LGP Science Thread

[PensFanInDC]

Doctors say they treated Brown with stem cells and bone marrow from a healthy individual with a genetic predisposition to resist HIV.

I've donated bone marrow before. Not fun.

[Physical_Graffiti]

Journey to the Edge of the Universe on the Discovery Channel is always good watchin'.

[Kraftster]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/201 ... ricfossils" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just crazy to hear about that much time being required for ecosystems to recover. 10 million years. Makes you feel so small.

[rasbatch]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/201 ... ricfossils

Just crazy to hear about that much time being required for ecosystems to recover. 10 million years. Makes you feel so small.

That was an interesting little read.
There was a good Nova on PBS last night about artic dinosaurs. Those nova's can be hit or miss
but this one was really very good.

[doublem]

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Our Brains Are Shrinking. Are We Getting Dumber?

[count2infinity]

Our Brains Are Shrinking. Are We Getting Dumber?

i think that goes without saying... lol

[doublem]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80bea ... agazine%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bringing Embryonic Stem Cells to the Blind: Clinical Test Gets FDA Approval.

[columbia]

College students lack scientific literacy, study finds:
http://news.msu.edu/story/8738/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[doublem]

We must learn to love uncertainty and failure, say leading thinkers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/ ... e-question" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A good scientist is never 'certain'. Lack of certainty is precisely what makes conclusions more reliable than the conclusions of those who are certain: because the good scientist will be ready to shift to a different point of view if better elements of evidence, or novel arguments emerge. Therefore certainty is not only something of no use, but is in fact damaging, if we value reliability."

The physicist Lawrence Krauss of Arizona State University agreed. "In the public parlance, uncertainty is a bad thing, implying a lack of rigour and predictability. The fact that global warming estimates are uncertain, for example, has been used by many to argue against any action at the present time," he said.

"In fact, however, uncertainty is a central component of what makes science successful. Being able to quantify uncertainty, and incorporate it into models, is what makes science quantitative, rather than qualitative. Indeed, no number, no measurement, no observable in science is exact. Quoting numbers without attaching an uncertainty to them implies they have, in essence, no meaning."

Neil Gershenfeld, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Centre for Bits and Atoms wants everyone to know that "truth" is just a model. "The most common misunderstanding about science is that scientists seek and find truth. They don't – they make and test models," he said.

"Building models is very different from proclaiming truths. It's a never-ending process of discovery and refinement, not a war to win or destination to reach. Uncertainty is intrinsic to the process of finding out what you don't know, not a weakness to avoid. Bugs are features – violations of expectations are opportunities to refine them. And decisions are made by evaluating what works better, not by invoking received wisdom."

[doublem]

Scientists trying to clone, resurrect extinct mammoth

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/17/sc ... th/?hpt=T2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bhaw]

Scientists trying to clone, resurrect extinct mammoth

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/17/sc ... th/?hpt=T2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seems kind of sad that they are going to clone it just to keep it locked up and run tests on it.

IF this works, what do they clone next?

[doublem]

Scientists trying to clone, resurrect extinct mammoth

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/17/sc ... th/?hpt=T2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seems kind of sad that they are going to clone it just to keep it locked up and run tests on it.

IF this works, what do they clone next?

Hopefully dinos.

[bhaw]

I'm not sure if I want them cloning dinosaurs, but if they do, they better not wimp out and create some small, dog size, leaf eating thing. Go big or go home. Create something cool like a t-rex or triceratops.

Imagine the implications. We would no longer need a giant fence for our border with Mexico. We would just have t-rexes roaming the border.

[doublem]

It would be awesome for awhile but eventually it would turn into Jurassic Park.

[BadHands71]

It would be awesome for awhile but eventually it would turn into Jurassic Park.

And we all know how well that turned out....

[doublem]

It would be awesome for awhile but eventually it would turn into Jurassic Park.

And we all know how well that turned out....

Life will find a way......

[Physical_Graffiti]

Scientists trying to clone, resurrect extinct mammoth

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/17/sc ... th/?hpt=T2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seems kind of sad that they are going to clone it just to keep it locked up and run tests on it.

IF this works, what do they clone next?

Hopefully dinos.

An older article from Maclean's on the subject:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/08/20/the- ... -dinosaur/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“Within five years, I think we could get a chicken with a tail, forearms, and teeth, and transform its feathers back to their ancestral shape, which is probably a hollow quill,” he says. It would be slightly larger than a standard chicken, although using another bird species (say, an emu) or treating it with growth hormones could produce different results. It would still have a chicken genome, and so wouldn’t technically be a T. rex or a velociraptor; but it wouldn’t be a chicken, either, at least not as we’d recognize it. So what, exactly, would it be?
“It would be a dinosaur,” Larsson says, “because chickens are dinosaurs.”

[PensFanInDC]

I'm still a fan of the burning river of gas but a border patrolled by 60+ foot tall carnivores would be awesome.

[Silence_Dogood]

We must learn to love uncertainty and failure, say leading thinkers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/ ... e-question" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Silence_Dogood]

It would be awesome for awhile but eventually it would turn into Jurassic Park.

And we all know how well that turned out....

CHAOS THEORY

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

Scientists trying to clone, resurrect extinct mammoth

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/17/sc ... th/?hpt=T2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seems kind of sad that they are going to clone it just to keep it locked up and run tests on it.

IF this works, what do they clone next?

Victoria Secrets Models.

[bhaw]

I'm still a fan of the burning river of gas but a border patrolled by 60+ foot tall carnivores would be awesome.

It would also instantly solve immigration law:

If you can beat the T Rex, you are officially a legal American.

[count2infinity]

I'm not sure if I want them cloning dinosaurs, but if they do, they better not wimp out and create some small, dog size, leaf eating thing. Go big or go home. Create something cool like a t-rex or triceratops.

Imagine the implications. We would no longer need a giant fence for our border with Mexico. We would just have t-rexes roaming the border.

atmospheric conditions have changed a lot since the dinos have been around. the very large dinos probably would not be able to live in today's atmosphere as the oxygen levels back then were able to support very large animals, today: not so much. of course i could be way off.

[bhaw]

I'm not sure if I want them cloning dinosaurs, but if they do, they better not wimp out and create some small, dog size, leaf eating thing. Go big or go home. Create something cool like a t-rex or triceratops.

Imagine the implications. We would no longer need a giant fence for our border with Mexico. We would just have t-rexes roaming the border.

atmospheric conditions have changed a lot since the dinos have been around. the very large dinos probably would not be able to live in today's atmosphere as the oxygen levels back then were able to support very large animals, today: not so much. of course i could be way off.

stop deflating my balloon.

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

I'm not sure if I want them cloning dinosaurs, but if they do, they better not wimp out and create some small, dog size, leaf eating thing. Go big or go home. Create something cool like a t-rex or triceratops.

Imagine the implications. We would no longer need a giant fence for our border with Mexico. We would just have t-rexes roaming the border.

atmospheric conditions have changed a lot since the dinos have been around. the very large dinos probably would not be able to live in today's atmosphere as the oxygen levels back then were able to support very large animals, today: not so much. of course i could be way off.

Your point about different oxygen levels made me think that the increased level of carbon dioxide in the atomosphere may be negatively impacting human's health. I know it's a big stretch but perhaps the increase in carbon dioxide is one of the causes of cancer.