January 09, 2010

The Golden Ratio in Science News

Interesting: "Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB), in cooperation with colleagues from Oxford and Bristol Universities, as well as the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK, have for the first time observed a nanoscale symmetry hidden in solid...
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August 23, 2009

Who'll Hook Up With Whom

So is the take away from this that men are sluttier than women, or that women are more shallow than men? (I don't mean the question to imply there's anything negative about being slutty or shallow)....
Posted by armand at 05:29 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 13, 2009

The Neuropsychology of Zombies

Sounds totally cool. What do you think Baltar, maybe expand your politics and film class?...
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March 29, 2009

Cool Flickr Pool: Women in Science

Women in science. Via....
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March 16, 2009

A New Kind of Computational Tool

So I will admit that I was one of the weirdos who read all of A New Kind of Science. Wolfram is still at it, and this time he has created a new kind of computational tool for the internet....
Posted by binky at 10:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 15, 2009

Feeling Stupid

Via a card on PostSecret about getting a PhD, comes this link to The Importance of Stupidity in Science. I think it's not just important in science, but in other creative areas or relationships. If you knew everything, what fun...
Posted by binky at 11:15 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 21, 2009

More Academic Conferences Won't Be Held in New Orleans

Tourism is of course a major part of Louisiana's economy, and New Orleans is, of course, an inviting town that appeals to many. But of late more and more organizations are thinking about taking their members (and their money) elsewhere,...
Posted by armand at 09:56 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack

December 15, 2008

Loop Quantum Cosmology

Via ModFab, the bouncing universe. I don't know that I'm smart enough to get this exactly - but nonetheless, it's neat....
Posted by armand at 10:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 18, 2008

Help a social scientist out

Via Balloon Juice a survey about political beliefs and information....
Posted by binky at 09:09 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

March 01, 2008

New angle on attacking HIV

Via Queerty, a new scientific discovery: Stephen Barr, a molecular virologist in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, says his team has identified a gene called TRIM22 that can block HIV infection in a cell culture by preventing the...
Posted by binky at 11:31 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 04, 2007

I heard the news this morning

There was a story about how US rankings on math and science internationally have dropped yet again. Yeah, Texas, you keep going with that, and drag the rest of us with you....
Posted by binky at 10:53 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

November 16, 2007

While I wish this were true...

I think there are probably some missing variables influencing this report, and that we are looking at correlation, not causation: The poll by Harris Interactive, an independent research company, showed that 88 percent of people with a post-graduate education were...
Posted by binky at 01:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

For all those pro-lifers who get upset when people use the words "fetus" and "parasite" in the same sentence

STFU already: The placenta acts like a parasite to avoid attack by a mother's immune system, researchers have discovered. A University of Reading team found it employs a cloaking device very similar to that used by parasitic worms. HT...
Posted by binky at 09:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 12, 2007

Whoa, dude...

From Slate: A study suggests the earlier you lose your virginity, the less likely you are to become a delinquent. Old finding: Kids who have early sex become delinquents. New findings: 1) When you eliminate genetic differences by comparing twins,...
Posted by binky at 01:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 25, 2007

Mathmagic!

This probably tells more about me than I should reveal, but when I was a kid, I loved this shit: Yes, even though I think The Rat is evil....
Posted by binky at 09:19 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 17, 2007

"Criminalizing Nerds"

PZ writes about how the "War on Terror" and the "War on Drugs" have combined to be a war against science projects: In the name of child safety, in order to inhibit drug peddlers, because we don't want to make...
Posted by binky at 11:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 10, 2007

Fun With Statistics

Via Pharyngula, we get some initial results of the 2006 General Social Survey (GSS). The GSS is done every few years (two? four? I don't remember), and is an attempt to study the general characteristics of the population of the...
Posted by baltar at 09:29 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 18, 2007

Dissertation Surveys

In the last couple of months, I have filled out two online surveys of regular blog readers, both part of dissertation projects by political science graduate students at the same university, and both referred by Bitch, PhD. This is a...
Posted by binky at 03:53 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 22, 2007

Ladies Love...

Science, and get recognized for the first time by the Turing award....
Posted by binky at 04:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 19, 2007

When Politics Censors Science

Your kids get lead in their lunch....
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February 10, 2007

Thought you knew your PT, didja?

