Technomaly » Science

Learn Science With the Insane Clown Posse

J. Matthew Zoss — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:07:42 +0000

I’ll keep this short, because there’s not much I can say to illustrate the majesty of Cracked.com’s “Textbook for Juggalos.” If those words don’t make any sense to you, here’s what you need to know: schlocky Christian horror-gangsta rappers Insane Clown Posse have a new video out called “Miracles” which, in short, is about how fucking dope and mysterious the world is. You really need to watch it, and can see said video here. Then you can truly appreciate the glory of the ICP science textbook, which can be seen in all its glory here.

Cracked Via BoingBoing

Study Shows Accents Trump Race

Nick Upton — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:08:45 +0000

A newly-released study suggest that people pick up on accents when first meeting someone even more than they see race.

Researchers at Harvard University examined “youngsters” to see who they would align with, someone of their own race, or someone with a similar accent. The study, from developmental psychologist Katherine D. Kinzler and colleagues, showed that while babies are racist, they do look past race when accents are involved.

Kinzler and her team showed that an accent is more meaningful than race in signifying whether someone belongs in your social group. Replicating previous research, they found that under silent conditions children chose as potential friends children of the same race.
Yet when the potential friends spoke, white children preferred a black child speaking with a native accent over a white child who spoke English with a foreign accent.

Kinzler’s study focused on a French accent and showed that even though the French-accented English was understandable, youngsters were nearly four times more likely to choose a non-accented friend.

This must change at some point, because put me next to a girl with a French accent and I’ll melt. But the study does bring up some interesting sociological evolution questions, namely that we pick up on accents first because nearby enemies likely looked just like us, but talked with various dialects. Picking up on these accents kept us from danger far more than identifying race — especially where there was only one race for thousands of miles.

[Via Scientific
American ]

Is Kindess Contagoius?

Nick Upton — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:32:48 +0000

In a really interesting but slightly confusing study, scientists showed that kindness is contagious — even if it doesn’t make sense.

Political scientist James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, and medical sociologist Nicholas Christakis of Harvard University published their study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Basically, the study followed a giving game that gave each player a set number of credits to spend as they choose. What they found at the end of the blind test was that those who gave prompted others to give as well.

The best payoff would come if everyone gave all their money — but without knowing what others were doing, it always made sense to keep one’s money and skim from the generosity of others.

…
And when one person gave, others in their group tended to be generous during the next two rounds of play. Recipients of their largess became more generous in turn, and so on down the chain. When a punishment round was added — players could spend their own money to reduce the rewards of selfish players — generosity lasted even longer.

Very interesting stuff, but ultimately researchers said it boiled down to a playground mentality of monkey see, monkey do. When people see someone else doing good, they are more apt to do it themselves.

The researchers also put a round in where people could spend their money to penalize selfish people; which made the selfish few give just like their kindhearted peers. They did warn, however, that being selfish was equally contagious.

[Via Wired]

App Tries To Create Citizen Scientists

Nick Upton — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:37:18 +0000

A new iPhone app called Noah turns anyone with a cell phone, some legs and some time into a citizen scientist.

The app lets users update a map with mushrooms, animals, trees — any flora or fauna — so that scientists can see changes or mini surveys of an area without all the work. The project directs users on several missions to help scientific researchers in their job. Current missions include Project Squirrel, to find and catalogue squirrels; Mushroom Mapping, to see changes in spore ecosystems; the Lost Ladybug Project, to find and catalogue native ladybugs on the decline; and Butterflies and Moths of North America, a survey of local flying critters.

It is, of course, designed with iPhone users in mind. Just taking a glance at the feed, it doesn’t seem very scientific — I don’t think a Chihuahua in a tea cup needs scientific categorization. There are also lots of entries that feature a picture of an elm tree with “Oak?” in the categorization.

But despite the troublesome users, it’s an intriguing effort for real scientists to tap into all the people with nothing to do and plenty of time. Real scientists don’t have the time to go traipsing through suburbia or the local park to find worms. And even if they have to sort through a few Chihuahuas in teacups and inept arborists, it can save them unbelievable amounts of time.

I’m personally waiting for the Android app and the real nerds to start helping out.

