entire families, including lowering error rates, identifying rare genetic variants and identifying disease-linked genes.
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

Panel questions 'VBAC bans,' advocates expanded delivery options for womenAn independent panel convened this week by the National Institutes of Health confronted a troubling fact that pregnant women currently have limited access to clinicians and facilities able and willing to offer a trial of labor after previous cesarean delivery because of so-called VBAC bans. The panel affirmed that a trial of labor is a reasonable option for many women with a prior cesarean delivery. But many women are not offered this option.
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

New drug candidate reduces blood lipidsA thyroid-hormone-like substance that works specifically on the liver reduces blood cholesterol with no serious side effects. This according to a clinical trial conducted by researchers from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet, amongst other centers, published today in the top-ranking scientific periodical the New England Journal of Medicine.
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

The American Association of Anatomists approves guidelines for body donation programsThe Board of Directors of the American Association of Anatomists (AAA) has approved a set of guidelines to govern programs accepting the donation of bodies for education and biomedical research. The guidelines cover the minimum requirements that should be met by any Willed Body Program.
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

Gastric bypass surgery increases risk of kidney stonesPatients who undergo gastric bypass surgery experience changes in their urine composition that increase their risk of developing kidney stones, research from UT Southwestern Medical Center investigators suggests.
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

Mysterious cosmic 'dark flow' tracked deeper into universeDistant galaxy clusters mysteriously stream at a million miles per hour along a path roughly centered on the southern constellations Centaurus and Hydra. A new study led by Alexander Kashlinsky at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., tracks this collective motion -- dubbed the "dark flow" -- to twice the distance originally reported.
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

Conquering the chaos in modern, multiprocessor computersA group of computer scientists have found a way to tame multiprocessor computers, which behave in wildly unpredictable ways even as the systems become widespread in the industry.
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

Low strengthens into Hubert, making landfall in MadagascarThe low that forecasters were watching for development yesterday, March 9, strengthened into Tropical Storm Hubert, and is already making landfall in eastern Madagascar.
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

Live Science

Musk Ox Decline Is Not Our FaultThe decline of the musk ox population that started around 12,000 years ago was likely a result of changing climate, not human hunting, a new study suggests.
» 11 Mar 2010, 6:24 am

'Doomsday' Seed Vault Stores 500,000 CropsA global seed vault dug out of an arctic mountainside has just reached its half-million mark of seed varieties.
» 10 Mar 2010, 5:00 pm

Lifelock Shows Identity Theft Services Not FoolproofLifelock has agreed to a $12 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
» 10 Mar 2010, 3:33 pm

Studying Snail Shells to Build Better Body ArmorShells of unusual snails could lead to development of new types of protective materials.
» 10 Mar 2010, 2:40 pm

Cyberbullying Rampant for Lesbian and Gay TeensChildren and teens are being cyberbullied through the Internet in chat rooms, on social networking websites, via email and even through cell phones.
» 10 Mar 2010, 2:08 pm

Heat-Sensitive Material Remembers Four ShapesA new polymer can "remember" up to four different shapes, and revert to each one at different temperatures.
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:21 am

Mystery of Half-Male Chickens SolvedSex cells in chickens make some individuals look half male and half female.
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:01 am

God Helps with Personal Decisions, Most Americans SayGod is involved in our everyday lives, most Americans believe.
» 10 Mar 2010, 8:21 am

Big Generation Gaps in Work Attitudes RevealedYoung workers called GenMe are more likely than their elders to value leisure over work and to place a premium on rewards such as higher salaries and status.
» 10 Mar 2010, 7:20 am

Effort to Map Human Brain Faces Complex ChallengesNeuroscientists hope to harness computing power to help map millions of miles of "wiring" that connects brain cells.
» 10 Mar 2010, 6:12 am

National Geographic News

Stolen Sarcophagus Handed Over to EgyptConfiscated in Miami, a brightly painted, 3,000-year-old sarcophagus was handed over to Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, on Wednesday. Video.
» 10 Mar 2010, 4:46 pm

New Frog Found—Has "Striking" Color ChangeThe jungle species undergoes a "striking" change from a black, yellow-spotted youngster to a peachy, blue-eyed adult, scientists say.
» 10 Mar 2010, 3:20 pm

Sea Spray Detected 900 Miles InlandSea spray has been detected in the middle of the United States, some 900 miles (1,400 kilometers) from any ocean—and it may be contributing to air pollution, a new study says.
» 10 Mar 2010, 3:06 pm

See-Through Vision InventedScientists have figured out how "see" through thin opaque barriers by unscrambling what little light passes through.
» 10 Mar 2010, 2:55 pm

Space Photos This Week: Sun Plume, Moon Lander, MoreA satellite sees an oncoming iceberg smashup, an artist re-creates a Saturn moon lander's arrival, a Mars orbiter celebrates a milestone, and more in this week's best space pictures.
» 10 Mar 2010, 2:34 pm

