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A Cosmic Perspective: Interview With StarTalk's Neil deGrasse Tyson  


When my daughter Lotus recently became interested in astronomy, and we began watching shows and documentaries about space and the universe, we discovered Neil deGrasse Tyson, the dynamic host of the National Geographic talk show "StarTalk." While Neil is a world renowned and brilliant astrophysicist and author, and director of the prestigious Hayden Planetarium, he is also an immensely likable, jolly, and warm personality - one who exudes joie de vivre, as well as a contagious, passionate energy for expanding frontiers of science, human thought and innovation. Which is perhaps why, during my interview with him at his office at The Museum of Natural History, wearing his trademark tie of planets, he took such personal interest in my very outdated, essentially obsolete yet beloved RCA microcassette recorder, picking it up as if it were a fossil from prehistoric times asking incredulously, "What is this?!" When I explained that I used it as a back-up, a relic from my days 20 years ago as a magazine reporter, he couldn't control himself. He proceeded to take over my iPhone, setting the interview up to record on the Voice Memo application, beginning the recording with his trademark booming radio announcer voice: "And now, I am Neil deGrasse Tyson for HuffPo interview..." before handing my iPhone back to me, all ready to go.

That anecdote is a sampling of his humor and how he sees his role, as a teacher and provocateur, educating people in entertaining ways about what they should know -- about the universe, about science, and about ourselves and the world around us. He has done this through a variety of mediums: as the host of StarTalk, the popular podcast and National Geographic Channel talk show, as well as the miniseries Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, as the author of 10 books, including the best-selling Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries, as well as cultivating a social media following with his thought-provoking and informative tweets. He is also the recipient of the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by NASA to a nongovernment citizen.

StarTalk, his two-time Emmy-nominated late-night talk show, is an outgrowth of his popular radio and podcast series of the same name and seeks to bridge the world of pop culture and science through intimate interviews and lively discussions with an eclectic roster of guests hewn from pop culture, politics or news discussing how science and technology have affected their lives and careers. The third season of StarTalk will premiere on Monday, September 19th, with actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg, followed by a diverse lineup of other high profile guests this season including astronaut Buzz Aldrin, actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, comedian Jay Leno, Olympic Gold Medalist Hope Solo, actor Ben Stiller and more. Natgeo Books has also just released an illustrated companion book to the series, STARTALK: Everything You Ever Need to Know About Space Travel, Sci-Fi, the Human Race, the Universe, and Beyond which curates the best of "StarTalk" and dives deeper into some of the most intriguing discussions from the show.

In our conversation below, Tyson talks about his passion for helping people discover "what role science plays in their lives," why he thinks education should teach our students "how to think," what gives him awe and the essential impact of seeing ourselves and the world through a "cosmic perspective." When you do, Tyson states emphatically, "it changes everything."




Marianne Schnall: First of all, I wanted to let you know that not only is my 15-year- old daughter a fan, but so is my 18-year-old daughter, my husband, and my father, so you are officially multigenerational, which is a good thing. What is it you most want to accomplish through StarTalk and why did you decide, rather than this just being a science show, to bridge science with pop culture?

Neil deGrasse Tyson: It's a perfect question, because -- when we think of science, we think of this subject that's taught in a classroom, and you're either good at it or you're not, or you're interested in it, or you're not. And you can just walk by it and say, "Oh, I don't like science but I like history," and you go learn history, as though science is this compartmentalized topic that you can climb over, walk around, dig under, or ignore. And it occurred to me that, "No, of course, science is not that. Science is everywhere." And it especially touches pop culture. So if we create a radio show that pivots on a pop culture foundation, then we can -- think of it as a scaffold. It's a pop culture scaffold that walks into every episode of StarTalk, and we then clad it with science that fits that pop culture topic. I don't need to train you on that scaffold -- pop culture by definition means everybody knows what it is! I have a guest, and you know who that guest is because that person is a famous politician, or singer, performer, artist, whatever. And so I already have you half way. It's the rest of the way that is the celebration of science on the program. So I think it's just a more honest account of what role science plays in our lives. The popularity of StarTalk, I think, is evidence of how well that resonates with people.

MS: And the fact that it has cross-generational appeal is also a really good sign.

NDT: By the way, part of that might be the multiple platforms that it's on. Because I have an identity that exists apart and separate from StarTalk -- like I'm active on Twitter. That leans young. So people say, "Oh, I like Tyson's tweets... oh, he also has his radio show or TV show." And so there are tributaries to the show that do come from different demographics coming together, so I am pleased to learn in your case of the multiple generations.

