Science and research

I confess to not having been aware that arsenic might breathe life into things.

I had only been aware of it as something killers use in Agatha Christie novels.

However, in 2010, a researcher declared that a bacterium in California's Mono Lake (near Yosemite) thrived on arsenic, while being deprived of phosphorus. (I have embedded a discussion of this finding.)

At the time, Felisa Wolfe-Simon of NASA's Astrobiology Institute suggested that life as we know it may not be life as we know it.

Now, however, two new studies suggest that it may be life as we know … Read more

Modifications to the world's fastest camera are enabling the real-time identification of rare breast cancer cells in blood, with a record low false-positive rate of one cell in a million, according to new research out of UCLA.

"This technology can significantly reduce errors and costs in medical diagnosis," lead author Keisuke Goda, a UCLA program manager in electrical engineering and bioengineering, said in a school news release.

The team's approach could not only pave the way for earlier detection of cancer and monitoring of drug and radiation therapy but also prove useful in urine analysis, water … Read more

How often have you looked at the latest, greatest innovation from a big Silicon Valley name like Apple or Google and thought "Pretty cool, but I'll wait to see if Olympus has a better take on it"?

Well, there's a first time for everything.… Read more

There is much excitement over the discovery of the Higgs boson particle.

Physicists everywhere are, as I understand it, overjoyed that all of their theories have been proved to be correct. Which certainly puts them far ahead of any economists.

However, for one man this discovery has come with a cost.

For Stephen Hawking admitted to the BBC that he'd just lost $100 over Higgs boson's arrival.

Hawking is clearly impressed with this breakthrough.

"It should earn Peter Higgs the Nobel Prize," he told the BBC.

There is, though, a certain melancholy for Hawking, too.

"… Read more

This is a guest commentary. See Mark Wise's bio below.

The Higgs boson is an integral part of our understanding of nature. It is a particle that is an excitation of what is called the Higgs field. The Higgs field permeates all of space and when some of the fundamental particles travel through it they acquire mass. The amount of mass they acquire depends on how strongly they interact with the Higgs field. Some like the electron acquire a small mass while others acquire a much larger mass.

One peculiar aspect of this is that this Higgs field that … Read more

Scientists at the CERN nuclear research facility have almost certainly found the Higgs boson, the so-called "God particle," they have announced.

This morning the leaders of the experiments running through the giant Large Hadron Collider (LHC) said that their two teams had independently observed a particle consistent with the Higgs, which has until now been theoretical rather than a sure thing. The Higgs boson is thought to be responsible for mass in the otherwise-already-proven standard model of physics.

"We have observed a new boson," Joe Incandela, leader of the CMS experiment said at a press conference … Read more

Michael Phelps isn't like most people, so it stands to reasons his pajamas aren't like most people's. There are no fuzzy bunny slippers and sheep-print flannel pjs for Phelps. He wears a high-tech compression suit from Under Armour.

The Recharge Energy Suit is a full-body suit designed to help the body recover from fatigue after training.

Under Armour claims the super tight compression fit pushes out the water damaged muscle fibers take on when sore, leading to a faster recovery. This is also probably as close as you'll get to knowing what it feels like to be swallowed by a snake.… Read more

An apparently leaked video dated for dissemination tomorrow depicts a CERN representative involved with one of the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider saying that "we've observed a new particle," which he goes on to label "one of the biggest discoveries in our field in the last 30 to 40 years."

"It's something that may, in the end, be one of the biggest observations of any new new phenomena in our field in the last 30 or 40 years, going way back to the discovery of quarks, for example," the spokesman, Jo … Read more

You'd think a ship designed after a baseball bat would go over like a foul ball when it comes to seaworthiness, but research ship FLIP has been a hit since its launch 50 years ago.

The bizarre research vessel can go from a horizontal to vertical position while staying afloat and stable in heavy seas, even in 80-foot waves. That allows it to perform oceanographic research measurements with great accuracy.

"A ship rolls with storm waves, but FLIP is so stable it is almost immobile," Scripps Institute of Oceanography engineer Eric Slater has said in recalling FLIP riding out a hurricane. "Waves hit it like a brick wall. We were literally thrown out of our chairs inside FLIP when the big waves hit."

Operated by Scripps and owned by the U.S. Navy, the 355-foot FLIP was designed by Phillip Rudnick, Fred H. Fisher, and Fred N. Spiess, and first tested in July 1962 as part of an anti-submarine rocket program. It was recently shown off in the Pacific for its birthday. … Read more