Scientific American

#SciAmBlogs Tuesday - new astronauts, glass fossils, marine protected areas, emotional intelligence, and more.

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:32:00 EST

- Jag Bhalla - Game Theory And The Golden Punishment Rule [More]

SiNode Systems Wins National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:53:00 EST

This month, the U.S. Department of Energy crowned the 2013 winner of its Clean Energy Business Plan Competition . The top spot went to SiNode Systems from Northwestern University, with its advanced anode technology. Their business plan centers on their innovative in lithium battery Si-graphene composite anode technology, which uses a composite of silicon nano-particles and porous graphene to not only increase charge capacity but also increase charge times. In short, this technology has the potential to increase battery performance by increasing its energy capacity by 50 to 100 percent.This win was an exciting step in a story of achieving success after a rocky beginning. Last year, after failing to place in two significant business competitions, SiNode re-committed themselves to achieving their business dreams. Subsequently, they able to secure a DOE Small Business Innovation Research grant. They then dedicated themselves to shining at the 2013 Rice Business Plan Competition. And, last week, they swept the national competition. [More]

Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet [Excerpt Part One]

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:00:00 EST

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Effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas in Mexico - the Actam Chuleb Example

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:40:00 EST

By Alanna Waldman As our world population continues to grow, it implies a higher demand for resources. Whether these resources are food, water, or land, the effect of this growth on our environment is often detrimental to biodiversity and the health of our natural ecosystems, especially our marine ecosystems. The ocean covers 71% of the earth's surface and therefore our actions on land and in the water have a massive impact on marine ecosystems worldwide. Trade, fishing, tourism, and transportation all impact our oceans and if we do not protect marine resources, future generations will face limited fish stocks, polluted waters, and a loss of biodiversity. [More]

Eye-Tracking Software May Reveal Autism and other Brain Disorders

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:30:00 EST

Eye-tracking has become the tech trend du jour . Advertisers use data on where you look and when to better capture your attention. Designers employ it to improve products. Game and phone developers utilize it to offer the latest in hands-free interaction .

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Will You or the Grid Control Your Electric Car?

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:01:00 EST

There's a place in Austin, Texas, where the residents have agreed to be the test subjects for a renewable energy and smart grid future--and it's named after a nut. The Pecan Street demonstration project--part of the newly built 280-hectare neighborhood known as Mueller--has become the largest concentrated community of electric vehicle (EV) owners in the world. The community now has nearly 60 Chevy Volt owners alone, thanks to the demonstration project's commitment to match the federal government's $7,500 rebate incentive, effectively halving the price of the hybrid electric cars. And, in addition to learning where and when EV owners charge up their cars, Volt manufacturer General Motors is hoping to learn from the folks in the Pecan Street project how a residential fleet of electric vehicles might change the electric grid.

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#SciAmBlogs Monday - health insurance, elephant shrews, Bloomsday, night noise, optogenetics, fathers, and more.

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:56:00 EST

See our new Image of the Week ! - Nortin M. Hadler and Janet Schwartz - The health insurance Shell Game [More]

Six tips for better pollinator photographs

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:31:00 EST

[caption id="attachment_2311" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="A Toxomerus marginatus hover fly visits spiderwort. Flies are underappreciated as pollinators."] [/caption]June 17-22 is National Pollinator Week ! Below are six tips for better photographs of flower-loving insects. [More]

U.S. Bioterror Detection Program Comes Under Scrutiny

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:05:00 EST

A cutting-edge biological terror alert system detected a potential threat in the air one morning back in 2008, threatening to derail then-Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech in Denver for his party’s presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention. Initial results from a pricey national air sampling system suggested that bacteria that could cause tularemia had been detected. The microbe, Francisella tularensis , might have been weaponized to cause the infectious disease.

