October 2011 science
Talk Magazines!!!!! New Yorker, Science, Atlantic, Mad......
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1qebo
I fell behind in September, have higher aspirations for October...
February 2011 has been partially read for... weeks. Non-feature highlights:
*** Science Agenda: The autism / MMR connection was based on a study of 12 children, and has since been retracted. States that allow religious and philosophical exceptions for vaccinating children should not.
*** Forum:Wishful thinking Optimism re the politics of climate change.
*** Advances (health): Are vitamin D supplements necessary? Maybe, maybe not.
*** Advances (immunology): Parasitic worms such as hookworm and whipworm pacify the immune system in order to survive. Helminthic therapy, not yet approved by the FDA, deliberately infects people who have immune disorders.
*** Advances (biostatistics): Laboratory animals are getting fatter too. Toxins in the water? Increased crowding?
*** Advances (field notes): Omar Fadhil of Baghdad travels around Iraq recording presence and absence of birds.
*** Advances (materials science): Diamond and graphene are different arrangements of carbon atoms. Graphite under "cold" compression may have a hybrid form.
*** Advances (food): Beer adds three ingredients (carbon dioxide, foaming agents, and alcohol) that make batter better.
*** Advances (neuroscience): With the sense of smell decreasingly important in humans, olfactory receptors acquired more mutations. A study of responses to different odors found wide variation in intensity and pleasantness.
*** Advances (physics): Gravity interferes with electromagnetism. This sort of thing makes my head hurt. More here: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/44235.
*** Advances (infectious disease): Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is similar to MRI except it spins different elements into alignment, and it has been used to see and understand the function of a protein on the surface of an flu virus.
*** Advances (biology): Exposing mice to different durations of sunlight shortly after birth affects their biological clock genes for life.
*** Advances (physics): Some particles created by proton collisions in the Large Hadron Collider appear to synchronize their flight paths. Maybe it's the gluons.
*** Advances (geology): 635-750 million years ago, much of the Earth's surface was covered with glaciers. As the glaciers melted, they scraped minerals from the land and deposited them into the ocean. The timing coincided with a notable diversification of animal life. Analysis of ancient ocean deposits revealed spikes in phosphorus, a nutrient for microbes and algae.
*** Advances (math): You are more likely to be friends with someone who has many friend than with someone who has few friends. So, you probably have fewer friends than your friends do.
*** Health: A surgeon developed a procedure that might bring relief to people with multiple sclerosis, but before it was published it in a medical journal, it got onto the internet and created demand for treatment -- which is plausible and respectable but not ready. Lesson: doctors should be aware of and prepared to address what patients are seeing.
*** Technofiles: Which is better: open, or proprietary? Who knows?
*** Recommended: Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All by Paul A. Offit.
*** Skeptic: Houdini tried unsuccessfully to convince Arthur Conan Doyle that seances did not actually receive messages from the dead by demonstrating that he could "receive" messages in the same way.
*** Graphic Science: fMRIs of people experienceing passionate, maternal, or unconditional love were compared to see which regions of the brain were active and what chemicals were released.
Phew. These articles are brief, generally less than a page. Documenting is an experiment, the result of which is... jeez, this takes more time than reading them, though it does serve to refresh my memory. Not sure it's gonna happen again. I'd rather concentrate on the longer articles.
February 2011 has been partially read for... weeks. Non-feature highlights:
*** Science Agenda: The autism / MMR connection was based on a study of 12 children, and has since been retracted. States that allow religious and philosophical exceptions for vaccinating children should not.
*** Forum:
*** Advances (health): Are vitamin D supplements necessary? Maybe, maybe not.
*** Advances (immunology): Parasitic worms such as hookworm and whipworm pacify the immune system in order to survive. Helminthic therapy, not yet approved by the FDA, deliberately infects people who have immune disorders.
*** Advances (biostatistics): Laboratory animals are getting fatter too. Toxins in the water? Increased crowding?
*** Advances (field notes): Omar Fadhil of Baghdad travels around Iraq recording presence and absence of birds.
*** Advances (materials science): Diamond and graphene are different arrangements of carbon atoms. Graphite under "cold" compression may have a hybrid form.
*** Advances (food): Beer adds three ingredients (carbon dioxide, foaming agents, and alcohol) that make batter better.
*** Advances (neuroscience): With the sense of smell decreasingly important in humans, olfactory receptors acquired more mutations. A study of responses to different odors found wide variation in intensity and pleasantness.
