Bio-luminescense - Natural Art?

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-02/22/content_14663275.htm

Studying Butterflies

For getting funds for science projects you can consult this site:

http://www.petridish.org/

I found these interesting sites recently:

http://www.sciencentral.com/video/

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/

FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE IN SOCIETY
University of California, Berkeley, USA
17 - 19 November 2012
This Conference will address disciplinary and interdisciplinary challenges in the sciences, and in particular the relationships of science to society.
http://science-society.com/conference-2012/

Reductionism : Belief that complex phenomena are reducible to simple ones.

Imagine sitting down at your work keyboard, typing in your user name and starting work right away - no password needed. That's a vision that the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, part of the defence department, wants to turn into a reality. It will distribute research funds to develop software that determines, just by the way you type, that you are indeed the person you say you are.

Darpa's purpose is to sponsor "revolutionary, high-payoff research" for military use. But technology developed under Darpa's auspices - the internet itself being only one among many achievements traceable to its initiatives- eventually tends to find its way into the civilian world

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/The-way-you-type-wi...

What is the difference between infusing and dissolving? The difference between the two is that when something is infused in water, it actually becomes a permanent part of it. When something is dissolved, it is still itself—only broken into smaller particles, which can be removed with other techniques (such as evaporation).

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120326160655.htm

Butterfly Wings' 'Art of Blackness' Could Boost Production of Green Fuels

Butterfly wings may rank among the most delicate structures in nature, but they have given researchers powerful inspiration for new technology that doubles production of hydrogen gas -- a green fuel of the future -- from water and sunlight.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/apr/05/science-rampag...

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-science-wants...

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The magic of science!

“We recently realized that even when are sincere, the general public often misunderstands our explanations. Like, apparently, most people think that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows neurons firing in real time. Obviously fMRI measures the level of oxygenated blood in brain tissue, which is correlated with the amount of glucose delivered to different neurons, which is in turn correlated with the activity of those neurons. We honestly thought people knew that. It’s pretty basic.”
Neuro-scientists

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/04/01/neurosc...

My reply to this article:

When Religion Collides with Medical Care: Who Decides What Is Right for You?

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/04/02/molecules...

Doctors and science can find several ways out. I have an interesting story to tell. Some years back when a child was brought to India from a West Asian country for an operation, her parents' religious beliefs didn't allow the doctors to transfuse "others" blood into her body. Her condition was very weak. So the doctors here found a way out - by boosting her own blood levels for several months by carefully giving all the vital nutrients required and monitoring, collecting and storing her own blood and then giving it back to her at the time of operation. In the end the child was saved.
Saving the lives and helping the needy are the main priorities. Science can find ways to do this - religion or no religion!

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/04/flipping-icebergs/

Artists spinning science:
http://reesenews.org/2012/04/03/artists-scientists-explore-climate-...

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FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE IN SOCIETY
University of California, Berkeley, USA
17 - 19 November 2012
This Conference will address disciplinary and interdisciplinary challenges in the sciences, and in particular the relationships of science to society.
http://science-society.com/conference-2012/

http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/why-working-more-than-40-hours-...
Working for more than forty hours a week is not only non-productive but harmful!

According to a handful of studies, consistently clocking over 40 hours a week just makes you unproductive (and very, very tired).
Bad news for me!- Krishna

”Maybe we’re just too dumb” - Nobel laureate physicist David Gross

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=secret-computer-co...

Scientific method:
The scientific method is universally used in all different branches of science and it always includes certain steps, which can be applied to any experiment:

