Something to know

Are you having a seizure? Quick, smell my shoe!:
[Via NCBI ROFL]

Scientific basis behind traditional practice of application of “shoe-smell” in controlling epileptic seizures in the eastern countries.

“Epilepsy has been known for thousands of years and has been subjected to various forms of conventional and non-conventional therapies including a non-pharmacological conservative treatment known as aromatherapy, ever since. One commonly practiced form of aromatherapy that persists as an immediate first-aid measure even today in some parts of developing countries in the East is the application of “shoe-smell” during an epileptic attack… …The neurophysiology of olfactory stimulation from “shoe-smell” reveals a sound and scientific reasoning for its remedial efficacy in epilepsy; olfactory stimuli in this study have been found to possess significantly effective anti-epileptic influence which could have formed the basis for the use of application of “shoe-smell” in earlier times and also for its persistence even today in those parts of developing regions.”

I want to see this on House.

Technorati Tags: Health

Math Zombies

A Mathematical Model for Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse [Zombie Math]:
[Via io9]

We may think we know how best to eradicate the zombie threat, but movies and books give us, at best, an anecdotal account of how to deal with the undead. A new paper, however, offers mathematical models for human survival.

In a paper published in Infectious Disease Modelling Research Progress, a team of mathematicians from Carleton University and the University of Ottawa have created a series of mathematical models to explore the effects of a zombie outbreak and determine the best course for human survival. For the purpose of the paper, the team limited their models to the George Romero slow-moving zombies, and created separate models for zombie infections that cause the infected to resurrect immediately after contact with a zombie and for zombie infections with a 24-hour incubation period.

The paper examines three possible methods of dealing with a zombie outbreak: quarantine of the zombies, treatment of zombies so that they once again become human, and impulsive eradication of the zombies whenever possible. The models found that quarantine could work, but the end result would be either the eradication of all zombies or the eradication of all humans; if a cure for being a zombie were found, humans would coexist with zombies, but only in low numbers; but eradication, if properly coordinated, could wipe out the entire zombie population in a mere ten days.

Science has proved it: aim for the head, and kill without mercy.

When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection [University of Ottawa]

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I love it when science has important impacts on zombie-human relationships. Having to wade through the math, though, is not something for the squeamish:

They do eigenvalues and determinants and all sorts of math crud. And then a couple of nice graphs.

But I am forced to wonder what would happen with fast-moving zombies? It makes Zombieland something to look forward to.

Technorati Tags: Science

The wisdom of Solomon

The Siegels Win Back Pieces of Krypton:
[Via Cinematical]

Things are looking pretty grim for the Man of Steel, at least when it comes to his future on the silver screen. As you might remember, Warner Bros, DC Comics, and the Siegel family have been tied up in court over who is entitled to what when it comes to the Caped Crusader. While Warner Bros tentatively won the first round, they only have until 2011 to make a Superman movie before being sued for damages.

But a new ruling has cost Warner Bros and DC Comics pieces of the character. Superman is literally chopped into pieces between the Siegels, DC Comics, and Warner Bros which will do nothing but hurt in the long run. According to Variety, the Siegels have recaptured the rights to the first two weeks of the daily Superman newspaper strips, and portions of Action Comics and Superman comics. They apparently now control all depictions of Superman’s origin story, which means they now own Krypton, its fiery destruction, Jor-El and Lora, and Kal El. In 2008, the Siegels recaptured the rights to the Superman character (which includes his costume and his alter-ego of Clark Kent), Lois Lane, the Daily Planet, its gruff editor, and their love triangle. DC still owns Jimmy Olson, his ability to fly, Lex Luthor, kryptonite, and Superman’s expanded powers and origins.

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This is how we know that IP laws are just out of control. Superman was created 77 years ago, yet his family is still controlling the rights to his creations. But only parts of them. So people who actually had nothing to do with the creation of a work are now responsible for parts of that work.

And a corporation, that really only distributed the original work has control of other aspects. How long can this go on? It appears from current law, it may continue for the rest of our lifetimes. How in the world could the grandchildren of the creator of a work still control the rights to that work? Is this what the Constitution envisioned when it created patents and copyrights?

The likely result is that a new Superman movie will not be produced. But if a new movie is not made, the studio can be sued for damages. So the ridiculous state of copyright now may prevent the creation of new works. All to provide wealth to people that had absolutely no part of the original work. Just nuts.

