CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-19 15:48:17 (1 comments, 5 reshares, 11 +1s)

Metamorphosis One

Metamorphosis seems like the ultimate evolutionary magic trick - the amazing transformation of one creature into a totally different being: one life, two bodies.

From Ovid to Kafka to X-Men, tales of metamorphosis richly permeate human culture. The myth of transformation is so common that it seems almost pre-programmed into our imagination. But is the scientific fact of metamorphosis just as strange as fiction or... even stranger?

Filmmaker David Malone explores the science behind metamorphosis. How does it happen and why? And might it even, in some way, happen to us?

As is usually the case for BBC; a detailed look backed up by amazing footage. This one goes well beyond the well known caterpillar > butterfly transormation so stick around!

#ScienceSunday  | +ScienceSunday 

2013-05-19 15:28:24 (1 comments, 14 reshares, 17 +1s)

Building a Supercomputer Replica of the Human Brain

Henry Markram’s 2009 TEDGlobal talk was a mind-bender. He took the stage of the Oxford Playhouse, clad in the requisite dress shirt and blue jeans, and announced a plan that—if it panned out—would deliver a fully sentient hologram within a decade. He dedicated himself to wiping out all mental disorders and creating a self-aware artificial intelligence. And the South African–born neuroscientist pronounced that he would accomplish all this through an insanely ambitious attempt to build a complete model of a human brain—from synapses to hemispheres—and simulate it on a supercomputer. Markram was proposing a project that has bedeviled AI researchers for decades, that most had presumed was impossible. He wanted to build a working mind from the ground up.

In the four years since Markram’s speech, he hasn’t backed offa nanometer.... more »

2013-05-12 18:12:08 (5 comments, 5 reshares, 19 +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 »

2013-05-09 16:12:04 (4 comments, 25 reshares, 40 +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 »

2013-05-09 13:26:22 (2 comments, 5 reshares, 11 +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 »

2013-05-07 19:50:17 (5 comments, 13 reshares, 63 +1s)

R.I.P. Ray Harryhausen (1920–2013)

Sad news, stop-motion effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen died today. The filmmaker, who retired from features in 1981, leaves behind a relatively small but incalculably influential body of work. His stop-motion animated skeletons, dinosaurs, and other beasts almost universally became icons of sci-fi and fantasy filmmaking.

Ray Harryhausen; "I'm another snowball. Willis H. O'Brien* started the snowball, then I picked it up, then ILM picked it up and now the computer generation is picking it up. Where it will end, I don't know. Maybe in holography, although I'm not sure I'd like a grotesque monster appearing in 3-D in my living room."

*creator of the monsters in The Lost World (1925) & King Kong (1933)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366063/more »

2013-05-05 18:06:33 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

In 2011, Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier carried out an experiment on the H5N1 strain of avian influenza virus. He bred the virus by passing it through infected ferrets, repeating the process 10 times. The virus was now capable of airborne transmission between ferrets.

In the following weeks, the news was full of fear-mongering headlines about ‘deadly mutant bird flu’, which resulted in a moratorium to halt all research on H5N1 viruses, not just the modified ferret-flu version. The publication of Fouchier’s data was halted, because there were fears that terrorists may use the data to create a bioweapon.

Join hosts +Buddhini Samarasinghe and +Scott Lewis as we host a panel discussion with virologists +Vincent Racaniello and +William McEwan and Evolutionary Biologist +Tommy Leung about this story, the ethics of accurate science reporting and the dangers of mass media hype andthe e... more »

2013-05-05 16:56:29 (4 comments, 6 reshares, 29 +1s)

The history of Science Fiction

Did you know there is no real definition of what exactly science fiction is? Personally, I am quite fond of Rod Serling's definition; "Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible." It's not an airtight fit but it gets the message across.

If you are looking for a good read to spend your sunday afternoon on, look no further. The rabbit hole that is wikipedia has got you covered.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_science_fiction

Did you know that the ancient indian epic, Ramayana (5th to 4th century B.C), featured sf elements? It had mythical Vimana flying machines that were able to fly within the Earth's atmosphere, and able to travel into space and travel submerged under water, along with a weapon which could destroy an entire city! As you can see sf history... more »

2013-05-04 20:28:11 (2 comments, 7 reshares, 8 +1s)

NYT Op Docs - The Program (8 mins)

The filmmaker Laura Poitras profiles William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the NSA who helped design top-secret surveillance software.

