CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-19 20:33:43 (1 comments, 10 reshares, 46 +1s)

Living Color by David David Doubilet

Toxic nudibranchs—soft, seagoing slugs—produce a brilliant defense.

Some Facts About Nudibranchs

The word nudibranch (pronounced nooda-brank) comes from the Latin word nudus (naked) and Greek brankhia (gills), in reference to the gills or gill-like appendages obviously sticking out from the backs of many nudibranchs. They have poor vision and their sense is obtained through through their rhinophores (on top of the head) and oral tentacles (near the 'mouth'). They also have a foot that leaves slimy trails.

There are over 3,000 species of nudibranchs, and new species are still being discovered. They range in size from a few millimeters to 12" long, and can weigh up to just over 3 pounds. Two main types of nudibranchs are dorid nudibranchs and eolid nudibranchs.All nudibranchs are sea slugs, but notall ... more »

2013-05-19 20:26:08 (7 comments, 4 reshares, 25 +1s)

False Head Butterflies

h/t to +Michelle Beissel for the link to this wonderful story on crypsis in butterflies. These creatures (a Long-Banded Silverline and a Gray Hairstreak butterfly, respectively) developed highly conspicuous head-like features on their wings, drawing predators' attention away from their real heads and ensuring that if they are attacked they are more likely to survive a bite.

Lou Jost, in the comments on the original post, notes that "Some of them do something even more amazing to enhance the illusion—they gently rub their hind wings together, making the fake 'antennae' (which are not straight in these species but curved so that they cross their counterpart on the opposite wing) scrape against each other so they slowly gyrate like real antennae!"

You can see the full post by Jerry Coyne, with much moreinfo... more »

2013-05-19 19:55:39 (9 comments, 2 reshares, 17 +1s)

This was YouTube's suggestion after I was done watching the earlier linked Abbott and Costello video.

Seriously, people? Did two-thirds of people really sleep through trigonometry class?

When not knowing Math can cost you $15,000

2013-05-19 19:49:25 (5 comments, 11 reshares, 32 +1s)

Micro-bouqets

The images below may look like images from your garden, but these are created by chemical interactions in beakers on the scale of microns, rather than inches or cm.

+Harvard University 's  Wim L. Noorduin, lead author of the work that just appeared in Science, _  noted in a report on phys.org (http://goo.gl/BJbSd), "For at least 200 years, people have been intrigued by how complex shapes could have evolved in nature. This work helps to demonstrate what's possible just through environmental, chemical changes." 

Also from that story: To create the flower structures, Noorduin and his colleagues dissolve barium chloride (a salt) and sodium silicate (also known as waterglass) into a beaker of water. Carbon dioxide from air naturally dissolves in the water, setting off a reaction which precipitates barium carbonate crystals. As abyp... more »

2013-05-19 19:32:42 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

#sciencesunday  This wraps up my week of blogging the Canada-Wide Science Fair from a delegate's perspective. It was one amazing week in Lethbridge, Alberta with 450 of the top science students from all over the country. What an experience. 

2013-05-19 19:09:12 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 14 +1s)

Science Post of the Day
Today's Theme: Popular this week in the Science on G+ Community
gplus.to/sciences

Here are the posts which got the most engagement over the last week in our ever-growing Science community. 

X-ray vision tracks lightning bursts bit.ly/xrayvision
via +Selina Kyle  

The leaf cycle bit.ly/leafcycle
via +Mohammad Hasan 

Injectable nanogel health monitors developed at MIT bit.ly/MITnanogel and
MIT engineers create synthetic biology circuits bit.ly/MITsyntheticbio
by +Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 

SPACE: An examination of the macrocosm into the microcosm using the power of 10 bit.ly/sizingtheuniverse
and
Space: Putting celestial sizes into context bit.ly/sizecomparison
via +Ole Olson 

This week'sroundup... more »

2013-05-19 19:06:03 (4 comments, 10 reshares, 29 +1s)

One of the most important messages in this age of "information". Although experimentation is not feasible for most situations, doing your own research and fact finding from reliable sources, is. 

