Using Google search technology you can now browse through the entire archive of Popular Science magazine and read the old issues online.
New! Browse the Complete PopSci Archive | Popular Science.
And we’ve known this since the 1890s. Experiments repeatedly show that multitasking basically makes you perform badly at any of the tasks you’re performing. Now, however, it turns out that not only do you do badly at the tasks, but it also destroys your capacity for reasoning.
This article walks quickly through the history of the research on multitasking and brings you up to date with methods to practically use single tasking, from the extreme in classrooms to the more mundane.
A team of US research scientists have made a startling breakthrough in solar-cell development, creating flexible wire-based cell substrates that use just one per cent of the silicon needed for brittle and comparatively heavy conventional cells.
Solar cells made from this material would not only be less expensive than current photovoltaics, but due to their low weight and bendable structure the could be used in a wide variety of applications.
The trick in this new method is to bundle one-micrometer-thick silicon wires and embed the resulting array vertically in a flexible polymer. Thus bundled, the paper claims, the array could capture and transmit up to 96 per cent of light in peak conditions while requiring only one per cent of the silicon needed by conventional cells.
via US lab births flexy, stingy solar cells • The Register.
Professor Jones [NB the guy who sent all the wierd emails that were uncovered revealing that data was spurious and that he’d hammer into the ground all global warming sceptic scientists] also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.
These guys are doing huge wetware experiments in their own home, at a fraction of the cost of government / academic projects. They have a large community and have a repository of hardware plans to get you started for a fraction of the price of a full lab.
DIY Bio: A Growing Movement Takes on Aging | h+ Magazine.
The nanorobotic arm is built out of DNA origami: large strands of DNA gently encouraged to fold in precise ways by interaction with a few hundred short DNA strands. The products, around 100 nanometers in diameter, are eight times larger and three times more complex than what could be built with a simple crystalline DNA array, vastly expanding the space of possible structures. Other nanoscale structures or machines built by Dr. Seeman and his collaborators including a nanoscale walking biped, truncated DNA octahedrons, and sequence-dependent molecular switch arrays. Dr. Seeman has exploited structural features of DNA thought to be used in genetic recombination to operate his nanoscale devices, tapping into the very processes underlying all life.
via Nanoscale: Robot Arm Places Atoms and Molecules With 100% Accuracy | h+ Magazine.
“Scientists and engineers can use the 3D bio printers to enable placing cells of almost any type into a desired pattern in 3D,” Murphy said. “Researchers can place liver cells on a preformed scaffold, support kidney cells with a co-printed scaffold, or form adjacent layers of epithelial and stromal soft tissue that grow into a mature tooth
via New Device Prints Human Tissue | LiveScience.
A female scientist was fed up of hearing comments on the parking abilities of women and found that not only do they take 20 seconds longer on average to park, they’re 5% worse at it than men.
Men really ARE better at parking… and that’s a woman professor talking | Mail Online.
Using ECoG (electrocorticography) and overlaying electrodes directly on the surface of the brain, scientists can record reactions when letters are flashed on a screen and then play back the letters when that thought pattern is brought up. It’s around 8 letters per minute, but it’s something.
There’s also a piece where they translate thought patterns into music. An interesting article.
By Thought Alone: Mind Over Keyboard | h+ Magazine.
Analysts say Russian meteorological stations cover most of the country’s territory, and that the Hadley Center had used data submitted by only 25% of such stations in its reports. Over 40% of Russian territory was not included in global-temperature calculations for some other reasons, rather than the lack of meteorological stations and observations.
The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature UK (HadCRUT) survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century.
The HadCRUT database includes specific stations providing incomplete data and highlighting the global-warming process, rather than stations facilitating uninterrupted observations.
On the whole, climatologists use the incomplete findings of meteorological stations far more often than those providing complete observations.
A synthetic chemical similar to the active ingredient in marijuana makes new cells grow in rat brains. What is more, in rats this cell growth appears to be linked with reducing anxiety and depression. The results suggest that marijuana, or its derivatives, could actually be good for the brain.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8155
The Allan Hills 84001 Meteorite which landed on earth has been examined and they’ve discovered that the tiny magnetite crystals it contains are chemically consistent with being formed in bacteria – they’re basically little fossils. They’re pretty sure the rock, which has floated around for around 16 million years, comes from Mars as it matches chemical compositions with the relative proportions of various gases measured in observations of the atmosphere of Mars made by the Viking spacecraft in the 1970s.
