http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/saying-it-with-science/a...
Saying it with Science

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-explodin...;
For Scientists, an Exploding World of Pseudo-Academia
The scientists who were recruited to appear at a conference called Entomology-2013 thought they had been selected to make a presentation to the leading professional association of scientists who study insects.
But they found out the hard way that they were wrong. The prestigious, academically sanctioned conference they had in mind has a slightly different name: Entomology 2013 (without the hyphen). The one they had signed up for featured speakers who were recruited by e-mail, not vetted by leading academics. Those who agreed to appear were later charged a hefty fee for the privilege, and pretty much anyone who paid got a spot on the podium that could be used to pad a résumé.

“I think we were duped,” one of the scientists wrote in an e-mail to the Entomological Society.

Those scientists had stumbled into a parallel world of pseudo-academia, complete with prestigiously titled conferences and journals that sponsor them. Many of the journals and meetings have names that are nearly identical to those of established, well-known publications and events.

Steven Goodman, a dean and professor of medicine at Stanford and the editor of the journal Clinical Trials, which has its own imitators, called this phenomenon “the dark side of open access,” the movement to make scholarly publications freely available.

The number of these journals and conferences has exploded in recent years as scientific publishing has shifted from a traditional business model for professional societies and organizations built almost entirely on subscription revenues to open access, which relies on authors or their backers to pay for the publication of papers online, where anyone can read them.

Open access got its start about a decade ago and quickly won widespread acclaim with the advent of well-regarded, peer-reviewed journals like those published by the Public Library of Science, known as PLoS. Such articles were listed in databases like PubMed, which is maintained by the National Library of Medicine, and selected for their quality.

My take on this: I have seen several common people gaining 'some partial knowledge' from the internet and actually arguing with scientists about science! Even I don't  do that with my well qualified colleagues! Wikipedia is one such thing which doesn't give full proof  information on science. Anybody can write anything on the site. I came across people giving references of Wikipedia with regard to science. Internet is confusing people too. Everybody is an expert here! Who can people believe here? Who is a 'real scientist'?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sea-urchin-evoluti...
Can Evolution beat Climate Change?

http://www.examiner.com/article/bad-decisions-come-from-bad-informa...
Bad decisions come from bad information, new study says
Science Daily reported yesterday on a new study that showed bad decisions come from errors in sensory input, rather than the brain's decision-making process.

While it might seem obvious that bad information leads to bad decisions, the question Princeton University researchers were trying to answer was whether the errors that lead to bad decisions occurred during sensory input, or deeper in the brain where decisions are made.

To do this, they subjected 4 human volunteers and 19 lab rats to streams of randomly timed clicks, which were played in both the left and right ear. Once the subjects listened to the stream, the subject had to choose which side more clicks originated from. The rats were previously trained to turn their noses in the direction of the most clicks.

More often than not, the subjects chose the correct side. When they did make the occasional error, it was when two clicks overlapped. There was no observable "noise," meaning errors, in the brain systems responsible for tallying the clicks. Multiple replications of the experiment showed these results. That meant that the errors leading the the wrong decisions occurred based on inaccurate sensory inputs, rather than faults in how that information was processed.

The data from the study were put into a computer model of the decision making process, giving insight into how the brain interprets sensory data and goes about making a decision.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130415172429.htm
Bad Decisions Arise from Faulty Information, Not Faulty Brain Circuits

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/warning-bad-science-can...
Warning: Bad science can damage your health

Nature's great ecologists:

http://www.google.com/green/products/engineers/#/bower-birds

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/35143/title/J...
Jailed for Faking Data

A researcher working for a US pharmaceutical company’s Scotland branch is sent to prison for falsifying safety test data on experimental drugs due for clinical trials.

http://www.techlicious.com/guide/top-sites-that-make-science-awesome/
Top Sites That Make Science Awesome

"As for integrity, those researchers who are surprised that the world of peer-reviewed publication does not always produce the highest quality research should have their degrees revoked. Academic credentials aren't sufficient if you don't understand how the human being works, particularly en masse.

Just because an article has been published, even in a highly reputable journal, doesn't mean it couldn't possibly contain an error. And if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is. "

This is a sweeping statement. It is the endeavour of the scientific community to get things improved. Only because people understand things, they point the flaws out and bring it to the notice of the scientific community, for it to take steps to make the changes for the improvement. Not because to understand the flaws of how human beings or their minds behave and work and keep quiet. Science degrades if scientists fail to raise their voices against "substandardness"! Science can never correct itself if this happens. Science learns by its mistakes and advances by correcting itself.

