I've been too busy to comment lately, but I had to share this. Via Gizmodo, there is bad news for certain gamers: Scientists Find Gene That Makes You Good at Halo Also Makes You a Premature Ejaculator.

I wonder how long before they use this on Big Bang Theory? ;)

Take a look at this article: NASA Moon Rocket Could Shake Apart, Experts Say. What is wrong with it? I find that the title, and most of the article, overstates the seriousness of the problem.

The Ares I isn't due to launch until 2015. That's seven years from now! Even though proven technology is being used in the design, the Ares is a brand new system. There are always hurdles when you build something new, especially early in a project. What does the AP do? They get outside experts to check the design. Of course a problem is found! Problems would be found on any project at this stage.

Does anyone really believe that NASA will ignore the shaking problem and build the rocket anyway?

The reporter was nice enough to quote the NASA administrator as saying, "I hope no one was so ill-informed as to believe that we would be able to develop a system to replace the shuttle without facing any challenges in doing so." The reporter even acknowledges that NASA is fixing the shaking problem.

Despite that, the rest of the article pretends as if the problem won't be fixed. At the end of the article, we get this gem about the shaking problem: "It's highly likely to happen, and if it does, it's a disaster."

This smacks of sensationalism and poor reporting in my opinion. But, I guess it's more fun to beat up on NASA nowadays than to properly report the situation.

The NTSB has finally released their findings about the Minnesota Bridge Collapse last year. The bridge was definitely flawed.

A quote in the article strikes me as extremely odd:

Rosenker said it wasn't clear how the design flaw made it into the bridge because investigators couldn't find the design calculations.

The engineering firm should have those calculations. There's no explanation as to why they could not be found. That's more than a little suspicious in my mind.

So, what's a gusset? Wikipedia explains.What's really interesting is that the Wikipedia entry has a photo of the I35 gusset plates in question. Looking at the picture, you can easily see how the bridge would collapse if the plates failed due to overloading.

The Telegraph has a compelling article about the new Grand Unified Theory postulated by Garrett Lisi. It uses the recently mapped out E8.

The Telegraph article is pretty easy to read, so go check it out. Don't worry if you don't understand what E8 is. Some would say E8 is mathematical noodling. Like topology, it is, or was, math in search of an application.

Physicists often talk about beauty and symmetry in nature. At face value, Lisi's E8 Theory has that. It is way too early to know for sure, but Lisi may be onto something.

Of course, the key test for any theory is how useful it is at making predictions. The common criticism of String Theory is that it hasn't provided predictions, and perhaps it can't. But, Lisi is already using his E8 Theory to make mass predictions for some new particles.

The LHC will definitely be used to test Lisi's theory. Unfortunately, we may have to wait a while.

The Invisible Tank. Sounds great, until you realize that it isn't all that useful. The tank will still be visible in the infrared (IR).

This latest in optical technology has a camera film the background, which is then projected upon a special surface applied to the tank. The technology could also be used to hide nearly anything the camera and projector could be mounted on.

As far as I know, most tanks run on diesel, so the engine will be pretty hot and difficult to mask in IR. But what if you didn't have such a major heat source. Stationary guns? An electric tank? Then it would be much, much more difficult to detect an optically camouflaged tank.

Of course, the next step will be to miniaturize this equipment so it could be worn by a soldier.

I saw this via Neatorama: The Rota Period. It's a different way of looking at the periodic table. It won't make much sense if you don't know about atomic structure.

I'm sure this will make certain groups in the US government happy: according to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency China now produces more CO2 than the US.

More sobering still:

But the Chinese economy is, today, growing at 10% a year. If it were to keep that up, then in 2020 its economy would be 3.5 times larger than it is today. That would mean far greater carbon dioxide emissions even if the energy intensity goals were met.

That's bad news even if the US and other countries could severely curb emissions.

This article from New Scientist is old, but it talks about how antioxidants are not beneficial. It's yet another reversal in the nutritional sciences.

It makes me wonder: how can things get out of hand like this? For decades, people have been pounding on the benefits of antioxidants. Was it really as simple as this quote makes it seem?

"Putting two and two together, scientists assumed that these antioxidants were protective, and that taking them as supplements or in fortified foods should decrease oxidative damage and diminish disease," says Halliwell, who pioneered research into free radicals and disease. "It was simple: we said free radicals are bad, antioxidants are good."

It reminds me of the whole "8 glasses of water a day" nonsense.

The antioxidant "myth" has been around so long that I just assumed there was some good science behind it. Not so. How many more myths do we take for granted?

One of the most influential people to ever have lived was born today: Galileo Galilei. He truly is a paragon of intellectual integrity.

The Galileo Project has a wealth of information on this scientific great.

This collection of Myths in Science is pretty cool. Most of them were pretty obvious, but I was surprised by the poppy seed myth.

It makes me wonder how some of these myths get started. Who started the whole 10% myth and why choose 10%? Why not 15% or 20%? Seems a bit silly to me.

Over the weekend, I watched an interesting video that compares the sizes of some planets and stars. It's reminiscent of the old Powers of 10 video.

Anyway, the last two stars are cepheid variables. This type of star has a special place in astronomy: Hubble used them to determine distances to and velocities of other galaxies. This information let to the theory of the Big Bang.

