128 posts · 126,116 views
A science blog from award-winning science writer David Bradley covering everything from astronomy to zoology by way of bio, chemistry, nano and physics
sciencebase
128 posts
Sort by: Latest Post, Most Popular
View by: Condensed, Full
- October 29, 2008
- 08:00 AM
- 1,652 views
Revolutionary Solids
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
History teachers can always turn to the significant figures and battles to enliven their lessons, biology education has the enormously diverse range of species to point to, and even physics can pull in metaphors and anecdotes for the more esoteric aspects, try teaching gravity without mentioning Galileo and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But, teachers [...]... Read more »
Annunziata Cascone, Gerardo Durazzo, & Valentina Stile. (2008) Solids by revolution: materialising an idea. International Journal of Knowledge and Learning, 4(2/3), 140. DOI: 10.1504/IJKL.2008.020651
- November 3, 2008
- 07:00 AM
- 1,623 views
Science of Spam
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
Who hasn’t received a spam email with some kind of clause laying claim to compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003? They usually say something about the message being anything but spam. But, it quickly becomes obvious, if you actually waste the time to read the content, that it is a generic marketing message for [...]... Read more »
Petur O. Jonsson. (2009) The economics of spam and the context and aftermath of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry, 2(1), 40-52.
- September 22, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,536 views
Autumn Leaves
by David Bradley in Sciencebase Science Blog
why do leaves turn red in the fall? It's all down to chemistry. Red pigments known as anthocyanins form in leaves from many plant and tree species at the same time as the green photosynthetic apparatus is dismantled by the plant. New research in PNAS this week explains abscission - the how and when of leaf fall.... Read more »
S. K. Cho, C. T. Larue, D. Chevalier, H. Wang, T.-L. Jinn, S. Zhang, & J. C. Walker. (2008) Regulation of floral organ abscission in Arabidopsis thaliana. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0805539105
- September 19, 2008
- 08:00 AM
- 1,520 views
Revisiting Chernobyl
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
Chernobyl. The very name strikes fear into the hearts of those who hate everything about the nuclear industry. It conjures up images of an archaic, burning industrial site spewing out lethal fumes, of farm animals dying of radiation poisoning in their thousands and contaminated meat, of ecosystems devastated, and of people with radiation sickness and [...]... Read more »
Young Woo Jin, Meeseon Jeong, Kieun Moon, Kwang Hee Yang, Byung Il Lee, Hun Baek, Sang Gu Lee, & Chong Soon Kim. (2008) Health effects 20 years after the Chernobyl accident. International Journal of Low Radiation, 5(3), 263. DOI: 10.1504/IJLR.2008.020255
- November 17, 2008
- 08:00 AM
- 1,493 views
Virtual Rehabilitation
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
I recently wrote about how social media might help scientists do their work, so a paper in IJWBS on how those on the receiving end of medical science - patients and healthcare practitioners - might benefit from web 2.0 caught my eye.
IT specialist and disability consultant Maire Heikkinen of University of Tampere, Finland, has focused [...]... Read more »
Maire Heikkinen. (2009) Power and support from the net: usability and sociability on an internet-based rehabilitation course for people with multiple sclerosis. IInt. J. Web Based Communities, 5(1), 83-104.
- September 26, 2008
- 08:00 AM
- 1,451 views
Disastrous Rumours
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
Gossip and rumours, they are the life force of cultural interaction. Just ask Guy Kawasaki, whose Truemors.com website took off last year, the hundreds of hacks who peddle the minutiae of celebrity lifestyles complete with the Photoshopped products of the paparazzi, or Perez Hilton. But, there is a serious side to rumours. In the midst [...]... Read more »
Judith Molka Danielsen, & Thomas Beke. (2008) Rumours interplay in disaster management. International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, 9(4), 334. DOI: 10.1504/IJRAM.2008.020413
- July 16, 2008
- 06:13 AM
- 1,445 views
Unnatural Approach to Diabetes
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
As regular readers will be aware, I’m very skeptical of crank claims. Usually, these will claim to cure everything from premenstrual cramps to cancer by way of motor neurone disease and ingrowing toenails, all of them, with one pill. Forgive my flippancy, but the claims of many of those touting such panaceas usually beggars belief.
