Statistically speaking, bioluminescence first appeared on earth at least as early as 540 million years ago. That's incredible, though there's something in this article that I find even more remarkable - "Bioluminescence...has independently evolved at least 94 times in nature." Talk about a winning strategy.
posted by matt in Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Everything about Voyager 1 is remarkable.
posted by matt in Tuesday, April 23, 2024
This is interesting, although sending urine samples off to a lab routinely sounds a bit prohibitive. Maybe an analytical toilet is in our future.
posted by matt in Wednesday, April 17, 2024
"It was lucky [that we survived], but we know from evolutionary biology that the emergence of a new species can happen in small, isolated populations...."
This is fascinating, perhaps morbidly so. Are we smart enough to avoid repeating history? We may be on the verge of finding out, measured on a scale of thousands (or maybe tens or hundreds of thousands) of years.
Here's the original research published in Science.
posted by matt in Saturday, September 2, 2023
Cryptobiosis is looking like a pretty handy trick right about now. Too bad humans haven't developed the skill yet...we might need it to get to the other side of the looming climate crisis.
tags: scienceenvironmentclimatechange
posted by matt in Friday, July 28, 2023
"This study suggests that taurine could be an elixir of life within us that helps us live longer and healthier lives."
Is Taurine a fountain of youth?
posted by matt in Sunday, June 11, 2023
Amid widespread concern about the decline of wild pollinating insects like bees and butterflies, University of Sussex researchers have discovered that moths are particularly vital pollinators for nature.
Save the bees. And the moths.
posted by matt in Tuesday, April 25, 2023
"Dr Paul Burton, the chief medical officer of pharmaceutical company Moderna, said he believes the firm will be able to offer such treatments for “all sorts of disease areas” in as little as five years."
This lightning speed timeframe still leaves plenty of time for anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists to ramp up their efforts.
posted by matt in Saturday, April 8, 2023
This is fascinating, both for the history and for the science behind it.
posted by matt in Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Yes. Yes I am.
Getting my second COVID booster shot this morning. I've got the first appointment of the day, but I could have any time I wanted—every single time slot was available when I scheduled it online last night.
At 52, I've been eligible for my second booster for some time now. I waited, though, waiting for signs of another surge and hoping to maximize the window during which it gives me elevated antibody levels. A bit of a game, I know, but not entirely without merit. As an immunologist, I bank more on long term memory and the T-cell response, but feel I might as well try to leverage the "sugar high" of an antibody surge.
The pharmacist let me leave right after the shot; she made no mention of a waiting period. So, I'm now sitting in my car in the parking lot for a self-imposed fifteen minute watch period.
photo posted by matt in Wednesday, July 20, 2022
"A sample of approximately 4 million W boson candidates is used to obtain [a mass W bosun], the precision of which exceeds that of all previous measurements combined....This measurement is in significant tension with the standard model expectation."
I love science, both the knowledge and the process of science. This paper, published with nearly 400 authors and in Science, likely the world's most respected peer-reviewed scientific journal, presents surprising results on the mass of W bosuns that lie way outside the value predicted by the standard model of physics. As such, it puts that model—which has guided physics research and understanding for decades—on the ropes.
But, the process of science won't let anyone jump to conclusions, not even four hundred authors writing in this journal. Nope, in a way, this paper really just kicks the process into the next gear. Testing and the oh-so-important work to verify the results come next. And, with this sort of work, that will take years.
So, is Frazier down?
Maybe, but in science and boxing, that doesn't mean the fight is over. This paper probably represents an early knockdown of the standard model (it's not the first). It took six for Foreman to be declared the winner over Frazier. So, now we wait. In the meantime, enjoy knowing that a revolution in our understanding of physics may be underway.
That doesn't mean the parlor games can't start now, though. And surely they have. Has Frazier fallen? We'll know someday, because...science.
posted by matt in Sunday, April 24, 2022
We met Jonathan for lunch in Harvard Square, dropped our bags in his dorm room, and headed to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. This is the third museum we've visited since he started here. It was fantastic, just like the others.
tags: sciencemuseumcambridgeharvard
photo posted by matt in Friday, April 22, 2022
I love everything about this, including the fact that the research was supported by the federal government. I'm sure, sooner or later, some anti-science, clueless politician will cite it as an example of wasteful spending on basic research.
posted by matt in Thursday, April 21, 2022
I might need to alter my morning routine a bit in the coming years.
posted by matt in Monday, November 29, 2021
A star blinked 28 million light years away, suggesting a planet passed in front of it. Incredible.
posted by matt in Sunday, October 31, 2021
The earth still has a lot to reveal. And exploration like this, into the previously unexplored depths of the ocean, will likely support applied research and innovation for decades to come.
