Beer in space

Beer in space: A short but frothy history - space - 31 July 2007 - New Scientist Space

13:50 31 July 2007 * NewScientist.com news service * Anna Davison Bubbles of carbon dioxide are not buoyant in space, producing foam throughout the liquid, as shown in this image of a drop of Coca-Cola taken on a space shuttle in 1985 (Image: NASA) Enlarge image Bubbles of carbon dioxide are not buoyant in space, producing foam throughout the liquid, as shown in this image of a drop of Coca-Cola taken on a space shuttle in 1985 (Image: NASA) Kirsten Sterrett used a Kirsten Sterrett used a "Fluid Processing Apparatus" to ferment beer on a space shuttle (Image: NASA) After allegations that astronauts flew drunk, NASA's rules on alcohol are under scrutiny. The agency currently doesn't allow its astronauts to imbibe in orbit, but over the years of crewed space travel, many astronauts have enjoyed a tipple. In 1969, Buzz Aldrin took communion after landing on the Moon, sipping wine from a small chalice. In the Moon's feeble gravity, he later wrote, the wine swirled like syrup around the cup. Small amounts of alcohol were apparently allowed on the Soviet space station Mir, and when Russian astronauts joined the International Space Station, there were some grumblings about the decree that it be dry. That hasn't stopped some researchers from working on ways to brew and serve alcohol in space, however. Graduate student Kirsten Sterrett at the University of Colorado in the US wrote a thesis on fermentation in space, with support from US beer behemoth Coors. She sent a miniature brewing kit into orbit aboard a space shuttle several years ago and produced a few sips of beer. She later sampled the space brew, but because of chemicals in and near it from her analysis, it didn't taste great by the time she tried it. Beyond the challenge of producing beer in space is the problem of serving it, says Jonathan Clark, a former flight surgeon and now the space medicine liaison for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute in Houston, Texas, US. Without gravity, bubbles don't rise, so "obviously the foam isn't going to come to a head", Clark told New Scientist. The answer, Dutch researchers suggested in 2000, is to store beer in a flexible membrane inside a barrel. Air can be pumped between the barrel and the membrane, forcing the beer out of a tap. Astronauts could then use straws to suck up blobs of beer (see Beer balls). Wet burps Unfortunately for thirsty astronauts, beer is poorly suited to space consumption because of the gas it includes. Without gravity to draw liquids to the bottoms of their stomachs, leaving gases at the top, astronauts tend to produce wet burps. "That's one of the reasons why we don't have carbonated beverages on the space menu," NASA spokesperson William Jeffs told New Scientist. Jeffs says no research has been done on the effects of alcohol in a microgravity environment. But he says: "There may be differences in alcohol absorption and metabolism in space, which makes one suspect that there may be differences in the effects of alcohol in space." Clark says medications sometimes have unusual effects in space, which "run the gamut from increased to decreased reactions". So, should astronauts be allowed to drink in space? "It depends on the length of the mission and any cultural norms," says Jay Buckey, a former astronaut who studies space physiology at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, US. "Mine was a very short mission," says Buckey, who spent 16 days aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1998. "I didn't see any need for it."

Why do people have sex?

Why do people have sex? Researchers explore 237 reasons

Many scientists assume people have sex for simple and straightforward reasons such as to experience sexual pleasure or to reproduce, but new research at The University of Texas at Austin reveals hundreds of varied and complex motivations that range from the spiritual to the vengeful.

After conducting one of the most comprehensive studies on why people have sex, psychology researchers David Buss and Cindy Meston uncovered 237 motivations, which appear in the August issue of Archives of Sexual Behavior.

People’s motivations ranged from the mundane (“I was bored”) to the spiritual (“I wanted to feel closer to God”) and from the altruistic (“I wanted the person to feel good about himself/herself”) to the manipulative (“I wanted to get a promotion”).

Some said they had sex to feel powerful, others to debase themselves. Some wanted to impress their friends, others to harm their enemies (“I wanted to break up a rival’s relationship”).

Buss and Meston conducted two studies. In the first, they asked more than 400 men and women to identify reasons people have sex. In the second, the researchers asked more than 1,500 undergraduate students about their experiences and attitudes.

The Texas psychologists identified four major factors and 13 sub-factors for why people have sex:

-- Physical reasons such as to reduce stress (“It seemed like good exercise”), feel pleasure (“It’s exciting”), improve or expand experiences (“I was curious about sex”), and the physical desirability of their partner (“The person was a good dancer”).

-- Goal-based reasons, including utilitarian or practical considerations (“I wanted to have a baby”), social status (“I wanted to be popular”) and revenge (“I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease”).

-- Emotional reasons such as love and commitment (“I wanted to feel connected”) and expression (“I wanted to say ‘thank you’”).

-- Insecurity-based reasons, including self-esteem (“I wanted the attention”), a feeling of duty or pressure (“My partner kept insisting”) and to guard a mate (“I wanted to keep my partner from straying”).

“Why people have sex is extremely important, but rarely studied,” Buss said. “Surprisingly, many scientists assume the answer is obvious, but people have different reasons for having sex, some of which are rather complex.”

Source: University of Texas at Austin




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Breaking the Code of Dyslexia

Breaking the Code of Dyslexia


Author:

Karen Barrow

Medical reviewer:


Medically Reviewed On: March 09, 2006


Published on: March 09, 2006


Imagine trying to read a book in a foreign language. You know that the symbols and marks on the page must mean something, but no matter how hard you try to sound them out, you can't put the pieces together into understandable words.

That's what it feels like to have dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a learning disorder characterized by difficulties in reading, writing and spelling. It is genetic in nature, affecting how one's brain processes written language and even how it stores information for short-term work. Quite often, the people it affects are intelligent, but they have trouble learning in a world that they cannot understand as efficiently as everyone else.

"People with dyslexia have told me over and over that they feel like they have to exert more mental effort than others do with written language," says Dr. Virginia Berninger, director of the University of Washington's Learning Disabilities Center.

