(Hat tip to Eric):http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6584229.stm Researchers from mining group Rio Tinto discovered the unusual mineral and enlisted the help of Dr Stanley when they could not match it with anything known previously to science. Once the London expert had unravelled the mineral’s chemical make-up, he was shocked to discover this formula was already referenced in literature [...]
Everyone knows Einstein is one of history’s most formidable geniuses. But, and this is something I just discovered, almost all of his seminal, scientific-revolution inspiring work was published in ONE YEAR (1905, today considered to be the Annus Mirabilis or the “Miracle Year”). And did he do this while working at a premier research institute? [...]
The thesis is dead. The thesis is dead. Long live the thesis If you’re interested in reading my 45 page monstrosity in all of its LaTeX’d glory, be my guest. I didn’t use a pdf LaTeX package so the pdf is not as nice as it could be (ie pdf-hyperlinks, Table of Contents linked directly [...]
Interesting research, although I swear I could’ve told you this without doing the study: It seems beauty isn’t all in the eye of the beholder after all. Researchers have shown women rate a man as more attractive after they’ve seen another woman smiling at him. By contrast, being a jealous bunch, male observers rate a [...]
I’ve tended to notice that Harvard classes are dominated by people who are the eldest born. (You can do a survey and at any point in any upper-echelon school system, you’ll get two-thirds be eldest children) Does that mean that the eldest siblings are the smarter ones? As much as I wish that were true [...]
First semester, I had a physics class with Professor Melissa Franklin (the first female physicist to receive tenure at Harvard) who taught a class on Life at Low Reynold’s Number, or essentially life on the micro-scale as low Reynold’s number describes what happens when your mass is small in scale relative to viscosity (ie imagine [...]
From In the Pipeline, a very amusing (and also very true) request on behalf of all scientists to all professional photographers responsible for taking photos of scientists: After seeing a recent in-house promotional brochure, I’d like to issue a brief request on behalf of my fellow researchers. This is addressed to all professional photographers: please, [...]
I finally finished my final paper for Biochemistry 91R, wrapping up a tumultuous semester of research in lab with an all-nighter. I can honestly say I’m very proud of it. It wouldn’t have been possible without LaTeX and JabRef handling the layout and bibliography (although I spit at Photoshop for making figure design so difficult [...]
In case anyone’s interested, my article on Avian Flu (which I have to admit is very long) for NextGenMD is up! I got a chance to talk with Dr. Frederick Hayden (professor of clinical virology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine) and Dr. Michael T. Osterholm (director of the Center for Infectious Disease [...]
In January, Jane posted this great informational bit on bird flu. If you haven’t looked at it and you’re still under the mistaken assumption that eating chicken will give you bird flu, take a look. She lays it out very plain and simple, although she shows a bit of optimism that I’m not too sure [...]