Spotted any strangelets yet?

A press release yesterday from CERN has announced that the LHC has completed its first particle collisions successfully. Hooray for particle physics!

Now for the hard part – not breaking the machine again.

But CERN, if you have to get repairs done again, for Higgs’ sake get an up front quote. You know how bad those particle accelerator mechanics are an untrustworthy bunch.

CERN: Two circulating beams bring first collisions in the LHC

Banned Words in Science Reporting

Writing a paper or article on, in, or about science anytime soon? Read this first:

The Index of Banned Words

Carl Zimmer has started a list of words he deems inappropriate for use in science journalism, because of misuse, overuse, vagueness, or other annoyingness. Listen to him, and take his advice. He’s a science journalist who knows what he’s doing.

Some of them, like utilize, are science words that should not be allowed to escape scientific journals. But others, like breakthrough, are words that both scientists and non-scientists alike may be tempted to use like steroids, to artificially boost their writing. These words often end up being just wrong, and in some cases–like referring to a preliminary experiment in mice as a miraculous cure–they can be cruel by raising hopes in the sick that may later be dashed.

At Discover: The Index of Banned Words

I don’t think Asimov’s Three Laws covered war crimes…

Given recent reports that robots may have sinister motivations behind their actions, it comes as little surprise that people have been a little bit nervous lately about anything mechanical that could potentially become one of the first round of Skynet-controlled killing machines.

  I’d prefer to avoid this if possible.

Thus, things hit the fan a while ago when it was revealed that a DARPA-funded program has built robots capable of generating energy from forage (read: leaf litter, twigs). Seems innocuous, right? Not if you’re FOX News. It seems someone caught on to the actual plan behind this to fuel the robots on casualties of war, because, you know, warfare hasn’t changed since the First World War, and there are all sorts of human casualties left lying around these days. Astonishingly, all through the development process, no one seemed to think this might be a problem, or violate international law. It’s a good thing FOX caught on to this all: Biomass-Eating Robot Is a vegetarian, Company Says

Hmm… well it seems FOX has changed their story. Strange, because FOX never gets things wrong….

Anyway. The initial reports prompted a (fantastic!) press release from the company going so far as to cite the Geneva conventions when it comes to desecration of the dead. The best line therein:

“We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission,” stated Harry Schoell, Cyclone’s CEO.

Its good to know that someone is taking our entirely realistic concerns seriously.

 

Credit to Steve for mentioning this first. I’ve had this backburnered for a while now, and finally wrapped it up.

Email forwards and the art of panicking the masses

I had a chain email sent to me some time back now, not as a forward, but to check the facts. It was supposedly from Johns Hopkins University, spouted all sorts of medical nonsense about how our diets are killing us, and briefly shook my faith in humanity. I sent an email back explaining how some of what was written there just didn’t make sense from the scientific standpoint, provided a link to the Snopes.com article on the subject, and left it there, frustrated at the world.

The other day I saw an article that comments on this spam, and it goes through and breaks it down better than I ever could. Check out the smackdown, eloquently titled ZOMGCancer!!!!1111!!! at skepchick.org.

We knew it was only a matter of time before they turned on their masters

The robot apocalypse may soon be upon us.

The robots, they have rendered their opinion on humans, and they say that we’re delicious.

Robot Identifies Human Flesh as Bacon

A prototype robot, used to analyze foods  and drink using light-based (spectrographic) methods, said that the hand of a subject tasted just like bacon. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to recognize that this is grim news for the entire human race. Once the masters, we soon shall be prey.

So keep your head up, or this may be the last thing you see.

Image credit: Paul Burnett - www.paulburnettphotography.com

Blue Rats and Gatorade Shenanigans

A cool bit of research published Monday in PNAS showed that rats injected intravenously with a blue dye shortly after spinal cord injury appear to fully recover function after healing, while without it, they remain paralyzed. The photogenic side effect is, one might imagine, becoming a Smurf.

