Obsessive-Compulsive Mice Cured via Bone Marrow Transplant | 80beats

Obsessive-compulsive mice, which were once pulling their hair out from too much grooming, are now sitting pretty. Their cure? A bone marrow transplant. In a study published today in Cell, scientists show an unsuspected link between a psychological disorder and the immune system. Here’s how they did it: Step 1 – Finding the Problem Since excessive cleaning is a behavior, scientists first thought to [...]

Katz | Gene Expression

Scientist Smackdown: Did “Ardi” Change the Story of Human Evolution? | 80beats

The bones of our ancestors do not speak across time with ultimate clarity. The fossils with which scientists reconstruct our family tree are often fragments that offer hints and clues to where we came from. So it comes as no surprise when, as part of the flow of science, researchers offer counter-interpretations to even the [...]

Teen’s Winning Science Fair Project Could Turn Tire Dumps Into Power Stations | Discoblog

When other Albertans saw landfill fodder, 17-year-old Kyle Schole saw electricity. His project, “Microbial Degredation of Vehicle Tires,” which uses a strain of bacteria to harness energy from decomposing rubber tires, hasn’t yet hit the journal circuit. But it has won the farm-raised teenager a gold-prize at his national science fair. Schole devised his plan while driving past an Alberta tire recycling plant. [...]

A Snail on Meth Remembers When You’ve Wronged It | 80beats

Poke a snail with a stick and it remembers for a day. Poke a snail with a stick after you’ve given it methamphetamine and it remembers for much longer. Getting gastropods hooked on meth perhaps sounds cruel, but Barbara Sorg and her team are among those scientists trying to figure out how the drug works [...]

Are We Hardwired to Kill? | The Intersection

This is a guest post from Vanessa Woods, author of the new book, Bonobo Handshake. Vanessa is a Research Scientist in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University and studies the cognition of chimpanzees and bonobos in Congo. We like to think that murderers are psychopaths, with some kind of abnormal psychology that would never appear in [...]

Amateur astronomer spies on spy satellites | Bad Astronomy

Ralf Vandebergh, an astronomer in The Netherlands, has sent me many of his outstanding images of space vehicles in the past. But he just sent one to me that I have to admit, rather shocked me: an image of a Keyhole 11 spy satellite! At the time Ralf took these images, the satellite was about [...]

The development of fairness – egalitarian children grow into meritocratic teens | Not Exactly Rocket Science

Two children, Anne and Carla, have worked together to make a cake and they have to split it between them. Anne says that she’s the bigger cake aficionado and deserves the lion’s share. But Carla demands the bigger slice since she did most of the cooking. A nosy third party, Brenda, argues that the only [...]

Followup: Scramjet test a success | Bad Astronomy

ABC news is reporting that the Air Force tested the X-51A scramjet yesterday, and that it successfully fired for 200 seconds, blowing away — literally — the previous record of 12 seconds. Very cool. So screw getting your own jet pack. When do we get our own Mach 6 personal scrampacks*? Tip o’ the windscreen [...]

Doing evolution’s sums | Gene Expression

PLoS Biology has a review of Elements of Evolutionary Genetics up, Evolution Is a Quantitative Science: But why has evolutionary genetics stood apart from biology’s resolutely qualitative, rather than quantitative, tradition? Most remarkably, while biomechanics employs the laws of physics, and biochemistry is founded on the quantitative science of chemistry, evolutionary genetics is based on [...]

NCBI ROFL: Origins of magic: review of genetic and epigenetic effects. | Discoblog

It’s BMJ week (again) on NCBI ROFL! After the success of our first BMJ week, we decided to devote another week to fun articles from holiday issues of the British Medical Journal. Enjoy! “Objective: To assess the evidence for a genetic basis to magic. Setting: Harry Potter novels of J K Rowling. Participants: Muggles, witches, wizards, and [...]

Genetically Engineered Bugs Can Smell Blue Light | Discoblog

Do I smell a banana? Nope. It’s a blue light I’m smelling. Fruit fly larvae made this mistake while participating in a study recently published in Frontiers in Neuroscience Behavior. By adding a light-sensitive protein to certain smell receptors in the larvae, German scientists allowed the genetically engineered bugs to essentially smell light. The team, [...]