What's really cool is that the last star, VV Cephei, is so big that if it was placed in our solar system, it's outer surface would extend to the orbit of Saturn! Only VY Canis Majoris is believed to be larger.

Today I post three articles that relate to global warming. They are posted with no "alternate" explanations because I don't have to.

The Warming of Greenland

Scientists Warn of Diminished Earth Studies From Space

Federal Way schools restrict Gore film

The beauty of science is that even if a consensus is not immediate, it will be built slowly over time as evidence is accumulated. The scientific community knows that global warming is occuring. There are visual observations that confirm it. It's hard to ignore the equivalent of "three times the volume of all the glaciers in the Alps” melting.

The issue is policy wonks that interfere with the scientific community. The human impact on warming isn't really disputed, but we don't know for sure how much an impact we are making. So, scientists need tools to monitor the situation. These tools create better models which lead to better predictions. Take away the tools.... Any surprise that funding is being cut Earth Studies? And yes, I am ignoring the active suppression of publicly funded studies that support global warming. Put together and it is a damning picture.

Worst of all are the people that buy into the "science is broken" controversy, that is being pushed by ultra-conservative political groups. So, they'll protest movies like Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". Apparently if a movie depicts America in a bad light, or it does not confirm a fundamentalist's view of the world, then the movie shouldn't be shown in a public school.

Having an open debate is a good thing, an important thing. It is impossible, however, to have such a debate when political forces are attempting to influence the discussion.

Are Classical and Quantum Mechanics really incompatible?

Wait! It's not as bad or as difficult as it sounds.

If you have any curiosity about this question, you should take a look at Why Quantum Mechanics Is Not So Weird After All. I had seen this article a while ago but had not read it until now. It provides a very good explanation without resorting to cryptic math. And we don't need our brains hurt that way, now do we?

Tonight the Geminid meteor shower peaks. Since the Leonids, back in November, were a bit of a bust, I'm looking forward to checking out the meteors tonight. Looks like it will be a good night for it.

And, on top of that, this warning from SpaceWeather.com sounds promising:

NOTE: An ongoing radiation storm has overwhelmed solar wind sensors onboard NASA's ACE spacecraft. Solar wind readings reported above are temporarily unreliable.

The best time to look for auroras is just after midnight.

The BBC is reporting that arctic ice is not recovering from the summer melt-off. If this trend continues "the Arctic may be free of all summer ice by as early as 2040."

Thinking about space filling curves reminded me about Periodic Spiral.

The periodic table is a funny beast. The tabular format that most people are familiar with obscures many of the relationships between elements. We ended up with this format because, when it comes down to it, chemists, as they discovered elements, believed that elements should be organized in this fashion. It's an old compromise that has probably outlived its usefulness.

The spiral, however, seems to be a much better choice. This New York Times graphic provides a good explanation.

If you want a good, easy to read book that covers the history of the periodic table, I'd recommend The Periodic Kingdom, by P. W. Atkins. The last chapter, in particular, describes some of the problems with visualizing the relationships between elements.

The sun ejected an X9 class flare today, the largest in over a year! Even though this flare was not directed towards Earth, we still may see auroras tonight. With the sun being very active over the past couple of days, we may have several nights where auroras are possible.

Go to SpaceWeather.com for current information.

As someone who believes that science and religion are not mutually exclusive, I found this article on Framing the Evolution Debate: Science vs Religion to be very good.

Anti-evolutionism is a cornerstone of the far-right's culture war since it leads to an anti-science stance. It's ironic that anti-science proponents view themselves as protectors not only of religion but of Western Culture:

The proposition that human beings are created in the image of God is one of the bedrock principles on which Western civilization was built. Its influence can be detected in most, if not all, of the West's greatest achievements, including representative democracy, human rights, free enterprise, and progress in the arts and sciences.

This is demonstrably false. Western Culture is based on Greek philosophy. In the intervening millennia, it has been primarily shaped by an ongoing battle between religion and philosophy (including science). Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake, Gallileo was imprisoned, and countless others were suppressed by religious authorities.

If you want a good overview of how Western Culture has been shaped, check out The Whole Graph. Philosophers are in orange, writers in green, artists in yellow, scientists in blue, and mathematicians in purple. This is part of Mike Love's Genealogy of Influence.

The Truth really isn't the goal of the so-called culture war: power is and always was the goal.

When I first saw the article about how pollution can save us from global warming, I just shook my head and thought "idiots".

As a friend put it: "Didn’t they try this in Highlander 2?"

Then I realized that this may be the new tactic from oil industry sponsored scientists. But why stop at pollution! These scientists are thinking too small!!! With a global thermo-nuclear war we could solve global warming, over-population, urban sprawl, allergies, and annoying ring-tones. Yep, we could fix a lot, but it just isn’t a good way to solve the problem.

What stupid ways can you think of to save the planet? Please share. :)

According to this Nature article, some ancient swords may have carbon nanotubes in them. These structures may help explain the strength of such swords. It's a shame the manufacturing technique was lost. I'm hoping they can figure it out and recreate these swords.

Then again, maybe they should check out Ginsu knives. They can cut through cans after all. ;)