Thank you, Georgescu, for the informative images.

http://incubator.rockefeller.edu/?p=1123
5 Steps to Separate Science from Hype, No PhD Required

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/talking-back/2013/05/02/spring-...
Spring (and Scientific Fraud) Is Busting Out all over

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/borges-and-the-para...
Paradox of the perceived and Quantum mechanics

Adding Up Diagnosis Errors

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323551004578438692201...

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/05/03/gray.hair.and.vitiligo....!+Science+News+-+Popular%29
Gray hair and vitiligo reversed at the root
Hair dye manufacturers are on notice: The cure for gray hair is coming. That's right, the need to cover up one of the classic signs of aging with chemical pigments will be a thing of the past thanks to a team of European researchers. In a new research report published online in The FASEB Journal people who are going gray develop massive oxidative stress via accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the hair follicle, which causes our hair to bleach itself from the inside out, and most importantly, the report shows that this massive accumulation of hydrogen peroxide can be remedied with a proprietary treatment developed by the researchers described as a topical, UVB-activated compound called PC-KUS (a modified pseudocatalase). What's more, the study also shows that the same treatment works for the skin condition, vitiligo. "To date, it is beyond any doubt that the sudden loss of the inherited skin and localized hair color can affect those individuals in many fundamental ways," said Karin U. Schallreuter, M.D., study author from the Institute for Pigmentary Disorders in association with E.M. Arndt University of Greifswald, Germany and the Centre for Skin Sciences, School of Life Sciences at the University of Bradford, United Kingdom. "The improvement of quality of life after total and even partial successful repigmentation has been documented."

To achieve this breakthrough, Schallreuter and colleagues analyzed an international group of 2,411 patients with vitiligo. Of that group, 57 or 2.4 percent were diagnosed with strictly segmental vitiligo (SSV), and 76 or 3.2 percent were diagnosed with mixed vitiligo, which is SSV plus non-segmental vitiligo (NSV). They found that for the first time, patients who have SSV within a certain nerval distribution involving skin and eyelashes show the same oxidative stress as observed in the much more frequent general NSV, which is associated with decreased antioxidant capacities including catalase, thioredoxin reductase, and the repair mechanisms methionine sulfoxide reductases. These findings are based on basic science and clinical observations, which led to successful patient outcomes regarding repigmentation of skin and eyelashes.

http://newsok.com/science-not-a-collection-of-unquestioned-facts/ar...
Science not a collection of unquestioned facts

Scientists and educators' provocative and important work can be broadly cast as creative teaching, communicating science,performing science (doing research), and being developmental scientists.

http://improvscience.org/

improvscience provides services for principal investigators, educators, managers and directors to develop scientists capable of collaborative, creative and innovative research and production.

Let's use the innovations from creativity, organizational and human development to create exceptional work conditions for scientists to creatively explore our world. Let's improv our science. 

improvscience events provide professional development in multiple settings. Hear how we help our clients meet their goal

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/scientist-solutions-collaborate4c...

Scientist Solutions - Collaborate4Cures

They help the World's Life Scientists so they can Heal Disease Faster

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/10/bacteria-infected-mosquito...
Bacteria-infected mosquitoes may halt malaria

Scientists have infected mosquitoes with a bacteria known as Wolbachia, which sabotages malaria-causing parasites in the bugs, limiting their ability to spread malaria to humans, Science News reported.

In the latest study from Michigan State University (MSU), researchers are theorizing that the Wolbachia bacteria would stop the malaria parasite from being spread from an infected bug to a person.

Zihyong Xi and his team from MSU injected Wolbachia bacteria into thousands of mosquito embryos that were of the Anopheles stephensi species. In the past, this species has been difficult to infect. However, one female mosquito caught the bacteria and produced a laboratory line of infected offspring.

Xi’s research, which is published in the May 10 edition of Science, said the mothers spread the bacteria to 34 generations of descendants. Those descendants carried less than one-third as many malaria parasites as the uninfected mosquitoes.

“It’s a very important study because they’re the first group to show that Wolbachia can establish a stable heritable infection,” said Jason L. Ragson of Pennsylvania State University, who did not work with Xi, but has been trying to lure Wolbachia bacteria into another species of mosquitoes for approximately eight years.

