fun facts about biodiesel

Hi folks,
If you do not yet know what biodiesel is, today is probably a great day to learn about it.
Here are some fun facts to get you started.

Fun facts about biodiesel

• it can be made from soybeans!
• it can be put in diesel cars!
• many gas stations in the US already carry it!

more fun facts about biodiesel

ps. if you already know a lot about biodiesel, perhaps today is a good day to put a bug in someone's ear about it!

tags: oil, energy, supply, fuel, heating, Hurricane Katrina, gas shortage, oil shortage, alternative energy, foreign policy, Iraq war, energy independence, renewable resources, soybeans, diesel, peak oil, environment, agriculture, sustainability

most scientific papers are probably wrong, says scientist

from the New Scientist (via slashdot) comes an article that says most scientific papers are probably wrong. small sample sizes, poor study design, researcher bias and selective reporting all play a part in this, according to epidimiologist John Ionnanadis. read more...

tags: science, objectivity, bias, research, funding, ethics, statistics, error, Ioannadis, Ionannina, false findings, massaged conclusions

a letter from the editor re: gender bias in IQ testing

A controversial new scientific finding claims that men are, on average, more intelligent than women. The study was based on standardized IQ tests.

I would like to formally challenge this assertion, and offer the following to the community at large:

• An invitation to persons from all walks of life to share what they know about the fallibility of standardized IQ tests.
• An invitation to researchers to publish information on gender bias in standardized tests, and to quantify the male-to-female ratio among standardized IQ testing authors and administrators.
• An invitation to scientists to submit the study in question to a rigorous application of the scientific method.
• An invitation to women from all walks of life to come up with standardized IQ tests of their own, whether in jest, or in earnest.
• An invitation to artists, writers, cartoonists and photographers to publish work related to this issue.

If you would like to participate, simply publish your materials to the Internet and include the following tag (keyphrase): IQ gender bias

I will be searching Google and Technorati for material published with this tag in the coming months and collecting links for publication in the Traces Library for Creative Literacy and Ideapark.org.

--Suzy Nees, Editor
The Traces Library for Creative Literacy

water flowed recently on Mars, say NASA scientists

Small gullies found on the surface of Mars indicate that water has flowed there in the recent past, according to NASA scientists.

These areas "may be sites of near-surface water on present-day Mars," says Jennifer Heldmann, the head of NASA's Ames research center. NASA scientists say that these gullies would be prime locations to look for life on the Red Planet. Read more...

tags: space exploration, extraterrestrial life, hydrology, topography, Martian, astronomy, Rover, life on Mars

an article on faith & science

Scientists speak up on mix of God & science
by Cornelia Dean. from the New York Times.

tags: the scientific method, intelligent design, evolution, religion

using bees to sniff out land mines

here is an interesting article on some folks who have trained honeybees to sweep for land mines.

tags: land mine, eradication, mine sweepers, honeybee, Montana State University, Jerry Bromenshenk, Joseph Shaw, laser, optics

cargo-carrying algae

here is a new slashdot post on an experiment which has successfully harnessed algae to carry cargo.

tags: micromachinery, micromotor, nanotechnology, Harvard, Weibel, Whitesides

video games linked to aggression in boys

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent Fri Aug 19, 7:12 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most studies done on violence and video games support the conclusion that violent video games can increase aggressive behavior in children and adolescents, especially boys, researchers said on Friday. More...

a slashdot post on biohacking

here is a crazy new post from slashdot about biohacking.

a new study shows that violent or racy images can cause short periods of blindness

from slashdot...Psychologists at Vanderbilt and Yale Universities have determined that people can suffer short periods of blindness, up to 1/2 a second in length, immediately after seeing highly emotional images. By displaying a series of images for 1/10 of a second each they were able to determine that test subjects couldn't identify images shown immediately after very erotic or gory images. more...