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Cosmic Cartography: Here Is Your (Local) Universe

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:48:00 EST

[caption id="attachment_4099" align="alignleft" width="252" caption="Our local cosmic terrain (Credit: Helene Courtois)"] [/caption] [More]

Throes of Creation

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:34:00 EST

Image of the Week #96, June 17th, 2013: From: 3 Essential Qualities Up-and-coming Science Writers Should Develop by Khalil A. Cassimally at The SA Incubator . [More]

Night Noise: What a Sleeping Brain Hears

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:49:00 EST

[caption id="attachment_321" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Chinatown. Photo: Patrick Shen"] [/caption]Earlier this year, a Kickstarter campaign for a documentary film called "In Pursuit of Silence" raised $35,371, exceeding its goal in just a few weeks. On a crowdfunding platform where a new film proposal can pull in nearly 100 times that amount--for Zach Braff's follow-up to "Garden State," precisely $3,105,473--the financing feat was modest. Still, hundreds of contributors shelled out cash , remarkably, for nothing but onscreen peace and quiet. By "exploring the value of silence, our relationship with sound, and the implications of living in a noisy world," promised Patrick Shen, the documentary's director, viewers could indulge in 80 minutes of quiescence. And, for over 35 million Americans suffering from hearing loss, toiling in urban cacophonies roughly 1 decibel louder every year, perhaps that was worth the price of admission. [More]

Good morning Gliese 526, the Earth says hello

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:22:00 EST

Over the years we've sent a lot of stuff into space. Most of that has been spacecraft sent out to explore the solar system -- the moon and sun, planets and asteroids. With Voyager poised on the edge of the sun's influence , we'll eventually be able to add a tiny pocket of interstellar space to that list. [More]

Nature Photography: Good or Bad for the Environment?

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:00:00 EST

Dear EarthTalk : Is nature photography good or bad for the environment? --Cal Moss, Camden, Maine [More]

ScienceOnline Events Update

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 09:36:00 EST

As we reminded you a couple of weeks ago , ScienceOnline community and the organization are busy preparing a number of upcoming events. [More]

Quick programming note - #SciFoo and #WCSJ2013/#sci4hels

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 17:33:00 EST

Just a quick note. If you will be at Science Foo Camp (a.k.a. SciFoo ) on June 21-23, find me and say Hello. I last went to this meeting in 2007 and I am happy to go back after a long break. Not sure what the event rules are, but I expect to livetweet quite a lot (at @BoraZ). Likewise, if you will be at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Helsinki, Finland, on June 24-29th, find me and say Hello as well. On the 26th, I'll be on a plenary panel - The Rise of the Science Blog Network: Lessons from All Corners of the World at 09:00-10:30am, and then immediately after that enjoying the other panel I organized - The 'killer' science journalists of the future at 11:15am-12:45pm. But you already know all about it, as I have blogged about that panel several times . [More]

Diseased Tigers, Wounded Rhinos and Other Links from the Brink

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST

Diseases, poachers, smartphones, sewage and animal psychology are in the news this weekend. Temper Tantrum: Evidence of canine distemper has been found in Sumatran tigers ( Panthera tigris sumatrae ) in Indonesia, according to a recent report from BBC News . Distemper has previously been found in Amur tigers ( Panthera tigris altaica ) in Russia, where it proved to be quite deadly. As I wrote in 2011 , inoculating wild tigers against this dangerous disease--which is often transferred from domesticated dogs--is almost impossible. [More]

#SciAmBlogs Friday - Superman, flags and taxes, behavioral economics, lost cousins of Homo sapiens, and more.

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 21:29:00 EST

- E. Paul Zehr - The Man of Steel, Myostatin, and Super-Strength [More]

Flags and Taxes

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:52:00 EST

Hey, happy Flag Day! A day to celebrate pretty colors and salutes and all sorts of other patriotic stuff.Like, say, taxes -- the very lifeblood of the state that the flag symbolizes. [More]

Bora's Picks (June 14th, 2013)

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:34:00 EST

A Sunken Egyptian City is Rediscovered, Stunning Researchers and Enthusiasts Alike by Khalil A. Cassimally : Named Thonis by the Egyptians who built it but known as Heracleion to the Greeks of the time, this great city was once a central part of ancient Egypt. Older than Alexandria, Thonis was probably founded during the eighth century BC. The city began on a downstream shore of the great Nile river where the land was fertile and freshwater was abundant. Thonis was strategically situated between the Mediterranean Sea and a great mostly landlocked lake, which also linked to the Nile river. The lake could (and indeed would) essentially be used as a huge parking space for ships.... [More]