News Articles

Several media outlets reported last week that Omega-3 fish oil supplements fail to show positive results for Alzheimer's patients, based on the study Docosahexaenoic Acid Supplementation and Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer Disease: A Randomized Trial in JAMA.
The researchers reported that supplementation with DHA compared with placebo did not slow cognitive and functional decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease. 

Saturn emitted less energy each year from 2005 to 2009, according to observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, but Saturn's southern hemisphere consistently emitted more energy than its northern one and those energy levels changed with the seasons.That Saturn actually emits more than twice the energy it absorbs from the sun has been a science puzzle for decades but long-term data from the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS), when combined with information about the energy coming to Saturn from the sun, could help scientists understand the nature of Saturn's internal heat source. 

Because society demanded to know, researchers have discovered which species has the largest testicles in relation to body weight on the planet – and it's Tuberous Bush Cricket (Platycleis affinis) which has testes which are 14% of the male body mass.Don't feel bad, Drosophila bifurca, your testes equal to 10.6% is still mighty.  Just in second place now.What's the reason for that?  More sperm, it would seem, but the researchers say that isn't the case, which proves once again that Nature is a bitch (and also a fine magazine, though this study was in Biology Letters.)

If you've been to a hospital to see a newborn you've likely been assaulted by a number of sprays and soaps before even getting near the little critter.   You'd have to wonder how you ever survived as a child without antibacterial soaps, wipes and special clothing.

Gradual evolution is not supported by geological history, writes New York University geologist Michael Rampino, who prefers the hypothesis that long periods of evolutionary stability were disrupted by catastrophic mass extinctions of life.  Not surprisingly, he studies volcano eruptions and asteroid impacts.

When we discuss Foucault on a science site, we mean French physicist Léon Foucault and not that annoying prat of a post-modernist, Michel Foucault.   You know who Léon Foucault  is if you have been to a science museum in the last 150 years because you saw a Foucault pendulum - a simple way of observing the Earth's rotation. 

Is obesity contagious?   A Harvard groups says it is and that it is spreading via social networks.   If so, America's obesity epidemic won't plateau until at least 42 percent of adults are obese, according to their estimate derived by applying mathematical modeling to 40 years of Framingham Heart Study data.Their work is contrary to recent assertions by some experts that the obesity rate has peaked at around 34 percent.  34 percent more American adults are overweight but not obese, according to the federal government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.  The Harvard group say their modeling shows that the proliferation of obesity among American adults in recent decades owes in large part to its accelerating spread via social networks.

If you are reading this site, you already know "Battlestar Galactica" is the greatest science-fiction show of all time.  Yes, yes, "Farscape" was terrific and "Star Trek" set the standard but Battlestar Galactica as number one brooks no argument.   The only thing that could make it better is being able to play as part of a  Battlestar Galactica MMORPG universe.
Bigpoint has announced today the successful launch of the first phase of its Battlestar Galactica Online closed beta. The initial phase granted hand-selected players from Europe and the United States the opportunity to experience one of the most ambitious browser-games ever developed. 

Can plasma be beautiful?   Surely, anything can, but physicists are luckier than most because when they probe the mysteries of plasma, the fourth state of matter, they often discover phenomena of striking beauty. Plasmas support a large variety of waves, some familiar to all such as light and sound waves, but a great many exist nowhere else and one of the fundamental waves in magnetized plasma is the shear Alfvén wave, named after Nobel Prize winning scientist Hannes Alfvén, who predicted their existence.

The big knock on huge wind or solar farms in developed countries is whose back yard the new power lines will run through.   Off-shore wind farms or solar farms in remote deserts may be a solution to that but current methods of transmission are unsuitable - at long distances, alternating current will have as much as 40% loss and while direct current will only lose about 7%, it means huge converter stations are essential before the power can reach homes.High-voltage direct-current transmission (HVDCT) could be made more achievable using low-cost semiconductor cells, the focus of research at Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB in Erlangen.

Voter turnout was huge in 2008 - some of that was due to advertising; since Sen. Obama did not limit adhere to campaign finance reform rules the way Sen. McCain did, Obama was able to raise and spend more money than Bush and Kerry did in 2004 combined, spending twice as much as his opponent.    But a large part of that was message also, and it led to 64% of eligible voters showing up, the highest turnout since the 1960s.

Know why vegetarians are so angry?  They don't eat meat, it seems.  So this Thanksgiving, grab the turkey leg and tear off a hunk of flesh with your teeth and rationalize that evolutionary psychology thinks it made your cavemen ancestors nicer people.