Additional Comics: http://godsofthemoon.com/2011/12/17/scientist-mom-issue-1/

#sciencesunday  (+ScienceSunday; +Allison Sekuler, +Buddhini Samarasinghe, +Chad Haney, +Rajini Rao, +Robby Bowles)

2013-05-19 13:43:02 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 21 +1s)

Sticky, stinky vomit
Have a look at this video from How stuff works:
http://goo.gl/EhNno It's about Fulmar chicks. Their defense mechanism is to regurgitate an oily substance onto whatever target is within 5 ft. The sticky oil makes it difficult for predatory birds to fly. When they go to wash off the sticky oil, they can drown as the oil messes up their buoyancy too.

Image source and more details form Scientific American.
http://goo.gl/dnkAr

#ScienceSunday  

2013-05-19 13:04:44 (2 comments, 6 reshares, 21 +1s)

Charge Your Scientific Curiosity

An hour long interview with the remarkable physicist Richard Feynman where he explains various ways to think of scientific concepts and thoughts.

#richardfeynman   #sciencesunday  

2013-05-19 12:52:08 (2 comments, 7 reshares, 25 +1s)

Today's Lesson From Chemistry Cat
#ScienceSunday  

2013-05-19 12:33:40 (4 comments, 16 reshares, 36 +1s)

Our NEW Periodic Table Song & Video!

Every known element, sung, in order. If you think you have what it takes to memorize the whole thing, show us! We'll share our favourites :)

The NEW Periodic Table Song (In Order)

2013-05-19 09:27:35 (5 comments, 5 reshares, 16 +1s)

Stealth and Venom: +Ed Yong writes about the ultra-black colors of gaboon vipers.

Very cool review, summary, and explanation of how gaboon vipers produce such deep, black colors, and how these black scales break up their outline to make them extra stealthy.  Gaboon vipers hold the record for fang length in venomous snakes.

#venom #scienceeveryday #stealth  

2013-05-19 09:17:40 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Beware of Frogs Bearing Spores
This has been suspected for quite a while among the amphibian disease research circle...a new study published in PLoS One indicates that the devastating amphibian chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatis was indeed spread across the globe due to the live trade of the African Clawed Frog Xenopus laevis. Unlike most amphibians, Xenopus can carry the fungus without exhibiting any signs of illness. Originally endemic to Africa, the clawed frog has been transported across the world due to its usefulness in detecting human pregnancy. Even though that has become obsolete in the 1970s, Xenopus is still widely used as a model organism for research on developmental biology. Inadvertently, this unleashed a plague upon the amphibians of the world. On a related note, amphibian chytrid has now also been detected in the group of legless amphibians known as thec... more »

2013-05-19 06:51:26 (3 comments, 4 reshares, 26 +1s)

*Hungry plant, tiny genome*

The plant Utricularia gibba is, perhaps unfortunately, more commonly known as the humped or floating bladderwort. While that sounds like a name that would get a plant beat-up on the playground, U. gibba is decidedly bad-ass in a few ways. Firstly, it's a carnivore. Carnivorous plants are cool. It eats water insects with the tiny bladders pictured below, and it's quite efficient at it apparently. Secondly, it's classified as a weed in most of the world. "Weed" is actually just shorthand for "well adapted to its environmental niche". That's what we're all striving for and U. gibba seems to be doing a good job of it so far.

Now it has one more quality to add to its coolness: a svelte genome. U. gibba has a respectable 28,500 genes but they're all squished into a genome that is just 82 megabases... more »

2013-05-19 06:23:29 (4 comments, 13 reshares, 39 +1s)

Steampunk Rock Star Scientist Posters

Science all the things!

source: http://etsy.me/19HSE6c .
#science   #steampunk   #sciencesunday   #scienceart  

2013-05-16 00:37:50 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 23 +1s)

Tomorrow, the White House is kicking off "We the Geeks," a new series of Google+ Hangouts to highlight the future of science, technology, and innovation here in the U.S.

Our first hangout includes an extraordinary panel of innovators from around the country who will discuss the elements of an "all hands on deck" effort to pursue Grand Challenges.