But ... Read more »
M Mudra, N Ercan-Fang, L Zhong, J Furne, & M Levitt. (2007) Influence of Mulberry Leaf Extract on the Blood Glucose and Breath Hydrogen Response to Ingestion of 75 g Sucrose by Type 2 Diabetic and Control Subjects. Diabetes Care, 30(5), 1272-1274. DOI: 10.2337/dc06-2120
- November 28, 2008
- 04:15 AM
- 1,422 views
Religious Faith in Technology
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
The Elucian Islands in the virtual online world known as Second Life are to host a climate change conference. Speakers will present live from Imperial College London and Stanford University in California, and researchers and university students will attend from the UK and the United States.
However, another climate change conference with a difference also begins [...]... Read more »
Stuart J. Barnes. (2009) Strength of religious faith, trusting beliefs and their role in technology acceptance . International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 6(1), 110-126.
- January 5, 2009
- 08:00 AM
- 1,415 views
Reflecting on Climate Change
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
A radical plan to curb global warming and apparently reverse climate change caused by our rampant burning of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution would involve simply covering large areas of the world’s deserts with reflective sheeting.
The idea is discussed in detail in the January issue of the International Journal of Global Environmental Issues and [...]
Reflecting on Climate Change... Read more »
Takayuki Toyama, & Alan Stainer. (2009) Cosmic Heat Emission concept to 'stop' global warming. International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 9(1/2), 151. DOI: 10.1504/IJGENVI.2009.022093
- October 24, 2008
- 08:00 AM
- 1,410 views
Open Access in Africa
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
There is much talk about Open Access. There are those in academia who argue the pros extensively in all fields, biology, chemistry, computing. Protagonists are making massive efforts to convert users to this essentially non-commercial form of information and knowledge.
Conversely, there are those in the commercial world who ask, who will pay for OA endeavours [...]... Read more »
Williams E. Nwagwu, & Allam Ahmed. (2009) Building open access in Africa. International Journal of Technology Management, 45(1/2), 82-101.
- October 15, 2008
- 02:30 AM
- 1,386 views
Blog Action Day on Poverty
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
We are, the media tells us, either on the verge or diving head first into a global recession the likes of which we have never seen. Countless financial headlines have screamed Credit Crunch, which sadly isn’t a wholegrain breakfast cereal for day-traders, for a year now. Banks are borrowing billions from taxpayers to allow them [...]... Read more »
Jenifer Piesse, & Colin Thirtle. (2008) Genetically modified crops, factor endowments, biased technological change, wages and poverty reduction. International Journal of Biotechnology, 10(2/3), 184. DOI: 10.1504/IJBT.2008.018354
- April 8, 2009
- 08:00 AM
- 1,384 views
Flatus Impudicus, Plume-seeking Insectibot
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
It’s a crude schoolroom axiom around which many an adult pub debate might also revolve: He who smelt it, dealt it.
However, there is a serious side to quickly locating the source of noxious odours in an indoor environment of varying airflow, as Zhenzhang Liu and Tien-Fu Lu of The University of Adelaide, Australia, will attest. [...]Post from: Sciencebase Science Blog... Read more »
Zhenzhang Liu, & Tien-Fu Lu. (2009) Odour source localisation in a wind-varying indoor environment. Int. J. Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, 2(1/2), 168-186.