You can check my previous post; http://goo.gl/4vsdP or wiki; http://goo.gl/aQ2t2 for more information. 

Scared yet?

2013-05-04 15:09:15 (4 comments, 15 reshares, 21 +1s)

The True Cost of Cheap Food

87 percent of the US supermarket meat (including beef, pork, chicken, and turkey products) tests positive for normal and antibiotic-resistant forms of Enterococcus bacteria. Between 2003 and 2011, antibiotic use on US livestock farms soared from 20 million pounds per year to 30 million pounds - a jaw-dropping 50 percent leap. These facilities now suck in 80 percent of the antibiotics consumed in the United States. The great bulk of these drugs are used not to treat sick animals, but rather to make them grow faster and keep them alive until slaughter under tight, filthy conditions ➜ goo.gl/mHPRU

Facts and Numbers (Source → goo.gl/AWxnM):
● In 1998, the USDA implemented microbial testing for salmonella and E. coli 0157h7 so that if a plant repeatedly failed these tests, the USDA could shut down the plant. After being taken to court bythe m... more »

2013-04-28 15:59:54 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 12 +1s)

Synthetic in nature 

If you live in LA, you should totally go and check out Megan Daalder's new exhibition, Project Eureka, at the UCLA Art|Science gallery. Over the course of 2013, a shapeshifting narrative will unfold through performance, installation, and video. The story is set in 2050, in a future where the ‘Naturals’ have won, and society aggressively defends an idea of Nature and Natural Selection that is full of conflict, with room only for the naturally genetically fit. In this world, Daalder’s Eureka is an outcast on the run from a society that resists all technological interventions in Nature’s plan. She is the world’s first and last designer baby, engineered to be “futureproof” in a world wracked by climate change.

Eureka’s genetic modifications don’t point the way towards Daalder’s vision of an ideal future human, optimized for any givenfuture scenario. Rathe... more »

2013-04-21 18:31:41 (0 comments, 9 reshares, 18 +1s)

A hidden world, feeding on big data, growing beyond control.

"Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine.” -Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner

And just like oil, data too can be applied for both good and evil. Last #ScienceSunday  I talked about how big data will change our world for the better; http://goo.gl/oisdt - today I'll talk about its downside. 

"Torture the data, and it will confess to anything" -Ronald Coase, Economics, Nobel Prize Laureate

Big data means Big errors - http://goo.gl/tkL03
We’re more fooled by noise than ever before. With big data, researchers have brought cherry-picking to an industrial level. Modernity provides too many variables, but too little data per variable. So the spurious relationships grow much, much faster than real information. Inother ... more »

2013-04-14 14:11:21 (25 comments, 123 reshares, 169 +1s)

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood
(by Jame Gleick - http://goo.gl/nNhyS)

In 2011 alone, 1.8 zettabytes (or 1.8 trillion gigabytes) of data was created. Currently we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data per day — so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. This data comes from everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information, satellites keeping track of deep space events, DNA sequencing, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos, purchase transaction records, and cell phone GPS signals to name a few. This data is big data.

You can check out a sliver of the data we generate in a single minute in this infograph > http://goo.gl/tt1qL - but keep in mind that these numbers are from 2011 which means that by now most of them will have increased by a factor of 2. Here's another infograph,one ... more »

2013-04-09 16:20:22 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 5 +1s)

Calvin Harris Acceptable in the 80s

As a child of the 80s that didn't consciously get to experience them, I think I missed out. Although most people would rather forget this decade ever happened, it wasn't all bad. It's nice to see this talented group of animators trying to bring some of it back.