Technorati Tags: General

Listen to innovation

Innovation:
[Via Lawyers, Guns and Money]

Les Paul, R.I.P.

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Not only did Les Paul have an vital role in developing the electric guitar, he was the man more than any other who manipulated sound using tape. He put a playhead in front of the record head in what was a single track tape machine.

Then he could splice the feed from the playback head back into the record head, along with another line from a microphone, allowing him to overdub the music. Essentially there would be two parts of music in the place of one. By repeating this again and again, he could build up quite a rich piece of music. The example above has 12 parts on one track while they play/sing another. The reason for the headphones is to hear the sound from the first playhead as they add onto it.

But what is incredible is he actually pioneered overdubbing techniques before tape came along (which was pushed by another innovator, Bing Crosby). He did the same sorts of things using acetate disks as the recording medium. He overlaid tracks to produce 8 different parts to a song, all done by using a every tricky medium to record.

Well, tricky because he built the machine to do it using old car parts. And by recording things at different speeds, he could produce sounds that were really unplayable outside the studio.

With the advent of multitrack tape machines (which were created partly because of his innovations), Les Paul’s approaches had even more influence but his work on recordable disks and early tape recorders created innovative approaches we still use today, even in a digital world.

Technorati Tags: Technology

Beautiful Hubble

Hell Yeah, Hubble!:
[Via Starts With A Bang]

It wasn’t all that long ago that I wrote a five-part series on Hubble’s old camera, WFPC2. I call it “The Camera that Changed the Universe.” Part 1 focused on Hubble showing us just how deep, rich, and full of wonder our Universe is. Let’s remember how this happened.

The first thing we did was take a patch of sky that was relatively empty. No bright stars, no large galaxies or clusters, no planetary nebulae, just a little tiny patch of black, empty sky.

And then we point Hubble at it. And what do we do? We sit there. And wait. Collecting tiny, miniscule amounts of light. First, for minutes on end. And then the minutes turn into hours, and the hours turn into days. All the while, Hubble just patiently sits there, pointing at the same patch of empty sky. Over 10 days, Hubble took a photograph of the same exact patch on the sky 342 times. They then added up the light from all 342 of these images. The result?

The Hubble Deep Field, taken by WFPC2. Every point of light in this image (except for about 6 which are dim stars) is a galaxy. Thousands upon thousands of new galaxies were discovered. Some were only a few million light years away, others were over ten billion light years away. All told, we learned that there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in our Universe. And we learned it from this single photograph.

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Read the whole article or just watch this video from the end. This is one of the best astronomy videos and it shows just what the Hubble has been able to do.

The exploration of space, whether manned or unmanned, has been one of the biggest events in human history. We know more about our place in the Universe because of these investigations. This knowledge helps us as well as inspires us.

But we have gotten very blase (how do I make the accent A?) about this, while we deal with immediate problems here on Earth. Seeing these pictures put into perspective provides a unique angle to our struggles.

Technorati Tags: Science

Disco Goes Digital

Disco Goes Digital:
[Via Good Math, Bad Math]

It sometimes seems like every day, some “intelligent design” bozo comes out with another book rehashing the same-old crap. I usually ignore it. But this time, I felt like the promotional materials for one of the new books really stepped right into my part of the world, rhetorically speaking, and so I figured I should give it a quick smackdown.

The book in question is Stephen C. Meyer’s “Signature in the Cell”. Meyer’s argument basically comes down to one that is seems like we’ve heard and dealt with a thousand times already. There’s stuff in the cell which looks kinda-sorta like a machine if you look at it in the right way, and since machines were designed, therefore so were cells.

If that’s all he said, I’d just ignore him. Why rehash the same old shit? But no. This time, the DI needed to add a youtube video, which makes some amazingly strong, unsupported claims.

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Really nice computer-generated video but the idea that the metaphor of a machine makes these protein complexes real machines, meaning they must be constructed, is really flawed.

Metaphors are used to simplify things. Calling a ribosome a molecular machine is a metaphorical representation of a large biological structure with multiple pieces of RNA and upwards of 80 proteins. It does not make it a machine. Putting a tiger in your tank represents the power the gas provides not the fact that the gas company put a feline in your car.

Arguing science by misplaced metaphors is not likely to produce the best research in the long run. But I guess it lets some people publish some books supported by cool computer graphics.

