Older men with low testosterone levels who received testosterone supplementation increased lean body mass and decreased body fat, but were no stronger and had no improvement in mobility or cognition compared with men who did not use the supplement, according to a study in the January 2 issue of JAMA.
‘Swish-and-spit’ test accurate for cancer
A morning gargle could someday be more than a breath freshener – it could spot head and neck cancer, say scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Their new study of a mouth rinse that captures genetic signatures common to the disease holds promise for screening those at high risk, including heavy smokers and alcohol drinkers.
Silence may lead to phantom noises misinterpreted as tinnitus
Phantom noises, that mimic ringing in the ears associated with tinnitus, can be experienced by people with normal hearing in quiet situations, according to new research published in the January 2008 edition of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.
Our Biological Receptors
Our biological receptors are our link to perceiving and understanding the universe. Shouldn’t we understand how they function?
Launch of science.TV
science.TV is a video-sharing website for people interested in science.
The aim is to create a platform for individuals and groups to communicate with each other, via pre-recorded and live video. It’s interesting for scientists and programme-makers, because it cuts out the broadcaster and helps creators and audiences find each other and does away with the need for dumbing-down for mass appeal.
Attila Csordas at Partial Immortalization has given us some interesting crit. There’s quite a bit that I want to say in response and I’ll hopefully be doing a blogterview with Attila soon.
Science, Technique, and Philosophy
Science is at a peculiar juncture. Despite all that has been written it has yet to be comprehensively defined both in contrast to earlier world-views and in terms adequate to include and discriminate its historical variations. And the distinction among what are called science, technology, and philosophy remains unsettled, if not neglected.
This article is an attempt to define science in contrast to technology and pre-scientific world-views, to identify science as a form of philosophy, and to make a case for the importance of a larger perspective and a more professional temperance in scientific society.
Looking To Fish For Answers in Climate Change
Several phenological studies seem to suggest a correlation of overfishing and climate linked temperature shifts may have resulted in a change in migration patterns of several cold water over the past decade. Considering that 71% of the earth’s surface is covered with water (Arnett, 2006) researchers have increased their attention to the earth’s oceans and its’ residents for clues.
An Iron bird with self intelligence
Introduction Aircrafts are the revolution of the transportation these years, oilots can reach the skyes pulling a stick and with the power of a tornado the engines leaves the aircraft in to the skyes, but [...]
Information theory is the basis of Gaussian adaptation
According to Kjellström, 1969, (see reference in the list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_adaptation#References)
a connection between GA and information theory is the average speed of stepwise random walks inside a high dimensional simplex region. It turns out that the speed is asymptotically proportional to (see also the point 7 in blog “Gaussian adaptation as a model of evolution”)
– P log(P),
where P is the probability that a random step will lead to a new feasible position inside the simplex. Maximum speed is obtained when P = 1/e = 0.37.
A plausible interpretation of this is that 1/P is proportional to the time/work needed to find a step leading to a feasible position, while –log(P) is the self-information obtained when such a step may be taken. Thus, – P log(P) may be seen as a measure of efficiency; information divided by the work/time needed to get the information. In addition GA maximizes the average information of a Gaussian distribution
Why languages can’t be learned
One of the most basic, essentially undisputed scientific facts about language — and the one that tends to get the most interest from laypeople — is that while learning a foreign language as an adult is very difficult, children learn their native languages with as much ease and proficiency as they learn to walk. This has led researchers such as Steven Pinker to call language learning an “instinct.” In fact, this “instinct” is more than remarkable — it’s miraculous. On careful reflection it seems impossible to learn even just a single word in any language, much less an entire vocabulary (and thus figuring out how we nonetheless all learned a language is a major area of research).
Pilot error declines as factor in airline mishaps
The number of airline mishaps attributed to pilot error significantly declined between 1983 and 2002, according to an analysis conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While the overall rate of airline mishaps remained stable during that time, the proportion of mishaps involving pilot error decreased 40 percent. The rate of mishaps related to a pilot’s poor decision-making declined 71 percent. The researchers attribute the decline to better training and improvements in technology that aid pilot decision-making. The findings are published in the January 2007 edition of Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine.