Max: Demon Spider Mecha From Hell

I like.

Max: It Doesn't Suck

I learned today that in 1983, a metre was redefined to 1/299,792,458 of the per second speed of light in a vacuum.

Max: Headline or Horror Movie Premise?

Zombie caterpillars controlled by voodoo wasp

Max: LHC v God

Why can't I have the kind of crazy that comes with fun stories?

Max: Copright Myths

Max: Ummm... Wow

Via The BBC

"I put my finger in," Mr Spievak says, pointing towards the propeller of a model airplane, "and that's when I sliced my finger off."

The photos of his severed finger tip are pretty graphic. You can understand why doctors said he'd lost it for good.

Today though, you wouldn't know it. Mr Spievak, who is 69 years old, shows off his finger, and it's all there, tissue, nerves, nail, skin, even his finger print.

Max: Did Zeus Use Lasers?

Laser triggers electrical activity in thunderstorm

A team of European scientists has deliberately triggered electrical activity in thunderclouds for the first time, according to a new paper in the latest issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society’s (OSA) open-access journal. They did this by aiming high-power pulses of laser light into a thunderstorm.

At the top of South Baldy Peak in New Mexico during two passing thunderstorms, the researchers used laser pulses to create plasma filaments that could conduct electricity akin to Benjamin Franklin's silk kite string. No air-to-ground lightning was triggered because the filaments were too short-lived, but the laser pulses generated discharges in the thunderclouds themselves.

'This was an important first step toward triggering lightning strikes with laser beams,' says Jérôme Kasparian of the University of Lyon in France. 'It was the first time we generated lighting precursors in a thundercloud.' The next step of generating full-blown lightning strikes may come, he adds, after the team reprograms their lasers to use more sophisticated pulse sequences that will make longer-lived filaments to further conduct the lightning during storms.

Max: Chris Knight Would Be Proud

Max: Why My Brain Is Broken

The Reinvention of the Self

In her laboratory at Princeton University’s Department of Psychology, Gould is determined to create a marmoset environment that takes full advantage of their innate intelligence. She doesn’t believe in metal cages. “We are housing our marmosets in large, enriched enclosures,” she says, “and with a variety of objects to support foraging. These are social animals, and it’s important to let them be social. Basically, we want to bring our experimental conditions closer to the wild.”

But Gould is not a primatologist. She doesn’t give her marmosets adorable names, or spend time cuddling with their young. In fact, these marmosets don’t even know she exists: Gould prefers to observe them remotely, on a little video screen. Staring at the televised frenzy of this little marmoset world, it is poignant to know how their lives will end. Their brains will be cut into thousands of transparent slices. Their dissected neurons will be stained neon green and the density of their dendritic connections will be quantified under a powerful microscope. They will live on as data.

...

Gould’s insight was that understanding how stress damages the brain could illuminate the general mechanisms—especially neurogenesis—by which the brain is affected by its environ-mental conditions. For the last several years, she and her post-doc, Mirescu, have been depriving newborn rats of their mother for either 15 minutes or three hours a day. For an infant rat, there is nothing more stressful. Earlier studies had shown that even after these rats become adults, the effects of their developmental deprivation linger: They never learn how to deal with stress. “Normal rats can turn off their glucocorticoid system relatively quickly,” Mirescu says. “They can recover from the stress response. But these deprived rats can’t do that. It’s as if they are missing the ‘off’ switch.”

Gould and Mirescu’s disruption led to a dramatic decrease in neurogenesis in their rats’ adult brains. The temporary trauma of childhood lingered on as a permanent reduction in the number of new cells in the hippocampus. The rat might have forgotten its pain, but its brain never did. “This is a potentially very important topic,” Gould says. “When you look at all these different stress disorders, such as PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], what you realize is that some people are more vulnerable. They are at increased risk. This might be one of the reasons why.”

Not that I was deprived of parental presence as a child. But my childhood was largely defined by stress, mainly at school.

Max: Daily caffeine 'protects brain'

Daily caffeine 'protects brain'

Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.

The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.

Max: Bi

Bisexuality -- What’s in a Name?

Is there anything more inherently suspicious than bisexuality? When a hetero male concedes attraction to another guy, isn’t his self-proclaimed "straight/curious" status just code for "gay, but not ready to admit it?" Or, could it actually be that we all have the same potential for experiencing the full spectrum of human sexuality?

Lots of research and a little common sense say that of all the above questions, only the latter gets an unqualified "yes." But who wants a fence-sitting bisexual on their team? Certainly not the nervous straights; or the sequestered lesbians; or the defensive gays. The transgendered probably don’t mind -- but who can figure them out?

And why should we try to fathom the Bs, when we’ve got enough work to do just carving out a niche for the LGTs? Besides, every reasonable person knows that going for a pint of chocolate or vanilla is a lot easier than contemplating 31 flavors at Baskin-Robbins. It’s no wonder, then, that bisexuality is often an invisible color on the rainbow pride flag - ironic, since nature apparently intended almost everybody to be at least a little bi.

