New Yorkers to be Entered in Science Experiment

Michael Bloomberg and Thomas R. Frieden forego the constraints of compelling evidence and consent to engage NY in the largest unapproved science experiment in a long time.

Check out this article by John Tierney from the NYT:

Suppose you wanted to test the effects of halving the amount of salt in people’s diets. If you were an academic researcher, you’d have to persuade your institutional review board that you had considered the risks and obtained informed consent from the participants.

You might, for instance, take note of a recent clinical trial in which heart patients put on a restricted-sodium diet fared worse than those on a normal diet. In light of new research suggesting that eating salt improves mood and combats depression, you might be alert for psychological effects of the new diet. You might worry that people would react to less-salty food by eating more of it, a trend you could monitor by comparing them with a control group.

But if you are the mayor of New York, no such constraints apply. Read more...

Do you want New York's mayor and health commissioner leading a nationwide initiative to halve the salt in your food? Join the discussion. Go to TierneyLab »

Florida's Solar City

I already posted about this once, but for those of you who missed it, here is another article about Babcock Ranch, the first solar city in the U.S. (from SciAm.com):

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Florida utility and a real estate developer are aiming to bring the country's first solar-powered city to the Sunshine State.

FPL Group Inc's utility Florida Power & Light is working with the realty group Kitson & Partners to construct what the utility says will be the world's largest photovoltaic solar plant in a planned, environmentally friendly city near Fort Myers in southwestern Florida.

Called Babcock Ranch, the city will aim to build 19,500 houses and about 6 million square feet of retail, light industrial, and office space when it is completed, the developers said.

The entire project is expected to cost $2 billion. Read more...

Rare Megamouth Shark Caught in the Phillipines

From SciAm.com:

On the morning of March 30, fishermen casting their nets in the Burias Pass, a centrally located channel in the Philippine archipelago, got the catch—not to mention surprise—of their lives: a megamouth shark so rare that some people still consider it a "cryptid", a creature that is seen so infrequently science can't confirm its existence.

That's likely an overstatement when it comes to the megamouth, first spotted in 1976 in waters near the Hawaiian island of Oahu. But, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) in Gainesville, which dubbed last month's catch "megamouth 41" (this being only the 41st observation of one of these sharks)—this is the eighth specimen snagged in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines. Read more...

Like Loud Misic, Scared of Going Deaf - Fear No More

From SciAm.com:

Anti-Loudness Protein

Fans of club music and rock concerts who like the volume cranked up to 11 but want to save their hearing might someday pop a pill rather than plugging their ears. Scientists have pinpointed the biochemical mechanism in ears that works to limit damaging effects of loud sound. When a noise registers in the brain as too loud, the protein nAChR, located on sensory hair cells in the inner ear, kicks in to limit the ability of the hair cells to respond. Mice genetically altered to produce a more potent nAChR could not hear soft sounds, and they suffered less permanent damage to their hearing when scientists blasted 100-decibel noise at their ears. "We know some drugs can modify the protein," says Paul Fuchs of Johns Hopkins University, who published the findings in the January 20 PLoS Biology. "But we need to know more about specific amounts" before a sound-protecting drug can be made. So don't toss the earplugs yet.
--Kate Wilcox

Why Do People Believe in Creationism or Evolution?

For anyone interested in the evolution/creationism debate, I would like to direct your attention to this extremely interesting podcast from SciAm.com. It is somewhat long, but the first ten minutes are an interview with University of California, Berkeley, psychologist Tania Lombrozo, who talks about why people believe what they do, especially regarding evolution or creationism.

Why People Believe What They Do

Anatomically Normal Girl with Y Chromosome

This is quite amazing and could prove to be a significant finding for the field of developmental biology, and it might not have been discovered if it weren't for prenatal genetic screens. Check it out (from NewScientist):

A seven-year-old girl with a Y chromosome is providing new clues about a possible "master switch" of maleness.

The girl has the normal chromosome count – 46 – and should be male. Other children who have the male sex chromosome but do not appear to be boys have been found to have gene mutations that temper the Y chromosome's effects. However this child doesn't have ambiguous gonads, shrivelled testes or other developmental defects. She instead has a normal vagina, cervix and set of ovaries.

A team led by Anna Biason-Lauber, of University Children's Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, thinks the patient's normalcy is due to mutations in a poorly understood gene on chromosome 17 called CBX2.

The child's unique condition might not have been discovered were it not for tests performed before birth to check for major genetic defects, such as an extra copy of chromosome 21 that causes Down's syndrome. Those tests came up negative and indicated the child would be a boy.

Read more...

Cosmic Hand

This awesome picture is just one of eight great astronomy pictures from NewScientist's gallery rounding up the best images released in commemoration of 100 Hours of Astronomy, an event celebrating the International Year of Astronomy.

Check out the rest of the images here.

Better Light Bulb?

From Green Inc.:

The pending extinction of traditional incandescent bulbs in the United States and abroad has created an enormous market opportunity for energy-efficient lighting technologies. The current shortcomings of compact fluorescent lights and pricey LED bulbs show that future dominance of the American socket is still very much up for grabs.

Vu1 (that is, “view one”), a company based in Seattle, thinks it has a shot.

The company’s tag line, “light without compromise,” suggests that it’s keenly aware of the biggest stumbling block for most next-generation lighting technologies: they don’t behave like incandescent bulbs, which is what most consumers are accustomed to. “We believe that we’ve got something here that will be much more comparable with people’s expectations than what’s been out there until now,” said Vu1’s chief executive officer, David Grieger. Read more...

"Do Parents Matter?"

Sorry Mom and Dad, but I didn't say it. From SciAm.com:

Do Parents Matter?
A researcher argues that peers are much more important than parents, that psychologists underestimate the power of genetics and that we have a lot to learn from Asian classrooms.

In 1998 Judith Rich Harris, an independent researcher and textbook author, published The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out The Way They Do. The book provocatively argued that parents matter much less, at least when it comes to determining the behavior of their children, than is typically assumed. Instead, Harris argued that a child’s peer group is far more important. The Nurture Assumption has recently been reissued in an expanded and revised form. Mind Matters editor Jonah Lehrer chats with Harris about her critics, the evolution of her ideas and why teachers can be more important than parents.

If you have any interest in the nature/nurture debate, I suggest that you read the interview...

Solar City to Rise In Florida: Will it Work?

From SciAm.com:

A Florida developer unveiled plans today to build the nation's first solar-powered city – a cluster of homes, offices and factories less than 20 miles from Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast.

"Babcock Ranch" would be built on 17,000 acres in Charlotte and Lee counties, with more than half of the land set aside for nature preserves, agriculture and other open space. Florida Power & Light Co. would build a 75-megawatt solar photovoltaic array to supply electricity to the development's 6 million square feet of residential, industrial and retail buildings.

The big question: If you build it in this economy, will buyers come? Find out...

Armed and Curious

A fleet of 40 vehicles armed to the teeth with advanced tornado tracking/monitoring equipment controlled by 100 scientists will spend next month trying to unravel the mystery of tornadogenesis. For more of the techie details, click here or check out the video below (kind of long, but pretty cool):

Duckweed: The Newest Alt. To Corn Ethanol

Duckweed is a small aquatic flower that can convert nutrients in waste into starch. And not only can it remediate polluted water, it is actually more productive than corn. According to researcher Jay Cheng, ""Based on our laboratory studies, we can produce five to six times more starch per unit of footage." Read more...(from Wired Science)