http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-accidents-can-...
Train of Thought Derailed: How an Accident Can Affect Your Brain

A survivor of last week's deadly train derailment in Spain illustrates how disaster can alter your mind

http://www.contractlaboratory.com/labclass/outsource_entryform.cfm

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=blue-death-in-worm...
Glowing, Glowing, Gone: Cell Fluorescence Casts Light on How Death Spreads Throughout Body

Researchers have identified a key molecular pathway for animal death that may provide clues for better managing traumatic injury and disease in humans
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.p...
Anthranilate Fluorescence Marks a Calcium-Propagated Necrotic Wave That Promotes Organismal Death in C. elegans
Abstract

For cells the passage from life to death can involve a regulated, programmed transition. In contrast to cell death, the mechanisms of systemic collapse underlying organismal death remain poorly understood. Here we present evidence of a cascade of cell death involving the calpain-cathepsin necrosis pathway that can drive organismal death in Caenorhabditis elegans. We report that organismal death is accompanied by a burst of intense blue fluorescence, generated within intestinal cells by the necrotic cell death pathway. Such death fluorescence marks an anterior to posterior wave of intestinal cell death that is accompanied by cytosolic acidosis. This wave is propagated via the innexin INX-16, likely by calcium influx. Notably, inhibition of systemic necrosis can delay stress-induced death. We also identify the source of the blue fluorescence, initially present in intestinal lysosome-related organelles (gut granules), as anthranilic acid glucosyl esters—not, as previously surmised, the damage product lipofuscin. Anthranilic acid is derived from tryptophan by action of the kynurenine pathway. These findings reveal a central mechanism of organismal death in C. elegans that is related to necrotic propagation in mammals—e.g., in excitotoxicity and ischemia-induced neurodegeneration. Endogenous anthranilate fluorescence renders visible the spatio-temporal dynamics of C. elegans organismal death.
Author Summary

In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, intestinal lysosome-related organelles (or “gut granules”) contain a bright blue fluorescent substance of unknown identity. This has similar spectral properties to lipofuscin, a product of oxidative damage known to accumulate with age in postmitotic mammalian cells. Blue fluorescence seems to increase in aging worm populations, and lipofuscin has been proposed to be the source. To analyze this further, we measure fluorescence levels after exposure to oxidative stress and during aging in individually tracked worms. Surprisingly, neither of these conditions increases fluorescence levels; instead blue fluorescence increases in a striking and rapid burst at death. Such death fluorescence (DF) also appears in young worms when killed, irrespective of age or cause of death. We chemically identify DF as anthranilic acid glucosyl esters derived from tryptophan, and not lipofuscin. In addition, we show that DF generation in the intestine is dependent upon the necrotic cell death cascade, previously characterized as a driver of neurodegeneration. We find that necrosis spreads in a rapid wave along the intestine by calcium influx via innexin ion channels, accompanied by cytosolic acidosis. Inhibition of necrosis pathway components can delay stress-induced death, supporting its role as a driver of organismal death. This necrotic cascade provides a model system to study neurodegeneration and organismal death.

The Physics of Disaster: An Exploration of Train Derailments [Excerpt]

Understanding the science behind trains can help identify the causes of accidents—and lead us to safer railways
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-physics-of-dis...

Everyone knows, or thinks they know, what centrifugal force is. It’s the phenomenon that flings passengers against the car door on a curve, the force that keeps the water in the bucket when swung fast enough overhead, and the force that derails trains on a curve. But centrifugal force can be a source of much confusion because it’s not a force in the traditional sense. Centrifugal force is an inertial effect that occurs when a body in motion changes direction, as in each of the examples above.

Per Isaac Newton, a body in motion tends to stay in motion. If somehow we could eliminate gravity and air resistance, a ball thrown straight up would continue straight up forever. It takes additional force to change the straight-line motion of the ball and to move a train around a curve.

Inertia, the property of matter that resists changes in motion, is most easily explained by accelerating in an elevator. If a 100-lb (0.44-kN) person is standing on a scale in an elevator accelerating up, the scale reads something higher than 100 lbs. If the elevator is accelerating down, the scale reads something less than 100 lbs. If the elevator is accelerating up at 16 ft/sec², or one-half the normal acceleration of gravity, the scale will read 150 lbs (0.66 kN). The extra 50 lbs (0.22 kN) is from the person’s body resisting acceleration.