“Top Kill” Effort to Staunch the Gulf Oil Flow Seems to Be Working | 80beats

After nearly forty days of wandering in the wilderness of failure and frustration, is this the time that BP finally closes off its oil leak? There’s a glimmer of optimism in the Gulf of Mexico right now, as the “top kill” appears to have stopped the flow of oil. But with everything that’s happened so [...]

Happy News: Indonesia Won’t Slash-and-Burn Forests for Next 2 Years | 80beats

Indonesia, because it’s an archipelago, might not look like it has a lot of land area. But it’s home to the third largest forest area of any country, and has half the tropical peatlands in the entire world. These forested lands are home to many endangered species, and also store greenhouse gases. Now, thanks to [...]

UVA Fights Back Against Cuccinelli | The Intersection

While I don’t have anything to link to yet, I’ve learned that the University of Virginia has responded in court to Ken Cuccinelli’s abusive legal move, opposing his discovery attempt on academic freedom grounds. Bravo! I hope to update this post with a link to the legal document as soon as I can. Update: A [...]

Punked! Slate’s Doctored Photos Mess With Readers’ Memories | Discoblog

“How will we remember the 2000s? What were the high and low points? Who were the heroes and villains?” William Saletan asked in a Slate article last week. Do you remember when Senator Joe Lieberman voted to convict President Clinton at his impeachment trial, when President George W. Bush chilled at his Texas ranch with [...]

3QD Science Blogging Prize | Cosmic Variance

3 Quarks Daily has embarked on an annual hunt for the best blog posts in four areas: science, politics, philosophy, and arts & literature. Nominations have now opened for this year’s science prize; you have until May 31 to suggest your favorite science blog post from the last year; then there will be a round [...]

The new arithmetic endorsed by the Texas Board of Education | Bad Astronomy

Actually, upon further thought, I think this must be the Texas BoE candidate entrance exam. Tip o’ the Susquehanna Hat to Fark.

Two skeptics meetings in Europe this fall (and one in the US) | Bad Astronomy

If you happen to find yourself in The Old World this autumn, then you may want to attend one or both of these conferences… 1) TAM London 2010 will be October 16 – 17 in (duh) London. The speakers list is every bit as impressive as last year’s! The highlight, no doubt, will be the [...]

We Did the Math: BP Oil Spill Is Now Worse Than the Exxon Valdez | 80beats

The U.S. Coast Guard is saying today that the “top kill” procedure looks like it’s having success at stemming BP’s oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. We hope they’re right. In the meantime, you can now say that the BP oil spill is the worst in our nation’s history, eclipsing the 11 million gallons [...]

Nominations open for the 3 Quarks Daily prize in science blogging | Not Exactly Rocket Science

The excellent blog 3 Quarks Daily have opened nominations for their second Prize in Science. This, year, the prize will be judged by Richard Dawkins and there will be three winners. If any of you would like to nominate a post from Not Exactly Rocket Science for this prestigious award, I would obviously be very [...]

Racial bias weakens our ability to feel someone else’s pain | Not Exactly Rocket Science

You’re watching a video of a needle piercing an anonymous hand, sinking slowly into the web between the thumb and index finger. You wince as you imagine the pain that the other person must feel, and for good reason. As you watch, you nervous system essentially duplicates the experience, responding as if you were vicariously [...]

Hypersonic Jet Screams Through the Stratophere at Mach 5 | 80beats

Yesterday morning, about 70,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, the Boeing-designed X-51A Waverider “scramjet” set a new record. Reaching Mach 5 (almost 4,000 miles per hour), it wasn’t the fastest jet flight, but by burning for over 200 seconds it became the longest flight of its kind. The previous scramjet record, held by the NASA [...]

Brain-Boosting Bacterium Helps Mice Conquer a Maze Twice as Fast | 80beats

This is not an “eat dirt for your health and happiness” study. You don’t need to shovel soil in your mouth. Just go outside. Biologist Dorothy Matthews and company wanted to test a particular bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae. It’s found commonly in the soil and carried widely through the air, so if you take a walk [...]