Tune in tomorrow at 2pm ET: http://at.wh.gov/l4lUD

#hangoutsonair   #WeTheGeeks  

2013-05-14 11:15:42 (1 comments, 5 reshares, 27 +1s)

xkcd: Birds and Dinosaurs

By any reasonable definition, T. Rex is more closely related to sparrows than to Stegosaurus.

http://xkcd.com/1211/

2013-05-14 10:44:50 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 15 +1s)

DNA - Secret of Photo 51 (NOVA)

Rosalind’s role in the discovery of DNA gets some belated recognition in a sketch by Quentin Blake, which was part of a series of works created for the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University in 2009

Thank you, Rosalind Franklin. #scienceeveryday  

2013-05-13 00:26:26 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)

That's an interesting read :)

#sciencesunday  

2013-05-13 00:22:07 (2 comments, 8 reshares, 20 +1s)

An individual ant may be denser than water, but a raft of ants is far less dense. That’s why it floats. 

Together, a group of ants forms a rougher surface than an individual ant. By joining tightly together into a mass of interlocking jaws and claws, the ants effectively increase its surface area, repelling water even more effectively than a single ant.  This evolution of communal behavior allows the insects to survive the quite frequent flooding of their tropical habitats.

read more: http://bit.ly/19fVoYh

#ScienceSunday  

2013-05-13 00:16:23 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 18 +1s)

The Glowing Spider-Worms of New Zealand

For over one hundred years, millions of tourists have flocked to the ancient limestone Waitomo Caves on New Zealand’s North Island, where a stunning species of fungus gnat called Arachnocampa luminosa live.

Unique to New Zealand and Australia, they are found in caves, grottoes, and other sheltered places. Arachnocampa means ‘spider-worm,’ as the gnat is known for the way their larvae hang strong vertical silk threads from their underground habitats. Since the larvae are luminescent, the thousands of tiny threads light up cave ceilings like a starry sky.

Learn More and read more info, here: http://www.waitomo.com/

More images: http://scinerds.tumblr.com/post/50298109022/glowing-spider-worms-of-new-zealand

#NewZealand   #GlowWorms   #ArachnocampaLuminosa   #ScienceSunday  +Science... more »

2013-05-13 00:12:09 (21 comments, 2 reshares, 14 +1s)

The Use of Animals in Research

The topic of animal testing is an extremely politicized one. In biomedical research, animals are used as models of various human diseases and unfortunately, because it is not ethical to test on human subjects, this is the best system we currently have. This is not to say that we shouldn't keep trying to develop more realistic in vitro models (for example, testing out a new cancer drug using cancer cells growing on a petri dish). But in vitro data always needs to be verified using in vivo  experiments (testing out the cancer drug in various model animals) and then finally clinical trials in human subjects. There is no current way of avoiding this process, and every single medication and medical advance we currently have is because of this process.

"The use of animal experiments to further medical advances is a delicate issue, and there is... more »

2013-05-12 22:23:50 (3 comments, 4 reshares, 15 +1s)

[+] Ground Control to Commander Hadfield [+] 

I think I love +Chris Hadfield right now... 

You know you're an amazing person when you're singing David Bowie's Space Oddity from the International Space Station. I don't have any words to express how amazing this is. 

Edited to Add: Oh and a HUGE Tip of the hat to +Liz Krane, for her stream is where I first saw this. Thanks Liz!

#ISSserenade   #ScienceSunday   #Space  

2013-05-12 22:11:26 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

At the intersection of science and art, Dr. Kai-hung Fung is using CT scans to build 3d models of the inside of the human body. He got the idea after noticing a CT scan of a woman’s nose resembled an orchid, and realized that medical images could be art as well. Hong Kong–based radiologist Dr. Kai-hung Fung discovered something within himself: an artist.

Kai-hung Fung - goo.gl/OE8ik     via Slate - goo.gl/WvWzS

#ScienceSunday   | +ScienceSunday 

2013-05-12 20:06:21 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

How to spot a murderer's brain
#sciencesunday

2013-05-12 18:51:58 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 9 +1s)

Scientists Use Cyborg Plants To Harvest Solar Energy

The Sun provides most of the energy on this planet. Our current methods of converting solar energy into electricity (photovoltaics) are relatively inefficient compared to plants. Inspired by nature, researchers at the University of Georgia are now developing a new technology that makes it possible to use plants to generate electricity. That may one day transform our ability to generate cleaner power from sunlight using plant-based systems.