Einstein's Gravity Confirmed on a Cosmic ScaleWe may finally have proof that general relativity applies to cosmic bodies great and small—and that dark matter and dark energy are real.
» 10 Mar 2010, 10:59 am

Lava, Not Water, Made Mars "Riverbed"At least one channel thought to have been carved by water was actually built by lava flows, according to a new study of Martian surface features.
» 9 Mar 2010, 2:35 pm

Ancient Corpses Ritually Dug Up, Torn Apart, ReburiedFor 4,500 years in what is now Mexico, decomposing bodies were pulled apart and reburied, according to what may be the first evidence for ritual "double burials."
» 9 Mar 2010, 2:33 pm

Water Found in Apollo Moon RocksIt turns out evidence for water on the moon was right under our noses all along, according to new studies of rocks retrieved by Apollo astronauts.
» 9 Mar 2010, 2:23 pm

Exclusive: Chile Earthquake Aerial PicturesSee exclusive views of tsunami-tossed boats, a collapsed bridge, and a crumbled cliff—scenes of the devastating toll of the February 27 Chile earthquake.
» 9 Mar 2010, 12:40 pm

"Cove" Movie Assails Dolphin Hunt, Gets Oscar BoostWith its 2010 Oscar win for best documentary, the movie The Cove has reignited debate over annual dolphin hunts in Taiji, Japan.
» 8 Mar 2010, 11:31 am

New Scientist

The blessing and curse of choiceChoosing is important to us, but also disquieting – The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar ranges far and wide to help you do it better
» 11 Mar 2010, 5:00 am

Innovation: Sending botnets the way of smallpoxCould forcing computer owners to keep their machines up to date with the latest security software help stop cybercrime in its tracks?
» 11 Mar 2010, 4:51 am

Mom and dad, stop stifling me - it's damaging my brainOverprotective parents don't just limit their children's freedom – they may also slow brain growth in an area linked to mental illness
» 11 Mar 2010, 3:35 am

Video: Extreme physicsCheck out video of Anil Ananthaswamy's journeys to some of the world's most extreme locales where physics experiments are under way
» 11 Mar 2010, 2:31 am

Extreme physics at the ends of the EarthAnil Ananthaswamy visits some of the bleakest locations on Earth to explore the most tantalising mysteries of the cosmos in The Edge of Physics
» 11 Mar 2010, 2:30 am

Science funding: less hot air and more specificsAt the third science debate between the three main British political parties, it was unclear how secure the science budget will be after the upcoming general election
» 10 Mar 2010, 12:27 pm

Accidental origins: Where species come fromOrganisms gradually grow apart until they become different species – right? If new research is correct, it's more often down to tricks of fate
» 10 Mar 2010, 10:00 am

Obesity: Food kills, flab protectsDisease and obesity go hand in hand, but an increase in body fat may actually be part of our body's attempts to protect itself from the effects of unhealthy eating
» 10 Mar 2010, 10:00 am

Roger Penrose: Non-stop cosmos, non-stop careerThe mathematician and self-proclaimed incurable optimist talks about his cameo in an Oscar-nominated movie and why he has no time for string theory
» 10 Mar 2010, 10:00 am

Turning tables on prostate cancer's drug resistanceProstate cancer drugs trigger the release of a molecule that makes tumours grow – the discovery could lead to a way to keep the cancer at bay
» 10 Mar 2010, 10:00 am

Today on New Scientist: 10 March 2010All today's stories from newscientist.com at a glance, including: the (accidental) origin of species, why food kills but flab protects, and why women with good genes might get more sex
» 10 Mar 2010, 10:00 am

New York Times - Science News

Disease Cause Is Pinpointed With GenomeIt now appears possible to sequence a patient’s genome at reasonable cost and with sufficient accuracy to be useful.
» 11 Mar 2010, 3:14 am

Einstein's Theory of Relativity On DisplayFor the first time, the complete, original manuscript of the theory of relativity, profoundly human and surprisingly moving to examine, has been put on display in Jerusalem.
» 10 Mar 2010, 9:10 pm

Panel Will Review U.N. Climate WorkThe review aims to help the U.N. climate change panel avoid the kinds of errors that have brought its work into question in recent months, officials said Wednesday.
» 10 Mar 2010, 7:50 pm

Neighbors Oppose Green Label for the Software Mogul Mitch Kapor’s Big HouseWhen the software mogul Mitch Kapor won planning approval for his 10,000-square-foot house in Berkeley, Calif., neighbors were surprised that it will qualify as “green.”
» 11 Mar 2010, 12:50 am

Dogs That Detect BedbugsBedbug-sniffing dogs are the new and furry front line in an escalating domestic war.
» 10 Mar 2010, 10:00 pm

Science Academies to Assess Climate AssessorsTwo decades after it was created, the institution created to assess climate trends, causes and responses is getting a checkup.
» 10 Mar 2010, 1:05 pm

China and India to Join Copenhagen Climate Change AccordThe countries are the last two major economic powers to agree with the aims of the nonbinding agreement.
» 10 Mar 2010, 12:50 am