Why Bonobos Will Save the World | The Intersection

This is a guest post from Vanessa Woods, author of the new book, Bonobo Handshake. Vanessa is a Research Scientist in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University and studies the cognition of chimpanzees and bonobos in Congo. When I wake up this morning, someone might try to kill me. I live 10 minutes from a small [...]

When a biologist teaches creationism | Bad Astronomy

A while back, a young blogger named Jaden wrote about his college biology teacher who used the opportunity of his class to teach creationism and abstinence: He started off his discussion by saying that there are two ideas (not theories, but ideas) of how life became how it is on Earth. He closed the classroom’s [...]

Bonobo Week at the Intersection Starts Today: Announcing Guest Blogger Vanessa Woods | The Intersection

I’m pleased to announce that beginning today and running for a week at the Intersection, we will have daily guest posts from Vanessa Woods, author of the new book, Bonobo Handshake. Vanessa is a Research Scientist in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University and studies the cognition of chimpanzees and bonobos in Congo, and her posts [...]

Bonobo Week at the Intersection Starts Today: Announcing Guest Blogger Vanessa Woods | The Intersection

I’m pleased to announce that beginning today and running for a week at the Intersection, we will have daily guest posts from Vanessa Woods, author of the new book, Bonobo Handshake. Vanessa is a Research Scientist in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University and studies the cognition of chimpanzees and bonobos in Congo, and her posts [...]

The genes in Spain fall rather evenly | Gene Expression

A new paper is out which drills down a bit on the genetic substructure in Spain. Genetic Structure of the Spanish Population: Background Genetic admixture is a common caveat for genetic association analysis. Therefore, it is important to characterize the genetic structure of the population under study to control for this kind of potential bias. [...]

3 Quarks Daily Prize in Science: Nominations Are Open | The Loom

The folks at 3 Quarks Daily are taking nominations for their second annual Prize in Science. The judge this year will be Richard Dawkins. Here are the details for how to nominate a blog post from the past year, written after May 23, 2009. The deadline is May 31. Some Loom readers have already nominated [...]

A Blog Incubator | The Loom

A group of new blogs have launched at NYU’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. In my capacity as Visiting Scholar there, I helped some of the students think through how to work blogs into their training at NYU. Mainly, I urged them to think about how to not be boring. I suggested they set [...]

NCBI ROFL: Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal: head bangers stuck between rock and a hard bass. | Discoblog

It’s BMJ week (again) on NCBI ROFL! After the success of our first BMJ week, we decided to devote another week to fun articles from holiday issues of the British Medical Journal. Enjoy! “OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risks of mild traumatic brain injury and neck injury associated with head banging, a popular dance form accompanying heavy metal [...]

Ice Spirals on the Red Planet: Mars Gorges Are Gorgeous | 80beats

That’s not cloud cover. It’s polar ice on Mars, about 600 miles across and covered with deep etchings. The dark valley on the right, named Chasma Boreale, is about the size of the Grand Canyon. This riven Martian arctic was a mystery to scientists for over forty years. But data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter [...]

EPO: A Doping Drug Makes an Unwanted Cycling Comeback | 80beats

After years of denial, Floyd Landis–the cyclist who was stripped of his winning title to the 2006 Tour de France after failing a drug test–admitted last week that he did take performance enhancing drugs. And his confession is causing a stir, partly because he also implicated former teammate Lance Armstrong, seven-time-winner of the Tour de [...]

Repost: Quantum Interrogation | Cosmic Variance

Sorry for the radio silence around here of late. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve been traveling like a mad person. The good news is that I just got back from UC Davis, where I had the chance to meet John Conway for the first time in person. The bad news is: no [...]

Measles comes back, McCarthy’s revisionist history | Bad Astronomy

Two things vacciney: 1) While it’s not due to antivaxxers, it’s still important: measles is making a comeback across the world. According to the article, the lack of funding is making vaccines hard to come by in Africa, Asia, and Europe, and measles is very opportunistic. With the antivaxxers still spreading their lies in America, [...]

“Top Kill” Operation Is Under Way in Attempt to Stop Gulf Oil Leak | 80beats

It’s on. Today the U.S. Coast Guard gave its approval to BP’s “top kill” plan to finally cap the oil spill, and at 2 p.m. Eastern time, the company got started. BP leaders warned that it may take a couple of days before they know for sure if it worked, but now say they will [...]

