Science is terribly groovy.

qichi: it’s science time Technically, no, since they don’t...

Thu, 10 May 2012 02:39:00 +1000

it’s science time

Technically, no, since they don’t have anuses. Then again, they do have cloaca, which is the multi-purpose exit point for both waste and reproductive fluid…and thus, it serves the purpose of the anus. The male has two hemipenes, stored in the tail, and inserts one of the pair into the female’s cloaca in mating.

I suppose it depends on how you look at it.

shelbeth: cumbersome-quail: my-m1lkshak3s: omg Seeing...

Sat, 05 May 2012 20:25:00 +1000

shelbeth:

cumbersome-quail:

my-m1lkshak3s:

omg

Seeing this presented as something other than.. well, traditional math- I might actually remember it! :3 Very cute!

this made me really sad

Ah, heartbreaking as this is, there is one thing. The asymptote graph is technically inaccurate, - as said, the lines get closer and closer, without meeting, but an asymptote (to a plane curve) is actually a straight line in which the distance between the line and the curve will approach zero as they tend to infinity. These are the typical asymptote graphs, of course - but in the example above, two curves that approach each other at their minimum points are depicted, which…well, isn’t a representation of asymptotes. Rather, they’d look like this:

The asymptotes to the above graphs are y=0 and x=0. The larger the value (approaching infinity), the closer the curve to the axis, but they do not meet. The relationship isn’t between the two curves, as implied by the graphic!

Not to mention, a curve can actually intercept its asymptote. For example, take the graph of y=x(e^-x): you can see it here. Technically, y=0 is a horizontal asymptote by appeal to calculus (for large x, f(x) may be made as small as possible, and yet will always be positive). As you can plainly see, however, the curve passes through (0,0). And there we have it - a curve intersecting its asymptote.

…Oh dear, I think I’ve gotten carried away.

Heterochromia. Or, more specifically, central heterochromia, in...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:20:55 +1100

Heterochromia.

Or, more specifically, central heterochromia, in which thecentral zone of the iris is a different colour than the midperipheral zone, with the exterior colour being the iris’ ‘true colour’. A little-known fact is that the word is actually a blanket term, and the condition may also occur in the hair and skin - when it occurs in the iris, it’s specifically known as heterochromia iridum or iridis.

There are, of course, a variety of causes, ranging from inherited genetic traits, genetic mosaicism, disease, or injury. Generally, however, an eye that is low in melanin is often subject to central heterochromia.

ohmyasian: (via whimsimeebs:renaexo:vvulf)2198....

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:38:00 +1100

ohmyasian:

(via whimsimeebs:renaexo:vvulf)

2198. Odori-don. Odori-don is a sushi dish with a dead octopus that dances when soy sauce is poured on it. WHAT THE…

Oh, now this is interesting! To understand the science behind this curious phenomenon, think of the soy sauce - which has a high sodium content - as jolting the squid’s tentacles with tiny amounts of electricity. The energy in question lies within ions contained in the sauce’s aforementioned sodium content, which are used in cells to create voltage differences. As the squid is served fresh, the cells inside are still active and when the sodium is applied, the signals across the nerve cell membranes are temporarily reactivated causing the squid to “dance.”

What was your favorite part as being "Professor X", in "X-Men: First Class"?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:58:00 +1100

…That’s a rather strange way to phrase it. Do you mean to ask what my favourite part of teaching my students was?

I suppose it’d be the thrill of watching them realise their potential. I seems a little trite to say, I suppose, but any other who has coached young minds would see the truth in my words…and of course, when said potential pertains to mutations, it’s all rather exciting.