I can hear you thinking; "don't you normally post sciency stuff?" Well, our heroes are obviously inspired by optics and together they can form a rainbow of dazzling power! Sciency enough for me. X-ray might seem like an odd choice to incorporate into a rainbow but you actually can make a rainbow from x-rays although x-ray rainbows are not caused by rain and do not form bows. :p

The odd one out is Ion ray who I guess fell asleep during science class because ions are charged particles (atoms or molecules) and not photons. Then again, the girl's name is... more »

2013-04-07 21:09:40 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 17 +1s)

Do you want to hear bad news about your own genetics?  You might not get to choose

When the authors of a report include "Highly Anticipated" in the title you know that either: 1) it is highly anticipated, or 2) they're trying to get some attention.  In the case of the recent ACMG guidelines ACMG Recommendations for Reporting of Incidental Findings in Clinical Exome and Genome Sequencing Report (www.acmg.net) it's both.  And what do these recommendations say?  For one thing, they say that if you get a sequencing test you can't choose to not hear about anything bad that is discovered.

As most people are aware, recent advances in genome sequencing technologies have made it possible to sequence most or all of a patient's genome for clinical diagnostic and predictive testing.  Here's a couple of open-access reviews to get you up to speed on thedeta... more »

2013-04-07 22:19:41 (60 comments, 136 reshares, 202 +1s)

The fight between QM and GR is heating up.
http://www.nature.com/news/astrophysics-fire-in-the-hole-1.12726

Quantum Mechanics describes the very small and General Relativity the very large but unfortunately they don't get along very well. To make matters worse, they meet each other all the time on their common playground; black holes.

TL;DR - Either firewalls exist and general relativity falls apart, or information is lost in black holes and QM is off.

> Incineration instead of spaghettification?
In March 2012, Joseph Polchinski began to contemplate suicide — at least in mathematical form. He was pondering what would happen to an astronaut who dived into a black hole. Obviously, he would die. But how? According to the then-accepted account, he wouldn’t feel anything special at first, even when his fall took him through the black hole’sevent ho... more »

2013-03-28 20:20:33 (3 comments, 8 reshares, 37 +1s)

African fairy circles - A modern day mystery

Walter Tschinkel may not have solved the mystery of the fairy circles, but he can tell you that they're alive. Tens of thousands of these formations, bare patches of soil with diameters ranging from 2 to 12 meters, can be found in freckle grasslands from southern Angola to northern South Africa. If you ask the locals, they will tell you that they're the footprints of the gods...

Scientists have thrown their hands up in the air because after 25 years of study there is still no clear answer but at least another piece of the puzzle has been unraveled. When Tschinkel turned to satellite images, comparing photos taken over a 4-year period, he confirmed something other scientists had suspected: The circles were alive—or at least they were dynamic. A number of circles appeared and disappeared over this time period. Extrapolatingfr... more »

2013-03-23 18:48:07 (12 comments, 22 reshares, 78 +1s)

The revolution will be digitized

The Brigade 3D engine uses path tracing, an extension to the ray tracing algorithm, which allows it to produce truly photorealistic imagery. 

"Path tracing is a computer graphics method of rendering images of three dimensional scenes such that the global illumination is faithful to reality. Fundamentally, the algorithm is integrating over all the illuminance arriving to a single point on the surface of an object. This illuminance is then reduced by a surface reflectance function to determine how much of it will go towards the viewpoint camera. This integration procedure is repeated for every pixel in the output image. When combined with physically accurate models of surfaces, accurate models of real light sources (light bulbs), and optically-correct cameras, path tracing can produce still images that are indistinguishable from... more »

2013-03-17 19:27:15 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 15 +1s)

I hope you are not eating...

The sacculina parasite is a member of the barnacle family whose only goal in life is to find a crab and castrate it. When fully grown, up to 50% of its crab host consists out of the parasite. It all starts when the female Sacculina larva finds a crab and locates a joint. The larva then molts, injecting its soft body into the crab while its shell falls off. The Sacculina grows in the crab, emerging as a sac, known as an externa, on the underside of the crab's rear thorax, where the crab's eggs would be incubated.

When a female Sacculina is implanted in a male crab it will interfere with the crab's hormonal balance. This sterilizes it and changes the bodily layout of the crab to resemble that of a female crab by widening and flattening its abdomen, among other things. It gets worse after a male sacculina enters the sac and fertilizes the eggs of... more »

2013-03-13 15:38:15 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 14 +1s)

Join us for another Science HOA, brought to you by +ScienceSunday as we talk to Dr +Jon Hiller about electron microscopy! Jon is a electron microscopist in the Nanoscience & Technology Division at Argonne National Laboratory. Jon’s research includes the development of state-of-the-art electron and ion beam instrumentation for materials and nanoscale research. He is most well known for his work in 3 dimensional Focused Ion Beam (FIB) tomography and complex sample fabrication for electron microscopy. His characterization of diamond thin films has lead to the development of the artificial retina.