Plants are the undisputed champions of solar power. After billions of years of evolution, most of them operate at nearly 100 percent quantum efficiency, meaning that for every photon of sunlight a plant captures, it produces an equal number of electrons. Converting even a fraction of this into electricity would improve upon the efficiency seen with solar panels, which generally operate at... more »

2013-05-12 18:40:27 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)

Christian worked miracles

Dr. Christian de Duve, a Belgian biochemist whose discoveries about the internal workings of cells shed light on genetic disorders like Tay-Sachs disease and helped give birth to the field of modern cell biology, earning him a Nobel Prize, died on Saturday at his home in Nethen, Belgium. Dr. de Duve had been “suffering from a number of health problems,” including cancer, and decided to end his life after falling a few weeks ago. He was 95.

Dr. de Duve shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Dr. Albert Claude and Dr. George E. Palade for discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell. Before these scientists embarked on their research, the cell was perceived as a work basket containing indeterminate parts. The scientists, working separately, transformed that view with discoveries of important cellcompo... more »

2013-05-12 17:36:05 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

It's Sunday, which means it's time to join your favorite co-hosts: +Fraser Cain and +Scott Lewis for the +Virtual Star Party! They'll be gathering up their phenomenal group of citizen astronomers from across the globe in order to share their view of the universe from their telescopes in a Google+ Hangout on Air!

In addition to Fraser, Scott, and the astronomers are PhD astronomers discussing and explaining the amazing space science and astronomy that's being viewed in the telescopes. We'll even take requests and answer questions left in the comments.

To make a suggestion, ask a question or just say "hi" to the team, please leave your comments below in the Google+ event, through any of the shares of the live show, or on Twitter using the hashtag #StarParty      

  
#VSP20130512   #ScienceSunday   #ScienceEveryday   #Astronomy  #Space   #... more »

2013-05-12 17:08:10 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

The Lil' Cookie Monster
When most people think of sharks, they think of a fairly large, streamlined fish with a set of sharp teeth. However, the Cookiecutter Shark (Isistius brasiliensis) is a bit different from what most people think of when it comes to sharks. It does have a very sharp set of teeth, but it is a relatively small and it attacks its prey in a rather unusual way. To read more about this little guy, just follow the link below.
#biology   #marinebiology   #marinelife   #shark   #scienceeveryday  

2013-05-12 16:57:26 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Your Amoeba - On Coffee
Some of us like to have coffee while we are working on something - but that might not be such a good thing if you are an Euglyphid amoeba trying to construct your shell. Some protists are capable of building intricate shells (see: http://schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2012/02/fine-reading-houses-made-by-protists.html) which shows that just because you are unicellular, it doesn't mean you can't make something beautiful. But it turns out if you mix in a bit of caffeine, things start getting a bit...wonky....
To read more about this, see the post below by +Psi Wavefunction in +Scientific American 
#biology   #microbiology   #protist   #protozoan   #scienceeveryday  

2013-05-12 16:54:44 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Sinkhole

A sinkhole, also known as a sink, swallow hole, shakehole, swallet or doline that may be formed gradually or suddenly caused by natural depression of hole in the Earth's surface or produced by human activities. 

Sinkholes may vary in size from 1 to 600 metres (3.3 to 2,000 ft) both in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms. 

Sinkholes may capture surface drainage from running or standing water, but may also form in high and dry places in a certain location.

A natural depression or hole in the Earth's surface caused by karst processes*—for example, the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks or *suffosion processes in sandstone.

The mechanisms of formation involve natural processes of erosion or gradual removal of slightly soluble bedrock (such aslim... more »

2013-05-12 16:47:38 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

Quantum computer wins first head-to-head speed test against conventional computing

A computer science professor at Amherst College who recently devised and conducted experiments to test the speed of a quantum computing system against conventional computing methods will soon be presenting a paper with her verdict: quantum computing is, “in some cases, really, really fast.”

