Researchers in Canada have found 4.28 billion year old rocks, probably the world’s oldest, and which may be remnants of a portion of the first crust that formed at the surface of our planet, known as the primordial crust.The ancient rocks were found in Northern Quebec, along the Hudson’s Bay coast, 40 km south of Inukjuak in an area known as the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt.The researchers who made the discovery estimated the age of the terrestrial rocks using isotopic dating, which analyzes the decay of the radioactive element, neodymium-142, contained within them, a technique that can only be used to date rocks roughly 4.1 billion years old or older.The Earth is 4.6 billion years old, and remnants of its early crust are extremely rare - most of it has been mashed and recycled into Earth’s interior several times over by plate tectonics since the Earth formed.The discovery team included McGill University earth scientists, Jonathan O’Neil and Don Francis teamed up with Richard W. Carlson, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., and Ross K. Stevenson, a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).The discovery, whose results are published in the September 26 issue of the journal Science, pushes back age of most ancient remnant of Earth’s crust by 300 million years, according to the researchers.O’Neil said: “Our discovery not only opens the door to further unlock the secrets of the Earth’s beginnings. Geologists now have a new playground to explore how and when life began, what the atmosphere may have looked like, and when the first continent formed.”

Tags: science, Interesting

Tags: science, Humor

Tags: technology, science, Interesting

Tags: science, Humor

• Pink markers are suspect
• Purple markers are confirmed
• Deaths lack a dot in marker
• Yellow markers are negative

Tags: science, technology

Obama promises major investment in science

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama promised a new era of science and technology for the nation, telling the National Academy of Sciences on Monday that he wants to devote more funds to research and development.America has fallen behind other countries in science, Obama said.

"I believe it is not in our character, American character, to follow — but to lead. And it is time for us to lead once again. I am here today to set this goal: we will devote more than 3 percent of our gross domestic product to research and development," Obama said in a speech at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.

That 3 percent would amount to about $420 billion.

"We will not just meet but we will exceed the level achieved at the height of the space race," he said.That pursuit of discovery a half century ago fueled the nation's prosperity and success, Obama told the academy."The commitment I am making today will fuel our success for another 50 years," he said. "This work begins with an historic commitment to basic science and applied research."

And he set forth a wish list including solar cells as cheap as paint; green buildings that produce all the energy they consume; learning software as effective as a personal tutor; prosthetics so advanced that you could play the piano again and "an expansion of the frontiers of human knowledge about ourselves and world the around us.'"We can do this," Obama said to applause.

In recent years, he said, "scientific integrity has been undermined and scientific research politicized in an effort to advance predetermined ideological agendas."

He then drew chuckles, commenting: "I want to be sure that facts are driving scientific decisions, not the other way around," Obama said.

"At such a difficult moment, there are those who say we cannot afford to invest in science, that support for research is somehow a luxury at a moment defined by necessities. I fundamentally disagree," Obama said.

"Science is more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment, and our quality of life than it has ever been," he said.

Obama said he plans to double the budget of key science agencies over a decade, including the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.He also announced the launch of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. It is a new Department of Energy organization modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, that led in development of the Internet, stealth aircraft and other technological breakthroughs.

And he said the Energy Department and the National Science Foundation will offer programs and scholarships to encourage American students to pursue careers in science, engineering and business related to clean energy.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Tags: science

Tags: science, Humor, sex

Tags: science, Humor

Los Angeles (CA) - A study from Ohio State University, based on a study of 219 students, suggests that the more you use Facebook, the less you study, and the worse your grades get. However, the report’s author does say the report only shows a possible connection between Facebook use and lower performance in your studies. Sure, we all know the truth: Facebook makes you dumb, among other things.