We will be discussing all this, along with a live on air demonstration of scanning electron microscopy! Jon has also kindly offered to allow you, the audience to choose any objects that you would like to see under the electron microscope! So if you have any questions for Jon, or suggestions fors... more »

2013-03-09 18:47:10 (82 comments, 155 reshares, 540 +1s)

Gentlemen, we can rebuild them. We have the technology.

If you condensed all 200,000 years of humanity's existence into a one hour-long video and then played it back, you would have to wait 58 minutes for people to build their first city-like habitat--a honeycomb-like mud-brick town of 5,000 in present-day Turkey.

Half a minute later, you'd see another city, in Iraq, surge to 50,000 people, and 45 seconds after that, Egypt's Alexandria would swell by another factor of ten, to 500,000. In the movie's last 2 seconds, London's population would skyrocket to 5 million--another order of magnitude--just as all the rest of the developed world began to erupt in a frenzy of urbanization. During the last half of the last second, the developing world would follow.

Today, for the first time in human history, more than half the world's population makes its... more »

2013-03-03 15:57:42 (3 comments, 10 reshares, 26 +1s)

The shark and egg situation

Although some sharks maintain a placental link to their developing young, most of them lay bizarrely artistic eggs. Such egg cases, colloquially known as a mermaid's purse or devil's purse, are casings made of protein strands that surround the fertilized eggs. You might have encountered some of these artworks for they are lightweight and often wash up on beaches around the world.

The size of egg cases vary; those of the small-spotted catshark are around 5 centimetres (2 in) long, while those of the greater spotted dogfish are around 10 centimetres (4 in). The colours and shapes of egg cases also vary greatly from species to species. Egg cases have distinguishable characteristic traits that are unique to a species, thus making it a great tool for identifying a skate.

Some examples; goo.gl/0glBU | goo.gl/5GWK6 | goo.gl/HBOhe |g... more »

2013-03-02 02:26:57 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

https://plus.google.com/108487783243149848473/posts/Q1dDA9N6jzn

2013-03-01 21:35:10 (4 comments, 6 reshares, 26 +1s)

Happy Future Day!

Why not celebrate it by taking a look at the website of the long now foundation?
http://longnow.org/ The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996 to creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility. One of their projects is the construction of a monumental mechanical clock in the heart of a mountain that will keep track of time for the next 10,000 years! While you are there, you might also want to check out their long bets section. Warren Buffet's 1,000,000$ bet is certainly intriguing but I am more interested in Mitchell Kapor vs. Ray Kurzweil (20,000$) “By 2029 no computer - or "machine intelligence" - will have passed the Turing Test.” 

We have trouble imagining a world being radically different from today's because we tend to think of global change as happening slowly and linearly. The way wind and water eroderock, so... more »

2013-02-17 17:12:56 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 19 +1s)

Orbital Mechanics - Glass shattered ceiling

Differently colored Glasses can cast a familiar scene in new light, providing a refreshing take on the world we think we know.

Basics of Astronomy: Planetary Orbit

http://www.nowykurier.com/toys/gravity/gravity.html

Worlds: The Kepler Planet Candidates

http://goo.gl/2h3FP

I am short on time so you'll have to construct your own narrative to connect these tasty scraps of info, sound and imagery together. ;)

#ScienceSunday  | +ScienceSunday 

2013-02-03 19:58:51 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

"Have the courage to try. When you find your passion, you're unstoppable."

Google invites you to join Solve For <X>, a place to hear about and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems.