Nobody Panic: Wearing Sunscreen Is Unlikely to Be a Cancer Risk | 80beats

Remember the sunscreen speech? The Chicago Tribune column, which became an urban legend and then a bizarre spoken word hit for Baz Luhrmann, began Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of [...]

A Rare Mental Disorder: The Deep Conviction That You Smell Bad | Discoblog

They change their clothes frequently. They shower repeatedly, sometimes using a whole bar of soap in one go. Some even swallow perfume. They think they smell bad, but they don’t. Olfactory reference syndrome is a rare psychiatric disorder, but it can lead to isolation, depression, and suicide. It’s also a little-noticed, little-studied syndrome. But now [...]

Space X plans to launch the Falcon 9 this week! | Bad Astronomy

Florida Today is reporting that Space X is planning to launch their first Falcon 9 rocket as early as this week, May 27 or 28! [Update: I just found out that the launch has been delayed to Jun 2/3 due to a slip in the schedule of a launch of a Delta IV.] I am [...]

The Mystery of the Rocketing Particles That Shouldn’t Exist

The Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter, shown here in Antarctica before a 2005 launch, detected cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere. Image Courtesy of T, Gregory Guzik, ATIC Nothing on the tree-less plains of western Argentina seems to expend much energy. Cattle stand nearly motionless as they graze on the thin grass, which grows slowly in [...]

Nectocaris: mystery fossil was actually a 500-million-year-old squid relative | Not Exactly Rocket Science

In the Canadian Rockies, a horde of 91 squid-like animals have risen from the depths, millions years after their demise. This isn’t the plot of a terrible B-movie; it’s the doing of Martin Smith and Jean-Bernard Caron from the University of Toronto. Together, they have solved a mystery some 500 million years in the making. [...]

Robot Wil Wheaton takes over the Universe | Bad Astronomy

Like astronomy? Like The Guild? Like Fwhil Fwheaton? Then you’ll love this: This is the latest in a series of pretty funny videos from Spitzer Science Center called IRrelevant Astronomy. They’ve had lots of great folks on them, including Felicia Day, Sean Astin, and Betty White! Awesome. In this one, Amy Okuda (Tinkerballa from The [...]

Something to Sneeze at: Scientist Catches Computer Virus | Discoblog

Mark Gasson, at the University of Reading, just caught something. A computer virus. Gasson claims to be the first man in the world to become infected with a computer virus. But by “caught,” we mean he gave the virus to himself, and by “virus,” we mean a program that he designed. Gasson put the virus [...]

To Cope With the Chaos of Swarming, Locusts Enlarge Their Brains | 80beats

The single-mindedness that drives a swarm of locusts to rampage through the countryside and devour everything in its path might not seem like it would require a great deal of brainpower. However, biologists in Britain have found that the brain of a swarming locust swells up to 30 percent larger than the brain of its [...]

Two solar ISS transits! | Bad Astronomy

I have two more amazing images for you! Both show the same thing — the International Space Station crossing the Sun — but in different ways. The first is, once again, from Thierry Legault: Wow! You can clearly see the station (with Atlantis docked on the left!) as it crosses the Sun. Here’s a slight [...]

NCBI ROFL: Study proves chocolate bars different from bones. | Discoblog

Accuracy of comparing bone quality to chocolate bars for patient information purposes: observational study “Within our area of practice relating to osteoporosis and fragility fracture we have noticed a tendency to compare normal, healthy bone to the finely honeycombed structure of a Crunchie (Cadbury Trebor Bassett; Bournville, Birmingham) chocolate bar and to compare abnormal, osteoporotic [...]

Back From the Future

Jeff Tollaksen may well believe he was destined to be here at this point in time. We’re on a boat in the Atlantic, and it’s not a pleasant trip. The torrential rain obscures the otherwise majestic backdrop of the volcanic Azorean islands, and the choppy waters are causing the boat to lurch. The rough sea [...]

Where To Find Me At the American Society for Microbiology | The Loom

If you’re at ASM, I just want to let you know I’ll be at the ASM Press Bookstore from 1 pm to 2 pm on Wednesday. The bookstore is on the far right end of the lobby as you’re standing in front of the convention center. If you want to talk about the things I’ll [...]

