Good Friday, Bus Rides, and Immigration

I read two articles on this last day for me. It is Good Friday, the day Christians remember Jesus' death.
The first article was about a study done on the youth of London who have been given free bus cards. Apparently two social groups, the 12-18 year olds and people over 60 have been given free bus passes in London. There have been two studies, one on the older group and one on the younger group in order to see how the free transportation has changed the lives of the groups. Both studies seem to report positively, the youth are showing more signs of independence, feelings of belonging to London, and social connection. The article suggested that free bus passes be taken off the list of things which could be cut in budget cuts because of the numerous benefits.
The second article I read this morning was about the language used in immigration debates. I am not surprised to find out that the language used in immigration debates has consequences for people at the time and farther down the road. To quote an old play, "The pen is mightier than the sword." Even though we know how much language defines our worlds and reality, we forget how much it can hurt us. I think the language used in the leaked Obama bill of 'legal prospective immigrant' definitely puts a positive spin on the situation. I think the situation could use more positivity and compassion. The language has been very negative and very divisive so far. Hopefully, the language can be turned around to be more inclusive and not make the real problem look like someone else's problem. Most of us in the United States are descendants of immigrants anyway.

Invisibility and Ice

I read two articles today. I am trying to get lots of science in before my Lent practice is done. Obviously, I don't have to stop when Lent is over, but I won't be doing this every day. (Speaking of Lent, can you believe that Francis Perkins won Lent Madness? I can't. Totally was not one of the people I picked to go all the way through. I am glad to have learned about her and her work and I am glad that she has been recognized, but I am thoroughly surprised.)

The first article I read was about the summer melt season in Antarctica. If you haven't learned by now, Antarctica is really high on my place I want to go list. Unfortunately, the temperature is increasing in Antarctica which is causing more of the snow and ice to melt during the summer season. I would love to look at the scientific computer models they use to show the extent and implications of this extra water, alas. I do think that everyone should change their habits to be more green so that we can take better care of our planet. I have started a few things, composting, saving cold water from the shower before it gets warm, turning everything off in my house before I leave, riding my bike or car pooling as much as I can, etc. There are more things that can easily be done, I just don't know of all of them at the moment. What do you do to help the environment?

The second article I read today was about using something called a metascreen to cloak objects from microwaves. This is new and cool for two reasons. First, this technique is much thinner than other invisibility techniques, and second, the technique cloaks the object better than previous techniques. The metascreen is made out of copper and polycarbonate film in a certain pattern in order to have the waves bouncing off of the cloaking material cancel each other out. Pretty nifty, huh? Someday, Harry Potter will not be the only one with an invisibility cloak! 

Protein, Penguins, and People, Spy Wednesday's Three P's

Today is Spy Wednesday for Lent Madness! Do not miss it!
The first article I read today is about how protein rich breakfasts can cut down on snacking later in the day. I think this is great research to help people make better food choices. I don't usually have a protein rich breakfast. One of the things that lots of gluten free and or paleo people do is have whatever they want for breakfast, obviously not including grains. I have pretty much always been a cereal girl and have eaten cereal for breakfast most of my life. I have thought about changing my habits since going gluten free, but there is a time issue in the mornings many times. Also, most normal sausage patties or links are not soy free for some reason and so I cannot buy the easy to make breakfast meats.
The second article I read today was about how four different kinds of penguins used to live in Africa instead of just the one species that lives there now. I am very interested in penguins, so I had to read the article. The reason is linked to changing sea water levels by the scientists studying the fossils and not humans. However, the scientist do point out that humans have made the remaining penguin population decline by over fishing of the penguin's natural food source and by oil spills in that region. I hope that humans can work towards managing the area and the fishing better to protect the ecosystem in which penguins live! Penguins!
The third article I read today was about how women make better decisions than men. Of course, once you read the titles of all the articles I read today, you know exactly why I had to read three of them. I wasn't just trying to make you read more here. Though I do promote that as well! Come and read and comment! Now, back to the article. Apparently this is in the situation of women board leaders in charge of corporations instead of men. Having women as leaders is better for the health of the company, despite traditional understandings that men are better. The professors who did this study said that women only account for 9% of board directors "despite evidence showing that their presence has been linked to better organizational performance, higher rates of return, more effective risk management and even lower rates of bankruptcy." Who doesn't like the sound of that? I am definitely all for a higher percentage of women board directors and women's rights and respect across the board. Being that I am a woman, I do have a tendency to think that collaboration with everyone is more likely to make better decisions and have better outcomes.
The three P's of today: protein, penguins, and people! Do not forget any of them ;)

