DKush - Slashdot User

Nature Publisher Launches PLoS ONE Competitor 62

Posted by Soulskill on Monday January 24, 2011 @06:16PM from the peer-to-peer-review dept.

linhares writes "Nature's Publishing Group is launching a new journal, Scientific Reports, announced earlier this month. The press release makes it clear that it is molded after PLoS ONE: 'Scientific Reports will publish original research papers of interest to specialists within a given field in the natural sciences. It will not set a threshold of perceived importance for the papers that it publishes; rather, Scientific Reports will publish all papers that are judged to be technically valid and original. To enable the community to evaluate the importance of papers post-peer review, the Scientific Reports website will include most-downloaded, most-emailed, and most-blogged lists. All research papers will benefit from rapid peer review and publication, and will be deposited in PubMed Central.' Perhaps readers may find it ironic that PLoS ONE, first dismissed by Nature as an 'online database' 'relying on bulk, cheap publishing of lower quality papers to subsidize its handful of high-quality flagship journals' seems to be setting the standards for 'a new era in publishing.'"

Sharks Seen Swimming Down Australian Streets 210

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 19, 2011 @03:03AM from the we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-sidewalk dept.

As if the flood waters weren't bad enough for the people of Queensland, it now appears that there are sharks swimming in the streets. Two bull sharks were spotted swimming past a McDonald’s in the city of Goodna, Butcher Steve Bateman saw another making its way past his shop on Williams street. Ipswich councillor for the Goodna region Paul Tully said: "It would have swam several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway. It’s definitely a first for Goodna, to have a shark in the main street."

Nobel Prize Winner Says DNA Performs Quantum Teleportation 347

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 12, 2011 @11:22PM from the giant-book-that's-hidden-inside-you dept.

HJED writes "TechWorld is reporting that the joint winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2008, Luc Montagnier, is claiming that DNA can send 'electromagnetic imprints' of itself into distant cells and fluids which can then be used by enzymes to create copies of the original DNA. This would be equivalent to quantum teleportation. You can read the original paper here [PDF]."

Famous British Autism Study an 'Elaborate Fraud' 813

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday January 06, 2011 @11:10AM from the someone-alert-jenny-mccarthy dept.

Charliemopps writes "An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study — and that there was 'no doubt' Wakefield was responsible."

Journal Article On Precognition Sparks Outrage 319

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday January 06, 2011 @09:50AM from the but-magic-is-fun dept.

thomst writes "The New York Times has an article (cookies and free subscription required) about the protests generated by The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology's decision to accept for publication later this year an article (PDF format) on precognition (the Times erroneously calls it ESP). Complaints center around the peer reviewers, none of whom is an expert in statistical analysis."

Researchers Claim 1,000 Core Chip Created 118

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday January 03, 2011 @02:12PM from the eat-the-seeds dept.

eldavojohn writes "Remember a few months ago when the feasibility was discussed of a thousand core processor? By using FPGAs, Glasgow University researchers have claimed a proof of concept 1,000 core chip that they demonstrated running an MPEG algorithm at a speed of 5Gbps. From one of the researchers: 'This is very early proof-of-concept work where we're trying to demonstrate a convenient way to program FPGAs so that their potential to provide very fast processing power could be used much more widely in future computing and electronics. While many existing technologies currently make use of FPGAs, including plasma and LCD televisions and computer network routers, their use in standard desktop computers is limited. However, we are already seeing some microchips which combine traditional CPUs with FPGA chips being announced by developers, including Intel and ARM. I believe these kinds of processors will only become more common and help to speed up computers even further over the next few years.'"

Comment Mite Gene (Score 1) 1

by DKush on Wednesday December 22, 2010 @02:42PM (#34643754) Attached to: Bee disease breakthrough

This is an interesting approach to controlling pests/parasites. I can envision its use in the treatment of diseases such as malaria. I wonder, though, if the gene that is being regulated is common throughout the arachnid world, would its use also effect spiders, ticks, other mites, etc. negatively. The scientist interviewed mentioned that "it wouldn't target the bees and...any other pollinating insects" but I would be interested to find out more about its uniqueness throughout arthropod genomes.