Making matters worse, this language barrier prevents effective written communication. For example, a child with dyslexia may be able to tell wonderful stories, but when it comes to writing them down, he's at a loss: letters become inverted, spelling is all wrong and it becomes so frustrating he just gives up.

This inability to communicate in writing effectively can impact many areas of education, not just English class, leaving many parents and teachers perplexed at why a child can seem so bright in some subjects but not be able to spell a simple word.

"Most people think dyslexia is a reading disorder, but it is also a spelling and writing problem," says Berninger.

Making Sense of Nonsense
It is estimated that 10 percent of the population is affected to some degree by dyslexia, which affects boys and girls equally. The first, most noticeable signs of dyslexia, according to Berninger, are a difficulty naming letters and attaching sounds to those letters.

The Dyslexia Institute also notes that delayed speaking as a baby, difficulty performing tasks in sequence and lack of concentration during reading lessons may also signal a learning disorder. These children may display a proficiency in other subjects, like math or art, making their deficiencies in language all the more pronounced.

"Usually, the parent just knows that something is wrong," says Berninger.

In the United States, most children with dyslexia are placed in special education classes where reading problems are addressed in small groups or one-on-one sessions. Special education classes that cater to the dyslexic mind help. In fact, the International Dyslexia Association reports that if children with dyslexia get special training by kindergarten or first grade, they have few problems learning to read at grade level.

However, this emphasizes the point that early intervention for children with dyslexia is crucial. One study estimates that almost 74 percent of children who cannot read at grade level by the third grade will continue to have reading problems throughout their lives.

Lessons for children with dyslexia should emphasize the ability to visualize letter sequences in words. This includes learning with letter blocks instead of writing. The Dyslexia Institute also recommends that teachers help students who are dyslexic by keeping board work organized, giving children plenty of time to copy notes or even handing out photocopied notes at the end of each lesson. This last suggestion especially helps those who have extra trouble with their working memory, says Berninger.

"In a classroom situation, these children understand what the teacher says, but by the time they go to write it down, they have forgotten it," she says.

However, according to Berninger, one of the biggest problems with current educational goals for dyslexia is that they ignore the importance of spelling to a child's future education. Often, she says, children with dyslexia are dismissed from special education classes once they have learned how to read, but spelling problems linger.

"Children who cannot spell cannot express their ideas in writing," she says. "And dyslexics know they have a problem with spelling. It's embarrassing."

Putting Words Together
In a recent study, Berninger looked at how spelling lessons that cater to the dyslexic mind may be able to change the way the dyslexic brain works.

Comparing the brain activity of 40 children between the ages of 9 and 12, Berninger noted that MRI images of the brains of children with dyslexia completing a spelling task differed greatly from the images from normal children doing the same task. She then gave the children with dyslexia a series of spelling lessons, which emphasized picturing words in their head and spelling words backwards to help them focus on letter sequences in written words.

At the end of the lessons, the children with dyslexia were again asked to complete the spelling task. This time, the MRI images more closely matched those of their normal peers, showing, according to Berninger, that proper education can help to reshape the brain of dyslexics.

"Our research is telling us good spellers are taught, not born, as is often assumed," says Berninger.

Berninger says that other common teaching methods for dyslexia also help to "normalize" brain function. She hopes that her work can help to enforce the idea that dyslexia is not a handicap. With early intervention and good training, all people with dyslexia can learn how to adapt.

"We always find that these kids improve," she says. "Just because you have dyslexia, it doesn't mean that you cannot learn."

©2007 Healthology, Inc.

So they say...

Man with a small brain shows that size isn't everything!

French doctors have discovered a man who led a normal life yet his brain was considerably smaller than normal.

It seems as a result of hydrocephalus as a baby, the 44 year old man unknowingly had an excess of fluid in his brain but lived a normal life, is a married father of two with a government job.

The man went to a hospital in Marseille, France, because his left leg had been weak for two weeks and doctors learned he had had hydrocephaly as a baby which is the abnormal buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain.

Apparently when he was 6 months old, doctors inserted a shunt to drain away the excess fluid but when he reached age 14, he had leg and balance problems which were resolved when doctors revised his brain shunt.

However when the 44-year-old man's brain was scanned, it showed that a huge fluid-filled chamber took up most of his skull leaving room for only a thin sheet of actual brain tissue.

The scans revealed a "massive enlargement" of the lateral ventricles - chambers which are usually small in size, that hold the fluid that acts as a cushion for the brain; the revelation shocked the doctors.

Dr. Lionel Feuillet, MD, of the neurology department at Marseille's Université de la Mediterranée says apart from that the man's medical history was otherwise normal despite having an unusually small brain and low IQ scores due to the hydrocephaly.

The 44-year-old man's leg problems were again resolved by inserting a brain shunt but that did not alter either his brain size or his IQ scores.

His doctors say though the man is not a typical hydrocephaly patient their report shows that high-tech brain scans and IQ tests do not always tell the full story, and that an "average" life may actually be astounding.

Experts say it shows how amazing the brain is in that it can deal with something which is not considered to be compatible with life and they suggest that when something happens very slowly over a period of time, different parts of the brain assume functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side.

The ol' Shifty Eye Treatment

Mind Hacks: Shifting eye therapy sucessfully treats trauma

« Photographing delusions | Main
July 15, 2007
Shifting eye therapy sucessfully treats trauma:

A recent study has found that EMDR, a once suspect therapy that involves recalling traumatic memories while moving your eyes, is one of the most effective treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It's a type of psychotherapy that, among other things, involves thinking about the traumatic event while attending to bodily reactions and moving your eyes left and right, usually following a light or the therapist's finger.

It sounds bizarre and caused a great deal of suspicion when it first emerged, largely it was pretty much just 'thought up' by Dr Francine Shapiro and no-one really knows quite how it works.

However, several studies have found it to be one of the most effective treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, and this new study, one of best to date, has repeated the finding.