If you use Facebook, you are probably driven by the inane status updates that spew out of your friends across your pages. The joy of a muffin, the pictures of a party where everyone got drunk and dressed up like a slutty leprechaun, and the obligatory question that hopes to solicit a comment because you want to make sure someone in your network is reading your pathetic attempts at making the minutiae of your existence seem interesting. It is the equivalent of Vogon poetry, odes to green putty found in one’s arm putty. It makes you read stupid things, write stupid things, and think stupid thoughts. Unfortunately, the Ohio State University report did not go that far.

It says that 65% of students checked Facebook once a day, some more than that, and that they spent at least an hour a day on the site. Interestingly enough, 79% of the Facebook users felt that using the site had no impact on their work.  The real difference is grades?

“It is the equivalent of the difference between getting an A and a B.” Said Aryn Karpinski, the researcher at Ohio State who quizzed 219 students for his study.

Tags: technology, science

Tags: technology, science

Robot scientists can think for themselves.

Two teams of researchers said on Thursday they had created machines that could reason, formulate theories and discover scientific knowledge on their own, marking a major advance in the field of artificial intelligence.

Just by crunching the numbers -- and without any prior instruction in physics -- the Cornell machine was able to decipher Isaac Newton's laws of motion and other properties.

Lipson does not think robots will make scientists obsolete any day soon, but believes they could take over much of the routine work in research laboratories.

Tags: science, grad school, Humor

Tags: Art, science, Humor

Tags: Art, science, Humor

The monitored the balloon to 100,000 feet, when it finally popped due to the difference in pressure and it fell back to Earth. They had to go 10km in order to find the sensors and camera, but everything survived and they got some beautiful images.

Here is a link to their flickr page and a link to their website. Both are in Spanish, but google translate works quite well!

Originally found the story on telegraph.co.uk.

Tags: science

Tags: science, physics

In the wide world of dating, there are many options. Do you go for the flashy guy with the smooth smile, or the dude in the corner typing away on his laptop? The following are reasons why I think my fellow females should pay more attention to the quiet geeks and nerds, and less attention to the flashy boys.

1.) While geeks and nerds may be awkward, they’re well-meaning 9 out of 10 times. That smooth dude with the sly grin and the spider hands? Wonder what HIS intentions are... plus, I’ve never had a geek guy not call me when he said he would. Score major points THERE.

2.) They’re useful. In this tech-savvy world, it’s great to have a b/f who can make your laptop, desktop, and just about anything else that plugs into a wall behave itself.

3.) They’re more romantic than they’re given credit for. Ok true, their idea of romance might be to make up a spiffy web-page with all the reasons why they love you, with links to pics of you and sonnets and such... but hey. It lasts longer than flowers, plus you can show your friends.

4.) Due to their neglected status, there are plenty to choose from. You like ‘em tall and slender? There are plenty of geeks/nerds who are. You like ‘em smaller with more meat on their bones? Got that too.

5.) They’ve got brains. Come on now, how can intelligence be a bad thing?

6.) Most are quite good at remembering dates. Like birthdates and such, especially if they know it’ll make you happy. Due again to their neglected status, they’re more attentive than guys who “have more options”. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, they’ll likely have mental lists of all the things they’d love to do once they GOT a girlfriend.

7.) Sex. Yep. Sex. I’m not really familiar with this myself, but I’ve friends who’ve been intimate with geek guys and it’s raves all around. They say a virgin wrote the Kama Sutra... all that time thinking about sex, imagining sex, dreaming about sex, (they are male after all) coupled with a desire to make you happy? Use your imagination.

8.) They’re relatively low-maintenance. Most can be fueled on pizza, Twinkies and Mt Dew. No complicated dinners needed here, so if you’re not the best cook, eh. Can you order a pizza?

9.) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You won’t have to worry much about your geek guy getting his “groove” on with club hotties because, frankly, he’ll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You won’t have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, he’ll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics store. I’ve seen this happen.

Me: “Eww. Victoria Secret’s Models... They’re so skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!”Geek Guy: “ooooooo...”Me: “Hey!” *notices he is staring lustfully towards the computer store*Geek Guy: “What?”Me: “Never mind...”

