A striking galaxy buzzing with energetic star formation takes center stage in a new photograph that showcases an unusual "superwind" of out-flowing gas, researchers say.
The starburst galaxy NGC 4666, located about 80 million light-years away from Earth, is a hotbed of intense star formation, which is thought to be caused by gravitational interactions between NGC 4666 and its neighboring galaxies, one of which is visible in the lower left of the new photo.
"Some of the most elegant cars of this class, and which are of a capacity to accommodate from sixty to eighty passengers, and run with a steadiness hardly equalled by a steamboat in still water, are manufactured by Davenport & Bridges, at their establishment in Cambridgeport, Mass."
Seventy years ago, in 1940, a popular science magazine published a short article that set in motion one of the trendiest intellectual fads of the 20th century.
Sure, the speech-thought debate is usually relegated to the land of linguistics, neuroscience, anthropology, and dense Continental philosophy (who doesn’t love to curl up with some Derrida tome after a long day at work?), but the question is more than a mere intellectual fad. This example highlights the “everydayness” of this question:
Suppose I say to you in English that “I spent yesterday evening with a neighbor.” You may well wonder whether my companion was male or female, but I have the right to tell you politely that it’s none of your business. But if we were speaking French or German, I wouldn’t have the privilege to equivocate in this way, because I would be obliged by the grammar of language to choose between voisin or voisine; Nachbar or Nachbarin. These languages compel me to inform you about the sex of my companion whether or not I feel it is remotely your concern.
"...if different languages influence our minds in different ways, this is not because of what our language allows us to think but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about."
And it talks about geographic language for 2-3 pages, which is an interesting topic but can be explained in fewer words.
I thought this article was concise, well-written and inspiring.
"We are social animals; we crave connection and community; we crave a wide, encompassing identity that connects us with all of humanity – not just our friends and family, not just our city, our country, our species – but every living being on Earth: plant, animal, human."
It is similar to Jung's idea of the collective unconscious but also acknowledges our society's tendency to be selfish.
I skimmed the comments and saw this gem: "How many times have you watched Avatar?"
Just another reason why women should be taking birth control....
Scientists from Austria's Salzburg University took high resolution images of the brains of 14 men and 28 women, half of whom were on the pill and found that women on the pill had about 3 per cent increase in brain size relative to women not on the pill. Enlarged neural areas included the brain's "conservation hub" and areas essential to memory and social skills.
New York Times article by May Berenbaum on the resurgence of bedbugs in North America. Berenbaum searches for something positive to say about the little bastards and ends up stretching amusingly far.
Maryn McKenna returned from India with an unpleasant surprise - whooping cough. Here she blogs about how the protective effects of childhood vaccines decay over years, as well as some unsettling info about how whooping cough has recently seen a resurgence. The cause? Apparently nothing but our own refusal to self-vaccinate.
From her blog post: "The worst news in this upsetting trend is this: We're doing it to ourselves. As far as anyone can tell, the rise in pertussis is not due to any change in the organism, or to any mysterious error among the manufacturers who make pertussis vaccines. It's due to vaccine refusal, to parents turning away from vaccines because they think the vaccines are more harmful than the diseases they prevent — or, more selfishly, because they think the wall of immunity created by other vaccinated children will protect their unimmunized ones."
A group of scientists led by Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth in Hampshire, U.K. studied videos of gorillas in various zoos and reserves in order to achieve a better understanding of certain social behaviours in a natural setting.
The group noticed that during routine games of 'tag', the gorillas low on the social hierarchy tended to initiate the game more often, leading the team to believe they use it as a form of 'ego boost'.
I can remember trying to tackle my dad and older cousins as a puny kid, perhaps due to the same underlying behavioural mechanisms.
The gorilla report will be published in Biology Letters online.
Great article by science writer Jonah Lehrer on intrinsic motivation; which gives insight on how our way of thinking about our own reasons for accomplishing a task can dramatically change our motivation and likelyhood that we will actually succeed.
Yet another breakthrough in chicken genetic research has revealed that the mammalian X chromosome and it's chicken counterpart, the Z chromosome, have some very similar characteristics despite having evolved independently.
As we know, female mammals have two X chromosomes whereas males have one X and one Y. Chicken females on the other hand, have a Z and a W chromosome where males have a set of Z's.
All this is relevant because the X and Z chromosome was previously thought to be an unchanging genetic 'fossil' where the Y or W chromosome was the more recent evolutionary novelty.
However, the results from this study published in Nature seems to indicate that the evolutionary force surrounding sperm production in both species resulted in the independent evolution of similarly functioning sex chromosomes, which both differ from that of our common evolutionary ancestors.
Despite this incredible finding, human/chicken copulation remains illegal in most states.
The paper was published as a collaboration between MIT and Washington University.
The New London Chamber Choir are to perform a piece "Allele" on July 13th in which the members of the choir will each sing their own genetic code.
The piece is the result of a collaboration between scientist Andrew Morley and composer Michael Zev Gordon. The inspiration came from a yet-to-be-published experiment designed by Morley wherein the choir members had their DNA sequenced to see if great singers can be distinguished from other members of society on a genetic level.
