Elaine Morgan: Did we evolve from aquatic apes?

Interesting talk about evolution, established paradigms, “Consensus Science” and “the impression that some parts of the scientific establishment are morphing into a kind of priesthood”.

Speaking Truth to Moral Adolescence

Jonathan Haidt on the moral roots of liberals and conservatives.
For a nutshell account of Haidt’s work and its various detailed implications click here: Compromising with Moral Adolescence: A Losing Strategy

How big are we?

Not very as it were…
Hattip: Bad Astronomy Blog

Richard Dawkins on TED

I’m trying out TED. What better way to do it than to post this great talk by Richard Dawkins: An atheist’s call to arms.

The largest collection of Darwin’s work in history, now on the web!

This is awsome!

Darwin’s private papers online – the largest publication of Darwin’s papers in history. Read about it here. Browse the papers here.
This site contains Darwin’s complete publications, thousands of handwritten manuscripts and the largest Darwin bibliography and manuscript catalogue ever published; also hundreds of supplementary works: biographies, obituaries, [...]

Travel Inside the Nucleus to See How DNA Replicates

Via the Biosingularity Blog: In this video see an animation of DNA Wrapping and also a neat visualization of how DNA is actually copied in living cells.

Hattip Snowcrash
Also look for more Free Science Videos and Lectures Online at YouTube. Take a look at theFree Science Videos and Lectures website. [...]

Senate Report Debunks “Consensus” on Man-Made Global Warming.

Good news for those of us interested in putting the “Science” back into “Scientific Debate”

U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007
This blockbuster Senate report lists the scientists by name, country of residence, and academic/institutional affiliation. It also features their own words, biographies, and weblinks to their [...]

Safe Portable Nuclear Battery on the Horizon

Like DDT, and anthropomorphic global warming, the exaggeration about the dangers of nuclear energy have been driven by the media and extremist political groups to the point of the ridiculous.
One would think that in a free society you would find at least some factual reporting regarding science. Unfortunately it seems to ever be the case [...]

Challenging the Hypothesis of Man-Made Global Warming

Interesting Article is worth the read.

A Scientific Basis for Doubting Man-made Global Warming
The scientific basis for challenging the theory of man-made global warming is large and expanding. Entire books are being written summarizing the many weaknesses. However, for an excellent 12 page summary of some of these weaknesses a recent paper by Willie Soon, Art [...]

One Horsepower Car … Literally One Horse!

By way of idiocracy and AutoBlog: Politech Presents The … Fleethorse!

One Horsepower Car … Literally One Horse!

idiocracy is asking if this idea is serious or satire. PoliTech says it’s seriously stupid!
But funny!
Here is the site: FleetHorse.com

Heritical Thoughts About Science and Society

This article makes for some good food for thought. Caution! If you are a Anthro-Global Warming zealot you may not like it.
HERETICAL THOUGHTS ABOUT SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
By Freeman Dyson
My first heresy says that all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated. Here I am opposing the holy brotherhood of climate model experts and the [...]

A Nanomechanical Computer

In an article from The Institute of Psysics:

A nanomechanical computer—exploring new avenues of computing

Here is the abstract:
We propose a fully mechanical computer based on nano-electromechanical elements. Our aim is to combine this classical approach with modern nanotechnology to build a nanomechanical computer (NMC) based on nanomechanical transistors. The main motivation behind constructing such a computer [...]

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature
Why most suicide bombers are Muslim, beautiful people have more daughters, humans are naturally polygamous, sexual harassment isn’t sexist, and blonds are more attractive.
The implications of some of the ideas in this article may seem immoral, contrary to our ideals, or offensive. We state them because they are [...]

The Great Global Warming Swindle

The “Global Warming Consensus” house of cards is beginning to collapse…

UPDATE: There is quite a bit of fallout from this movie:
Scientists threatened for ‘climate denial’
Scientists who questioned mankind’s impact on climate change have received death threats and claim to have been shunned by the scientific community.
Timothy Ball, a former climatology professor at the University of [...]

D-Wave Announces Quantum Computer Demo Success; Before the Demo Happens

D-Wave posted this press release:

February 13, 2007
World’s First Commercial Quantum Computer Demonstrated

New System Aims at Breakthroughs in Medicine, Business Applications and Expanded Use of Digital Computers

Venture-funded Canadian company shows new product applied to pattern-matching database search

VANCOUVER, B.C. or MT. VIEW, CA – February 13, 2007 – The world’s first commercially viable quantum computer was unveiled [...]