10.) Although he may not want to go to every outing with you, you can arrange swaps, as in, you’ll go to his Gamer Con dressed as an elf princess if he’ll take you to the ballet. Plus, if he doesn’t want to go someplace with you, you won’t have to worry much about what he’s up to. You’ll probably come home to find him asleep on his keyboard in a sea of Mt. Dew cans with code blinking from the screen. It’s ok. He’s used to this. Just toss a blanket over him and turn out the light.

11.) His friends aren’t jerks. I can’t stress this enough. You’ll more likely get “Omg! A GIRL!! Can I see?!” than “Hey hot stuff back that ass up here and let me get some grub on...” They’re awkward geeks too and will, 9 times out of 10, treat you with the utmost respect and, more than likely, a note of awe. A cute girl picked one of their clan to date? It could happen to them! Hope! Drag some of your single girlfriends over, open up a pack of Mt. Dew, crack open the DnD set and get working. Nothing impresses geek guys more than a girl who can hack-n-slash (well ok maybe if she can code... a geek can dream).

12.) They’re rarely if ever possessive. They trust you, so you can be yourself around them. You like to walk around the house in a ratty t-shirt for comfort? He won’t care. He does too! They won’t get pissy if you don’t wear make-up or don’t want to bother primping your hair. If you gain a few pounds, they won’t try their best to make you feel like crap.

13.) They’re usually very well educated. Physics majors and the like. See #5. You won’t have to listen to him blathering on about his car (ok maybe a little), he’ll have loads of other interesting things to talk about. Politics, world events, how much the chicken burgers down at the local place rock, so long as you douse them in hot sauce...

14.) You’ll almost never have to hear, “Yaw dawg whazzap!!” plop out of their mouths. Unless it’s in jest. They spell properly, use correct punctuation, and are able to tell the difference between the toilet and the floor. They almost never get “wasted”, so you won’t have to worry about coming home to find him and his friends passed out on the floor amidst a pile of beer bottles. Mt. Dew cans, perhaps...

15.) And the final reason why geeks and nerds make great boyfriends: They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though that’s a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than “DaMN baby you got a fine ass!!!” Believe me.

Tags: science, Humor

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Tags: science, physics, Engineering

John Sweeney, of Harvard, Massachusetts, was among the many residents of Eastern Mass without power after a big ice storm hit on December 12th. Sweeney, an electrical engineer, saw his Prius as the answer. Using an inverter, he converted the DC power coming out of the car into AC power for his house. Though he couldn't run his entire house one his one car, they were able to get approximately 17 Kilowatt hours of energy. This was enough to power his refrigerator/freezer, television, lights, wood stove fan and accessories for a few days. Although anyone can use a regular DC power supply, like the battery found in a non-Hybrid car, but a hybrid is ideal.

First, the Prius carries a much larger batter pack than a regular car, allowing someone to power more appliances for longer than the conventional AC Delco found in most cars. Second, unlike some backup battery systems found in homes, the Prius, like other cars, can recharge its batteries with its normal internal combustion engine. And here's the best part — because the Prius automatically turns itself on when the batteries drain to a certain level, Sweeney left the car running and it automatically turned over when it needed to recharge — about once every 30 minutes. If you were trying to do what Sweeney did with a non-hybrid, you'd find yourself spending a lot more time outside in the cold. The efficiency of the auto-on feature meant Sweeney only used around five gallons of gas.

Tags: science

Tags: science

Peeling sticky tape emits X-rays strong enough to scan a human finger, a remarkable experiment has shown.

US researchers used a motorised peeling machine to unwind a roll of Scotch tape at a rate of 3cm per second.

By placing their apparatus in a vacuum, they measured X-rays strong enough to X-ray a human digit, according to a report in Nature journal.

It is well known that unwinding sticky tape produces sparks of light that can be seen in the dark by the naked eye.