Technorati Tags: Science

From Earth to Mars, and back again, in 80 days

Trip to Mars. 39 days. I’m ready.:
[Via Creativity Central]

Got this hot off the press of one of my favorite inspiration stops. Gizmag. Micheal Mulcahy who always has his finger on the pulse of what’s new, writes about a new ion plasma rocket being developed by a former astronaut, Franklin Chang-Diaz. This rocket can potentially reach Mars in just 39 days using a fraction of the fuel and a fraction of the current estimated time of six months.

Mulcahy writes “The problem with traditional rockets is that they’re terribly inefficient. About 90% of a mission’s initial weight is fuel, most of which is burned up escaping earth’s gravitational pull. After that, a traditional rocket could only slowly coast to Mars. Very slowly. Scientists describe rocket efficiency in terms of specific impulse, which is a rough measure of how fast fuel is ejected out of the back of the rocket. A chemical rocket has a relatively low specific impulse of 450 seconds – in other words, it gets one pound of thrust from one pound of fuel for 450 seconds.

Chang-Diaz’s prototype, however, promises specific impulses as high as 15,000 seconds. How? Well, his rocket doesn’t achieve propulsion by combusting fuel but, rather, by superheating atoms to create and expel a plasma plume.”

VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) could, theoretically, reach power levels a hundred times that of other ion engines. But there are still major big problems that need to be addressed before anyone can start packing their bags for Mars.”

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It only appears to work in space. Earth’s gravity is too much for it. But the ability to get a lot of bang for the buck has made ion-driven engines very interesting. This particular one is likely to be tested in 2012 in space. It might not be used for manned flight but would certainly revolutionize unmanned exploration of the solar system.

I wonder how long to the Oort Cloud.

Technorati Tags: Science, Technology

Videos with answers

White House Opens Up New Web Site on Health Care Reform:
[Via Eye on FDA]

In addition to the existing site HealthReform.gov, the Obama Administration has set up a new part of WhiteHouse.Gov called “Reality Check” to address some of the myths surrounding the debate on health care reform. It is good use of a site to provide content that can be moved and used, and so that is what we are doing here – replicating all of the videos.

In the first, Kavita Patel, who works with Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett and who worked for years before as a physician, debunks the myth that reform will mean a “government takeover” of health care or lead to “rationing.” To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies.

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The new site has a lot of useful videos with great information. This should have been up a few months ago but i guess better late than never.

Technorati Tags: Health

This should get an award for best headline

Parasite causes zombie ants to die in an ideal spot:
[Via Eureka! Science News - Popular science news]

A study in the September issue of The American Naturalist describes new details about a fungal parasite that coerces ants into dying in just the right spot—one that is ideal for the fungus to grow and reproduce. The study, led David P. Hughes of Harvard University, shows just how precisely the fungus manipulates the behavior of its hapless hosts.

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Who ever wrote the PR headline should be recognized. I mean it has parasites and zombie ants. It really does sound like a bad science fiction movie but it describes such an interesting reproduction scheme. I’m sure it will be fun to work out all the steps.

Technorati Tags: Science

Is Investors Business Daily for real?

Broken tubes:
[Via Paul Krugman]

Apologies for radio silence. Normal service will resume Wednesday.

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Read the second short comment and wonder what has happened to the MSM, at least parts of it. Do they have no fact checkers anymore? Any editors? Do they always make stuff up out of whole cloth? Or do they have High Schoolers who get to write the first thing that comes into their minds?

Hawking was diagnosed when he was 21, a student at Cambridge. He is now 67. He has always resided in England.

The one good thing about people on the Internet is that they fact check stuff like this better than any other time. This story has probably gotten more notice, what with Krugman commenting on it, than the original incorrect comment. Lies only work when no one can examine them and reveal they are false.

Technorati Tags: General

Drugs in urine for a good reason

by pylbug
Urine samples could be used to predict responses to drugs, say researchers:
[Via Eureka! Science News - Popular science news]

Researchers may be able to predict how people will respond to particular drugs by analysing their urine samples, suggest scientists behind a new study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Examining metabolites in urine to determine how well people will deal with drugs is an interesting idea. Here it is just looking at a simple painkiller but there are all sorts of drugs where the pharmacokinetics can very a lot. Knowing how people metabolize the drug, individuals, not groups, would permit much more personalized approaches to using drugs. It would make them more efficient also.