One other thing: the honing of how we do StarTalk, some of it comes from these other places. So I'll send out a tweet that's pure science, and there'll be some interest in it. But if I connect the science to something pop culture, the interest is ten times greater. So these are insights that I glean daily by people's reactions to how I juxtapose information. So I use that to inform how we do shows with StarTalk.

MS: I feel like we often forget that we actually are on a planet spinning through space. I guess my question is: why do we seem to forget that we are one family on a planet spinning through space, and if we retained that perspective, how would that change the way that we treat the environment, each other and other forms of life on this earth?

NDT: It changes everything. You're absolutely right. And it's a cosmic perspective. The embarrassing part of this is that I and every one of my colleagues carry this perspective with us all the time. And what's embarrassing about that is we sometimes take that for granted, and we have to say, "Oh, my gosh, these other people I'm in this cocktail party with do not live with this awareness. So let me put in a little extra effort to alert you of this, of what's going on in the universe, to put our existence in a context that will either have you re-balance what you think may be important in your life or rethink how you're allocating your energies in the service of yourself versus the environment versus the planet as a whole." That's what a cosmic perspective does.

So yes, it's extremely important. Let me tell you how important it is. I can assert without hesitation that the modern environmental movement where we're caring for earth was born while we were landing on the moon, 1968, '69, and '70. 1968 was our first mission to the moon, Apollo 8. People don't think about it much, because they didn't land. They just went, and orbited and came back. Apollo 9, 10, and 11 would take us into 1969. You go to the moon, and what happened? We looked back, took a picture of earth, and discovered earth for the first time. There it was adrift in space, the dark void of space. And we saw it not as -- it's hard to even go back and remember this or think that it could have ever been this way -- but we saw earth not as earth appeared in social studies class with color coded countries, no. We saw earth as only space can reveal it to you. And there were oceans, land and clouds.

So like I said, we go to the moon, and we discover earth for the first time. After that photo was published, Earthrise and then the Blue Marble -- in that interval of time, we changed as a culture. They say what is it worth to go into space? We changed as a culture. By the way, we had plenty of other priorities on our plate -- there were assassinations, and a cold war, and a hot war, and a civil rights movement, and campus unrest. Yet, we found the time to create the Environmental Protection Agency! That was 1970. Oh, my God. Why didn't we create it in 1960? No one was thinking about it! 1950? Nobody was thinking about it. 1980 could be too late! Environmental Protection Agency under a Republican president, I might add.

What else happened? No one had thought of the atmosphere of earth as part of earth much before that. Ask someone to draw earth before 1968. They'll just draw earth and the continents - no clouds, no atmosphere. So this juxtaposition of ocean, land, and atmosphere became administratively codified in the founding of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA was founded in 1970. Comprehensive Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Protection of Species Act -- some of these existed in sort of skeletal forms earlier. They came of age in the versions that were ratified in 1970. What else happened in 1970? The first Earth Day. Why didn't we have an Earth Day in 1965? 1967? No, 1970. And then 1972, leaded gas would be banned. Catalytic converter would be introduced. So this is my long way to answer your question with a yes. Knowing space matters -- maybe more because it recalibrates what it is to know ourselves.

MS: Why isn't astronomy a required part of a standard educational curriculum so we have that foundational awareness? Why do you think that is?

NDT: Well, the curriculum is ossified for generations, and there's a lot of baggage. Is that the right word? There's a lot of legacy educational habits that exist particularly in the American system. I don't know the other systems very well.

MS: So without our school system, how can we change things?

NDT: No, I would change [the school systems] - I mean I'm not there yet, but I plan to work on that as one of my projects: What can we do with the future of the school systems? Is the portfolio of topics the right ones? Should you get an entire class on a cosmic perspective? What kind of math should you be taught if at all? There are people who say they don't need their math. I think that's a mistake, because it implies that what you learn is what you then apply. Whereas, in the best scenario what you learn -- the act of having learned it -- has established a new form of wiring in your brain that empowers you to have thoughts you've never had before. And by studying math, and by struggling to do a math problem set, and with every new problem you solve, it's a new wiring of your brain. And if you only think of school as, "I want to learn this so that I could apply it here," you'll be ill equipped to navigate the rapidly changing frontier of what actually matters in society. What is it now -- the average time someone spends in a job is three years or five years before you move? Whereas the generation before us, they would spend 30 years working in the factory or working for their company. So you're a freshman in college saying, "What should I major in to have the best chance of having a good job?" Well, major in "how to think," and then you can apply that to any job that arises that at this moment is unforeseen, because you're not getting out for another four years and if you go to graduate school, it's another seven or eight.