*** Advances (physics): Gravity interferes with electromagnetism. This sort of thing makes my head hurt. More here: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/44235.
*** Advances (infectious disease): Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is similar to MRI except it spins different elements into alignment, and it has been used to see and understand the function of a protein on the surface of an flu virus.
*** Advances (biology): Exposing mice to different durations of sunlight shortly after birth affects their biological clock genes for life.
*** Advances (physics): Some particles created by proton collisions in the Large Hadron Collider appear to synchronize their flight paths. Maybe it's the gluons.
*** Advances (geology): 635-750 million years ago, much of the Earth's surface was covered with glaciers. As the glaciers melted, they scraped minerals from the land and deposited them into the ocean. The timing coincided with a notable diversification of animal life. Analysis of ancient ocean deposits revealed spikes in phosphorus, a nutrient for microbes and algae.
*** Advances (math): You are more likely to be friends with someone who has many friend than with someone who has few friends. So, you probably have fewer friends than your friends do.
*** Health: A surgeon developed a procedure that might bring relief to people with multiple sclerosis, but before it was published it in a medical journal, it got onto the internet and created demand for treatment -- which is plausible and respectable but not ready. Lesson: doctors should be aware of and prepared to address what patients are seeing.
*** Technofiles: Which is better: open, or proprietary? Who knows?
*** Recommended: Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All by Paul A. Offit.
*** Skeptic: Houdini tried unsuccessfully to convince Arthur Conan Doyle that seances did not actually receive messages from the dead by demonstrating that he could "receive" messages in the same way.
*** Graphic Science: fMRIs of people experienceing passionate, maternal, or unconditional love were compared to see which regions of the brain were active and what chemicals were released.
Phew. These articles are brief, generally less than a page. Documenting is an experiment, the result of which is... jeez, this takes more time than reading them, though it does serve to refresh my memory. Not sure it's gonna happen again. I'd rather concentrate on the longer articles.
2qebo
And... I finished the February 2011 feature articles this morning. I had aspired to write summaries one by one as I read, but it was always too late, or I had to work, or... and now I am faced with every damn one.
I have decided, as I noted in my 75er thread today, to count each magazine as a book, because the effort is equivalent. But no counting before summarizing.
I have decided, as I noted in my 75er thread today, to count each magazine as a book, because the effort is equivalent. But no counting before summarizing.
3ffortsa
Thank you for your science roundup. You had me laughing out loud, but I'm now looking forward to reading those short articles.
4qebo
Heh. Note that nearly two weeks have gone by and I have yet to summarize February 2011 feature articles. I'm writing summaries as I read March 2011, which I expect to finish this month, but there will be no more documenting of the non-feature bits unless something especially stands out. Too much work. But I'm glad you were amused.
5sibylline
That was a stupendous effort and interesting too -- I feel I've been a careless admin. because I didn't come and visit sooner.
My only sciencey comments for this month is that the update on the Ice Man in National Geo was one of those rare articles (for them) that had some real info not just great pix.
My only sciencey comments for this month is that the update on the Ice Man in National Geo was one of those rare articles (for them) that had some real info not just great pix.
6qebo
I finished reading the March issue yesterday, so I'll post February and March summaries on this thread, someday... I'd been writing summaries as I read, but then I zipped through several articles over the weekend.
Iceman!
Iceman!
7qebo
February 2011 done. Weeks ago.
How to Fix the Obesity Crisis by David H. Freedman
A summary of biological and behavioral research. Biological: various brain components regulate hunger and chronic overeating is biochemically similar to drug addiction, brown fat (which generates heat and is associated with muscle) and white fat (which stores energy) occur in different amounts, 20-ish genes are mildly associated with weight gain. Behavioral: reliance on pure willpower tends to produce diminishing returns; steps to successful weight loss are assessing habits that contribute to weight gain, making small changes in food and exercise, monitoring actions and results, support groups.
Citizen Satellites by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang and Bob Twiggs
CubeSat technology modularizes satellite components and makes them affordable for small research teams.
Photos: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cubesats-photos
The Blue Food Revolution by Sarah Simpson
Meat production consumes energy, pollutes, and occupies land area that diminishes as population rises, so alternatives are being sought. Fish production currently has a less than stellar reputation because farmed fish are predators that must be fed with fish lower in the food chain; and stationary coastal fish pens pollute too. The goal, not yet achieved, is sustainability, with nutrients from algae replacing sardines and anchovies, and moveable pens placed further from shore.