Being Dead Is No Excuse for Not Being Environmentally Conscious | Discoblog

No one dreams of leaving a lasting carbon footprint on the world when they depart. But if it’s a choice between that and being reduced to a brown soupy liquid and a pile of bones, which option would you take? The California legislature is considering allowing funeral homes to provide a third alternative to burial [...]

ResearchBlogCast #7 | Gene Expression

Here. The paper is Coordinated Punishment of Defectors Sustains Cooperation and Can Proliferate When Rare. The blog post highlighted is Punishing Cheaters Promotes the Evolution of Cooperation. It is probably obvious that I’m not on the internet as much right now. But I’ve been thinking on the topic of this paper for a few days, [...]

Royal Ontario Musuem dips deep(ak)ly into nonsense | Bad Astronomy

I received an email that appalled me: the Royal Ontario Museum, an otherwise excellent establishment, has invited new age nonsense guru Deepak Chopra to speak there! Here’s part of the announcement: World renowned teacher, author and philosopher Deepak Chopra presents his latest concepts in the field of mind-body medicine bridging the technological miracles of the [...]

Physicists Achieve Quantum Teleportation Across a Distance of 10 Miles | 80beats

How far can you beam information instantaneously? Try 10 miles, according to a study in Nature Photonics that pushes the limits of quantum teleportation to its greatest distance yet. At that distance, the scientists say, one can begin to consider the possibility of someday using quantum teleportation to communicate between the ground and a satellite [...]

Ultramarathon blogging! | The Loom

Stuart Pimm, a leading conservation biologist, is turning out to be a blogger to follow. He’s down in the Delaware Bay right now, studying some of the birds that are migrating unbelievable distances (see my story in today’s Times). Unfortunately, the birds are having a rough time because we’re taking away the food they need [...]

DARPA’s New Sniper Rifle Offers a Perfect Shot Across 12 Football Fields | 80beats

“Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes,” American revolutionaries supposedly yelled at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Legend has it that the rebels were trying to conserve ammunition, given the inaccuracy of their 18th century guns. But things have come a long way since 1775. With DARPA’s new “One Shot” sniper system [...]

Munster galaxy | Bad Astronomy

No, that title is not a typo. Here’s the galaxy: This is an irregular galaxy about 15 million light years away that’s undergoing a “starburst” — a massive wave of star formation. I won’t go into details like I usually do (the press release for the image is pretty good, so go read that)… but [...]

Atlantis set to land Wednesday morning at 08:48 EDT. | Bad Astronomy

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is due to land — for the last time — at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday morning at 08:48 Eastern time (12:48 UT). If she gets waved off, the next landing opportunity is at 10:22 EDT (14:22 UT). If that doesn’t happen, it’ll be Thursday at 09:13 and 10:48 (and more [...]

Best Name For A Disease? | The Loom

I’m at the American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting, swimming in a lot of excellent new research. I also just learned about a disease I never heard of before, with a truly awesome name: Burning Mouth Syndrome. When I posted this on Twitter, the writer Michael Paul Mason immediately responded with his own favorite: Smoking Stool [...]

Will Venter’s “Synthetic Cell” Patents Give Him a Research Monopoly? | 80beats

Here in the United States, people are all atwitter about Craig Venter’s announcement last week of a new “synthetic cell,” and whether it constitutes creating life or simply a nifty new step in genetic engineering. Across the pond in the U.K., however, there are increasing rumblings of a more practical matter: Whether the patents that [...]

Which world? | Bad Astronomy

Quick: of all the worlds in our solar system, which one is this? Stumped? Go to Emily Lakdawalla’s post at The Planetary Society blog for the answer.

Does Infinity in the Sky Mean Limitless Energy? | Visual Science

I got pretty excited when Makani Power staff photographer Andrea Dunlap showed me this photograph. For my purposes, it doesn’t get much better than this: sustainable energy, technology, the future, all rolled into a beautiful photograph. Pick up our June issue for a gander at the double-page spread. This photograph is 30-second exposure taken during [...]