This phenomenon, known as "triboluminescence", is produced by the friction generated when two surfaces rub against each other.

The study, by Carlos Camara and Juan Escobar, of the University of California, Los Angeles, USA, provides evidence for the phenomenon, which was first observed more than 50 years ago.

Tags: NAture, science

Tags: Experiment, science, women, Humor

Tags: Art, science

Geneva, 10 September 2008. The first beam in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN1 was successfully steered around the full 27 kilometres of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator at 10h28 this morning. This historic event marks a key moment in the transition from over two decades of preparation to a new era of scientific discovery.

“It’s a fantastic moment,” said LHC project leader Lyn Evans, “we can now look forward to a new era of understanding about the origins and evolution of the universe.”

Starting up a major new particle accelerator takes much more than flipping a switch. Thousands of individual elements have to work in harmony, timings have to be synchronized to under a billionth of a second, and beams finer than a human hair have to be brought into head-on collision. Today’s success puts a tick next to the first of those steps, and over the next few weeks, as the LHC’s operators gain experience and confidence with the new machine, the machine’s acceleration systems will be brought into play, and the beams will be brought into collision to allow the research programme to begin.

Once colliding beams have been established, there will be a period of measurement and calibration for the LHC’s four major experiments, and new results could start to appear in around a year. Experiments at the LHC will allow physicists to complete a journey that started with Newton's description of gravity. Gravity acts on mass, but so far science is unable to explain the mechanism that generates mass. Experiments at the LHC will provide the answer. LHC experiments will also try to probe the mysterious dark matter of the universe – visible matter seems to account for just 5% of what must exist, while about a quarter is believed to be dark matter. They will investigate the reason for nature's preference for matter over antimatter, and they will probe matter as it existed at the very beginning of time.

“The LHC is a discovery machine,” said CERN Director General Robert Aymar, “its research programme has the potential to change our view of the Universe profoundly, continuing a tradition of human curiosity that’s as old as mankind itself.”

Tributes have been coming in from laboratories around the world that have contributed to today’s success.

“The completion of the LHC marks the start of a revolution in particle physics,” said Pier Oddone, Director of the US Fermilab. “We commend CERN and its member countries for creating the foundation for many nations to come together in this magnificent enterprise. We appreciate the support that DOE and NSF have provided throughout the LHC's construction. We in the US are proud to have contributed to the accelerator and detectors at the LHC, together with thousands of colleagues around the world with whom we share this quest.”

“I congratulate you on the start-up of the Large Hadron Collider,” said Atsuto Suzuki, Director of Japan’s KEK laboratory, “This is a historical moment.”

“It has been a fascinating and rewarding experience for us,” said Vinod C. Sahni, Director of India’s Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, “I extend our best wishes to CERN for a productive run with the LHC machine in the years to come.”

“As some might say: ‘One short trip for a proton, but one giant leap for mankind!’ TRIUMF, and indeed all of Canada, is delighted to bear witness to this amazing feat,” said Nigel S. Lockyer, Director of Canada’s TRIUMF laboratory. “Everyone has been involved but CERN is to be especially congratulated for bringing the world together to embark on such an incredible adventure.”

In a visit to CERN shortly before the LHC’s start-up United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon said: “I am very honored to visit CERN, an invaluable scientific institution and a shining example what international community can achieve through joint efforts and contribution. I convey my deepest admiration to all the scientists and wish them all the success for their research for peaceful development of scientific progress.”

1 CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. India, Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.

Tags: science

Sciencey beer.

“Maybe those with poor publication records are drowning their sorrows.”

Tags: science

Burning Proposal our new yearly tradition.

Apparently, it is not available.

Tags: Humor, science, grad school

Tags: Humor, science

Tags: science, Humor

Tags: Chemistry, science

Tags: science, Experiment

Tags: science

The point at which you first piss after you have been drinking your favorite alcoholic beverage and at this point you will be pissing every ten minutes.