Photos: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=simpson-fish-farm-photos
How Language Shapes Thought by Lera Boroditsky
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that language shapes thought was all the rage in the 1930s, but by the 1970s had given way to the idea of universal language. Now it's back. Gist: if a language requires specification of features, then its speakers notice those features. Example: speakers of a language that requires absolute direction (N,S,E,W etc) rather than relative direction (left, right) are very good at keeping track of where they are, also they arrange items in temporal sequence from east to west regardless of which direction they happen to be facing.
The Inner Life of the Genome by Tom Misteli
Although the human genome has been sequenced, this doesn't explain how it works. Chromosome painting, a technique to that colors entire chromosomes, reveals organization in the spaghetti appearance. Notably, in different types of cells or during development or when diseased, chromosomes prefer different locations. Genes at the periphery of the nucleus are often inactive. When a gene needs to be activated, its portion of the chromosome loops toward the interior, where it can be transcribed. The periphery is lined with lamins. Chromosome segments without active genes are compressed into heterochromatin by protein that attaches them to the lamins. Stem cells lack both lamins and heterochromatin.
A Friend to Aliens by Brenden Borrell
Interview with ecologist Mark Davis, who once advocated native plants only, but now declares some non-native plants to be "LTL" -- learn to live with. Species do not stay put.
X-ray Vision by Fiona Harrison and Charles J. Hailey
NASA's NuSTAR telescope, to be launched in early 2012, can record high quality images from x-rays emitted by neutron stars and black holes.
Photos: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nustar-telescope-photos
Mind Out of Body by Miguel A. L. Nicoletis
An excerpt from Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines: Experiments through the Walk Again Project are approaching the goal of brain-machine interface, which would allow a physically disabled person to control a prosthetic exoskeleton.
Video: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mind-control-nicolelis
Jefferson's Moose by Lee Dugatkin
Count Buffon / Georges-Louis Leclerc, pronounced American animals to be inferior -- smaller and weaker than their European counterparts. Jefferson set out to prove him wrong, and asked hunters to find a moose skeleton while he was in France. Success! Buffon recanted, but alas died before he could revise his natural history.
How to Fix the Obesity Crisis by David H. Freedman
A summary of biological and behavioral research. Biological: various brain components regulate hunger and chronic overeating is biochemically similar to drug addiction, brown fat (which generates heat and is associated with muscle) and white fat (which stores energy) occur in different amounts, 20-ish genes are mildly associated with weight gain. Behavioral: reliance on pure willpower tends to produce diminishing returns; steps to successful weight loss are assessing habits that contribute to weight gain, making small changes in food and exercise, monitoring actions and results, support groups.
Citizen Satellites by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang and Bob Twiggs
CubeSat technology modularizes satellite components and makes them affordable for small research teams.
Photos: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cubesats-photos
The Blue Food Revolution by Sarah Simpson
Meat production consumes energy, pollutes, and occupies land area that diminishes as population rises, so alternatives are being sought. Fish production currently has a less than stellar reputation because farmed fish are predators that must be fed with fish lower in the food chain; and stationary coastal fish pens pollute too. The goal, not yet achieved, is sustainability, with nutrients from algae replacing sardines and anchovies, and moveable pens placed further from shore.
Photos: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=simpson-fish-farm-photos
How Language Shapes Thought by Lera Boroditsky
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that language shapes thought was all the rage in the 1930s, but by the 1970s had given way to the idea of universal language. Now it's back. Gist: if a language requires specification of features, then its speakers notice those features. Example: speakers of a language that requires absolute direction (N,S,E,W etc) rather than relative direction (left, right) are very good at keeping track of where they are, also they arrange items in temporal sequence from east to west regardless of which direction they happen to be facing.
The Inner Life of the Genome by Tom Misteli
Although the human genome has been sequenced, this doesn't explain how it works. Chromosome painting, a technique to that colors entire chromosomes, reveals organization in the spaghetti appearance. Notably, in different types of cells or during development or when diseased, chromosomes prefer different locations. Genes at the periphery of the nucleus are often inactive. When a gene needs to be activated, its portion of the chromosome loops toward the interior, where it can be transcribed. The periphery is lined with lamins. Chromosome segments without active genes are compressed into heterochromatin by protein that attaches them to the lamins. Stem cells lack both lamins and heterochromatin.