John Thorbjarnarson, 52, a Leading Expert on CrocodilesMr. Thorbjarnarson was a scientist with wide interests in saving and learning about many species.
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:26 am

Obama Plans Florida Forum to Discuss NASA’s FutureThe president planned to spell out his vision for the future of American astronauts in space at a conference next month.
» 8 Mar 2010, 8:09 pm

Reaching for Stars When Space Thrilled and Paranoia RuledIn a new book about the space race, Megan Prelinger sees hopes, dreams and fears in the form of magazine ads.
» 9 Mar 2010, 4:03 pm

The Diminishing Difficulty of Enriching UraniumMaking the leap from reactor-grade nuclear fuel to bomb-grade is like the rich getting richer: really fast.
» 9 Mar 2010, 1:45 pm

NPR - Health and Science

Half-Hen/Half-Rooster Shows Cells Can Decide SexIn mammals, a flood of hormones tells cells to develop male or female features. But a new study of gender-bending chickens reveals that birds may be different. They have an additional way of determining whether they appear male or female: Individual cells may be able to do it.
» 10 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

Lonely Wolverine Seeks West Coast MateIt isn't a personal ad: A male wolverine, dubbed "Buddy" by researchers, has been found in Tahoe National Forest in California. A wolverine has not been spotted in the state for some 90 years. No one can figure out just how Buddy got there, but as mating season approaches, this little guy could feel lonelier than ever.
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:21 am

Vaccinating Kids Helps Adults Avoid FluResearchers studying isolated communities in Canada showed that immunizing children against influenza lowered flu rates among unvaccinated adults by 60 percent.
» 10 Mar 2010, 5:52 am

Giving May Be ContagiousEven a little pot of money can lead to a lot of giving, as the altruistic spirit ripples through a network, researchers say.
» 9 Mar 2010, 2:19 pm

For Quake Scientists, Chile Becomes A Unique LabFollowing the massive earthquake that struck on Feb. 27, scientists have flocked to Chile with the goal of picking up enough clues to one day predict when the next big one will strike.
» 9 Mar 2010, 12:30 pm

When You Were Just A Twinkle In A Cro-Magnon's EyeIn the grand scheme of things, humans are mere infants on this planet. Some creatures alive today were swimming under the sea during the U.S. Civil War or photosynthesizing when the Egyptian pyramids were being built. Here are six of the oldest living things on the planet.
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:55 am

Genetics Made Very, Very SimpleIf this photo were a genetics lesson, could you spot what's wrong?
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:51 am

Chameleon Tongues Stay Speedy In The ColdLizards normally can't move very quickly when the temperature drops. But a new study shows that chameleons have a special adaptation that allows them to quickly catch prey, even when it's cold outside.
» 8 Mar 2010, 3:00 pm

For Developing Nations, Exports Boost CO2 EmissionsChina is criticized for being the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide, but a new report shows that a quarter of that is emitted while making things for Western consumers. Researchers say that climate policy must account for emissions resulting from trade.
» 8 Mar 2010, 1:00 pm

Scientists Still Hopeful About Gene Therapy's PromiseFor 25 years, scientists have touted the promise of gene therapy to treat human diseases, but only a handful of therapies have shown progress. Nonetheless, proponents remain optimistic and say the approach may yet revolutionize medicine.
» 7 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

Researcher: Pesticide 'Castrates' Male FrogsAtrazine is widely used as weedkiller on American farms. And a new study shows this common chemical may have gender-bending effects on frogs. Host Guy Raz talks to biology professor Tyrone Hayes about his work with atrazine and frogs. Hayes found that 9 of every 10 male frogs he exposed to atrazine became chemically castrated. And that other 1 out of every 10? Well, he became a she.
» 7 Mar 2010, 12:00 pm

Physics Today

An interview with Brian GreeneDiscover magazine: Columbia University physicist Brian Greene has become the public face of string theory. He has provided insight into the topology of those additional dimensions, and in 1999 he introduced the theory to nonscientists in a best-selling book, The...
» 10 Mar 2010, 12:12 pm

Earth's magnetic field older than thoughtScience News: Evidence for the existence of Earth’s magnetic field has been pushed back about 250 million years, new research suggests. The field may therefore be old enough to have shielded some of the planet's earliest life from the sun’s...
» 10 Mar 2010, 12:09 pm

Can we monitor greenhouse gases?The Economist: You might think that measuring the global levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would be a priority. If you did think that, though, you would be wrong. No such system exists, because NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO),...
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:33 am

Death of a deep-sea robotPhysics Today: A pioneering deep-sea exploration robot—one of the first successful submersible vehicles that was both unmanned and untethered to surface ships—was lost at sea on a research expedition to explore the Chile Triple Junction—the only place on Earth where...
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:28 am

Ion engines for interplanetary travel?SPACE.com: Former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz has been developing a new rocket engine that draws upon electric power and magnetic fields to channel superheated plasma out the back. That stream of plasma generates steady, efficient thrust that uses low amounts...
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:02 am

