Clipmarks | arifsali's 'science' clips

In Stone Age Caves, Art and Music Mixed

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:12:01 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

At least 12,000 years ago, the most popular musical events might have taken place in torch-lit caves next to walls covered in art, according to new archaeological research in France.

Stone Age-era caves there bear paintings located in the most acoustically resonant places, where sound lingers or echoes.

The first cathedrals, theaters and concert halls, researchers now theorize, may have been inspired by musical performances held in caves.

"I am a specialist of the resonance of buildings and spaces, particularly of the resonance of Romanesque churches," Reznikoff explained. "The first time I happened to be in a prehistoric cave, I tried the resonance in various parts of the cave, and quickly the question arose: Is there a relation between resonance and locations of the paintings?"

Tags: science, prehistoric, caves

Spiritual effects of hallucinogens persist, research

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:18:55 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

In a follow-up to research showing that psilocybin, a substance contained in "sacred mushrooms," produces substantial spiritual effects, a Johns Hopkins team reports that those beneficial effects appear to last more than a year.

Writing in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the Johns Hopkins researchers note that most of the 36 volunteer subjects given psilocybin, under controlled conditions in a Hopkins study published in 2006, continued to say 14 months later that the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction.

"Most of the volunteers looked back on their experience up to 14 months later and rated it as the most, or one of the five most, personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives," says lead investigator

Psilocybin, a plant alkaloid, exerts its influence on some of the same brain receptors that respond to the neurotransmitter serotonin. Mushrooms containing psilocybin have been used in some cultures for hundreds of years or more

Tags: science, religion

Meet Peter Higgs, father of the 'God Particle'

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:25:11 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: To many people, the sole purpose of the LHC is to find the famous Higgs boson. James Randerson met the self-effacing man behind the legend

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Peter Higgs rarely gives interviews. The 79-year-old might be a shoo-in for a Nobel prize if the LHC finds evidence for the fundamental particle he proposed in 1964 - known as the Higgs boson or, more colourfully, the God Particle - but he is a reluctant rock-star scientist, too self-deprecating to even refer to the particle by name. He prefers to call it the "boson named after me".

Particle physicist Peter Higgs, who in 1964 proposed the existence of a fundamental particle – now known as the Higgs boson – that gives all matter its mass.

Finding the Higgs boson is probably the only thing many people outside physics know about the impending experiments at Cern. And until recently, the man behind it has been as mysterious as the missing particle.

In April, Higgs visited Geneva for a peek at the LHC before it was super-cooled with liquid helium, ready for the near light-speed buzz of the first proton beam around the ring.

Tags: science

Michio Kaku explains collisions at CERN

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:16:57 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Scaremongers have warned that the collisions at Cern could unleash incalculable danger and perhaps even destroy the Earth. Michio Kaku puts some fears to rest

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

media is correctly reporting that some physicists believe that the Large Hadron Collider might produce mini black holes in its collisions, and that black holes are in general so powerful that they can swallow up not just the Earth, but whole star systems. The media also correctly reported that physicists, when pressed, cannot completely dismiss the chance of being eaten alive by these mini black holes from the LHC.

These headlines may sell newspapers, but the media conveniently downplay, or even omit, giving the full picture. First of all, mother nature can produce subatomic particles of greater energy than the puny LHC in the form of cosmic rays. These high-energy particles, which are accelerated to astronomical energies by huge magnetic and electric fields in space, have been raining down on Earth for billions of years, plenty of time to swallow up the planet - yet we are still here to write about it.

Tags: science

Experts unveil 'cloak of silence'

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:08:19 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Being woken in the dead of night by noisy neighbours blasting out music could soon be a thing of the past.

Scientists have shown off the blueprint for an "acoustic cloak", which could make objects impervious to sound waves.

The technology, outlined in the New Journal of Physics, could be used to build sound-proof homes, advanced concert halls or stealth warships.

Scientists have previously demonstrated devices that cloak objects from microwaves, making them "invisible".

"The mathematics behind cloaking has been known for several years," said Professor John Pendry of Imperial College London, UK, an expert in cloaking.