The bladder has a capacity of 500 mL (roughly a small carton of milk). The bladder, like the ureter, has various bands of muscle in its wall – spiral, longitudinal and circular. When the bladder empties, the muscles contract in a specific sequence, starting at the top and working down to the bottom. This wrings virtually all of the urine from the bladder. You get your first urge to pass water with a volume of 150 ml of urine, but usually this can be easily ignored. But it’s harder to ignore the marked sense of fullness that normally happens around 400 mL.

The bladder is a hollow organ that is the reservoir for urine. Urine from the kidneys flows at about 1 ml per minute into the bladder, via the ureters. The ureters have walls of muscle arranged in spiral and longitudinal layers. Every 10-60 seconds, waves of synchronized muscle contraction progress down the ureters, pushing urine into the bladder.

Then you have to sit back and literally hold on. Just like five-year-olds physically clutching their groin when they feel they are busting to do a wee, you have to cross your legs, sit down and distract yourself mentally in an effort to ignore the first desire to pass urine. Wait for it to pass, without rushing to the toilet. The idea is to gradually increase the time between each urination, and retrain your bladder back to registering that it is full only when it is actually holding more than 300 ml. This means you get bladder control back, and the bladder stops wrongly sensing fullness at tiny volumes of urine. For most people, this is enough to shift them back to relatively normal bladder habits, full night sleeps and being able to throw away their maps marked with public toilets.

Tags: pee, science, Humor, Beer

The PCR Song

There was a time when to amplify DNA,
You had to grow tons and tons of tiny cells.

Then along came a guy named Dr. Kary Mullis,
Said you can amplify in vitro just as well.

Just mix your template with a buffer and some primers,
Nucleotides and polymerases, too.

Denaturing, annealing, and extending.
Well it’s amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do.

PCR, when you need to detect mutations.
PCR, when you need to recombine.
PCR, when you need to find out who the daddy is.
PCR, when you need to solve a crime.

(repeat chorus)

Tags: science, Humor

Tags: science, Humor

Dr Robert Henderson, who led the Cambridge research, explains: “This is the first time that such a process has been seen in real time. To be able see these nano-mechanisms as they are really happening is incredibly exciting. We can actually see the enzyme ‘threading’ through a loop in the virus’s DNA in order to lock on to and break it, a process known as DNA cleavage."

“The microscope and new techniques give us a clear view of the molecular interactions between proteins and DNA that we could only previously interpret indirectly. The indirect methods require scientists to make assumptions to interpret their data, and video footage like this can help to provide a more direct understanding of what is really happening."

Tags: science, Experiment

a buddy of mine sent me these science based jokes regarding women, which i found really funny, but probably will take a lot of crap for posting.

therefore i will now state the obvious for all the men out there:

these aren't funny no matter how hard you laugh and how true you find the pictures below, they are lies...propaganda and are not to be taken for the truth (hopefully that saves my ass).


a wonderful proof showing the relationship between women and problems...you can also substitute the root of all evil into equation for and prove that women equal evil.

The purpose of a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is to inform industrial purchasers and users of hazardous chemicals of the reasonably foreseeable physical and chemical hazards that may arise from the use of those chemicals. Most materials packaged for consumer use are exempt from the requirements of the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS). The MSDS should include precautions for normal use, handling, storage, disposal, and spill cleanup.

i love how perfect that definition of a MSDS is and how it relates to women!

graphical proof of the man's inability to win an argument...we have all been there



this one had me rolling around...yep one switch for a guy and a lot of knobs for women...not so easy to use or understand.


an time study on how long a a woman stays in her natural habitat vs how long a man will venture into a woman's natural habitat.

i wish i had links back to the sites that these were originally on, but i don't...if you know drop me a comment so i can give appropriate links!

Tags: science, Humor

Tags: phd comics, science, Humor

, to be very interesting.


