Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

Weekend Climate Politics News

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T21:14:45-04:00

As UN Barcelona Talks Wrap Up, Yvo de Boer Says Climate Deal May Take Another Year. By Alex Morales, Bloomberg, November 6, 2009. “The deadline for 192 countries to complete a new global-warming accord may slip by as much as one year, as negotiators hold back on pledges to slash emissions or pay financial aid to poor nations. Yvo de Boer, the United Nations supervisor for climate talks, said yesterday in an interview [...]
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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We're doomed. It's another sign of the apocalypse.

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T21:09:56-04:00

Gene Ray, of Timecube infamy, has a twitter account.If he and Ashton Kutcher started following one another, that would be like crossing the streams. It would be bad.By the way, he's not a very funny guy — more like a racist homophobe with an ego. Not a nice fellow at all. Read the comments on this post...
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

Dirty Dirty Coal Dude Approved by Apparently Clueless Senate

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T18:13:25-04:00

What do we really know about this man, Joe Pizarchik, who was just OK’d as director of the office of surface coal mining?� (That includes strip mining and mountain top removal, two things that should not need a director because they need to completely end as soon as possible). Kendra Barkoff, press secretary for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, said the following after a hold was put on his nomination.Secretary Salazar believes [...]
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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Babies with an accent

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T17:50:46-04:00

Newborns cry differently depending on their mother tongue.read more
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

Where are your error bars?

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T16:37:12-04:00

Experimental observations always are coming with uncertainties. Any measurement is an estimate of the real value, if indeed such an objective value exist.The uncertainty in the magnitude of a measured quantity is more important as the value itself. Many readers will find this remark alarming. The determination of the ?error bars? is considered a dull, [...]
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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Visualizing bacteria talk to one another

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T16:13:57-04:00

Using imaging mass spectrometry, researchers at the University of California, San Diego have developed tools that will enable scientists to visualize how different cell populations of cells communicate.read more
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

On science, beauty and demystification...

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T15:12:41-04:00

"Science takes the romance out of things." This was an offhand comment made to me in conversation at the pub the other night. Is that really what people believe? Apparently, it is. It's regrettable, but I suppose the old stereotype of scientists being unable to appreciate the beauty in things is still going strong. While it's a sad fact that there are a number of scientists I've met who fit this image, it's certainly not true of all of us. It may be the case that some scientists might scoff at
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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She moves! "First drive sequence in 145 sols" for Spirit

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T14:39:00-04:00

It's been an awful long time since we've seen one of these from Spirit:"Drive" animation from Spirit sol 2078Spirit returns thumbnail images from the navigation camera to Earth to document drives. This animation documents Spirit's first drive sequence in 145 sols, on sol 2,078, as her engineers prepared to attempt to extricate her from her sandy pit at Troy. Credit: NASA / JPL / animation by Eduardo Tesheiner It's an animation of four Navcam ....
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

A wonderful debate

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T14:37:57-04:00

You will enjoy yourself immensely watching Hitchens and Fry debating a pair of Catholic apologists. Click on the image below (you can see how the debate ended already)!Oh. Unless you're a Catholic or other Christian — you won't enjoy that at all. You might want to go to church instead. Read the comments on this post...
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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health care

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T13:37:14-04:00

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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

Morality without gods

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T12:37:21-04:00

Can we have morality without gods? In this video, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci discusses the roots of human morality, and comes to the conclusion that we cannot have morality from gods, even if they existed.read more
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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The Intelligence Squared Debate - Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry vs. The Catholics

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T12:08:49-04:00

Is the Catholic church a force for good in the world? "It stands up for the oppressed and offers spiritual succour to billions say the Church's supporters. But what about the Church's teachings on condoms, gays and women priests, ask the detractors."read more
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

Quotes from the science blogosphere

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T10:59:00-04:00

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The world is ending, again

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T10:55:25-04:00

I'm sorry to have to mention this again, but there's a chance the world will end on Wednesday. The same guy with the website that was designed to make you vomit from your eye sockets, who has been predicting the imminent end of the world over and over again, is predicting the apocalypse again.Ho hum.Anyway, I think he's been stung by his repeated failures, and this time he's imbedded his prediction in a conditional. Smart move. Expect further sliding deadlines for the apocalypse, all coupled to
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

The Universe 800 Billion Years After the Big Bang: An Epoch of Massive Stars (3-D VIDEO)

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T10:43:00-04:00

Astronomers have completed conducting the broadest survey to date of galaxies from about 800 million years after the Big Bang. They found 22 early galaxies and confirmed the age of one by its characteristic hydrogen signature at 787 million years post Big Bang. The finding is the first age-confirmation of a so-called dropout galaxy at that distant time and pinpoints when an era called the reionization epoch likely began. Astronomers have long wondered whether the universe underwent
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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Meteorite found due to skycam