- November 6, 2008
- 09:00 PM
- 1,382 views
Scuppering the Program Pirates
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
Professors the world over are worried about plagiarism: students simply lifting huge chunks from web pages and passing the thoughts and arguments off as their own. Then there are the Professors who steal from each other and publish their work in supposedly novel research papers and books and present it at conferences as original. This [...]... Read more »
Ameera Jadalla, & Ashraf Elnagar. (2008) PDE4Java: Plagiarism Detection Engine for Java source code: a clustering approach. International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining, 3(2), 121. DOI: 10.1504/IJBIDM.2008.020514
- October 15, 2008
- 12:00 AM
- 1,375 views
Whitesides Blood Whisk
by David Bradley in Sciencebase Science Blog
A $2 egg-beater could save lives in developing countries, according to a report from the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry. A piece of inexpensive plastic tubing taped to a handheld egg-whisk could be used as an ad hoc centrifuge for separating out blood plasma in a matter of minutes and allow life-saving diagnostic medical tests to be carried out much faster and at far less cost than with conventional lab-based centrifuge equipment.... Read more »
Amy P. Wong, Malancha Gupta, Sergey S. Shevkoplyas, & George M. Whitesides. (2008) Egg beater as centrifuge: isolating human blood plasma from whole blood in resource-poor settings. Lab on a Chip. DOI: 10.1039/b809830c
- October 6, 2008
- 08:00 AM
- 1,374 views
Mobile Internet Insecurities
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
Most internet users will be unaware and unconcerned by the computer science and technology that underpins their daily web surfing, emails, chats, and Twitter updates. But, there are, of course, thousands of incredibly bright people working behind the scenes to make the internet work. One aspect of the backroom work that goes on, is the [...]... Read more »
Michael Durr, & Ray Hunt. (2008) An analysis of security threats to mobile IPv6. International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology, 3(2), 107. DOI: 10.1504/IJIPT.2008.020468
- March 9, 2009
- 09:00 AM
- 1,367 views
Baffling Fluid Dynamics
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
During my student days, one of the most obviously complicated and beyond-comprehension modules was that on fluid dynamics. It’s not surprising that it was complicated and beyond comprehension, the way fluids (gases and liquids by definition) move is not simple.
There is no single, straightforward equation that can describe the flow of water cascading down waterfall. [...]Post from: Sciencebase Science Blog... Read more »
M. Toumi, M. Bouazara, & M.J. Richard. (2008) Analytical and numerical analysis of the liquid longitudinal sloshing impact on a partially filled tank-vehicle with and without baffles. International Journal of Vehicle Systems Modelling and Testing, 3(3), 229-249.
- September 5, 2008
- 08:00 AM
- 1,350 views
Night at the Web Museum
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
Years ago when BioMedNet’s HMSBeagle was still sailing the high seas, I wrote a feature for the Adapt or Die careers column on scientific jobs in museums, the feature, which is available on Sciencebase is still relatively valid, but one big aspect of museums that has changed significantly since the Beagle was abandoned in dry [...]... Read more »
Thomas Fotakis, & Anastasios A. Economides. (2008) Art, science/technology and history museums on the web. International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism, 1(1), 37. DOI: 10.1504/IJDCET.2008.020134
- August 25, 2008
- 08:00 AM
- 1,343 views
Boris Johnson, Fop or Geneticist?
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
For Scousers, Londoners, fans of BBC’s Have I Got News for You satirical news quiz, and especially to everyone who watched this Beijing to London Olympic handover this week the name Boris Johnson likely drums up an image of some blonde, floppy haired, bedraggled and totally confused Tory toff, who just happens to be Mayor [...]... Read more »
et al. (2008) Geography. Nature.
- August 29, 2008
- 08:00 AM
- 1,341 views
Zen and the Art of Global Maintenance
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
A discussion a while back, over a few beers, with a Buddhist friend about life, the universe, and everything (what else?) got around to the subject of null physics and the notion that the universe may always have existed and may exist for eternity to come.
Sciencebase regulars will know that this concept is covered in [...]... Read more »
Anthony Alexander. (2008) Different paths, same mountain: Daoism, ecology and the new paradigm of science. International Journal of Green Economics, 2(2), 153. DOI: 10.1504/IJGE.2008.019997
- February 20, 2009
- 08:00 AM
- 1,333 views
Whatever Happened to SARS?
by sciencebase in Sciencebase Science Blog
In 2004, I did some reportage for the Royal Society from their meeting on emerging viral infections. The meeting was held just after the worldwide SARS outbreak that threw nations into chaos and had the more susceptible parts of the media hyping the end of the world. Of course, SARS, an emerging pathogen, was lethal [...]Post from: Sciencebase Science Blog... Read more »
Yi-Chun Lin. (2009) Impact of the spread of infectious disease on economic development: a study in risk management. Int. J. Risk Assess. Manage., 11(3/4), 209-218.
topics
join us!
Do you write about peer-reviewed research in your blog? Use ResearchBlogging.org to make it easy for your readers — and others from around the world — to find your serious posts about academic research.
If you don't have a blog, you can still use our site to learn about fascinating developments in cutting-edge research from around the world.
