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Stem Cell Research Sentiment [INFOGRAPHIC]
Science Programming On TV [COMIC]
Scientists Study Why You Can't Get It Out Of Your Head
"An earworm is the experience of an inability to dislodge a song and prevent it from repeating itself in one’s head.”
Oh, thaaat.
In the last five years, earworms have become the subject of peer-reviewed scientific studies. In 2006, Steven Brown of Simon Fraser University even studied his own earworms and observed in the Journal of Consciousness Studies that they could be used as a basis for understanding how conscious experience can be split into multiple parallel streams. In 2008, moreover, Finnish researchers published a study that used the Interrnet to survey age, gender, personality and musical and linguistic competence of 12,420 countrymen who experienced the endless loops in their heads. Read the rest at Scientific American.
Fer Reals: Mammoths Might Come Back
Scientists from Japan's Kinki University and the Sakha Republic's mammoth museum have discovered well preserved marrow in a thigh bone discovered in Siberia, buried under the permafrost. The marrow is in such good condition that its cells' DNA could be used to replace the nuclei of elephant egg cells. This will allow scientist to create mammoth embryos.
The team wants to plant these embryos inside the wombs of elephant mothers so they can grow until birth. Read the rest at Gizmodo.
Nobel Laureates by Country & Prize, 1910-2010 [INFOGRAPHIC]
Note how abruptly scientific leaders can become followers: in the first decades of the 20th century, when Heidelberg and Freiburg were at the center of the academic universe, Germany won more Nobel prizes than any other country: 38 between 1901 and 1931, outpacing the U.S. by a factor of two and a half. But Nazism and the Second World War decimated Germany’s academic apparatus, and the U.S. recruited many of its best scientists. Between 1950 and 1980, Germany won just 16 Nobel prizes. The United States took 117.
The United States owes much to its commanding lead in scientific research, including technological advancement, prosperity and security. Whether it will be able to retain that lead is an important question whose answer depends on whether the country is willing to maintain its warm embrace of science: generous government support in the form of research grants and measures to make higher education accessible; reasonably open borders that make it possible to bring in the world’s best minds; and rich universities and foundations that support long-term theoretical research. Read the rest at Forbes.
Scientists Searching For Da Vinci's Lost Battle of Anghiari
Nuclear physics might soon solve a longstanding Leonardo da Vinci mystery -- the fate of a lost masterpiece known as the "Battle of Anghiari."
The project, one of the most ambitious in art history, involves developing a unique camera that can take photographs through a 5-inch-thick wall.
The brick barrier is no ordinary wall. It stands in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence's 14th-century city hall, in the imposing Hall of Five Hundred, and houses a mural known as the "Battle of Marciano." It was painted by the renowned 15th-century painter, architect and writer Giorgio Vasari.
Leonardo's lost work could lie right behind that wall, according to art diagnostic expert Maurizio Seracini, director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego. Read the rest at Discovery.
Shaggy, Shovel-Headed Rhino From Tibet [PAINTING]
Woolly rhinos and many other large, shaggy prehistoric animals first evolved their cold tolerance in Tibet, which served as the evolutionary cradle for Ice Age mega plant-eaters, according to a new paper.
The study helps explain why so many different species roamed North America, Europe and Asia during the last Ice Age beginning about 2.8 million years ago. They had previously adapted to cold environments in the western Himalayas before later expanding to other regions. Read the rest at Discovery News.