[Via Noah]

Gigantic Online UK Science Archive Launches

Asterios Kokkinos — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:00:50 +0000

Alan Turing, of the famous "Turing Test." There is no audio of him recorded anywhere.

Did you know that there are no voice recordings of computer pioneer Alan Turing, or of hovercraft inventor Christopher Cockerell? You think someone would have shoved a microphone in the face of Nobel laureate AV Hill at some point, but no – these scientists, in fact, 30 major British scientists – including 9 Nobel winners – have all died leaving little or no archive of their work.

The British Library aims to change this, by interviewing 200 living British scientists over the next three years to create a massive online archive of their lives via audio. The scientists will be chosen by an advisory board and the audio will be available for all to hear.

The first scientist up? Geoff Tootill, who is one of the men who created the first programmable computer – the Manchester Small Scale Experimental machine, which first saw action in 1948. Said Dr. Katrina Dean, history of science curator at the British Library:

“It’s about building up the profile of 20th Century British science from the ground up.”

Couldn’t agree with you more, doctor.

Source & Photo Source: BBC

Ego Pushes People Back Into Bad Habits

Nick Upton — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:46:06 +0000

If you’ve ever tried to quit smoking or quit eating fast food or kick a nasty heroin habit, you probably know that once you get a taste of that old addiction, you’re right back to selling your roommates TV for a Big Mac.

Now scientists give a bit of a glimpse into why people slip back into bad habits — it’s all ego.

Northwestern University psychologists designed a test for ex smokers based on the wonderful movie “200 Cigarettes.”

Researchers first asked the smokers how strong their willpower was, then let them choose from several different tests with varying monetary awards.

One test had ex smokers watch the movie — which prominently displays cool people smoking and sitting around — with an unlit cigarette sitting on the table. For a larger reward, participants could keep the unlit cigarette in their hand. And for the most money, smokers had to keep an unlit cigarette in their mouths.

Researchers said that the people who claimed to have the highest willpower opted for bigger rewards, but ultimately failed more than their weak-willed counterparts.

Smokers told that they had high self-control exposed themselves to significantly more temp¬tation than their counterparts—opting on average to watch the movie while holding a cigarette—and they failed to resist lighting up three times as often as those told they had low self-control.

The reason behind it, researchers say, is that people who have “successfully” kicked a bad habit tell themselves that it’s OK to have a puff. Then those people who thought they were so strong-willed are right back on the nicotine train.

You’d think it would be a no-brainer, if you quit doing something bad, actually quit doing it. If you’re a drunk, stay out of bars; if you’re a fat addict, stay away from the drive thru; and if you’re a junkie … please come over, daddy needs a fix.

[Via Scientific American]

Wolfram Alpha Updates Their $50 iPhone App

Asterios Kokkinos — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:00:11 +0000

For those who don’t remember, Wolfram Alpha is a website that answers user questions by directly computing the answer, instead of crawling the web for the answer like a traditional search engine. They sell an iPhone app of their website that sells for…get this…FIFTY DOLLARS.

Going to the Wolfram Alpha website? Free. Visiting the Wolfram Alpha website on my iPhone? Free. Downloading an app that replicates the website experience? FIFTY DOLLARS.

Well, to help users get more bang for their buck (or FIFTY BUCKS), Wolfram Alpha has released a new set of keyboards for their app that are actually quite cool. Alpha now comes with a “math” keyboard, a “symbol” keyboard, and a “Greek keyboard, all designed for nerds to enter their nerd math quieres in a more nerdly way.

Still, FIFTY DOLLARS? How about I give you geeks wedgies until you give it to me for free? Oh who am I kidding, these guys could probably use their fancy computer to calculate my weak spot with amazing accuracy.

My weak spot? Cake.

Source & Photo Source: TechCrunch

Brainiacs Turn Water Into Elastic

Nick Upton — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:11:05 +0000

Japanese scientists have found a novel way to make an incredibly cheap plastic substance from mostly water. According the journal Nature, the scientists created the substance with 95 percent water and a bit of clay and “appropriate organic matters.”

The new material was obtained by adding about two grams of clay and a small quantity of appropriate organic matters into normal water.

The new aqua substance is elastic and transparent and looks very much like jelly.

Its characteristics make it possible to use it in medicine for sticking together tissues.

If its density is increased, the new material could be used for the production of ecologically clean plastic materials.

