The "Science is Awesome" Thread

[Will]

Originally Posted by puzzlebox

Wow. I'll always have a huge amount of admiration for someone who can face an enormous challenge like that with an attitude of "How can I work around this?" rather than saying "Screw it, this is too hard."

If you're interested in neuroplasticity, "The Brain that Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge is a good read. It's full of fascinating stories on brain reorganisations (including sensory remapping, like the story Kroms posted). It explains the science behind the stories in a pretty accessible way.

One of my favourite parts is the chapter on acquired tastes, which talks about the role of neuromodulators like oxytocin in potentially "unlearning" ideas and behaviours during periods of significant life change (e.g. grieving, falling in love or becoming a parent). I think it's so cool that we have a biological mechanism that can open us up to other people and prevent us from becoming overly self-centred.

Oh man, I'm buying that book so hard. It is now the next in my list to read.

[Leak]

Here's a nifty little presentation about Grandicrocavis Viasesamensis, a certain flightless bird usually found in a certain American suburb...

np: Applescal - The Forms Of Abstract Life (A Slave's Commitment)

[BoneFreak]

Make a Magnetic Fluid!

A fun at home science project (but i haven't tried it yet).

[Avistew]

Ian linked me to a shirt website that is a great fit for this thread: Science!

[doodinthemood]

That link isn't working for me
Still, fun bit of science: eating fruit was bad for us Here's why
Almost all animals are able to create vitamin C out of other ingredients. We used to be able to, but ate more and more fruit until this skill wasn't necessary. Eventually, the gene responsible mutated, but because we weren't using the skill, natural selection didn't pick up on it. Every human today has a gene that's very very close to giving us the ability to synthesise vitamin C, but none of us can. The downside? Scurvy.
So there you have it, if we hadn't eaten so much damn fruit ages ago, countless sailors wouldn't have died from scurvy. Next time your parents tell you to eat fruit, think again. By eating fruit today, you could cause countless human deaths in years to come!

[Tor]

This year's Ig Nobel prize winners have been announced! The Ig Nobel ceremony is without a doubt the most important scientific event each year. Some of the 2010 awards honour research into important topics such as rollercoasters, swearing, whale snot, beards, icy footpaths in wintertime, bat fellatio and slime moulds.

Current and previous Ig Nobel prize winners
BBC article

[Avistew]

This blog post about what is and isn't science seemed appropriate enough to necromance this thread. (The ads on the website include stuff like bondage (no explicit sex), and some of the other blog posts are sexual, so be aware if you're at work)

[Harald B]

A nice read, if a bit overbearing at times. I think it would be a better article without points 6, 7 and 8, which are not so much about defining science as about the logical validity of arguments.

[puzzlebox]

I find it astounding that children could go through their entire education without understanding what science is. It may not be quite on a par with illiteracy or an inability to perform basic arithmetic, but in a world where you have so many weirdos spreading misinformation and crackpot theories, critical analysis is a pretty important skill.

[Alcoremortis]

Originally Posted by puzzlebox

I find it astounding that children could go through their entire education without understanding what science is. It may not be quite on a par with illiteracy or an inability to perform basic arithmetic, but in a world where you have so many weirdos spreading misinformation and crackpot theories, critical analysis is a pretty important skill.

The problem, I think, is that sometimes it's the science teachers who are spreading the misunderstanding. I know, from having several awful science teachers in elementary school who either taught absolutely nothing or actually taught us wrong things.

Like my sixth grade teacher, who told us that evolution was impossible because there wasn't a kid every once and awhile who looked like a monkey. It didn't even make sense! The only reason I learned anything was by teaching myself...and my high school teachers, who were brilliant.

[JedExodus]

Originally Posted by Alcoremortis

Like my sixth grade teacher, who told us that evolution was impossible because there wasn't a kid every once and awhile who looked like a monkey. It didn't even make sense! The only reason I learned anything was by teaching myself...and my high school teachers, who were brilliant.

I remember our geography teacher told us that there would be no floods because of the ice caps melting and sea levels rising. He likened the continents to ice in a glass, always floating and rising with the water.

Still haven't figured out if he's full of shit or not.

[Alcoremortis]

Originally Posted by JedExodus

I remember our geography teacher told us that there would be no floods because of the ice caps melting and sea levels rising. He likened the continents to ice in a glass, always floating and rising with the water.

Still haven't figured out if he's full of shit or not.

He was. It looks like he severely misunderstood the concept of tectonic plates. The plates float (sorta) on magma. Not water.

Though the water idea is a pretty good one for a science fiction story...on a different planet...or a universe where the laws of physics are different. Could be cool.

