Category Archives: Science

Can Brain Exercises Prevent Mental Decline?

Last month we posted about: Short Mental Workouts May Slow Decline of Aging Minds. Now here is another article on the same topic: Little proof that brain exercises can prevent mental decline by Alice Dembner

Richard Suzman, who oversees behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging, said the downside of using the programs include “harm to the wallet or false hope,” or health setbacks if people spend time brain-training instead of getting physical exercise. But others say, despite the lack of evidence, that the programs may be worth trying, particularly in conjunction with other activities that may help with brain health such as a healthy diet, exercise, managing stress, and keeping up social contacts.
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And only last month did the first rigorous study suggest that brain training could positively affect daily-life activities and might delay age-related declines in everyday functioning. Even in that large, government-funded study, the evidence was far from conclusive.

In the original post we mentioned: “Another Paper Questions Scientific Paper Accuracy (just a reminder that the conclusions of many studies are not confirmed in future studies).” That is always important to keep in mind, even though we don’t post that reminder every time.

Science Education

The Real Issue Is Science

They warned that fewer and fewer high school students are choosing math and science classes as electives, leading to a crisis situation. They said science should not be taught as an elective course, but as a mandatory one, while the curriculum should be revised so that science and engineering majors can take more math and science classes. This warning should not be taken lightly. Since the industrial revolution, competitiveness in math and science was the decisive factor in separating the winners from the losers in global economics.

Seems like this could be said in many countries. Certainly it sounds like the kind of thing that might be said in the USA. This time it is from Korea:

Six national science and technology organizations, including the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies, the National Council of Natural Science University Deans and the National Council of Engineering University Deans, issued a statement on Wednesday saying the quality of high school math and science classes should not be left to further deteriorate.

Human Embryo Hybrids

Embryo hybrids are used to grow human stem cells (for a few days) in eggs from animals. Public debate on embryo hybrids

Allowing DNA from humans and animals to be mixed should be put to a public debate, a regulatory body has said.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which oversees embryo research and fertility treatment, said the research could fall under its remit and would not be prohibited by law after a meeting of experts on Wednesday.

Door left open for creation of hybrid embryos:

Two teams of British scientists have applied for licences to create “hybrid” embryos that would be about 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent animal to produce embryonic stem cells — the body’s building blocks that can grow into all other types of cells.
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They want to use stem cells to understand and develop therapies for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cystic fibrosis, motor neurone disease and Huntington’s. The hybrid embryos would be destroyed within 14 days when they were no bigger than a pinhead.

2006 Science Blog Anthology

SciBlog Anthology suggestions so far

Neat idea to create an anthology of great science blog posts from 2006. via: Confessions of a Science Librarian

NSF Strategic Plan

National Science Foundation Investing in America’s Future Strategic Plan FY 2006-2011

We will support transformational research and promote excellence in science and engineering education in ways that will fuel innovation, stimulate the economy, and improve quality of life. We will also nurture the vibrant and innovative science and engineering enterprise necessary to achieve these goals and stimulate broader participation in this enterprise throughout the nation.

That is pretty broad strokes but they have details and recognizable changes in attitude also.

abroad. Increasing international competition and workforce mobility, combined with a surge in international collaboration in science and engineering research, continue to alter the science and engineering landscape worldwide. To lead within this broader global context, the U.S. science and engineering workforce must build greater capacity for productive international collaboration.

More priorities: “Promote transformational, multidisciplinary research.” “Prepare a diverse, globally engaged STEM workforce.” “Engage and inform the public in science and engineering through informal education.” “Identify and support the next generation of large research facilities.” “Expand efforts to broaden participation from underrepresented groups and diverse institutions in all NSF activities.”

Help Choose the New PBS Science Program

PBS Science:

Here’s the experiment: Throughout January, PBS will broadcast three new science programs. Only one program will become a regular science series on PBS. We want you to help us decide. Watch the programs on your PBS station or, beginning January 1st, visit the companion sites below to watch each pilot show. Then tell us what you think

Wired Science – “brings WIRED Magazine’s cutting edge vision, stylish design, and irreverent attitude to the screen with breakout ideas, recent discoveries, and the latest innovations”

Science Investigators – “Full of information told through compelling stories, the series is presented by four young, lively hosts armed with the latest gadgets and technology, who make this a science show with attitude for the blog generation.” From WGBH, producers of NOVA

22nd Century – “Science fantasy or futuristic nightmare? 22nd Century takes you to the forefront of technology and hears from people on the cusp of a scientific revolution.”

Australian Coal Mining Caused Earthquakes

Coal Mining Causing Earthquakes, Study Says by Richard A. Lovett:

The magnitude-5.6 quake that struck Newcastle, in New South Wales, on December 28, 1989, killed 13 people, injured 160, and caused 3.5 billion U.S. dollars worth of damage. That quake was triggered by changes in tectonic forces caused by 200 years of underground coal mining, according to a study by Christian D. Klose of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York.
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The removal of millions of tons of coal from the area caused much of the stress that triggered the Newcastle quake, Klose said. But even more significant was groundwater pumping needed to keep the mines from flooding.

Too Much Choice

When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing? by Sheena S. Iyengar and Mark R. Lepper:

In 1830, Alexis de Tocqueville commented that, “In America I have seen the freest and best educated of men in circumstances the happiest to be found in the world; yet it seemed to me that a cloud habitually hung on their brow, and they seemed serious and almost sad even in their pleasures.” (p.536) More than one hundred years later, we are confronted with empirical findings which may support the paradox that de Tocqueville observed.

The three studies described in this report demonstrate for the first time the possibility, that while having more choices might appear desirable, it may sometimes have detrimental consequences for human motivation.

See more on this from our management blog: The Psychology of Too Much Choice.

Related: Choices = Headaches – The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (videocast)

Midichloria mitochondrii

Use the force, bacteria (sadly, the site broke the link so our link was removed):

When his team took a tick apart to look for the new bug, they found it in the ovaries. And, when they looked closely at electron micrographs of infected ovarian tissues, they could see that the microbes were intracellular – living not in the cytoplasm of tick ova, but within their mitochondria.

“We’d never seen anything like this before,” Lo says, as he opens the image files on his laptop on a rainy afternoon in Sydney. “They seem to get in between the inner and outer mitochondrial membranes and eat the mitochondria up. In the end you’ve just got this empty sack.”
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says he wasn’t aware of any other bacteria that live inside mitochondria. “It’s pretty surprising to see a bacterial species living inside the mitochondrion, which itself was a bacterium,”

Meteorite Lands in New Jersey Bathroom

What Landed in New Jersey? It Came From Outer Space:

The object that tore through the roof of a house in the New Jersey suburbs this week was an iron meteorite, perhaps billions of years old and maybe ripped from the belly of an asteroid, experts who examined it said yesterday.
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The meteorite now belongs to the family whose house it ended up in, said Lt. Robert Brightman of the Freehold Township Police Department, adding that they had asked not to be identified. The family has not yet given permission for physical testing of the meteorite, but from looking at it, Dr. Delaney and other experts were able to tell that the object it had been part of — perhaps an asteroid — cooled relatively fast.

It is magnetic, and reasonably dense, they determined. The leading edge — the one that faced forward as it traveled through the earth’s atmosphere — was much smoother, while the so-called trailing edge seemed to have caught pieces of molten metal. In fact, Mr. Delaney said, it seemed very similar to another meteorite fragment, the Ahnighito, now on display at the American Museum of Natural History.

The meteorite was about the size of a golf ball.