MS: You have this new companion book to the series, which is great - there's so much that's in it...

NDT: Can I say something? I didn't know in my heart how this would turn out, because it's organizationally ambitious. And I'd see the PDFs when they'd come about, but then when the book arrived in my box two days ago, I said, "Oh, my gosh, this is fun." And I'd say that even if I had nothing to do with the project. I mean I'm pleased to hear that you like it, because it's -- any page you turn, "I want to know about that! Oh, my gosh, this is cool too!" And it is the soul of StarTalk.

MS: I went to a local observatory recently, and I was shocked to see details so far off in space I had never seen before in the night sky. For example, stars that are different colors and shapes, twin stars that look like one but are actually two, and one of the furthest stars in the sky that was actually a cluster of a million stars. I was just awe-struck by the vastness of what is out there. What gives you the most awe? How would you describe the beauty of the universe?

NDT: So, philosophers historically like speaking of truth and beauty going together. And I don't think of beauty, because that value judges what you're looking at. Is the sunset beautiful but the underbelly of a tarantula not? Yet they're both part of nature. Is a squirrel cute but a rat ugly when they're both rodents? One just happens to have a furry tail, and the other doesn't. So to say something is beautiful is value judging nature, and I refuse to do that. I refuse to value judge what is beautiful and what is not. I accept it all as being part of nature.

And is a virus bad because it's trying to survive and it happens to give you a fatal disease? It's just being its own thing. We have the power now to render certain strains of mosquitoes extinct by disrupting their reproductive cycle. Should we? Well, the mosquitoes are bad for us. Bats eat them -- so I'm not going to say, "We're in charge. We don't like the mosquitoes. Fine. Get rid of them." I'm not going to say they're being bad mosquitoes. It's just we're making a decision, sort of a rational decision for our own survival as any creature would do in the interest of its own survival. The lion actually doesn't care if zebras go extinct. It's not thinking that. It just wants to eat the zebra. Okay. Now, if zebras do go extinct, then they'll eat the gazelles. They don't care, right? So for me, my awe comes not so much from the universe, but from our ignorance of the universe. If you add dark matter and dark energy together, which are two unknowns in our modern science -- we know they're out there, we measure their existence, but we don't know what causes it, we don't know what it's made of. If you add them together it's 95, 96 percent of all that drives the universe. I'm in awe of that. I'm in awe of how much we understand and have used to shape our civilization and to think of how much we have yet to understand and what that could mean for the future of civilization.

For more about StarTalk, visit www.channel.nationalgeographic.com/startalk/


Marianne Schnall is a widely published writer and interviewer whose writings and interviews have appeared in a variety of media outlets including O, The Oprah Magazine, Marie Claire, CNN.com, AOL Build, the Women's Media Center and The Huffington Post. She is also the co-founder and executive director of the women's website and non-profit organization Feminist.com, as well as the co-founder of the environmental site EcoMall.com. She is the author of Daring to Be Ourselves: Influential Women Share Insights on Courage, Happiness and Finding Your Own Voice and What Will it Take to Make a Woman President? Conversations About Women, Leadership, and Power. You can visit her website at www.marianneschnall.com.

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Trump Supporters: Basket Of Deplorables Or Basket Cases?  

Credit: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

There's no doubt that Donald Trump has said many things that would have been political suicide for any other Republican candidate. And almost every time he made one of these shocking statements, political analysts on both the left and the right predicted that he'd lose supporters because of it. But as we have clearly seen over the past year, they were dead wrong every time. Trump appears to be almost totally bulletproof.

The only thing that might be more perplexing than the psychology of Donald Trump is the psychology of his supporters. In their eyes, The Donald can do no wrong. Even Trump himself seems to be astonished by this phenomenon. "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's, like, incredible."

Senator John McCain, who has been a regular target for Trump during his campaign, has a simple explanation for his unwavering support. "What he did was he fired up the crazies."

While the former Republican presidential nominee may be on to something, he doesn't exactly provide a very satisfying scientific explanation. So how exactly are Trump loyalists psychologically or neurologically different from everyone else? What is going on in their brains that makes them so blindly devoted?

