Transapient Musings of an S6 Archailect

Not necessarily, the umbilical cord is being researched as an alternative source of stem cells that would sidestep some of the ethical issues associated with embryonic stem cells. There is also research into using tissue-specific stem cells from adult donors.

So, yesterday I was chatting with my pal Lee Kottner (personal stylist to Jen-Luc Piquant, and an occasional guest blogger at the cocktail party), who lives in New York City, and I asked her which of the myriad of events she was planning to attend at the upcoming World Science Festival. Her response: "Festival? There's a science festival?"

Hell, yeah, there's a World Science Festival! It takes place May 29 through June 1, and it is going to be teh awesome. It worries me that Lee, of all people, hadn't yet heard of it, because she's pretty plugged into that sort of thing. Time to get the word out people! Alas, I will not be able to attend the festival personally, but here's my Top Ten list of the events I would be attending, if I lived anywhere within easy driving (or Amtrak/subway/bus) distance of NYC (and could split myself into multiple clones since many of them directly conflict with each other). You can see a complete schedule of all events here; there's even a blog.

1. Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, Thursday, May 29th, 6 - 8:30 PM, The Paley Center for Media. Any fans of the multiverse out there? This event is tailor-made for you (and all your doppelgangers in parallel universes). Hugh Everett III was a theoretical physicist who devised the Many Worlds theory in the 1950s as a way of explaining what happens to all the other possibilities once the wave function collapses in quantum theory. His son, Mark Oliver Everett, is a musician with the alternative band Eels ("Souljacker Pt 1" has been on my cardio workout playlist for a couple of years now). Many Worlds languished for a very long time as kind of a fringe theory, but it's enjoying a bit of a resurgence. So much so that NOVA has produced a documentary about Everett pere et fils, detailing the younger Everett's "personal journey to understand the the astounding contribution that his reclusive father... made to physics." PBS will air the documentary this fall; now is your chance to see it first, and also participate in a panel discussion with Mark Everett, Michio Kaku, and Max Tegmark, moderated by Brian Cox.

2. Toil and Trouble: Stories of Experiments Gone Wrong, Thursday, May 29, 7:30 - 9:00 PM, The Moth at Symphony Space. Failure is an integral part of the scientific process: without it, no progress would ever be made. But for some reason, we only hear about the successes -- maybe everyone's concerned about losing their funding. The Moth is a renowned storytelling collective, fostering the art of the raconteur in the 21st century, so it's a perfect venue for scientists to tell their stories of experiments gone wrong -- horribly wrong! -- and other writers to explore, in narrative form, their ongoing relationship with science. String theorist Jim Gates will be on hand, along with cosmologist Michael Turner, Lucy Hawking (a.k.a., "Spawn of Stephen"), and novelist Nathan Englander.

3. The Brain and Bourne, Friday, May 30, 5:00 - 8:00 PM, The Museum of Modern Art. As a proud princess of pop culture science (I'd wear the tiara more often, but it itches), it is killing me -- just killing me, I tell you -- to miss this fantastic session. They'll be screening The Bourne Identity, and afterwards, the producer/director Doug Liman and neuroscientist Giulio Tononi will participate in a panel discussion exploring the science behind the entire Bourne trilogy: brain function, memory, personality and identity, among other issues. Award-winning screenwriter and producer James Schamus, CEO of Focus Features (Brokeback Mountain, Lost in Translation, Atonement), will moderate. Maybe if we close our eyes and wish really, really hard, Matt Damon will show up, too. Hey, we can dream. Apparently MoMA's Film Department has acquired the trilogy for its permanent collection. They've got taste, those curators. Bring your own popcorn and Twizzlers.

4. IJK, Friday, May 30, 7:00 - 8:30 PM, The New Victory Theater. French theater troupe Compagnie 11 will present "a witty, physics-inspired showcase of sonic juggling." Sonic juggling, people! That's gotta be pretty cool. The name "IJK" refers to mathematics' designators of direction in a 3-D world. Apparently, "the show explores space and movement in a balancing of light and dark that weave whimsy with geometry." Once Compagnie 11 has wowed the audience with their skills, Heidi Hammel of the Science Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, will talk about some of the connections between the acrobatic antics and cosmic motion: the planets, comets, and galaxies.

5. Armitage Gone! Dance: The Elegant Universe, Friday, May 30, 7:30 - 8:30 PM, Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum. You've read the book (or the first few chapters anyway), you've seen the NOVA special, and you've been wondering what the Brian Greene string theory franchise would dream up next. Wonder no more: string theory meets modern dance as famed director/choreographer Karole Armitage debuts a new work inspired by Greene's bestselling book. The performance "blends music, dance, text, and projected imagery to create a vibrant portrait of the universe as revealed by cutting-edge physics," and will include discussion by the aforementioned Jim Gates and composer Lukas Ligeti, who wrote the score. (Jen-Luc Piquant wants to know which dancer will play Peter Woit. C'mon, he has to be in there, too! Every performance piece needs some central conflict.)