It is a trend that’s getting more and more media attention. Look at Tila Tequila, the VH1 instant celebrity who got her own reality show because she was bisexual. (The gimmick was that she had to choose between groups of straight men and lesbians, and ended up choosing a man.) Or take "Torchwood," the futuristic BBC-series (starring out actor John Barrowman) in which sexuality is fluid and everyone is bisexual. But that’s fiction - what of real life?

Max: Is Depression "Contagious"?

Postpartum Depression Epidemic Affects More than Just Mom

The consequences of depression inevitably reach beyond the mother. In a fog of sadness, a mother often lacks the emotional energy to relate appropriately to her baby. Overwhelming grief prevents her from properly perceiving a child’s smiles, cries, gestures and other attempts to communicate with her. Getting no response from mom, the child quits trying to relate to her. Thus, three-month-old infants of depressed mothers look at their mothers less often and show fewer signs of positive emotion than do babies of mentally healthy moms.

In fact, infants of depressed mothers display something akin to learned helplessness, a phenomenon University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin E. P. Seligman and his colleagues described in the 1960s. In Seligman’s experiments, an animal would conclude that a situation was hopeless after repeatedly failing to overcome it—and then remain passive even when it could effect change. A similar passivity characterizes depression. “Sometimes the infants mirror their mother’s depressive behavior,” Reck says.

Max: Remote (Birth) Control

From New Scientist:

A radio-controlled contraceptive implant that could control the flow of sperm from a man's testicles is being developed by scientists in Australia.

The device is placed inside the vas deferens – the duct which carries sperm from each testicle to the penis. When closed, it blocks the flow of sperm cells, allowing them to pass again when it is opened via a remote control. The valve could be a switchable alternative to vasectomy, the researchers say.

Max: Zombie Rat Cyborgs Will Kill Us All

They said I was mad at the university

When the neonatal rat heart tissue contracted, the robot’s six horizontally aligned legs (see image below) pulled together. When the tissue relaxed, the legs drew apart. The pulses propelled the robot forward. No speed demon, the rat heart muscle robot streaked through a solution at 100 micrometers per second (about 0.0002 mile per hour).

Max: Map Mystery

Centuries-Old Map Baffles Researchers

The map was created by the German monk Martin Waldseemuller. Thirteen years after Christopher Columbus first landed in the Western Hemisphere, the Duke of Lorraine brought Waldseemuller and a group of scholars together at a monastery in Saint-Die in France to create a new map of the world.

The result, published two years later, is stunningly accurate and surprisingly modern.

"The actual shape of South America is correct," said Hebert. "The width of South America at certain key points is correct within 70 miles of accuracy."

Given what Europeans are believed to have known about the world at the time, it should not have been possible for the mapmakers to produce it, he said.

The map gives a reasonably correct depiction of the west coast of South America. But according to history, Vasco Nunez de Balboa did not reach the Pacific by land until 1513, and Ferdinand Magellan did not round the southern tip of the continent until 1520.

Max: Fastest Growing City in the World

Max: Revelations for a Wednesday

For some time now, I have been struggling with the question of what I should do with my life. So far my somewhat itinerant career in tech support has (barely) paid the bills. At the end of the day, though, all I have is a paycheck and eight hours less to wait for the grave. I know that I enjoy research and analysis. They are the only aspects of tech support that I find enjoyable. I also love music and writing, but I have long since realized that those will be a sideline at best, a hobby. Research and analysis, learning and using that learn to diagnose and hopefully solve problems, are a more likely way to make a living.

There are many fields in which those skills would be useful. Among those that come immediately to mind are medicine, law, engineering, comp sci, math and a variety of sciences. Every now and then, I find myself surfing around various university and professional web sites researching how I could get into one of those fields and trying to figure out how I can get into and afford the appropriate schools and balance schooling with work.

Today I was researching one of the less likely of those potential careers, medicine. My lack of discipline - involuntary though it may be - along with my lack of desire to go a quarter of a million dollars into debt are somewhat discouraging. Of course, the cost of tuition is prohibitive regardless of the field I happen to be researching and is usually what leads me stop my quixotic researching. Today, however, it was the lack of discipline that comes from my defective mental state - a medical condition clinically referred to as "just plain nuts." Suddenly I had an epiphany. I realized that I have been focusing on potential long term goals at the expense of an obvious short term goal. I am overweight, hideously out of shape and depressed to the point of barest functionality. I now know that I have to deal with my health before I worry about anything else. There is new research that exercise is not only beneficial for one's physical health, but can also help in alleviating depression. That should not be so very surprising given that neurological research shows more and more that mental health is a part of physical health, that the mind-body dichotomy is false.

Now all I need to do is convince my flabby ass to exercise and eat better.

Max: This Make Brain Hurt

New Experiment Probes "Weird Zone"

Scientists have created a minute cantilever arm on the surface of a silicon chip that they hope will leave the world of classical physics and enter the quantum realm when cooled to near absolute zero.

Jericho: Get over it, Tree-Huggers!

We have talked several times on this site about alt-fuels and the advantages of Plug-In Hybrids, Hydrogen and Ethanol powered vehicles. I think I can speak for Max when I say we support advancements in alt-fuel usage. Oil is an addiction this country has to give up.