The other important thing is that the effects also have something to do with the bacterial fauna we each have in our guts. They create an internal environment that can affect how we metabolize drugs. So simply knowing someone’s genetic information would not be totally useful as the self-contained microbial environment could alter metabolic responses.

It truly demonstrates that genes and environment are totally linked.

Technorati Tags: Health

Great news

Scientists make multiple types of white blood cells directly from embryonic and adult stem cells:
[Via Eureka! Science News - Popular science news]

In an advance that could help transform embryonic stem cells into a multipurpose medical tool, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have transformed these versatile cells into progenitors of white blood cells and into six types of mature white blood and immune cells.

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This could have a huge effect since these are just the sorts of cells that are critical for fighting many diseases. Being able to work with a large number of these cells can be very useful. In the short term, these can be used to model disease or to examine the toxicity of drugs.

But it could also be important in bone marrow research and cancer therapies. As we get better at manipulating stem cells, the ability to effectively deal with a wide range of human diseases become a reality.

Technorati Tags: Health

TB may never leave

New drug-resistant TB strains could become widespread says new study:
[Via Eureka! Science News - Popular science news]

The emergence of new forms of tuberculosis could swell the proportion of drug-resistant cases globally, a new study has found. The finding raises concern that although TB incidence is falling in many regions, the emergence of antibiotic resistance could see virtually untreatable strains of the disease become widespread.

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TB has been around infecting humans for over 4000 years (features of TB have been found in Egyptian mummies). Some prehistoric humans may have been infected. It is possible we that TB, like so many of our disease, came from our domestication of animals, as the TB bacterium has been found in ancient bovines.

The first written accounts appeared about 2500 years ago. Mass movements of people insured its spread. Only the development of antibiotics really slowed its progress.

Now we are seeing that thin reed of hope disappear. The BCG vaccine offers some hope but mainly in childre. New approaches offers some hope but we will have to move fast.

Technorati Tags: Health, Science

DDT and malaria

Berenbaum on DDT and malaria:
[Via Deltoid]

May Berenbaum is an entomologist at UIUC and been correcting the Rachel-Carson-killed-millions hoax for a while now. Public Radio International has interviewed Berenbaum for a podcast on DDT and malaria. She is also answering questions on the forum there. Predictably Marjorie Mazel Hecht, editor of Larouche’s 21st Century Science & Technology has shown up to push the line that all that you have to do is spray DDT to solve the malaria problem.

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Almost anything spouted by a Larouche organization deals with misrepresentations. africa still uses DDT to fight malaria, as part of a multi-functional approach that includes, nets, medicines and social changes.

The scientific discussion is really very interesting.

Technorati Tags: Health, Science

Good to hear

Health Care Reform and the Art of Civil Discourse:
[Via Firedoglake]

Four events do not necessarily a trend make, but………

I reported that the 8/8/09 teabag event [Link] on Long Island was remarkable for its lack of venom. That people from the two points of view mingled among each other rather than massing into camps and facing off aggressively. That they manage to TALK to each other like normal human beings.

Peterr had a similar experience in Midwest.

Overall, it seemed relatively calm and peaceful, which I attribute in part to it being 8AM on a Saturday morning. People with different viewpoints were all mixed together, but even the most heated arguments were pretty calm.

Albany Blogger Andrew White tells me in some email about an event held today by Congressman Scott Murphy in upstate NY

This crowd was inter-mingled too. There were some moments of heatedness at the beginning and the interruptions continued throughout but it was mostly under control and I witnessed various side conversations going on around the area between people obviously on opposite sides. Had one of those with an older couple that got in my face as I was leaving myself.

And from Commentor Abrash TX

This is the same kind of behavior I saw today at a health care event in NE Austin, where Lloyd Doggett was present. The crowd was very heavily progressive and Obama tshirts were everywhere, but the opposition commingled and I only saw a couple people being ugly or creepy. That being said, we were there for an hour but had to leave before Lloyd spoke. John Cornyn had told the Austin American Statesman that he planned to attend but I don’t know if he showed.

I’m telling you, the American people are BETTER than lobbyists give them credit for. Even if Washington has forgotten the art of civil discourse,the folks back home? We still remember how to treat our neighbors.
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It is refreshing to see that some adults are now showing up. I don’t expect the MSM to report on many of these, since there was little of the conflict that sells papers. It is the discussions that are important, not the threats and intimidation.

Now perhaps there can be some real education on this issue and perhaps we can have some real reform to fix the problem.

Technorati Tags: Health