Detecting nuclear smuggling in GeorgiaNature News: Georgia's borders are guarded by some of the best radiation detectors available—so why are nuclear smugglers still slipping through? asks Sharon Weinberger....
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:52 am

Nobel scientists play nobel physicistslatimes.com: Yesterday, two Nobel Prize-winning scientists, chemist Alan Heeger (2000) and physicist David Gross (2004), portrayed two Nobel Prize-winning physicists, Niels Bohr (1922) and Werner Heisenberg (1932), in a reading from Copenhagen, a play that revolves around quantum mechanics and...
» 8 Mar 2010, 10:52 am

Saving energy through an intelligent infrastructureScience: Buildings use 40% of the primary energy supplied in the US, and more than 70% of all generated electricity, primarily for heating, cooling, and lighting. About 20% of the energy used by buildings can potentially be saved by correcting...
» 8 Mar 2010, 10:42 am

Qutrits for quantum cryptography?Physics Today: Quantum cryptography only works if Alice and Bob share their relative positions in advance. Now Anthony Laing from the University of Bristol and associates have figured out a new simple protocol that works for particle dimensions of prime...
» 8 Mar 2010, 10:36 am

Chile as the ideal seismic labwashingtonpost.com: Earthquake scientists, many of them from the US, have been flocking to Chile since the 27 February 8.8 magnitude earthquake in order to search for clues that will help them better forecast large earthquakes. Time is of the essence...
» 8 Mar 2010, 10:30 am

Robot planes get a dose of scienceNature News: Later this month a remote-controlled aircraft is scheduled to take off from the Mojave Desert in California and veer west over the Pacific Ocean. The Global Hawk, a slim-winged, high-flying jet, was designed for military reconnaissance and tested...
» 5 Mar 2010, 2:02 pm

Public Library of Science

PLoS Computational Biology at ISMBAt the end of last month we were pleased to hear that our workshop proposal, entitled ‘Where and How to Get Published’ had been accepted by Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) 2010. We hope that a wide range of perspectives on how best to get research published will make this workshop invaluable to those just starting out on their careers. We are very excited that our involvement in the International Society for Computational Biology’s annual meeting is set to continue and more details will follow when the timing of the workshop is confirmed in May. Attendees should also be on the look out for our Conference Postcards; we look forward to hearing from some of you about the most outstanding sessions or posters of this summe
» 11 Mar 2010, 3:32 am

New user functionality - referenced PDFs via PubgetThe new year is in full swing and we are continuing to add functionality to the articles that we publish. This time we're adding links, via Pubget, to the PDFs of citing articles (as recorded by Cross Ref). Pubget is a search engine for life-sciences PDFs. If Pubget have found a PDF which is freely available then you will now be able to access it via our site with just one click. Their database contains 3 million free PDFs, plus tens of millions of subscription only PDFs (naturally we wish that everything was freely available but sadly that is still not the case). Now, when you look at citations to any article as recorded by CrossRef (which are accessed via the 'CrossRef' link in the 'Cited in' section of any article's Metrics tab), a PDF i
» 2 Mar 2010, 9:33 am

Announcing PLoS EzReprint - new and improved!We've had a reprint service for a while but to use it, folks had to add all the article information to the order themselves which made it time consuming and difficult to use. Now, we're proud to introduce EzReprint, the next generation of print on demand, designed for people who want to generate 25 or more high quality reprints of most of the articles. You can find the link to this service in the top right of almost every PLoS article. It is near the option to print it using your desktop printer (which is, of course, still your best bet if you need some copies for any purpose, available to you thanks to open access). To do this, simply download the PDF and send it to your printer. In the new system, all the article information is pre-
» 25 Feb 2010, 11:58 am

PLoS Pathogens featured in This Week in VirologyIn their Feb. 7, 2010 TWiV podcast Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Vincent Racaniello, PLoS Pathogens Community Editor, consider ‘recent outbreaks of mumps in the UK, US, and Israel, protection of mice against 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus by 1918-like and classical swine H1N1 vaccines, and a virus-like particle vaccine for chikungunya virus.’ They discuss the recent PLoS Pathogens article “Protection of Mice against Lethal Challenge with 2009 H1N1 Influenza A Virus by 1918-Like and Classical Swine H1N1 Based Vaccines”, co-written by long-time Pathogens editor Adolfo García-Sastre, as well as well as a review piece also published in the journal, “Crossing the Line: Selection and Evolution of Virulence Traits.” Download the podcast
» 10 Feb 2010, 9:08 am

New spring range now available in the PLoS StoreWhen we launched the PLoS store back in November 2009, we promised to continually update it with new designs and merchandise. We've been true to our word. For the last couple of months, we've been creating our Spring range, so now you, your home, office or lab and the kids in your life can look cool and support the PLoS cause. Over the years, folks have continually asked us for a Future PLoS Author kids range - you are never too young (or old) to get behind Open Access. As you can see from the adjacent photo of Pete and his daughter, we road tested these designs and products on our own kids. When we were told by the eloquent three year old of one of our team that she couldn't read the words on the tees because they were too fancy, we change
» 5 Feb 2010, 10:29 am