Xi said it’s too early to release Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes into the wild – he wants to see if they can block pathogens and compete for mates, according to Science News.

Two papers recently published in the journal Nature indicated that the Wolbachia bacteria also has the ability to eliminate dengue fever in generations of infected mosquitoes, Reuters reported.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112843812/identical-twins-exp...
Study: Experience Builds Neural Connections, Differentiates Twins
From Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen to professional hockey players Henrik and Daniel Sedin, identical twins have always captivated the public’s imagination. Although they are genetically identical, anyone who has gotten to know a pair of twins can begin to pick up on the subtle differences that make each person unique.

Based on research involving mice twins, a group of German researchers has found an individual’s personal experiences add to the neural connections within the brain, allowing that individual to deviate in its own unique way, according to a new study in the journal Science.

To reach this conclusion, the team housed 40 genetically identical mice twins in an intricate, five-level cage – complete with glass chutes, toys, scaffolds, nesting places and other features. The mice were able to explore about five square yards of space.

“The animals were not only genetically identical, they were also living in the same environment,” Gerd Kempermann, the principal researcher and a professor of genomics regeneration at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease in Dresden, said in a statement. “However, this environment was so rich that each mouse gathered its own individual experiences in it. Over time, the animals therefore increasingly differed in their realm of experience and behavior.”

The mice were also fitted with a microchip that sent out electromagnetic signals, allowing the scientists to track the mice as they moved and to record their brain activity. While some mice roamed throughout the entire enclosure, some stayed close to familiar paths and areas. Over the course of three months, the team also observed the mice developing their own unique personality.

“Over time, the animals therefore increasingly differed in their realm of experience and behavior,” Kempermann told the AFP.

The team found the most explorative mice were generating more new neurons in the hippocampus, the brain region for learning and memory, than their more passive counterparts.

In their report, the researchers said they have demonstrated how personal experiences and learned behavior contribute to individualization, asserting that neither genetics nor environment is responsible for this growth.

“Adult neurogenesis also occurs in the hippocampus of humans,” Kempermann said. “Hence, we assume that we have tracked down a neurological foundation for individuality that also applies to humans.”

The findings give new clues to how the brain works, and could have implications for future research on learning and aging, the researchers said.

“When viewed from educational and psychological perspectives, the results of our experiment suggest that an enriched environment fosters the development of individuality,” co-author Ulman Lindenberger, director of the Center for Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, told the AFP.

In the journal, the study was accompanied by a commentary written by Olaf Bergmann and Jonas Frisen of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, who were not directly involved in the research. They said the study has two main uses.

“Molecular understanding of neurogenesis will hopefully aid in the rational development of new classes of drugs for psychiatric disease,” they wrote, adding that it “may teach us… how living our lives makes us who we are.”

Source: Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_dea...
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_dea...

http://www.examiner.com/list/research-immune-system-stays-young-lon...
Research: Immune system stays young longer in women
One reason that women live longer than men has been shown to be that women’s immune systems stay active longer according to research published by researchers in Japan and the United States in the journal Immunity & Ageing on May 14, 2013.

A comparison of the immune systems of healthy men and women ranging in age between 20 and 90 years old presented distinct differences with age.

The number of neutrophils decreased for both sexes and lymphocytes decreased in men and increased in women. Younger men normally have higher levels of lymphocytes than similarly aged women but over time the number of lymphocytes becomes similar.

The rate in decline in T cells (T lymphocytes) and B cells was slower for women than men.

Both CD4+ T (T helper cells) cells and NK (natural killer) cells increased with age, and the rate of increase was higher in women than men.

IL-6 (interleukin 6) and IL-10 (interleukin 10) decreased in men more rapidly than in women.

Red blood cell counts decreased more in men than in women.

This study does not account for every possibility of longer life spans in women versus men but does indicate that estrogen has a facilitating effect on the longer lasting immune systems of women.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-manhattans-gre...

Why Manhattan's Green Roofs Don't Work--and How to Fix Them

City rooftops covered with vegetation are seen as a way to reduce the urban heat-island effect and cut energy usage--but so far, the results have been unimpressive

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/2013/05/17/what...
What Rational Really Means

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/18/scientis...
Scientists agree on climate change. So why doesn’t everyone else?

there’s some evidence that hammering away at the science doesn’t always get everyone to agree. If anything, it can make people even more polarized.