“Ours is the first paper to my knowledge that compares the quantum approach to conventional methods using the same set of problems,”

“There are degrees of what it can do. If you want it to solve the exact problem it’s built to solve, at the problem sizes I tested, it’s thousands of times faster than anything I’m aware of. If you want it to solve more general problems of that size, I would say it competes – it does as well as some of the best things I’ve looked at. At this pointit’s merely above a... more »

2013-05-12 16:38:38 (11 comments, 5 reshares, 21 +1s)

Chemicals in/or the scent of a sharpie marker trap ants by disrupting their pheromone trails   #ScienceEveryday  

Trail pheromones are semiochemicals secreted from the body of an individual to impact the behavior of another individual receiving it. Trail pheromones often serve as a multipurpose chemical secretion in which, it leads members of its own species towards a food source, while representing a territorial mark in the form of an allomone to organisms outside of their species. Specifically, trail pheromones are often incorporated with secretions of more than one exocrine gland to produce a higher degree of specificity. Considered one of the primary chemical signaling methods in which many social insects depend on, trail pheromone deposition can be considered one of the main facets to explain the success of social insect communication today.

Video (about as long ast... more »

2013-05-12 16:30:01 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 7 +1s)

[+] Should non-scientists make decisions on importance of science? [+] 

As most, if not all of you have seen here on Google+, let alone in the news, the sequestration has decimated not only Science Education & Public Outreach, but slashed actual scientific funding for the future. 

Many people, including (and maybe especially) politicians question the importance of the scientific research being done now, let alone the return on research being done in the future. When we're playing the numbers game, it's so incredibly easy to be short-sided and focus on the quickest return on an investment. So let me make this exceedingly clear:

*Science research is not a lottery scratch-ticket!*

You don't go into your local market, put down $5, scratch the card and hope you recover your costs or even make a bit of a profit. Scientific research hasl... more »

2013-05-12 16:16:14 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 11 +1s)

Waimanu, the first penguin

(That we know of)

Waimanu is currently the oldest known penguin, and it is an ancient taxon indeed.  The rocks containing the Waimanu manneringi holotype skeleton are an astounding 61.6 million years old, far and away the oldest to produce penguin bones. To put this in perspective, these penguins lived just 4-5 million years after the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs (except for birds of course).

These early penguins inherited a world in which a reset button had been firmly pressed. It was warm, rather homogenous in temperature across most of the latitudinal gradient, and most importantly, nearly every major niche was hung generously with “help wanted” signs.

Waimanu is both amazingly penguin-like and amazingly primitive.  Waimanu manneringi was a healthy size, about halfway between a King Penguin and anEmpero... more »

2013-05-12 15:52:57 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

An interesting article about H7N9 (currently circulating in China), the second coronavirus (first reported in the Middle East), and contagion exhaustion. 

"At the same time, we are never far away from one of the 1,400 kinds of disease-causing microbes that are capable of infecting people; many infect animals, too. Of these microbes, known as pathogens, about 500 can be transmitted from humans to other humans. And around 150 of them can cause epidemics — rapidly spreading outbreaks of serious, sometimes life-threatening, disease."

#scienceeveryday  

2013-05-13 01:51:21 (13 comments, 21 reshares, 35 +1s)

Parasitic wasp larvae, Cotesia glomerata hatching
Following up on +Tommy Leung's post:
Maternal Tick
http://goo.gl/xI9yI
A parasitic wasp, Cotesia glomerata impregnated a cabbage white caterpillar, Pieris brassicae with her eggs. The larvae are hatching in the image below, taken from a +National Geographic video.
More here:
Parasitic Wasp Larvae Emerging from Caterpillar via Environmental Graffiti
http://goo.gl/Y5cNK

#ScienceSunday   #SciSunCH  

2013-05-12 14:22:25 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)

Sunshine could benefit health, study suggests

In this case not related to Vitamin D - so get out in the sun, but avoid getting a sunburn. 

Exposing skin to sunlight may help to reduce blood pressure, cut the risk of heart attack and stroke – and even prolong life, a study suggests.

Researchers have shown that when our skin is exposed to the sun's rays, a compound is released in our blood vessels that helps lower blood pressure. The findings suggest that exposure to sunlight improves health overall, because the benefits of reducing blood pressure far outweigh the risk of developing skin cancer.