Details on Outage and Recovery of PLoS Journal WebsitesUnitedLayer, our collocation facility for the production servers, experienced an outage yesterday. From UnitedLayer: "A series of power brownouts occurred today at 2:56 PM PST due to PG&E instability related to the recent storms. Our 300KVA UPS system is not working as designed, the temporary repairs from last week did not hold. We anticipate a faulty motherboard." A number of our servers (all powered by the 300KVA UPS) lost power at that time. Our large disk array (2TB of storage) that is the file server for both Fedora and Mulgara had a boot failure and refused to power up. Russ went to the colo and restarted the disk array which went into an automatic rebuild of the disks. This took about three hours to complete. Russ then starte
» 20 Jan 2010, 10:52 am

PLoS Journals Outage - January 19, 2010The PLoS journal websites are experiencing an outage due to a hardware malfunction after our colocation (United Layer) experienced a brown out due to lightning. We're working to resolve the problem and hope to have the journal websites back online soon. Trackback URL for this post: http://www.plos.org/cms/trackback/508
» 19 Jan 2010, 4:57 pm

Announcing a new PLoS Collection, Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP)Today, PLoS is delighted to publish a Collection of articles highlighting biologging research from the Tagging of Pacific Predators group (TOPP), a Census of Marine Life (COML) project. Advances in electronic marine tracking technology, also known as biologging, allow researchers to take measurements from free-swimming marine animals as they move undisturbed through their environment. Recent technology improvements, including electronic tag miniaturization and enhanced animal movement models, have revolutionized understanding of the ecology of marine top predators. This has permitted observations well beyond the reach of standard measurement techniques, and provided extensive data on the animals' behavior at the scale of and within the con
» 14 Jan 2010, 2:00 pm

PLoS ONE indexed by Web of ScienceToday we learned that by the end of this week PLoS ONE (in keeping with all other PLoS journals) will be indexed by the Web of Science – this is an important literature discovery tool that many people use and so we are pleased to be indexed. PLoS ONE is also indexed by a host of other services such as PubMed, MEDLINE, PubMed Central, Scopus, Google Scholar, the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), EMBASE, AGRICOLA, PsycINFO, Zoological Records, FSTA (Food Science and Technology Abstracts), GeoRef, and RefAware. Initially, coverage in the Web of Science will include new PLoS ONE articles plus those published in 2008 and 2009, and will be expanded to the articles published in 2006 (when PLoS ONE was launched) and 2007 in the coming weeks. I
» 5 Jan 2010, 12:16 pm

PLoS Author Surveys 2009 – Summary PresentationEarlier this year, PLoS sent out a series of surveys to authors whose work was considered by our journals in 2008. We wanted to find out what authors think about all aspects of our services – from submission and peer review, through to publication and the functionality of the PLoS journal web sites. We have learned a lot from the surveys, primarily that levels of satisfaction amongst authors are generally very good. We also identified areas where services can be improved, and we’ve adjusted our services in a number ways during 2009. We have now summarized the results of the surveys along with how we have responded to some of the suggestions during 2009 in a short presentation, which is publicly available. We feel it’s important
» 23 Dec 2009, 2:45 am

Science Alert

Toenails reveal arsenic uptakeA new study has found that arsenic may be absorbed into the body from some soils, based on analysis of children's toenail clippings.
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:00 pm

New design helps phone powerUsing supercapacitors, researchers are working to improve the power use of laptops and mobile phones – with some success.
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:00 pm

Model predicts buried waterResearchers have mapped Australian streams buried for millions of years under desert by modelling the flow of water.
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:00 pm

Strategic firms survive crisisFormal planning is crucial for small firms in the economic crisis, according to a recent study – the firms that planned are doing best.
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:00 pm

Messy habitat helps city frogsSmall habitats can help animals survive in the city, according to a recent study – but structures such as fallen logs are crucial.
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:00 pm

Aphid genome gives cluesResearchers are working to find vulnerabilities and stem cell knowledge in the recently published aphid genome.
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:00 pm

Tiny test finds disease earlyResearchers have come up with a way to detect very small amounts of disease markers, using very small devices.
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:00 pm

Different devils resist cancerScientists have found a population of Tasmanian devils that are different - who may be able to fight the cancer ravaging the species.
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:00 pm

Pathway alters blood pressureA study has found a new pathway that controls blood pressure, which could help treat life-threatening blood infections.
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:00 pm

Fossil shells keep intact DNAResearchers have recovered DNA from the fossilised eggshells of extinct moa - now they can match shell to species, and track families.
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:00 pm

Hepatitis brings diabetes earlyHepatitis C doesn't cause diabetes, but it may make the disease come thirty years early, according to a recent study.
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:00 pm

