Adam Fields (weblog) » Science / “Science”

PS3s used for science

adam — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:37:06 +0000

It’s just extraordinary to me what a boon the PS3 is to the scientific community.

“Overall, a single PS3 performs better than the highest-end desktops available and compares to as many as 25 nodes of an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer. And there is still tremendous scope left for extracting more performance through further optimization. More on that soon.”

http://gravity.phy.umassd.edu/ps3.html

Tags: ps3, cluster computing, gravity

Open letter to Apple asking for help improving medical design

adam — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 20:22:02 +0000

http://www.diabetesmine.com/2007/04/an_open_letter_.html

Tags: apple, open letter, design, medical

Software radio is here, and it’s open source

adam — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 19:15:04 +0000

I’ve been talking about software radio for a while, and wondering when it would become cheap. Basically, all wireless devices are just radios of different kinds, and there’s no theoretical reason why one device couldn’t talk to them all. Except that it was prohibitively expensive, but apparently it’s not anymore.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,70933-0.html

This is very very cool.

The software’s open source, and the hardware is cheap:

http://www.ettus.com/

Tags: software radio, gnu, wired, ettus

Autonomous robot does heart surgery!

adam — Sat, 20 May 2006 14:28:05 +0000

Wow, the future is now!

The Italian expert has used the robot surgeon for at least 40 previous operations, some of which have been described in detail in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The novelty of this latest experience is that the robot was able to conduct the entire procedure by itself. In the past it needed specific orders from its operator along the way.

http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2006-05-18_1186367.html

Tags: robot surgery, future, heart surgery, arrhythmia, holy crap

Au-16 is a golden buckyball-like cage

adam — Wed, 17 May 2006 15:46:35 +0000

Wow. That’s pretty.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/dnnl-bmr051206.php

Tags: gold, au16, cage, buckyball, metal

Towards the zero-energy home

adam — Tue, 16 May 2006 15:30:01 +0000

A developer in Oklahoma has built a zero-energy home prototype for $200k. It’s a combination of energy efficiency, and photovoltaic and geothermal power production, mostly built with readily available off-the-shelf components. That’s fantastic.

“Ideal Homes built the first zero energy home in the country priced under $200,000. The modest one-story, three-bedroom, two bathroom home produces as much energy as it consumes in a year, achieving net zero energy consumption.”

http://www.housingzone.com/article/CA6332828.html

Tags: zero energy home, efficient, housing, environment, photovoltaic, geothermal

Tamiflu goes open source

adam — Fri, 12 May 2006 01:49:38 +0000

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/05/how_to_make_tamiflu.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

Tags: tamiflu, pandemic, flu, avian flu, vaccine

Thoughts on questions every high school student should be able to answer

adam — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 21:29:37 +0000

The Star Tribune wrote a fluff piece asking scientists to come up with their (seemingly) most disappointing question that every high schooler should be able to answer. (via Kottke)

http://www.startribune.com/389/story/369290.html

MJD (hey, man - what happened to Advocacy?) rightly savages the list:

http://www.plover.com/blog/physics/questions.html

The analysis is mostly very strong. My only complaint is that he failed to note that evolution doesn’t actually “choose” anything, and saying that it does is just typical “owning the terminology” ID doublespeak.

And what is up with that last paragraph in the article about family life interfering with remembering things you learned in high school?

My choice for this question would probably have been “What is the scientific method?”.

Tags: science, high school, questions, star tribune, mjd, dominus, plover, kottke

An Inconvenient Truth

adam — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 17:09:27 +0000

Al Gore has made a movie about global warming, in case you needed some more convincing.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount_classics/aninconvenienttruth/trailer/

Tags: global warming, al gore, aninconvenienttruth

An important first step towards unmanufacturing

adam — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 16:08:39 +0000

Nokia phones are going to use a heat disassembly process that allows them to be broken down into their constituent materials, which can then be separately recycled. It’s not quite unmanufacturing, but it’s the first thing I’ve heard about a step in the right direction.

http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,6771,27610,00.html

Tags: nokia, unmanufacturing, heat disassembly, recycling

Pigeon smog blog

adam — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 18:42:17 +0000

Scientists at UC Irvine are planning to equip pigeons with small bird-sized backpacks containing pollution detectors, GPS, and wireless data access, so they can post realtime smog data to a blog.

