One of the thousands of visitors to the sciencebase medical news headlines page, hit the site via my article on emerging viral infections with the following two phrases: “infections from rose bush” and “infections related to handling ducks”…inexplicable it seems, but if you spot somebody with thorn marks on their hands and fragments of feather under their fingernails you can take a guess at where they’ve been and recommend a good doctor.
Category: Science
15 Minutes of Fame
Physicists are now paraphrasing Andy Warhol! The latest entry in the physics eprints from arxiv discusses the dynamics of information access on the Web. The researchers conclude that “while fifteen minutes of fame is still an exaggeration in the online media, we find that access to most news items significantly decays after 36 hours of posting.”
Which, is why my sites get updated at least once a day as I hanker for that elusive fifteen minutes.
Local Brothel, according to Google
Here’s an interesting trick, first brought to light by The Register. If you’re after a bit of what they call “pay-per-hump” action, then using Local Google can help you find your nearest brothel. For anyone in Cambridge, the first couple of hits are very intriguing: Google Search. BBC Radio Cambs and the Medical Research Council. A little further down the list one finds a well-known local drinking den for local people. That’s probably closer to the mark, but saying that many journalists know the BBC as a bunch of media whor
Political scientists
Who says science isn’t political? One of my oldest contacts in the world of crystallography recently contacted me about the Petition for Open Data in Crystallography. The initiative, like similar efforts in the realm of genomics, hopes to persuade the curators of crystal structure information (the CSD, ICSD, CRYSMET and ICDD) to provide an open access, “lite” version of their content, crystal data and powder patterns. I’d urge you to take a look and vote on this important issue before the next meeting of the IUCr in August 2005.
Physicists thrown by theory
It sounds so esoteric, but the title of this paper, available via the Sciencebase Physics ePrints page, is all about learning how to throw a ball the furthest. To quote from the authors conclusion: “The present solution …is based on the widely applicable technique of change of variables. Although this may be implicit in the algebraic variant of the solution, both variants may serve as an illustration of the usefulness of the technique in simplifying otherwise complicated calculations.”
See, I told you it wasn’t esoteric.
Premature communication
One unfortunate beachcomber almost trod in something resembling a severed human penis and testicles, on a New Zealand beach and called the police: Cod story of the week!
However, it was a premature communication, according to the Oddstuff website. It turned out to be some kind of anemone, although no private dick with a marine biology degree was on hand to confirm this.
Meanwhile, fishermen reported sighting a merman, complete with requisite green-black hair, gills, webbed hands, and “protruding stomach”, reports Ananova.
Are these two stories linked? It all seems very fishy to me…
Who Needs Genes?
It seems that a meeting underway in Exeter this week may very well draw the conclusion that genes, the mainstay of the whole of the last half century or more of biological science, don’t actually exist, at least according to the published abstract from UPenn’s Karola Stotz and colleagues (link died since time of writing).
Stotz explains that daily findings from the life sciences continually imply that the gene as a particulate entity in the genome is not supported by the evidence. They also suggest that science journalists, as both reporters and critics, perhaps have a role to play in the public understanding of post-genomic science. Presumably, this means we should somehow be mediating the discovery of a supposed gene for this disease or that behaviour, and explaining clearly that there are very few biologists now who see “genes” as the particulate entities that explained Mendel’s findings all those years ago. Indeed, headlines shouting about an “asthma gene”, “a gene for homosexuality”, or “the gene controlling suicidal tendencies” must be spiked as of now (and maybe always should have been). I’ll be on my best behaviour in this regard from now on, although I cannot promise I don’t have the gene for being contrary and so might renege on my promise…
Buckyballs redux redux
I received an interesting comment from reader Martin G over at OhPurleese.com following my note about the “dangers of Fullerenes”:
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they have some toxic effects – but . . .
They’re all around us and have been for millions of years. Any old soot contains a fair percentage of Bucky balls, tubes etc etc.
The wonder was it took so long for us to find them!”
He’s certainly right, but I still think that won’t stop the scaremongers shouting down any new research in this and almost every other chemical field.
A+ Science Fair Projects
We used to host some great middle school science projects on our roster. If you’re after an A+ science fair project, then one of the best resources you should check out is Janice VanCleave’s books. She offers the scoop on A+ Science Fair Projects and more. And if her style doesn’t suit, there’s always Science Fair Projects for Dummies (no offence!).
Search Sciencebase for science fair projects that can be done in 24 hours or over the weekend. There are also great ebooks out there such as ones with 101 science projects.
Desktop Bananas and Kilograms
Scientific fun and games at The Register this week! And, although one doesn’t tend to order bananas by the kilo for personal use you most certainly get charged by the kilo not per banana!