Finally, we see a step in the right direction.

Okay, maybe not the Plug-In/Hydrogen vehicle, let's try for plug-in, flex fuel hybrid first, umm-kay? But, I think you see where I'm going. Seeing Bush with an extension cord in his hand makes me feel good all over.

But, the idiot environmentalists have got to step in and make a fuss!

"Making our cars and light trucks go farther on a gallon of gas is the single biggest step we can take toward saving American families money at the pump, ending our dangerous addiction to oil, and curbing global warming," said Dan Becker, the Sierra Club's director of the global warming and energy program.

Okay, first, Dan, put down the pipe. Obviously, you are not in this conversation. Allow me to catch you up. E85 will do exactly what you are describing. The "E" stands for ethanol. The "85" is for the percentage, by volume, of ethanol in a gallon (or liter for that matter) of fuel. If we are using 85% less gasoline, isn't that cutting our gasoline usage by 85%? To get gains like that, you would have to nearly double the MPG of the average vehicle. This would mean a Ford Explorer that got 30 city and 42 highway MPG. It would be great if it existed, but the only way to do it would be to make the vehicle out of paper! And if you think the American public is giving up their SUVs - where have you been the last two decades?

E85 will do more than save money for families in this country, it will make money for families in this country and aid the environment in the process. American farmers will be called upon to grow feed stocks to make the ethanol in question. Material that is currently headed for landfills will be used as fuel. And, in the end, carbon held in the earth will remain there and carbon in the atmosphere will be reduced - or at least not increased. By all accounts, North America will take up alt-fuels, but oil will drop in price and fuel the developing economies in China and India, unless they, too, get sold on alt-fuels. It would be nice if large and influential groups, like, say, the Sierra Club, helped these countries see the light.

Dan, saying "Let's have more MPGs" is one thing. Telling us how to get there is another thing. E85 is compatable with our current infrastructure in every way. It reduces our usage of oil by, you guessed it, 85%. It adds jobs to this country. It will lower the price of domestically produced oil and thus lower the price of fuel in general. As E85 takes hold, it will become cheaper to produce and further cost savings at the pump, in the taxi, at the grocery store, etc. Dan, do you have a plan that does the same? We'd love to hear it.

In closing, Dan, I must say this to you: SHUT UP! Use your pulpit to support something worthwhile. Don't be a stumbling block in the process. We all want lower MPG, but this is a huge step in the right direction. Let's get this off the ground, this is something that can be done TODAY, then we can work on that 40 MPG Explorer.

Max: Building the Cortex in Silicon

Technology Review: Building the Cortex in Silicon

An ambitious project to model the cerebral cortex in silicon is under way at Stanford. The man-made brain could help scientists understand how the most recently evolved part of our brain performs its complex computational feats, allowing us to understand language, recognize faces, and schedule the day. It could also lead to new neural prosthetics.

Max: Massively Multitouch Operating System

Max: Atoms function as light-trappers and transporters

Atoms function as light-trappers and transporters - tech - 07 February 2007 - New Scientist Tech

A pulse of light can be stopped, transported, and restarted again using a cloud of super-cold atoms, US researchers have shown. The technique could ultimately be used for advanced computing devices or gravity detectors.

The experiments demonstrate physicists' increasing ability to manipulate light. Being able to control it in this way could be useful for optical or quantum computers, the team suggests.

'The first time I read this paper, I didn't believe it,' says Michael Fleischhauer, a theoretical physicist at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. 'Even though theory tells us it should be possible, actually doing it is something else.'

Naomi Ginsberg, Sean Garner and Lene Hau of Harvard University, US, used a method first developed in 2001 to imprint a pulse of laser light onto a collection of sodium atoms cooled to just above absolute zero.

Max: US Interstates

Map of US Interstates, redrawn as a transit map.

Max: Trash 2 Electricity

Scientists develop portable generator that turns trash into electricity

A group of scientists have created a portable refinery that efficiently converts food, paper and plastic trash into electricity. The machine, designed for the U.S. military, would allow soldiers in the field to convert waste into power and could have widespread civilian applications in the future.

Max: Miracle Fruit

Eat Foo: Post-Rapture Miracle Fruit Recap

Miracle fruit is not mind-blowing, but it's very, very cool. If you have the choice, go for the magic mushrooms, but otherwise miracle fruit is one of the weirdest food-induced experiences one can have. It's like some weird new experiment from Willy Wonka's factory, only Willy Wonka is some shady horticulturist from Fort Lauderdale known to the world only through his cryptic messages on obscure gardening blogs. But he came through.

The miracle fruit experience itself was awesome. I've tried it three times now. The fruits definitely vary in potency, although I don't know whether the potency is altered by what one has eaten before the miracle fruit. Some people seemed to have a more mild experience, and others' tastes were drastically altered. No one got a dud. Even the three times I tried it, it was different each time. The first time was more mild, the second (at the party) was quite dramatic, and the third was more mild again.

Max: Intriguing Claustrophobia

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