January 2009 Posts (18)

Fight Club: Triceratops Style

Scientists have developed many theories to explain the Triceratops horns. Some believe they were displays to attract mates, like the feathers of a peacock, others claim they were to fend off predators like the tyrannosaurus.

In a Plos one paper published in January 2008, researchers from the University of Wisconsin, The Alf Museum of Paleontology in California and The Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology in Canada, provided evidence that the horns were used to settle disagreements… Continue

Added by Jennifer Rust on January 29, 2009 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Sense of Rhythm Present at Birth

I'm a musician and I grew up in an environment where music was ubiquitous, so while I have a great sense of rhythm, it's always confused me that my brother didn't (despite that he's a musician as well, with perfect pitch, no less ::grumbles::). Turns out, it might be something our environment had nothing to do with.

From the article from USA Today:

"Studying children's sense of musical timing has long been challenging. The babies in the study couldn't even grab their toes,… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on January 26, 2009 at 6:32pm — No Comments

First Stem Cell Trials Approved in Humans

The FDA has given the go-ahead to the biotech firm Geron to treat spinal cord injury patients with human stem cells.

From the Wired article:

"The approval is expected to the first of several trials involving embryonic stem cells. A recent CAMR report found that nine companies, including Geron, were in the process of developing human embryonic stem cell treatments.

Embryonic stem cells are like blank slates that can be transformed into different types of tissue.… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on January 23, 2009 at 3:16pm — No Comments

Hot: DNA, Not: Tree of Life

A really cool article from the New Scientist website covers the slow unraveling of Darwin's idea of the tree of life, where all living organisms (the branches of the tree) come from a single ancestor (the trunk). The author relates the story of how after the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, scientists began comparing DNA sequences of ribosomes to fill in the tree, they began noticing some inconsistencies.

From the article:

"The problems began in the early 1990s… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on January 23, 2009 at 10:49am — No Comments

RNA: the O.G.

RNA (ribnucleic acid), is sometimes thought of as DNA's less important relative. But in vitro evolution is shining a new light on the importance of RNA. RNA is built like DNA, but can sometimes act like proteins. Using these two abilities together, RNA may have gained a foothold in the primordial environment and become the first life on planet Earth.

The Joyce Lab at the Scripps Research Institute has recently published a paper detailing the first system in which two RNA molecules… Continue

Added by Jennifer Rust on January 21, 2009 at 9:00am — No Comments

Elephant orphans and the legacy of poaching

Elephants never forget, and this may be detrimental to the overall health and fitness of elephants who have been through traumatic events. The Mikumi National Park in Tanzania experienced extremely high rates of poaching prior to the ban on the ivory trade in 1989. Twenty years later researchers from the University of Washington Center for Conservation Biology looked at stress levels and reproductive output for elephants who had lost family members.

The study suggests that elephants who… Continue

Added by Jennifer Rust on January 20, 2009 at 3:00pm — No Comments

science

For anyone that knows some thing really cool and new about
science and you want to tell some one about it you could tell
me about it. Just leave it as a comment on my page or you
could ask me to invite you as a friend and you could tell me
all about your new science dicovery.

Added by Felix Padilla on January 20, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

Umami: The mystery flavor

Everyone knows about the flavors sweet, salty, bitter and sour. But there is another flavor which humans can detect known as umami. Umami may not be as famous as the other flavors people encounter, but that doesn't mean scientists are going to let the mechanism by which it is detected remain a mystery. A recent study published in PNAS has shown that detection of the flavor umami is the work of G-protein coupled receptors, which are also the receptors for sweet flavors. When these receptors… Continue

Added by Jennifer Rust on January 18, 2009 at 7:40pm — No Comments

Brave, Stupid and Curious: Dangerous Psychology Experiments from the Past

I love articles like this. Sometimes I'm nostalgic for the less ethical days of science; the days of Zimbardo and his now infamous prison experiment. I understand why having safeguards in place are necessary for the safety of the subjects of research studies. The great thing about this article is that it turns this idea on its head - what about the safety of the researchers?