More on +Solve for X and solveforx.com

#innovation   #technology   #science   #moonshot   #SolveForX  +ScienceSunday +Rajini Rao +Kevin Clift +Mark Bruce 

2013-02-03 16:21:17 (4 comments, 12 reshares, 23 +1s)

Crystallization made Crystal Clear

The crystallization process consists of two major events, nucleation and crystal growth. Nucleation is the initial process that forms the site upon which additional particles are deposited during the subsequent crystal growth phase. When solute molecules dispersed in a solvent gather into clusters, they elevate solute concentration in a small region. Normally these clusters redissolve but under the right operating conditions (temperature and supersaturation), they reach a critical size and become stable nuclei. It's this nucleation process that determines the crystal structure, arranging the atoms in a defined and periodic manner. Both nucleation and growth will continue to occur simultaneously while the supersaturation exists. 

Enough talk, now watch NurdRage electrically crystallize metal out of a solution down below! 
So... more »

2013-01-31 00:55:57 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Today's the day! Google Science Fair 2013 has launched! It's your turn to change the world. Make sure you register at http://goo.gl/U8x6Z

2013-01-31 00:20:29 (14 comments, 0 reshares, 16 +1s)

One is the loneliest number. I'm tired of being a party of one. I want community.

Earlier tonight, I found out I am the only individual female scientist on Google+'s suggested people and pages in Science & Nature (there are 10 people, and 30 pages listed). This is a huge honor, but it is also an honor that disturbs me. I've gone through too much of my life as the only girl in class, the only girl at the podium, the only woman on the panel, and sometimes even the only woman in the room. It is time for greater inclusion, and it is up to you to make the difference.

I have to admit, I'm not entirely sure how Google+ comes up with it's suggested users list. As a programmer, I can only presume it is some complicated algorithm that looks at who is talking about what, and who is included on what named lists, and is getting pluses, circles, and shares for using... more »

2013-01-30 22:50:28 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

World Economic Forum wraps up with warnings

“In the worst climate scenario, my kids will live in a world without coral reefs, with acid oceans and with wars fought over water.”
Jim Yong Kim, President of The World Bank, goo.gl/PESVQ

The world economic forum in Davis ended with warnings on the state of our current and future economy, our environment, our shared social and political future, and with a talk from Daniel Kahneman we even got warned not to overestimate our ability to think logically. goo.gl/kjtbJ

The 2013 WEF theme was that of "Resilient Dynamism" and more so than other years, the talks focused on the economic system and how to make it more robust and sustainable. What else did the politicians, economists, and other big academic thinkers who gathered in Davos talk about? You can get an idea of the scope by going through the agenda;goo... more »

2013-01-28 22:27:34 (6 comments, 44 reshares, 26 +1s)

"Do you ever read any of the books you burn?"
He laughed. "That's against the law!" -Fahrenheit 451

The Timbuktu manuscripts have become a casualty of the war in Mali. A large collection of them has been destroyed by Islamist rebels when they burned the Ahmed Baba Institute to the ground. The manuscripts were priceless world heritage and had to do with art, medicine, science, and ironically included multiple old copies of the Quran. 

"The literary heritage of Timbuktu dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries when the gold-rich kingdoms of Mali and Songhai traded across the Sahara with the Mediterranean world. In his Description of Africa, published in 1550, the traveller Leo Africanus marvels that in the bustling markets of Timbuktu, under the towers of its majestic mosques, the richest traders were booksellers.

WhenEu... more »

2013-01-27 18:57:10 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 15 +1s)

The Life and Times of Sea Urchins

We have a thing for echinoderms here on #ScienceSunday , so we were thrilled to see this amazingly beautiful short video shared by +Danielle Leigh - the photography and the science are simply stunning, and the "dedication" of the mothers is extraordinary....

For other sea urchin shares from past #ScienceSundays  check out

+Tommy Leung  Spooky Echinoderms (featuring zombie sea urchins)
http://goo.gl/mCKLT

+Allison Sekuler *Uni Science* (the science of sea urchin sushi)
http://goo.gl/tnKbT

#ScienceSunday   #scisunABS  

2013-01-27 18:18:10 (4 comments, 15 reshares, 14 +1s)

Make up your mind

-Arthur Schopenhauer
"Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills" ... or can he?

Previously I wrote about the brain being mechanistic - goo.gl/qBjLS & how chemicals and life itself change your brain - goo.gl/U3bgN . Today I am writing about our growing capabilities to electrically reprogram the brain.