The Union of Concerned Scientists has made an A to Z Guide of Political Interference in Science. In the form of a Periodic Table, natch. Via....
Posted by binky at 12:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 16, 2007

Another way the Bush administration's policies affect the average citizen

Budget cuts are gutting our ability to "understand and predict hurricanes": The two-year study by the National Academy of Sciences, released yesterday, determined that NASA's earth science budget has declined 30 percent since 2000. It stands to fall further as...
Posted by binky at 09:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 19, 2006

December 18, 2006

Maybe they ate too many soy bugs

Geckos can reproduce asexually: The female mourning gecko has found a way to simulate sex and produce eggs, rendering her male counterpart redundant, scientists have found. But the revolution has a downside, with the invading Asian reptiles reproducing at an...
Posted by binky at 11:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 30, 2006

(Ancient) Science is Cool

From CNN: An ancient astronomical calculator made at the end of the 2nd century BC was amazingly accurate and more complex than any instrument for the next 1,000 years, scientists said on Wednesday.The Antikythera Mechanism is the earliest known device...
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November 24, 2006

War on Science

You'd think the Bush administration would respect the EPA more. After all it was started by their model, Nixon: It never got down to actual book-burning, but the Republican choke-hold on government would clearly have taken us there. In August,...
Posted by binky at 12:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 21, 2006

Dobson Can Just Bite Me.

As should be moderately clear from reading this blog, I'm a strong believer in reality, and science (logic and method) as something that points to reality. This isn't to say that there isn't a place for religion and faith, but...
Posted by baltar at 01:07 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 24, 2006

We've been telling them this for ages

GAO report critical of abstinence only sex education. Some addition tidbits: According to Columbia University researchers, virginity pledge programs increase pledge-takers' risk for STIs and pregnancy. The study concluded that 88 percent of pledge-takers initiated sex prior to marriage even...
Posted by binky at 03:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 21, 2006

Stats Goddess

Have you been reading Echidne's series on statistics? If you're not stats jocks like us overtrained ICPSR monkeys, and if you've ever wondered what exactly some stat or poll means, you should read her series of posts (links to the...
Posted by binky at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 26, 2006

Politicizing Science Again (and Again)

From Crooks and Liars a link to this: The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. Well kiss my grits! I...
Posted by binky at 08:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 06, 2006

Uh-oh

Not the dreaded nerd-off. Think IR geeks can give them a run for their money?...
Posted by binky at 10:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 22, 2006

The Kommisar Evolutionary Biologist Vanishes

Alternative title: No Scholarship for You, Godless Liberal! Like a gap in the fossil record, evolutionary biology is missing from a list of majors that the U.S. Department of Education has deemed eligible for a new federal grant program designed...
Posted by binky at 08:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 12, 2006

July 22, 2006

The hard, cold - dare I say frozen - slap of reality

In the Is Sam Brownback an odious liar? thread, the discussion turned to the realities of IVF, and the survival rate of embryos necessary to a successful pregnancy. Bioethicist Arthur Caplan describes why adopting the surplus is a bad idea,...
Posted by binky at 03:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 14, 2006

Telekinesis Is Now Real

With the aid of a brain implant a paralyzed man is able to control electronic devices. In a variety of experiments, the first person to receive the implant, Matthew Nagle, moved a cursor, opened e-mail, played a simple video game...
Posted by binky at 01:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Nature and Nurture

Although I'm not sure why I titled it that, given that there seems to be a near total lack of nurturing - and something more akin to or even beyond active neglect - operating towards women in the sciences. And...
Posted by binky at 08:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 25, 2006

They're little, but they're not green!

Aliens! Also via the Goddess....
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May 08, 2006

Thrice Science

"Caesar demands a building permit." It may have been built with heavenly intentions, but a judge has ruled that the creationism theme park known as Dinosaur Adventure Land still must obey earthly laws.Escambia County authorities this week locked up a...
Posted by binky at 10:00 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

More Science!

And just as likely to be disregarded as inconvenient: As much as we may like to believe that mother animals are designed to nurture and protect their young, to fight to the death, if need be, to keep their offspring...
Posted by binky at 09:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Science!

Not that the wingnuts will pay any attention to this: In both cases the findings add weight to the idea that homosexuality has a physical basis and is not learned behavior. "It shows sexual orientation may very well have a...
Posted by binky at 09:37 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 07, 2006

The Pill=Satan

No, I am not "shitting you." "I cannot imagine any development in human history, after the Fall, that has had a greater impact on human beings than the pill," Mohler continued. " So, remember when I was telling you about...
Posted by binky at 11:42 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Politicizing Science: The CDC Version

Republican representative forces scientific panel on the failure of abstinence programs to include pro-abstinence speakers and bumps a panelist who was to present on how abstinence campaigns cause STDs to increase: Researchers organizing a federal panel on sexually transmitted diseases...
Posted by binky at 08:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 20, 2006

