Posts

Most people surf the Web, gab on their cell phones, and stop for cash at an automated teller machine (ATM) with nary a thought of how they’re able to accomplish these feats. They simply take for granted that these devices will work at the touch of a button. Reminder: these devices would be useless were it not for the software that instructs computers to communicate with the Web, cell phones to find signals, and ATMs to confirm that customers are cleared to receive and deposit funds....

Researchers have for the first time found a connection between exposure to certain chemicals and insulin resistance, according to a study published in the online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives. A group of European scientists examined whether exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) contributed to insulin resistance, which has been increasing around the world. More than 25 percent of U.S. adults suffer from metabolic conditions stemming from insulin resistance that include fatigue, obesity and difficulty regulating blood levels of fat and sugar....

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, / Old Time is still a-flying. So wrote 17th-century English poet Robert Herrick, capturing the universal clich that time flies. And who could doubt that it does? The passage of time is probably the most basic facet of human perception, for we feel time slipping by in our innermost selves in a manner that is altogether more intimate than our experience of, say, space or mass....

Much has been written on the wonders of human memory: the astounding feats of recall, the way memories shape our identity and are shaped by them, memory as a literary theme and a historical one. But what of forgetting? This is the topic of a new book by Douwe Draaisma, author of The Nostalgia Factory and a professor of the history of psychology at the University of Groningen. In Forgetting, Draaisma considers dreaming, amnesia, dementia and all of the ways that our minds — and lives — are shaped by memory’s opposite....

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cities and towns across the United States are taking action after a Reuters report identified thousands of communities where children tested with lead poisoning at higher rates than in Flint, Michigan. From California to Pennsylvania, local leaders, health officials and researchers are advancing measures to protect children from the toxic threat. They include more blood-lead screening, property inspections, hazard abatement and community outreach programs....

For decades objections to the theory of evolution have bedeviled individual teachers, school boards, state boards of education and state legislatures. Educators fought to keep evolution in science classes and creationism out. We resisted intelligent design, the notion that natural selection alone cannot explain the complexity of life-forms, which served as a way of getting creationism through the back door. We are now fighting legislation that encourages teachers to teach the “evidence against evolution”—facts found only in the creationist literature....

One-way mirrors and one-way streets both permit flow in just one direction, but it is difficult to create something that permits sound or other waves to ripple in one direction and not the opposite. This is because of a fundamental property known as time-reversal symmetry. It usually makes no difference from what direction a sound is created—if you hear, you can be heard. In January electrical engineer Andrea Alù and his colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin published results on a device that could make one-way sound transmission practical....

Far below the surface of the central East Antarctic ice sheet is a body of water 160 miles long by 30 miles across known as Lake Vostok. The Vostok research station above it, for which it was named, was built by the former Soviet Union in 1957 and is now operated by Russia. Even by Antarctic standards, it is a brutal place, with the dubious honor of holding the record for the lowest measured temperature anywhere on the planet, a mind- (if not body-) numbing –129 degrees Fahrenheit (–89 degrees Celsius)....

Apple’s defiance of a court order last week to help the FBI unlock a suspected terrorist’s iPhone sets up what promises to be a long legal confrontation between the company and the U.S. Justice Department. In the meantime Apple is showing signs that it will further raise the stakes, dropping hints that it wants to create devices and services that are even more difficult to break into. Apple and FBI representatives both get to air their sides of the conflict when they testify before Congress on Tuesday about the need to balance security and privacy....

By Eric HandDid a large, icy comet smash into Neptune two centuries ago? That’s the picture that is emerging from the latest measurements of gases in the atmosphere of the giant blue planet.At a meeting this week of the American Astronomical Society in Miami, Fla., Paul Hartogh, project scientist for the Herschel mission, the European Space Agency’s infrared observatory satellite, described the mission’s first results for the Solar System. These include measurements of abnormally high levels of carbon monoxide in Neptune’s stratosphere–a possible trace of a comet impact....

