2011 December | REALscience

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Featured Articles, SciArt, Scientainment, Video on 12 30th, 2011 | No Comments

STEM to STEAM: The Scientific Case for Art

For many, 2011 was the year of Steve Jobs. His bright, creative light went dark. His legacy of innovation and creativity lives on in the products of Apple and the people who work there. But his reach extends much further. Political scientists, business gurus and pop culture junkies are still calculating...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Adaptation and Extinction, Animals, Biology, Citizen science, Climate Change, Video on 12 29th, 2011 | No Comments

Christmas Count Turns Birders into Citizen Scientists

If it’s December it’s time to count the birds. For 112 years the National Audubon Society has been documenting the avian world with its annual Christmas Bird Count. The oldest citizen science (and longest running) project now utilizes the bird-spotting expertise of over 60,000 volunteers...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Astrobiology, Biology, Evolution, Featured Articles, Genetics, Physics and Chemistry, SciLebs on 12 28th, 2011 | No Comments

Rosie Redfield — Tyrant Queen of Science

Rosie Redfield is no shrinking violent. The outspoken University of British Columbia microbiologist always seems to have a wild hair about something. This year it ran the gamut from a fight over mailing flu cells to England using FedEx to her efforts showing scientific journals acting irresponsibly by...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Anthropology, Featured Articles, Nanotechnology, Physics and Chemistry, Science & Religion, Video on 12 23rd, 2011 | 1 Comment

Science Finds Shroud of Turin Wasn’t Faked

A new theory posits that an instantaneous light burst at the moment of Jesus’ resurrection left the imprint of his image in the cloth used to bury him. Just in time for what believers call a Christmas miracle, a team of Italian scientists has concluded that the cloth believed to hold the image...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Adaptation and Extinction, Genomics, Plants, Video on 12 22nd, 2011 | No Comments

Frankincense Shortage on the Horizon

It’s almost Christmas and the value of the gifts of the Three Wise Men is on the rise. For those not remembering the Nativity story the Three Wise Men brought three items, gold, frankincense and myrrh to the birth of baby Jesus. Quite valuable way back when, the three items are still quite rare...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Astrobiology, Astronomy, Discoveries, Space, Video on 12 20th, 2011 | No Comments

Kepler Finds First Earth-Sized Planets

Just a couple of weeks after announcing the discovery of a planet within a distant solar system that is orbiting in what astronomers called the habitable zone for life, another exciting announcement adds two more confirmed planets to the list. Since its launch in 2009, the Kepler Space Telescope has...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Astronomy, Space, Video on 12 19th, 2011 | 1 Comment

Icy Comet Escapes Sun’s Fiery Grip

Comet Lovejoy has Close Encounter with the SunIt may only be ten percent of what it once was but Comet Lovejoy managed to graze the sun and survive, mostly intact. It lost its long trailing tail and a lot of its ice exterior when it made a close encounter with the sun last week. The comet was discovered...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Artificial Intelligence, Biology, Engineering, Evolution, Featured Articles, Nanotechnology, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 12 15th, 2011 | No Comments

Is Metal the New Building Block of Life?

The focus of Lee Cronin’s work is understanding and controlling self-assembly and self-organisation in chemistry to develop functional molecular and nano-molecular chemical systems; linking architectural design with function and recently engineering system-level functions.Lee Cronin's Lab Searches...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Citizen science, Computer Science, Math, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 12 14th, 2011 | No Comments

New Newton Project Drops Online

Sir Isaac Newton wrote mainly in Latin and Greek, the languages of science at the time he made astonishing discoveries about the laws of motion and gravity. Now those numerous writings are being put online in new a collection of 4,000 pages, including his hand-annotated copy of Principia Mathematica.Principia...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Discoveries, Physics and Chemistry, Space, Video on 12 13th, 2011 | No Comments

Search Narrows for Particle to Explain All Mass

For physicists the search for the elusive subatomic particle that gives all things mass is tantamount to the search for the Holy Grail. That’s one reason why scientists call the much-theorized but never seen Higgs Boson the God particle. Now an update on research from the European nuclear agency...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Health and Medicine, The Brain, Video on 12 12th, 2011 | No Comments

The Knowledge Helps London Taxi Drivers Grow Grey Matter

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Or an adult human for that matter. New research from England shows that not only can we learn throughout our lives but that learning can change the structure of our brains as well. Eleanor Maguire from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Featured Articles, SciArt, Scientainment on 12 9th, 2011 | 4 Comments

Tattoos Etch Body of Science

Tattoos are a time-honored yet painful way to mark a significant moment in one’s life. They can capture the essence of who you are and permanently etch that onto your skin. Scientists are one tribe that shows their passion for their work by marking it on their bodies. For years, science writer...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Climate, Climate Change, Featured Articles, Video, Weird Weather on 12 8th, 2011 | No Comments

Deadly Dozen Extreme Weather Events of 2011

2011 was a banner year for weather. It was cold, wet, dry and hot, depending what part of the country you inhabit. And according to new analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration there were 12 weather events that each cost over $1 billion, setting a new record. Jack Hayes, head...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Astrobiology, Astronomy, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Physics and Chemistry, Space on 12 7th, 2011 | 1 Comment

Earth-like Planet Fuels Excitement for Space Exploration

The question is the subject of movies, science fiction novels and our own curious minds. Are we alone in the universe? Prevailing scientific wisdom says yes but more and more the answer appears to be no. With the advent of more sensitive cosmological equipment to scan the night sky, astronomers are...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Atmospheric science, Backyard Science, Citizen science, Consumer Safety, Health and Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 12 6th, 2011 | No Comments

Combustion Whoosh Bottle Experiment Done Right

Last week, a Minnesota science class got more than they bargained for when a combustible demonstration being done by the physical sciences teacher caught chemicals on a lab table on fire and burned several students, including 15-year-old Dane Neuberger. The burned student says, “I started screaming...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Citizen science, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 12 5th, 2011 | 1 Comment

Help Name the New Elements

The latest additions to the periodic table of the elements finally have placeholder names. It was earlier this year when elements 114 and 116 were admitted onto the coveted list of elements. At the time they were referred to by their numerical Latin ununquadium and ununhexium. They might be called flerovium...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Adaptation and Extinction, Animals, Atmospheric science, Biology, Climate, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environment, Marine Science, Oceanography, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 12 1st, 2011 | No Comments

Arctic Region Warms into New Climate State

In 2006, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began monitoring the Arctic region, creating an annual report card to mark rapid change occurring there. Five years in and the news isn’t good. The 2011 Arctic Report Card shows that the entire region is changing dramatically. Ice, both...

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