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Tag Archives: science

Local Food and the Challenges of Estimating Environmental Impact

My friend Roberta just wrote an article for salon.com on local food and carbon impact! Interesting look at the complexities of trying to eat in a low-impact fashion.

Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind

Willpower in one area (like dieting) is weakened by its use in other areas (like studying), but if you keep at it, you increase your overall supply - cool!

Awesome Mazes

These are cool, and produced by SCIENCE!

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High-Velocity Falcon

High-Velocity Falcon - ok, this is awesome. They take a Peregrine Falcon up 15k feet with a little embedded computer to see how fast it can dive. The falconer who owns the bird dives out with it. The verdict: 183 mph.

Building a New Heart From Old Tissue

Building a New Heart From Old Tissue - I heart science?

Donated hearts for lifesaving transplants are scarce, but now researchers may have hit upon a way to generate the blood-pumping organs in the lab–at least in rats. The approach, which involves transplanting cells from a newborn rat onto the framework of an adult heart, produced […]

Lap Dancing for Science

Lap Dancing for Science - the paper: “Ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by lap dancers: economic evidence for human estrus?” The gist - lap dancers make significantly more money in tips during certain parts of their menstrual cycle; dancers on the pill don’t.
As I said to the friend (”they have really lovely p-values […]

Useless Body Parts

Useless Body Parts

No seriously, I felt the p-values, in my soul…

No seriously, I felt the p-values, in my soul…
…gamblers are convinced that they have “runs of luck”; we can take a perfectly cheerful heavy metal record, play it backwards, and hear hidden messages about satan. Our ability to spot patterns is what allows us to make sense of the world but sometimes, in our eagerness, […]

The Caffeine Database

The Caffeine Database - just in case you were wondering how much you’re drinking. Or how many Triple Nonfat Caramel Lattes it would take to kill you.

The Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel

The Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel
The story begins in any of the three dozen taquerias supplying the Bay Area Feeder Network, an expansive spiderweb of tubes running through San Francisco’s Mission district as far south as the “Burrito Bordeaux” region of Palo Alto and Mountain View. Electronic displays in each taqueria light up in real time with […]

Darwin’s God

Darwin’s God - A scientific exploration of how we have come to believe in God. Fascinating reading, especially for someone as empirically-minded as myself.

The Truth

The Truth

Be an Eloi!

Be an Eloi! - this is my favorite kind of “news” story – the “expert says” kind. From what I can tell from the article, some guy just said he thinks The Time Machine is cool, and it’s news.
Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and […]

Peep Research

Peep Research - Just in time for the Easter season, we bring you a classic.
The synergistic effect of smoking and alcohol in Peeps produces a rapidly exothermic oxidation reaction, leading to a chemical and morphological divergence from the wild-type Peep phenotypes.

The Perfect Cookie?

The Perfect Cookie? - Open source techniques applied to the problem of making a (relatively) healthy, shelf-stable, interesting, and delicious cookie.  Food scientists unite! (I am such a Malcolm Gladwell fanboy.)

Tomorrow, I Love Ya!

Tomorrow, I Love Ya! - file this one under “Things to read when you should be studying for your Torts final”