Quantum Computing Demo Announced

Quantum Computing Demo Announcement

We have fixed the dates for the demo of our Orion quantum computing system. We are going to hold two events, one at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California on February 13th, and the second at the Telus World of Science in Vancouver, Canada on February 15th.
These events are open [...]

Global warming ethics, pork and profits

This caught my eye…

Global warming ethics, pork and profits

Global warming alarmism generates political and financial incentives

The ink has barely dried on its new code of conduct, and already Congress is redefining ethics and pork to fit a global warming agenda. As Will Rogers observed, “with Congress, every time they make a joke, it’s a law. [...]

NASA Moon Base Plan Unveiled

NASA’s New Moon Plans: ‘Apollo on Steroids’

Despite a stalled space shuttle program, NASA is confident it can launch and sustain human exploration of the Moon by 2018, the space agency’s top official said Monday.

The $104-billion plan calls for an Apollo-like vehicle to carry crews of up to four astronauts to the Moon for seven-day stays [...]

Dark energy may be vacuum

Dark energy may be vacuum

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen’s Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute have brought us one step closer to understanding what the universe is made of. As part of the international collaboration ESSENCE they have observed distant supernovae (exploding stars), some of which emitted the light we now see [...]

A Ballet of Molecular Machines

Via the Biosingularity Blog …

Video of RNAi in action

This superb video from Youtube explains the RNA interference mechanism that recently won the Nobel prize for its discovery. The original video is from the journal Nature.
RNA interference is a complex set of Cellular processes that converts a foreign piece of double-stranded RNA into a potent gene [...]

Build your own self-tuning portable RF jammer

Not that you would … because the FCC frowns on that sort of thing … but it’s nice to know that you could.

Wave Bubble: A design for a self-tuning portable RF jammer

This website details the design and construction Wave Bubble: a self-tuning, wide-bandwidth portable RF jammer. The device is lightweight and small for easy camoflauging: [...]

2006 Art of Science Gallery

The Princeton University Art of Science Competition is a celebration of the aesthetics of research and the ways in which science and engineering inform art and vise versa.

In the spring of 2006 we again asked the Princeton University community to submit images—and, for the first time, videos and sounds—produced in the course of research or [...]

Direct Brain Control of a Humanoid Robot

Researchers demonstrate direct brain control of humanoid robot

A classic science-fiction scene shows a person wearing a metal skullcap with electrodes sticking out to detect the person’s thoughts. Another sci-fi movie standard depicts robots doing humans’ bidding. Now the two are combined, and in real life: University of Washington researchers can control the movement of a [...]

Remotely Activated Nanoparticles Destroy Cancer

Targeted nanotech-based treatments will enter clinical trials in 2007.

The first in a new generation of nanotechnology-based cancer treatments will likely begin clinical trials in 2007, and if the promise of animal trials carries through to human trials, these treatments will transform cancer therapy. By replacing surgery and conventional chemotherapy with noninvasive treatments targeted at cancerous [...]

Nanomaterials Produce Flexible Three – Dimensional Electronics

Nanomaterials Produce Heterogeneous Three- Dimensional Electronics

Researchers at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory of the University of Illinois have developed a new, experimentally simple approach for combining broad classes of dissimilar electronic materials into heterogeneously integrated systems with two or three dimensional layouts on rigid or flexible substrates. The materials and techniques, published in the [...]

The Year in Review; 2006 Top Ten Lists

It’s almost 2007, and who doesn’t like looking back at the previous year by perusing the various Top Ten lists? Here are some of my favorites…
From Wired.com we have the 9th annual presentation of the Wired News Vaporware Awards, their ode to the year’s top technology products promised, hyped and scheduled, but not delivered. Click: [...]

The Inner Life Of A Cell

Paging Doctor Cylon, Paging Doctor Cylon

Shape Of Things To Come – Cylons Among Us?

Robots will soon pass scalpels to surgeons, retrieve blood from hospital blood banks and even answer the phones at busy unit desks – all so that nurses can spend more time with patients.

A researcher examining the future of nursing says breakthroughs in robotics could completely revamp the [...]

Scientists Research Brain Implant Chip

Scientists Research Brain Implant Chip

Researchers at the University of Washington are working on an implantable electronic chip that may help establish new nerve connections in the part of the brain that controls movement. Their most recent study showed such a device can induce brain changes in monkeys lasting more than a week.

…

When awake, the brain [...]

Turing Test Proves 2-Year-Olds Not Human

Turing Test Proves 2-Year-Olds Not Human

Mason said, “This began as a study in human communication, but one of our Computer Science friends mentioned the whole concept of the Turing Test to us, and we decided to give it a go. Little did we know that we’d reach such an astounding result.”
The “Parenting Test” proves that [...]