Politicizing Science Again

Idiots. "Unfortunately, this is yet another example of the F.D.A. making pronouncements that seem to be driven more by ideology than by science," said Dr. Jerry Avorn, a medical professor at Harvard Medical School....
Posted by binky at 11:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 17, 2006

One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Morning

News about the "first trillionth of a second" of the universe: In that trillionth of a second after the big bang, the universe expanded from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space through...
Posted by binky at 12:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 10, 2006

More on NASA PR Idiot

I realize Binky has already covered this story, but I did want to point out one additional major-grade idiocy in ex-NASA PR idiot Deutsch's NYTimesstory: In an e-mail message, Mr. Deutsch said that remarks about religious views on the creation...
Posted by baltar at 12:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 08, 2006

Cronies Sans Credentials Censor Science

Remember this story about the NASA scientist being blocked? Looks like the little scamp who restricted his speech is also more than a little liar: George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to...
Posted by binky at 10:53 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 05, 2006

Religion Blocks Science

Liz has a musing on religion, science and trolls. She links to this story about Susan Wood, who quit the FDA in protest over the anti-science shutdown of Plan B. I'm not going to say much, because I know Baltar...
Posted by binky at 02:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 29, 2006

Inconvenient Science

The administration doesn't want to hear about Climate Change, and it doesn't want you to hear about it either. Especially not from scientists. In one call, George Deutsch, a recently appointed public affairs officer at NASA headquarters, rejected a request...
Posted by binky at 10:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 20, 2005

Dover

From Pharyngula: Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as...
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December 18, 2005

This makes me sad

Polar bears drown because of climate change. Via BitchPhD....
Posted by binky at 02:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 16, 2005

Science Makes White Supremacists Cry...

...with the mapping of the human genome. Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve...
Posted by binky at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 09, 2005

The Voters of Dover, PA Strike Back

As Binky notes below, Kansas has, yet again, stepped back into the 13th century. Yay! More good science and tech jobs/money for the rest of us. But the proponents of this religious mantra shouldn't be too excited about their "victory",...
Posted by armand at 09:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Don't Hire Any Lab Techs from Kansas

Because they might have been taught that the mutating cancer cell from your pap smear is God's Intelligent Design. See also PZ Myers....
Posted by binky at 09:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 06, 2005

There is a cure for cancer...

...and the Christian Right wants to prevent its legalization. It's been covered here and there over the last month or so, but via Pharyngula a link to this thoughtful post by Brent Rasmussen (no relation to yours truly, despite the...
Posted by binky at 06:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 01, 2005

String Theory and Chocolate

Some fun news from the NYT in the midst of all the judicial doom and gloom. New breakthroughs in string theory...yippee!...
Posted by binky at 01:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 31, 2005

Well, I feel better!

Bush to unveil super-flu plan on Tuesday....
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October 02, 2005

Why I Hate The Creationists

What really pisses me off about this whole creationism versus evolution thing is how this is an assault on evolution, not an assault on religion or beliefs. I mean, no biologist, no "darwinist" (does anyone, anywhere identify as a "darwinist"?),...
Posted by baltar at 05:40 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 09, 2005

The President's Bioethics Council Becomes Even More Reactionary?

It's hard to imagine that's possible - but that's Ronald Bailey's take on Edmund Pellegrino's appointment. Looks like we can look forward to ever increasing obstacles blocking this country from taking advantage of scientific advances and its own resource strengths...
Posted by armand at 09:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 25, 2005

Long Term Impacts of the Flu

Alex Tabarrok has this post over at Marginal Revolution reviewing The Great Influenza. The great influenza of 1918 probably killed 100 million people, about five percent of the entire world's population. An even higher percentage of young people died and...
Posted by binky at 10:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 17, 2005

George, are you listening?

And it's not just the liberals talking. Four senators - democrats and republicans - went to Canada's Yukon Territory and northern Alaska. They have a few observations. Fresh from visits to Canada's Yukon Territory and Alaska's northernmost city, four U.S....
Posted by binky at 07:48 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Our Beautiful and Unusual Galaxy

There have been new scientific discoveries about the nature of the Milky Way. It is a barred spiral, and the bar is much longer than it was previously thought to be. Click on this link to learn more details, and...
Posted by armand at 11:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 27, 2005

Give It Up.

OK. Thanks for all the pretty pictures, and the Hubble, and the moving (mostly tragic) moments. It's time to hang it up. Finally. Yahoo News Service/Via AP SPACE CENTER, Houston - NASA said Wednesday it is grounding future shuttle flights...
Posted by baltar at 07:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Hot and Dry?

In graduate school, one of my colleagues insisted that water would be the "new oil" in the future of IR, the scarce resource that causes conflict, negotiation, and global action. Here's a piece that talks about the science of mapping...
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