Production of this pressure-reducing compound – called nitric oxide – is separate from the body's manufacture of vitamin D, which rises after exposure to sunshine. Until now it had been thought to solely explain the sun's benefit to human health,the sc... more »

2013-05-12 13:59:08 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 15 +1s)

You may have already seen this... but I can't stop looking at it. ScienceAlert reports: "This newly discovered caterpillar of the flannel moth... Photographer Jeff Cremer and biologist Phil Torres found the caterpillar in an Amazon rainforest..." iO9 further writes: "The caterpillar’s 'hair' actually consists of setae, which are long, fine silky appendages that, in this case, can cause serious skin irritations. If an unlucky person tries to grab one, they will get a handful of venom, released when the setae poke into skin. Like a bee sting, the injuries can be painful but, for most, are not life threatening."
Read more: http://bit.ly/112eKlT Photo by Phil Torres/PeruNature.com — with RooM ZooM and Aniruth Kannan.

#science   #sciencesunday   #amazon  

2013-05-12 13:12:24 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 10 +1s)

Roses are Red, Blood Cells Blue

❤ The heart is a symbol of love, and on this Mother's Day, let's consider the cardiovascular changes in a pregnant mother. As the sole provider of nourishment to the baby, the mother's cardiac output (blood volume) increases by 50% during pregnancy...that's an extra liter and half. Her heart will enlarge and beat faster, by about 15 beats/min. The growing fetus pushes her heart upwards and to the left. She will need more red blood cells to carry extra oxygen, although the increased numbers do not keep up with the blood volume. The higher requirement for iron and the dilution of red cells in blood can make mama-to-be tired and anemic.

❤ A pregnant woman is hypercoagulable: more likely to form clots. This is thought to be an evolutionary precaution against hemorrhaging after delivery, but it puts the motherat ... more »

2013-05-12 13:00:07 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Parenthood, Aves Style
For this #ScienceSunday , I am sharing a video which seems appropriate for #MothersDay  too. It is from the BBC series The Life of Bird, narrated by the one and only +Sir David Attenborough. The episode I am sharing today is "The Problems of Parenthood" which looks at the ways that different species of birds protect and bring up their brood, from cormorants to cuckoo, from parrots to plovers, and so much more.
#biology   #ornithology   #behavioralecology   #birds   #scienceeveryday  

2013-05-12 12:51:09 (24 comments, 61 reshares, 179 +1s)

❤ For Mother's Everywhere

From all of us here on #ScienceSunday .

#SciSunRR  

2013-05-12 11:57:14 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 10 +1s)

Oscar the 'Bionic Cat'

Oscar may not be better than he was before – not faster, not stronger – but he is, indisputably, more bionic.

The cat, who took a nap in a sunny field unaware of the combine harvester steaming towards his hind paws, is back on his feet thanks to a world-first operation and state-of-the-art bioengineering.

His new kitten heels were designed with custom-made implants, which "peg" the ankle to the foot and mimic the way deer antler bone grows through skin. Oscar's transformation, which has left him resembling a feline Ahab, has been described as a case of science copying the natural world.

More stories : http://goo.gl/AO5C 

A late #Caturday  post & for #sciencesunday  

2013-05-12 11:53:11 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Always Walk Away From an Explosion:
The Story of the Big Bang

(If you want to view this post in blog format, you can find it here:
http://www.thephysicsmill.com/2013/05/12/always-walk-away-from-an-explosion-the-story-of-the-big-bang/)

A few weeks ago, +Matthew Villanueva asked the following question:

Does anybody else find the Big Bang (the scientific explanation on how the universe got created) weird?

Actually, yes! Just a century ago, everyone believed that the universe was static—i.e., that it had always existed and that it would always continue to exist. Even Albert Einstein held this view. I previously explained why we know the universe is expanding, so I’m going to continue that story now.

Preliminaries

The mathematics behind the Big Bang theory of cosmology relies on general relativity. I’ve postedon ge... more »

2013-05-12 00:17:29 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 21 +1s)

#happymothersday and happy #sciencesunday !

