Category Archives: Science
Brain Science Podcasts: MRI Scans Now Reveal “Thoughts And Feelings” (60 Minutes)
Who among us hasn’t wished we could read someone else’s mind, know exactly what they’re thinking? Well that’s impossible, of course, since our thoughts are, more than anything else, our own. Private, personal, unreachable. Or at least that’s what we’ve always, well, thought.
Advances in neuroscience have shown that, on a physical level, our thoughts are actually a vast network of neurons firing all across our brains. So if that brain activity could be identified and analyzed, could our thoughts be decoded? Could our minds be read? Well, a team of scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh has spent more than a decade trying to do just that. We started our reporting on their work 10 years ago, and what they’ve discovered since, has drawn us back.
To read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/functional-magnetic-resonance-imaging-computer-analysis-read-thoughts-60-minutes-2019-11-24/
Top Science Podcasts: Tracking Landslides In Taiwan, The Universality Of Music (ScienceMag)
You may have seen the aftermath of a landslide, driving along a twisty mountain road—a scattering of rocks and scree impinging on the pavement. And up until now, that’s pretty much how scientists have tracked landslides—roadside observations and spotty satellite images. Now, researchers are hoping to track landslides systematically by instrumenting an entire national park in Taiwan. The park is riddled with landslides—so much so that visitors wear helmets. Host Sarah Crespi talks with one of those visitors—freelance science journalist Katherine Kornei—about what we can learn from landslides.
In a second rocking segment, Sarah also talks with Manvir Singh about the universality of music. His team asked the big questions in a Science paper out this week: Do all societies make music? What are the common elements that can be picked out from songs worldwide? Sarah and Manvir listen to songs and talk about what love ballads and lullabies have in common, regardless of their culture of origin.
To read more: https://www.sciencemag.org/podcast/building-landslide-observatory-and-universality-music
Profiles: Stanford Physicist Robert Byer, 77, Helped Develop “Most Stable Laser In The World”
From a Stanford University News article:
Byer also helped develop the quietest, most stable laser in the world, called the diode-pumped YAG laser. YAG lasers are today found in everything from communications satellites to green handheld laser pointers, which Byer co-developed with two of his graduate students and cites as one of his favorite inventions (he had joined Stanford in 1969). YAG lasers also form the main beams of the gravitational wave-detecting instrument, LIGO, which in 2015 achieved the most precise measurement ever made by humans when its antenna detected the tenuous spacetime fluctuations generated by two colliding black holes 1.3 billion light-years away.
Robert Byer was 22 years old when he first saw the light that changed his life.
One summer morning in 1964, Byer drove the hour from Berkeley down to Mountain View for a job interview at a California company called Spectra Physics. He walked in to find an empty lobby but could hear clapping and cheering in the back of the building. After politely waiting for several minutes, he followed the commotion to a darkened room filled with men whose jubilant faces were illuminated by a rod of red-orange light that seemed to float above an instrument-strewn table
To read more: https://news.stanford.edu/2019/11/19/life-changing-first-glimpse-laser/
Engineering In Nature: “Honeybees Use Their Wings For Water Surface Locomotion” (Caltech)
From a Caltech online article:
When a bee lands on water, the water sticks to its wings, robbing it of the ability to fly. However, that stickiness allows the bee to drag water, creating waves that propel it forward. In the lab, Roh and Gharib noted that the generated wave pattern is symmetrical from left to right. A strong, large-amplitude wave with an interference pattern is generated in the water at the rear of the bee, while the surface in front of the bee lacks the large wave and interference. This asymmetry propels the bees forward with the slightest of force—about 20 millionths of a Newton.
Walking on Caltech’s campus, research engineer Chris Roh (MS ’13, PhD ’17) happened to see a bee stuck in the water of Millikan Pond. Although it was a common-enough sight, it led Roh and his advisor, Mory Gharib (PhD ’83), to a discovery about the potentially unique way that bees navigate the interface between water and air.
To read more: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/bees-surf-atop-water
Aging: “Healthy Longevity Global Grand Challenge” Offers $30 Million For “Audacious Proposals”
From a Harvard Gazette online article:
The Grand Challenge Prize is looking for bold, audacious innovations, ideas that can really change aging. We’re looking in science, in technology and engineering, in policy, social sciences, behavioral sciences, economic policy, in traditional medical science and health care, and in work focused on specific diseases. It’s really very broad. We’re looking for innovative thinking that can have global impact. The prizes are going to roll out on three levels. There will be 450 Catalyst Prizes awarded over a three-year period. The first of the three yearly calls will be in January 2020. Once it’s announced, there will be six weeks to submit your idea — just the idea, it doesn’t require any pilot work — and a two-page application. They’ll be reviewed within four months and prizes announced by July. The Catalyst Award is intended as seed funding to get the idea into its earliest stages of development. They’re relatively small in dollar amount, about $50,000 each, but they will give access to an annual meeting bringing together world experts in these fields.