1. The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Some believe that many of those who support Donald Trump do so because of ignorance -- basically they are under-informed or misinformed about the issues at hand. When Trump tells them that crime is skyrocketing in the United States, or that the economy is the worst it's ever been, they simply take his word for it.

The seemingly obvious solution would be to try to reach those people through political ads, expert opinions, and logical arguments that educate with facts. Except none of those things seem to be swaying any Trump supporters from his side, despite great efforts to deliver this information to them directly.

The Dunning-Kruger effect explains that the problem isn't just that they are misinformed; it's that they are completely unaware that they are misinformed. This creates a double burden.

Studies have shown that people who lack expertise in some area of knowledge often have a cognitive bias that prevents them from realizing that they lack expertise. As psychologist David Dunning puts it in an op-ed for Politico, "The knowledge and intelligence that are required to be good at a task are often the same qualities needed to recognize that one is not good at that task -- and if one lacks such knowledge and intelligence, one remains ignorant that one is not good at the task. This includes political judgment." Essentially, they're not smart enough to realize they're dumb.

And if one is under the illusion that they have sufficient or even superior knowledge, then they have no reason to defer to anyone else's judgment. This helps explain why even nonpartisan experts -- like military generals and Independent former Mayor of New York/billionaire CEO Michael Bloomberg -- as well as some respected Republican politicians, don't seem to be able to say anything that can change the minds of loyal Trump followers.

Out of immense frustration, some of us may feel the urge to shake a Trump supporter and say, "Hey! Don't you realize that he's an idiot?!" No. They don't. That may be hard to fathom, but that's the nature of the Dunning-Kruger effect -- one's ignorance is completely invisible to them.

2. Hypersensitivity to Threat

Science has unequivocally shown that the conservative brain has an exaggerated fearresponse when faced with stimuli that may be perceived as threatening. A 2008 study in the journal Science found that conservatives have a stronger physiological reaction to startling noises and graphic images compared to liberals. A brain-imaging study published in Current Biology revealed that those who lean right politically tend to have a larger amygdala -- a structure that is electrically active during states of fear and anxiety. And a 2014 fMRI study found that it is possible to predict whether someone is a liberal or conservative simply by looking at their brain activity while they view threatening or disgusting images, such as mutilated bodies. Specifically, the brains of self-identified conservatives generated more activity overall in response to the disturbing images.

So how does this help explain the unbridled loyalty of Trump supporters? These brain responses are automatic, and not influenced by logic or reason. As long as Trump continues his fear mongering by constantly portraying Muslims and Mexican immigrants as imminent dangers, many conservative brains will involuntarily light up like light bulbs being controlled by a switch. Fear keeps his followers energized and focused on safety. And when you think you've found your protector, you become less concerned with remarks that would normally be seen as highly offensive.

3. Terror Management Theory

A well-supported theory from social psychology, called Terror Management Theory, explains why Trump's fear mongering is doubly effective.

The theory is based on the fact that humans have a unique awareness of their own mortality. The inevitably of one's death creates existential terror and anxiety that is always residing below the surface. In order to manage this terror, humans adopt cultural worldviews -- like religions, political ideologies, and national identities -- that act as a buffer by instilling life with meaning and value.

Terror Management Theory predicts that when people are reminded of their own mortality, which happens with fear mongering, they will more strongly defend those who share their worldviews and national or ethnic identity, and act out more aggressively towards those who do not. Hundreds of studies have confirmed this hypothesis, and some have specifically shown that triggering thoughts of death tends to shift people towards the right.

Not only do death reminders increase nationalism, they influence actual voting habits in favor of more conservative presidential candidates. And more disturbingly, in a study with American students, scientists found that making mortality salient increased support for extreme military interventions by American forces that could kill thousands of civilians overseas. Interestingly, the effect was present only in conservatives, which can likely be attributed to their heightened fear response.

By constantly emphasizing existential threat, Trump creates a psychological condition that makes the brain respond positively rather than negatively to bigoted statements and divisive rhetoric. Liberals and Independents who have been puzzled over why Trump hasn't lost supporters after such highly offensive comments need look no further than Terror Management Theory.

4. High Attentional Engagement

According to a recent study that monitored brain activity while participants watched 40 minutes of political ads and debate clips from the presidential candidates, Donald Trump is unique in his ability to keep the brain engaged. While Hillary Clinton could only hold attention for so long, Trump kept both attention and emotional arousal high throughout the viewing session. This pattern of activity was seen even when Trump made remarks that individuals didn't necessarily agree with. His showmanship and simple messages clearly resonate at a visceral level.