The mind boggles.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18925376.000&feedId=online-news_rss20

Tags: pigeon, smog, blog

Watercone

adam — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 23:35:39 +0000

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time.

It’s a low-cost portable still for purifying water with a pretty ingenious design.

http://www.watercone.com/product.html

Tags: water, purification, plastic, potable

They’ve finally figured out how bees fly

adam — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 17:31:20 +0000

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2148481/bees-fly-official

Stanford scientists directly monitor RNA polymerase (which is way cooler than it sounds)

adam — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 02:59:07 +0000

They’ve perfected a technique to allow, for the first time, protein activity to be directly monitored. They’ve focused on RNA polymerase, and have proposed a mechanical action theory about how RNAP moves up the DNA chain.

The technique is directly applicable to a whole host of other biochemical processes.

That’s just incredibly cool.

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/2005/pr-dna-110905.html

USPTO apparently grants patent for warp drive

adam — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 17:38:18 +0000

I don’t remember who originally sent this to me, but I got it a few times. This is apparently a patent for a warp drive.

” A cooled hollow superconductive shield is energized by an electromagnetic field resulting in the quantized vortices of lattice ions projecting a gravitomagnetic field that forms a spacetime curvature anomaly outside the space vehicle. The spacetime curvature imbalance, the spacetime curvature being the same as gravity, provides for the space vehicle’s propulsion. The space vehicle, surrounded by the spacetime anomaly, may move at a speed approaching the light-speed characteristic for the modified locale.”

They’re off their rocker.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,960,975.WKU.&OS=PN/6,960,975&RS=PN/6,960,975

MIT students study tinfoil hats

adam — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:51:47 +0000

Conclusion: tinfoil hat makes it easier for the gummint to read your brain. It’s a conspiracy!

http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/

Preaching to the Esquire

adam — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 17:01:54 +0000

Long article copied shamelessly from Esquire about”Idiot America”.

“Idiot America is a collaborative effort, the result of millions of decisions made and not made. It’s the development of a collective Gut at the expense of a collective mind. It’s what results when politicians make ridiculous statements and not merely do we abandon the right to punish them for it at the polls, but we also become too timid to punish them with ridicule on a daily basis, because the polls say they’re popular anyway. It’s what results when leaders are not held to account for mistakes that end up killing people.”

Via Novitz:

http://templeofpolemic.proboards42.com/index.cgi?board=theo&action=print&thread=1130126466

Ribosome simulated

adam — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 13:26:59 +0000

This is incredibly cool. A complete working ribosome has been described in a computer simulation.

Via Perry:

http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php?fuseaction=home.story&story_id=7372

James Doohan’s ashes to be flown into space

adam — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 15:10:17 +0000

Scotty’s getting his final wish. A CD with messages from fans will join him. Add yours here:

http://www.nameastarspacelaunch.com/doohan_message.asp

Something bugging you?

adam — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 19:50:02 +0000

Got a bug, and don’t know what it is?

Ask What’s That Bug:

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/

Cool Guinness ad

adam — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 22:23:29 +0000

http://www.framestore-cfc.com/press/05pr/051003noitulove/amv_gune339_050_qt.mov

Temperature-sensitive wall paint

adam — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:34:26 +0000

That’s cool. It’s wall paint that changes color with temperature fluctuations.

http://www.mavromatic.com/archives/000496

More on oil shale extraction

adam — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 13:35:26 +0000

Obviously, this won’t be an alternative to oil field extraction, and I believe we should move to alternative energy sources as quickly as possible. But infrastructure shifts like that take time, and this may provide a needed buffer to ease the transition.

Some counter comments on the original article are here:

http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200509/msg00203.html

In Situ Conversion is oil extraction from rock

adam — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 03:41:05 +0000

Um. Holy shit.

Shell has come up with a way to extract oil from oil-bearing rock instead of oil fields.

Drill shafts into the oil-bearing rock. Drop heaters down the shaft. Cook the rock until the hydrocarbons boil off, the lightest and most desirable first. Collect them.

Please note, you don’t have to go looking for oil fields when you’re brewing your own.

On one small test plot about 20 feet by 35 feet, on land Shell owns, they started heating the rock in early 2004. “Product” - about one-third natural gas, two-thirds light crude - began to appear in September 2004. They turned the heaters off about a month ago, after harvesting about 1,500 barrels of oil.