6. Science of Disney Imagineering, 12:30 - 1:30 PM, NYU Skirball Center. (Also at 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM on the same day) The kids should love this one. Scientists and engineers from Walt Disney Imagineering will pull back the curtain and reveal the science behind that Disney theme park magic. They'll talk about the chemistry of creating colors and of fireworks, and how to make smog and other special effects. Maybe they'll even explain why the animatronic Jack Sparrow recently added to Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride looks so creepily more lifelike than the older ones. (Animatronic technology has come a long way, baby!)

7. Cool Jobs, Friday, May 30, 4:00 - 5:30 PM, NYU Kimmel Center for University Life. Okay, I already have a pretty cool job, but in an alternate universe, I'd totally be a forensics specialist like Peter Diaczuk. He's the real deal, director of forensic science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he spends his days (and probably the occasional night) researching everything from underwater fingerprints, blood spatter patterns (we just blogged about this!) and how bullets ricochet off different surfaces. He won't be the only cool scientist on hand for this multimedia event, intended to inspire curious minds of all ages: oceanographer and marine botanist Sylvia Earle will be there, as well as Christopher McKay, a planetary scientist with NASA Ames Research Center, molecular biologist Betty Pace, and one of the Walt Disney Imagineers, Ben Schwegler, who specialized in developing sustainable, energy-efficient theme parks.

8. Science of Sports, Saturday, May 31, 3:00 - 4:30 PM, NYU Coles Sports Center. How often do you get the chance to see Olympic athletes and NBA players in the same room as physicists and physiologists? This program promises "a lively mix of action, audience participation and video, creating the excitement of a live sporting event." Physics, biomechanics, biochemistry and so forth all have some bearing on all kinds of sports, from running and skiing, to basketball and bicycling -- even the martial arts.

9. QED: A Reading, Saturday, May 31, 8:00 - 9:30 PM, Columbia University's Miller Theater. It's Feynman. It's Alda. It's Alda playing Feynman in a reading of the classic play by Peter Parnell. 'Nuff said.

10. Plague in Gotham, Sunday, June 1, 2:00 - 3:00 PM, New York Historical Society. The NYHS has a new exhibition about the deadly cholera outbreaks in 19th century New York City -- I actually wrote about cholera epidemics last year -- and they figured, what a nice way to bring in leading epidemiologists and disaster-preparedness officials to discuss how well we are equipped, in the 21st century, to deal with a possible global pandemic. (Hurricane Katrina's aftermath did not inspire confidence in our organizational infrastructure.) They will also be showing excerpts from a new TV miniseries version of The Andromeda Strain.

There's so much more to choose from. Oh, and there's also a Science Street Fair, Saturday, May 31, 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Washington Square Park/NYU. Two years ago, I participated in a similar event, manning a booth to demonstrate the physics of the fight (i.e., martial arts). We won't be there this time around, but there'll be lots of other cool stuff going on. Jen-Luc sez check it out!

Frontal lobe damage changes performance on the 'Pepsi challenge'. Isn't the world a better place now we know that?

In an article for Salon, our recent interviewee neurologist Robert Burton gets stuck into a high-tech huckster promoting expensive SPECT scans to diagnose Alzheimer's and herbal supplements to treat the brain disorder.

Channel N discovers a video lecture by Antonio Damasio on the neuroscience of emotion.

Psychologist Charles Fernyhough turned every moment of the first three years of his daughter's life into a research project notes The Telegraph as they review the resulting book.

Treatment Online on research that has found that variations in serotinergic neuroreceptors may indicate severity of depression.

The Age has a fantastic article on the psychology of risk and why we're so bad at judging it.

"The Change You Deserve". The slogan for antidepressant drug Effexor, and now, the slogan for the US Republican party!

Furious Seasons notes that a recent study on bipolar disorder being overdiagnosed is being supported by leading bipolar researchers.

APA psychology magazine Monitor has an excellent article on how research with deaf people who can't sign might shed light on the fundamentals of cognition.

Burgeoning research on the neuroscience of mystical experiences is discussed in the The New York Times.

BBC News reports that music can enhance the taste of wine. If only it could do the same for brussel sprouts.

The brain is not modular: what fMRI really tells us. An article in Scientific American Mind discusses limitations of brain scanning.

Deric Bownds covers a study that finds our facial touch sensitivity is enhanced by viewing a touch.

The excellent ABC Radio National's All in the Mind discusses the neurobiology of nicotine addiction and concerns about new anti-smoking drugs.

Developing Intelligence covers a fascinating study on time distortion due to visual flicker.

The Wall Street Journal on the possibility of the US Goverment awarding Purple Hearts, a medal for soldiers wounded in battle, for cases of PTSD (thanks Kyle!).

