#science (50 links)
- Open Science Framework osf.io
<blockquote>A scholarly commons to connect the entire research cycle</blockquote>
We didn’t know exactly what would pan out—the headline could have been that chocolate improves sleep or lowers blood pressure—but we knew our chances of getting at least one “statistically significant” result were pretty good.
- Experimenting With Babies: 50 Amazing Science Projects You Can Perform on Your Kid - by Shaun Gallagher experimentingwithbabies.com
With babies. Not on babies. Kind of.
- Parenting Science – The science of child-rearing and child development parentingscience.com
Finally found something sciencey. Or at least, someone who attempts to look at literature, rather than parroting guesswork.
Dopplereffekt in the FT. WTF.
- 100,000 Stars workshop.chromeexperiments.com
<blockquote>An interactive 3D visualization of the stellar neighborhood, including over 100,000 nearby stars. Created for the Google Chrome web browser.</blockquote>
- The real meaning of the exoplanet revolution – Caleb Scharf – Aeon aeonmagazine.com
- It's Time to End the War on Salt: Scientific American scientificamerican.com
I've never been at war with salt myself.
- Plain English Nuclear: Yet another Japan reactor post plainenglishnuclear.blogspot.com
That's better.
- Climate Change: Evidence climate.nasa.gov
NASA says, "the evidence for rapid climate change is compelling".
A few months ago, the London bartender Tony Conigliaro told me that weak cocktails can be more aromatic than stronger drinks. That observation provoked me to play with the proportions of alcohol and water in spirits and wines. Then this month, a barista showed me that I could make tastier coffee by brewing it with less ground coffee and more water. It’s true, as it turned out: Water is indeed a useful flavor enhancer, exactly because it dilutes other ingredients and can change their balance for the better.
- The Data-Driven Life - NYTimes.com nytimes.com
In the cozy confines of personal life, we rarely used the power of numbers. The techniques of analysis that had proved so effective were left behind at the office at the end of the day and picked up again the next morning. The imposition, on oneself or one’s family, of a regime of objective record keeping seemed ridiculous. A journal was respectable. A spreadsheet was creepy. And yet, almost imperceptibly, numbers are infiltrating the last redoubts of the personal. Sleep, exercise, sex, food, mood, location, alertness, productivity, even spiritual well-being are being tracked and measured, shared and displayed.
- Lazarus taxon en.wikipedia.org
In paleontology, a Lazarus taxon (plural taxa) is a taxon that disappears from one or more periods of the fossil record, only to appear again later.
Although these stories are reports about medical research, they are really about computing – in the sense that neither would have been possible without the application of serious computer power to masses of data. In that way they reflect a new – but so far unacknowledged – reality; that in many important fields leading-edge scientific research cannot be done without access to vast computational and data-handling facilities, with sophisticated software for analysing huge data-sets.
- The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery - Microsoft Research research.microsoft.com
"The collection of essays expands on the vision of pioneering computer scientist Jim Gray for a new, fourth paradigm of discovery based on data-intensive science and offers insights into how it can be fully realized." Free book from Microsoft Research.
- h+ Magazine hplusmagazine.com
Covers technological, scientific, and cultural trends that are changing - and will change - human beings in fundamental ways.
- Nuclear Power [MrReid.org] wordpress.mrreid.org
Mr Reid's excellent Interesting talk: "Everything you know about nuclear power is wrong".
- Why humans can't navigate out of a paper bag - life - 18 August 2009 - New Scientist newscientist.com
Makes me want to stop using Google Maps.
The procession of technological discoveries is inevitable. When the conditions are right — when the necessary web of supporting technology needed for every invention is established — then the next adjacent technological step will emerge as if on cue. If inventor X does not produce it, inventor Y will.
So what is the organisation's end goal? Bowdler puts it simply: "To engage people with science who would not otherwise choose to immerse themselves in the subject."
- Brilliant Noise semiconductorfilms.com
Brilliant Noise takes us into the data vaults of solar astronomy. After sifting through hundreds of thousands of computer files, made accessible via open access archives, Semiconductor have brought together some of the sun's finest unseen moments. These images have been kept in their most raw form, revealing the energetic particles and solar wind as a rain of white noise. This grainy black and white quality is routinely cleaned up by NASA, hiding the processes and mechanics in action behind the capturing procedure.
- Adactio: Articles—The System Of The World adactio.com
Brilliant. Wish I'd seen this.
Who says big ideas are rare?
"Science groups for young professionals who don’t wear white coats, like the year-old Secret Science Club at Union Hall, are cropping up in bars and bookstores all over the country." Great idea!
- Official: organic really is better - Times Online timesonline.co.uk
The evidence from the £12m four-year project will end years of debate and is likely to overturn government advice that eating organic food is no more than a lifestyle choice.
- Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health - Independent Online Edition > Health news.independent.co.uk
"A new health scare erupted over soft drinks last night amid evidence they may cause serious cell damage." Great timing.
- A menace to science | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited guardian.co.uk
"For years, 'Dr' Gillian McKeith has used her title to sell TV shows, diet books and herbal sex pills. Now the Advertising Standards Authority has stepped in." Nice one!
- LiveScience.com - How to Stop Smoking: Simply Don't Plan On It livescience.com
Recent research finds that a snap decision to quit smoking cigarettes is actually two to three times more effective than planning ahead for the big day.
- New Scientist - No More Socks nomoresocks.newscientist.com
Gift ideas from New Scientist
- Open Letter venganza.org
" I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster." Genius.
- New Scientist 11 steps to a better brain - Features newscientist.com
It doesn't matter how brainy you are or how much education you've had - you can still improve and expand your mind.
Darwinian logic behind the female orgasm has remained elusive. Women can have sexual intercourse and even become pregnant - doing their part for the perpetuation of the species - without experiencing orgasm. So what is its evolutionary purpose?
Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.
- CHARLES DARWIN HAS A POSSE -- free bookmarks and stickers swarthmore.edu
These stickers and bookmarks are being introduced to increase awareness and appreciation of Charles Darwin.
- NASA World Wind worldwind.arc.nasa.gov
lets you zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth.
Humans specialize in distraction, especially when the task at hand requires intellectual heavy lifting.
- Guardian Unlimited | Life | Guardian life bad science guardian.co.uk
Atomic tomatoes are not the only fruit