This new study, led by Dutch psychiatrist Dr Bessel van der Kolk, compared EMDR, with SSRI drug fluoxetine (aka Prozac) and a pill placebo in a group of patients diagnosed with PTSD.

After the eight week treatment block, fluoextine and EMDR were equally effective,

However, six months later, 75% who had been traumatised in adulthood and were treated with EMDR reported having no symptoms. For people traumatised during childhood, a third treated by EMDR were symptom free by the same point.

In contrast, none of the people in either group treated with fluoxetine managed to free themselves from symptoms.

Most clinicians looking at the study might suspect that eight weeks of drug treatment wouldn't be long enough as prescriptions are often recommended for six months to a year after stabilisation.

Nevertheless, it's an impressive result, not least because of the short 8-week treatment time for EMDR and the strong recovery rate.

One of the criticisms of EMDR is that it's still not clear what part the eye-movement aspect plays in the therapy and exactly how it works.

What this trial didn't do is compare EMDR to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a type of recently devised psychotherapy that is known to be one of the most effective treatments for anxiety disorders.

Both of these therapies focus on 'reprocessing' the trauma memories - essentially remembering and 'reliving' them, which seems to play a major role in preventing the uncontrolled memories and flashbacks that are part of the disorder.

This is also the focus of a recently devised combined drug and 'reprocessing' therapy we reported on earlier, which seems to work by dampening down bodily arousal when the memories are recalled due to the action of the drug propranolol.


Link to abstract of clinical trial.

—Vaughan

Infinity in the palm of your hand

To see a World in a grain of sand,
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour. William Blake

Unraveling the physics of DNA's double helix

Unraveling the physics of DNA's double helix July 13, 2007 - DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have uncovered a missing link in scientists' understanding of the physical forces that give DNA its famous double helix shape. "The stability of DNA is so fundamental to life that it's important to understand all factors," said Piotr Marszalek, a professor of mechanical engineering and materials sciences at Duke. "If you want to create accurate models of DNA to study its interaction with proteins or drugs, for example, you need to understand the basic physics of the molecule. For that, you need solid measurements of the forces that stabilize DNA." In a study published online by Physical Review Letters on July 5, Marszalek's team reports the first direct measurements of the forces within single strands of DNA that wind around each other in pairs to form the complete, double-stranded molecules. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Each DNA strand includes a sugar and phosphate "backbone" attached to one of four bases, which encode genetic sequences. The strength of the interactions within individual strands comes largely from the chemical attraction between the stacked bases. But the integrity of double-stranded DNA depends on both the stacking forces between base units along the length of the double helix and on the pairing forces between complementary bases, which form the rungs of the twisted ladder. Earlier studies have focused more attention on the chemical bonds between opposing bases, measuring their strength by "unzipping" the molecules' two strands, Marszalek said. Studies of intact DNA make it difficult for researchers to separate the stacking from the pairing forces. To get around that problem in the new study, the Duke team used an atomic force microscope (AFM) to capture the "mechanical fingerprint" of the attraction between bases within DNA strands. The bonds within the molecules' sugar and phosphate backbones remained intact and therefore had only a minor influence on the force measurements, Marszalek said. They tugged on individual strands that were tethered at one end to gold and measured the changes in force as they pulled. The AFM technique allows precise measurements of forces within individual molecules down to one pico-Newton--a trillionth of a Newton. For a sense of scale, the force of gravity on a two-liter bottle of soda is about 20 Newtons, Marszalek noted. They captured the range of stacking forces by measuring two types of synthetic DNA strands: some made up only of the base thymine, which is known to have the weakest attraction between stacked units, and some made up only of the base adenine, known to have the strongest stacking forces. Because of those differences in chemical forces, the two types of single-stranded DNA take on different structures, Marszalek said. Single strands of adenine coil in a fairly regular fashion to form a helix of their own, while thymine chains take on a more random shape. The pure adenine strands exhibited an even more complex form of elasticity than had been anticipated, the researchers reported. As they stretched the adenine chains with increasing force, the researchers noted two places-at 23 and 113 pico-Newtons--where their measurements leveled off. "Those plateaus reflect the breaking and unfolding of the helix," Marszalek explained. With no bonds between bases to break, the thymine chains' showed little resistance to extension and no plateau. Based on the known structure of the single stranded DNA molecules, they had expected to see only one such plateau as the stacking forces severed. Exactly what happens at the molecular level at each of the two plateaus will be the subject of continued investigation, he said. Duke University

Good fun with Rockets

MAKE: Blog: Aussie RocketCam

Where to run in Paris

...Practiced by an apparent eight million French people, le jogging is viewed here -- for better or worse -- as a symbol of modernity, dynamism, and individualism à l'américaine. To mark the advent of American-style presidential imagemaking in France, the following is a list of top spots to go for a run in Paris...

Oh, yeah. Call me, baby.

U.S. scientists are developing a technology that allows mobile electronic devices to communicate by sending vibrations through bones.

Rice University Assistant Professors Michael Liebschner and Lin Zhong said cellular telephones now contain vibrators and many newer models have sensors that could be used to receive signals.

"So, it's feasible to think of the devices we are already carrying as a platform for this technology," said Zhong.

The Microsoft Corp. awarded the engineers a grant to develop OsteoConduct, the technology the two men invented last year. OsteoConduct transmits digital information through bones using acoustic sound patterns. The sounds can be created by anything that vibrates.

"Microsoft is interested in computing applications related to both healthcare and mobile devices, and this hits both of those," said Liebschner, who noted one of the most exciting discoveries about the research has been how clearly sound travels through bone.

"We were all surprised to see these signals propagate through 20 or more joints," Liebschner said. "It worked much better than we'd anticipated for the power-levels we used."

Bioengineering graduate student Michael Cordray and undergraduate Mimi Zhang are co-inventors of the technology.