While we were trying to do the math, O’Connor told us the answers. Upwards of a million barrels an acre, a billion barrels a square mile. And the oil shale formation in the Green River Basin, most of which is in Colorado, covers more than a thousand square miles - the largest fossil fuel deposits in the world.

And it gets much better than that. Go read the whole article.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_4051709,00.html

Flying Spaghetti Monster: The Game

adam — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 16:39:31 +0000

http://www.venganza.org/games/index_large.htm

Self-healing Mice

adam — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 15:26:23 +0000

“We have experimented with amputating or damaging several different organs, such as the heart, toes, tail and ears, and just watched them regrow,” she said.

Via my friend jdb:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16417002%255E30417,00.html

Blistering observation of the non-science of Intelligent Design

adam — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 15:06:27 +0000

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/opinion/28dennett.html?ex=1282881600&en=5e66afa05b9ed96b&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Intelligent Falling

adam — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 16:48:53 +0000

The Onion weighs in:

“Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, ‘God’ if you will, is pushing them down,” said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4133&n=2

David Galbraith’s new theory of unintelligent design

adam — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 17:06:45 +0000

“I have a new theory - Unintelligent Design, which is the same as Intelligent Design, except that the creator is either a moron or Satan.”

http://www.davidgalbraith.org/archives/000912.html

Heh.

What does an ID textbook look like?

adam — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 16:09:02 +0000

Here’s what I don’t get. What would it even mean to teach intelligent design in schools?

Chapter 1: Some things are too complicated to have arisen by evolution, specifically people.
Chapter 2: …..?
(Chapter 3: Profit?)

As far as I can tell, there’s nothing to it. It’s the opposite of science.

“I don’t understand this, so there must be no possible answer”.

It says not just that we don’t know, but that we can’t know, so there’s really no point in trying to figure it out.

Scientists named Steve for evolution

adam — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 14:17:33 +0000

Project Steve is a collection of scientists named Steve who support evolution, to demonstrate the stupitidy of compiling lists of scientists who don’t. 580 so far!

http://www.ncseweb.org/article.asp?category=18

Bush endorses Intelligent Design

adam — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 02:05:38 +0000

Bush thinks intelligent design should be taught alongside evolution in schools -

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/12278405.htm

“I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,” Bush said. ” You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.”

That is, of course, the usual dodging of the real point. ID is not a theory, it is a vague notion. It is the embodiment of saying “we can’t know, so we’re free to imagine whatever we want”. It is as testable as the flying spaghetti monster “idea”. ID is useless as a scientific concept, because it closes off further investigation.

(I might accept ID as a valid theory if it was accompanied by some attempt to identify, and possibly vanquish, said creator.)

All ideas are not equal. ID should not be taught in schools any more than the “idea” that black people are inferior because they have smaller brains should be.

“Because I say so” is not a valid logical argument.

Why haven’t we put this idiocy to rest yet?

[Update: here's some good dissection of this point.]

Planet ten found. Again.

adam — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 23:39:40 +0000

I stopped watching the X-Files after the third or fourth time they found aliens without remembering the previous times.

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=3401

Reading and Blogging Britannica

adam — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:52:37 +0000

A UC Berkeley student is reading the entire Encylopedia Britannica, and blogging the good bits. It’s healthy to have a hobby.

http://readingtheeb.blogspot.com/

Environmental impact of mass buckyballs is unknown

adam — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 15:29:15 +0000

Apparently, it’s just been discovered that buckyballs are water-soluble and antibacterial.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-05zzl.html

DNA tagging of criminals on the spot

adam — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 23:14:53 +0000

I can’t wait for the nanobots to start fighting over molecule level tagging. Presumably, the coding of the DNA strands is protected by all sorts of interesting copyright law, too.

Bruce Schenier points out this new technology:

The system, called Sentry, works by fitting a box containing a powder spray above a doorway which, once primed, goes into alert mode if the door is opened.

It then sprays the powder when there is movement in the doorway again.

The aim is to catch a burglar in the act as stolen items are being removed.

The intruder is covered in the bright red powder, which glows under ultraviolet (UV) light and can only be removed with heavy scrubbing.