Essentially, the loyalty of Trump supporters may in part be explained by America's addiction with entertainment and reality TV. To some, it doesn't matter what Trump actually says because he's so amusing to watch. With Donald, you are always left wondering what outrageous thing he is going to say or do next. He keeps us on the edge of our seat, and for that reason, some Trump supporters will forgive anything he says. They are happy as long as they are kept entertained.

Of course these explanations do not apply to all Trump supporters. In fact, some are likely intelligent people who know better, but are supporting Trump to be rebellious or to introduce chaos into the system. They may have such distaste for the establishment and Hillary Clinton that their vote for Trump is a symbolic middle finger directed at Washington.

So what can we do to potentially change the minds of Trump loyalists before voting day in November? As a cognitive neuroscientist, it grieves me to say that there may be nothing we can do. The overwhelming majority of these people may be beyond reach, at least in the short term. The best we can do is to motivate everyone else to get out to the booths and check the box that doesn't belong to a narcissistic nationalist who has the potential to damage the nation beyond repair.

This article was originally published at Raw Story.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/19/royal-society-science-book-prize-andrea-wulf-the-invention-of-nature  
Alexander von Humboldt biography wins Royal Society science book prize  

Andrea Wulf wins £25,000 award for The Invention of Nature, a biography of the 19th-century explorer who has more things named after him than any other human

A biography of the 19th-century explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who has “faded from collective memory” despite being dubbed “the Shakespeare of the sciences” by his peers, has won the £25,000 prize for the best science book of the year.

Related: The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science by Andrea Wulf review

Related: Andrea Wulf on a scientific adventurer 'chased by 10,000 pigs'

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When Blind People Do Algebra, The Brain's Visual Areas Light Up  

A study of 17 people who have been blind since birth found that areas of the brain usually devoted to visual information become active when a blind person is solving math problems.

 
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Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier Scientists of the Day On Sep....  

http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/eng_tech/id/12610


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ballooning#/media/File:Montgolfier_brothers_flight.jpg


http://www.uh.edu/engines/montgolfiermodel2.jpg


https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/insignia-21st-airship-group-united-states-army-air-corps-0


http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/12938/montgolfiers1nov_047.jpg

Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier Scientists of the Day

On Sep. 19, 1783, a large hot-air balloon slowly lifted from the grounds of Versailles Palace outside Paris, leaving behind a vast and cheering crowd.

read more…

 
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Life Blooms in the Clouds  
Microbes in the atmosphere influence life on the planet's surface. "Invisible Nature: Life in the Clouds" was first published on bioGraphic. ©2016 California Academy of Sciences.

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com  
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/grant-stern/global-expert-miami-beach-naled-pesticide-spraying_b_12082560.html?utm_hp_ref=science&ir=Science  
GLOBAL EXPERT: Miami Beach Naled Pesticide Spraying Ineffective Against Zika Virus Carrying Mosquitos  

Miami Beach has been spraying the toxic chemical Naled frequently as the Zika virus outbreak covering South Beach has spread north to encompass two-thirds of the island city.

Global expert Dr. Michael Callahan says that it's not only an ineffective strategy to combat the aedes aegypti mosquito which carries the tropical disease he termed “dengue fever light,” but it may be counterproductive by wiping out predators who might eat carrier mosquitos.

In an extended video interview with Dr. Richard Perlmutter (below), Dr. Callahan, who is the co-founder of the Zika Foundation explained that our officials are implementing a mosquito control plan appropriate for West Nile disease, but isn't likely to tamp down Miami Beach's public health problems:

We can tell you what hasn't worked in the past with aerial spraying with this mosquito. There's been a lot of money wasted in Singapore, Taiwan and Japan and several Central American countries, trying to control aedes aegypti with aerial spraying. It does not work. It is an indoor resident. About 60-70 of our total community population is indoors and it is not flying around at night when the aerial spraying controls. What you see in Florida is the adaptive plan for West Nile mosquito... Aerial spraying with naled or many of the other insecticides have been proven systematically to be less effective. For aedes aegypti you need on the ground spray, houses and yards and absolutely control breeding sites by getting rid of standing water.

The Harvard-based Dr. Callahan has practiced on roughly over 2,000 Zika patients over the years around the world.

