131 posts · 156,427 views
A blog that explores the unknown, technology, space, science and strange things with a skeptical and analytical eye.
Greg Fish
131 posts
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- March 8, 2009
- 05:56 PM
- 2,328 views
what makes a planet habitable?
by Greg Fish in weird things
Lately, it seems like almost every popular science show about astronomy absolutely has to talk about the habitable zone concept and marvel at how lucky we are to be in just the right orbit around our parent star. Supposedly, the distance from the Sun is just enough to keep our water liquid and give life [...]... Read more »
David S. Spiegel, Kristen Menou, & Caleb A. Scharf. (2008) Habitable Climates. The Astrophysical Journal, 681(2), 1609-1623. DOI: 10.1086/588089
- April 24, 2009
- 03:03 PM
- 2,230 views
how to find an alien forest
by Greg Fish in weird things
Chirality seems to be a hot topic in astrobiology this month. Just a few weeks ago, astrobiologists at NASA announced that they found a possible explanation as to why the amino acids present in all life forms we know today wind to the left. Now, another team of scientists is taking what we know about [...]... Read more »
Sparks, W., Hough, J., Kolokolova, L., Germer, T., Chen, F., DasSarma, S., DasSarma, P., Robb, F., Manset, N., & Reid, I. (2009) Circular polarization in scattered light as a possible biomarker. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer. DOI: 10.1016/j.jqsrt.2009.02.028
- March 19, 2009
- 03:13 AM
- 2,153 views
the pope needs a fact check
by Greg Fish in weird things
Sometimes you hear a person who was given immense authority and is regarded as a very deep and profound thinker say something so shockingly backwards, you start to wonder in what world he’s living. Case in point, Pope Benedict XVI who says that using condoms to stem the tide of HIV and AIDS infections in [...]... Read more »
Rosenbaum, J. (2009) Patient Teenagers? A Comparison of the Sexual Behavior of Virginity Pledgers and Matched Nonpledgers. PEDIATRICS, 123(1). DOI: 10.1542/peds.2008-0407
Pinkerton, S. (1997) Effectiveness of condoms in preventing HIV transmission. Social Science , 44(9), 1303-1312. DOI: 10.1016/S0277-9536(96)00258-4
- May 15, 2009
- 01:57 AM
- 2,111 views
what does it take to get a warp drive?
by Greg Fish in weird things
If you want to explore space firsthand, a warp drive isn’t just a good idea that could save you a lot of time and resources. It’s an absolute must. Without it, exploring even 1% of the galaxy would take eons. Luckily for future interstellar explorers, physicists are on the case and have so far been [...]... Read more »
Richard K Obousy, Gerald Cleaver. (2008) Putting the Warp into Warp Drive. Spaceflight, 50(4). DOI: arXiv:0807.1957v2
Stefano Finazzi, et al,. (2009) Semiclassical instability of dynamical warp drives. arXiv. DOI: arXiv:0904.0141v1
- May 2, 2009
- 04:27 PM
- 2,033 views
what history lost, genetics tries to recover
by Greg Fish in weird things
We’ve long assumed that Africa is home to the widest genetic diversity in humans. After all, it’s our ancestral home and it only makes sense that as we spread throughout the world, the genetic variation for each culture and society eventually narrowed. This is why the recent headline about a 10 year study by a team of[...]...... Read more »
Tishkoff, S., Reed, F., Friedlaender, F., Ehret, C., Ranciaro, A., Froment, A., Hirbo, J., Awomoyi, A., Bodo, J., Doumbo, O.... (2009) The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1172257
- April 2, 2009
- 12:12 AM
- 1,975 views
spank me baby, it’ll bring us closer
by Greg Fish in weird things
So a chemist, a film and television expert and a psychologist walk into an S&M club to watch couples play a little rough… No, that’s not the beginning of a joke but an actual, honest to goodness study about the relationships of couples which practice a variety of sadomasochistic activities. And as it turns out, [...]... Read more »
Sagarin, B., Cutler, B., Cutler, N., Lawler-Sagarin, K., & Matuszewich, L. (2008) Hormonal Changes and Couple Bonding in Consensual Sadomasochistic Activity. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38(2), 186-200. DOI: 10.1007/s10508-008-9374-5
- April 28, 2009
- 06:40 PM
- 1,965 views
why we’re not ready for a pandemic
by Greg Fish in weird things
And so the world ends not with a bang, not with a whimper but with an oink. Or at least that’s what it looks like if you’ve been following the news. Extensive coverage of the swine flu outbreak is triggering fears that the long awaited influenza pandemic is finally here and sending conspiracy theorists into [...]... Read more »
Osterholm, Michael T. (2005) Preparing for the next pandemic. The New England Journal of Medicine. DOI: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/352/18/1839
- May 7, 2009
- 06:37 PM
- 1,944 views
why alternative medicine spreads like a virus
by Greg Fish in weird things
If there was an award for most counterintuitive results from a study, a recent project that tried to determine why quack medicine is still used by between 60% and 80% of the world, would win hands down. Despite growing volumes of clinical studies linking virtually all gain from traditional and alternative medicine to what’s known [...]... Read more »
Tanaka, M., Kendal, J., & Laland, K. (2009) From Traditional Medicine to Witchcraft: Why Medical Treatments Are Not Always Efficacious. PLoS ONE, 4(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005192
- March 4, 2009
- 03:36 AM
- 1,935 views
united states of pornography
by Greg Fish in weird things
An old axiom says that the people who appear the most prudish are much more likely to have a secret porn stash in their closet. Yeah, so what, we hear a lot of axioms and they’re not necessarily true. How do you prove it? An online marketing expert curious about porn purchases in the United [...]... Read more »
Benjamin Edelman. (2009) Markets: Red Light States: Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment?. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23(1), 209-220. DOI: 10.1257/jep.23.1.209
- May 9, 2009
- 02:06 AM
- 1,856 views
anti-vaxers: yelling fire in a crowded theater…
by Greg Fish in weird things
We’re all concerned about our children and their health. It’s in our nature. Long childhoods and parental care are key strategies to ensuring the survival of not just humans, but all mammals in general and it’s one of a number of reasons why we’ve been able to take over the Earth after the dinosaurs vanished. [...]... Read more »
Hviid A, et al. (2003) Association Between Thimerosal-Containing Vaccine and Autism. JAMA, 290(13), 1763-1766. DOI: 14519711
Shattuck, P. (2006) The Contribution of Diagnostic Substitution to the Growing Administrative Prevalence of Autism in US Special Education. PEDIATRICS, 117(4), 1028-1037. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2005-1516
- July 13, 2009
- 07:18 PM
- 1,841 views
it only looks irrational…
by Greg Fish in weird things
Humans have a very strange ability to understand how irrational we are and yet build complex systems which demand that everyone involved is perfectly rational. In his appearance on the Daily Show, writer Justin Fox hit that nail on the head when talking about the current ideas underlying the modern stock market. Rather than try [...]... Read more »
Yamagishi, T., Horita, Y., Takagishi, H., Shinada, M., Tanida, S., & Cook, K. (2009) The private rejection of unfair offers and emotional commitment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0900636106
- March 13, 2009
- 05:52 AM
- 1,799 views
does high IQ equal longer life?
by Greg Fish in weird things
A study of 1.1 million people conducted by a team of health experts found out that a person with a high IQ has a lower chance of dying at any given time than those with a lower IQ score. Because the researchers were interested whether there was some sort of correlation between IQ and unintentional [...]... Read more »
Batty, G., Gale, C., Tynelius, P., Deary, I., & Rasmussen, F. (2008) IQ in Early Adulthood, Socioeconomic Position, and Unintentional Injury Mortality by Middle Age: A Cohort Study of More Than 1 Million Swedish Men. American Journal of Epidemiology, 169(5), 606-615. DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwn381
- June 20, 2009
- 12:26 AM
- 1,782 views
who wants to be immortal anyway?