Science Blogs

New and Exciting in PLoS ONE [A Blog Around The Clock]There are 15 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites: Extreme Female Promiscuity in a Non-Social Invertebrate Species: While males usually benefit from as many matings as possible, females often evolve various methods of resistance to matings. The prevalent explanation for this is that the cost of additional matings exceeds the benefits of receiving sperm from a large number of males. Here we demonstrate,
» 11 Mar 2010, 4:59 am

Pranking Virgina DMV [Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)]tags: Department of Motor Vehicles, DMV, driver's license, prank, funny, humor, offbeat, odd, streaming video The Department of Motor Vehicles has sure changed since when I lived the US. For example, I once had a cast on my foot and was told to wait to renew my driver's license until after the cast had been removed. When I see what these two guys managed to do, I admit I feel somewhat put out because after all, DMV wasn't photographing my foot! Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... Also check out the featured ScienceBlog of the week: Collective Imagination
» 11 Mar 2010, 3:59 am

Flu vaccines, herd immunity and randomized trials [Effect Measure]The latest study on flu vaccine effectiveness in children has been well discussed in the MSM and the flu blogs, so I'll point you to those excellent pieces (Branswell, crof, Mike Coston at Avian Flu Diary) and just add some things not covered elsewhere. The full text of the article is available for free at JAMA and it's a pretty good read, so if you want to see for yourself what is involved I urge you to read it, too. First, let me back up a bit and connect this to the controversy about observational and randomized clinical trials we've been discussing here of late (before my grant writing interfered, anyway). Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... Also check out the featured ScienceBlog of the week: Collective I
» 11 Mar 2010, 3:22 am

Cycles: Invasion of the Teddy Bears [Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)]tags: cycles, Invasion of the Teddy Bears, music, animation, Cyriak, offbeat, odd, streaming video Here's a truly peculiar video for you to watch featuring infinite teddy bears invading a beach. Music and animations by Cyriak, who has quite a following, apparently. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... Also check out the featured ScienceBlog of the week: Collective Imagination
» 11 Mar 2010, 2:59 am

Clock Quotes [A Blog Around The Clock]"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker Read the comments on this post... Also check out the featured ScienceBlog of the week: Collective Imagination
» 11 Mar 2010, 12:25 am

Mr Deity needs a lot more Jesus [Pharyngula]Read the comments on this post... Also check out the featured ScienceBlog of the week: Collective Imagination
» 10 Mar 2010, 10:56 pm

preteen [Dynamics of Cats]compare and contrast Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... Also check out the featured ScienceBlog of the week: Collective Imagination
» 10 Mar 2010, 9:06 pm

Dismissed! [Respectful Insolence]Well, that didn't take long. Remember when the grande dame of the anti-vaccine movement, Barbara Loe Fisher, decided that she would try to harass, intimidate, and silence Paul Offit through the filing of a frivolous libel suit against Dr. Offit, Amy Wallace (the journalist who interviewed Offit for an excellent article last year), and Condé Nast, the publisher of WIRED, which ran the article? Well, the judge has ruled, and that ruling is...dismissed! The text of the ruling can be found here. There are some awesomely awesome passages in this ruling, which is a slapdown that, while not as epic as, for instance, the slapdown that Judge John E. Jones III delivered to creationists in Kitzmiller v. Dover, is nonetheless very satisfying to rea
» 10 Mar 2010, 9:01 pm

Two papers on Ancient DNA [Gene Expression]Reviewed by other ScienceBloggers: Prehistoric DNA reveals the story of a Pleistocene survivor, the muskox Ancient DNA Isolated from Fossil Eggshells May Provide Clues to Eggstinction of Giant Birds Read the comments on this post... Also check out the featured ScienceBlog of the week: Collective Imagination
» 10 Mar 2010, 8:08 pm

"The Madam Curie Complex" Sample Chapter: Part Three "Women in the Wild: Changing the Culture oThis is part three of a multi-part presentation of a sample chapter from a forthcoming book, The Madam Curie Complex. Part One can be found here. Part Two can be found here. Recently I was approached with an offer to share with my readers a sample chapter from a forthcoming book called The Madam Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science. A caveat: I have not read the whole book, and offering the sample chapter here for you to read does not constitute an endorsement by me of the book. But I was sufficiently intrigued by the sample chapter I read to think it was worth sharing with you, to let you read if you want. You can make up your own minds and decide if you want to purchase the book, which is on offer at the Feminist
» 10 Mar 2010, 7:39 pm

Other People Need Your Help [Uncertain Principles]Several items in the general category of charitable activity: Kate is running the Con or Bust auction again this year, with proceeds going to support people of color interested in attending SFF cons, principally Wiscon. Bidding is open through Saturday at 11:59pm ET, and items up for bid include many things that may be of interest to readers of this blog, including a certain book, plus a bunch of other stuff I will put below the fold. I got email from the Nobel Prize committee the other day. Well, OK, the webmaster for Nobelprize.org. They have an "Ask a Nobel laureate" feature going on their YouTube channel, and the current laureate taking questions is Albert Fert, one of the Physics laureates from 2007. You can record a question for him
» 10 Mar 2010, 7:14 pm