Until 2013, there was no history of pregnancy-related illness linked to Zika Virus, and it was considered more of a children's disease.

Dr. Callahan explained that in Brazil, children are taught the following ‘nursery rhyme' (there is no other way for me to describe this) which helps explain to that vulnerable population how the aedes aegypti mosquito:

Black and white, indoor bite, silent flight and you're safe at night.

The aedes aegypti mosquito is known for its black and white stripes. They like to find their way indoors, so regular use of repellant is a must.

The zika virus carrying mosquitos do not make significant noise, but the good news is that they generally do not bite during the night time either.

Additionally, Dr. Callahan explained that lemon eucalyptus repellant is a safe, natural product to use for protection against bites, for example Repel Eucalyptus which runs under $5 per bottle on Amazon.

The aedes aegypti mosquito prefers to bite on the back of the neck, though more than 65 percent of bites come below the knees as you can see below the video in a graphic by the Zika Foundation.

The doctor indicated that Zika vaccine is not only unlikely, but could carry even more significant medical risks than a regular transmission of the virus, no doctor could ethically rush one into production during an outbreak either.

Prevention of transmission is the most effective treatment today and for the foreseeable future.

“It is a highly visual public health intervention. It helps to promote a lot of trust that things are being done. But I am emphatic about this... for this mosquito and for this problem you need yard to yard control .

“That aerial spraying does a disservice by wiping out mosquito eating insects,” opined the world's foremost Zika virus expert, “in some parts of the world, they count for 20 percent of the predation of the aedes mosquito.”

The Miami Beach City Commission voted last week ― after two weeks of intense protests which made national and global news ― to urge higher government officials to end Naled spraying and implement an alternative to the chemical banned in the EU since 2012.

Interestingly, Miami's Wynwood neighborhood only had one single spraying with Naled, which also led to protests and then immediate cessation of the organophosphate neurotoxin aerial spraying.

Barring a last-minute surprise, Wynwood is expected to be removed from travel warnings today, after going 45 days without a new, local infection.

Now, it's up to Florida's public health officials to take a long, hard look at Dr. Callahan's suggestions, before their “cure” for mosquito-borne Zika virus becomes worse than the disease.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Marine sponges  

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Pictured here is a diverse community of marine sponges on a coral reef in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Humans are largely made up of millions of microbes, collectively called our microbiomes. These microbial "ecosystems" contribute to keeping us healthy. It's the same for corals and other species such as marine sponges, scientists are finding. Through a new National Science Foundation Dimensions of Biodiversity grant, Michael Lesser of the University of New Hampshire and colleagues are studying the evolutionary ecology of sponges, and how their microbiomes drive diversity on coral reefs.

Image credit: Deborah Gochfeld, University of Mississippi

 
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Technique for calculating elasticity could aid design of new materials  

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Polymers, or long chains of repeating molecules, are found in many objects that we encounter every day, including anything made of plastic or rubber. In many materials, however, a significant fraction of these chains bind to themselves, forming defects. By coming up with a way to measure these structural defects, MIT researchers have now shown that they can accurately calculate the elasticity of polymer networks such as hydrogels. This theory could make it much easier for scientists to design materials with a specific elasticity, which is now more of a trial-and-error process.

Image credit: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT

 
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http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/19/cassini_countdown/  
NASA starts countdown for Cassini probe's Saturn death dive  

Keep Solar System Tidy message heeded despite plan for three probe dumps

NASA has revealed its final plans to crash the Cassini probe into Saturn next year.…

 
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http://www.npr.org/2016/09/18/494451651/reinventing-the-football-helmet-is-improving-the-technology-the-answer?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=researchnews  
Reinventing The Football Helmet: Is Improving The Technology The Answer?  

The NFL announced last week it will invest $100 million to advance concussion research. Rachel Martin asks David Camarillo, who leads a Stanford University lab dedicated to inventing such equipment

 
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http://www.npr.org/2016/09/18/494451702/newly-found-hms-terror-could-provide-clues-to-fateful-1848-shipwreck?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=researchnews  
Newly Found HMS Terror Could Provide Clues To Fateful 1848 Shipwreck  

With the likely discovery of the HMS Terror in polar waters, NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with novelist Dan Simmons, author of The Terror a fictionalized account of the wreck of HMS Terror and Erebus.