Question/Problem: The first step to any scientific inquiry is to ask a question about something. This is what you want to find out by doing your experiment. For example, you might start with a question like “In what temperature does a lima bean plant grow the fastest?”
Background Research: Before beginning the experiment, you must research all the scientific principles involved. During this step, you are gathering together the existing knowledge related to the experiment you intend to conduct. Using the above example of a lima bean plant experiment, you might research the plant’s typical growing conditions, water needs and other characteristics.
Hypothesis: A hypothesis is simply an educated guess about what you think will happen in your experiment, based on the research you’ve conducted. In the plant example, you might guess that lima beans will grow the fastest at temperatures of 85 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Experiment: Next, you conduct the actual experiment. In a science project context, you will need to outline and explain your procedures in detail and follow them exactly. Your experiment must also be designed to isolate the single variable you want to measure. In the lima bean example, you would set up a series of plants to have identical conditions except for the temperature. If you varied other things besides the temperature, you wouldn’t be able to tell which variable caused the change in results. In real scientific tests, the experiment is usually conducted several times and the results must be repeatable to be considered valid or proven.
Analysis: After conducting your experiment, you must look at the data you’ve collected and make a conclusion. The conclusion refers back to your original question. For example, you might conclude that lima bean plants grow the fastest in temperatures from 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Your results do not always prove your hypothesis correct. One of the most exciting things about science is that your guess is not always right and sometimes you will get unexpected results. When that happens, you must use what you’ve learned to try to explain why you got the results you did instead of the results you predicted.

Here is an interesting story of a science (and also litt.)-inspired person :
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/Science-wedding-gets-...

His four-page wedding invite does not give information of just his bride and himself, but also of world famous scientists, litterateurs and rationalist writers along with their photographs and some poems!

He says:

The luxuries and comforts we enjoy today is because of the contributions of scientists, poets and litterateurs.

(That is what I call true inspiration - when you are deeply into something! - Krishna)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47067078/ns/technology_and_science-spac...

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The New Scientist Eureka Prize for Science Photography
The Australian Museum and New Scientist magazine invite you to enter the New Scientist Eureka Prize for Science Photography for your chance to win a share of $10,000. Open to those 18 years and over, this Eureka Prize is awarded for a single photograph that most effectively communicates an aspect of science. What does science mean to you?
http://eureka.australianmuseum.net.au/eureka-prize/science-photogra...
Due: 4 May 2012

Judging Criteria

a. Technical excellence (20%)
b. Aesthetics (30%), and
c. Creativity in communicating a science concept or idea (50%)

Here is an interesting story - Physicist fights off traffic fine with science!
A US physicist came up with a rather calculative method to prove his innocence and get himself out of a traffic challan.
Mr. Dimitri Krioukov, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego, was pulled over for running a stop sign. The finewould have been $400. However, Krioukov wrote an academic paper to argue why he ought to be found not guilty. Its title: "The proof of Innocence". The judge bought it, said Mr. Krioukov. He was acquitted, the ABC News reported. According to the Huffington Post news website, in making his case, Mr. Krioukov writes that a police officer can perceive a car as not having stopped, even though it really did stop. He argues that the officer, watching at an angle about 100 feet away, confused the car's actual speed with its angular speed. Krioukov claims that he did stop the car and restart quickly, and that the officer missed it. (ANI)
Well done, Mr. Krioukov! This is what science can do. Provide proof!

Another real story to prove how science could be helpful: An young boy, whose father was a sweeper in railways went to railway station one day along with his father. While his father was sweeping a railway bogie, the boy started wandering and got lost. The bogie he was playing in was attached to a Kolkatta bound train and the boy reached Kolkatta. As he was very young and didn't know how to get back home, he started wandering in the Kolkatta streets. Somebody got him admitted in an orphanage. One Australian couple adopted him and took him to Australia. There he got educated, grew up and joined a good job. But he remembered his biological mother and wanted to meet her. So he used Google maps and tried to locate his home town. Finally one day eh succeeded. He came back to India and went to his home town again with the help of Google maps and found his parents and family members. His illiterate parents were speechless when their long lost son came back home again . This is what education in science does to you. It will show you the way when you are lost and desperate.

http://www.siliconindia.com/news/life/Women-and-their-Incredible-In...

Success of tsunami forecast depends on identifying the true  cause of an earth quake. If the earth's crust moved horizontally during plate movement during an earthquake rather than vertically, it won't trigger tsunami. Vertical tectonic plate movement displaces water upwards, it can trigger massive columns of waves — as was the case in 2004 - and cause tsunamis.