Two Heads are Better than One

I doubt that evolution will find that two heads per person or animal is better, however, apparently nature is trying it out. The article I read this morning was about a bull shark with two heads. The shark was found in 2011 and can be obviously seen to have two heads. However, scientists have been doing tests to determine if it just has two heads or if it is conjoined twins. I am not really sure how that can be discovered exactly, but it seems that they are now sure about the first. Things which have two heads, usually cartoon characters, always remind me of Douglas Adams' Zaphod Beeblebronx. He had two heads and it made for some interesting conversations. Granted, Zaphod was really strange in general and there was really no helping him. He was also President of the Universe and its definitely not a job anyone actually wants.

All oddities aside, I do that collaboration is very helpful in many situation. Having someone around to bounce ideas off of and listen to me helps me cope with all the stuff going on in my life. Good luck today!

Monday Computer Models

I think it is really cool that scientists are using computer models and simulations to learn more about cell part functions. I do not remember learning about integrins in science class, but if most scientists do not understand how they work, that is not really surprising. I doubt teachers like to teach things they do not understand. I am not a teacher though. I think the vast majority of researchers out there are doing some impressive things and most of the world will not ever know about their work. However, there are vast amounts of people out there doing other kinds of important work that no one will ever know about. I think the anonymous nature of humanity is rather unfortunate. We cannot know everyone and yet everyone is worth knowing in some capacity. Part of my problem with philosophical arguments about what we can know and how we can know is that I believe reality needs to include all the other people. I do not think we should argue that our realities only are made up of what we know when I don't believe that is true. I may be confusing things at the moment, but it is a Monday morning. I would so much rather be in bed or doing nothing. However, neither would I want to miss today's classes on Christology, the Future tense of Spanish, and translating part of the book of Esther from Hebrew. So off to school I go...

What is your favorite scientific computer model?

No! That's my water!

Water Security
The article on science blog the last few days about water security highlights the fact that international work on global water security cannot really be done without some real and agreed upon definition of what water security is. The UN has proposed the following definition in hopes to begin work on water security and include water security to be a large focus on the Sustainable Development Goals which will succeed the Millennium Development Goals when they finish in 2015. “The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.”
Water security, and insecurity, is something which I have long wondered about. My personal political conflict expert, my grad student boyfriend, has told me that water is not the basis for any conflict in the political sphere. However, I have always thought, meaning someone/thing told me a long time ago, that water was something political conflict was around. The article states, "Water insecurity, therefore, leads to cascading political, social, economic and environmental consequences, the brief says." The brief being what the UN-Water people put out. The article also cites the Pacific Institute's Water Project which has been studying water security and political conflict since the 80's. I am curious where my Latro is getting his research on water and conflict and will have to ask him. 

What do you think? Do water resources incite conflict? 

Wait, Men and Women are different...?

Yes!

The answer is yes!

In so many, many, diverse ways!

We have different chemical constructions, we have different neurological tendencies, we have different body structures, we have a tendency to like different things, we even get sick differently.

That was the moral of today's article entitled Men and Women Get Sick In Different Ways. Very straight forward. However, in the medical world, its not very straight forward. The first major disease which I knew affected men and women differently was heart disease because of the differences in signs of a heart attack. It is interesting that most medical studies are done on men. Perhaps studies ought to be done on women as well. I would guess that with different chemical make ups, diseases respond differently in each environment and that the body will respond to disease and treatment differently. That's just my guess. I could be wrong.

And even though men and women seem to love differently, we can all love. And everyone is better off with a little love. Especially when they are sick. Here's a little love.

Ngram Fun!

I read an interesting article for a book fan today. It is about how the expression in literature has decreased in the last century. Even more so because it reminded me of the Google Books Ngram Viewer which is a lot of fun to play around with.
Like this. The usage of Yoda and sonic in English literature since the 1800s. Obviously sonic wins out because it is a adjective.
However, if we just look at where it is used as a noun, we get this. Sonic the Hedgehog isn't as well used as Yoda (though then I realized I was using sonic and not Sonic, so I adjusted for that and got this. Darn). I really wonder what the discussion about Yoda around 1910 was...

