According to the BBC, “scientists in the UK claim to have developed the first human nerve cells from human stem cells”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4155016.stm. They used embryonic cells, the most pliable of the known stem cell types. These are also the very ones which have mired the U.S. in controversy over Federal funding […]
Yahoo! recently claimed that they had more searchable content than Google. I’ve used Google for many, many years – I haven’t used Yahoo! for searches for the opposite reason I *do* use Google. It’s historically poor by comparison. Looks like “Yahoo’s claims have been challenged by an independent check”:http://vburton.ncsa.uiuc.edu/indexsize.html. Scientists […]
I found an “article in the BBC about weather balloon-based temperature readings from the 1970s”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4152576.stm rather amusing. As a scientist, I am daily faced with revelations about new understanding of the behavior of my experiment. This is no different; however, the data taken by these weather balloons is often used […]
Several weeks ago I mentioned that I had chanced on Sen. Rick Santorum’s (R-PA) new book, and that I had reacted with a bit of shock at his lack of understanding about science. More important, his lack of clarity on issues scientific was used as a critical piece in his […]
*Sigh*. I decided to see if the “NCSE”:http://www.ncseweb.org had any info on the statements made by Bush on teaching the hypothesis of “intelliget design” in the science classroom. Oh, they had plenty. First and foremost, a link to the “most recent issue of Time dealing centrally with the ongoing debate […]
One of my favorite radio programs, “To the Best of Our Knowledge”:http://wpr.org/book/, had a neat program on the “gourmet, the history, and the health of caffeine (and its primary mode of injection into the human bloodstream, coffee!)”:http://wpr.org/book/041212b.html.
Wowsers. “Harvard is making a funded effort to gather more data about the origin of life in the Universe.”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/14/AR2005081401070.html I’m not a big fan about how this Washington Post article begins, however: “Harvard University is joining the long-running debate over the theory of evolution by launching a research project to […]
As reported this week by University of Maryland physicist Robert Park in his “What’s New”:http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu, ABS News appears to have lost it’s rocker: 2. CREATIONISM: ABC NEWS AND GETTING THE DINOSAURS ON NOAH’S ARK. Earlier this year, WN asked a rhetorical question, “Is ABC News nuts?” http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN05/wn021105.html. There is new […]
The marathon training continues – for Jodi, of course. I’m just along for the ride. Today, Jodi had her 16 mile run. I biked along with her again, refilling water when necessary. The first thing that happened on her run today was that her water bottle, apparently ripe with soap […]
May of you are likely frequent visitors to “solidgoldrold.com”:http://solidgoldrold.com, a website for sexy people meant to enliven and enrich the lives of those who are not sexy. I thought it might be useful to provide a “between the lines” guide (AKA “idiot’s guide”) for the introduction on the webpage. greetings […]
I’ve had the pleasure and the pain of being a BaBar reviewer for the past year on an analysis of the rare process b->sγ. This analysis has been in preparation for years, and believe it or not the analysts (and the review committee) worked on this thing pretty much continuously […]
Jodi’s marathon training continues. She cranked it up to 15 miles today. We got up later than we wanted – closer to 06:30 – but made it to the Sawyer Trail by 7. Jodi’s been doing roughly 10-minute miles, though she shaved a total of 3 minutes off her entire […]