Lovely Baby Mammoth

July 11, 2007—Talk about a mammoth surprise. A Russian hunter traipsing through Russia's remote Arctic Yamalo-Nenetsk region in May noticed what he thought was a reindeer carcass sticking out of the damp snow. (See a map of Russia and its remote Siberian regions.) On closer inspection, the "reindeer" turned out to be a 40,000-year-old baby mammoth, perfectly encased in ice. The six-month-old female mammoth is the most well-preserved example yet found of the beasts, which lumbered across the Earth during the last Ice Age, 1.8 million to 11,500 years ago. "It's a lovely little baby mammoth indeed, found in perfect condition," Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Science's Zoological Institute, told the Reuters news agency. At 110 pounds (50 kilograms) and 51 inches long (130 centimeters long), the baby is the size of a large dog, Reuters reported. Scientists are banking on the female—named "Lyuba" after the Russian hunter's wife—to reveal some of the genetic secrets of the prehistoric giants. That's because Lyuda's excellent state—intact except for her shaggy locks—makes her a veritable treasure trove for research. Emerging DNA technologies have already allowed some scientists to consider resurrecting the mammoth. (Read about the resurrection debate.) Meanwhile, the newfound body will undergo three-dimensional computer mapping at Japan's Jikei University, followed by an autopsy at the Zoological Museum in St. Petersburg. The Ice Age toddler will end up on display in the Russian Arctic town of Salekhard. —Christine Dell'Amore

All hope abandon ye who enter here

Through me you pass into the city of woe:

Through me you pass into eternal pain:

Through me among the people lost for aye.


Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:

To rear me was the task of power divine,

Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.


Before me things create were none, save things

Eternal, and eternal I endure.

All hope abandon ye who enter here.

Ways to prevent and somewhat help alleviate hangovers due to excessive drinking.
Before Drinking:

One easy way to feel less the effects of alcohol is to eat a 2 small or one medium bag of potato chips an hour or so before drinking alcohol.

An alternate method is to eat a sandwich (possibly baguette or ciabatta) made with lots of salami and butter (yes, I do realize the taste would be awful, but hey it helps; at the max you can eat one salami sandwich and one with just butter). This way the bread/potato chips will absorb some of the alcohol before it has the chance to get absorbed into your blood stream.

A good way to prevent getting wasted right away is to always drink the same thing, don't mix alcohols, and if you order/make cocktails make sure to at least drink the same kind. Different alcohols consumed in the same time lapse will cause weariness quicker, splitting headaches and cause major hangovers, and, if you are a woman taking oral contraceptives, and you took your pill 4 hours earlier you are no longer protected (if you regurgitate that is, so be careful with that too).

Another remedy, used primarily by Native Americans was to eat raw almonds before drinking any alcoholic beverage to reduce the chance of suffering from any hangover.

Peanut Butter is also thought to be of somewhat remedy.

Remember to try to have a sports drink (like Gatorade) which will replenish the minerals that the kidneys excreted during your drinking. If you regurgitate due to excessive drinking, let it all out of your system and then have a sports drink to give you back some minerals.

If you had a long night of drinking, water (about 3 glass fulls should be enough) will help rehydrate you. Drinking makes you lose a lot of fluids, going to bed dehydrated will just leave the alcohol in your system at it's concentrated levels and will cause you to feel their effects later on.

Remember to not take painkillers such as aspirin, ibrofen and the like. If taken in high quantities or on a continuous basis they'll start to cause problems to your kidneys (such as kidney failure).

Ephemeral RAM

How many simple objects can you think about at once?

Even though people feel they have rich visual experiences, researchers have found that the average person is only aware of about four items at a time.

This ability, say researchers at the University of Oregon, varies from person to person, and they've found that an individual's capacity of short-term memory is a strong predictor of IQ and scholastic achievement. People with high IQs can think about more things at once.

Because the capacity of the short-term memory system seems to underlie a core aspect of intelligence, cognitive psychologists have been interested in determining what causes a four-item limit for most people. One reasonable idea, which researchers have been tossing about, is that memory capacity might be influenced by the complexity of items being stored.

For example, a four-gigabyte iPhone, the popular new Apple cell phone, might be able to hold about 1,000 four-minute songs, but, of course, far fewer songs would fit in storage if the songs were all 20 minutes in length, explained UO psychology professors Edward Awh and Edward Vogel, co-authors with recent UO graduate Brian Barton on a study published in the July issue of Psychological Science .

Does human memory work the same way? Their study drew some surprising conclusions on the topic. Even when very complex objects had to be remembered by subjects participating in laboratory experiments, participants, who ranged in age from 18 to 30, still were able to hold four items in active memory. However, Awh said, the clarity of those items was not perfect, and some people had much clearer memories than others.

A second finding also surprised the UO team. "While it seems reasonable that people who think about more things at once might also have clearer memories than average, we found that this assumption was not the case," Vogel said.

According to Awh, the lead author on the study, the same people who can remember a lot of objects at one time do not necessarily have clearer memories of those objects. "Knowing the number of things a person can remember tells you nothing about how clear a person's memory may be," Awh said. "So even though people with high IQs can think about more things at once, there are not guarantees about how good those memories might be."

The National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation supported the research through grants to Awh and Vogel, respectively.

http://www.uoregon.edu/

France, The French, and Everything

The brain predicts our perception of the outside world

The human brain anticipates our perception of the outside world. For example, it is capable of predicting if we are going to perceive tactile stimulation of weak intensity or, on the contrary, if a more intense stimulation will be perceived more or less painfully.

If people can make these observations empirically, a team of researchers at the Coma Science Group of University of Liege (Cyclotron Research Centre) and Neurology Department at the University Hospital of Liege (Belgium) is today demonstrating it scientifically through measuring the spontaneous activity of the brain and the relationships between the different cerebral regions involved.

