Discussing Medical Study Results

Brazilian berry destroys cancer cells in lab, UF study shows:

“Acai berries are already considered one of the richest fruit sources of antioxidants,” Talcott said. “This study was an important step toward learning what people may gain from using beverages, dietary supplements or other products made with the berries.” He cautioned that the study, funded by UF sources, was not intended to show whether compounds found in acai berries could prevent leukemia in people.

“This was only a cell-culture model and we don’t want to give anyone false hope,” Talcott said. “We are encouraged by the findings, however. Compounds that show good activity against cancer cells in a model system are most likely to have beneficial effects in our bodies.”

Other fruits, including grapes, guavas and mangoes, contain antioxidants shown to kill cancer cells in similar studies, he said. Experts are uncertain how much effect antioxidants have on cancer cells in the human body, because factors such as nutrient absorption, metabolism and the influence of other biochemical processes may influence the antioxidants’ chemical activity.

The title the University of Florida gives the press release is misleading I think (even though true). But at least the text provides reasonable caution. We really need to make sure press releases (especially from Universities) don’t focus on hype. Universities need to be held their missions of education which includes helping the public understand science not confusing the public. Dr. Talcott’s page on the AÃ§ai berry. Universities are obviously more and more focusing on revenue instead of education – I am sure they will claim to support education… but they need to show that is true.

Science Webcasts

I have high hopes for SciVee – essentially a science focused YouTube. It has not grown as fast as I hoped it would when I first wrote about it last summer. Here is one cool short from the site:

This is a highly accurate visualization of the Bacteriophage T4 based on Cryo-EM datasets of the virus. The scope of the animation is to show the infection process of the T4 into an E. coli cell.

If you like that you will love: Inner Life of a Cell – Full Version

Some other recent SciVee videos: Where does water go when it rains? – MicrobeWorld visits The Maloy Lab at San Diego State University – Science Gateways on the TeraGrid – Six Science bloggers talk about why they blog

Young IT Workers Demands

Young IT workers disillusioned, hard to hold, survey says

more than 50% of respondents described those teen and 20-something employees as the “toughest generation to manage.”
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“Millennials are coming in with high expectations and are disillusioned about the reality of a work place. They feel they should be rewarded and start at the top, when we all know you have to work your way up.
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“There is a shrinking talent pool of qualified IT professionals and some managers are talking about the graying of their current staff.

The IT job market continues to be very strong. The number of IT jobs continues to grow and remains at an all time high.

Could It Be? Data Shows U.S. Info Tech Jobs Grew 8% In 2007

Estimated employment in IT passed 3.76 million in 2007, based on the average of the BLS’ household surveys throughout the year. In 2006, employment was 3.46 million, for a gain of 292,000 jobs

The Science of Happiness

Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness

People with happy brains have their parents to thank, to a certain extent, not only for happy genes, but also for loving childhoods. Studies have shown that angry or critical parents can actually alter a child’s happiness level until it’s set around age 16.
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Scientists have known for decades that a large part of our temperament is genetically pre-determined; by studying the personalities of identical twins they’ve found that about 50 percent of our happiness — or unhappiness — can be traced to our genes. Adding the 40 percent that we can control with our daily thoughts and actions still leaves about 10 percent unaccounted for. This remaining 10 percent is related to our life circumstances, such as where we live, how much money we have, our marital status, and how we look.

This is a very interesting article. Like many social science claims I find these claims more open to question than most other studies – but interesting none-the-less.

The Loop Stitch

The how stuff works site does a great job of providing interesting explanations of. un-surprisingly, how things work. The design of of the web site is less good, in my opinion – way to much non-content (the content fills up maybe 15% of my screen on this link for example (once I scroll down it might improve to about 30% content): The Loop Stitch:

The most important element of a lock-stitch mechanism is the shuttle hook and bobbin assembly. The bobbin is just a spool of thread positioned underneath the fabric. It sits in the middle of a shuttle, which is rotated by the machine’s motor in synch with the motion of the needle.

Just as in a chain-stitch machine, the needle pulls a loop of thread through the fabric, rises again as the feed dogs move the fabric along, and then pushes another loop in. But instead of joining the different loops together, the stitching mechanism joins them to another length of thread that unspools from the bobbin.

When the needle pushes a loop through the thread, the rotary shuttle grips the loop with a hook. As the shuttle rotates, it pulls the loop around the thread coming from the bobbin. This makes for a very sturdy stitch.

See the site for a graphic that does a much better job of making it clear, how it works, I think.

Robots 2007

The Year in Robots:

Other robots helped us learn about ourselves. In November, University of California, San Diego, researchers reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that “current robot technology is surprisingly close to achieving autonomous bonding and socialization with human toddlers for significant periods of time.” QRIO, another two-foot- (61-centimeter-) humanoid was placed in UC San Diego’s Early Childhood Education Center and programmed to wave, dance, sit and stand, among other functions. Children aged 18 to 24 months quickly warmed to the machine and began to treat it more like a peer than an object.