Cool, interesting research. Hopefully it pans out.

From Wired Science, Blue Food Dye Treats Spine Injury in Rats:

“We just had proof of principle,” Nedergaard [the researcher]said. “We didn’t have anything we could give to patients.” Then, while searching for chemicals with structures similar to the P2X7 receptor, the scientists came across FD&C blue dye No. 1, completely non-toxic and approved by the FDA in 1928.

Cool, but hold on. From the telegraph, under the vastly overstating headline Blue M&Ms 'mend spinal injuries':

The compound Brilliant Blue G blocks a chemical that kills healthy spinal cord cells around the damaged area - an event that often causes more irreversible damage than the original injury.

There’s one slight problem here. FD&C blue dye No. 1 and Brilliant Blue G are not the same chemical. They’re similar, to be sure, but a simple Wikipedia search shows that Blue No. 1 and BBG are not the same. Maybe I’m nitpicking. Maybe I’m not.

I know the desire to say that Gatorade and M&Ms cure disease is tempting. I know that saying that sort of thing is bound to draw in readers, and a slight omission seems prudent, but when CNN writes (title: Same blue dye in M&Ms linked to reducing spine injury):

The same blue food dye found in M&Ms and Gatorade could be used to reduce damage caused by spine injuries, offering a better chance of recovery, according to new research.

I call foul. Lazy, lazy journalism. F minus. See me after class.

But perhaps “Compound that manages to ruin every biochemist’s favourite shirt has potential therapeutic application” just doesn’t sound as nice to the public.

 

See the article at PNAS: Systemic administration of an antagonist of the ATP-sensitive receptor P2X7 improves recovery after spinal cord injury
And previous work establishing the use of Coomassie Brilliant Blue G on the relevant receptor: Brilliant Blue G Selectively Blocks ATP-Gated Rat P2X7 Receptors

Copernicium

 
Picture snapped at Deutsches Museum in Munich

A few weeks back it was announced that one of the periodic table elements, Ununbium, (Uub in the table above)  is getting a name. Several heavy elements that are stable in theory remain placeholders with generic names until they can be shown to exist, i.e.. can be created in laboratory. In 1996, The Helmholtz Institute Centre for Heavy Ion Research produced the element, and now that results have been replicated by independent researchers, Ununbium has been christened Copernicium.

The group has decided to name the element in the tradition of naming new elements after famous scientists (see Einsteinium, Curium, Bohrium, Fermium). So once again it’s time to go out and buy a new periodic table to hang on the wall. You have one hanging over your bed too, right?

See: BBC News

Side note: I’m going to plug the trivia site Sporcle, which subtitles itself “mentally stimulating diversions”. Their periodic table quiz (already updated) is unequalled and has actually improved my knowledge of the elements. Extremely useful for times when I really need to know my Hafnium from my Iridium.

F#@king Unsurprising New Study

In at least 5 sources yesterday, including the evening news (i.e. it broke out into mainstream media) I heard about a study that claims that swearing reduces pain. The study, to be published by researchers at Keele University in the journal NeuroReport August 5, asked students to place their hand in ice water and repeat either neutral words or explicatives. The swearing group both lasted longer and reported less pain.

I don’t find the results that novel. Anyone who has stubbed their toe in polite company can attest to the fact that having to grin and bear it is much worse than being able to run around, curse for a while, and be done with it. Of course such an anecdote doesn’t count as science and so a real study shows us that there is a definite effect, but not one I find to be deserving of the press it seems to be getting.

There seems to be two reasons people find this interesting:

1. “People get to drop the F bomb for science!?!?!?!?”
2. “Can I use this to swear and get away with it?”

Neither of these have to do with the science, or the interesting questions raised about the role swearing actually plays in psychology and culture. While the researchers get attention, it is for the wrong reasons. They are looking for why swearing exists. The media wants to know how the knowledge can be used.