Did Google Pac-Man Destroy Worker Productivity? We’re Unconvinced. | Discoblog

Expletives and MIDI music rose from office cubicles this past Friday: Pac-Man had returned. On May 21, Google replaced its usual blue, yellow, red, and green title with what the company calls a “doodle.” But unlike previous replacements, which have celebrated everything from Pi day to Norman Rockwell’s birthday, for Pac-Man’s special day (the 30th [...]

Video: Comet Caught Crashing into the Sun | 80beats

Its doom was sealed six years ago. In 2004, UC Berkeley researchers say, this comet was tugged by Jupiter’s gravity into a path bound for destruction in the cauldron of the sun. And when its end finally came this March, astronomers captured the comet plunging deep into the sun on video (see below), watching it [...]

The Reasons For Sci Comm Training | The Intersection

When I blogged the other day about the media training I was doing at MIT, the first comment read as follows: Frauds at work. Science is not about PR, Mooney. You and your ilk make me feel both ill, and embarassed to say I am a scientist. You should go crawl back under your rock. [...]

Money weakens ability to savour life’s little pleasures | Not Exactly Rocket Science

Today is Towel Day, where fans around the world celebrate the works of beloved author Douglas Adams, a master of witty prose and observational humour. Consider his description of money: “This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much [...]

Crazy violent explosion shoots out two cosmic bullets | Bad Astronomy

I deal with superginormously ridiculous energies, velocities, and sizes all the time as an astronomer. You get used to it after a while… then something like this’ll slap you upside the head: a star that exploded more than 5000 years ago launched two epic bullets. One is a cloud of gas screaming away at thousands [...]

Update: Maps For Flying Forever | The Loom

Be sure to see the great interactive feature the Times put together for my piece on ultramarathon birds.

Discover Your Inner Godwit | The Loom

On March 29, 1912, Robert Scott and two fellow explorers huddled in a tent during a fierce Antarctic blizzard. They had landed on the edge of Antarctica five months earlier, hoping to be the first people in history to reach the South Pole. They succeeded in reaching the Pole, but it was a bitter success. [...]

NCBI ROFL: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Jar Jar Binks had a fungal infection. | Discoblog

It’s BMJ week (again) on NCBI ROFL! After the success of our first BMJ week, we decided to devote another week to fun articles from holiday issues of the British Medical Journal. Enjoy! Tokelau on Naboo “Tinea imbricata, a superficial fungal infection of man, has an ornate appearance composed of concentric circles and polycyclic or serpiginous scaly [...]

Does a Dose of Testosterone Make Trusting Women More Skeptical? | 80beats

All it takes for some people to be a little less trusting of their fellow humans is a little more testosterone, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers led by Jack van Honk of the Netherlands used a sample of 24 women in their study. The team [...]

Cripes. Another rambling interview. | Bad Astronomy

I met Ken Plume last year at Dragon*Con. Our mutual Close Personal Friend Adam Savage™ introduced us, of all things. He runs a site called ASiteCalledFred and has lots of podcast interviews with interesting people, and he decided to break that streak and talk to me. His chats are pretty free-form; he asks questions but [...]

Photo: Heart and Soul Nebulae Reveal Star Birth in the Cold Dust | 80beats

What do you see in this image? “One is a Valentine’s Day heart, and the other is a surgical heart that you have in your body,” said Ned Wright of the University of California, Los Angeles, who presented the image May 24 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. [Wired] This infrared image is [...]

Should Dolphins and Whales Have “Human Rights”? | Discoblog

From the heroic Flipper to the charismatic Willy, dolphins and whales have made some splashy supporting actors. And since they often seem almost as smart and interesting as their human costars, perhaps it’s not surprising that a new movement is afoot to grant these animals “human rights.” Research on everything from whale communication to “trans-species [...]

Did Phoenix lose a wing? | Bad Astronomy

The Mars Phoenix lander touched down near the Red Planet’s north pole in May of 2008. It was designed to investigate the history of water on Mars, digging into the surface soil and examining the chemistry there. It had a limited design lifetime of only a few months, since the onset of Martian winter in [...]

How Male Antelopes Lie to Get More Sex: With False Alarm Calls | 80beats

“There are lions and cheetahs and leopards out there, my dear. You’d be better off staying here with me.” This is how male topi antelope lie for sex. The area of Kenya where they live, Masai Mara National Reserve, is indeed filled with large predators that find antelopes to be just delicious, and so the [...]