The world’s aging population means there will be an increasing number of older and sicker people at a time when declining fertility will saddle a smaller working population with the burden of supporting them. One solution is to keep people healthier longer, living independently, and contributing to society. In pursuit of that goal, the National Academy of Medicine is mounting a $30 million Grand Challenge contest to foster innovation in science, medicine, public policy, the workplace, and elsewhere. Sharon Inouye, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and head of the Aging Brain Center at Harvard-affiliated Hebrew Senior Life, is a National Academy member and a member of the planning committee for the Grand Challenge for Healthy Longevity. She spoke to the Gazette about the contest and how she hopes it changes the nature of aging in the decades to come.
To read more: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/11/grand-challenge-encourages-innovation-in-aging/
Insites Into Neuroscience: “EEG – A Mental Map” Infographic (IMotions)
Knowing how someone thinks is crucial to understanding their behavior. With EEG (electroencephalography), you can get access to this hidden world, and reveal what’s really going on in someone’s mind. EEG offers many advantages, but it can be tricky to get your head around in the beginning. This infographic from iMotions is designed to give you a head start to this powerful technology.
Top Science Podcasts: A New Antibiotic From Nematodes, “Grants” Thru Lotteries (Nature)
Benjamin Thompson brings you the latest science news. This week, an antibiotic that targets difficult to treat bacteria, and a roundup of the latest science news.
In this episode:
00:49 Discovering darobactin
Researchers looked inside nematode guts and have identified a new antibiotic with some useful properties. Research Article: Imai et al.
05:45 Research Highlights
Using urine as a health metric, and sniffing out book decay with an electronic nose. Research Article: Miller et al.; Research Article: Veríssimo et al.
07:54 News Chat
Adding an element of chance to grant funding, a continental butterfly-sequencing project, and tracking endangered animals via traces of their DNA. News: Science funders gamble on grant lotteries; News: Every butterfly in the United States and Canada now has a genome sequence; News: Rare bird’s detection highlights promise of ‘environmental DNA’
To read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03588-z
Top Science Podcasts: Researchers “Locked In Arctic Ice Flow”, “Spikes Of Plasma” Heating The Sun’s Corona (ScienceMag)
The Polarstern research vessel will spend 1 year locked in an Arctic ice floe. Aboard the ship and on the nearby ice, researchers will take measurements of the ice, air, water, and more in an effort to understand this pristine place. Science journalist Shannon Hall joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about her time aboard the Polarstern and how difficult these measurements are, when the researchers’ temporary Arctic home is the noisiest, smokiest, brightest thing around.
After that icy start, Sarah talks also with Tanmoy Samanta, a postdoctoral researcher at Peking University in Beijing, about the source of the extreme temperature of the Sun’s corona, which can be up to 1 million K hotter than the surface of the Sun. His team’s careful measurements of spicules—small, plentiful, short-lived spikes of plasma that constantly ruffle the Sun’s surface—and the magnetic networks that seem to generate these spikes, suggest a solution to the long-standing problem of how spicules arise and, at the same time, their likely role in the heating of the corona.
To read more: https://www.sciencemag.org/podcast/how-make-arctic-ship-vanish-and-how-fast-moving-spikes-are-heating-sun-s-atmosphere
Top New Science Podcasts: 3D Printer Advances, Gut Microbes Linked To Liver Disease (Nature Magazine)
Hear this week’s science news, with Nick Howe and Shamini Bundell. This week, a new 3D printer allows quick shifting between many materials, and understanding the link between gut microbes and liver disease.
In this episode:
00:46 A new dimension for 3D printers
A new nozzle lets a 3D printer switch between materials at a rapid rate, opening the door to a range of applications. Research Article: Skylar-Scott et al.; News and Views: How to print multi-material devices in one go
08:07 Research Highlights
The slippery secrets of ice, and cells wrapping up their nuclei. Research Highlight: Viscous water holds the secret to an ice skater’s smooth glide; Research Highlight: Super-thin layer of ‘bubble wrap’ cushions a cell’s nucleus
10:17 Linking bacteria to liver disease
Researchers have isolated a bacterial strain that appears to play an important role in alcoholic liver disease. Research paper: Duan et al.; News and Views: Microbial clues to a liver disease
17:10 News Chat
‘Megaconstellations’ of satellites concern astronomers, and a report on the gender gap in chemistry. News: SpaceX launch highlights threat to astronomy from ‘megaconstellations’; News: Huge study documents gender gap in chemistry publishing
Boomers Daily 