Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
I’ve just come across a fasinating article by Lord Martin Rees. Just in case you don’t know who he is, here is a link to his Wikipedia page. Our specific interest here is that he is not only an English cosmologist and astrophysicist, but has also been Astronomer Royal since 1995, Master of Trinity College, … Read more
Here is a quick roundup of 10 cool science news stories that broke during the past couple of days … Structural Basis for Biosynthesis of Mysterious 21st Amino Acid Researchers at the RIKEN Systems and Structural Biology Center and the University of Tokyo have clarified the structural basis for the biosynthesis of selenocysteine (Sec), an … Read more
Source: Nature — Aug 11, 2010 Early hominins were using stone tools to butcher meat as long ago as 3.4 million years, about 800,000 years earlier than previous evidence dates to, scientists report in this week’s issue of Nature. The finding comes from an examination of animal bones found last year in the Lower Awash … Read more
Every August, just when many people go vacationing in the country where skies are dark, the best-known meteor shower — the Perseid meteor shower — makes its appearance. The “shooting stars” promise to deliver an excellent show this year to anyone with clear and dark skies away from urban and suburban lights. The best time … Read more
Source: New York Times — Aug 6, 2010 Two research reports published Friday offer novel approaches to the age-old dream of regenerating the body from its own cells. By inactivating two genes that work to suppress tumors, a research group at Stanford University got mouse muscle cells to revert to a younger state, start dividing and … Read more
[This is a repost from the Harvard Gazette … original here] Harvard researchers have uncovered a mechanism through which caloric restriction and exercise delay some of the debilitating effects of aging by rejuvenating the connections between nerves and the muscles that they control. The research, conducted in the labs of Joshua Sanes and Jeff Lichtman, … Read more