"'Systematic searches for new drugs have shown that marine invertebrates produce more antibiotic, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory substances than any group of terrestrial organisms,' says the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."
tags: scienceoceanenvironmentearth
posted by matt in Saturday, October 30, 2021
"Here we provide evidence that the Vikings were present in Newfoundland in AD 1021."
Science sorting out history. Now the question becomes, how long will it take history to apply the science and teach this to children?
posted by matt in Saturday, October 23, 2021
"Polyakov’s analysis suggested that the four quarks banded together for a glorious 12 sextillionths of a second before an energy fluctuation conjured up two extra quarks and the group disintegrated into three mesons."
The contrast between the precision of "12 sextillitionths of a second" and the vagueness of "an energy fluctuation" that "conjures up two extra quarks" is somewhat hilarious. This is fascinating otherwise.
posted by matt in Sunday, October 17, 2021
"But Nature’s survey suggests that even though researchers try to shrug off abuse, it might already have had a chilling effect on scientific communication. Those scientists who reported higher frequencies of trolling or personal attacks were also most likely to say that their experiences had greatly affected their willingness to speak to the media in the future...."
The pandemic, and our collective handling of it, has already had societal impacts that we fail to appreciate. A chilling effect on science, and its role in the distribution of knowledge, is disturbing. And that might not be the worst of it. Have we discouraged a generation of people from going into science as a career? Medicine? I don't know, maybe it's had the opposite effect in that regard. I have heard that applications to medical school are up. I didn't expect that.
posted by matt in Wednesday, October 13, 2021
The preprint revolution in scientific publishing continues.
tags: science
posted by matt in Wednesday, September 22, 2021
It sort of feels like countries have finally realized they've been procrastinating on changing policies to address climate change, and are now scrambling to do so. Good and not good at the same time.
posted by matt in Wednesday, September 22, 2021
The find includes a triceratops specimen, and another that could be a new species.
tags: science
posted by matt in Tuesday, September 21, 2021
This could be viewed as reflective of the relative virulence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus compared to the virus responsible for the 1918 flu pandemic. It could also be viewed as reflective of the ability of misinformation to overcome 100+ years of scientific and medical progress in combating deadly viruses.
posted by matt in Tuesday, September 21, 2021
A combination of natural infection with SARS-CoV-2 and an mRNA vaccine might provide some level of super protection. I think there's a subset of the unvaccinated who are relying on their prior natural infection as justification for skipping the vaccine. Turns out, getting the vaccine might make them the fittest of all.
posted by matt in Monday, September 20, 2021
This is the crumpled sheet paper.
posted by matt in Sunday, March 14, 2021
Turns out we don't need to break the speed of light barrier to become an interstellar species. We just need enormously powerful gravitational fields, like those provided by planets, to bend space time inside a warp drive.
Thinking about riding a warp drive around a planet makes me think of the song #Spacegrass# by Clutch:
Lay low, watch the universe expand.
Skyway, permanent Saturday.
Oh, by the way, Saturn is my rotary.
posted by matt in Thursday, March 4, 2021
Oh, and applications of the mRNA technology in the Kariko paper were patented in 2012. The patents describe the process for practicing the technology in painstaking detail, as the law requires. And they expire in five years - in 2026, opening up incredible opportunities for new applications of the technology.
tags: patentssciencelawcovid19vaccine
posted by matt in Wednesday, March 3, 2021
This is the paper that lead directly to the mRNA technology underlying both the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines. Talk of a Nobel Prize has started.
"This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants...."
This paper is, quite possibly, the best argument of all time for supporting federal spending on basic scientific research. The entire world is aware of the benefit the research produced.
Whatever we're spending on basic research isn't enough. Figure out how to pay for it...and triple it.
tags: scienceresearchvaccinepfizermoderna
posted by matt in Wednesday, March 3, 2021
This is a wonderful story on the basic research and the scientist behind the key enzyme that enables PCR. We need more stories like this in the popular media. People need to understand and appreciate the importance of basic research.
posted by matt in Thursday, February 25, 2021
Will fusion be part of our energy future?
posted by matt in Sunday, February 21, 2021
This is really cool...and exciting. Combining this huge advance in protein structure prediction with the development and deployment of mRNA vaccines, 2020 will eventually be viewed as the starting point of multiple revolutions in biology and medicine. Exciting times for sure.
posted by matt in Tuesday, December 1, 2020
