Posts tagged science

I think it’s the beginning of the end of the valley as we know it. Silicon Valley historically would invest in science, and technology, and, you know, actual silicon. If you were a good VC you could make $100 million. Now there’s a new pattern created by two big ideas. First, for the first time ever, you have computer devices, mobile and tablet especially, in the hands of billions of people. Second is that we are moving all the social needs that we used to do face-to-face, and we’re doing them on a computer.

And this trend has just begun. If you think Facebook is the end, ask MySpace. Art, entertainment, everything you can imagine in life is moving to computers. Companies like Facebook for the first time can get total markets approaching the entire population…

…But Silicon Valley is screwed as we know it.

If I have a choice of investing in a blockbuster cancer drug that will pay me nothing for ten years, at best, whereas social media will go big in two years, what do you think I’m going to pick? If you’re a VC firm, you’re tossing out your life science division. All of that stuff is hard and the returns take forever. Look at social media. It’s not hard, because of the two forces I just described, and the returns are quick.
Steve Blank, professor, Berkeley and Stanford, discussing the Facebook IPO with the Atlantic. The Golden Age of Silicon Valley Is Over, and We’re Dancing on its Grave
Earth, 121 Megapixel Russian Edition Via The Verge: There’s been a long history of NASA-provided “Blue Marble” images of Earth, but now we’re getting a different perspective thanks to photos taken by the Elektro-L No.1 Russian weather satellite. Unlike NASA’s pictures, this satellite produces 121-megapixel images that capture the Earth in one shot instead of a collection of pictures from multiple flybys stitched together. The result is the highest-resolution single picture of Earth yet. The image certainly looks different than what we’re used to seeing, and that’s because the sensor aboard the weather satellite combines data from three visible and one infrared wavelengths of light, a method that turns vegetation into the rust color that dominates the shot. A zoomable version of this image is here. A collection of related images is available on the Planet Earth Web site.

Earth, 121 Megapixel Russian Edition

Via The Verge:

There’s been a long history of NASA-provided “Blue Marble” images of Earth, but now we’re getting a different perspective thanks to photos taken by the Elektro-L No.1 Russian weather satellite. Unlike NASA’s pictures, this satellite produces 121-megapixel images that capture the Earth in one shot instead of a collection of pictures from multiple flybys stitched together. The result is the highest-resolution single picture of Earth yet. The image certainly looks different than what we’re used to seeing, and that’s because the sensor aboard the weather satellite combines data from three visible and one infrared wavelengths of light, a method that turns vegetation into the rust color that dominates the shot.

A zoomable version of this image is here. A collection of related images is available on the Planet Earth Web site.

If Your Brain Was a Hard Drive How Much Information Would it Hold?

Via Slate:

In its latest taunts directed at South Korea, North Korea’s state-run media has called South Korean President Lee Myung-bak “human scum” and an “underwit with 2MB of knowledge.” How many megabytes should a human brain be able to store?

A lot more than two. Most computational neuroscientists tend to estimate human storage capacity somewhere between 10 terabytes and 100 terabytes, though the full spectrum of guesses ranges from 1 terabyte to 2.5 petabytes. (One terabyte is equal to about 1,000 gigabytes or about 1 million megabytes; a petabyte is about 1,000 terabytes.)

The math behind these estimates is fairly simple. The human brain contains roughly 100 billion neurons. Each of these neurons seems capable of making around 1,000 connections, representing about 1,000 potential synapses, which largely do the work of data storage. Multiply each of these 100 billion neurons by the approximately 1,000 connections it can make, and you get 100 trillion data points, or about 100 terabytes of information.

Neuroscientists are quick to admit that these calculations are very simplistic. First, this math assumes that each synapse stores about 1 byte of information, but this estimate may be too high or too low. Neuroscientists aren’t sure how many synapses transmit at just one strength versus at many different strengths. A synapse that transmits at only one strength can convey only one bit of information—“on” or “off,” 1 or 0. On the other hand, a synapse that can transmit at many different strengths can store several bits. Secondly, individual synapses aren’t completely independent. Sometimes it may take several synapses to convey just one piece of information. Depending on how often this is the case, the 10-to-100-terabytes estimate may be much too large. Other problems include the fact that some synapses seem to be used for processing, not storage (suggesting that the estimate may be too high), and the fact that there are support cells that might also store information (suggesting that the estimate may be too low).

Now, I don’t know about you but it’s this last bit about processing that interests me. I’m not so concerned about the total amount of data my brain can hold. Instead its access — and the speed of access — to the data.

In other words, it’s RAM, drive speed and overall CPU that my brain needs an overall boost in. That and a spell checker. — Michael

NASA Has a Data Problem, And a Contest to Solve It NASA has about 100 terabytes of information gathered from its various space missions. The data sits in various databases created over the years and is difficult to get to and manipulate. So its Tournament Lab is holding a contest make the data more accessible to both scientists and the public. Via the NASA Tournament Lab: [W]hile rich in depth and breath, the [Planetary Data System] databases have developed in a disparate fashion over the years with different architectures and formats for different scientific needs; thereby making acquisition of data problematic! So, NASA is holding a series of Challenges to generate some simply awesome ideas for mobile or web based applications that will appeal to general users, to search and display compelling facts about the data. Instead of just scientists, our audience will be the millions of school age students, their teachers and parents, game designers and general civilians of the world. We want to deliver this incredible data to users in a way that excites them – and thus, to help them understand the value and potential of this data. Contest prizes are up to $10,000 and you can learn about it here. If you want to jump right into the data, you can do so here. Image: Moscow at Night, captured March 28 by the International Space Station. Via NASA.