It was no surprise that doctors, both MD and PhD, were at the top of the list, but what did surprise me was the limited range of IQ throughout the entire list. the range of IQ (for the 50th percentile) was only between 90 and 120 and if you remove the bottom three and top three occupations it become closer to 94 to 114. now if you think about the fact that the average IQ is 100 it appears that most occupations are within reach for anyone with an IQ of 90 (below average). i only counted 13 of the occupations which did not cover an IQ of 90. I know that these are the bottom of the IQ ranges for the occupation, but what this left me with was the feeling that maybe those workers i take for granted are smarter that i give them credit for.

Tags: science

Tags: science

Controlling for age, physical maturity, and mother’s education, a significant curvilinear relationship between intelligence and coital status was demonstrated; adolescents at the upper and lower ends of the intelligence distribution were less likely to have sex. Higher intelligence was also associated with postponement of the initiation of the full range of partnered sexual activities. An expanded model incorporating a variety of control and mediator variables was tested to identify mechanisms by which the relationship operates.

Conclusions: Higher intelligence operates as a protective factor against early sexual activity during adolescence, and lower intelligence, to a point, is a risk factor. More systematic investigation of the implications of individual differences in cognitive abilities for sexual activities and of the processes that underlie those activities is warranted.

Even very “early” behaviors, such as holding hands and kissing, are inversely related to PPVT scores, suggesting that higher intelligence is associated with a generalized delay in the onset of all partnered sexual activities.

The peak crime rate occurs in the IQ range from 75 to 90; this is approximately the same range in which the probability of having sex is highest in the Add Health sample (using AHPVT scores standardized to an IQ metric). Although many factors influence adolescents’ sexual behavior, just as many factors influence delinquency, it is clear that higher intelligence is a protective factor and lower intelligence, to a point, constitutes a risk factor.

The idea that brighter adolescents postpone holding hands and kissing because they believe that such activity will start them down the path to coitus (and toward the negative consequences that coitus may entail) implies an extremely far-sighted concern with a “slippery slope” that is hard to take seriously.

More intelligent adolescents do evidence a stronger attachment to conventional values and institutions, and higher expectations about goal attainment. For example, they make better grades in school, they have higher expectations about attending college, they believe their parents are more disapproving of sexual activity, they report higher religious attendance, and they are more likely to be involved in structured activities such as school clubs. Each of these factors is also associated with sexual postponement and appears to play a role in the protective effect of intelligence.

Previous analyses on measures of sexual interest, sexual motivation (e.g., masturbation), and conservatism of sexual attitudes from the Biosocial Factors data indicate that higher intelligence is not associated with lesser sexual interest, just with a postponement of acting on that interest.

The inclusion of multiple control and mediator variables yielded no change in the relative odds of having sex among adolescents who score very low on the AHPVT. This suggests that the elements and dynamics of the protection process differ for adolescents who fall at opposite ends of the intelligence distribution.

For males with IQs under 70, 63.3% were still virgins, for those with IQs between 70-90 only 50.2% were virgin, 58.6% were virgins with IQs between 90-110, and 70.3% with IQs over 110 were virgins.

Each additional point of IQ increased the odds of virginity by 2.7% for males and 1.7% for females.

By the age of 19, 80% of US males and 75% of women have lost their virginity, and 87% of college students have had sex. But this number appears to be much lower at elite (i.e. more intelligent) colleges. According to the article, only 56% of Princeton undergraduates have had intercourse. At Harvard 59% of the undergraduates are non-virgins, and at MIT, only a slight majority, 51%, have had intercourse. Further, only 65% of MIT graduate students have had sex.

The student surveys at MIT and Wellesley also compared virginity by academic major. The chart for Wellesley displayed below shows that 0% of studio art majors were virgins, but 72% of biology majors were virgins, and 83% of biochem and math majors were virgins! Similarly, at MIT 20% of 'humanities' majors were virgins, but 73% of biology majors. (Apparently those most likely to read Darwin are also the least Darwinian!)