Also interesting that despite the rise of the nones in religion talk, the use of the word atheism has gone down since 1800.
For my Latro, Big Data is definitely on the rise. For some of my classmates, women modifying priest, being talked about in literature since the 1800s. Boo-yah! And lunch is on the rise!

[And here is where I sneakily 'accidentally' turn off my internet because otherwise I will be playing on Ngrams all night... which doesn't win out against day...]

Sleep! It helps you learn!

'“The study demonstrates that sleep restores performance and makes learning robust against interference encountered after sleep. This process is critical to the formation and stability of long-term memories,” Nusbaum said.'
The study about which the article speaks is about sleep in starlings helping them form memories and learn better. However, the article seems to think that studying the starling ability helps us understand our own ability. Thus the idea that humans learn better when they include sleep to help consolidate their memories of what they learned. All night cramming will not help you for a test, learning some during the day and then sleeping with help you more. Granted, if you have no time to learn anything, sleeping may not help as much as if you had, but being awake during the test after being up all night won't help you either. Anyway, as you can tell, I am biased towards getting good sleep everyday in order to retain what I have learned and being able to work with that knowledge the next day. A good sleep always seems to make a day better! Emphasis not really needed on the good adjective in that sentence. Bad sleep doesn't help that much. Sleep! Rest! Enjoy your daily death practice! (Such a good Lenten consideration. Think about it. Sadly we go to sleep much more willingly than death but they are similar in nature.)

Texting Can Cause Stress and the Death Star Conspiracy

Long distance relationships are hard enough without having to be in war jobs. I cannot imagine being in a long distance relationship with your whole family and being in the armed forces. I bet soldiers and others think that they are helping by texting and emailing and so forth and in some cases they are probably doing a better job of being present to their families than previous generations had been. However, I know first hand about the miscommunication which can happen as a result of just seeing words on a screen without the inflection and the tone in which they are said. I hope that whatever guidelines psychologists come up with, soldiers and families can find better ways of being present to each other without causing extra stress.


In some very serious news, a video was released which showed that the Death Star destruction may have been helped by an inside man. The inside man. The evidence is quite good. You might be convinced.

Lenten Stingrays and Tectonic Plates!

I read two articles this morning. I am having a slight problem focusing, just fyi.

The first was about the stingrays in Stingray City in the Cayman Islands. Apparently lots of people visit the stingrays and pet and feed them. Some researchers have found that this is messing with normal stingray behavior. Instead, all the human activity is changing the stingrays into domesticated herd animals from their lone night ranger standard. Just another way humanity is changing the world in which we live. Given the popularity of the stingrays, I bet humanity does not want to hurt the animals. I wonder, does stingray behavior change in zoos?

The second article was about the plates under California. I once read a book about geology. And yes, that's about all the knowledge I have of that study. Well, a little bit more about the study of geology in Turkey considering that when I went to Turkey it was on a joint geology and religious studies trip. We did more religious studies than geology, but we did talk about the volcanoes in the area and the way they had changed the landscape. It seems that geologist have made a few discovery about the plates under California. I wonder if this means California will break off sooner or later than current thinking. We might actually not want California to do so since they grow so much food and wine. One of the ultimate wait and see scenarios!

In case you were wondering, Lent is almost over. This Sunday is Palm Sunday and then Easter is a week behind. This coming Monday is Passover for the Jewish tradition as well. I do not think I will continue to write about science everyday. However, I do think I will continue to blog more regularly and to talk more about science. I have all the best intentions!

Veritaserum and Authenticity

"The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth..."

How many people out there believe this exists?
It would seem to me that the truth is way too complicated to be able to share the whole thing. I mean the movement of atoms, the rotation of the stars, the movement of people, consequences, cause and effect, all working at the same time, not to mention human variability. How could you untangle the whole truth about something without leaving out anything?