Everyday exposure to a ubiquitous compound that makes plastics flexible and stabilizes air fresheners may result in lasting damage to children’s respiratory systems. The first study to explore the relationship between phthalates during pregnancy and future childhood asthma reveals a strong link between the two, but cannot conclusively say that asthma is a result of the exposure. Phthalates are known to impede the endocrine system, the regulatory mechanism that dictates hormonal distribution in the body....

(Reuters) - Dominion Virginia Power has discovered two damaged nuclear fuel rods at its North Anna power plant, 90 miles (140 km) southwest of Washington, and has shut it down, a spokesman said on Tuesday. Dominion Virginia Power, a unit of Dominion Resources Inc, said it discovered the rods during a routine refueling at the 34-year-old power plant northwest of Richmond. The company shut down the reactor on Sept. 7 and reported the incident to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Sept....

Feelings of hate may be different for those with depression, a new study suggests. The results show depressed people have abnormalities in the brain’s so-called “hate circuit.” Normally, brain activity is synchronous across this circuit’s three regions. But in depressed patients, activity in these regions is out of sync, said study researcher Jianfeng Feng, a professor in computer studies at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. These differing activity levels, which the researchers referred to as an “uncoupling” of the circuit, may explain why depressed people experience self-loathing, they said....

As forests in tropical nations are cleared to make way for large-scale agricultural plots, U.S. farmers may be taking a hit to their wallets. A new report issued by the National Farmers Union and Avoided Deforestation Partners yesterday finds that hundreds of billions of dollars are lost when forestlands are converted into croplands or cattle feeding grounds. The foreign timber, beef, soy and grain that flood the U.S. market from those fields undercut domestic goods, leading to price hikes, the report warns....

With commercial airline traffic expected to top one billion passengers annually by 2016 (compared with the 769 million who flew in 2007), there are more aircraft than ever taxiing, taking off and landing on airport runways. All of this airfield congestion requires technology that can monitor what is happening at the dizzying pace it is occurring, and radar, a World War II–era invention, is not up to the task. Recognizing this, the U....

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. So annealed into pop culture are the five stages of grief—introduced in the 1960s by Swiss-born psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross based on her studies of the emotional state of dying patients—that they are regularly referenced without explication. There appears to be no evidence, however, that most people most of the time go through most of the stages in this or any other order. According to Russell P....

The influx of migrants across the Mexican border into Texas has overwhelmed the resources of county governments to the point that remains are sometimes placed in mass graves. Top-notch scientists have volunteered to try to identify the remains so that the families can be notified. The plight of one migrant is chronicled in the June Scientific American in “The Mystery of Case 0425,” by Ananda Rose. Watch this documentary by filmmaker Pilar Timpane—music by Carlos Colón—that vividly demonstrates the plight of migrants in southern Texas—and the work of a forensic scientist trying to identify remains....

Resveratrol, a molecule found in the skin of red grapes, among other places, has been found to have a host of health effects, most recently prolonging the life spans of obese mice. But the natural wonder drug does not play a role in the beneficial effects of wine drinking, according to research published in the November 28 issue of Nature. “There are some fascinating effects of resveratrol in animal systems,” notes plant biochemist Alan Crozier of the University of Glasgow....

AT 30,000 FEET ABOVE NEW YORK – Gone are the days when aircraft were metal tubes of isolation. Get ready to hear more “Hello? I’m on a plane” on your cross-country flights. Gogo has unveiled its latest in-flight technology, allowing smartphone users to make phone calls and send text messages as if they were on the ground. The aircraft connectivity company on Friday touted its Text & Talk technology to CNET aboard a private jet, departing from and returning to New Jersey’s Newark International Airport....

Merck paid $400 million in cash for a small New Hampshire company last May, the largest sum ever reported for a privately held biotech. One venture firm that invested $10 million in the start-up received a $100 million payout, according to the Boston Globe. The purchase is part of a larger trend by pharmaceutical companies to scoop up biotechs, an acknowledgement that the future for blockbusters may be closely tied to protein-based drugs....