While still consistent with pregnancy fears and competing interests, lower sex drive seems like a better fit. In fact another revealing finding from the Counterpoint survey was that while 95% of US men and 70% of women masturbate, this number is only 68% of men and 20% of women at MIT!

But lower sex drive and anxiety about sex's consequences can't be the whole story either. Half Sigma also showed that the smartest men in the GSS (approx. IQ >120) were also more likely to visit a prostitute. (Hardly indicative of cautiousness) This may suggest intelligent men are less able to find willing sex partners. Are smart men less attractive to women? Perhaps in some ways. For instance HS found that smart men were less likely to be athletic, and this paper shows, unathletic men and women have fewer sex partners. Athletic men, with more willing sexual partners are also less likely to visit a prostitute. Athletic activity gives men more masculine bodies, which are more attractive to women. A more masculine physique correlates with (PDF) an increased number of sex partners.

So intelligent people have lower libidos and less masculine physiques. What hormone is responsible for both sex drive and masculine builds? That's right: testosterone.

And two new papers suggest that testosterone may depress IQ. One team found that salivary testosterone levels were lower for preadolescent boys with IQs above 130 and below 70. (the same two groups most likely to be virgins in adolescence)

Tags: science, grad school, sex

Tags: DNA, science, Humor

Tags: science, Humor

Tags: science, Experiment

Jennifer Chowdhury attended the interactive telecommunications program at New York University, where her prototypes drew on her engineering training, her artistic aspirations and her sense of humor. Her master's thesis project, Intimate Controllers, is not explicitly sexual -- but it's not something you would use with your sibling, either.

Intimate Controllers is a set of sensors embedded in underwear that direct the action on a video game. Rather than sit separately on the couch and jam fingers against small plastic buttons, players touch each other to control the game.

Tags: science, Humor, grad school

circa 1890

circa 2007

so to all those male scientists who are always hating on global warming, pause for a moment and appreciate some of the perks...in 18 years the planet will be full of naked women.

and then, just maybe then, you [we] will actually have a chance with a real-life women...YAY!

Tags: science, women

For the propagation of an ideal where science communicators can meet firstly, for drinks; secondly, for communicating; and ultimately, for networking.

- not opposed to alcohol.

- fond of IPCC reports (especially the pictures).

- mostly in agreement with the “truth.”

- into badges.

- grieving for the slow and miserable death of the Hubble Space Telescope.

- possibly possessed of supernatural powers.

- not in the business of total world domination

- committed to the constant and diligent presentation of science stories, be it to editors, producers, directors, educators, relatives and/or friends of various ilk, in an effort to lessen the gap that is this thing we call public scientific literacy.

ORDER OF THE SCIENCE SCOUTS OF EXEMPLARY REPUTE AND ABOVE AVERAGE PHYSIQUE: the official badge

The “talking science” badge: if you know me you get this one

The “MacGyver” badge: i have used lab supplies more than once, for uses other than what they should be used for...mostly to escape from meetings with PIs

The “I blog about science” badge: um what they hell are you reading?

The “I’m pretty confident around an open flame” badge: don't question my bunsen burner competence

The “inappropriate nocturnal use of lab equipment in the name of alternative science experimentation / communication” badge: all i have to say is that when you are doing an experiment at 2am some things seem much cooler than they are

The “destroyer of quackery” badge: wanna to debate creationism?

The “sexing up science” badge: crossing and prokaryotic conjugation studies, i have done, but science is already sexy enough...isn't it? actually wait...don't answer that.