When a body accelerates, or changes velocity, that acceleration is accompanied by a force. According to Newton’s Second Law, f  m × a. The body’s inertia (m × a) is not a force even though it acts on the scale like a force. The additional 50-lb reading on the scale is the 100-lb person’s resistance to accelerating up 16 ft/sec² (4.9 m/s²)—the person’s inertia.

Inertia always acts in the opposite direction of the acceleration. In the case of the elevator, the person is accelerating up and the inertial response is acting down and is being recorded by the scale. A similar thing happens in circular motion. Circular motion at constant speed creates an acceleration that points toward the center of rotation.

We tend to think of acceleration as being a change in speed (see Chapter 4). Velocity is actually a vector with both direction and magnitude. (The velocity the velocity vector, be it a change in speed or a change in direction, requires a force to create the change. Any change in the velocity vector, be it a change in speed or a change in direction, requires a force to create the change.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=antibiotics-more-m...
Antibiotics Are More Mysterious Than They Appear

Scientists still don't know exactly how antibiotics work

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/fact-or-fiction/id670711372?mt=11

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23529849
Selfish traits not favoured by evolution, study shows

http://www.scidev.net/global/r-d/news/basic-science-linked-to-faste...

Basic science linked to faster economic growth

Productivity in basic sciences correlates with economic growth, but does not directly cause it

Scientific productivity is a better wealth growth predictor than many other competitiveness indices

But benefits of investment in science should be weighed against investment in other development projects

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/between-rock-an...

'Voodoo science' will not solve the causality-problem of EHS | Washington Times Communities c

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/08/watching-fox-makes-y...
Study: Watching Fox News Makes You Distrust Climate Scientists

Sleep Is the Brain's Way of Staying in Balance [Video below]

The connections between neurons get weaker, not stronger, when we sleep—and that keeps brain cells from becoming overtaxed by waking events
The resting brain is actually pretty busy, with nerve cells firing nearly as often as they do in a waking state. One common explanation for this activity holds that during sleep neural circuits replay important memories, a process that strengthens the connections among cells in those circuits, thereby aiding learning.

Researchers Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli propose quite a different theory of what happens in the sleeping brain. They suggest that brain activity during slumber must weaken neural connections, not strengthen them, because strengthening would saturate the brain's circuitry and consume so much energy that the brain could not continue to encode new information.

In short, the authors propose that sleep is essential for synaptic homeostasis, a restoring of brain cells to a baseline state. They argue that this function is essential for all creatures and explains the ubiquitous need for sleep. Results of their experiments, conducted over two decades, so far confirm this hypothesis.

In this video of a talk presented at an Allen Institute for Brain Science symposium, Tononi presents this evidence and explains that sleep is the price we pay for the brain's ability to remodel itself in response to the events of waking life.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sleep-brains-way-s...

How Brains See

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=agriculture-1863-m...
Agriculture and Invention in 1863: Handy Machines from the Archives of Scientific American [Slide Show]

These devices were designed to reduce the labor or increase the profit of farming

Living things can give off light via either luminescence or fluorescence. Luminescent animals make their own light, while fluorescent ones absorb and re-emit it.

Fireflies: Fireflies generate light through luminescence. An enzyme called luciferase facilitates the reaction, in which another molecule (usually a protein called a luciferin) releases light. Plans to create glowing Arabidopsis plants and roses involve engineering the plants to produce both luciferin and luciferase.

Jellyfish: Some jellyfish glow via fluorescence, thanks to green fluorescent protein, or GFP. The protein absorbs light at one wavelength and emits it at a different wavelength. Scientists have created a rainbow of fluorescent hues for use in the lab by mutating GFP and similar proteins.

Genetically engineered organisms: Using various techniques, many glowing animals have already been created in the lab, including cats, mice, monkeys, fish and a beagle.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/352252/description/A_glo...

http://www.afaqs.com/media/story/38356_Times-Now-identifies-the-Pow...

Times Now identifies the Power of Shunya with DuPont

http://www.powerofshunya.com/QuestForZero.aspx

http://theconversation.com/calorie-restriction-increases-longevity-...
Calorie restriction increases longevity – or does it?

Scientists shed light on near-death visions
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/technology/sci-tech/scientists-she...

https://impactchallenge.withgoogle.com/india2013#/zsl
A Better World, Faster

The Google Impact Challenge has launched in India in an effort to support innovators who are exploring new ways to solve the world's most pressing problems. If you’re an Indian non-profit, tell us how you would use technology and innovative approaches to tackle problems in India and around the world. Four selected non-profits will each receive a Rs 3 crore Global Impact Award and assistance from Google to help make their project a reality.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/08/13/why-mosqu...
Why Mosquitoes Like You and Not Me

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/it-all-started-with-a-ban...

