Scientific American News Feed
More Than One Blow For A Concussion In Football
As you watch the Patriots and Giants smash into each other Sunday, consider this.
[More]Science Explainer: The Physics of Football [Video]
Slow-motion replays of deep passes have mesmerized fans of American football for decades. The impossibly long, steady arc of a well-thrown ball is a thing of beauty. In contrast, players sometimes refer to wobbly passes as ugly ducks, although just why isn't entirely clear, since ducks fly pretty well.
[More]Russian Scientists Poised to be First to Reach Ice-Buried Antarctic Lake
At a tiny outpost in the middle of Antarctica, Russian scientists are poised to become the first humans to reach a massive liquid lake that has been cut off from the sunlit world for millennia, and may house uniquely adapted life forms that are new to science.
[More]Lies We Tell Ourselves (preview)
In Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1970 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar , a skeptical Judas Iscariot questions with faux innocence (“Don’t you get me wrong/I only want to know”) the messiah’s deific nature: “Jesus Christ Superstar/Do you think you’re what they say you are?”
[More]Brain Injury Rate 7 Times Greater among U.S. Prisoners
A car accident, a rough tackle, an unexpected tumble. The number of ways to bang up the brain are almost as numerous as the people who sustain these injuries. And only recently has it become clear just how damaging a seemingly minor knock can be. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is no longer just a condition acknowledged in military personnel or football players and other professional athletes. Each year some 1.7 million civilians will suffer an injury that disrupts the function of their brains, qualifying it as a TBI.
[More]Homeless Project Residents Drink Less If Booze Ban Is Lifted
This Sunday, millions of Americans will sit down in front of their television or computer, crack open a few beers, and watch the Super Bowl. But if those viewers live in a housing project for the homeless, that booze could get them booted back out to the street. Many homeless housing projects have strict abstinence policies, and require residents to be completely sober. Permitting alcohol, many community organizers reason, would enable addictions and promote a downward spiral into continued drinking and declining health.
[More]Schism over H5N1 Avian Flu Research Leaks Out
Caption: Electron micrograph of H5N1 virus (gold) Image: CDC/Courtesy of Cynthia Goldsmith; Jacqueline Katz; Sherif R. Zaki
NEW YORK Sparks flew Thursday night at a New York Academy of Sciences panel discussion about whether or not certain recent research into the H5N1 avian flu virus has created a major biosecurity threat and what, if anything, to do about it.
[More]Close Super Bowl Boosts Ad At End
Advertisers will drop $3.5 million for a 30-second spot during Sunday’s Super Bowl. But to get the most bang for their buck, they might want to play their ad right after the game ends--not during it. Because if it's a close one, the time slot right after the final gun should have the most sway with viewers. So says a study in the Journal of Advertising . [ Colleen C. Bee and Robert Madrigal, It’s Not Whether You Win Or Lose, It’s How The Game Is Played: The Influence of Suspenseful Sports Programming on Advertising (forthcoming, no link yet)]
[More]For Healthy Cities, Government and Business Need to Reverse Roles
Okay, I have to be honest with you. I love a city, and a downtown with walkways and tunnels and bus stops that tell me where my buses are via GPS and everything else, but sometimes you can just have more connectivity than you need. Remember the internet-connected toaster, that singed the weather forecast into your morning toast?
Well, meet the Big Belly Solar Trash Compactor, a precocious trash can that lives in Raleigh, NC.
[More]China Greenhouse Gas Emissions Set to Rise Well Past U.S.
By 2015, China will emit nearly 50 percent more greenhouse gases than the United States, a top Chinese energy researcher said yesterday.
[More]Isotopes Hint at North Korean Nuclear Weapons Tests in 2010
By Geoff Brumfiel of Nature magazine
North Korea may have conducted two covert nuclear weapons tests in 2010, according to a fresh analysis of radioisotope data.
The claim has drawn scepticism from some nuclear-weapons experts. [More]
Is It Ethical to Own an iPhone?
Recent media reports and ongoing protests over the reportedly abhorrent working conditions at factories where Apple's iPhones are produced have left socially conscious Americans with a dilemma: Is it ethical to own an iPhone?
[More]The Science of Concussion and Brain Injury
MIND Reviews: The Righteous Mind
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion [More]
Social Clicks: Sounds Associated with African Languages Are Common in English
Some Africans click, but English speakers don’t. That’s been the conventional wisdom about click sounds, which serve as regular consonants in Zulu and Xhosa and a few other African languages but which were presumed to just be used in English for encouraging a horse, imitating a kiss, or expressing emotions such as disapproval or amazement. But researchers have recently found that clicks are far more prevalent in the world’s lingua franca than had been thought.
[More]U.N. Declares Somali Famine Over for Now
By Katy Migiro
NAIROBI, Feb 3 (AlertNet) - An exceptional harvest after good rains and food deliveries by aid agencies have ended famine in Somalia for now but food stocks could run out again in May, the United Nations said on Friday.
[More]Molecules to Medicine: Plan B: The Tradition of Politics at the FDA
Morning After The Morning's Trash
In my last post , I focused on flaws in the medical device approval process. The Union of Concerned Scientists FDA at a Crossroads meeting also covered problems with drug approval. This is perhaps no better illustrated than by the disappointing decision by Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius to deny the emergency contraceptive, Plan B, over-the-counter status for women under the age of 17 . This was a particular disappointment to many because President Obama had promised that decisions at the FDA would be made based on science, rather than politics. Some of us, naively, hoped that change we can believe in was real, having forgotten that the Tooth Fairy wasn t.
[More]More with Maryn: McKenna on Antibiotic Resistance
Journalist and author Maryn McKenna talks about antibiotic resistance in agriculture and human health, MRSA, and a brief return to the subject of fecal transplants. [More]
Virtual Reality Contact Lenses Could Be Available by 2014
Contact lenses that help enhance normal vision with megapixel 3D panoramic images are being designed by scientists using military funding.
[More]Could an Infection Cause Tourette's-Like Symptoms in Teenage Girls?
Over the weekend Erin Brockovich made the news yet again as she and her nonprofit team descended on the village of Le Roy, N.Y., determined to test for environmental toxins that might be giving the town's teenagers symptoms of Tourette's syndrome. She has reportedly been stonewalled thus far by local officials, who have already ruled out toxins as the cause of last October's sudden outbreak of tics and involuntary movements in 12 girls who attend Le Roy Junior–Senior High School. An environmental testing company surveyed the air and water and found nothing amiss, and a local neurologist concluded upon examining the girls that they had "conversion disorder," a catchall moniker for physical symptoms that originate in the mind because of stress, trauma or even mass hysteria.
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