"What hasn't been available for sound is the sort of materials you need to build a cloak out of."

The Spanish team who conducted the new work believe the key to a practical device are so-called "sonic crystals".

These artificial composites - also known as "meta-materials" - can be engineered to produce specific acoustical effects.

Tags: sound, science

Ageing muscle 'given new vigour'

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:27:16 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Scientists have found a way to give old, tired muscles a new lease of life.

They tweaked biochemical signals in mice to boost the ability of the animal's stem cells to repair damaged tissue, restoring its youthful vigour.

The breakthrough raises hopes of new treatments for age-related degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

The study, by the University of California, Berkeley, is published in the journal Nature.

We are one step closer to having a point of intervention where we can rejuvenate the body's own stem cells so we don't have to suffer from some of the debilitating diseases associated with ageing

Dr Morgan Carlson
University of California, Berkeley

Tags: stem cells, alzheimers, parkinson, disease, discovery, science

I See Doomed People

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:45:46 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Critics have given this movie some awful reviews.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

The director of The Happening, M. Night Shyamalan, talks about his scientific and environmental inspirations

In M. Night Shyamalan's film Signs, the protagonist suffers a crisis of faith so deep that it takes an alien invasion of Earth for him to work it out. In Shyamalan's latest movie, The Happening, which opens today, the protagonist suffers a crisis of reason. Unfortunately, this time not even the looming extinction of humanity resolves it for him.

Given that it's mass entertainment, the film raises a lot of interesting questions about science, and it's clear from it that Shyamalan's interest in science goes much deeper than a superficial mining of ideas for plotlines. His protagonist, high school biology teacher Elliot Moore (played by Mark Wahlberg), lectures about the limits of science's ability to explain the world and applies his critical faculties to staying alive when the "happening" happens.

Tags: science, environment, movies

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, the Singin' Scientist

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:56:24 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.drjilltaylor.com

Jill Bolte Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard-trained and published brain scientist when a blood vessel exploded in her brain. Through the eyes of a curious neuroanatomist, she watched her mind completely deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of how the brain works, her respect for the cells composing her human form, and an amazing mother, Jill completely recovered her mind, brain and body. In My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Jill shares with us her recommendations for recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functions of the right and left halves of her brain. Having lost the categorizing, organizing, describing, judging and critically analyzing skills of her left brain, along with its language centers and thus ego center, Jill’s consciousness shifted away from normal reality.

Tags: science, scientists, brain

Mars scientists ponder polygon mystery

Tue, 27 May 2008 17:54:48 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

Scientists working with images from the Mars Phoenix mission are baffled by an unexpected difference between what they thought they would see and what Phoenix is now showing them.

The difference suggests that the northern plains of Mars may be a more complicated and active environment than previously imagined.

Does this sharp-edged polygon indicate recent change on Mars? (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/U of Arizona)

Among the most spectacular images thus far is a colour mosaic of the terrain looking out from the northward side of the lander. It clearly shows the so-called "polygons" that are typical features of this region.

There's just one problem: the polygons are too small.

During a press briefing yesterday, principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, US, said that preliminary estimates suggest the polygons in the foreground of the image are about 1.5 to 2.5 metres across.

Tags: mars, science

The Neurological Roots of Sexual Pleasure

Fri, 16 May 2008 20:19:40 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: This is long, looks interesting.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Achieving sexual climax requires a complex conspiracy of sensory and psychological signals—and the eventual silencing of critical brain areas

Principles of Pleasure

Sexual desire and orgasm are subject to various influences on the brain and nervous system, which controls the sex glands and genitals.

The ingredients of desire may differ for men and women, but researchers have revealed some surprising similarities. For example, visual stimuli spur sexual stirrings in women, as they do in men.

Achieving orgasm, brain imaging studies show, involves more than heightened arousal. It requires a release of inhibitions engineered by shutdown of the brain’s center of vigilance in both sexes and a widespread neural power failure in females.

Tags: science, sex

Can you become a creature of new habits?