Dogs, Bonobos, and You | The Loom

The World Science Festival is running a blog in conjunction with this year’s festivities. Today I’ve written a post about one of the sessions, where scientists will talk about how we can understand our own minds by studying animal minds. Check it out here or here.

Protect biodiversity, alleviate poverty: the surprise benefits of protected areas | Not Exactly Rocket Science

Last Saturday, on the United Nation’s International Day for Biodiversity, an open letter from hundreds of British organisations warned of the importance of our rapidly eroding biodiversity, while a UN report discussed the economic consequences of this erosion. The general principle of conserving biodiversity has inarguable value but there’s much more debate about how best [...]

Nearby planetary system is seriously screwed up | Bad Astronomy

Our solar system is pretty neat and orderly. Yeah, it has some issues, but in general we can make some broad statements about it: the planets all orbit the Sun in the same direction, for one thing, and they also orbit pretty much in the same plane. If you look at the system from the [...]

Andrew Wakefield, martyr | Bad Astronomy

[Note: I expect antivaxxers to flood the comments below with their typical spin and distortions. I urge everyone to read my comments policy. I also note that the article here is extensively linked to other sources backing up my claims about Wakefield and the antivax movement. The debunking of the vast majority of antivax claims [...]

Amateur Sky-Watchers Track the Air Force’s Super-Secret Space Plane | 80beats

You can’t slip much past dedicated amateur astronomers. A month after the United States Air Force launched its space plane, the X-37B, under a veil of secrecy, backyard sky-watchers say they’ve found it, along with clues to its mission. Though the military still won’t open up about what the classified X-37B actually is, officers have [...]

Copernicus Gets a New Grave, Belated Respect From the Catholic Church | Discoblog

Over four hundred years after his death, the man known for moving the sun to the center of the solar system made a move himself. On Saturday, at a medieval cathedral at Frombork on Poland’s Baltic coast, the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus—whose ideas were once declared heresy by the Vatican—was reburied with full religious honors. After [...]

Lunar boulder hits a hole in one! | Bad Astronomy

Y’know, I see a gazillion pictures of astronomical objects all the time, and I never get tired of them. But every now and again a picture comes along that’s so wonderful I just have to share it. This is one such piece of wonderfulness: a lunar hole in one! And you thought the windmill at [...]

Oil Now on 65 Miles of Shoreline; BP Will Try a “Top Kill” to Stop the Leak | 80beats

This week BP will try one more time to stop its massive leak in the Gulf of Mexico. The “top kill” plan that was supposed to go into action on Sunday will now commence on Wednesday, the company says. The process will involve pumping heavy fluids down two three-inch lines placed inside the wellhead. If [...]

How the Swedes became white | Gene Expression

A few weeks ago I read Peter Heather’s Empires an Barbarians, but I had another book waiting in the wings which I had planned to tackle as a companion volume, Robert Ferguson’s The Vikings: A History. Heather covered the period of one thousand years between Arminius and the close of the Viking Age, but his [...]

What is the Air Force doing with space? | Bad Astronomy

The military uses for space travel are legion: besides the obvious utility of being able to launch weapons much more quickly at a target, it can be used to prevent military action through advanced intelligence gathering. The Air Force has long been in the vanguard of space based operations, but of course much of that [...]

Dear Entrepreneurs: There’s No Money in Geoengineering | The Intersection

On the left wing, there’s this strange notion that geoengineering is a new corporate obsession. Scientists interested in the topic are accused of being part of a “geoengineering lobby” that wants to mess with the planet for fun and profit. Alas, there’s no evidence to support this idea. In fact, as recent Point of Inquiry [...]

The Cretaceous Comes To My Front Yard | The Loom

Sunday morning was cool and foggy, and so we were not surprised to discover the garden full of craters and trenches. A snapping turtle the size of a manhole cover was busy laying her eggs. This is an annual ritual in this part of New England. The first time I encountered a snapping turtle here, [...]