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T10:00:44-04:00

Out in Western Australia, in the Nullabor desert, there is an array of sky cameras designed to observe meteors as they flame their way through our atmosphere. It’s been observing the sky since 2006, and it paid off handsomely: a bright meteor observed by the skycam has led to the resulting meteorite being found.Cooool. By [...]
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

Mahagony forest in Kerala

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T09:45:00-04:00

A visit to Kerala is never complete without a peek into the deep forests the State can still be proud off. Waiting nearly two hours to get permission to drive through the Illithod Mahagony Forest was forgotten once our vehicle entered this near pristine forest. Till recently, we were told, the access to the forest was unrestricted and the area was a favourite with plastic throwing tourists. The State forest department stepped in and went a step further. They managed a court stay on the
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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Book Review: Real-Time PCR: Current Technology and Applications

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T09:19:14-04:00

Editor: Julie Logan, Kirstin Edwards and Nick Saunders Applied and Functional Genomics, Health Protection Agency, LondonReal-time PCR (RT-PCR) technology is highly flexible and many alternative instruments and fluorescent probe systems have been developed recently. The decreased hands-on time, increased reliability and improved quantitative accuracy of RT-PCR methods have contributed to the adoption of RT-PCR for [...]
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

The Vatican -Embracing the Probability of Extraterrestrial Life?

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T09:12:00-04:00

This week the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding its first major conference on astrobiology, convened on private Vatican grounds in the elegant Casina Pio IV, formerly the pope's villa. The gathering of prominent scientists and religious leaders from around the world suggests that some of the most tradition-bound faiths are seriously contemplating the possibility that life exists in many forms beyond Earth.�The five-day conference is chaired by the religious leader of the
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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Engineering: Cellphone Microscope

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T08:29:00-04:00

UCLA Professor Aydogan Ozcan’s invention (LUCAS) enables rapid counting and imaging of cells without using any lenses even within a working cell phone device. He placed cells directly on the imaging sensor of a cell phone. The imaging sensor captures a holographic image of the cells containing more information than a conventional microscope. The CelloPhone received a Wireless Innovations Award from Vodafonea wireless health monitoring technology that runs on a regular cell-phone would
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

Biotechnology News ? Special H1N1 Coverage

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T08:28:32-04:00

Nov. 4 chat with Dr. Arlene King Ontario’s chief medical officer of health on the CBC.?This is an in depth piece that is well commented upon. Well worth reading if you are interested in the adjuvanted H1N1 vaccine.Click here for rmore: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/11/02/yv-f-livechat-h1n1.html
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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Health Care Reform and The Economy

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T08:12:26-04:00

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Medical Innovations and Quality of Life

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T08:05:00-04:00

How do medical devices affect quality of life and productivity? The nonprofit group InHealth provided $1.4 million in grants to three U.S. universities to find out just that. Socioeconomic impacts of device technology will be gauged by weighing the efficacy of devices for diabetics, developing a con
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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Geo-sensible Alternative to Traditional HVAC

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T08:04:00-04:00

It's hard to get veteran business owners to try new technology. The HVAC rooftop units atop 20 year old commercial facilities often are broken-down relics. Is it time to consider another route for heating and cooling needs? While a geothermal heat pump drilling and system installation costs are expe
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts

Are We Due for "Rapid" Change?

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T08:04:00-04:00

The metals manufacturing business has always been a noisy affair full of machine tools that cut, grind, bend, and stamp resistant materials into shape. But could it one day be a more restrained business with machines that silently fuse metal powders using lasers? To what extent will laser sintering
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Method: The Best Science Blog Posts
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Health care plan passed the house. Are you happy with that ?

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T04:33:12-04:00

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Income inequality drives church attendance

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T04:15:00-04:00

The Dutch press is reporting a new study with an international perspective on what drives church attendance (the authors are Stijn Ruiter, senior researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, and Frank van Tubergen, a professor of sociology in Utrecht).What they set out to do was to compare the major theories on what causes religion, using data from the World Values Survey and other sources. Broadly speaking, you can summarize these theories like
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the macabre allure of doomsday

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T03:51:16-04:00

Maybe it’s just me, but does it seem like a whole lot of people seem to have a death wish of some sort? Over the last several thousand years, they’ve been waiting for the world to end in horrible ways and every time that we happen to survive, they just edge the date of doomsday [...]
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Video of the Week ? Sea Ice (Still) Disappearing

blogdig.net — 2009-11-08T00:06:36-04:00

“Greenman” is still making his fantastic videos. Here is the latest from him. For some reason there is confusion among some people (or feined confusion) about sea ice. It’s actually very simple. Arctic temperatures are warming more rapidly than temps. in North America. The old ice that has been around for thousands of years is disappearing (melting and breaking up). The ancient ice is being replaced with snow cover and “rotten [...]
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