In a study published this week in the prestigious American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the team of scientists led by Dr Mélanie Boly and Dr Steven Laureys shows that the spontaneous activity measured in certain parts of the brain have a direct influence over our conscious perception and our perception of the intensity of pain. 'Our brain is never really at rest, but science does not have a good understanding of how the spontaneous and continuous activity of our neurons influences our perception of the world. Our study contributes to lifting a corner of the veil over these mechanisms', the researchers state.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and laser stimulation of the skin's nervous structures (stimulation in a thousandth of a second), the researchers brought to light the regions more specifically involved in this spontaneous brain activity. Thus, the awareness of self and of our internal world is increasingly connected to the activity in a network that includes the precuneus and posterior cingular cortex and the temporoparietal junction. However, awareness of our external world is linked to the activity measured in the thalamus and the frontoparietal lateral cortical zones. As regards the anterior cingular cortex and the insular cortex, they predict whether the laser stimulation will be perceived as more or less painful.

These results improve our knowledge of the mechanisms involved in human consciousness and allow for a better understanding of why we are at times more "sensitive" to pain than we are at other times. "Awareness has two components: awakening, on the one hand, and awareness of the environment (the external world) of self (the internal world), on the other. We knew the regions involved in awakening. With this study, we will demonstrate now that awareness of our internal and external world has different neuronal correlates and how they interact", the ULg researchers conclude.

http://www.ulg.ac.be

The Cramps: Live at Napa State Mental Hospital

The Cramps: Live at Napa State Mental Hospital from Mind Hacks by vaughan During a 1978 tour, psychobilly punk band The Cramps created one of the strangest moments in the history of both rock n' roll and psychiatry when they played a gig inside Napa State Mental Hospital. It's hard to believe it actually happened. The story sounds more like an exaggerated rock legend than an account of a real concert, but no suspension of disbelief is needed. Someone filmed the gig. We can only guess how the band got permission to play inside one of California's biggest mental institutions, but play they did, to a few supporters and a fired-up crowd of psychiatric inpatients. The footage is grainy, black and white, and chaotic, and we immediately see the band launch into a high-energy version of Mystery Plane. The onlookers look bemused at first, a few start dancing, a few just wander. As the first song fades, the lead singer, Lux Interior, addresses the crowd: "We're The Cramps, and we're from New York City and we drove 3,000 miles to play for you people." "Fuck you!" a patient yells back. He cracks a smile. "And somebody told me you people are crazy! But I'm not so sure about that; you seem to be all right to me." The gig ascends into pure punk rock chaos. Patients jump on stage and pogo like they were Saturday night regulars. Lux suddenly duets with a member of the crowd who grabs the mike and adds her own improvised lyrics to the mix. One song finishes with the lead singer sprawled on the floor with two female members of the audience. One of them shouts "I got the Cramps!" Lux replies "That's your problem, honey. I got 'em myself, and I can't do anything with 'em, either." As with Johnny Cash's landmark concert, played a decade earlier in Folsom Prison, it would be easy to assume that the onlookers are intended to be part of an ironic publicity stunt. But one thing is striking from both of these shows: the audience wouldn't have looked out of place at any other date on the tour. Cash and The Cramps are unlikely bedfellows, but both took their music to the marginalised and hinted that we're not so different from those we lock away. OK, so The Cramps didn't hint. Punk isn't like that. But then again, the fans have hardly been known for their conformity either. Link to YouTube clips of Live at Napa State Mental Hospital.

Life, The Universe, and, well, Everything

National Geographic News: NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM/NEWS


Before Big Bang: Light Shed on "Previous Universe"
Mason Inman
for National Geographic News
July 3, 2007

We may be able to get a glimpse of what happened before the big bang, thanks to a new study—but only a glimpse.

The big bang has traditionally been seen as the beginning of everything—space, time, matter, and energy.

But researchers are developing sophisticated new theories to look ever further back in time, to what happened just fractions of a second after big bang itself.

In the new research, Martin Bojowald of Pennsylvania State University pushes one of these theories back even further—to the time of a purported previous universe that contracted and "bounced" to form our own.

The new study comes with some bad news, though.

It suggests that the universe suffers from "cosmic forgetfulness," so that we can never be able to find out too much about what came before our big bang.

The new study appeared online this week in the journal Nature Physics.

Theory of Everything

Our universe is expanding outward in every direction, implying that it originally exploded out from a single point about 14 billion years ago.

The further we look back in time, the smaller and hotter the universe gets. At the beginning of time, most traditional theories speculate, the universe was infinitely hot and had no size at all.

But no one knows for sure, since textbook physics suffers a meltdown and gives nonsensical answers when used to describe what the universe was like at moment of the big bang, Bojowald says.

These theories "tell us energies were infinitely large," Bojowald said. "It doesn't have any meaning for us."

This is one reason why researchers have been toiling for decades to unite two main branches of physics—gravity and quantum mechanics.

Gravity rules on cosmic scales, while quantum mechanics dictates the behavior of tiny particles like electrons and quarks.

While each theory has been wildly successful, they remain contradictory.

Uniting these two branches of physics would peel back time further and allow scientists to figure out exactly what the big bang was.

But creating such a "theory of everything" has been a longstanding and difficult goal that has stumped every physicist who has attempted it, including Albert Einstein.

Big Bounce, Not Big Bang
Read on...

Bojowald used a leading approach to this quandary known as loop quantum gravity, a competitor to the more popular approach known as string theory.

Both theories are still incomplete and unproven, and each suggests very strange ideas about the fundamental nature of the universe.

In loop quantum gravity, for instance, space and time are not smooth and continuous but rather divided up into tiny chunks.

In this mathematical approach, everything is jerky and blocky—although on such a tiny scale that it doesn't affect daily life.

Nothing can occupy a space smaller than the smallest chunk of space, and nothing can happen any faster than this shortest moment of time.

This implies that the universe could never shrink down beyond a certain size. So when it was at its most compact, where did that tiny ball of energy and matter come from?

It could have come from the universe before our own, Bojowald argues. Unlike our expanding universe, this earlier universe was contracting back toward a point, he says.

When it reached its most compact, it hit the barrier dictated by loop quantum gravity. Then it "bounced back" outward, forming a new, expanding universe.