Crocodile's immune system kills HIV

from Slashdot this morning comes this Reuters story by Michael Perry about a possible breakthrough in the fight against HIV/AIDS:

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antibiotic for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills the HIV virus. The crocodile's immune system is much more powerful than that of humans, preventing life-threatening infections after savage territorial fights which often leave the animals with gaping wounds and missing limbs. More...

US not subsidizing recommended foods

from the Yahoo headlines today comes an article about US agricultural subsidies:

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LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The government says half your diet should be fruits and vegetables, but it doesn't subsidize the farmers who grow them. Instead, half of all federal agriculture subsidies go to grain farmers, whose crops feed animals for meat, milk and eggs and become cheap ingredients in processed food.

What's wrong with that?

"Obesity. That's clearly the problem, if you look at the outcome in today's society," said Andy Fischer, executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition, a Venice, Calif., advocacy group. More...

a letter to Nantoka re: robotic crop management

Dear Nantoka,

How difficult would it be to create a robot that could zap weeds in agricultural fields?

Sincerely,
Claudia in Knoxville

Dear Claudia,

I'm not sure how difficult this would be, since I have never made a robot. It sounds like an interesting idea, though, especially since it could tie in pretty nicely with some of the conservation tillage and organic farming practices that are gaining wider acceptance in industrial agriculture.

A robot with an optical sensor would probably be able to "read" color differences in plants pretty easily. I am guessing that the price tag would be the biggest problem. This would be a good question for Ask Slashdot, since they know a lot more about robots than I do.

Thanks for writing, Claudia. Stay curious!

--Nantoka

a letter to Nantoka re: the science of web searching

dear Nantoka,
I am curious to know more about the science behind web browsing. Can you recommend some good keywords to get me started?
Sincerely,
Henrietta in Detroit

Dear Henrietta,
Congratulations on an excellent question! I wish that more people were expressing curiosity about the mysterious relationship between the Internet and the human brain. Here are some tags for you...hope they help!

tags: information architecture, library science, ergonomics, fuzzy searching, natural language processing, intuitive design, information management, habit, routine, path of least resistance, mnemonics, artificial intelligence, interface

agroforestry

here is a link I found in the Yahoo directory under culture > issues > sustainable agriculture > agroforestry

USDA National Agroforestry Center (NAC) - conducts research on how to design and install forested buffers to protect water quality, and develops and delivers technology on a broad suite of agroforestry practices to natural resource professionals.

bacteria froze the Earth, researchers say

Humans apparently aren't the first species to change the climate of the planet. Bacteria living 2.3 billion years ago could have plunged the planet into deep freeze, researchers at the California Institute of Technology claim in a new report. More...

caddo lake, tx

talking bacteria

talking bacteria, and how to shut them up
an article from the Live Science website

news on the Ivory-billed woodpecker

Hi folks,

Here is some news from Yahoo headlines this morning.

tags: Woodpecker, ivory-billed, habitat, swamp, Arkansas, restoration, endangered species, bird, ornithology, Cornell, Hot Springs, Fitzpatrick, evidence, proof

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By KELLY P. KISSEL, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 2, 3:14 AM ET

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Audio recordings of the ivory-billed woodpecker's distinctive double-rap have convinced doubting researchers that the large bird once thought extinct is still living in an east Arkansas swamp.

Last month, a group of ornithologists had questioned the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, last sighted in 1944. They said blurry videotape of a bird in flight wasn't enough evidence. So a Cornell University researcher who was part of the team that announced the bird's rediscovery last spring says his group sent the doubters more evidence.

"We sent them some sounds this summer from the Arkansas woods," said John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell ornithology lab. "We appreciate their ability to say they are now believers." More...

what's left for Nauru

What's Left for Nauru is a Sprol.com article about the tiny island of Nauru, which has been strip mined for the past 100 years.

Sproldex Tags: Water, Mining, Agriculture, Transformation, Desertification, Oceans, Climate Change, Deforestation, Oceania