A particular study comes to mind (I can't remember the researcher who conducted it though - anyone know?)… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on January 17, 2009 at 4:58pm — No Comments

We're All Living in a Hologram

I'm just going to start off by saying that anything involving space-time or quantum physics hurts my brain. Many times, it's so beyond my every day experience with matter that my brain just puts its fingers in its ears and begins humming Camptown Races.

That having been said, an article appearing in a recent edition of New Scientist deals with a new discovery that bends the very idea of reality.

From the article:

"For many months, the GEO600 team-members had… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on January 17, 2009 at 4:47pm — No Comments

Museums, Zoos, Other Informal Settings Can Boost Science Learning

A recently published National Academy of Science report says:

"Each year, tens of millions of Americans, young and old, choose to learn about science in informal ways -- by visiting museums and aquariums, attending after-school programs, pursuing personal hobbies, and watching TV documentaries, for example. There is abundant evidence that these programs and settings, and even everyday experiences… Continue

Added by Tom Munnecke on January 16, 2009 at 9:20am — No Comments

I just joined the network. I am in India- Want to present a paper in San diego Festival

Hi all,

I am a science and science fiction writer. Also founder organiser of PEOPLE'S SCIENCE a voluntary service organisation for the popularisation of science.

I am inclined to present a paper on the most pressing issues like global warming, ozone layer depletion, alternativre energy vehicle and other matters of interest.

I would welcome a travel grant and accommodation arrangement. as I am planning a trip to NASA., I want to make the festival a part of my… Continue

Added by K. MOHAN(Mohan Sanjeevan) on January 16, 2009 at 12:27am — 2 Comments

Survival of the Cutest?

Darwin taught us all about the survival of the fittest - the "fitness function" by which life has evolved

over the past 4 billion years or so. However, we are the first generations of the first species to reach a point of intelligence that we can understand and affect our own evolution. This is not your grandfather's evolution. The birth control pill in the 60's allowed us shift our species' hormones and triggered a sexual revolution. Our understanding of DNA and the human genome… Continue

Added by Tom Munnecke on January 14, 2009 at 9:13am — No Comments

NIH Awards $16.6 Million to UC San Diego Researcher for New Genetics Center

UCSD researcher Bing Ren has been granted $16.6 million from the National Institutes of Health to study how human genes are activated or inactivated.

The five-year grant supports research at the San Diego Epigenome Center, located at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at UCSD. The center is studying changes in gene function unrelated to changes in a gene's DNA sequence, with the goal of gaining new insights into diseases.

The complete set of these epigenetic changes is called… Continue

Added by Bradley J. Fikes on January 13, 2009 at 6:55pm — No Comments

---> Do you teach Immunology?

Hi!

I am the coordinator of the Upward Bound program

here at San Deigo State University.

We conduct a five-week summer program on campus.

I am looking for qualified high school teachers

who are able to teach Bacteriology, Virology, Immunology.

If you are that person

-or-

if you have someone you know in mind

who fits this description ...

let me know -- you can e-mail at… Continue

Added by Brad Brown on January 12, 2009 at 12:36pm — No Comments

A New Way of Publishing

After reading several letters and an editorial in Science about impact factors and the negative effect they have on science in general (DOI 10.1126/science.1165316 and Oct. 10, 2008 letters for example), I have decided to propose a new method of publication that may solve this problem.

This solution has three broad goals: 1. massive participation; 2. open access; and 3. fair evaluation of work.

First of all, this new… Continue

Added by Ben Gallarda on January 7, 2009 at 3:13pm — 1 Comment

San Diego Science Festival

Hi, I'm new to MySDscience, and just found out about it through the SDSF newsletter. I've been looking into the web site for the festival to try and get some solid information on events I can attend during discovery week, but I can't find any information on the dates or times of the individual events. Does any one know why that is, or where the information might be posted?

Added by Danee on January 7, 2009 at 1:32pm — 4 Comments

Blog Your Science Competition

Blog Your Science Competition: Submit your blog posts describing your science interests or blog about your expertise or simply your

thoughts about science. Best blog stories (1 per month) will be

recognized, featured and the author will get a $20 Starbucks card.

(This is a monthly contest beginning at the 1st of the month).

Go Blog Now…

Continue

Added by Jose Morachis on January 4, 2009 at 3:34am — No Comments