Science Friday

SciFri Newsbriefs:The Curious Case Of The California Tiger SalamanderA salamander native to Texas is wreaking havoc on the wetlands of Northern California.
» 2 Oct 2010, 9:00 pm

SciFri Radio:Green BuildingHow can you make your building design greener?
» 11 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

SciFri Radio:Genetically Modified CropsHas biotech delivered on its promise to feed the developing world? In this hour, live from St Louis, we'll talk about genetically engineered crops.
» 11 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

SciFri Radio:Cave ScienceReady to go spelunking? Live from the cave state--that's Missouri--we'll get an inside look at the biology, geology, and history of the underground attractions that gave the state its name.
» 11 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

SciFri Blog:This Just In: We Want More Science NewsThose doyens of the digital world have just discovered something that you already know: We Want MORE Science News! Because you are on this web site and listent to SciFri audio and watch our
» 8 Mar 2010, 2:20 pm

SciFri Video:How To Make A Junk GuitarSo you want to jam like a rock star, but you don't want to shell out for an electric guitar? Make one yourself. Sound artist Ranjit Bhatnagar explains the art of a DIY instrument he calls a "junk guitar." You can piece one together using little more than a plank of wood, some wire, a magnet and a guitar string. Forget the air guitar solos. Plug in. Rock out.
» 5 Mar 2010, 11:51 am

SciFri Blog:White is the new green.Snow, ice and Bebbo's roof help fight global warming...
» 4 Mar 2010, 10:00 pm

SciFri Radio:An Older Proto-DinoResearchers report finding fossil remains of a 'proto-dinosaur,' some 10 million years older than previously known.
» 4 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

SciFri Radio:Persuasion, Energy, and BehaviorWhen thinking about energy efficiency, how much emphasis should be put on human behavior rather than technology?
» 4 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

SciFri Radio:A Quake That Shook the World?Last week's powerful earthquake in Chile may have shifted the Earth's axis and changed the length of a day.
» 4 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

SciFri Radio:From Thought To MovementResearchers have recorded the brain signals responsible for movement outside the brain and used them to reconstruct hand movement in three dimensions.
» 4 Mar 2010, 9:00 pm

ScienceNOW

Fusion Delayed: ITER Start Date Moved AgainThe scheduled start-up date for the ITER fusion reactor project looks set to slip again... [Read more]
» 11 Mar 2010, 3:32 am

Roundup 3/10: Do the Math EditionGovernors and school superintendents from 48 states have released a draft of common math... [Read more]
» 10 Mar 2010, 2:44 pm

Review of Climate Panel Aims for Summer ReleaseYesterday the United Nations announced that a panel of scientists appointed by a global... [Read more]
» 10 Mar 2010, 2:29 pm

Scouring the Whole Genome to Nail Disease GenesFull DNA sequence of people with inherited disorders portends medicine's future [Read more]
» 10 Mar 2010, 1:59 pm

Shot: Titanic Explosion Rocked Early GalaxyPhenomenon could have choked off star birth in the universe [Read more]
» 10 Mar 2010, 1:07 pm

Catalyst for Coastal Smog Shows Up InlandWayward chlorine compound could complicate pollution-fighting efforts [Read more]
» 10 Mar 2010, 12:42 pm

Ocean Probe Lost at SeaAn accomplished deep-sea exploration robot met a mysterious and watery end while scoping the... [Read more]
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:43 am

No Sexual Confusion for Chicken CellsWhile developing mammals wait for hormonal cues, chicken embryos know their sex from the start [Read more]
» 10 Mar 2010, 11:09 am

Stressed Men Fancy Someone DifferentMen under stress are more attracted to females who don't look like them [Read more]
» 10 Mar 2010, 8:05 am

Shot: Orangutans Decipher Each Other's CallsIn the Borneo rainforest, females discern what the males are up to [Read more]
» 9 Mar 2010, 5:26 pm

Roundup 3/9: The Cleanup EditionAhead of an expected general election in May, there are two more calls for improving... [Read more]
» 9 Mar 2010, 3:22 pm

Scientific Blogging

Mother Earth Cycles To WorkMother Earth Cycles To Work Anthropogenic global warming. AGW Human-caused warming. Call it what you will: is it real? In short: can humans modify Earth's climate? There are two major views on this question: 1 - human emissions of CO2 cause global warming. 2 - global warming is part of a natural cycle. I suggest that neither view is sufficiently correct because the underlying suppositions and simplifications are false. The Earth's dynamic systems are many.  They are complex in and of themselves.  They do not act in isolation, but interact amongst themselves. Accordingly, one might ask: read more
» 10 Mar 2010, 3:05 pm