As a Christian, I believe that truth lies with God. Not that we cannot see it or know some of it, but the whole truth lies with God. Of course, that is not going to stop any scientist looking for a protection against lies, but I am not always so sure we would want a world without lies. Human beings can be very harsh without our lies. I think the author of the article, was very correct in asserting that if an accurate truth drug were to be found, there would be some ethical grey areas to be tackled by the legal and ethical communities, and hopefully together.

Perhaps, humanity just needs to work on being more authentic. I will give it a try. 

St. Patrick's Day Chemicals

http://scienceblog.com/61298/video-the-chemistry-of-alcohol-and-hangovers-bytesize-scienceacs/

I really just looked at this article for two reasons.
First, it was the only new one up since yesterday.
Second, because I didn't know that the American Chemical Society has a website for their videos called Byte Sized Science and I think that is an awesome name. Lots of ancient religions thought that names had power, and in the information overload some of us live in, having a good name is essential.

I know first hand two of the powers of alcohol problems, dehydration and being 'allergic' to some of the ingredients. There are witnesses to the only real beer I ever drank, a Bud Light Lime, and it was not pretty. Although if you are into burping the ABCs, I could have bested you that night. Dehydration gets me all the time from other activities, so I can't really say that that is surprising. The video does have some nice pictures though.

Eating Good Food Makes You Feel Good!

While logically, the article I read showed the opposite, that eating bad food makes you feel bad and does not mean my title is true by deduction, my personal life story is evidence enough for me. I suggest eating good food. Good as in good tasting, good for you, and good for the environment. It does exist, I promise.

I read this article today: http://scienceblog.com/61294/unhealthy-eating-can-make-a-bad-mood-worse/ for multiple reasons against the interesting and saddening articles about MRSE and plastic in the oceans. The first is I am a foodie and love to talk about food. Second, I know personally how bad food can worsen a girl's self image cycle. Third, it was collected and given by Penn State researchers and I am currently in their neck of the woods. I am very glad that such realities are being scientifically researched. Humanity, at least the American portions of it, are just making life worse for themselves by the food, sleep, drinking, and working choices that they make. At least, at is my opinion. My suggestion: eat good food. It may cost a bit more, but you will be healthier, you will like yourself better, and you will feel better. What's not to like in that scenario?

More Olive Oil!

http://scienceblog.com/61239/olive-oil-the-key-to-feeling-full/

I really liked olive oil. I was very interested when I learned about the olive oil industry on my birthday last week. Now I am even more a fan since I learned today that the smell of olive oil helps you feel sated. Yes, I probably will try my own experiment on how sated I feel after meals with and without olive oil in the future. However, since my time with my handsome Latro is coming to a close for a while, home experiments will have to wait.

As much as I love food science, I really dislike the food science which disables me from eating many things. My celebration of St. Patrick's day this year will be cut back since I cannot buy a corned beef brisket anywhere without detrimental soybean oil on it. Thus, someday soon I will be delving into the experimental world of corning my own brisket. Should be interesting. Stay tuned.

For the next episode of Experimental Science Religion Food Wonders! ;)

A Teensy-Weensy Tidbit about the LHC

Have you ever played Scribblenauts? One of my favorite things to call upon was the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Yes, I might be a geek. Just maybe. The article I read today was about the presentation of the data and findings at a conference today of last years exploration for the Higgs boson particle. It is interesting that the scientists cannot 100% say that what they found is the Higgs boson particle, but that it has so far conformed to the understanding of what a Higgs boson particle would do/be. I do not know much about the classification of particles discussed in the article. I do think it is cool also that they are not sure what model of physics this particle will uphold with its behavior. The scientific method at work! Most of my uses of the scientific method these days involve food. One such example was my gluten free communion wafer testing party recently. I am writing an article about that now, so hopefully I will be able to put it up soon (or if I get lucky, a link to where it is elsewhere...). 

Toy Story, Kangaroos, and American Religion

http://scienceblog.com/61109/what-kangaroos-can-tell-us-about-walking-upright/

http://scienceblog.com/61101/americans-and-religion-increasingly-parting-ways-new-survey-shows/

There a way too many cool sounding articles on scienceblog. I am not sure what the difference in hind leg structure of bipedals versus quadrupedals will tell us, other than they are different because the forces are different. However, I do know that statistics about Americans and religion are not big news anymore. The more interesting question there is why?