First off, we have already developed various technologies that interact with the brain. From Cochlear implants[1] that transform sound waves into nerve impulses and similar devices for vision[2], to implants or non invasive electrodes that allow you to control external technology such as robotic appendages[3]. The brain always responds to new input and it shouldn't really surprise that learning to understand these new technologically generated inputs changes the neural structure of your brain. After all, anynew i... more »

2013-01-24 20:59:28 (4 comments, 4 reshares, 25 +1s)

Masai chief showing off his mobile phone; 3G coverage is now quite good across the Rift valley

2013-01-24 16:14:24 (12 comments, 4 reshares, 20 +1s)

Horizon 2020 - FETs

The European Research Council has nominated 5 FETs or Future Emerging Technologies as part of the Horizon 2020 initiative. At the start of 2013, two of these FETs will be granted 1 billion Euros in funding each. 

"FET Flagships are ambitious large-scale, science-driven, research initiatives
that aim to achieve a visionary goal. The scientific advance should provide a 
strong and broad basis for future technological innovation and economic exploitation in a variety of areas, as well as novel benefits for society."

The FuturICT Knowledge Accelerator and Crisis-Relief System 
Unleashing the Power of Information for a Sustainable Future
What if global scale computing facilities were available that could analyse most of the data available in the world? What insights could scientists gain about the way societyfu... more »

2013-01-21 21:18:48 (3 comments, 5 reshares, 24 +1s)

How does the world look through the eyes of neuroscience?

Paul King of the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at UC Berkeley sums up his perspective in 7 points on Quora:

1. Body image is dynamic and flexible. 
2. Perceptual reality is entirely generated by our brain.
3. We see the world in narrow disjoint fragments. 
4. Our behavior is mostly automatic.
5. Our brain can fool itself in really strange ways.
6. Neurons are really slow.
7. Consciousness can be subdivided.

Read the full answer here:
 http://www.quora.com/Neuroscience-1/What-are-some-things-that-neuroscientists-know-but-most-people-dont

Image courtesy of the Laboratory of NeuroImaging at UCLA and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at MGH, Consortium of the Human Connectome Project.

#Science   #quora   #neuroscience   #berkeley  

2013-01-21 17:28:37 (2 comments, 4 reshares, 15 +1s)

Order and Disorder

How and why does energy degrade and fall apart? What is entropy? How did we discover the rules that drive the universe? Do you really understand the Second Law of Thermodynamics?

This is an awesome BBC documentary presented by Professor Jim Al Khalili, devoted to the difficult concept of 'Energy'. I really like this documentary because it refuses to shy away from the difficulty of the topic (my background is not physics, and I hated this stuff when I had to learn it in school :P). How I wish I could have watched this back then! These videos don't seem to stay on YouTube for too long, so make sure to watch this one soon :)

#ScienceSunday

2013-01-20 22:56:15 (2 comments, 6 reshares, 23 +1s)

The brain has a mind of its own

"Important things go in a case. You got a plastic sleeve for your comb, a wallet for your money, and a skull for your brain." -George Costanza (Seinfeld)

Earlier today I wrote about the brain being mechanistic and how a physical change to your brain, changes the way you think. goo.gl/qBjLS - A video demonstrated how a patient was no longer able to keep on counting to 10 when a small electric current was applied to a specific brain area.

Everything you experience; having an accident, falling in love, losing yourself in a piece of music, trying new food... has some effect on brain chemistry. Life wouldn't be life if it didn't, but these changes tend to happen to us, not by choice but through circumstances. What if you yourself had direct control over your brain's operation and could change hardwired responses?... more »

2013-01-20 17:08:21 (6 comments, 6 reshares, 28 +1s)

Something on your mind

First a small warning; this post contains a link to graphic footage so if you are squeamish, you might want to skip this one.