Wed, 14 May 2008 05:38:33 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. "Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd," William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word "habit" carries a negative connotation.

So it seems antithetical to talk about habits in the same context as creativity and innovation. But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.

Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.

Tags: brain, science, humans

Einstein's letter makes view of religion relatively clear

Tue, 13 May 2008 05:13:22 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: In the letter, he states: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this."

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." So said Albert Einstein, and his famous aphorism has been the source of endless debate between believers and non-believers wanting to claim the greatest scientist of the 20th century as their own.

A little known letter written by him, however, may help to settle the argument - or at least provoke further controversy about his views.

Due to be auctioned this week in London after being in a private collection for more than 50 years, the document leaves no doubt that the theoretical physicist was no supporter of religious beliefs, which he regarded as "childish superstitions".

Einstein penned the letter on January 3 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind who had sent him a copy of his book Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt. The letter went on public sale a year later and has remained in private hands ever since.

Tags: einstein, religion, science

The Brain Is Not Modular

Wed, 14 May 2008 04:32:25 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: What fMRI Really Tells Us

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Metaphors, modules and brain-scan pseudoscience

The atom is like a solar system, with electrons whirling around the nucleus like planets orbiting a star. No, actually, it isn’t. But as a first approximation to help us visualize something that is so invisible, that image works as a metaphor.

Science traffics in metaphors because our brains evolved to grasp intuitively a world far simpler than the counterintuitive world that science has only recently revealed. The functional activity of the brain, for example, is nearly as invisible to us as the atom, and so we employ metaphors. Over the centuries the brain has been compared to a hydraulic machine (18th century), a mechanical calculator (19th century) and an electronic computer (20th century). Today a popular metaphor is that the brain is like a Swiss Army knife, with specialized modules for vision, language, facial recognition, cheating detection, risk taking, spirituality and even God.

Tags: brain, science

The Chaotic Genesis of Planets

Tue, 13 May 2008 04:56:09 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Long viewed as a stately procession to a foregone conclusion, planetary formation turns out to be startlingly chaotic

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Editor's Note: This slideshow is a supplement to the Feature "The Chaotic Genesis of Planets" from the May 2008 issue of

Barely a decade ago scientists who study how planets form had to base their theory on a single example—our solar system. Now they have dozens of mature systems and dozens more in birth throes. No two are alike.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

INTERSTELLAR CLOUD AND PROTOSUN

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

DUST GRAINS AND GAS

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

COSMIC DUST BUNNIES

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

PLANETESIMALS

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

LARGE PLANETESIMALS

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

FREE-FLOATING PLANETS

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

BIRTH OF GAS GIANT

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

GAS GIANT SATELLITES

Tags: planets, science, solar system

Thirteen jaw-dropping science experiments for kids

Sat, 03 May 2008 16:54:17 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Thirteen jaw-dropping and/or gloriously messy experiments that children can carry out at home

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Clipmarks | arifsali's 'science' clips

In Stone Age Caves, Art and Music Mixed

Spiritual effects of hallucinogens persist, research

Meet Peter Higgs, father of the 'God Particle'

Michio Kaku explains collisions at CERN

Experts unveil 'cloak of silence'

Ageing muscle 'given new vigour'

I See Doomed People

The director of The Happening, M. Night Shyamalan, talks about his scientific and environmental inspirations

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, the Singin' Scientist

Mars scientists ponder polygon mystery

The Neurological Roots of Sexual Pleasure

Can you become a creature of new habits?

Einstein's letter makes view of religion relatively clear

The Brain Is Not Modular

Metaphors, modules and brain-scan pseudoscience

The Chaotic Genesis of Planets

Thirteen jaw-dropping science experiments for kids

Part VII: Experiments for kids p3

Get stuck in!

Magnetic pennies

Can slam

Pull the other one ...

Film tub rockets

Pitch perfect

The triple-egg trick

Up periscope!

Rocket Mouse has liftoff!

Cornflour slimeballs

Ear gongs

Friction factor

Perfect balance

Super soda fountain