Certain Uncertainty

So if our universe came from an earlier universe, it's natural to wonder what that ancestral universe was like.

But there's a problem: Quantum physics must have played a key role in the hot, dense state around the time of the "big bounce."

Things behave very oddly in the quantum world. An object that appears to be in one spot when you first glimpse it can be in another spot when you look again.

This jumpiness, known as uncertainty, is built into quantum physics. Building better measuring devices won't get around it.

If the whole universe suffered from these jitters, "it could be impossible to have life," Bojowald said.

In our universe, however, such weirdness only happens on very, very tiny scales.

But what about the universe that came before us?

When the universe goes through a big bounce, Bojowald showed, the amount of uncertainty before and after the bounce have little relation to each other.

So there's a veil that screens out much of what we would want to know about the earlier universe.

This also implies that a universe is never the same before and after a bounce.

"The eternal recurrence of absolutely identical universes would seem to be prevented by the ... cosmic forgetfulness," Bojowald said. (Related: "Universe Reborn Endlessly in New Model of the Cosmos" [April 25, 2002].)

Even that kind of cycle might be coming to an end, since scientists now believe that the universe is expanding faster every day, not slowing down as would be expected. So a re-contraction seems extremely unlikely under our current understanding.

Question of Accuracy

Whether Bojowald's model is believable or not, however, depends on whether the version of loop quantum gravity that he used is accurate.

Thomas Thiemann, of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada, called Bojowald's approach a "drastic simplification."

But it may turn out to be fairly accurate anyway, Thiemann said.

If so, then it is "the cleanest derivation of a pre-big bang scenario that any physical theory has delivered so far," he added.

It's "much cleaner than in string-theory-inspired models."

July 4, 1054

Sung dynasty chronicles of the appearance of the Crab Nebula Supernova of 1054 AD

From the Sung-shih [Annals, of the Sung Dynasty] (Astronomical Treatise, chapter 56).

"On the 1st year of the Chi-ho reign period, 5th month, chi-chou (day) [July 4, 1054], a guest star appeared approximately several inches to the south-east of Tian-kuan [Aldebaran]. After a year and more it gradually vanished."

From the Sung-shih (Chapter 9).

"On the first year of the Chia-wu reign period, 3rd month, xin-wei (day). The Director of the Astronomical Bureau reported that since the 5th month of the 1st year of the Chih-ho reign period, a guest star had appeared in the morning at the east, guarding Tian-kuan, and now [two years after its first appearance] it has vanished".

From the Sung-hui-yao [Essentials of the Sung dynasty history] (Chapter 52)

"On the 1st year of the Chih-ho reign period, 7th month, 22nd day [August 27, 1054] ... Yang Wei-te said 'I humbly observe that a guest star has appeared. Above the star in question there is a faint glow, yellow in colour. If one carefully examines the prognostications concerning the emperor, the interpretation is as follows: The fact that the guest star does not trespass against Pi and its brightness is full means that there is a person of great worth. I beg that this be handed over to the Bureau of Historiography'. All the Officials presented there congratulations and the Emperor ordered that it be sent to the Bureau of Historiography.

During the 3rd month of the 1st year of the Chia-yu reign period the Director of the Astronomical Bureau said, 'The guest star has vanished, which is an omen of the departure of the guest'. Earlier, during the 5th month in the 1st year of the Chih-ho reign period, the guest star appeared in the morning in the east guarding Tian-kuan. It was visible in the daytime, like Venus. It had pointed rays in the four directions and its colour was reddish-white. Altogether it was visible in daytime for 23 days."

Other accounts of the same event appear in the annals of the Liao Dynasty (a nomadic tribe of north China), and in Japanese chronicles.

Boids (Flocks, Herds, and Schools: a Distributed Behavioral Model)

Boids (Flocks, Herds, and Schools: a Distributed Behavioral Model)

A Cure for Affluenza

Howstuffworks "Joining the Peace Corps"

Huh?

Computer-based distraction test developed A British psychologist has designed a computer-based scientific indicator to measure a person's distractibility. University College London Professor Nilli Lavie said the assessment tool would be useful in new employee screening, especially for vocations in which employee distraction could lead to fatal errors. More easily distracted individuals are at greater risk of being involved in accidents. The new computer-based test measures subjects' accuracy and reaction times exposed to distractions. "This test could act as another form of psychometric testing for employers who want to know how focused the staff they are hiring are likely to be," Lavie said. This test correlates with responses given to the "Cognitive Failures Questionnaire," which predicts a person's level of distractibility provided the subject answers honestly. "People come away from our test thinking they've done really well and haven't been distracted at all when, in fact, their response times increase and they tend to make more mistakes; showing that they have been distracted," said Lavie. "So the test is objective and there's no way of doctoring the results." The research appears in the journal Psychological Science.