Compare article titles from two science news outlets:

"%&#$!" Makes You Feel Better – ScienceNews.org
Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief – Scientific American

One does it right, reports the science and results of the study. The other takes those results out of context, suggesting (in step with the evening news I caught) that one should change their habits in order to lessen pain, which has little to do with the actual study results.

I’m always disappointed to see that the only science stories to make the popular press so often just miss the point all together. There are even interesting stories to be told, but the press takes the low road and almost says “Stave off cancer by cussing everyday!”

Argh. I need some amusement, so I’ll end off with a classic internet meme, which couldn’t be more appropriate. To all the kids out there, earmuffs! This is time for grown-up talk.

Bonus irony: Note the spelling of “incompetence” at 1:55. Yes, I notice because I’m anal about stuff like that.

Important Medical Breakthrough via The Onion

From the Onion:

Scientists Discover Gene Responsible for Eating Whole Goddamn Bag of Chips

This makes me feel a little bit better. I need not be ashamed anymore. Thank you, genetic determinism, for making me feel better about my low self-control.

As a biochemist, I’m interested in the mechanism by which this gene might exert it’s effect:

"People with this gene have up to four times the amount of fritoceptors normally found in a human," Alvaro said. "This increases their pleasure response to snaxamine-2, the human body's principal chip-eating hormone, which is released in response to giant handfuls of chips being shoveled into the mouth. This tends to promote entire-goddamn-bag-eating behavior in those individuals who possess the series."

Makes sense.

Talking Babies

From a recent SciAm article on the origins of speech:

[Recent commercial] is only the latest proof of what comedians have known for years: few things are as funny as a baby who talks like an adult.

Am I the only one that finds ads/movies featuring talking babies to be incredibly disturbing?

The Skeptic's Guide and Perry DeAngelis; Remembering and moving forward

I discovered podcasting and other Web 2.0 stuff by and large in the summer of 2007, when I had considerable free time and a long enough trip to and from work/school to facilitate listening to a full hour of audio per day. A student from my university's Skeptic's club had posted a link to a "podcast" on a message board related to the university. The title: The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. Not particularly versed or even really aware of skepticism, I figured perhaps the podcast was something like Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I later discovered this was indeed no coincidence) and looked into it.



The roughly hour-and-twenty long podcast was not a story of Babelfish, Vogons, the destruction of Earth, or even towels, but instead a panel discussion of all things science, with a little criticism of Bigfoot and TV Psychics thrown in. While all the stuff about ghost hunters, aliens and astrology that the panel discusses is not of much interest to me, the science sucked me in. In the course of 8 months, I had managed to listen to all of the 120 or so (at that time) hour-plus episodes these guys put out, sucking it up like a sponge. Perhaps the best feature of the show is Science or Fiction, where the host presents three science news items, two of them real, one fictitious, and asks his panel of skeptics to guess which one is the fake*.

The show is run by the New England Skeptical Society, and started with Evan Bernstein, Perry DeAngelis, Bob Novella, Jay Novella, and the ringleader, Steve Novella. They were joined after a while by Rebecca Watson, dramatically altering the dude-to-chick ratio and making the show just that much more fun.

In August of 2007, one of the Skeptical Rogues, Perry DeAngelis, passed on. I was not sure if the podcast would continue the same and hold the same draw that sucked me in, but it did, albeit with an understandably subdued tone for quite a while.

With of 4 months when I did not have access to a computer to check out the podcast, followed by a terrible fall semester, I have fallen far behind in my podcast-listening duties. I am slowly catching up, and recently I found myself listening to the 1st Perry DeAngelis Memorial Live Podcast, SGU #169, October 11, 2008. I must say that this has by far been my favorite of the episodes I've heard, perhaps because of the differing format, but likely more just because of the laid-back atmosphere the live show produces, with two guest panelists to add to the mix as well.