However, the harmless synthetic DNA contained in the powder sinks into the skin and takes several days, depending on the person’s metabolism, to work its way out.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/06/dna_identificat.html

Flying Spaghetti Monster created the Earth

adam — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 19:29:51 +0000

“Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.”

http://www.venganza.org/

Rare Tom Lehrer video

adam — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 03:06:05 +0000

I love Tom Lehrer!

http://www.archive.org/details/lehrer

Orgy porn is good for (producing) children

adam — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 21:31:15 +0000

“Men who view pornographic images of two men and a woman produce better-quality sperm than men viewing pornographic images of just women, an Australian study reveals.

The finding suggests that humans may be capable of subconsciously increasing semen quality when faced with the possibility that their sperm will have to outrun those of other men in a woman�s reproductive tract.”

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7487&feedId=online-news_rss20

This does not, however, explain hot girl-on-girl action.

Bacterial control without antibiotics

adam — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 14:09:41 +0000

Seems like pretty big news.

‘Only recently has it been discovered that the bacteria assembled in biofilms have a network of communication between them called “quorum sensing,” which controls their collective activity (or lack thereof). These sensing signals control the physiology and pathogenicity of the bacteria in the biofilms. A boron-based molecule that is produced by these bacteria, called auto inducer-2, controls the signals in this quorum sensing process.’

http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2005/06/a_novel_way_to.html

Heroin addiction gene identified and blocked in rats

adam — Tue, 31 May 2005 15:36:50 +0000

“Scientists have not only identified a critical gene involved in heroin addiction relapse, but they have also successfully blocked it, eliminating cravings for the drug.”

That’s huge.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7445

It sounds like it doesn’t block the effects of the drug, only the cravings. I wonder if that means that more people will be inclined to try heroin. Of course, that’s not a good reason not to do it.

Plotting story vs. interactivity in Prince of Persia

adam — Tue, 31 May 2005 13:35:12 +0000

Interesting article about how as the plot progresses in the first Prince of Persia game (Sands of Time), and your involvement in the story grows, the amount of control you have over the game events also increases (and then ebbs and flows with the story arcs). I liked a lot of things about both this game and the sequel, and I’m very much looking forward to the third. These games are emblematic of a new kind of platforming that’s very immersive, well-designed, easy to navigate, and just a ton of fun all around.

Many spoilers for the game if you haven’t played it:

http://waxebb.com/writings/plotting.html

As if that’s important.

adam — Wed, 25 May 2005 00:55:34 +0000

“Researchers Pinpoint Brain’s Sarcasm Sensor”

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/05/23/hscout525874.html

Super water kills microbes, harmless to humans

adam — Mon, 16 May 2005 20:30:31 +0000

“The solution looks, smells and tastes like water, but carries an ion imbalance that makes short work of bacteria, viruses and even hard-to-kill spores.”

http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,67472,00.html?tw=rss.TOP

Blood spinning

adam — Mon, 16 May 2005 12:35:37 +0000

Apparently, there’s a way to centrifuge your own blood to concentrate its mystical healing powers, and this is illegal according to some sports.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7375&feedId=online-news_rss20

New fuel cell runs on blood

adam — Sat, 14 May 2005 14:33:53 +0000

Via jwz:

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw111596760144B215

Non-allergenic latex

adam — Fri, 13 May 2005 04:35:14 +0000

http://www.yulex.com/technology.html

20% life increase in mice

adam — Sat, 07 May 2005 18:34:43 +0000

“His team made mice that produce high levels of catalase in their mitochondria, the powerhouses of cells. They found that cellular damage, as well as age-related damage in the heart, decreased in comparison to control mice that produced catalase in just cytoplasm or
in cell nuclei. The lifespan of the mitochondria-catalase mice was extended by more than five months - an increase of around 20%.”

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7347

Time traveler convention at MIT

adam — Mon, 02 May 2005 16:06:52 +0000

Brilliant!

——————————
What is it?

Technically, you would only need one time traveler convention. Time travelers from all eras could meet at a specific place at a specific time, and they could make as many repeat visits as they wanted. We are hosting the first and only Time Traveler Convention at MIT in one week, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!
——————————

http://web.mit.edu/adorai/timetraveler/

If you need to start a fire by polishing the bottom of a coke can with chocolate, you’re probably not reading this blog right now

adam — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 03:42:55 +0000

But, you never know when this knowledge might come in handy later.

If, perchance, you need this at some point in the future, and it saves your ass, I expect you to take me out for dinner at Lugers.

http://www.trackertrail.com/survival/fire/cokeandchocolatebar/