The 57 Lamest Tech Moments of 2010 123

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday December 21, 2010 @10:45AM from the you-probably-think-this-story's-about-you dept.

harrymcc writes "When it comes strange blunders, failed dreams, pointless legal wrangling, and other embarrassments, the technology industry had an uncommonly busy 2010. I compiled a list of the most notable examples--including the lost iPhone prototype, the short life of Microsoft's Kin, the end of Google Wave, the McAfee security meltdown, a depressingly long list of lawsuits over mobile patents, and much more."

Scientists Decipher 3-Billion-Year-Old Genomic Fossils 217

Posted by Soulskill on Monday December 20, 2010 @11:10PM from the long-time-gone dept.

hnkstrprnkstr writes "MIT scientists have created a sort of genomic fossil (abstract) that shows the collective genome of all life underwent an enormous expansion about 3 billion years ago, which they're calling the Archean Expansion. Many of the new genes appearing in the Archean Expansion are oxygen related, and could be the first biological evidence of the Great Oxidation Event, the period in Earth's history when oxygen became so plentiful that many anaerobic life forms may have become extinct."

Submission + - Mathematics: The Most Misunderstood Subject (fordham.edu) 1

Submitted by Lilith's Heart-shape on Monday December 20, 2010 @01:21PM

Lilith's Heart-shape writes: Dr. Robert H. Lewis, professor of mathematics at Fordham University of New York, offers in this essay a defense of mathematics as a liberal arts discipline, and not merely part of a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) curriculum. In the process, he discusses what's wrong with the manner in which mathematics is currently taught in K-12 schooling.

Comment Re:Occam's razor... (Score 1) 371

by DKush on Monday December 20, 2010 @12:30PM (#34616382) Attached to: Free Radicals May Not Be Cause of Aging

A tortoise is not a mammal.

Swiss Bank Has 43-Page Dress Code 212

Posted by samzenpus on Monday December 20, 2010 @12:04PM from the dress-for-a-specific-success dept.

Tasha26 writes "The HR of Swiss bank UBS AG came up with an innovative 43-page document (French) to establish fashion 'dos' and 'don'ts' in their retail branches. Among the rules are such things as: 'neither sex should allow their underwear to appear,' perhaps Dilbert was a bit ahead of them on that. The document also mentions smells and 'avoid garlic and onion-based dishes.'"

Free Radicals May Not Be Cause of Aging 371

Posted by timothy on Sunday December 19, 2010 @12:32PM from the with-very-few-exceptions-not-a-human-being dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at McGill University in Montreal have uncovered strong new evidence that that wildly-accepted mitochondrial free radical theory of aging (MFRTA) is wrong. MFRTA suggests that free radicals cause oxidative damage, which in turn leads to the aging process. This new evidence shows that high levels of Reactive Oxidative species are rather a biological signal used to combat aging then the process itself. This goes against claims of major health benefits from consuming foods and particularly supplements that contain antioxidants."

Periodic Table of Elements To Get an Update 99

Posted by timothy on Saturday December 18, 2010 @02:36PM from the elementally-my-dear-watson dept.

Lazarian writes "Scientists from around the world have put forth an update to the Periodic Table of Elements. In particular, they are changing the manner in which atomic weights of ten elements are expressed. From the article: 'For example, sulfur is commonly known to have a standard atomic weight of 32.065. However, its actual atomic weight can be anywhere between 32.059 and 32.076, depending on where the element is found.'"

Browsing the Body 107

Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 17, 2010 @11:07AM from the not-porn dept.

ColdWetDog writes "Google Labs has an interesting new line of business — human anatomy. The Google Body Browser is a 3D representation of the major parts of the human body. Based on the well known and very expensive Zygote 3D artwork, you can zoom in, rotate, view the various organ systems (bone, internal organs, nerves) in various states of transparency. Very much like Google Earth in both execution and concept. Written with HTML5, it requires WebGL to work. The Firefox 4 beta seems to work fine. Google, of course, recommends Chrome."

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