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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 4, 2014 at 6:20am

Scientists push for 'scientific integrity' at bargaining table
Canada’s federal scientists are going to the bargaining table this week with an unprecedented package of contract changes to promote “scientific integrity” in government, including the right of scientists to speak freely and forbidding political interference in their work.
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/scientists-push-for-scientif...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 4, 2014 at 6:18am

How Scientists Gained the Ability to Reverse Overdoses

Naloxone reverses the process by acting like a toddler grabbing for another child's toy, preventing death by shoving the opiate out of the way and binding to the receptor itself. This sends the user into immediate withdrawal. The side-effects – dizziness, nausea, shaking, sweating – are unpleasant but not overly dangerous. And if someone hasn't used any opioids, naloxone will have no effect, positive or negative.
http://gizmodo.com/how-scientists-gained-the-ability-to-reverse-ove...
Saved: How addicts gained the power to reverse overdoses
http://mosaicscience.com/story/saved-how-addicts-gained-power-rever...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 3, 2014 at 6:21am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 3, 2014 at 6:09am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 3, 2014 at 6:07am

Dynamic mechanical behavior of multilayer graphene via supersonic projectile penetration
A new study results suggest graphene may absorb 10 times the amount of energy steel can before failing. The bullet was propelled into stacked graphene sheets at supersonic speeds of up to 2000mph by the gases produced by laser pulses rapidly evaporating a gold film. The team calculated the energy difference of the bullet before and after to determine the energy absorbed.
Graphene was able to absorb up to 0.92MJ/kg of ballistic energy in the test, with cracks forming around the impact zone. By comparison, steel targets only absorbed up to 0.08MJ/kg at the same speed.
The trick lies in energy absorption. If you can nucleate many cracks, it is a way of spreading the impact into more material. It is similar to that of tempered safety glass, a material engineered to spread damage and not locate it to a point. Graphene’s high performance is down to its high stiffness and low density, both of which control the speed of sound in the material. The stiffer and lighter the material is, the faster sound, stress and energy can travel through it. If you are able to spread the energy at higher speeds across the target area, more of the material will support the load and reduce the damaging effect of the bullet. Graphene’s dynamic strength is significant as it may behave similarly to materials specifically engineered to stop bullets, such as Kevlar, a fabric composed of aromatic polyamide threads.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6213/1092

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 3, 2014 at 5:52am

Brain Training Doesn’t Make You Smarter
Scientists doubt claims from brain training companies

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brain-training-doesn-t-ma...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 2, 2014 at 7:52am

Researchers observe evolution of life forms that bear hallmarks of multicellular organisms
n ground-breaking study a team of researchers has reported the real time evolution of life forms that have all the hallmarks of multicellular organisms.

The researchers from New Zealand, Germany and the USA at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology have observed in real time the evolution of simple self-reproducing groups of cells from previously individual cells.

The nascent organisms are comprised of a single tissue dedicated to acquiring oxygen, but this tissue also generates cells that are the seeds of future generations: a reproductive division of labour.

Intriguingly, the cells that serve as a germ line were derived from cheating cells whose destructive effects were tamed by integration into a life cycle that allowed groups to reproduce.

The life cycle turned out to be a spectacular gift to evolution and rather than working directly on cells, evolution was able to work on a developmental programme that eventually merged cells into a single organism.

When this happened groups began to prosper with the once free-living cells coming to work for the good of the whole.

When single bacterial cells of Pseudomonas fluorescens are grown in unshaken test tubes the cellular collectives prosper because they form mats at the surface of liquids where the cells gain access to oxygen that is otherwise in the liquid unavailable.

Lead author Paul Rainey explained that simple cooperating groups, like the mats that interest people, stand as one possible origin of multicellular life, but no sooner do the mats arise, than they fail, which is the same process that ensures their success, natural selection, ensures their demise.

-journal Nature,

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 2, 2014 at 7:01am

On the epoch of the Antikythera mechanism and its eclipse predictor
Scientists Have Made a Remarkable Discovery About the World's Oldest "Computer"
According to new research, the ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism — sometimes called the world's "oldest analog computer" for its ability to predict lunar and solar eclipses and solar, lunar and planetary positions — may be much older than previously thought.

Based on recent analysis of the dials used to predict eclipses, Christián C. Carman, a science historian at the National University of Quilmes in Argentina, and James Evans, a physicist at the University of Puget Sound in Washington, have published new findings suggesting that the machine's dials actually start counting around 205 B.C., which would mean the device is 50 to 100 years older than researchers previously believed.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00407-014-0145-5

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 30, 2014 at 8:35am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 29, 2014 at 8:56am

Next battle in the war on science

The GOP Congress is ready to attack science agency funding in 2015.
GOP House members have had little success reining in research agencies so far, but, emboldened by their growing majorities, they’re hoping for better luck next year. They plan to push proposals to cut funding for global warming and social science research, put strict new rules on the National Science Foundation’s grant-making process and overhaul how science informs policy making at the EPA.

At the same time, however, researchers and their advocates in the Democratic caucus are taking increasingly aggressive stances of their own: Rather than answer GOP objections one by one, or brush them off, they’re making a larger issue of what they see as heavy-handed interference based on ideology rather than methodology.
Opponents in the scientific world and their political allies believe that, at its heart, the GOP assault isn’t about bringing greater accountability to the EPA or NSF, but rather a larger lack of trust in science that could soon spur efforts to micromanage NIH, the Department of Defense and other agencies that, all told, spend tens of billions on scientific research every year.

Researchers warn that funding only science that appears politically safe will stifle innovation and say that the agency actually does an impressive job of choosing which projects to fund.
But some in the research community say damage is already being done. Researchers will be less likely to apply for grants to fund unorthodox-sounding now — but potentially groundbreaking — research projects in future years, leaders of the Association of American Universities said recently in a statement.
Scientists and engineers, particularly young ones, should not be discouraged from pursuing unconventional, often groundbreaking scientific research.
More details here:
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/the-next-battle-in-the-war-on...

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