I went to your 'categories' section, and read almost all of your articles. They are very into detail, and I love it! The best thing is that your articles are the only subjects I read because, as a matter of facts about me, I absolutely hate reading! I just have a simple question; I still don't understand how 'love' is a "chemical reaction"? I've heard that it's considered that because something clicks to make you love that person. I look forward from hearing back from you, ~Savannah!Thanks

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:18:00 +1100

My, you’re making me feel rather guilty for not paying attention to this little project of mine. Perhaps I ought to write more articles…

Now, regarding your question: the link to my article on the Science of Love was broken, but I believe it’s been fixed. As for love being a chemical reaction, that is precisely what I am talking about! The ‘click’ can be said to be a series of biological reactions - it’s not as simple or unromantic as it sounds, really. While each person’s personal definition of ‘romantic love’ is up to their own discretion, the very basics of it - feelings of attraction, attachment, etc, can be effectively explained by chemical reactions in the brain. Certain types of behaviour induce these chemical reactions, which makes sense, really - that is why when one engages in bonding behaviour with another, the relationship improves and the pair becomes more comfortable. Other miscellaneous traits such as monogamy have also been said to have links to genetics, which I elaborated on in the article - human behaviour is, after all, a result of brain activity. I hope this summarises it for you effectively…

The Science of Love!

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:59:29 +1100

keepcalmandbegroovy:

Ah, one of my favourite topics! In the interest of keeping this from turning into an essay, however, I’ll be leaving out some of the finer details…and do feel free to correct me if you have any objections.

There are quite a few opinions on the chemical reactions of love, dating back to the 1800s - the German polymath Johann von Goethe postulated that human relationships are in fact ‘elective affinity reactions’, quantifiable by ‘affinity tables*’. The famous psychiatrist Carl Jung himself stated explicitly that love was a chemical process in 1933. For a more recent example, the computational chemist David Hwang published ‘The Thermodynamics of Love’ in 2001 - though I believe his theories are a little too technical for casual conversation.

Now, there are two particularly interesting (and conversation-friendly) studies on the topic: Firstly, the three-stage chemical process of love as put forth by Dr. Helen Fisher, and secondly, the study of genes that influence monogamy and pair-bonding as researched by neuroscientist Larry Young - the latter of which I’ve mentioned in another post, actually. Dr. Fisher’s hypothesis is that the experience of love may be classified into three broad stages - ‘lust, attraction, attachment’, each involving different chemical equations.

[Cut for ridiculous length.]

Read More

Can you tell me what's suppose to happen on the date; 12/21/2012? Thanks ={ )

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:52:36 +1100

I expect not much will happen at all, my dear. The American geneticist and Nobel laureate Hermann Joseph Muller, however, was born on December 21st 1890, if you’re interested.

I LOVE YOUR PHENOMENAL COARSE OF LANGUAGE! IT SOUNDS SO SCIENTIFIC...JUST THE WAY I LIKE IT!

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:41:25 +1100

I - er. Thank you?

Certainly! I think I’ll discuss a particularly well-known...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:13:00 +1100

Certainly! I think I’ll discuss a particularly well-known trait of moths - their tendency to gravitate towards light. Firstly, I must introduce you to the term‘phototaxis’, which refers to an organism’s automatic behaviour towards light - cockroaches, for example, are negatively phototactic, and tend to scurry for darkness. Moths, of course, are positively phototactic, though as for why…well, there’s no definitive explanation, but there are several theories.

The first theory would be that moths use a method called transverse orientationas a form of celestial navigation - in other words, to fly in a given direction, they would keep the moon at a fixed angle relative to their bodies. Under normal circumstances the moon would most likely be the brightest celestial object, but with the advent of artificial porch lights, the moths are likely to be confused. Given the great distance between us and the moon, the change in angle between the moth and the light source would be negligible - however, with a much closer artificial light, the angle would shift dramatically after only a short distance. The moth, therefore, would instinctively attempt to correct its direction by turning towards the light, resulting in a spiral flight path.

The rosy maple moth. Lovely, isn’t it?

There is one problem, however - the very simple fact that moths do not fly in a spiral. A researched named Henry Hsiao established this, actually, by tracking their flight patterns (he did this by tethering moths to tiny Styrofoam boats in an artificial pond, by the way).

Other theories have, unfortunately, been similarly discredited - such as the theory that bright lights mean safety. Moths are nocturnal, after all, and there is no natural light source as bright as a porch light at night. It can’t be moths being attracted to warmth either, for ultraviolet lamps attract more moths, despite being cooler.