by Greg Fish in weird things
If you’ve ever read more than a few entries from The Daily Galaxy, you’ll notice a strange skew towards a sort of scientific sensationalism. Stories based on very limited and specific research are expanded into linchpins for brand new disciplines on the verge of getting us halfway across the galaxy in no time at all [...]... Read more »
Curran, S., Wu, X., Riedel, C., & Ruvkun, G. (2009) A soma-to-germline transformation in long-lived Caenorhabditis elegans mutants. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature08106
- July 8, 2009
- 11:09 PM
- 1,776 views
where the sasquatches roam…
by Greg Fish in weird things
When a scientist sends you commentary involving the crypto-zoological sasquatch, you have to make a post about it. By itself, his paper is actually a commentary on electronic modeling of ecological species, a warning to make sure that you’re putting in complete and high quality data to get a reliable model. However, it shows a [...]... Read more »
Lozier, J., Aniello, P., & Hickerson, M. (2009) Predicting the distribution of Sasquatch in western North America: anything goes with ecological niche modelling. Journal of Biogeography. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2009.02152.x
- May 25, 2009
- 03:48 PM
- 1,760 views
aging: genes vs. the environment
by Greg Fish in weird things
As far as we know, every living on our planet has something in common besides the same nucleotides and amino acids. Aging. When scientists started deciphering genomes and what specific genes did, the idea was that aging came from a preprogrammed set of genetic instructions and death was triggered by some sort of kill switch. [...]... Read more »
BUDOVSKAYA, Y., WU, K., SOUTHWORTH, L., JIANG, M., TEDESCO, P., JOHNSON, T., & KIM, S. (2008) An elt-3/elt-5/elt-6 GATA Transcription Circuit Guides Aging in C. elegans. Cell, 134(2), 291-303. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.05.044
- June 2, 2009
- 11:09 PM
- 1,746 views
why you should go easy on the soda pop
by Greg Fish in weird things
Do you drink more than two liters of soft drinks a day? While that might sound like a lot, it’s actually a big gulp sized drink and a few cans here and there for a total of 67.6 fluid oz. And if you keep drinking that much cola or more long enough, you may increase [...]... Read more »
Tsimihodimos, V., Kakaidi, V., & Elisaf, M. (2009) Cola-induced hypokalaemia: pathophysiological mechanisms and clinical implications. International Journal of Clinical Practice, 63(6), 900-902. DOI: 10.1111/j.1742-1241.2009.02051.x
- November 6, 2009
- 02:57 PM
- 1,719 views
charles darwin and otto hahn’s alien fossils
by Greg Fish in weird things
Just because Darwin wouldn’t discuss the origin of life in his work, doesn’t mean he didn’t have an opinion on the matter. And that opinion is actually pretty close to modern scientific thinking, that living things are products of chemistry rather than something requiring divine intervention. A recent paper cataloguing Darwin’s notes on the subject [...]... Read more »
Peretó, J., Bada, J., & Lazcano, A. (2009) Charles Darwin and the Origin of Life. Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 39(5), 395-406. DOI: 10.1007/s11084-009-9172-7
- June 9, 2009
- 01:11 AM
- 1,715 views
sizing up a supermassive titan
by Greg Fish in weird things
Some 50 million light years away, at the center of the M87 galaxy lies the most massive black hole detected in a mature galaxy so far. New estimates place it at about 6.4 billion solar masses, two to three times more than previously thought. And while astronomers will use new and more accurate measurement techniques [...]... Read more »
Begelman, M., Volonteri, M., & Rees, M. (2006) Formation of supermassive black holes by direct collapse in pre-galactic haloes. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10467.x
- November 24, 2009
- 06:32 PM
- 1,713 views
strange matter, doomsday and you
by Greg Fish in weird things
Good news everybody. The LHC is up and running and already started colliding particles, thought they’re not as powerful as the collider can do when its revved up to full speed, just a measly 900 GeV. Now, I say measly not to be funny but because that’s slightly less than the energy of a lazy [...]... Read more »
Schaffner-Bielich, J., Greiner, C., Diener, A., & Stöcker, H. (1997) Detectability of strange matter in heavy ion experiments. Physical Review C, 55(6), 3038-3046. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.55.3038
- November 10, 2009
- 03:29 AM
- 1,687 views
it’s a comet! it’s a meteor! no, it’s a piece of rna!
by Greg Fish in weird things
What do you get when you take pyrimidine molecules, freeze them in a vacuum to -340°F, then expose them to ultraviolet radiation you’d find in space? Think about it for a second. If you took a few extra credits in a college biology class, you may remember that your DNA contains purines and their chemical [...]... Read more »
Nuevo, M., Milam, S., Sandford, S., Elsila, J., & Dworkin, J. (2009) Formation of Uracil from the Ultraviolet Photo-Irradiation of Pyrimidine in Pure H O Ices . Astrobiology, 9(7), 683-695. DOI: 10.1089/ast.2008.0324
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