The Kindness of Rats

Louis Buckley A helping paw: rats are more generous when another rat has helped them out. Punchstock Rats that benefit from the charity of others are more likely to help strangers get a free meal, researchers have found. This phenomenon, known as 'generalized reciprocity', has only ever been seen before in humans. A good example, says Michael Taborsky of the University of Bern, Switzerland, is what happens when someone finds money in a phone box. In controlled experiments such people have been shown to be much more likely to help out a stranger in need following their good luck. In humans, such benevolence can be explained by cultural factors as well as by underlying biology, says Taborsky. But if similar behaviour can be found in other animals, he reasons, an evolutionary explanation would be far more likely. To test for this behaviour in animals, Taborsky trained rats to pull a lever that produced food for its partner, but not for itself. Rats who had received a free meal in this way were found to be 20% more likely to help out an unknown partner than rats who had received no such charity1. Taborsky believes this behaviour isn't confined to just rats and humans. "I'm convinced generalized reciprocity will be very widespread and found in many different animal species, as our study suggests that an underlying evolutionary mechanism is responsible." "Generalized reciprocity is certainly underappreciated in animals," notes Laurent Keller, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. But with so little data in this area, he adds, "it is very difficult to make predictions about how prevalent it's likely to be." Survival of the friendliest Explaining why animals cooperate has long been a tricky area for evolutionary biologists. According to darwinian evolution, organisms are adapted to maximize their individual chances of survival, so how is it possible to account for acts of charity? Among family members, it makes sense for one animal to help another in order to help their shared genes to get on in the world. But when it comes to helping non-family members, things are more complicated. It might make sense for one animal to help another in exchange for receiving help themselves later on. But this is open to abuse by cheats who are happy to take, but not to give in return. Highly intelligent animals — including humans — can judge whether or not to give help based on the individual track record of a specific potential partner. But this kind of 'direct' reciprocation between two individuals only happens under restricted conditions, says Taborsky. "Animals have to meet frequently and have to remember what other individuals have done and how they acted in the past. That means animals have to possess high cognitive abilities. And for these reasons it hasn't been demonstrated very often." Another strategy, called 'generalized reciprocity', is for an animal to assume that its most recent interaction with any other individual is representative of how the whole community usually behaves. In that case, an animal only has to remember its last experience. "It's a simpler mechanism and therefore more likely to be evolutionarily important," says Taborsky. Not-so-dirty rats Taborsky thinks he has seen both types of reciprocity in his rats. In addition to being 20% more likely to help out an unknown partner if they had received a bit of charity, his study shows that rats were more than 50% more likely to help a specific rat who had helped them in the past1. Taborsky thinks that it is likely that the two forms of reciprocity work together. If an animal can remember how generous another individual is it will use this information to decide whether it's wise to cooperate. But if not, then it can base its decision on more general recent experience — how helpful other animals have been towards it in the recent past. Other researchers point out that because rats typically live in family groups, it's hard to discount the idea that they're just trying to help their relatives out. "What we need to understand now is the physiological and neurological mechanisms responsible," says Taborsky. He suspects that hormonal changes in response to charity might be behind the tendency to cooperate. "We are going to look at hormonal regulation, and we're also looking at other animals — cichlid fish at the moment." Visit our newsblog to read and post comments about this story. Top References 1. Rutte, C. & Taborsky, M. PLoS Biol. 5 , e196 (2007).

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More mysterious chroma

In some regions of Central Europe, salad dressing is made preferably with pumpkin seed oil, which has a strong characteristic nutty flavor and striking color properties. Indeed, in a bottle it appears red, but it looks green in a salad dressing or mixed with yoghurt. Samo and Marko Kreft¡'s paper examines the remarkable two-tone (or dichromatic) color of pumpkin seed oil, by the use of a combination of imaging and CIE (International Commission on Illumination) chromaticity coordinates. The paper also explains why human vision perceives substances like pumpkin seed oil as dichromatic or polychromatic (exhibiting a variety of colors). Two phenomena explain the perceived shift in color of pumpkin seed oil from red to green: Firstly, the distinctive change in color shade of the oil is due to a change in oil layer thickness. As the oil layer thickens, the oil changes its appearance from bright green to bright red. The observed color is neither dependent on the angle of observation nor on the direction or type of light. Secondly, the shift in color is due to the unique characteristics of the cells in the human retina. Our eyes have two types of photoreceptor cells: rods and cones. Rod photoreceptor cells are very sensitive and operate in dim illumination conditions. Cone photoreceptor cells function well in bright light conditions. They are also the basis of color perception in our visual image. It is the presence of multiple classes of cone cells, each with a different spectral sensitivity, that gives us the ability to discriminate colors. Citation: Kreft S & Kreft M (2007). Physicochemical and physiological basis of dichromatic colour. Naturwissenschaften (DOI 10.1007/s00114-007-0272-9) Source: Springer

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Connecting the frequencies

Simple Magnet Can Control Color of Liquid

Image shows the solution of iron oxide in water changing color under a magnetic field with increasing strength of the field from left to right. Photo credit: Yin laboratory UCR
Image shows the solution of iron oxide in water changing color under a magnetic field, with increasing strength of the field from left to right. Photo credit: Yin laboratory, UCR

University of California, Riverside nanotechnologists have succeeded in controlling the color of very small particles of iron oxide suspended in water simply by applying an external magnetic field to the solution. The discovery has potential to greatly improve the quality and size of electronic display screens and to enable the manufacture of products such as erasable and rewritable electronic paper and ink that can change color eletromagnetically.

In their experiments, the researchers found that by changing the strength of the magnetic field they were able to change the color of the iron oxide solution – similar to adjusting the color of a television screen image.

When the strength of the magnetic field is changed, it alters the arrangement of the spherical iron oxide particles in solution, thereby modifying how light falling on the particles passes through or is deflected by the solution.

Study results appear in Angewandte Chemie International Edition’s online edition today. The research paper is scheduled to appear in print in issue 34 of the journal. Identified by Angewandte Chemie as a “very important paper,” the research will be featured on the inside cover of the print issue.

“The key is to design the structure of iron oxide nanoparticles through chemical synthesis so that these nanoparticles self-assemble into three-dimensionally ordered colloidal crystals in a magnetic field,” said Yadong Yin, an assistant professor of chemistry who led the research.

A nanoparticle is a microscopic particle whose size is measured in nanometers.

A colloid is a substance comprised of small particles uniformly distributed in another substance. Milk, paint and blood are examples of colloids.

“By reflecting light, these crystals – also called photonic crystals – show brilliant colors,” Yin said. “Ours is the first report of a photonic crystal that is fully tunable in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum, from violet light to red light.”

A photonic crystal controls the flow of light (photons) and works like a semiconductor for light. The nanoparticles’ spacing dictates the wavelength of light that a photonic crystal reflects.

Iron oxide (formula: Fe3O4) nanoparticles are “superparamagnetic,” meaning that they turn magnetic only in the presence of an external magnetic field. In contrast, “ferromagnetic” materials become magnetized in a magnetic field and retain their magnetism when the field is removed.