Generally, however, two types of behaviour have been observed among moths - when they spot a light source from far away, up to two hundred feet, they make a beeline straight towards it. As for why…nobody knows. When they get close to the light, however, they begin to avoid it, for a bright light to a nocturnal creature should mean danger. The moth doesn’t fly directly away from the light due to a peculiarity of vision called a Mach band, which is the region surrounding a bright light that seems darker than any other part of the sky. Hsiao, therefore, conjectured that the moth’s atom-sized brain determines the darkest part of the sky is the safest. Therefore, it roughly circles the light in the Mach band region, usually at a radius of about one foot, depending on the species. It isn’t a perfect theory in the slightest, but it does help throw some light - if you’d forgive the pun - on the moths’ peculiar behaviour.

secretagentmegido: velocitiestrumpet: davelaughingwithjohnindre...

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:46:02 +1100

secretagentmegido:

velocitiestrumpet:

davelaughingwithjohnindresses:

elizzibeth:

dreamparticles:

kcalogero:

theorthodoxheretic:

sovietpropaganda:

My mind cannot fathom this at all.

On nights I’m feeling especially cosmic, I’ll feel like I can almost comprehend just how fucking big this universe of ours is.

Almost, but not quite.

and people still think that there isnt a possibility of other places with life? looking at this i think there has GOT to be something. its too enormous.. from what is JUST observable.. to not have other life on other planets, rather than just earth.

i feel so small

sPACE

GOD I LOVE SPACE

okay there’s GOT to be other life out there this universe is too big for there not to be

~t@r~.

fucking @m@zing.

((oh god i just love astronomy i need to reblog this))

the-star-stuff: Elements For Clean Energy (Read the...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:18:46 +1100

the-star-stuff:

Elements For Clean Energy

(Read the article: How 29 Long-Ignored Elements Could Make or Break the Clean-Energy Revolution)

cwnl: Computerized Contact Lenses Could Enable In-Eye Augmented...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 19:42:15 +1100

cwnl:

Computerized Contact Lenses Could Enable In-Eye Augmented Reality

Over past 125 years, contact lenses have come a long way. What started off as relatively thick brown glass eye coverings first created by German ophthalmologist Adolf Fick has evolved into biosensor-laden polymer lenses that can measure eye movement, glucose concentrations in tears and intraocular pressure. Now a team of researchers is investigating whether the integration of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), circuitry and antennas into modified contact lenses can transform them into miniature augmented reality displays.

University of Washington associate electrical engineering professor Babak Parviz and his colleagues are starting off modestly. In the Institute of Physics Publishing’s Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering on Tuesday (pdf), they report having developed a contact lens that when worn can display a single pixel to the wearer. The ultimate goal is to create a multipixel display that would let the wearer view digital text and images over his or her view of the physical world without so much as batting an eyelash.

cwnl: The Secret of Super-Fast Shark Swimming Researchers have...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 19:29:55 +1100

cwnl:

The Secret of Super-Fast Shark Swimming

Researchers have discovered what makes the shark almost impossible to outswim. By using an engineering imaging technique, researchers have discovered that as a shark’s tail swings from side to side, it creates twice as many jets of water as other fishes’ tails, smoothing out the thrust and likely making swimming more efficient. Sharks do this by stiffening the tail midswing, a strategy that might one day be applied to underwater vehicles to improve their performance.

“The authors have made a persuasive argument that muscles in the fin are modifying the shape and possibly the texture of the fin to modify the [water] flow” throughout the stroke cycle, says Frank Fish, a biomechanist at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.

scinerds: Weaker Brain Links Found In Psychopaths Side Note:...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 19:20:53 +1100

scinerds:

Weaker Brain Links Found In Psychopaths

Side Note: Wait just a darn minute there Science, you mean to tell us that our traditional way of handling psychopaths and dismissing their conditions as we toss them up in jail cells is completely flawed? Interesting:

Decreased communication between emotional and executive centers may contribute

Brain differences might help explain psychopaths’ cold, calculated and often antisocial behavior, and perhaps even point out better ways to treat or prevent the disorder, a study of Wisconsin prison inmates suggests.

Compared with a group of 13 non-psychopathic criminals, a group of 14 psychopaths had weaker connections between an area near the front of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, or vmPFC, and the amygdala, a pair of almond-shaped structures deep in the brain. Earlier studies have hinted that this particular link is important for emotional regulation and aggression.