It’s a fascinating step in creating plastic, and it really could help ease our dependence on the oil that most plastics are made from.

I just want to see what scientists could make with inappropriate matter, I bet they would get some great off-color goo.

[Via Tom's Guide | Bernama]

Mass Effect 2 Tackles Tricky Science Of Dark Energy

Nick Upton — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:38:06 +0000

Tackling the concept of dark energy is pretty difficult, but that doesn’t keep video game makers from cutting some corners and trying.

Bioware, the maker of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, has turned the typical fantasy magic into science fiction by creating something that resembles dark energy.

Even though physicists told Scientific American that the science in Mass Effect is pretty far off, they appreciate the ideas and the interest in science in general.

“I sort of like the idea of having people who could sense [dark energy] and manipulate it,” Davis says. In fact, “one of the reasons we’re studying it is to find some way to manipulate it.” One of the roles of video games and science fiction is to stretch what we know by using our imagination, she adds.

“It’s a fun idea,” Carroll says, adding that introducing gamers to even the concept of dark energy is a step in the right direction. “Someone might hear that term as part of a game and then hear it again in a more scientific context, and that might help them ultimately gain a better understanding of what it is. There’s a tremendous untapped potential in games for incorporating cool science.”

Science fiction and its affect on culture, technology and the world in general has been a topic of conversation for hundreds of years via authors like H.G. Wells and Isaac Asimov and in mainstream movies since Metropolis. Scientists even say Star Trek inspired them to pursue teleportation and force field technology.

So even though the science in Mass Effect 2 is far from the mysterious universal force of dark matter, it might inspire some young whippersnapper to pursue science and make breakthroughs in real science.

[Via SciAm Image via Bioware]

I Knew It! Gamers Have Bigger Brains!

J. Matthew Zoss — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:32:11 +0000

Space Fortress, the video game created for the University of Illinois study.

All this time, I guess I’ve been studying. According to a new study, games have specific brain structures that are larger than non-gamers, and the size of these structures is directly related to success at certain tasks. The study, conducted at the University of Illinois and published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, used a specifically designed video game called “Space Fortress” to measure activity in specific areas of the brain. Researchers found that expert gamers in general had larger “nucleus accumbens” than non-gamers, and that those with larger nucleus accumbens performed better at the tasks assigned to them in the study.

While you could easily sum up the findings by saying that gamers are better at games than non-gamers, the study obviously has a more detailed explanation. According to PhysOrg.com, the study “adds to the evidence that specific parts of the striatum, a collection of distinctive tissues tucked deep inside the cerebral cortex, profoundly influence a person’s ability to refine his or her motor skills, learn new procedures, develop useful strategies and adapt to a quickly changing environment.”

In other words, playing a game has a measurable affect on learning. No wonder that I am such a geinius… er, genius.

Source: PhysOrg.com

How Deep-Sea Snails Might Keep You Safe

J. Matthew Zoss — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:48:30 +0000

The future in body armor and personal safety gear may lie with the Crysomallon squamiferum, also known as the scaly-footed gastropod. Scientists have discovered that we humans would be much safer if we all started wearing giant snail shells out in public, which we would of course trick out with vinyl decals and spinner rims. But human-sized snail shells aren’t out on the market yet, so scientists are exploring other advances in safety gear inspired by this deep-sea creature.

MIT’s Christine Ortiz and her colleagues have been studying the way that this particular snail’s unique three-layered shell protects it against crab attacks. The outermost layer of the shell is composed of iron sulfide particles arranged in a way that it cracks when hit, but in a way that absorbs the force and prevents larger cracks. The cracks spread through the iron sulfide particles, a process that dissipates the energy and is known as “microcracking.” This outer layer of shell can even blunt and deform the attacking crab’s claws. Suck it, pinchy!

The middle layer of the shell is a soft, spongy material that further dissipates the force and protects the brittle inner shell. Ortiz says that this unique three-layered design could lead to better personal body armor without adding additional weight. Ortiz is also researching the armor systems of mollusks called chitons, as well as sea urchins, beetles and a fish called the Senegal bichir. The resulting research could result in better protective gear for all type of activity, as well as keep us all safe if we’re ever invaded by the Atlanteans or the Lobsterians from planet Aqueous-9.

Story and Image Source: New Scientist