"The human brain is the most complicated organization of matter that we know." -Isaac Asimov in The Three-Pound Universe

Have you ever wondered what goes on inside your head? Not necessarily about what you think, but about how you think? Although the operations of individual brain cells are now understood in considerable detail, the way they cooperate in ensembles is not. It shouldn't be surprising that figuring this out is turning out to be a difficult task... The brain is after all a machine made out of trillions of moving parts that, through the interactions between a 100 billion neurons linked in networks by 100 trillion synapses, generates something as complex as you. Most people don't like tot... more »

2013-01-17 20:31:03 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 27 +1s)

A Martian Odyssey

The HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this absolutely stunning picture of curiosity's road to adventure. Curiosity should reach its destination, Aeolis Mons, sometime this year but it sure is living up to its name... Its curiosity keeps getting the upper hand, and like a kid in a candy store, it hovers from one piece of delicious sciency goodness to the next. Not that anyone's complaining because curiosity is very well behaved and shares all his sweets!

Since it landed in August, the rover has traveled about half a kilometer from its landing site. Along the way, it has scooped dirt, shot its laser beam, and snapped hundreds of amazing pictures. It'll beginning drilling operations shortly so we can all look forward to more amazing science from our little friend on the red planet.
http://... more »

2013-01-17 18:39:51 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)

Sensing Danger.

Here is an incredible video of the recruitment of neutrophils to the site of laser damage!  This video was created using 2-photon microscopy, which I described in a previous +ScienceSunday post (https://plus.google.com/u/0/114146479114949843175/posts/MfY2S2KWSvN).  

"This video shows the immune response in the lymph node of a mouse, when activated by a laser. Specifically, it shows an efficient innate immune reaction in the lymph node, which typically has been studied for the development of adaptive immune response."

This video took first place in the 2012 small world in motion competition.  Make sure to check all the other amazing videos at http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/swim/2012-small-world-in-motion-competition

2012 Nikon Small World in Motion - 1st Place

#ScienceEveryday  (When it's not#Scie... more »

2013-01-17 17:18:52 (4 comments, 16 reshares, 43 +1s)

Armed and dangerous?

APL's Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL) recently made the news when a woman, paralyzed from the neck down, was able to control it with her thoughts. - goo.gl/O4lld

The clip below demonstrates the arm's amazing capabilities. It offers 22 degrees of motion, including independent movement of each finger, in a package that weighs about nine pounds (the weight of a natural limb). Providing nearly as much dexterity as a natural limb, the MPL is capable of unprecedented mechanical agility.

This news, of course, brings a smile to my face as it will help a lot of people, dramatically increasing their quality of life, but it's important to keep in mind that such robotic systems will have other applications as well.
'Iron Man' Actor Clark Gregg Spends a Day With the Raytheon Sarcos XOS 2 Exoskeleton

Right now we have people... more »

2013-01-18 14:38:02 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

I have just put up a short post about a new initiative -- a platform that is due to come online in April -- that will, if successful, make it easy to set up arXiv overlay journals. I think it stands out from other, similar-sounding initiatives because it seems to have serious institutional back-up and funding and is intended specifically for mathematicians (in the first instance at least). I'm keen for its existence to be as widely known as possible, so as to maximize its chances of becoming part of the publishing landscape for mathematicians. It may even double up as a post-publication review site, but many details are yet to be worked out. It is called the Episciences project.

The title of the post is a reference to my previous post, which is called "Why I've joined the bad guys."

2013-01-17 15:14:30 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 15 +1s)

Parrotfish in its protective mucus shield

Several species of parrotfish are known to secrete a protective mucus cocoon around themselves before they go to sleep. This cocoon provides several benefits for the fish as it hides its scent from predators, and acts as an early warning system giving the fish a few precious seconds to escape from a predator  This membrane also keeps the fish clean as parasites and UV light cannot penetrate the membrane. The skin of the membrane may have antioxidant properties in it which could help the fish repair any damage done to it.

(Via: http://goo.gl/wYKer) #scienceeveryday  

2013-01-13 20:35:11 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Smokin' Science Circle
We took the most active profiles in the +Science on Google+: A Public Database and put them into this circle.  Be careful, this circle is smokin' hot! #sciencesunday  

Don't forget to join our new Science Community: http://goo.gl/mTTxX

Database
Search Communities: http://goo.gl/Rvyez
Search Pages: http://goo.gl/WCohT
Search Profiles: http://goo.gl/Yz8KR
Add Profile or Page to Database: http://goo.gl/yEg7M
Add Community to Database: http://goo.gl/zh0xJ

2013-01-13 23:00:46 (11 comments, 23 reshares, 47 +1s)

Quantum physicists demonstrate uncertainty
http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.1069

The attendees of a recent conference on "Quantum Physics and the Nature of Reality" were polled on 16 questions that are central to understanding the nature of the quantum world. The poll was conducted by Anton Zeilinger, a big name in the field of QM, to take a snapshot of the field.