The genetic codes were then translated into sheet music and make up the basis of the choir piece.
A group of scientists at the University of California Los Angeles used fMRI scans on healthy participants while they were receiving information about the benefits of sunscreen. The participants were then asked if they would use sunscreen over the following week.
The team found that the fMRI data could predict sunscreen use for about three quarters of the participants, which turned out to be a better predictor then the participants own estimates (about half of the subjects correctly predicted they would use sunscreen.)
Just more evidence supporting the theory that we humans kind of suck at knowing what we think.
In the global race to reduce carbon emissions, these eco-minded communities, from Kansas to the Maldives, lead the pack. Click on the article to see how they’re making their carbon footprints disappear.
A Scientific American article describes Canada's initiatives to phase out old coal plants in order to expedite a move towards natural gas fired plants.
The new standards shed a positive light on a Canadian Conservative government that is regularly criticized by environmental groups for not doing enough towards sustainability and green living.
From the article: "Still the measures, expected to reduce emissions by 15 megatonnes -- the equivalent of taking 3.2 million vehicles off the road -- received some support from the green sector."
It seems we humans are not the only species concerned about our diet. Scientists studied the fish consumption of short-beaked common dolphins in the Atlantic, and discovered that they actively seek out the highest energy species of prey, down to the highest kilo-Joule per gram. This comes in contrast to what we know about larger cold blooded species of aquatic predators; who prey primarily on whatever prey is most abundant in their surrounding environment.
This story is about a battle in the art of guessing what's going to happen in the future. Some do it for fun while other for career. In this instance it's for bragging right. So whose gonna come out the better physic the monkey, the boy, or the acclaimed author and writer Dr. William.
A guy by the name of Dr. William Gray can supposedly look into his crystal ball and predict the number of storms we'll get. So this guy Scott Maxwell got to thinking it would be interesting to get a couple of monkeys from the Sanford zoo, his then-4-year-old son, and the Great Gray to make predictions. The monkeys beat Gray and his preschooler in a couple of categories. But Gray won the tie-breaker.
I suppose this might mean one of two things, either Gary is in fact a little psychic or perhaps the monkey and Dr. Gary are both using the same medium who apparently is not very good to begin with. Off by a whooping 130 percent.
If this story excites as it did me then I urge you to check out Scott's latest tournament between the same monkey, his daughter, and a local physic in their predictions for 2010.
SUPERWIND!
We are soft-wired NOT for aggression, violence, self-interest & utilitarianism but for empathy, sociability, attachment, affection & companionship. 
Scientific American is celebrating 165 years in print! To celebrate, they have made their very first issue available as a pdf. They have also 
Seventy years ago, in 1940, a popular science magazine published a short article that set in motion one of the trendiest intellectual fads of the 20th century.
Research shows that plants are releasing chemicals to attract predators of animals/insects that are feasting on their leaves. 
Just another reason why women should be taking birth control....
New York Times article by May Berenbaum on the resurgence of bedbugs in North America. Berenbaum searches for something positive to say about the little bastards and ends up stretching amusingly far.
Maryn McKenna returned from India with an unpleasant surprise - whooping cough. Here she blogs about how the protective effects of childhood vaccines decay over years, as well as some unsettling info about how whooping cough has recently seen a resurgence. The cause? Apparently nothing but our own refusal to self-vaccinate. 
Great article by science writer Jonah Lehrer on intrinsic motivation; which gives insight on how our way of thinking about our own reasons for accomplishing a task can dramatically change our motivation and likelyhood that we will actually succeed.
Yet another breakthrough in chicken genetic research has revealed that the mammalian X chromosome and it's chicken counterpart, the Z chromosome, have some very similar characteristics despite having evolved independently. 
The New London Chamber Choir are to perform a piece "Allele" on July 13th in which the members of the choir will each sing their own genetic code. 
Ladies and gentlemen I present the sounds of the Large Hadron Collider.
A group of scientists at the University of California Los Angeles used fMRI scans on healthy participants while they were receiving information about the benefits of sunscreen. The participants were then asked if they would use sunscreen over the following week.
In the global race to reduce carbon emissions, these eco-minded communities, from Kansas to the Maldives, lead the pack. Click on the article to see how they’re making their carbon footprints disappear.
A Scientific American article describes Canada's initiatives to phase out old coal plants in order to expedite a move towards natural gas fired plants. 
It seems we humans are not the only species concerned about our diet. Scientists studied the fish consumption of short-beaked common dolphins in the Atlantic, and discovered that they actively seek out the highest energy species of prey, down to the highest kilo-Joule per gram. This comes in contrast to what we know about larger cold blooded species of aquatic predators; who prey primarily on whatever prey is most abundant in their surrounding environment.
This story is about a battle in the art of guessing what's going to happen in the future. Some do it for fun while other for career. In this instance it's for bragging right. So whose gonna come out the better physic the monkey, the boy, or the acclaimed author and writer Dr. William. 
I can't stop giggling.
