Category Archives: Science

Thailand’s Contribution to the ISEF

Intel Microelectronics (Thailand) Ltd is sponsoring five young Thai students to participate in the 59th Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in Atlanta, Georgia
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Two of the individual entries are a musical instrument sound analysis and recognition system, which won the first prize in the computer science category, and was developed by Boonyarit Somrealvongkul, and a method of measuring a curved path’s radius with a modified car, which took first prize in the engineering category and was developed by Ronnapee Chaichaowarat.

The third project is a team entry, “New Plywood Products”, the first prize winner in the environmental science category, developed by Pheemadej Prasitwarawej, Tanavorakit Bangkeaw and Manapas Hararak, from Montfort College, Chiang Mai.

Over 1,500 of the brightest young scientists from around the world attend the fair every year, where they share ideas, showcase cutting-edge science projects and compete for more than $3 million (94.5 million baht) in awards and scholarships.

Leafhopper Feeding a Gecko

Some of this stuff is just fun. The leafhopper feeds on the sap of the tree. And the Gecko will stop by and wait to be fed. The narrator explains that scientists have not determined why this happens, perhaps the Gecko keeps aware predators? That seems somewhat flimsy as a guess to me but what do I know. The narrator does say that the sweet honeydew is what remains from the sap once the leafhopper has extracted the protein.

High School Students in USA, China and India

2 million minutes is a documentary film looking at education in USA, China and India. The producers offer a blog, What Should America Do?, which is interesting.

this blog offers deeper insights into education in China, India and the United States, and the challenge America faces. Now you can join a dialog about what governments, communities and families should and are doing to best prepare US students for satisfying careers in the 21st century.

U.S. Students Can’t Compete in High-Tech World

The film follows two students from Carmel High School in Indianapolis, as well as two students from India and two from China. The premise is that they all have roughly 2 million minutes in high school to build their intellectual foundation and prepare for college and a career.

Twenty months in the making, “2 Million Minutes” highlights the pressures and priorities of these students and their families. Ultimately, it provides insight into the changing nature of competition in a technology-based global economy.
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“As a high-tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist for the past 25 years,” Compton said,” I can tell you the people who have reaped the greatest economic rewards in the past two decades have been those with the most rigorous and thorough understanding of technology — and thus a solid foundation in math and science — and who have an ability to solve problems and possess entrepreneurial skill.”

I strongly agree with the economic benefits from strong science and engineering education and the personal benefit of science and technology expertise (one small example: S&P 500 CEOs – Again Engineering Graduates Lead).

See some of our previous posts on similar matters: The Importance of Science Education – USA Teens 29th in Science – Scientific Illiteracy – Fun k-12 Science and Engineering Learning – Diplomacy and Science Excellence – Lego Learning

The Economic Consequences of Investing in Science Education

My comments on: National Association of High School Principals Takes Exception to Two Million Minutes

Thanks for saying what has to be said. I have talked on similar themes on my blog for awhile now. The USA is definitely losing its relative position as the clear leader for science and engineering excellence.

The debate now whether we are willing to invest more today to slow the decline or whether we are willing to risk the economic future where our centers of science and engineering excellence are eclipsed quickly.

There is a long lag time that has allowed us to coast for the last 30 or so years. The reality is that most Americans suffer under the illusion we are in the same position we were in 1970’s. We are not and it is obvious to me that the economic impacts are starting to have dramatic effects now and it will only increase.

It might be more pleasant to explain why the USA is fine the way it is but that is a mistake. For more on my thoughts see two categories of the Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog: Economics and primary science education and 2 posts: The Future is Engineering and the Political Impact of Global Technology Excellence.