Primates are among the most demanding babies in the animal world – which means primate mothers have to work harder than any other mom. While most mammals give birth to many offspring which she takes care of for a few months at most, primate mothers typically give birth to just a single baby who receives their nearly undivided attention for at least a year.

One explanation for this is called the Social Brain Hypothesis – the idea that primates live in incredibly complex social systems, and that increasingly social complexity has driven the evolution of comparatively large brains. It takes a long time for those brains to mature, and it also takes a long time for primate mothers to teach their offspring the ins and outs of living in such a complicated society and environment. “You are dominant to that individual, but you shouldn’tapproac... more »

2013-05-11 21:09:01 (6 comments, 6 reshares, 16 +1s)

Carbon Dioxide Reaches the Highest Level ever in Human History

#globalwarming #carbondioxide #climatechange 
#sciencesunday #euromaestro 

Congratulations to mankind, we have managed to set a new record.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a new high obtaining 400 parts per million.  This concentration level is substantially higher than the pre-industrial levels which varied between 180 and 280 parts per million. 

The scientific consensus largely attributes this substantial rise to anthropogenic sources.  (That mean us). 

The data in the chart is gathered from the NOAA, a US government agency that has monitored carbon dioxide levels continually since 1959 from an observatory in Hawaii. 

It is true that in Earth's history, there have been higher levels of Carbon Dioxide but this hasnot be... more »

2013-05-11 21:04:29 (0 comments, 11 reshares, 19 +1s)

The world loves Richard Feynman. Richard Feynman is dead.

Richard Feynman would have turned 95 today. My favorite Feynman story is from his time at Los Alamos. As he was working on the Manhattan Project. He would spend his free time picking locks to alleviate his boredom. After he discovers a hole in the wall of the top-security compound one day, he would walk in through the front gate, go out through the hole, then walk in again through the front gate. After a few times doing this, he almost got himself arrested by the MPs.

The world doesn't know his address, but he'll be getting plenty of these kinds of tributes today.

In June of 1945, Arline Feynman — high-school sweetheart and wife of the hugely influential physicist, Richard Feynman — passed away after succumbing to tuberculosis. She was 25-years-old. 16 months later, in October of 1946, Richardwrot... more »

2013-05-10 18:31:34 (2 comments, 5 reshares, 18 +1s)

Battling Antibiotic-resistant Microbes with Milky HAMLET

• Infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a huge problem in our healthcare system. Prior to the discovery of antibiotics, bacterial infections usually meant a death sentence. But now these weapons against bacterial infections are becoming less and less effective because bacteria have evolved resistance to these drugs, thanks to widespread overuse of antibiotics in the healthcare, food and agriculture industries. It's now become an arm's race, and we seem to be on the losing side. 

• Despite this problem, we don't really have any new drugs. All we can do is re-engineer existing drugs, and obviously these drugs have the same associated resistance mechanisms. An effective, alternative strategy is to use agents to sensitize the antibiotic-resistant bacteria first, and then use theanti... more »

2013-05-08 16:34:12 (3 comments, 6 reshares, 22 +1s)

How the price of paint is set in the hearts of dying stars

Today I’m going to try to explain the real reason that barns are painted red: nuclear fusion. And yes, this is an excuse to take a mad ride around some of the stranger corners of physics and chemistry in order to give you the real, this-is-not-BS, answer to a simple question.

This question got stuck in my head as a result of an episode of a long-forgotten sitcom called Head of the Class, about a high school class full of smart kids. (Sort of like Welcome Back, Kotter in reverse) This being an American show, it’s obligatory to occasionally emphasize the superiority of the ordinary virtue of “plain folk,” so in one episode the protagonists face off in some kind of academic contest with kids from a rural school, and end up losing because their city-slicker knowledge can’t answer the question “why are barnsred?” (And ... more »

2013-05-08 02:44:13 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

Next Meal: Engineering Food

Producer +Gabriela Quirós discusses why genetically engineered food generates so much debate at +KQED Bay Area Bites, and you can now watch the special online. 

Be sure to RSVP for the +Google+ Hangout on Air she'll be moderating tomorrow morning at 11AM (PST): goo.gl/yNVD1