ABC News Covers the New War on Climate Research (and on Michael Mann) | The Intersection

Here’s the report that (I understand) airs tonight: Climate scientist Michael Mann has received hundreds of them — threatening e-mails and phone calls calling him a criminal, a communist or worse. “6 feet under, with the roots, is were you should be,” one e-mail reads. “How know 1 one has been the livin p*ss out [...]

Hornet, Harcore [Science Tattoo] | The Loom

Nick writes, “A tattoo of Vespa crabro. I got it while I was working in the entomology department of Va Tech. I was the most hardcore nerd there.” Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.

Do Scientists Want (or Need) Media Training? | The Intersection

Tomorrow at MIT, I’ll be giving a four hour “boot camp” on science communication to a group of graduate students and other interested parties. The session begins with an overview of the “theory” of science communication–why we must do it better, what the obstacles are, and how a changing media environment makes it much tougher [...]

“Weedy” mice dominate a warming world while other small mammals suffer | Not Exactly Rocket Science

Today’s mammals are facing the twin threats of a rapidly warming planet and increasingly intrusive human activity. As usual, the big species hog the limelight. The world waits on bated breath to hear about the fates of polar bears, whales and elephants, while smaller and more unobtrusive species are ignored. But smaller mammals are still [...]

A skeptic needs our help | Bad Astronomy

Last year, at The Amaz!ng Meeting 7, I met a young skeptic who went by the handle Nobby Nobbs on the fora. His real name is Michael Strieb, and he has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. This is the same condition Stephen Hawking has. In Michael’s case it confined him [...]

Unruly Democracy: Pictures, Videos | The Intersection

The conference on science blogging at the Harvard Kennedy School from last month now has a lot of multimedia available. There are Flickr pictures, like this one, showing a panel comprised of myself, Jessica Palmer, Francesca Grifo of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and moderator Sam Evans: And there are also 35 YouTube vids of [...]

Atlantis rides above the waves | Bad Astronomy

The Space Shuttle Atlantis will undock from the International Space Station for the last time Sunday at 11:22 a.m. EDT (15:22 UT), and is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center on May 26 at 08:48 ET (12:48 UT). This image was taken during the last scheduled mission of Atlantis, still attached to the ISS [...]

Martin Gardner, 1914 – 2010 | Bad Astronomy

I am very sad to write that Martin Gardner, a skeptical giant and genius by any standard, died today in Tulsa Norman, Oklahoma. Wikipedia has a list of his remarkable achievements. He was a lifelong friend of James Randi, who has written a brief statement at the JREF page. I’ve heard Randi tell many a [...]

The Rikers | Bad Astronomy

“Star Trek: The Next Generation” premiered my first year of grad school, and the last episode aired my last year. It bookended my career as a student getting a PhD in astronomy, and so it has personal meaning for me. Also, I simply loved the show. And I mean love like grown-up love; I accepted [...]

Saturday links | Not Exactly Rocket Science

As you’ll probably already know, the big news this week is Craig Venter’s work on Synthia. Some say he’s created life; I think he’s merely plagiarised it (albeit in an admittedly very complicated way). Some of the best pieces on the work are as follows: Nature has eight glowing reactions; one of the scientists who [...]

Hurricane vs. Oil Slick | The Intersection

I’ve just done a Slate piece elaborating on what would happen if a hurricane hit the Gulf oil slick, based upon further research and interviewing. Here’s an excerpt: Much depends on the angle at which the storm crosses the slick. In the Northern Hemisphere, hurricanes rotate counterclockwise, with the largest storm surge occurring where the [...]

Photo safari – barking owl | Not Exactly Rocket Science

This is a barking owl, photographed at Caversham Wildlife Park in Perth. It’s a well-named creature, which, according to Wikipedia, emits noises that “range from a barking dog noise to a shrill woman-like scream of great intensity”. It’s said to be a potential source for Australia’s Bunyip legend, and I’m sure the striking yellow eyes [...]

Yammerings: San Diego, New York, and TV | The Loom

I’ve got some public face time coming up: Tuesday, May 25, 5:30 pm: In San Diego, I’ll be talking at the American Society for Microbiology. I was asked to speak at the President’s Forum, “Tell the Story of Science.” My own talk is, “Newspapers, Blogs, And Other Vectors: Infecting Minds With Science In the Age of [...]