Michael Faraday’s lectures at London’s Royal Institution in the early 19th century were so popular that the carriages dropping people off to see him used to choke Albemarle Street in Mayfair – as a result, the street was designated the first one-way road in London. Faraday was a master communicator who thrilled audiences with the latest discoveries in chemistry and electricity. He was as much a brilliant … Continue reading Science Education
Vocal imitation has convergently evolved in many species, allowing learning and cultural transmission of complex, conspecific sounds, as in birdsong. Scattered instances also exist of vocal imitation across species, including mockingbirds imitating other species or parrots and mynahs producing human speech. Here, we document a male Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) that imitates human speech, matching Korean formants and fundamental frequency in such detail that Korean native … Continue reading An Asian Elephant Imitates Human Speech
The gut infection Clostridium difficile can be defeated by a cocktail of rival good bacteria, experiments in mice show. When C. difficile bacteria overwhelm the gut, it can be fatal and difficult to treat with antibiotics. A UK team showed a combination of six bacteria could clear the infection. Read more… Pathological imbalances within the intestinal microbiota, termed dysbiosis, are often associated with chronic Clostridium … Continue reading Targeted Restoration of the Intestinal Microbiota
Related Taming hammering droplets The influence of surface tension gradients on drop coalescence John Bush’s page from MIT Continue reading Waterdrop
Although dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have been trained to match numbers and durations of human vocal bursts [1] and reported to spontaneously match computer-generated whistles [2], spontaneous human voice mimicry has not previously been demonstrated. The first to study white whale (Delphinapterus leucas) sounds in the wild, Schevill and Lawrence [3] wrote that “occasionally the calls would suggest a crowd of children shouting in the distance”. … Continue reading Animal Communication
Human beings are inhabited by as many as ten thousand bacterial species; the bacteria living inside us weigh, all told, about three pounds (the same as our brain). These bacteria work constantly on our behalf: they manufacture vitamins and patrol our guts to prevent infections; they help to form and bolster our immune systems, and digest food. Recent research suggests that they may even alter … Continue reading Germs are us
On a chilly, January night in 1986, Elizabeth Ebaugh carried a bag of groceries across the quiet car park of a shopping plaza in the suburbs of Washington DC. She got into her car and tossed the bag onto the empty passenger seat. But as she tried to close the door, she found it blocked by a slight, unkempt man with a big … Continue reading Stress and city living
I did a Pubmed search to see the publication trend in a few key areas of scientific research. In all these areas (Synthetic Biology, Cancer, Genetic Circuits), research has been steadily growing as indicated by the number of research papers published, as seen in the right hand side of each picture below. Cancer: 2.6 million articles as of 30 Sep 2012 Synthetic Biology: 15693 articles … Continue reading Scientific Publications
“Happy is he who gets to know the reasons for things”. I wish this 2000 year-old statement from Virgil was enough to deal with the question that must plague teachers all over the world — “what’s the point of this?” But, as someone who’s just returned to the teaching profession after a seven-year break, I can assure you it’s not. I teach at an inner … Continue reading Why is Science Important
In a national online survey, 505 participants reported their perceptions of energy consumption and savings for a variety of household, transportation, and recycling activities. When asked for the most effective strategy they could implement to conserve energy, most participants mentioned curtailment (e.g., turning off lights, driving less) rather than efficiency improvements (e.g., installing more efficient light bulbs and appliances), in contrast to experts’ recommendations. For a sample of 15 activities, participants … Continue reading Public perceptions of energy consumption
Perpetual Motion of Thought 