Neuroscientist Michael Koenigs of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and colleagues discovered the weaker connection by taking a mobile brain scanner to a medium-security prison. Psychopaths are overrepresented in prison populations thanks to their lack of empathy and tendency toward antisocial behavior.

After interviewing inmates and scrutinizing their disciplinary records to determine whether they were psychopaths, the scientists conducted two kinds of brain scans. The first measured the strength of brain connections called white matter tracts, which are bundles of nerves that serve as information superhighways that shuttle information between different brain regions. It was those scans that revealed the weaker link between the vmPFC and the amygdala in psychopaths, the team reports November 30 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

laboratoryequipment: Proton Beams Create New States of MatterBy...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 19:16:55 +1100

laboratoryequipment:

Proton Beams Create New States of Matter

By focusing proton beams using high-intensity lasers, a team of scientists have discovered a new way to heat material and create new states of matter in the laboratory. Using the Trident sub-picosecond laser at Los Alamos, the team generated and focused a proton beam using a cone-shaped target. The protons were found to have unexpectedly curved trajectories due to the large electric fields in the beam. A sheath electric field also channeled the proton beam through the cone tip, substantially improving the beam focus.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Proton-Beams-Heat-Material-Create-New-States-of-Matter-120611.aspx

scinerds: More Evidence Found for Quantum Physics in...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 19:16:48 +1100

scinerds:

More Evidence Found for Quantum Physics in Photosynthesis

Physicists have found the strongest evidence yet of quantum effects fueling photosynthesis.

Multiple experiments in recent years have suggested as much, but it’s been hard to be sure. Quantum effects were clearly present in the light-harvesting antenna proteins of plant cells, but their precise role in processing incoming photons remained unclear.

In an experiment published Dec. 6 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a connection between coherence — far-flung molecules interacting as one, separated by space but not time — and energy flow is established.

“There was a smoking gun before,” said study co-author Greg Engel of the University of Chicago. “Here we can watch the relationship between coherence and energy transfer. This is the first paper showing that coherence affects the probability of transport. It really does change the chemical dynamics.”

scinerds: Digital Narcotics May Be the Future of Drugs by...

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:26:21 +1100

scinerds:

Digital Narcotics May Be the Future of Drugs

by Olivia Solon

Technologists will become the next drug dealers, administering narcotics through brain stimulation, according to Rohit Talwar, the founder of Fast Future Research, speaking at Intelligence Squared’s If conference.

Talwar was charged by the government to investigate the drugs landscape over the next 20 years, exploring scenarios going beyond the traditional model of gangs producing and shipping drugs around the world.

He described how the world of genomic sequencing and services such as 23 and Me open up possibilities for tailoring drugs to the individual, delivering effects based on your physiology — which could apply just as effectively to narcotics as it could medicines.

He cited research from the University of California, Berkeley where neuroscientists were able to replicate images people were seeing based on the brain patterns of activity. When combined with transcranial magnetic stimulation — which has been used to inhibit brain functions such as the ability to speak or remember — it opens up the possibility of electronically delivering targeted highs.

He said: “You could also visualize the experience and then tailor the effect to what you want. This nano-bio-info-cogno convergence gets us into some very interesting spheres.”

Continue..

Are Your Genes To Blame?

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:33:16 +1100

bellybuttongoldfish:

thisisnotpsychology:

Study after study has shown that genes can affect behavior and mental life. Identical twins separated at birth (who share their genes but not their environment) are similar in their intellectual talents, their personality traits (such as introversion, conscientiousness, and antagonism), their average level of lifelong happiness, and personal quirks such as giggling incessantly or flushing the toilet both before and after using it. Identical twins (who share all their genes) are more similar than fraternal twins (who share half their genes). And biological siblings (who share half their genes) are more similar than adopted siblings (who share none of their genes). It’s not only personality and intelligence that are partly heritable, but susceptibility to psychological maladies such as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and major depression.

Read More

the-star-stuff: Patterns in Nature: Rocks and Lava

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:53:23 +1100

the-star-stuff:

Patterns in Nature: Rocks and Lava