NASA Has a Data Problem, And a Contest to Solve It

NASA has about 100 terabytes of information gathered from its various space missions. The data sits in various databases created over the years and is difficult to get to and manipulate.

So its Tournament Lab is holding a contest make the data more accessible to both scientists and the public.

Via the NASA Tournament Lab:

[W]hile rich in depth and breath, the [Planetary Data System] databases have developed in a disparate fashion over the years with different architectures and formats for different scientific needs; thereby making acquisition of data problematic!

So, NASA is holding a series of Challenges to generate some simply awesome ideas for mobile or web based applications that will appeal to general users, to search and display compelling facts about the data. Instead of just scientists, our audience will be the millions of school age students, their teachers and parents, game designers and general civilians of the world. We want to deliver this incredible data to users in a way that excites them – and thus, to help them understand the value and potential of this data.

Contest prizes are up to $10,000 and you can learn about it here. If you want to jump right into the data, you can do so here.

Image: Moscow at Night, captured March 28 by the International Space Station. Via NASA.

What Happened to the Iceberg That Sank the Titanic?

Via Wired:

Exactly one hundred years ago Sunday, an ocean liner struck a block of ice and sank in the North Atlantic. The story of the ocean liner has been told hundreds of times. This story is about the block of ice.

And that is how you come at a story from an altogether different angle.

Perpetual Ocean

via NASA:

This visualization shows ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through December 2007. The visualization does not include a narration or annotations; the goal was to use ocean flow data to create a simple, visceral experience.

This visualization was produced using model output from the joint MIT/JPL project: Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II orECCO2. ECCO2 uses the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) to synthesize satellite and in-situ data of the global ocean and sea-ice at resolutions that begin to resolve ocean eddies and other narrow current systems, which transport heat and carbon in the oceans. ECCO2 provides ocean flows at all depths, but only surface flows are used in this visualization. The dark patterns under the ocean represent the undersea bathymetry. Topographic land exaggeration is 20x and bathymetric exaggeration is 40x.

This visualization was submitted to the SIGGRAPH 2011 Computer Animation Festival, but it wasn’t selected by the jury.

H/T: OWNI.eu

See that word?” he said. “Right there. That is not science.”

The word was “lone,” as in “PvPlm is the lone plasmepsin in the food vacuole of Plasmodium vivax.” It was a filthy word. A non-scientific word. A flowery word, a lyrical word, a word worthy of — ugh — an MFA student.

I hadn’t meant the word to be poetic. I had just used the word “only” five or six times, and I didn’t want to use it again. But in his mind, “lone” must have conjured images of PvPlm perched on a cliff’s edge, staring into the empty chasm, weeping gently for its aspartic protease companions. Oh, the good times they shared. Afternoons spent cleaving scissile bonds. Lazy mornings decomposing foreign proteins into their constituent amino acids at a nice, acidic pH. Alas, lone plasmepsin, those days are gone.

So I changed the word to “only.” And it hurt. Not because “lone” was some beautiful turn of phrase but because of the lesson I had learned: Any word beyond the expected set — even a word as tame and innocuous as “lone” — apparently doesn’t belong in science.

I’m still fairly new at this science thing. I’m less than 4 years beyond the dark days of grad school and the adviser who wouldn’t tolerate “lone.” So forgive my naïveté when I ask: Why the hell not?
Adam Ruben, Science, How to Write Like a Scientist.

Should science journalists read the papers on which their stories are based?

The Guardian asks the question but you’d think the answer is self evident, no?

Whenever and in whatever beat, a reporter should read source material if available.

Robot Records Fish Farts Researchers hoping to better understand fish distributions by recording the sounds they make have picked up something unusual: barely-audible, cricket-like noises they think could be nighttime fish farts. The team programmed a torpedo-shaped robot called a glider to head out to sea from Tampa Bay and back, running up and down the water column in a saw-tooth pattern, sampling ocean sounds for 25 seconds every 5 minutes. The glider also recorded location data and measured seawater temperature, salinity, and depth over the course of 1 week. By comparing the grunts and whistles on their recordings to known fish calls, University of South Florida researchers found red grouper (shown, Epinephelus morio) and toadfishes (Opsanus spp.) were the most frequent fish sounds recorded, the team reports this month in Marine Ecology Progress Series. These fish produced sounds throughout the day and night, mostly deeper than 40 meters. The probable farts were recorded shallower than 40 meters, and were most likely a group of fish, including menhadenand herring, releasing gas from an internal buoyancy organ called a swim bladder. By mapping these sounds, the researchers hope to get a better picture of species distributions and likely spawning areas—important information for management and conservation efforts. 