[puzzlebox]

Originally Posted by JedExodus

He likened the continents to ice in a glass, always floating and rising with the water.

Maybe if we all go stand in Scotland we can make the UK flip over.

[LuigiHann]

Originally Posted by JedExodus

I remember our geography teacher told us that there would be no floods because of the ice caps melting and sea levels rising. He likened the continents to ice in a glass, always floating and rising with the water.

Still haven't figured out if he's full of shit or not.

It's semi-true. The North Pole is basically a huge piece of ice floating on water. And for that reason, melting ice caps won't cause floods directly. However, because water expands slightly as it gets warmer, overall increased temperatures can cause flooding.

[Pony Bone]

Originally Posted by BoneFreak

Make a Magnetic Fluid!

A fun at home science project (but i haven't tried it yet).

Brilliant!

[DAISHI]

This thread is for all 'awesome' science breakthroughs we're looking at on the horizon. I understand this thread will skew toward a very specific group on Telltale forums, but for those of you who love super cool discussions about recombinant DNA, superstring theory and bosons, this one's for you.

My area of true love is biology, and so I'll start with this: DRACO.

Most bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics such as penicillin, discovered decades ago. However, such drugs are useless against viral infections, including influenza, the common cold, and deadly hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola.

Now, in a development that could transform how viral infections are treated, a team of researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory has designed a drug that can identify cells that have been infected by any type of virus, then kill those cells to terminate the infection.

In a paper published July 27 in the journal PLoS One, the researchers tested their drug against 15 viruses, and found it was effective against all of them — including rhinoviruses that cause the common cold, H1N1 influenza, a stomach virus, a polio virus, dengue fever and several other types of hemorrhagic fever.


To break down what viruses do, and how DRACO operates:
Viruses are not alive in the typical sense that we think of things, and they rely on insertion into cells for replication and continuation. Many viruses cause different things: Rabies, the common cold and, notoriously, HIV.
Antibacterials don't work on Viruses, which is why it was stupid that everyone was insisting on using antibacterial soap when the bird flu pandemic was going on.

We can't cure viruses as of today. We have vaccines that treat them but, unlike bacteria, we don't have widespread general treatments that can cure you after the fact. Viruses mutate constantly and can develop different ways of becoming resistant to treatments.

However, a universal commonality is the effect viruses have on cellular DNA. All cells rely on RNA for reproduction. If you don't remember your high school biology class, just think of RNA like DNA, except it has only one strand. RNA helps code our genes and express them. When a virus infects a cell, RNA strands become unusually long. So long that they can otherwise not be found naturally in mammals.

DRACO basically finds these long tails, targets the cells they're inside of, and induces apoptosis. Apoptosis means cellular death, and all cells eventually reach this point. DRACO forces the cell to die and kills the virus with it. Best of all, it does nothing to surrounding, healthy cells.

Think of it like this. New York City is the body. The humans walking around are cells. Most are wearing normal sized coats. A few are wearing really long trenchcoats that look tacky, and they're convincing other people to wear these long tack trenchcoats.

Then the Terminator arrives and kills everyone wearing a trenchcoat while letting the normal coat wearing people to get on with their business before he transports away with a steely gaze and bitchin one liner.

[Johro]

Originally Posted by DAISHI

Most bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics such as penicillin, discovered decades ago. However, such drugs are useless against viral infections

Doesn't Allicin treat viral as well? I've seen studies that it does.

[DAISHI]

Originally Posted by Johro

Doesn't Allicin treat viral as well? I've seen studies that it does.

I do know small studies show it's preventative against Rhinovirus but as an active viral killer, I couldn't say.

[Alcoremortis]

Hate to say it... but PLoS One is a slightly less... strict journal. I mean, they kinda will publish anything, at least in comparison to other journals. Provide a link to the article?

[DAISHI]

Originally Posted by Alcoremortis

Hate to say it... but PLoS One is a slightly less... strict journal. I mean, they kinda will publish anything, at least in comparison to other journals. Provide a link to the article?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRACO_%28antiviral%29
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/antiviral-0810.html
http://www.ll.mit.edu/news/DRACO.html
http://www.21stcentech.com/biomedici...ruses-forever/

Latest article:
http://magazinesdownload.com/post/20...ober-2012.aspx

The original abstract http://www.plosone.org/article/info%...l.pone.0022572

NCBI's presentation of the tests and data:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...ne.0022572.pdf

Now obviously you're right Alcoremortis and rigorous testing is needed and replication of results as per standard. But I believe the basic idea is sound and so I'm watching this one.