One Reason Bacteria Gain Tolerance So Quickly

I recently read Good Gems, Bad Germs as part of my effort to learn more about bacteria, viruses, how are bodies work, cells, microbiology etc.. It is a great book, I highly recommend it. Page 111:

In 1951 the husband-wife team of Joshua and Esther Lederberg, microbiologists at the University of Wisconsin, demonstrated that their elegantly simple proof that preexisting mutations, not gradual tolerance, accounted for the many instances of new drug resistance… This meant that every new antibiotic became a powerful new force for bacterial evolution, winnowing away every bacterium but the otherwise unremarkable one that could survive its effects. With its competition gone, that lucky mutant could populate, giving rise to a newly resistant colony overnight.

Since bacteria can grow remarkably quickly, eliminating all but a small number just means that the new population boom will come from those few, resistant, ancestors. But that is not the only reason bacteria are so challenging to fight. They have been around billions or years and have survived because they can adapt well. Bacteria, in fact, can get their genes from distantly related bacteria. So if one bacteria gains immunity another bacteria can get that immunity by getting genes from that other bacteria (seems like science fiction but it is actually science fact).

Science Explains: Flame Color

Have you ever wondered why some flames are yellow, while others are blue? Growing up, I was always told that it was a matter of temperature, that hot flames were blue and cooler flames were yellow. While there is a temperature difference, that difference is a “symptom” of what is going on, not the cause of the color difference.
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Does that mean that there is solid stuff inside the candle flame? Let’s find out. Light the candle and be sure it is steady and won’t fall over. Hold the bottom of the plate in the candle flame for a few seconds. When you remove the plate, it has turned black!!! Don’t worry. You have not ruined it. Let it cool for a minute. Remember, it is HOT! Once it has cooled, rub your finger over the black spot. The black rubs off.

Really Old Coral – Over 2,000 Years Old

photo of sea coral (leiopathes_glaberrima)

Worlds oldest animal aged to 4000 years

deep-sea gold corals (Geradia sp.) and black corals (Leiopathes glaberrima, pictured left) indicate these animals live between two and four millennia
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The new findings break all records previously claimed for marine invertebrates like the cold seep tubeworms (estimated 200 years old), quahog clams (estimated 400 years old), as well as the deep-sea wannabees Primnoa spp. and bamboo corals (45 – 300 years old). Given the new results, deep-sea animals can finally measure up to the longevity of the “Methuselah tree”, the Bristlecone Pine, estimated to be near 5000 years old.
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perhaps the most important thing to mention is that gold and black corals are colonial zoantharians. No single polyp is thought to be this old, just the skeletal axis.

How is Coral an animal?

Coral is an animal that belongs to the phylum cnidaria…
During the mating season coral polyp release eggs and sperm into the water (picture below) and when an egg and a sperm meet they form a larva known as a planula…
The baby coral looks like a little tiny jellyfish and it floats around in the water until it finds a hard place to attach to, usually a coral reef. Then it lands and starts to build itself a shell. It builds it by combining carbon dioxide (CO2) and calcium (Ca) in the water to make calcium carbonate (CaCO3) also known as limestone. This shell is shaped like a round vase and the coral polyp lives inside…

Superconducting Surprise

Assistant Professor of Physics Eric Hudson transfers liquid helium to cool the scanning tunneling microscope

Research Finds Superconducting Surprise

Most superconductors only superconduct at temperatures near absolute zero, but about 20 years ago, it was discovered that some ceramics can superconduct at higher temperatures (but usually still below 100 Kelvin, or -173 Celsius). Such high-temperature superconductors are now beginning to be used for many applications, including cell-phone base stations and a demo magnetic-levitation train. But their potential applications could be much broader. “If you could make superconductors work at room temperature, then the applications are endless,” said Hudson.

Superconductors are superior to ordinary metal conductors such as copper because current doesn’t lose energy as wasteful heat as it flows through them, thus allowing larger current densities. Once a current is set in motion in a closed loop of superconducting material, it will flow forever.
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The new MIT study shows that scattering by impurities occurs in the pseudogap state as well as the superconducting state. That finding challenges the theory that the pseudogap is only a precursor state to the superconductive state, and offers evidence that the two states may coexist.