Hot Topics And Mental IntertiaBad habits of ineffective science: Trends in Biochemical Sciences has a piece on Mental inertia in the biological sciences. I'm not quite sure what to make of it, but the piece does contain some interesting thoughts on hot topics vs. important topics: Almost any scientist wants to work on solving an important problem, but at any given moment, it can be difficult to distinguish the topics that are ‘important’ from those that are ‘hot’. Often the scientific community does not immediately recognize the true significance of the work, and it can remain obscure for many years... read more
» 10 Mar 2010, 1:52 pm

Mental Illness: A Personal Perspective...continuedMy personal beef, isn't with psychiatrists, clinical psychologists or mental health workers per se. Most of the psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, social workers that I have known, for the most part, have been very kind, tolerant, caring, understanding and supportive people. At least that's been my experience. Oh I know, there are exceptions to the rule and believe me when I say I have had more than my share! But, that's beside the point. My beef is with the pharmaceutical companies whose motives are far from altruistic. On the contrary, their prime motivation, and I'm talking about the corporate heads of these companies, is profit and nothing more. read more
» 10 Mar 2010, 9:50 am

The Place Where Forever EndsThe Place Where Forever Ends The idea of living forever has held great fascination for many great minds, but just like the pursuit of a perpetual motion machine it is an impossible dream, and for the same reasons. Image source: Wikemedia, public domain. Here are some basic logical requirements of living forever.  In order to live forever one must first be alive. read more
» 10 Mar 2010, 9:31 am

Climate Crook : Scam! Scam! Scam!Climate Crook : Scam! Scam! Scam! Followers of my blog will no doubt guess that this article is about Godfrey Bloom - he of the famous quote:"There appears to be a woeful lack of candour and commonsense in modern day politicians." I have already written something of his own Woeful Lack Of Candour. This is a follow-up. read more
» 10 Mar 2010, 3:53 am

Mental Illness: A Personal PerspectiveThe Agony Of Being Both Researcher And Guinea Pig At the Same Time This article was inspired by Andrea's wonderful piece, Dopamine: The Neurotransmitter With Many Faces. It started out as a comment to her article, but gradually evolved into it's own article. Bearing in mind the context in which this article was conceived, I would prefer not to alter the original text, but rather let you see the pristine form in which it was first written. If nothing else, this should give the reader some insight into how a writer's mind works--at least this writer's mind. ;-) read more
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:16 pm

Why Voters Thought Obama Was A MuslimDuring the 2008 presidential campaign, approximately 20 percent of Americans believed that then-Senator Barack Obama was a Muslim despite news stories that attempted to debunk the rumor, according to a study in The Journal of Media and Religion. The study analyzed data from a survey of more than 2,400 people taken at three points during the campaign to see if exposure to news media helped correct misperceptions about Obama's faith. The findings are consistent with psychological studies on selective memory that show that people tend to discount facts that are inconsistent with their preexisting beliefs. People are also less likely to remember information that conflicts with their beliefs. read more
» 9 Mar 2010, 10:00 pm

Star Birth In SMM J1237+6203 Halted By Catastrophic ExplosionsScientists writing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society say they have found evidence of a catastrophic event they believe was responsible for halting the birth of stars in SMM J1237+6203, a galaxy in the early Universe. The researchers observed the massive galaxy as it would have appeared just three billion years after the Big Bang when the Universe was a quarter of its present age. According to their findings, the galaxy exploded in a series of blasts trillions of times more powerful than any caused by an atomic bomb. The blasts happened every second for millions of years, the scientists said. read more
» 9 Mar 2010, 10:00 pm

Good Health Linked To Frequent, Better Quality SexA new study published in the British Medical Journal suggests that people in good health are almost twice as likely to be interested in sex compared to those in poor health. Sexual activity has health benefits and is linked to living longer, but the new study investigated how general health impacts the quality of sex. The study also estimate how many remaining sexually active years healthy men and women have left. The results revealed that at the age of 30, men have a sexually active life expectancy of nearly 35 years and for women it's almost 31 years. At 55, this figure changes to almost 15 remaining years for men and 10 years for women. This gender difference diminishes for people with a spouse or intimate partner. read more
» 9 Mar 2010, 10:00 pm

Oil Production Will Peak In 2014, Study PredictsResearchers from Kuwait University predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014 — almost a decade earlier than some other predictions. The team explains that scientists have developed several models to forecast the point at which oil production reaches a maximum and then declines, and some put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models, called the Hubbert model, accurately predicted that oil production would peak in the United States in 1970. read more
» 9 Mar 2010, 10:00 pm

Inhibited SK Channels May Explain Relapse In AlcoholicsUniversity of California, San Francisco researchers have uncovered a crucial mechanism that encourages alcohol consumption after extended abstinence. Previous work has suggested that people, places, and objects associated with alcohol use are potent triggers for eliciting relapse and that cravings for both alcohol and drugs can increase across protracted abstinence. However, the specific molecular mechanisms that underlie pathological alcohol seeking are not well defined. read more
» 9 Mar 2010, 10:00 pm