The researchers used the superparamagnetic property of iron oxide particles to tune the spacing between nanoparticles, and therefore the wavelength of the light reflection – or the color of the colloidal crystals – by changing the strength of the external magnetic field.

“Other reported photonic crystals can only reflect light with a fixed wavelength,” Yin said. “Our crystals, on the other hand, show a rapid, wide and fully reversible optical response to the external magnetic field.”

Photonic materials such as those used by Yin and his team could help in the fabrication of new optical microelectromechanical systems and reflective color display units. They also have applications in telecommunication (fiber optics), sensors and lasers.

“This is an elegant method that allows researchers in the field to assemble photonic crystals and control their spacing by using a magnetic field,” said Orlin Velev, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C., who was not involved in the research. “A simple magnet can be used to change the color of a suspension throughout the whole visible spectra. This has potential to result in usable precursors for various photonic devices.”

“What should make the technology commercially attractive is that iron oxide is cheap, non-toxic and available in plenty,” Yin said.

Yin explained that the new technology can be used to make an inexpensive color display by forming millions of small pixels using the photonic crystals. “A different color for each pixel can be assigned using a magnetic field,” he said. “The advantage is that you need just one material – for example, photonic crystals like iron oxide – for all the pixels. Moreover, you don’t need to generate light in each pixel. You would be using reflected light to create the images – a form of recycling.”

The UCR Office of Technology Commercialization has filed a patent application on the technology.

Source: University of California, Riverside

Ouch

Science Daily — The most common medical procedure in the US is infant male circumcision. The long-term-health impact of neo-natal circumcision has received little study while the consequences of circumcision on sexual function in the adult male have received even less attention.

A recent study by M. Sorrels and colleagues from the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Center and Michigan State University mapped the fine-touch pressure thresholds of the adult male penis in circumcised and uncircumcised men and compared the two populations. The study is published in the April 2007 issue of BJU Int.

Adult male volunteers were evaluated with a 19 point Semmes-Weinstein monofilament touch-test to map fine-touch pressure thresholds of the penis. Circumcised and uncircumcised men were compared using mixed models for repeated data, controlling for age, type of underwear worn, time since test ejaculation, ethnicity, country of birth, and level of education.

Analysis of results showed the glans of the uncircumcised men had significantly lower thresholds than that of circumcised men (P = 0.040). There were also significant differences in pressure thresholds by location on the penis (p < 0.0001). The most sensitive location on the circumcised penis was the circumcision scar on the ventral surface. It was remarkable that five locations on the uncircumcised penis that are routinely removed at circumcision had lower pressure thresholds that the ventral scar of the circumcised penis.

This study suggests that the transitional region from the external to the internal prepuce is the most sensitive region of the uncircumcised penis and more sensitive than the most sensitive region of the circumcised penis. It appears that circumcision ablates the most sensitive parts of the penis.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by UroToday.

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Sex is All in Your Head -mostly

Scientists of the Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment of the University of Granada have studied how some psychological variables such as erotophilia (positive attitude towards sexuality), sexual fantasies and anxiety are related to sexual desire in human beings.

The researcher Juan Carlos Sierra Freire states that there are very few reliable and valid instruments in Spain to evaluate sexual desire. Due to this vacuum, the researchers have adapted the Sexual Desire Inventory by Spector, Carey and Steinberg. This inventory is a tool that enables the researcher to measure, on the one hand, the solitary sexual motivation and, on the other hand, the interest in having sexual intercourse with another person (didactic sexual desire). This fact is of a great importance because it gives relevant information about possible disagreements in sexual desire that may appear in a couple. Regarding figures of the Spanish Association for Sexual Health, a loss of sexual desire is one of the main factors that cause sexual dysfunction in the Spanish female population.

The results of this research, published in the journals Analisis y Modificacian de Conducta and Psychological Reports , reveal an important relation between sexual desire and erotophilia in men. Men respond more positively towards sexual stimuli and thoughts, and they accept them more easily. The male population has an attitude that, together with sexual fantasies, heightens sexual drive. Nevertheless, the research stresses that people sometimes may have a negative reaction to some types of fantasies. In this sense, the researchers have studied such behaviour in male subjects, where sexually sadistic fantasies inhibit sexual desire.

In turn, women also share the imagination at play. The more sexual fantasies they have, the more sexual desire they experience. However,women normally present more anxiety disorders than men regarding transitory emotional stages such as anxiety, because anxiety strongly affects women's sexual function.

On the basis of the sample studied, which consists of 608 subjects aged 13 to 43, researchers have found that 32% of inhibited sexual desire in men is associated with low erotophilia as well as some sexual fantasies, while a 18% of such inhibited sexual desire in women is because of the increase of anxiety and the decrease of sexual fantasies. According to Juan Carlos Sierra, these figures show that psychological factors, which have a role in sexual response, depend on gender.

Sexual desire leads to other stages of sexual intercourse: excitation and orgasm. Therefore, having intercourse without desire may negatively affect the stages of sexual response.This first stage is the most complex because it is influenced by many factors, declared the researcher. Sexual desire is explained by a three-dimensional model, which includes social, psychological, and neurophysiologic aspects. For that reason, proper neurohormonal activity with a right sexual stimulation is necessary in order to experience sexual desire.Besides this complexity, there is no comparison model, as occurs in the men's excitation stage, where it is possible to determine the degree of excitation depending on the erection.

Juan Carlos Sierra points out that education on sexual stimulation and response as well as healthy attitudes towards sexuality is extremely important. In this way, sexual intercourse for those people will be more pleasurable and with less probability of having sexual dysfunctions. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of sexual fantasies in sexuality. In fact, sexual fantasies are used in sex therapy to diminish levels of anxiety of execution or of sexual activity, provided that there are no organic anomalies (lack of hormones, endocrinal disorders, etc.). Researchers from the University of Granada are currently working in this field of study.

http://www.ugr.es

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