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… Except it has nothing to do with Batman or sonar. OK, so the title is wildly misleading, but a partnership between UC Berkeley and Nokia has managed to develop a technology that uses cell phones to monitor and surveil real-time traffic flow.
As drivers go tankin’ around town, GPS data will periodically (rather, whenever the cell phone crosses certain arbitrary lines) and anonymously be sent to a faceless and soulless set of servers. The data, which might include read more »
A couple who felt a UC Berkeley site on the relationship between evolutionary theory and religion violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment had their case thrown out by a federal appeals court. Oh snap! Score one for science.
It seems the controversial statements were read more »
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A Berkeley researcher, working with a University of Michigan psychologist, has discovered the secret to feeling better when you’re down. His suggestion? Think of thermometers: “When negative emotions become overwhelming, simply dial the emotional temperature down a bit in order to think about the problem rationally and clearly.”
For those who didn’t understand the scientastic technobabbular doowackness, analyzing one’s emotions from a “distant,” detached perspective has shown to be effective in studies. Apparently some eastern philosophical schools have known this for, like, ever, so props if you’re a practicing meditator.
If you’re interested, the study itself involved participants recalling an emotionally devastating experience with varying degrees of detachedness, from reliving the experience to having their thought process interrupted by unrelated facts like “Sherlock Holmes doesn’t exist, but he wears a hat.” It’s science!
Image Source: Camera Capers under Creative Commons
Step back to move forward emotionally, study suggests [Science Centric]
Earlier: How To: Prevent Pesky Food Thieves
Berkeley teachers, that is. PZ Meyers and the Daily Planet tell us an elementary school teacher at the Berkeley Unified School District, to the shock and awe of many students, told her class that neither Harry Potter, Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny are real. But God is. read more »
We are, of course, referring to the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, a probe whose principal investigator is a Berkeley scientist working with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
As we understand it, the survey measures the “distribution” of galaxies throughout the universe in a way that hasn’t been done before, doubling the number of “luminous red galaxies” that can be effectively seen at one time.
Crudely, the distribution of galaxies over time is related to dark energy (believed by some to be a cause of the universe’s accelerated expansion), and studying the distribution might answer questions about if Einstein’s theory of general relativity is missing something or whether dark energy exists at all. Neato!
A unique way to measure dark energy with galaxies and quasars [Science Centric]
A Berkeley postdoc student recently published a theory on why the star—affectionately known by some as the Dread Lord Eta Carinae, Star-King of the Universe—was able to survive an explosion that cost it an amount of mass equal to ten times that of the sun.
At the heart of the theory is the idea that a star can undergo small explosions before finally dying, much like how read more »
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Science itself has been dealt a harsh blow, placing the epistemological fabric of the entire universe in peril. You hopefully ask, “What’s the cause?” expecting to get out of that 3 hour physics lab on Friday. read more »
Tree-sitting ninjas may be able to disappear, but new research by Cal scientists will make it possible for them to become truly invisible. The results of research into “metamaterials” (artificial materials that influence the path of electromagnetic radiation—in this case, visible light) are expected to be published in the science journals Nature and Science this week.
The findings, funded by the military, add to previous research that was able to create the same effect with microwaves. read more »
Remember the days when you could walk into a cafe, find a stranger to talk to and say, “isn’t it great how Cal produces more Ph.D. hopefuls for U.S. doctoral programs than any other university … in the WORLD?” Neither do we. But the point is that those days are over.
It’s not that we lost our No. 1 spot to Stanford or Harvard, which might be forgivable, but to two foreign institutions—Beijing and Tsinghua Universities, says The Mercury News. read more »
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Cal biologists recently led a study that discovered how our immune systems are able to distinguish dead bacteria from living, harmful ones.
As we understand it, certain malevolent microbes replicate when inside the immune system’s cells and poop off molecules that somehow trigger the body’s defenses based on their quantity. The strength of the defense is measured by levels of a protein called an interferon, some of which are used to treat some forms of cancer, according to one of the study’s authors.
Does this mean we’ve found a panacea? Not yet. What about a cure for cancer? That, hopefully, is a little bit closer thanks to the science people who ran this study.
Image Source: Mussels under Creative Commons
New Study Sheds Light On How Intracellular Pathogens Trigger The Immune System [ScienceDaily]
:( I hate winter! I want summer! It became cold and cloudy! Mood very bad Depression Begins