And some of our posts on robots from 2007: Robo-One Grand Championship in Tokyo – Humanoid Robot – NSF Robotics Report – Carnegie Mellon Wins Urban Robot Auto Race

Understanding the Evolution of Human Beings by Country

graphic showing countries understanding of evolution

I recently wrote about evolution and scientific literacy. The graph on the left shows the percentage of the population that understands evolution is a core scientific principle. The graph based on data from 2005 for 34 countries.

Blue indicates those that know that “human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals.”
Yellow are those that are unsure
Red are those that don’t know that it is true

Evolution Less Accepted in U.S. Than Other Western Countries, Study Finds, from National Geographic News:

A study of several such surveys taken since 1985 has found that the United States ranks next to last in acceptance of evolution theory among nations polled. Researchers point out that the number of Americans who are uncertain about the theory’s validity has increased over the past 20 years.

The United States is is second to last place in this question of scientific literacy with only 40% of the population knowing the truth. The USA was between Cyprus and Turkey in this measure of understanding of scientific knowledge. The most knowledgeable countries have about twice the rate of knowledgeable respondents (with nearly 80% knowing).

Related: Scientific Illiteracy by Country (the USA managed to stay in the top 10 for overall scientific literacy rate of 8th graders in 2003) – Understanding Evolution (University of California at Berkeley) – Scientifically Illiteracy – Retroviruses – DNA Repair Army – Massive Project Will Reveal How Humans Continue to Evolve – Gene Study Finds Cannibal Pattern – Nigersaurus – Rare Chinese Mountain Cat

Biggest Black Hole’s Mass = 18 Billion Suns

Biggest black hole in the cosmos discovered

The most massive known black hole in the universe has been discovered, weighing in with the mass of 18 billion Suns. Observing the orbit of a smaller black hole around this monster has allowed astronomers to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity with stronger gravitational fields than ever before.

The black hole is about six times as massive as the previous record holder and in fact weighs as much as a small galaxy. It lurks 3.5 billion light years away, and forms the heart of a quasar called OJ287.
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The smaller black hole, which weighs about 100 million Suns, orbits the larger one on an oval-shaped path every 12 years. It comes close enough to punch through the disc of matter surrounding the larger black hole twice each orbit, causing a pair of outbursts that make OJ287 suddenly brighten.

Rubick’s Cube Solving Lego Mindstorms Robot

Lego Mindstorms have really really provided some great tools for home robot engineering. JP Brown has several examples on his web site including this CubeSolver:

The longest part of the this project involved writing the color-recognition software. I downloaded the Logitech Quick Cam SDK from the Logitech Developer’s site (the LEGO Vision Cam is a repackaged Logitech Quick Cam) and used VB5 to write a fairly decent program (click the Code link for source). The color recognition is fairly robust (about one error every two cubes when well-calibrated), but not perfect, so I incorporated a feature that requires you to confirm that each face has been correctly scanned (and, optionally, allows you to correct the input manually) before it scans the next face.
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My early attempts at building a cube solver were all stymied by grips that slipped. The worm-56t gave enough torque to turn, but the fingers couldn’t hang on and the grip was simply pried apart as the grabber rotated around the stationary cube face. I thought about changing the device’s name to ButterFingers.

I rebuilt the left and right grabbers six times (and the bottom grabber four times) trying elastic bands, Technic shocks, and pneumatics, before I came up with an adequate grip mechanism. In the present version, an axle runs from a motor through the center of the large Technic turntable to a worm screw. The worm screw turns two 24t gears mounted either side of the worm inside the body of the grabber.

Other home engineering favorites: Awesome Cat Cam – Windmill for Electricity – Lego Autopilot First Flight

Computer Science PhD Overview

A nice overview by Mor Harchol-Balter at Carnegie Mellon University on Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science:

A Ph.D. is a long, in depth research exploration of one topic. By long we’re typically talking about 6 years. By in depth we mean that at the end of the Ph.D. you will be the world expert or close to it in your particular area.
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In contrast, a Ph.D. program typically requires typically less than 10 courses during the entire 6
years (at CMU there are 5 required “core” courses, and 3 required “electives”). The emphasis in the
Ph.D. is not on classes, but rather on research.
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If you choose to be a professor at a research university, your life will consist of the following
tasks: (i) doing research on anything you like, (ii) working with graduate students, (iii) teaching
classes, (iv) applying for grants, (v) flying around to work with other researchers and to give talks
on your research, (vi) doing service for your department and school (like giving this talk). Note that
I say “your life” rather than your job, because for new faculty, your life becomes your job. It’s a
fantastic job/life for me because I love these activities, so I’m happy to work hard at all of them, but
it’s not right for everyone.

The document also offers a list of fellowships including: the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and NDSEG Graduate Fellowship (disclosure: I work for ASEE administering part of the process for these, and other, fellowships – this blog is my own and not associated with ASEE).