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Education

Submission + - Lecture Videos by an Amazing MIT Physics Professor

Submitted by SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: While teaching large physics lectures at MIT, Walter H. G. Lewin radiates enthusiasm and performs fantastic demonstrations. Yesterday, Sara Rimer of the New York Times [login required] profiled Lewin. She explained that the energetic 71-year-old professor became a celebrity when video footage of his lectures hit the web. Today, Wired is running a similar story that links to three collections of Levin's lectures as well as several of his viral hits.
Space

Submission + - Arthur C. Clarke's 90th Birthday Video Message

Submitted by SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: Just before completing his 90th orbit around the sun, Sir Arthur C. Clarke recorded what may be one of his last messages to the world. "The golden age of space is only just beginning... Space travel and space tourism will one day become almost as commonplace as flying to exotic destinations on our own planet," said the legendary science fiction author. He wished for proof of extraterrestiral life, freedom from our addiction to oil, and an end to the civil war in Sri Lanka — his adopted home. The wheelchair-bound legend concluded by saying that in spite of his many accomplishments, he would most like to be remembered as a writer that entertained many people.
Biotech

Submission + - Avastin Failure Highlights Drug Research Problems

Submitted by
SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: "When an FDA committee decided that blockbuster oncology drug Avastin should not be used to treat breast cancer because the risks outweigh the benefits, shares of Genentech stock plummeted. Rather than reciting financial figures, Business Week reporter Arlene Weintraub took a step back and painted a detailed picture of how the biotech company is trying to skirt major industry problems within the field of autoimmune disease research. Wired Science provided further analysis, explaining the importance increasing the variety of avoiding me too drugs, not rushing research, and using a personalized medicine approach."
Toys

Submission + - Microfluidic Chips made with Shrinky Dinks

Submitted by
SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: "When she started her job as a new professor at UC Merced, Michelle Khine was stuck without a clean room or semiconductor fabrication equipment, so she went MacGyver and started making Lab-on-a-Chip devices in her kitchen with Shrinky Dinks, a laser printer, and a toaster oven. She would print a negative image of the channels onto the polystyrene sheets and then make them smaller with heat. The miniaturized pattern served as a perfect mould for forming rounded, narrow channels in PDMS — a clear, synthetic rubber."
Biotech

Submission + - New Nerve Gas Antidotes (wired.com) 1

Submitted by SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: Scientists from Korea and the Czech Republic have discovered new drugs that can counteract the chemical overload caused by nerve gas. All of the experimental medications belong to a family of chemicals called oximes. Those molecules reactivate the enzyme that is damaged by the chemical weapons. Last year, the FDA approved the first combined atropine and oxime auto-injector for use by emergency personnel. Israel has been providing them to their citizens since the first Gulf War.
Biotech

Submission + - Scary Lab Automation Commercial Evokes David Lynch (wired.com)

Submitted by SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: When the German biotech company Qiagen made a commercial for their spiffy new lab automation product, they seem to have miscalculated the taste of their American customers. The video, which showcases a robot that can purify DNA, RNA, or proteins with the push of a button, is exceptionally creepy. It has a style similar to Twin Peaks and other bizzare and akward projects by filmmaker David Lynch.
Biotech

Submission + - The Muddy Waters of Taser Safety

Submitted by SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: Many scientists have asked the question: Can Tasers kill people? Yet, the waters surrounding the less lethal weapon remain very murky. The Wired Science Blog has a compilation of some of the more spectacular safety studies. They include case reports of a dart penetrating the skull of a young man, a pacemaker logging cardiac data when an old man was zapped, and conclusions drawn from seventy-five separate investigations. This follows an earlier report in New Scientist which showed that some of the safety studies were funded by Taser International.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Update: Arthur C. Clarke Independent Film Delayed

Submitted by SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: When an Industrial Light and Magic employee set out to complete a short film based on Maelstrom II by Arthur C. Clarke's 90th birthday, it looked like he would finish on time. When his sources of funding backed out, filmmaker Jeroen Lapré watched his project slow to a crawl in post-production. Just over a month before his self-imposed deadline, Lapré is far behind schedule and terrified that he may not be able to complete the film before the bedridden legend passes away. A rough cut of the first third of the film is available on his website. It shows that his project is far from complete.
Biotech

Submission + - Fascist Administrators Fail to Close School

Submitted by
SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: "Despite the fact that students developed a mysterious twitching sickness, officials decided not to close the William Byrd High School high school campus and told parents it was safe — even though the source of the illness has still not been identified. In the wake of the Virginia Tech Massacre, this reluctance to keep students out of harm's way is terribly alarming. The state of mind that is necessary to prioritize order and an uninterrupted school day over the safety of young people vaguely resembles the merciless button pushing of volunteers in the notorious psychology experiments of Stanley Milgram. Those test subjects would persist in torturing people with fake electric shocks simply because an authority figure told them that the experiment must continue. In this case, the classes must continue."
Biotech

Submission + - Sea Urchin Eggs Plus Marijuana for New Painkillers (wired.com)

Submitted by
SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: "Scientists at Organix, a small research firm, have made chemicals that resemble both tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in weed, and anandamide, the euphoria-causing chemical found in sea urchin eggs. They claim that it will be used to better understand how the body regulates pleasure and pain signals, but their data makes it very clear that the new drugs push the same pleasure buttons as THC and anandamide. After some in vitro tests, they gave the best experimental chemicals to mice. Small amounts of the most potent molecule prevented them from pulling their tails away from a hot surface. That test, called a tail-flick assay, showed that the new drug is a rather powerful painkiller."
Education

Submission + - Short Film on the Shameful Quality of Universities

Submitted by SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: Michael Wesch and his cultural anthropology students at Kansas State University have made a video that brilliantly depicts the shameful quality of education at large academic institutions. Set to haunting music, the short film identifies many of the symptoms of a faulty system. The Wired Science Blog has a response to the short film. The main points from the commentary: chalkboards can't compete with facebook, textbooks should be replaced with Web 2.0 sites, most academic advisers do little more than offer them a checklist of classes to take.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Email Threats Less Crazy than Snail Mail (wired.com) 2

Submitted by SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: Psychologists at the University of Nebraska have read 300 threatening letters and 99 angry emails to members of congress. They concluded that the authors of the electronic messages show less signs of serious mental illness, but they are more profane and disorganized. The report was published in the September issue [subscription] of the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
Biotech

Submission + - Chinese Herb Sucks the Fun out of Blow

Submitted by SoyChemist
SoyChemist writes: Levo-Tetrahydropalmatine, a chemical from the Chinese herb Stephanie, which is used to treat insomnia and chronic pain, may also be useful for preventing cocaine addiction. It blocks dopamine receptors, proteins that receive the chemical signal that causes euphoria, making cocaine useless. Scientists at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Maryland have shown that when cocaine-addicted rats are given large doses of the herbal medicine, they no longer want to get high, but they do get pretty lazy. They reported their findings [subscription] in the journal Neuropharmacology.
Handhelds

Submission + - iPhone Contains Secret Keylogger (tuaw.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Not quite a keylogger, but still disturbing. It's been discovered that a file on the iPhone automatically stores new words that are typed on the phone for its auto correction feature. So far, so good, but unfortunately it also appears to store passwords in plain text within the file. With all the methods of accessing the iPhone filesystem, this is bad news for people who lose their iPhones or sell them without a full wipe.

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