Baloney.Com

The first prediction of this kind, ever.

dean — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:36:23 +0000

cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/statisticala.jpg

Or so you’d think they’re implying from this quote from the blurb at phys.org: For the first time, researchers have been able to build a consensus between different regional climate models using spatial statistics.

What say, we take time out from fuming about whether past predictions are even predictions and what people intended back then.

Look at the phys.org site, and maybe even find other sites, that have data more like something we could start tracking, like we were doing with the JAXA satellite. How is this different from other kinds of predictions? Have there been other predictions?

Put your thoughts on this topic, and your links to predictions (preferably in a nicely crafted post), in the comments section! Citizen Science is part of Science 2.0.

A well-balanced Goldilocks compound

SecureCare — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:15:24 +0000

“…We wanted to design an optimal catalyst with high activity and low costs that could generate hydrogen as a high-density, clean energy source,”…”We needed to create high, stable activity by combining one non-noble element that binds hydrogen too weakly with another that binds too strongly,”…”The result becomes this well-balanced Goldilocks compound—just right.”…The scientists expected the applied nitrogen to modify the structure of the nickel-molybdenum, producing discrete, sphere-like nanoparticles. But they discovered something else….” Full Slice

Prime freeze

SecureCare — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:58:39 +0000

“The same freezing which is responsible for transforming liquids into glasses can help to predict some patterns observed in prime numbers, according to a team of scientists…”One of important questions about the Riemann Zeta function relates to determining how large the highest of the peaks in the landscape are. In our paper we have argued that, unexpectedly, answering that question is related to the problem of characterizing the nature of the freezing transition in certain complex materials in physics, such as glasses.”…” Full Slice

Reboot them all

SecureCare — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:22:16 +0000

“Mice with a form of dementia have had the condition reversed by a process that involves ‘rebooting’ brain cells otherwise destined to die.

The process that kills the cells could be common to all dementias, so blocking it in the same way might hold promise for Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease – although more research is needed to explore this further….” Full Slice

The Lorentz-Einstein Contradiction

Walter — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:27:28 +0000

“A basic equation of electricity and magnetism is wrong, one scientist claims. The classic formula for the force exerted by electric and magnetic fields—the so-called Lorentz force—clashes with Einstein’s special theory of relativity, says Masud Mansuripur, an electrical engineer at the University of Arizona in Tucson.“

MediaLabIO

tamji_okahara — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:20:56 +0000

Livenotes and commentary

Amazing and beautiful: The Scale of Everything

tamji_okahara — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 07:41:40 +0000

Move the scroll bar left or right - it’s fantastic.

‘Huge’ water resource exists under Africa

tamji_okahara — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 05:02:58 +0000

“Now scientists have for the first time been able to carry out a continent-wide analysis of the water that is hidden under the surface in aquifers. Researchers from the British Geological Survey and University College London (UCL) have mapped in detail the amount and potential yield of this groundwater resource across the continent.

Helen Bonsor from the BGS is one of the authors of the paper. She says that up until now groundwater was out of sight and out of mind. She hopes the new maps will open people’s eyes to the potential.

“Where there’s greatest ground water storage is in northern Africa, in the large sedimentary basins, in Libya, Algeria and Chad,” she said.”

I notice that there is also a lot of water in the areas currently being mined for and/or explored for uranium: northern Niger and NE Mali.

A shift in perspective

SecureCare — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 05:22:18 +0000

“…”Breast cancer is not one disease, but 10 different diseases,”…”Our results will pave the way for doctors in the future to diagnose the type of breast cancer a woman has, the types of drugs that will work and those that won’t, in a much more precise way than is currently possible.”…” Full Slice

Trigger and amplifier

SecureCare — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 03:27:26 +0000

“…researchers compiled ice and sedimentary core samples collected from dozens of locations around the world, and found evidence that while changes in Earth’s orbit may have touched off a warming trend, increases in CO2 played a far more important role in pushing the planet out of the ice age.

“Orbital changes are the pacemaker. They’re the trigger, but they don’t get you too far,”…Most scientists now believe…that the first domino wasn’t an increase in greenhouse gases, but a gradual change in Earth’s orbit. That orbital change resulted in more sunlight hitting the northern hemisphere. As the ice sheets over North America and Europe melted, millions of gallons of fresh water flooded into the North Atlantic and disruped the cyclical flow of ocean currents…”…if you turn the conveyor belt off, it’s going to warm the south because you’re no longer stealing that heat away. Warming the southern hemisphere, in turn, shifts the winds and melts back sea ice that had formed a cap, trapping carbon in the deep ocean.”…” Full Slice