However, the most interesting of the evening is an unanswered hole from the Toy Story Trilogy: who poisoned the water hole?

And why? Anyone know?

Burnout and CHD or Sabbath? I'll choose Sabbath

The article suggests that people at the top of the burnout scale are also much higher at risk for Coronary Heart Disease. The life style that creates job burnout also seems to create heart disease. That is terrible. I am glad that the article has some suggestions both for ways to avoid burnout and coronary heart disease. I have been conscientious to try to make sure that I work in exercise, eating healthily, and getting enough sleep into my lifestyle, but I certainly do not get enough rest and prayer as I should. I don't think I am at risk for job burnout at the moment, but it is a problem for some priests. The passage I read today from the Bible was from Jeremiah. He was telling the Israelites of Judah and Jerusalem that they need to keep the sabbath day or otherwise God will destroy the land. It seems kind of round about, but over work of the land because of overwork of the people would lead to destruction of the land. The consequences are a bit more dire in the prophesy, but the Israelites at the time had a lot to contend with during the post-exilic period. No matter who you are, you should take time to rest, relax, and be connected with your self, your family, and your community.

Another interesting article which I read today was about a triple quasar system. That is cool!

Dinner Guests -- Round 2.2

Finally! The next installment of the dinner guests tournament. Here I will narrow down the left side of the bracket. Here's what it looks like now:

And my picks:

Wash vs. the 10th Doctor
Wow, this is tough. Even as I write this, I'm not 100% sure who to pick. I've only seen the modern Doctor Who, but #10 is my favorite of the three I've been exposed to. Plus, having a time lord present at your dinner party would make for quite the night. There's also the potential for a TARDIS ride... That said, I choose Wash as he is one of my all time favorite characters, and he has his own pretty impressive space ship. Also, I don't think I could ever get enough of this.

Professor McGonagall vs. Hermione
This one wasn't quite as tough as the first one in this round, but I still hate to see a beloved character go. I choose Hermione here, mostly because I could see us being good friends, even if she can be a bit bossy.

Fred Weasley vs. Troy Barnes
Two of the funniest men in the tournament toe to toe here. Therefore, I'll have to go with the one that can perform magic (sorry Troy, the Dreamatorium doesn't count).

Legolas vs. River Song
No offense to Legolas, but this is probably the easiest one this round. River Song is quite the character and will probably make at the least a decent run in this tournament.

Gus vs. Peach
While Peach is one of my favorite Finding Nemo characters, Gus takes it here, as long as he drives the blueberry.

Stormy vs. Jack
This is tough because I'd like to see Jack go farther in this tournament, but Stormy is such an interesting character in her own right. Also, since it's past my bedtime I'm not feeling too adventurous, so hanging out with Jack doesn't sound quite as appealing as it might otherwise.

Arya vs. Holmes
Another toughy! Again, I hate to see such a beloved character go, but I have to go with Holmes here. It would be amusing to listen to his thought process, and maybe even learn a thing or two!

Marvin vs. Early
The deciding factor here is mostly that Marvin would probably depress the entire party.

So there you have it! Here's the bracket with the latest picks filled in:

Even Mummies have diseases!

The science article today is about how mummies have atherosclerotic vascular disease as well. That is when your arteries clog up and get hard. It causes heart attacks, strokes, and other deadly symptoms. I do not know much about it. I know that I saw a bunch of patients in the hospital this past summer with it. I saw a man have one of his arteries cleaned by surgery this summer because he had, and was in danger of having more, strokes. I am glad that someone thought to check how long this disease has been going on by looking at mummies. Lots of things can be blamed on lifestyle and diet, but if this kind of problem is actually naturally part of the aging process, then it can be looked at and monitored differently. I looked up the definition of disease and was surprised. I always thought that disease meant something that you contracted, not something that was naturally part of you. While I will have to think about the definition of disease a little bit more, I know I do not agree that every disease is abnormal. Some 'diseases' are quite normal. They are just another thing that makes us a little bit different from each other. We are unique. 

Computer Competition!

http://cancerincytes.scienceblog.com/2013/03/09/using-computers-to-prevent-human-rights-violations/

For someone who is dating an international conflict stats graduate student and best friends with a computer programmer, this article seemed very intriguing. It seems it is more of an announcement of a competition. The competition is giving prizes for computer models and other things working to prevent mass genocide, rape, cleansing, and so forth. The mission is a very laudable one and we can hope that humanity can one day move away from ever wanting to try such things on each other. As a strong Christian, I believe that we should all work to love and be loyal to each other. In the terms of science, if we are all interconnected, then killing or hurting large populations will change you. Not really any way around that. And truly, what would your mother say?

The site of the challenge is here: http://thetechchallenge.org/

Musical Progressions

http://thinkingintermsof.scienceblog.com/2013/03/08/the-science-of-music-and-algorithms/

This article is really cool. I remember learning 'rules' of music composition in my eighth grade special music class. I cannot help but think of some of Isaac Asimov's stories when things like this come up. Some of his stories dealt with how humans would respond to the changes in ourselves with technology. Who knows what the future will bring.

We, those previously at headquarters, had a wonderful reunion today to celebrate the launching of a career of one of our members. It was awesome.

Life is Amazing

http://scienceblog.com/60944/institutional-betrayal-magnifies-post-trauma-effects-of-unwanted-sexual-activity/

Today is Friday. An ordinary Friday. However, it is amazing what can happen in a week.

Two cases as examples:
First, we all complain about institutions. Especially ones which we feel did us some harm or feel that they handled something incorrectly. How much more so for people who have suffered from sexual abuse or harassment in an institutional setting, like colleges, military, and so on. As humans, we walk a fine line of being responsible for ourselves and responsible for others which gets lost in the fog of control.

Second, my personal week. In the last week I have written a sermon, hosted a special dinner party, run a 15K race, given a sermon, taught an Adult Christian Ed class, gone to class despite the distraction of my boyfriend visiting, gotten officially a year older, driven through five different states, seen an old friend, failed a major test, and been given wonderful presents, all with the prospects of good old friends to visit and more interesting work to come.

How much love do you have in your week?

"You are the salt of the earth."

http://scienceblog.com/60860/excess-salt-may-drive-the-development-of-autoimmune-diseases/

Being a Celiac, I am very interested in autoimmune diseases. I doubt that salt was the major issue of my development of Celiac and other food issues, however I am glad to see that research is looking at the simple causes of health problems. My guess is that such environmental factors work with or against other factors. There are a lot of good articles on scienceblog today. On the religious side, look up where in the bible the title comes from. Good luck ;)

Olive Oil Video Wednesday

The article I read today was actually is a video about olive oil. It is really interesting to hear what they are doing to test olive oil and to see the quality of different types of olive oil. The industry does all sorts of things to try and increase sales but keep costs low. That does not always make for the best quality oil. Also, apparently olive oil should have a harvest date on it and that should be the date consumers look at when deciding which bottle of olive oil to purchase. Chemistry abounds in the food world. I think that is one reason I like cooking and baking so much is that it is usually tasty experimentation with different items. I do not have to write out my methods or ingredients, I can experiment and keep going in order to find the combination that I really like. http://thinkingintermsof.scienceblog.com/2013/03/04/avoiding-olive-oil-fraud/

Watching Brain Drain

The articles I read today were about how your brain gets tired while doing physical activity and shuts down the muscles and how researchers were able to tell who people were thinking about in an experiment given the personality traits given to the models. I think the second ability is quite impressive. I love learning about human brains, part of knowing myself. So effectively I can learn from this article that my brain processes people differently because of the personality traits that I perceive in them. I use different parts of my brain to think about different people. I am very glad that no one watches my brain, but I am glad that researchers are doing brain research. I wonder what else we can see in the brain images given by thinking. If I am thinking about a certain type of game, will that show up differently than other types of games? I bet it would, but I wonder how far that ability goes? Can we see how much of one personality trait is being thought about by the amount of activity in that location of the brain? How much can I really learn about myself in learning about my brain? Is neurology the same as psychology where people who study it go through stages of thinking that they have the latest problem they are learning about? There are definitely a few neurological and psychological problems that I do not have. What can you learn about your own brain from self testing and experimentation? 