It all started with a bang, but the universe may not be expanding after all

Theoretical physicist Christof Wetterich publishes paper 'a Universe without expansion'

http://phys.org/news/2013-08-upsalite-scientists-impossible-materia...
Scientists make 'impossible material'... by accident
Researchers in Uppsala, Sweden accidentally left a reaction running over the weekend and ended up resolving a century-old chemistry problem. Their work has led to the development of a new material, dubbed Upsalite, with remarkable water-binding properties. Upsalite promises to find applications in everything from humidity control at home to chemical manufacturing in industry.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=your-thoughts-can-...
Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities beyond Normal Limits

Better vision, stronger muscles—expectations can have surprising effects, research finds

Is psychology a real science? Interesting articles based on this Q:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/2013/0...
Is psychology a “real” science? Does it really matter?

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psysociety/2013/08/13/psycholog...

Psychology’s brilliant, beautiful, scientific messiness.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/352421/description/Belie...
Belief in multiverse requires exceptional vision

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/15/clever-word-art-scientist-...
Clever Word Art Spotlights Scientists' Ground Breaking Achievements

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/08/14/teleported.electronic.c...

Teleported by electronic circuit

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=new-measure-of-con...
New Measure of Consciousness Tracks Our Waking States

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=evidence-based-jus...
Evidence-based Justice Acknowledges Our Corrupt Memories

The work of psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, who has spent decades exposing flaws in eyewitness testimony, is gaining fresh traction in the U.S. legal system

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.12258/abstract;jsess...
Urbanization and its effects on personality traits: a result of microevolution or phenotypic plasticity?

Abstract

Human-altered environmental conditions affect many species at the global scale. An extreme form of anthropogenic alteration is the existence and rapid increase of urban areas. A key question, then, is how species cope with urbanization. It has been suggested that rural and urban conspecifics show differences in behaviour and personality. However, (i) a generalization of this phenomenon has never been made; and (ii) it is still unclear whether differences in personality traits between rural and urban conspecifics are the result of phenotypic plasticity or of intrinsic differences. In a literature review, we show that behavioural differences between rural and urban conspecifics are common and taxonomically widespread among animals, suggesting a significant ecological impact of urbanization on animal behaviour. In order to gain insight into the mechanisms leading to behavioural differences in urban individuals, we hand-raised and kept European blackbirds (Turdus merula) from a rural and a nearby urban area under common-garden conditions. Using these birds, we investigated individual variation in two behavioural responses to the presence of novel objects: approach to an object in a familiar area (here defined as neophilia), and avoidance of an object in a familiar foraging context (defined as neophobia). Neophilic and neophobic behaviours were mildly correlated and repeatable even across a time period of one year, indicating stable individual behavioural strategies. Blackbirds from the urban population were more neophobic and seasonally less neophilic than blackbirds from the nearby rural area. These intrinsic differences in personality traits are likely the result of microevolutionary changes, although we cannot fully exclude early developmental influences.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=urbanizati...
Urbanization Alters Bird Behavior

Blackbirds living in a city were more leery of approaching a food source than were their country cousins.
Two centuries ago, blackbirds typically lived out their lives in forest habitats. Today, the birds are one of the most common avian urban species. Researchers have shown that urban and rural blackbirds already differ from one another in their songs, the timing of reproduction and their risk of diseases. But could the country blackbird and its city cousin now have different personalities?

Scientists in Germany collected and hand-raised 28 urban birds and 25 from the country nearby. The researchers tested the birds to determine whether they approached or avoided new objects in a familiar environment. They performed the study three times over a year to see if the traits persisted.

And the urban birds avoided new objects near their feeders for significantly longer than did their rural relatives. The study appears in the journal Global Change Biology. [Ana Catarina Miranda et al., Urbanization and its effects on personality traits: a result of microevolution or phenotypic plasticity?]

The researchers say these personality differences may be related to genetic micro-evolutionary changes. And that the findings demonstrate two things. One is that urban and rural differences can be tested in a controlled experiment. The second is that blackbirds and many other species may be quickly evolving new behaviors in response to our rapidly urbanizing world.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112926279/brain-sides-equal-n...
Left Vs. Right: University Says Neither When It Comes To Brain Dominance