 
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http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/17/494230963/cancer-immunotherapy-at-a-crossroads?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=researchnews  
Cancer Immunotherapy At A Crossroads  

Doctors can now marshal patients' immune systems to fight some cancers. Yet many people don't respond to immunotherapy, and the costs of treatment can be astronomical.

 
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/17/a-brief-history-of-everyone-who-ever-lived-by-adam-rutherford-review  
A Brief History of Everyone who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford review genes, race and rewriting the human story  

This effervescent book contains the latest thinking on the African origins of Homo sapiens and asks what our genes can really tell us

In trying to categorise a new arrival in the film Mean Girls one character asks: “if you're from Africa, how come you're white?” The mean girl cannot have been paying attention in class, because, as Adam Rutherford reminds us so elegantly in his latest book, we are all African originally. The only homo sapiens on the planet 100,000 years ago were in Africa.

The mean girl can be forgiven her ignorance, since the way many of us (lay people and professionals alike) have been taught about our origins is flawed. The neat family trees and branch lines charting the steady progress of evolution, and those ubiquitous illustrations of the ascent of humans, in which we evolve step by step from bent-over apes to straight-backed homo sapiens, are not just simplistic, they are a profound misshaping of the truth.

Rutherford argues that rather than halting the advance of gene science, we all need to have our genomes sequenced

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Buckling graphene takes a ‘Lévy flight'  
New effect could power small electronic devices  
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wallace-j-nichols/climate-and-ocean-resilience_b_12030322.html?utm_hp_ref=science&ir=Science  
Climate And Ocean Resilience: President Obama Creates Ocean Monument Off New England  
One year ago, I wrote about a special corner of the ocean known for its biodiversity, productivity and unique underwater canyons and mountains. I described an area where "coral canyons plunge thousands of feet below the surface, some deeper than the Grand Canyon," and where "mountains (or 'seamounts') reach 7,000 feet above the ocean floor."

My family and I have traveled the globe to visit amazing ocean places and meet people who rely on the sea for their livelihoods and inspiration. But the place I described in my blog last year is not in Australia, it's not in Mexico, it's not off the coast of South America. It's here in the United States.

And thankfully, President Obama today took strategic action to protect these unique marine habitats for future generations. This step is particularly critical in light of our need to work together to combat climate change.

Approximately 150 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument is home to the only underwater mountains in America's portion of the Atlantic Ocean. Some of these seamounts are taller than the Appalachian Mountains, including North Carolina's Mt. Mitchell which soars skyward just a few hours from where I used to attend graduate school.

Also in the new monument are canyons with walls lined with corals, crevices plunging thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean, some deeper than Grand Canyon National Park here in the West. Rare species abound in these biologically diverse niches and ecosystems. Our learning about them is just beginning.

Research shows the importance of protecting key areas of our ocean so that it - and humankind - will be more resilient to the inevitable global changes in the climate and our ocean health looming ahead. Like in other parts of the world, species off the coast of New England are threatened by ocean warming and ocean acidification. The ocean is getting more acidic due to absorption of increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Acidic waters make it extremely hard for corals and other invertebrates to produce shells and exoskeletons.

Beyond economic and scientific reasons for preserving our ocean, humans have a creative and calming connection with the big blue. This connection provides us with enormous cognitive, emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual benefits -- our Blue Mind.

We cannot all travel to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to feel the power and witness the beauty, but there is peace of mind in knowing that these unique habitats are permanently protected.

President Obama has preserved a precious undersea world that holds new and important untold scientific discoveries. He is also helping to reinforce the deep bond between us and the ocean. A bond that can provide each of us with a lifetime of fulfillment and wonder.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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What Makes a Cucumber a Pickle?  
We picked a peck of pickle pictures to show you how helpful bacteria and salt transform this cucumber into a tangy treat.

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An infectious cause for Alzheimer's?  


An infectious cause for Alzheimer's?

By Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog

Alzheimer's disease is the sixth leading cause of US deaths and accounts for up to 80 percent of all dementia cases. Particularly distressing is the fact that there is no way to prevent its occurrence, slow its progression or cure the disease once it is detected. And this produces a significant economic burden on families; totaling almost $250 billion for health care and long term care annually.

More than 5 million Americans over the age of 65 are living with Alzheimer's today and 16 million are forecast to be afflicted in 2050 at a cost of $1 trillion per year. Yes, one trillion dollars! We have an incomplete understanding of what causes this disease. A protein in the brain called amyloid-beta called Aβ is thought to play a key role. The Aβ protein aggregates at sites in the brain forming something called plaques. These plaques are not seen in individuals that do not have Alzheimer's. For some time now, the question has been why do these plaques form?