If you are interested in science and/or hate creationists, you should take a look at this podcast, and I recommend the memorial as a great example to start with. Although it has a slightly different format, the topics are wide-ranging and discussions are particularly thoughtful. Check it out.


*After 100+ hearing Steve say this blip at the start of Science or Fiction, you can recite (type) it from memory

An Ode to Boring Science

Photo from umjanedoan

I've never been that into dinosaurs and fossils. When I think of space, I think of coldness and emptiness, not "boldly going where no man has gone before". Neuroscience baffles me and as such I have little interest*. And yet, a large amount of the mass media coverage of science revolves around developments in these and select other fields. Not that they're unimportant, but I find it tiresome that the coverage of science is so one-sided.

I would like to see more emphasis on ordinary, bread-and-butter research out there. It seems that if the news isn't covering classic post-Sputnik science such as robots, rockets, and space, it's something contentious like stem cells, vaccines, or climate research. Big news to the media outlets out there: there's more to science than fighting over embryos and forecasting doom! And they often miss great stories, those stories may just unfortunately be a little harder to tell.

I want to celebrate "boring" research. The ordinary, non-press release research that constitutes the bulk of what one will find if they open up a non-Nature or -Science journal. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking bad research; good-versus-bad is a different classification altogether than sensational-versus-boring research - there's lots of crap at the top and bottom. I want to talk about what you find when you flip open a textbook. What is published on a regular basis in the hundreds (thousands?) of respected journals out there. Just because it's ordinary science doesn't mean that it can't be fascinating once one gets into the details.

Boring research is interesting research that does not necessarily promise to change the world or advance our ultimate understanding or cure AIDS or discover the Caramilk secret. Boring research makes up the bulk of what is published, and while the loudest stories are cried out over the crowd, the progress of boring, everyday research moves forward. It is the blue chip stock in world of science, where the big trading happens in cloning, robotics, and gender studies.

I would like to see the story of boring research told. Research that perhaps is not ground-shattering** but still tells us important things about the world. Things that in time are more valuable than isolated studies that make major headlines. Things that are established to the point that even scientists ignore the interesting story behind them. I want to to celebrate the unsung heroes of research, and what it contributes to scientific progress.

Finally, it should be noted that this research isn't boring to me, nor should it be boring to you. If you think it is, I'd like to change your mind. Dig a little deeper and there is often a story to be told. By celebrating the tons of quality ordinary science out there, we see the true elegance and amazing subtleties of the world around us.

Here's to boring science!

Image from velorowdy

*Hypocracy acknowledged by this biochemist
**Keep in mind many Nobels have been awarded for work not appreciated when it was done

Why I'm getting nervous...

Despite my earlier rantings on how annoying it is that Canadians seem more interested in American politics than our own, as the election down south draws near, I start to become quite nervous, much more than I was for Oct 14, in fact.

Perhaps it is because in Canada, the worst case scenario was returning the same party to power that already was, and in my opinion - even with my liberal-leaning tendencies - haven't done a bad job. More likely the real discrepancy is that as a student of science, Sarah Palin terrifies me. The Bush administration have been negligent with regards to science, but she goes further and insults the scientific process. And with a reported 22% chance that McCain could die in the next four years (as per an article in The Lancet), that makes things even worse. And that article didn't even take into account the very real possibility that by cutting funding to important studies on wild bear populations, he be mauled alive by angry Grizzlies.

Breaking News

This just in.

The LHC is Online.

The Universe still exists.

Looks like the doomsayers need to go back to preaching to us from Nostradamus.



edit 27/06/09 as I reformat all old entries: sure missed things with this post.......

What a great time to be in Europe!

No, not because of the weather....



Getting back in touch with the world after a few weeks with limited news access, I was interested in seeing that GSK now seems prepared to handle a flu pandemic and is beginning production of the vaccine in Dresden, Germany. Glad to be here, should anything come up.



Suckers.