Robot Records Fish Farts

Researchers hoping to better understand fish distributions by recording the sounds they make have picked up something unusual: barely-audible, cricket-like noises they think could be nighttime fish farts. The team programmed a torpedo-shaped robot called a glider to head out to sea from Tampa Bay and back, running up and down the water column in a saw-tooth pattern, sampling ocean sounds for 25 seconds every 5 minutes. The glider also recorded location data and measured seawater temperature, salinity, and depth over the course of 1 week. By comparing the grunts and whistles on their recordings to known fish calls, University of South Florida researchers found red grouper (shown, Epinephelus morio) and toadfishes (Opsanus spp.) were the most frequent fish sounds recorded, the team reports this month in Marine Ecology Progress Series. These fish produced sounds throughout the day and night, mostly deeper than 40 meters. The probable farts were recorded shallower than 40 meters, and were most likely a group of fish, including menhadenand herring, releasing gas from an internal buoyancy organ called a swim bladder. By mapping these sounds, the researchers hope to get a better picture of species distributions and likely spawning areas—important information for management and conservation efforts. 

news.sciencemag.org

The Life and Death of Words

Words, like plants and animals, fight for survival and an international group of scientists studying English, Spanish and Hebrew believe that many — in general — are dying off.

Their killer? Editors.

Via Statistical Laws Governing Fluctuations in Word Use from Word Birth to Word Death (PDF):

The modern era of publishing, which is characterized by more strict editing procedures at publishing houses, computerized word editing and automatic spell-checking technology, shows a drastic increase in the death rate of words. Using visual inspection we verify most changes to the vocabulary in the last 10–20 years are due to the extinction of misspelled words and nonsensical print errors, and to the decreased birth rate of new misspelled variations and genuinely new words.

The Guardian clarifies this a bit by killing off some difficult words of their own and getting straight to the point about how words live and how words die:

But it is not only “defective” words that die: sometimes words are driven to extinction by aggressive competitors. The word “Roentgenogram”, for example, deriving from the discoverer of the x-ray, William Röntgen, was widely used for several decades in the 20th century, but, challenged by “x-ray” and “radiogram”, has now fallen out of use entirely. X-ray had beaten off its synonyms by 1980, speculate the academics, owing to its “efficient short word length” and since the English language is generally used for scientific publication. “Each of the words is competing to be a monopoly on who gets to be the name,” [Joel] Tenenbaum told the American Physical Society.

The phrase “the great war”, meanwhile, used for a period to describe the first world war, fell out of use around 1939 when another war of equal proportions hit the world.

Takeaway: Language is a giant Darwinian battle for linguistic supremacy. Choose yours selectively. 

Video: MIT’s Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel illustrate what we can learn from analyzing 500 billion words via Google Books and its related Ngram Viewer which gives us the ability to enter words and phrases into a search engine in order to view their frequency over time.

BLAST OFF!

NASA releases hi-def footage from cameras mounted on Space Shuttle booster rockets in advance its DVD/Blueray film, Special Edition Ascent: Commemorating Space Shuttle.

This video follows a shuttle as it blasts off, enters space at almost three thousand miles per hour, then releases its booster rockets and follows those rockets’ descent back to a splashy ocean landing.

Sound mixing and enhancement is done by Skywalker Sound.

Run Time - ~8:30 very worthwhile minutes.

Temporal Distortion

Time lapse video of the night sky over South Dakota, Utah and Colorado by Randy Halverson with a soundtrack by Bear McCreary.

“What you see is real,” writes Halverson, “but you can’t see it this way with the naked eye. It is the result of thousands of 20-30 second exposures, edited together to produce the timelapse. This allows you to see the Milky Way, Aurora and other Phenonmena, in a way you wouldn’t normally see them.

“In the opening “Dakotalapse” title shot, you see bands of red and green moving across the sky. After asking several Astronomers, they are possible noctilucent clouds, airglow or faint Aurora. I never got a definite answer to what it is. You can also see the red and green bands in other shots.”

H/T: The Atlantic.

Collectively, women’s magazines—by which I mean the whole field, from fashion titles like Vogue and Elle to health publications like Self and Women’s Health to the more general sex-and-diet-tips mags like Glamour or Cosmopolitan (does that even still exist?)—reach millions upon millions of readers each month. So the lack of willingness to cover globally important topics is dismaying. It’s a colossal missed opportunity…

…[There are] some serious institutional problems, and these can lead to 1) lack of coverage of important topics, 2) less-than-completely-truthful coverage of important topics, and 3) complete and utter bullshit coverage of important topics.

Hillary Rosner, Their So-Called Journalism, or What I Saw at the Women’s Mags.

Rosner, a freelance science writer and former Knight Fellow at MIT, shares (frustrating) anecdotes about trying to write serious science journalism for women’s magazines. 

Aurora Borealis Taken from the International Space Station as it passed over western Canada. Photo by NASA via the LA Times.

Aurora Borealis

Taken from the International Space Station as it passed over western Canada. Photo by NASA via the LA Times.