Recently, there has been an intriguing new possibility regarding the origins of these plaques. It has been proposed that Aβ protein functions to protect the brain from invading microorganisms. Recent experiments reveal that they may be on to something.

Researchers noticed that animals that produce higher levels of Aβ were more resistant to brain infection by exhibiting a longer survival time and lower survival of the bacteria. When tested in the laboratory, Aβ was shown to stick to carbohydrates on the surface of these microbes. Not only that but the Aβ attracted other molecules and extended into fibers that were essential to the antimicrobial activity. Growing fibers entrapped and clumped microbes growing in the laboratory.

Even more intriguing, this ability to clump these microbes occurs during infection in animals. This was demonstrated in the intestinal track after infection with the yeast Candida and administration of Aβ. Other experiments addressed the ability of Aβ to entrap microbes directly in the brain. These experiments used a model that had high levels of Aβ in the mouse brain. A disease causing bacterium was introduced into the mouse brains and what was revealed was fascinating. Within 48 hours, widespread amyloid deposits appeared in the infected brains. When these deposits were analyzed for bacteria, everywhere Aβ deposits were found, there was a bacterium. These results suggest that Aβ deposits may be an important way the brain protects itself from infection. Aβ may be a component of the brain's innate immune system that is the line of first defenses to control microbial infections. However, in the case of Alzheimer's, these reactions that defend us can also lead to later problems. Amyloid deposition leads to the neurological damage seen in Alzheimer's. This could be a game changer.

One could imagine an infection occurring and amyloid deposits being produced years before the symptoms of Alzheimer's are noticed. This could make the connection between the two events harder to prove and even harder to control. However this could be a smoking gun that could lead to a better understanding of the cause of this heart breaking disease.

Medical Discovery News is hosted by professors Norbert Herzog at Quinnipiac University, and David Niesel of the University of Texas Medical Branch. Learn more at www.medicaldiscoverynews.com.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/16/494231378/hhs-issues-new-rules-to-open-up-data-from-clinical-trials?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=researchnews  
HHS Issues New Rules To Open Up Data From Clinical Trials  

The aim is to make clinical trial data available to volunteers and scientists, even if a drug or therapy being tested turns out to be a failure. That could help identify serious side effects.

 
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http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/16/494124888/yes-people-really-are-driving-while-playing-pokemon-go?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=researchnews  
Yes, People Really Are Driving While Playing Pokemon Go  

People are playing Pokemon Go while behind the wheel — and then tweeting about it. And causing crashes. Immersive games like this can be even more dangerous than texting, researchers say.

 
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/16/prehistory-of-the-cloud-tung-hui-hu-review-reality-virtual-storage  
A Prehistory of the Cloud by Tung-Hui Hu review the reality behind virtual storage  

From old railway tracks repurposed as routes for fibre-optic cables to cold war bunkers retrofitted to store data, Hu shows that the intangible cloud has a solid infrastructure

The cloud is “a system of networks that pools computing power”. You may think of it as a mute and ethereal concept but for Tung-Hui Hu it is “both an idea and a physical and material object”. His slim yet wide-ranging study attempts to reify and historicise a concept that has “become a potent metaphor for the way contemporary society organizes and understands itself”. The idea dates back to a 1922 design for predicting weather using a network of human “computers”, or mathematicians, connected via telegraph. From the 19th-century train tracks repurposed as routes for fibre-optic cables and the cold war bunkers retrofitted to store data, Hu shows that the intangible cloud has a solid and polluting infrastructure. He also reveals the human costs, such as the poorly paid foreign workers screening content for Silicon Valley companies, and explores the monetisation of the user: “the cloud is a subtle weapon that translates the body into usable information.” Witty, sharp and theoretically aware, Hu deconstructs this much-discussed but poorly understood “cultural fantasy”.

• A Prehistory of the Cloud is published by MIT

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Flash Physics: New material for heat harvesting, how to make hairy nanorods, a comet breaks up  
Today's selection of need-to-know updates from the world of physics  
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Pietro Tacca Scientist of the Day Pietro Tacca, an Italian...  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcellino#/media/File:PorcellinoFlorence.jpg


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Pietro Tacca Scientist of the Day

Pietro Tacca, an Italian sculptor, was born Sep. 16, 1577.

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