A Friend to Aliens by Brenden Borrell
Interview with ecologist Mark Davis, who once advocated native plants only, but now declares some non-native plants to be "LTL" -- learn to live with. Species do not stay put.
X-ray Vision by Fiona Harrison and Charles J. Hailey
NASA's NuSTAR telescope, to be launched in early 2012, can record high quality images from x-rays emitted by neutron stars and black holes.
Photos: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nustar-telescope-photos
Mind Out of Body by Miguel A. L. Nicoletis
An excerpt from Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines: Experiments through the Walk Again Project are approaching the goal of brain-machine interface, which would allow a physically disabled person to control a prosthetic exoskeleton.
Video: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mind-control-nicolelis
Jefferson's Moose by Lee Dugatkin
Count Buffon / Georges-Louis Leclerc, pronounced American animals to be inferior -- smaller and weaker than their European counterparts. Jefferson set out to prove him wrong, and asked hunters to find a moose skeleton while he was in France. Success! Buffon recanted, but alas died before he could revise his natural history.
8qebo
March 2011 done on October 31.
The Neuroscience of True Grit by Gary Stix
Most people bounce back after tragedy and trauma. Is resilience in the genes? Is it chemicals? Can it be taught? There is a colorful diagram of brain chemicals. Less informative than one might hope for a cover article.
Journey to the Innermost Planet by Scott Murchie, Ronald Vervack, Brian Anderson
Pretty images and diagrams of Mercury, as seen by the MESSENGER spacecraft. Skimmed.
Video: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mercury-journey-to-innermost-pl...
Diseases in a Dish by Stephen Hall
An embryonic stem cell can become any other type of cell. Promising, but availability has been constrained by ethical considerations, and the hope of turning them into transplants has not been realized experimentally. But, another technique has been developed to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells): extract cells (e.g. skin cells) from a person, and insert regulator genes to reprogram them into stem cells. Then add signalling molecules to turn the iPS cells into, for example, motor neurons. The result is that the motor neurons created from skin cells of a person with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) exhibit symptoms of the disease. So instead of using embryonic stem cells therapeutically, use iPS cells to study the effects of drugs.
Signals in a Storm by Carl Schoonover
Neuron communication involves coordination of 1400 types of molecules. Neurons are small and the processes are fast, so studying them is difficult. A computer model uses a 3-D reconstruction of nerve tissue in a rat brain, and simulates the movement of neurotransmitters. One observation: there's lots of space, and neurotransmitters diffuse through it, rather than connect two neurons across a synapse.
Images: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=brain-beautiful-minds-pics
Putting Stonehenge in its Place by William Underhill
Stonehenge is not an isolated structure. Recent discoveries are another stone structure dubbed Bluehenge in 2009, and an apparently timber structure in 2010; both are circles of posts. One theory is that the dead of the Durrington Walls settlement on the River Avon were transported along the river to Bluehenge, where they were cremated then transported along a road to Stonehenge. The article includes an illustration of the landscape and the structures as they may have appeared circa 1600 BC.
Video: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=underhill-virtual-stonehenge
Demons, Entropy, and the Quest for Absolute Zero by Mark Raizen
A gas can be cooled to a 100th of a degree above absolute zero using a reverse coilgun. But that's not good enough. To get to millionths of a degree, a new technique has been devised, based on a thought experiment by James Clerk Maxwell: single-photon cooling. See the animation for a description. The technique seems to violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics, but the math has been done to prove that it does not. Note how I am managing not to get caught up in physics, which makes my head hurt.
Animation: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=raizen-entropy-cooling-experime...
A Shifting Band of Rain by Julian Sachs and Conor Myhrvold
A band of rain around the earth near the equator shifts according to atmospheric temperature. Historic patterns of rainfall can be determined by analyzing the ratio of hydrogen isotopes in algae lipids, which are preserved in sediment. Collecting sediment cores is an adventure. Data from the past 1200 years correlates with atmospheric temperature. At current warming rates, the band could shift north by 5 degrees, leaving current agricultural regions dry.
Photos: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sachs-shifting-band-rain-pics
Not Just an Illness of the Rich by Mary Carmichael
An interview with Paul Farmer, of Mountains Beyond Mountains fame, who has shifted his focus to cancer.