Cleaning House
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Looks like NASA is finally disposing of the tooling used to build the orbiters, which had been moved to storage at Michoud a few years ago: No more new orbiters (if anyone really wanted to build any)....

posted at: 23:29 | path: /astrotech | permanent link to this entry

On net@nite I heard that Dipity, a great site for mashing up timelines uses Freebase as one of its information sources. An excellent example is this timeline for Marillion embedded below

Earlier today, on Friendfeed, Alex Iskold described an “aha” moment for Powerset, which I have been quite underwhelmed by thus far (although it has a gorgeous UI). When I browsed over to the search link, it seemed to be that the reason the results appeared as they did were because they came from Freebase, whose structure made the query very powerful. Wonder if others think that’s the primary reason as well? The Wikipedia results for the query were not that impressive.

So what do these results tell us? Well, perhaps there is value in taking data and adding structure the way Freebase and dbpedia are doing. The ability to generate different representations, etc is quite powerful. I can already envision what Pierre might do with some of these tools and the work he has been doing with Freebase and Wikipedia.

These examples are somewhat trivial, but it is not difficult to imagine more interesting scenarios, perhaps to represent protein interactions, or trying to find non-obvious relationships and linkages. Will be interesting to see what kinds of applications are developed on the backs of these data platforms

Nuclear fission is the process in which a nucleus decays into two fragments. For large nucleii, this process is a complicated one in which the nucleus undergoes several stages of deformation before tearing itself apart.

In recent years, physicists have predicted that fission ought to be affected by the presence of electrons in orbit about the nucleus. That’s because any change in the shape of the nucleus naturally affects the electrons which tend to absorb energy making fission less likely. And the more electrons there are, the more energy they absorb. But the effect has never been observed because ordinary, naturally ocurring elements simply don’t have enough electrons to make this effect significant.

Today, Vlad Dzuba and Vic Flambuam at the University of New South Wales in Australia have calculated the strength of this effect for superheavy elements which would have more electrons. They say that although the effect is tiny for naturally ocurring nuclei with fewer than 100 or so protons, it would be hugely significant for these larger nuclei. In fact, they calculate that an atom with 160 protons would have double the expected half life because of this effect.

That could have significant implications for how much of this stuff we’re likely to find because elements that decay quickly tend to be rarer) . Last week, arxivblog reported on the potential discovery of element 122 (with 122 protons). Perhaps the groups looking for superheavies should be setting their sights much, much higher.

Editor's note: The current thinking is that Scott Parazynski's summit window is centered on 22 May. Weather and human traffic are the main factors affecting Scott's progress to the summit.

Our original plan did not work out in terms of comms and updates we planned to do from from Base Camp. So ... here is the back up plan: post your comments below. If you simply want to wish Scott "good luck, best wishes, etc." post that and I will do a head count. If, however, you have something a bit more expansive to say - please post it. Please try and make it simple so that I can condense it down to something I can efficiently convey to Scott and that he can keep in his oxygen-starved brain. Longer comments will be left online for Scott to read when he gets back home.

Scott will be the first human to both fly in space and summit the highest peak on our planet. What does this mean in terms of personal determination and endurance? In terms of exploration and pushing frontiers? As a preview of things to come - and of risks to be taken - on other worlds?

We won't see a similar combination and alignment of first accomplishments again until someone summits the highest lunar peak - or Olympus Mons on Mars.

Send your thoughts to the summit of Mt. Everest. Give Scott something to think about. Be a part of this unique climb.

Major Company Going for Automotive X PRIZE
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One of the things I've been hoping to see with the Automotive X PRIZE is major companies with large-scale manufacturing capabilities entering the competition. I like to see the small teams and their innovative approaches, but I also like to see "dinosaurs" (as some NewSpace people refer to the large government-oriented companies in their industry) grow "fur". They can do things that small companies can't - each has its advantages.

Here's the news I've been waiting for, from X PRIZE Cars:

Tata Motors to Enter Two Vehicles in Automotive X Prize - Tata plans to enter in the alternative and mainstream class competitions. Tata is a multi-industry giant:

The Tata Group is one of India's largest and most respected business conglomerates, with revenues in 2006-07 of $28.8 billion or Rs129,994 crore (not including Corus financials), the equivalent of about 3.2 per cent of the country's GDP, and a market capitalisation of $66.26 billion as on April 30, 2008. Tata companies together employ some 289,500 people.

X PRIZE Cars notes that Tata Motors alone is pretty big. Now we'll have to see how the other major auto manufacturers react.

The accompanying press release mentions some other new contestants:

Other recent entrants to the Letter of Intent program include Motive Industries of Canada, Western Washington University, Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies, Inc. of Chicago, IL and TTW Turin Italy of Turin, Italy. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Neil Young also intends to enter his 1960 Lincoln Continental conversion into the competition, along with his partner Jonathan Goodwin.

There's a lot more news in this recent X PRIZE Cars post.

posted at: 23:27 | path: /tech | permanent link to this entry

The panel will discuss the background and history of the roadmap, and explore how it will serve to help realize these horizons. The panelists are:

Floyd E. Bloom, M.D.
Professor Emeritus in the Molecular and Integrative Neurosciences at The Scripps Research Institute, and the founding CEO and board chairman of Neurome, Inc.

Thanks to Aaron and Frontal Cortex for simultaneously alerting us to this fantastic animati

Tue, 20 May 2008