Sports Statistics for the Win!

http://scienceblog.com/60747/how-numbers-can-reveal-hidden-truths-about-sports/

While growing up, I heard a lot about sports statistics from my brothers. They knew the stats of all their favorite players and one of my brothers would calculate statistics for his made up teams. So I am not surprised that many people with science and mathematics skills are researching better and more thorough ways to calculate what is really going on during different sporting events. I am not at all surprised to learn that environmental factors truly affect the way that field goals are made, but I am a little surprised that psychological factors do not seem to have anything to do with whether a field goal is made or not. I have read a little bit about the mind body connection and how we can make ourselves sick, stressed, happy, changing our emotional make ups which changes our performance in other situations. I am a little bit surprised to learn that in cold weather, field goals are more likely to succeed. I would think that normal temperatures, mid range I guess, would be better. I however, do not research this stuff, so I will take their word for it. I am curious how fast the sports statistics world will change in response to new information like this. I know they came out with a movie about the book Moneyball last year, but I haven't seen it. Perhaps someday. Mathematics in popular culture!

Trash, Cash, and Graph Laplacians

The articles I read today were really cool and very geeky. "Turning Trash into Cash... And Saving Energy" http://scienceblog.com/60743/turning-trash-into-cash-and-saving-energy/ is a must read for Sonic. I loved the line about the dorm refrigerator and the teddy bear humidifier. If that is not a cool sentence, I don't know what is. I do have an extra dorm refrigerator and a penguin humidifier, perhaps I could make myself a RecycleBot. I will have to look it up. The implications, as stated about people living in garbage dumps selling 3D printer plastic, are awesome and very practical. I do not buy plastic milk cartons since I do not buy real milk anymore, but I am sure that is not the only kind of plastic that can be recycled in this manner.
The second article I read today was highly mathematical and only for those who understand the phrases "numeric linear algebra" and "solving graph Laplacians." http://scienceblog.com/60745/new-technique-for-solving-graph-laplacians-has-big-implications/ If you don't understand those two, its not worth reading the article. Just know that the researchers at MIT are still doing their jobs in coming up with great theoretical ways of solving problems.

Saturday Volcanoes!

http://scienceblog.com/60741/volcano-aerosols-not-pollutants-tamped-down-recent-earth-warming/
Volcanoes are spewing sulfur dioxide, and while that stuff stinks, its actually helping the earth not warm as much as expected from global warming. This is not going to stop the warming effect of greenhouse gases from humans, but it is interesting that scientists were previously ignoring something as small as volcano eruptions in the total global climate calculations. Science brings us so many wonders of knowledge. Science has taught us that everything is interconnected literally through advanced physics and the climate everywhere shows this in its reactions to what is going on. I read a study once where Friday traffic in highly populated areas increase the chance of Sunday and Monday rain because of the pollutants in the air. That is local climate change. If traffic problems can change the weather, then I would think even small volcanic eruptions  could change the weather. Obviously most of us remember the large volcanic change to the weather caused by the eruption in Iceland a few years ago. As much as I understand the need to get rid of small factors and coefficients in large mathematics, some times those small factors can drastically change the mathematics. I love how many science problems come down to the mathematical principles or statistics in order to make sense.

The Magic of Gold

The article I read today was very cool. http://scienceblog.com/60728/how-gold-particles-dna-and-water-will-shape-future-of-medicine/ I didn't know how a home pregnancy test works, and the idea of being able to diagnose diseases with water, blood, and gold particles is so simple and cool. It does take a fair bit of work I would assume to set the procedure up so that the gold particles and the DNA-zyme solution works when it comes in contact with the water and blood. The article makes it seem so simple that I could buy some gold particles and mix them up with blood and water and see if I have malaria or cancer. However, the ability of the powder they are making could seriously help the doctors, nurses, and volunteers working in areas with high rates of health problems to more efficiently diagnose and help certain patients. I wonder how much gold this procedure takes and whether there would be any fall out from that. I doubt it, but you never know. It probably wouldn't do anyone any good in the medical test powder, and certainly not after it has been used to test someone for a disease.
If you haven't looked at any of the science blog pages that I have taken articles from, you totally should. There are so many interesting articles and things going on in science these days. Did you know also that there is a Society of Ordained Scientists? Perhaps someday I would be able to work with them. Although I am a mathematician by training. I wonder if there is a society for ordained mathematicians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Ordained_Scientists and http://home.earthlink.net/~jjkeggi/SOSc/