Dinosaur Death Trap by Paul Sereno
A team of paleontologists discovered remains of over a dozen Sinornithomimus dinosaurs in the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia. It's not necessarily simple to determine whether fossils in a location are all from creatures that died at the same time, but this was probably a pack that got trapped in mud about 90 million years ago. Among the evidence is their orientation in roughly the direction. These are all relatively young dinosaurs. The two parts of their vertebrae are not fused, and bone growth rings indicate ages of 1-7 years, indicating adolescents who would reach maturity at about age 10.
Video: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=dinos-gurney-video
The Neuroscience of True Grit by Gary Stix
Most people bounce back after tragedy and trauma. Is resilience in the genes? Is it chemicals? Can it be taught? There is a colorful diagram of brain chemicals. Less informative than one might hope for a cover article.
Journey to the Innermost Planet by Scott Murchie, Ronald Vervack, Brian Anderson
Pretty images and diagrams of Mercury, as seen by the MESSENGER spacecraft. Skimmed.
Video: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mercury-journey-to-innermost-pl...
Diseases in a Dish by Stephen Hall
An embryonic stem cell can become any other type of cell. Promising, but availability has been constrained by ethical considerations, and the hope of turning them into transplants has not been realized experimentally. But, another technique has been developed to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells): extract cells (e.g. skin cells) from a person, and insert regulator genes to reprogram them into stem cells. Then add signalling molecules to turn the iPS cells into, for example, motor neurons. The result is that the motor neurons created from skin cells of a person with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) exhibit symptoms of the disease. So instead of using embryonic stem cells therapeutically, use iPS cells to study the effects of drugs.
Signals in a Storm by Carl Schoonover
Neuron communication involves coordination of 1400 types of molecules. Neurons are small and the processes are fast, so studying them is difficult. A computer model uses a 3-D reconstruction of nerve tissue in a rat brain, and simulates the movement of neurotransmitters. One observation: there's lots of space, and neurotransmitters diffuse through it, rather than connect two neurons across a synapse.
Images: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=brain-beautiful-minds-pics
Putting Stonehenge in its Place by William Underhill
Stonehenge is not an isolated structure. Recent discoveries are another stone structure dubbed Bluehenge in 2009, and an apparently timber structure in 2010; both are circles of posts. One theory is that the dead of the Durrington Walls settlement on the River Avon were transported along the river to Bluehenge, where they were cremated then transported along a road to Stonehenge. The article includes an illustration of the landscape and the structures as they may have appeared circa 1600 BC.
Video: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=underhill-virtual-stonehenge
Demons, Entropy, and the Quest for Absolute Zero by Mark Raizen
A gas can be cooled to a 100th of a degree above absolute zero using a reverse coilgun. But that's not good enough. To get to millionths of a degree, a new technique has been devised, based on a thought experiment by James Clerk Maxwell: single-photon cooling. See the animation for a description. The technique seems to violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics, but the math has been done to prove that it does not. Note how I am managing not to get caught up in physics, which makes my head hurt.
Animation: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=raizen-entropy-cooling-experime...
A Shifting Band of Rain by Julian Sachs and Conor Myhrvold
A band of rain around the earth near the equator shifts according to atmospheric temperature. Historic patterns of rainfall can be determined by analyzing the ratio of hydrogen isotopes in algae lipids, which are preserved in sediment. Collecting sediment cores is an adventure. Data from the past 1200 years correlates with atmospheric temperature. At current warming rates, the band could shift north by 5 degrees, leaving current agricultural regions dry.
Photos: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sachs-shifting-band-rain-pics
Not Just an Illness of the Rich by Mary Carmichael
An interview with Paul Farmer, of Mountains Beyond Mountains fame, who has shifted his focus to cancer.
Dinosaur Death Trap by Paul Sereno
A team of paleontologists discovered remains of over a dozen Sinornithomimus dinosaurs in the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia. It's not necessarily simple to determine whether fossils in a location are all from creatures that died at the same time, but this was probably a pack that got trapped in mud about 90 million years ago. Among the evidence is their orientation in roughly the direction. These are all relatively young dinosaurs. The two parts of their vertebrae are not fused, and bone growth rings indicate ages of 1-7 years, indicating adolescents who would reach maturity at about age 10.
Video: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=dinos-gurney-video