Why is that? Because, as Kahan has argued at length, people tend to arrive at these debates with their own pre-existing cultural values. If you’re not already inclined to accept the values that typically accompany belief in climate change — and if you’re not predisposed to agree with all the people who like to talk about climate change — then you’re probably not going to change your mind just because the media says there’s an expert consensus. (Here are some other experiments along these lines.)

http://www.skepticalscience.com/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=whos-payin...
Who's Paying the Price for Global Warming?

U.S. taxpayers have so far borne the brunt of climate change costs.
A new analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the NRDC, finds that the federal government spent three times more than the private insurance industry on climate change impacts last year. And, of course, those federal efforts are entirely funded by taxpayers.

“It is in effect a climate disruption tax, equivalent to a 2.7 percentage point increase in what Americans paid in sales taxes last year.” That’s Daniel Lashof, director of the NRDC’s Climate and Clean Air Program and co-author of the report.

We spent nearly $100 billion in 2012 on drought-related crop insurance, storms like Hurricane Sandy, floods and wildfires. By comparison the nation spent $95 billion on education last year and just $91 billion on transportation.

Greenhouse gas pollution shows no signs of slowing, recently touching 400 parts-per-million. And as that number continues to rise, so will the price.

—David Biello

http://worldsciencefestival.com/
Where scientists, artists, inventors, story tellers and adventurers come together: May 29th to June 2nd, 2013 New York City, USA

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/2013/05/22/the-...
The Complexity of Greatness: Beyond Talent or Practice

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/2013/05/22/what...
What’s Individuality, and Where Does It Come From?

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112857331/far-biodiversity-de...
UN Warns Of Decline In Farm Biodiversity

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/0/22341876
Everest: how science conquered the world's highest mountain
In the week of the 60th anniversary of the first ascent, the world's highest peak was climbed by 80 year old Yuichiro Miura of Japan.

The peak has also been climbed by a 13 year old and a blind athlete.

Technical advancements, increased safety and decreased cost have seen growing numbers attempt to scale the world's highest mountain.

How has science made Everest an easier mountain to climb?
Summit made simpler
"Scientific and technological advancements have definitely made climbing Everest easier and safer."
Safe and sound

Oxygen tanks are used by 95% of climbers
Modern systems are designed to exclude moisture from the regulator and tubes to stop it freezing.They are less than half the weight of the original systems. 3G mobile phone coverage is available. This means climbers can be in constant contact with support teams or experts off the mountain.
Weather forecasting is more accurate and draws on satellite data to let climbers know when there is due to be a period of good weather to make a bid for the summit.
Modern climbing gear - ropes, crampons and ice axes - are lighter, stronger and now less likely to develop faults, and gloves and boots are electrically heated to reduce the chance of frostbite.
Besides the improvements in gear, the mountain itself has been modified - ladders and ropes are installed on some sections, maintained by specialist Sherpa "icefall doctors".

This means ascents are quicker, safer and less fatiguing - making accidents less likely.

"There are a lot of resources and support available right on the mountain," says Kodas. The group sizes are larger than ever, which makes it easier to assist an injured or sick climber and help them back down the mountain.
High Altitude: Many expeditions have medical equipment and monitors in their base camps to help athletes acclimatise and measure their progress," says Kodas.

Many climbers will develop altitude sickness, caused by lack of oxygen to the brain and lungs, which can be life-threatening. While effective drugs have been developed to reduce swelling and fluid retention, this can also pose problems, says Kodas.

"If a climber who is feeling weak uses Dexamethasone (an anti-inflammatory drug) to get to the summit and then the drug wears off, they are in worse shape and in a more dangerous place than they were when they initially used the drug."
Death risk: In 1990, the death rate (fatalities compared to successful summits) was 37%. In 2012, it was under 2%,
Overcrowded

Because it has become safer and cheaper, more people attempt to climb Everest than ever before.
"Scientific and technological advances have definitely made the act of climbing on Everest easier and safer for the individual."

According to a 2012 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, some 20,000 species are currently in grave danger of going extinct. Species today are vanishing in such great numbers—many from hunting and habitat destruction—that the trend has been called a sixth mass extinction, an event on par with such die-offs as the one that befell the dinosaurs (and much else) 65 million years ago

http://new.livestream.com/WorldScienceFestival/WhisperingMind/video...
The Puzzle of Consciousness: Watch Full Video of World Science Festival Panel