This method of comparing the pseudogap and superconducting state using STM could help physicists understand why certain materials are able to superconduct at such relatively high temperatures, said Hudson. “Trying to understand what the pseudogap state is is a major outstanding question,” he said.

Photo: Assistant Professor of Physics Eric Hudson transfers liquid helium to cool the scanning tunneling microscope he is using in his research on high-temperature superconductivity. Photo by Donna Coveney.

Dead Zones in the Ocean

Oceanic Dead Zones Off West Coast are the ‘New Normal’

Ever since it was first noticed by crab fishermen who hauled up hundreds of dead and dying crabs in 2002, the “dead zone” that popped up in the waters along the northwestern coastal shelf just off the coast of Oregon has claimed unknown millions of lives. This oxygen-depleted region has transformed formerly rich seafloor communities teeming with life into vast graveyards filled with the bodies of crabs, echinoderms, molluscs, sea worms and other creatures.
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a low-oxygen zone appears each spring off the coast of Louisiana due to fertilizers in farm runoff and sewage present in the Mississippi River. When the Mississippi flows into the sea, it creates a nutrient-rich area that triggers huge but short-lived algal blooms that soon die, sink to the seafloor and are decomposed by bacteria that produce toxic sulfide gases.
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the dead zone off the West Coast of North America has another cause: global warming. Here’s how it works: Winds cause the oceanic rivers of nutrients, such as the California Current in this case, to flow upwards from the deep, carrying nutrients and phyoplankton into the sunlight, which triggers the phytoplankton to reproduce, to “bloom”. This is the normal state of things, but since global warming has been causing land temperatures to increase, these winds have become stronger and more persistent. This is not normal because it prolongs the oceanic upwelling, producing a surplus of phytoplankton that isn’t consumed and subsequently dies, and sinks to the seafloor to decay. As the bacterial-mediated breakdown occurs, dissolved oxygen in the surrounding water is depleted to dangerously low levels

China’s Technology Savvy Leadership

China’s Sci-Tech Savvy Leadership by Jocelyn Ford

Until last year, the top nine members of China’s politburo were ALL trained engineers! And guess what? The Communist Party made innovation and global leadership in science and technology national goals.

Ancient China is famous for its early scientific advances, some of which predated western developments by centuries. Its inventions include paper, printing, gunpowder and the compass.
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Leadership does matter, but so does the system. It seems to me it should take a lot longer for China to build a sci-tech friendly system than for the U.S. to bring in sci-tech friendly leadership. That’s where you come in Ira & co.

If I may make one final comment: in my ideal world, borders shouldn’t matter. Victory by the best system, with the best leaders, will hopefully be a victory for all earthlings.
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CHINA’S POLITBURO (2007): Decline of the engineer. Last fall China introduced a new top lineup that included two law graduates, as well as an economist, and graduates in history, journalism, management and business administration.

I agree that the increase in science and engineering investment around the globe is a positive development. But the USA faces loses that it has enjoyed due to past technology leadership.

China benefits greatly from such scientific knowledge at the highest level of government. The top 9 leaders in China are know as the “Politburo Standing Committee,” the new additions in 2007 were:

Xi Jinping, 54, studied chemical engineering at the Qinghua University and later earned a doctorate in law.

Li Keqiang, 52, obtained MA and doctorate of Economics after attending the on-the-job postgraduate program on Economics at the School of Economics of Peking University.

He Guoqiang, 63, B.S. Beijing Institute of Chemical Engineering.

Zhou Yongkang, 64 “Graduated from the Exploration Department, Beijing Petroleum Institute, majoring in geophysical exploration. With a university education. Senior engineer with a rank equivalent to professor. ” Funny, I don’t remember any U.S. politician exalting their experience as “equivalent to a professor.”

They joined the nine-member echelon with the five remaining members of the previous standing committee, namely Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin and Li Changchun.