The “I can be a prick when it comes to science” badge: debate me regarding something i am passionate about...you'll see

The “has frozen stuff just to see what happens” badge (LEVEL I): yeah since i was 5

The “has frozen stuff just to see what happens” badge (LEVEL II): dry ice freezes stuff so much faster and all i have to say is sublimation

The “has frozen stuff just to see what happens” badge (LEVEL III): liquid nitrogen might be the reason i became a scientist...seriously...no really

The “I work with way too much radioactivity, and yet still no discernable superpowers yet” badge: radioactive uptake assay anyone?

The “I’ve done science with no conceivable practical application” badge: this one depends on your definition of practical, but i worked with humic acid...thats right you have no idea what that is!

The “I know what a tadpole is” badge: yes i do, plus it looks like sperm and i only know how to collect sperm from one other species [sea urchin] so i can get The “knows how to collect semen from more than one species” badge yet.

The “cloner” badge: i am a biochemist...nuh said.

The “totally digs highly exothermic reactions” badge: i like to blow things up...don't hold that against me

The “science has forced me to seek medical attention” badge: see above badge

The “statistical linear regression” badge: actually that looks like a gaussian distribution

The “I’ve set fire to stuff” badge (LEVEL I): fire is fun to play with

The “I’ve set fire to stuff” badge (LEVEL II): fire is fun to play with and there are rules to how it works [combustion principles]

The “I’ve set fire to stuff” badge (LEVEL III): fire is fun to play with and there are more rules to how it works [thermodynamic principles]

The “I’ve set fire to stuff” badge (LEVEL IV): see the exothermic reaction and medical attention badge

The “works with acids” badge: the easiest badge i achieved

The “has done science whilst under the influence” badge: normally late on fridays

The “what I do for science dictates my having to wash my hands before I use the toilet” badge: i am not touching my stuff with my hands after touching what i was just touching

so there it is...the badges that i am awarding myself!

so to everyone who has ever called me a geek or nerd...yeah i got nothing now...

Tags: science

Tags: science, grad school

Several years back, myself and some colleagues (all in the molecular biology genre) had a discussion about this over some drinks. Specifically, we tried to calculate how long our doctorates would have actually taken, if we assumed that all the experiments we did in our theses worked right off the bat. Always with the first time success, reproducible results in triplicate no problemo, no troubleshooting required, or literally, a case where we had "magic fingers" for the entire length of our graduate career.

And so, if we assumed that taking courses was not factored in, and that we would have about 3 months to actually write up the damn thing, we all agreed that our Ph.D. would have taken somewhere in the 6 month range to complete. 6 freakin' months!

Anyway, in the end, I took just over 5 years, which means for the 3 months or so of "thesis bound" results, there also existed about 54 months of "non-thesis" bound results. And that is like a 5% success rate - which ultimately means that, really, you just have to work one day every three or so weeks, and as long as you pick the right day, you'll still get your degree in the normal length of time.

Tags: grad school, science, Humor

Tags: grad school, science

Tags: science, grad school

Do you have dozens of PDF files from your favorite scientific articles scattered on your harddrive? Do you also try to desperately organize them by renaming and archiving them in folders? But like the piles of printed articles on your desk, you can't keep up with all the new papers you download, and despite all your efforts it has become impossible to find that one article.

Finally that all belongs to the past. We've been there, trust us, we know. That's why we wrote Papers, our latest application exclusively for the Mac. Papers will revolutionize the way you deal with scientific papers. Search for papers using PubMed, directly retrieve and archive PDFs, and read and study them all from within Papers, your personal library of Science.

so here are my favorite features:

1. creates an organized folder in my documents with all of the papers organized into folders by year, then into folders of first author, then renames the pdf via journal name_first author_year.pdf
2. did i mention it does this automatically
3. look up papers already downloaded and fixes their information and then does the aforementioned
4. has a built in pubmed search
5. built in web-browser
6. full screen pdf mode which i might be able to read a pdf on my computer rather than killing thousands of trees
7. one place to go for all my paper needs

Tags: science

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if i hadn't told you that this was a picture of a neural network you would have thought i was just posting pictures of abstract art. What about this one?

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Tags: science