Evidence of life on Mars lurks beneath surface of meteorite, Nasa experts claim – Times Online.
In this theory, time is split from space entirely. It’s a working model, but is still being refined as there are some flaws in it yet. It’s exciting because it does what Newton’s and Einstein’s theories can’t do, which is predict at the quantum graviton level.
Splitting Time from Space—New Quantum Theory Topples Einstein’s Spacetime: Scientific American.
After some teething problems and predicions about the world ending, it’s started and we’re still here: the first low power collisions have been made in two of the four sensor arrays, meaning more science is yet to come!
BBC News – Cern’s Large Hadron Collider makes first collisions.
All these hygenic parents who continuously wash and disinfect their children and don’t like them to play in the dirt are doing their progeny a huge disservice.
Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are “good bacteria” when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation.
By studying mice and human cells, researchers discovered that they did this by making a molecule, called lipoteichoic acid (or LTA) , which acted on keratinocytes, the main cell types found in the outer layer of the skin.
Scientists give grubby children a clean bill of health | Life and style | The Guardian.
And allthough the authenticity of the 1079 emails and 72 documents hasn’t been verified, it shows that the researchers have manipulated the data to fit their models, can’t explain the lack of global warming and have plans set up to destroy the credibility of any scientist doubting their stance.
Michelle Malkin » The global warming scandal of the century.
[edit]You can find the full archives here
They’ve managed to create a 3D fractal
Mandelbulb: The Unravelling of the Real 3D Mandelbrot Fractal.
A passenger jet is to be deliberately crash-landed as part of a scientific experiment on Channel 4 that the broadcaster hopes will be one of its biggest hits of next year.
Two pilots will parachute from the 300-seat airliner after setting it on autopilot to crash at high speed into the desert. The plane will be loaded with cameras and sensors recording the impact of the crash, which Channel 4 said would provide invaluable information about how planes react in potentially fatal accidents.
[…]
In a separate programme, Channel 4 will recreate a typical row of 1940s terraced houses before blowing them up with bombs identical to those used by the German airforce during the war, including a V2 rocket.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/12/plane-crash-tv-channel-4
They’ve managed to grow full penises and implant them in rabbits. The peni were fully functional and the implanted rabbits seemed to be more horny than non-implanted rabbits, presumably because they needed to check their new equipment worked.
They’re expecting to be able to use this technique for human useage.
Engineered Rabbit Penises Raise Human Hopes | Wired Science | Wired.com.
Terraherz waves, used to make x-ray type machines that can look through clothes and walls and more are also being deployed in airport scanners that look through your clothes. It turns out that under certain circumstances, they can resonate with your DNA, thus destroying it. Lovely.
Slashdot Science Story | How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA.
The damn thing fits on a tabletop and draws electromagnetic waves to it.
The practical applications are for drawing sunlight, so collecting solar energy. It’ll mean you can do away with all those panels, as this should be much more efficient.
First black hole for light created on Earth – physics-math – 14 October 2009 – New Scientist.
Kill friends: bad. Evolution sure is logical 🙂
When gamers kill friends, their testostorone levels plummet – they need to keep their friends around them to survive. When they kill strangers, the levels rise.
Slashdot Games Story | Gamers Are More Aggressive To Strangers.
Kill friends: bad. Evolution sure is logical 🙂
When gamers kill friends, their testostorone levels plummet – they need to keep their friends around them to survive. When they kill strangers, the levels rise.
Slashdot Games Story | Gamers Are More Aggressive To Strangers.
Turns out that much of the global warming science is based on data from Yamai in Siberia. The Yamai data has never been released, but it turns out that by looking at tree rings, people have been making assumptions about the temperature 2000 years ago. Apparently using tree rings is fraught with danger, as they aren’t very reliable. However, if you use enough trees you should be OK. It turns out that these people have been only using 12 hand picked trees that support the theses they wanted to prove!
Treemometers: A new scientific scandal • The Register.
Out of 16000 volunteers, it worked for 31% in Thai strains by using
a “prime-boost” approach, in which the first one primes the immune system to attack HIV and the second one strengthens the response.
Vaccine helps prevent HIV infection – AIDS- msnbc.com.