Science

animals, strange animals, new strange animals

maps, strange maps, old strange maps

this is awesome

video

for brett

Silly Chinese

I know I have mentioned Ted Talks before. I firmly believe it is the best thing on the web right now. I digress though.

Here is a talk from Alan Russell on Regenerative Medicine. This is truly amazing medicine. Enjoy in the hope that we will live long, productive lives.

OK, I know that most of us in the blog are all crazy NPR listening people, many dislike TV. But those who do might really be missing out on Public Television. For example this week’s NOVA episode spoke about the science of sleep and memory, the new supercollider in Europe, and the lost histories of the Asian immigrants who built this countries transportation infrastructure. The episode was just so well presented and made me feel like I had learned so much about the world, and it only took up an hour of my life (commercial free btw).

I know that much of this can be read in scientific journals, but how many of us actually read every scientific journal we can find. This series alone is worth the cost of a TV set. Not to mention the shows Nature, American Crossroads, and Austin City Limits…

The interesting thing is, this is much like paying for HBO, a few of your tax pennies get tossed to The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which creates PBS programming. You are paying for these shows and I am saddened that so many of my very intelligent friends seem to miss all of this. So, this week while the Daily Show is on vacation, pick up the TV Guide or goto PBS and check out PBS. You might find that you love it!

Ok, so for all of the enginerds out there, I need someone to look at this and call shenanigans. It is yet another supposed perpetual motion device, better known as a free-energy device, since its goal is to provide energy with NO inputs or outputs other than clean free energy.

Mythbusters dedicated an entire show to debunking these things, showing that not a single existing device actually yielded more energy then was put into the device.

Now the crazy thing here is that a company (Steorn) has been talking for months that it was creating such a device. People have been saying to put up or shut up, and they have now put up (almost). They are installing the device into a museum of motion in London (Kinetica Museum) for a public review of the device. According to the interweb, the live demo will be available via video on the Steorn website at 6PM EDT. They claim the technology utilizes “time variant magneto-mechanical interactions”. Anyone care to comment? I am VERY skeptical.

http://www.steorn.com

June 14, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EXXON PROPOSES BURNING HUMANITY FOR FUEL IF CLIMATE CALAMITY HITS
Conference organizer fails to have Yes Men arrested

Imposters posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC)
representatives delivered an outrageous keynote speech to 300 oilmen
at GO-EXPO, Canada’s largest oil conference, held at Stampede Park in
Calgary, Alberta, today.

…

In the actual speech, the “NPC rep” announced that current U.S. and
Canadian energy policies (notably the massive, carbon-intensive
exploitation of Alberta’s oil sands, and the development of liquid
coal) are increasing the chances of huge global calamities. But he
reassured the audience that in the worst case scenario, the oil
industry could “keep fuel flowing” by transforming the billions of
people who die into oil.

…

For full article and perspectives go to:
http://www.vivoleum.com/event/

And:
http://arusha.org/event/7214

For Go-Expo Response:
http://newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2007/14/c5086.html

For explaination of The Yes Men:
http://theyesmen.org

Richard Dawkins…atheist
Christopher Hitchens…anti-theist
Jonathan Miller…non-believer

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13868.htm (good series, watch for free)

anyhoo, ruminations welcome.

Do you ever get that overwhelming sense of insignificance? I do. Especially when I learn about the amazing work that physicist (and other notable scientist) are doing. Next summer the Large Hadron Collider is scheduled to go on-line barring any unforeseen setbacks. This is the best science that humanity has to offer. The cost are astronomical - no pun intended. The stakes are huge. The findings could well lead the next century or more of scientific discovery and technical advancement. I for one will be sitting breathlessly on the edge of my seat as it goes on-line. To bad there will be no pay per view for this dog and pony show. Of course going on-line is only one small step toward collecting the data that the physicists are seeking.

But this begs the question(s), what happens if it fails? Does that mean is was ill-conceived? What happens if that data points to a different conclusion like there was no Big Bang? What happens if they find out that the Higgs boson is not one elementary particle, but multiple or thousands of particles? There are so many questions and each discovery leads to more questions. All this makes me feel an awe-inspired sense of insignificance with a dash of belonging. Oh and it also makes me realize the importance of love and friendship. I love each and every one of you for your own special quarks - the pun is fully intended (what can I say I am a huge cheese ball.) ^_^

Here is a fascinating article on free will. Prior to performing an action, our brain accumulates an electron charge that, when discharged, causes us to act.  Apparently, before you make a conscious decision to do something, electrons start to buildup in the region of the brain that is responsible for said action. You actually make a conscious decision to do something after the buildup has started. This implies that we aren’t really making decisions at all. We are only justifying what we did by thinking that we meant to do it.

Here are some of my amateur musings on the subject:

1) Could a decision to do something be made well in advance of the electron buildup? If I am driving down the street and need to turn left, don’t I make that decision about halfway down the block? My decision is only put into action when needed. Therefore the electron buildup is done near the time to turn, but the actual decision to turn is made before that.

2) I have been wondering recently why I do the things that I do when I do them. For instance, this Saturday I wanted to get a coffee but I also wanted to work. So I am working, staying focused, and then bam I was out the door without really making a decision to go get a coffee. My work left half done. This kind of thing happens more often than I like, and I am trying to understand. I wonder if this could be related to the electron buildup. Maybe I have a slow electron leak in my Decisionator 3000 that is causing that action potential to be reached and causing me to get a coffee in the middle of doing something.

3) Here are some question about brains to ponder. Do people with higher IQs have more electricity in their brain? It seems that if electricity is the fundamental way that a brain transmits information that a smart person would have more information being transmitted and therefore more electricity? Or do smart people have more sensitive responses to changes in the level of electrical impulses? Further, do certain activities require more power? Does my brain require more power to type than to speak? If so, what is the breakdown of percentage of brain power needed for certain functions?

First, let me say that, in general, nerds are the only people that are interesting to me. Doing research, being engaged, loving life and what you do is f-ing awesome. A nerds enthusiasm rubs off on me. I try to be a nerd. I want to be a nerd. A nerd doesn’t have to be in science, technology, or any particular field. A nerd is someone that is simply doing what they do to their fullest. I digress.

The reason for this post is because I read slashdot.org: news for nerds, stuff that matters. For those that don’t read it, check it out. The site is completely user-driven. It is probably the first site that used this model; it has been around since the mid-90’s. Today, there is a post about the human genome. Two scientists have colorized patterns in the human genome to produce what I would consider art. It is a fuzz of dancing ants like you would see on your TV if it wasn’t hooked up to cable or an antenna, except it is colorized. You can see the pictures at the DNA rainbow. This is truly amazing research.