The results demonstrate that even today, almost 90 years after the theory’s initial development, there is still no consensus in the scientific community regarding the interpretation of the theory’s foundational building blocks.

The question “What is your favorite interpretation of quantum mechanics?” had no less than 12 possible answers. The most popular answer was the Copenhagen interpretation with 42 per cent but 18 per cent chose the many-worlds interpretation. 21 per cent admitted tohaving swi... more »

2013-01-13 14:44:34 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 11 +1s)

A New Wave
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
standing waves, 
waves in motion - a wave of emotion
ocean waves, heat waves, shock waves
sound waves, light waves, matter waves... 
gravity waves? waving particles? particling waves?
brain waves - wave power!
The crest of the wave, surf it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

“There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.” -Arthur C. Clarke

Pendulum Waves - goo.gl/5fVZT
Soundwaves in Space - goo.gl/fRlHY .
Kelvin-Helmholtz Waves - goo.gl/dpI6C 
Wave Particle duality (1) - goo.gl/ZNafz
Wave Particle duality (2) - goo.gl/hfRcf

A wave goodbye.

#ScienceSunday  | +ScienceSunday 

2013-01-12 15:41:46 (5 comments, 7 reshares, 21 +1s)

RIP Aaron Swartz

Computer activist Aaron H. Swartz committed suicide in New York City yesterday, Jan. 11. He was 26 years old.

"The accomplished Swartz co-authored the now widely-used RSS 1.0 specification at age 14, was one of the three co-owners of the popular social news site Reddit, and completed a fellowship at Harvard’s Ethics Center Lab on Institutional Corruption. In 2010, he founded DemandProgress.org, a “campaign against the Internet censorship bills SOPA/PIPA.” via http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N61/swartz.html

More recently, he was facing serious charges from the Justice Department for downloading millions of academic articles from JSTOR. More in this post: http://goo.gl/O8WXr

Read the transcript of his inspiring talk: https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget
H/T +Marian Wirth 

#ScienceSunday   #SciSunRR  

2013-01-12 15:31:38 (3 comments, 27 reshares, 31 +1s)

Are certain proteins acting like quantum repeaters?
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/jan/11/proteins-boost-quantum-coherence-in-bacteria

A new theory of how plant photosynthesis involves quantum coherence has been suggested by physicists in the UK, Germany and Spain. This latest research is based on the study of organisms that live deep under the sea yet are able to convert sunlight into energy. The study suggests that molecular vibrations do not destroy the coherence – as previously thought – but rather perpetuate and even regenerate coherence. The discovery could lead to a better understanding how plants achieve as high as 99% efficiency in converting sunlight to energy, as well as the possibility of using nature-inspired designs in quantum devices.

When sunlight hits the surface of the plant, energy is transferred via chains of pigments to a reactioncen... more »

2013-01-11 21:11:25 (16 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

Your favorite flicks of 2012

Would you be so kind as to share your favorite films of 2012 with me? While you are at it, why don't you give me a rundown of the movies you are most looking forward to see in 2013? 

Top 10 2012
1. Moonrise Kingdom - goo.gl/jyHHq
2. Shame - goo.gl/gife3
3. Prometheus - goo.gl/9foD
4. Take Shelter - goo.gl/fjTM3
5. Dans La Maison - goo.gl/ma0UJ
6. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - goo.gl/BmMZ
7. Argo - goo.gl/xamtK
8. The Avengers - goo.gl/7Nay
9. The Dark Knight Rises - goo.gl/yW61
10. Jagten - goo.gl/SK7Yq

Note: Most of the oscar contenders have yet to hit theaters here so that's why you won't find heavy hitters like; The Master, Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln or Cloud Atlas on this list.

Top 10 most anticipated 2013 
1. Gravity- go... more »