As a result, the speed at which scientists can identify the direction in which the earth's crust has moved in the event of an earthquake is crucial in issuing an accurate tsunami forecast quickly.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=herd-thinking&...
Science education through cartoons

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How rain drops are formed:

It illustrates the concepts of accretion — when the tiny droplets of water that form clouds bump into each other and combine to form larger drops — and cohesion, the attraction that water molecules have for each other. The “saturation point” that is mentioned in the video is the point at which a cloud can no longer absorb any more water and may release it as rain.

I am disappointed by this assertion : “I’m nonetheless going out on a limb and guessing that science will never, ever answer what I call “The Question”: Why is there something rather than nothing?” End of the science? Really? So it’s okay to chuck 2,000 years of scientific method out the window – a method that does not claim it will always find the truth, but a method that at least doggedly pursues the possibility that one *can* find answers rather than shrugging and assuming that not everything can be understood.

The idea of an infinite fractal cosmos was: “haunting, evocative…perhaps the most exquisite idea in science or religion…” - Carl Sagan

http://www3.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw/

Fractal Cosmology

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My reply to this article on Scientific American: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2012/04/23/science-...

Science Will Never Explain Why There’s Something Rather Than Nothing

What a gloomy picture?! Negative vibes? Yes. Science is still in its infancy. We cannot expect much from a child. It still has to grow a lot, learn a lot, think a lot, experiment a lot and come up with explanations.Is it even right to expect a child to solve all your problems and answer all your questions?
Is it right to explain things in the way religion or baseless beliefs do about the existence of our universe? If God, if one really exists, came into existence on his/her own from nothing, like the believers say, the universe could also have originated out of nothing without anybody or anything creating it! How is that for an explanation?!
Some Eastern religions say God is present in each and every atom of this universe and universe itself is the image of God and you cannot separate God from the universe! This fundamental question of origins of universe or God is too complex for an infant science to answer. Science has imbibed positiveness in me and I hope the difficult questions will be answered by science one day not in the immediate future though or in our life times.Have patience. Let science and human understanding grow to an adult stage. And be positive.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2134042/QUAN...

The making of an activist scientist

Science students all the big ideas haven't all been discovered. There are several more. Find some!

Basic science gives information about how systems in nature work. First go for it in order to choose research as career.

Go into science for the enjoyment and fascination of the work. Not for money, awards and  prizes

http://www.scientificamerican.com/video.cfm?id=diet-goggles-fool-br...

Diet Goggles Fool Brain into Eating Less

Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science

by S. Chandrasekhar

http://books.google.co.in/books/about/Truth_and_Beauty.html?id=SO2I...

What is sixth extinction?: An exhaustive survey of the 5,487 identified species of mammals—which includes us—reveals that one in four are dying out. From amphibians to corals, the planet’s animals are disappearing, mowed under by increasing cropland, felled forests and polluted oceans. This disappearance of plants and animals from our planet has been dubbed the sixth extinction because it may be the sixth time that the Earth has experienced a mass loss of species.

Why there are less women in science and technology areas: Science and technology doesn't discriminate between men and women. According to Ms. Tessy Thomas, India's missile woman, Science has no gender. Science does not know from where knowledge is coming - it is only the willingness to learn and know things that matters. If you are willing to take on challenges and learn from experience, that is what is required for women to shine in science and technology.
When women do excel in male-dominated jobs, they're not generally celebrated for it. In fact, women may be penalized for being too ambitious, too confident, too assertive.

People attribute 'hard work' to men and 'household' work to women. The requirements for doing well in certain scientific fields don't fit with the attributes women are considered to have.

This stereotype is not correct and is responsible for the backwardness of women.

On science not getting due share of credit: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/scientists-not-getting-due-credit/252182...

http://www.radiolab.org/

Quarks are the building blocks of the protons and neutrons that populate the nuclei of atoms.

"We are all star stuff"- Carl Sagan

http://the-philosophy-of-science.blogspot.in/

FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE IN SOCIETY
University of California, Berkeley, USA
17 - 19 November 2012
This Conference will address disciplinary and interdisciplinary challenges in the sciences, and in particular the relationships of science to society.
http://science-society.com/conference-2012/

What are Fusion and Fission? SA answers this Q:

The curious world of Scientists!

No level of bio-diversity loss can occur without adverse effects on ecosystem functioning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012w66t