New Books

Carl Zimmer let us know that he's just finished editing the concise edition of "The Descent of Man" by Charles Darwin. So, I went off to amazon to buy a copy together with "Fish with fingers, Whales with legs", and... "Pearls Before Swine: Blts Taste So Darn Good"...

Here's the proof:

Open Orders

Order Date: 8 Sep 2007 Order #: 202-4890542-7183528 Recipient: Luca A. Fenu

Items not yet dispatched: Delivery estimate: 28 Nov 2007 - 30 Nov 2007 1 of: The Descent of Man Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L. 1 of: Pearls Before Swine: Blts Taste So Darn Good Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L. 1 of: At the Water's Edge: Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs... Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.

The only prob is that I'll have to wait to get the others too, since Amazon does make you pay for delivery (differently from Play.com, where I usually buy my stuff). So the stuff will not come through before end of November!!!

Beautiful Pictures

Produced with the 'processing' language, but most of all a keen artistic sense: http://complexification.net/



Thanks to Zimmer's latest post for the discovery.

...and the Big Cut&Paste

Turkish (self proclaimed) theoretical physicist accused of plagiarising papers.


According to Nature, the ArXiv removed their pubblications (70, 40 of which authored by one same guy - now that's a lot even for theoreticists), after ascertaining that they contained large sections from previous papers. two of the PhD involved had a host of papers in gravitational physics, but couldn't solve basic newtonian physics problems... Ugh!

The trouble began last November, when Salti and another graduate student, Oktay Aydogdu, underwent oral examinations for their PhDs. Although both had an extensive list of publications in gravitational physics, they struggled to answer even basic, high-school-level questions, according to Özgür Sariog brevelu, an associate professor at METU. "They didn't know fundamental stuff like newtonian mechanics," he says.

More worrying for me is that these people did actually publish their work on peer-reviewed journals, although Low Impact. Is this the kind of serious checks that publishers claim to offer when they oppose open publishing?

The Big Splash...

And the new Nature is out too, with a brief piece on how different sciences are homing in on the Dinosaurs' Asteroid Catastrophe, tackling it from various fronts and cross-fertilising each other with insights and suggestions on where and when EXACTLY this did happen.

I believe these links are freely available to anyone. If not, they should.

Climate changes, it rains more, snails die...

The new issue of Nature Reports: Climate Change is out.

Kind of confusing, in fact, to read in the same page of a species of snail going extinct because seasonal rains on the only atoll it leaves in are diminishing, while the next piece talks about increased rain due to Global Warming. Nothing strange, really, it only goes to show a point many scientist have made before: More energy in the atmosphere does not mean just hotter the year round, it means a more energetic atmosphere, therefore more storms, more rains, more extremes...

Like water in a bucket, which when still is flat, and when spun along the axis climb the walls following a parabolic shape, therefore higher on the walls and lower than still at the bottom.

So, may be the arid regions will become more arid, while the arctic regions will get even colder? I don't know. IANACS (I Am Not A Climate Scientist)

33!!!

I am 33!!!

The same age as Jesus Christ, yet I managed to avoid crucifixion, as a friend/colleague aptly put it.

Video: Behind Gmail

Hey, The Economist talks about what I do!!!

They run a piece on animal testings, the good and bad of it and how companies and institutions are looking for alternatives.

Some of the passages I don't fully agree on:

In an ideal world, there would be no animal testing. It is expensive and can be of dubious scientific value, since different species often react differently to the same procedure.

Well, it still is the best we have at our disposal. Once we see that an animal is affected in a way which does not correlate well with humans, we usually look for the reasons, and if necessary take the species out of the pipeline for that compound. It's a win/win situation, except for the animals, of course. But even then, on average is a good deal for them.

As for animals used during experimental surgery procedure, well, it's not up to me to defend that field. I certainly hope that, if using aneasthetics does not invalidate the results, they will be administered, if only for 'humanitarian' reasons.

I get back to describing my attempts of saving as many guinea Pig as I can from being needlessly sacrificed.

Ali G and Noah Chomsky.

The poor old man can't grasp Ali jumping from branch to branch...

From the Desk of David Pogue

a whole series of new Chat/SMS abbreviations.

* GI -- Google it

* MOP -- Mac or PC?

* FCAO -- five conversations at once

* IIOYT -- is it on YouTube?

* DYFH -- did you Facebook him/her?

* BIOI -- buy it on iTunes

* CMOS -- call me on Skype

* GGNUDP -- gotta go, no unlimited data plan

* WLF -- with the lady friend

* JUOC -- jacked up on caffeine

* 12OF -- twelve-o'clock flasher (refers to someone less than competent with technology, to the extent that every appliance in the house flashes "12:00")

* SML -- send me the link

* RHB -- read his/her blog

* MBLO -- much better-looking online

* KYST -- knew you'd say that

* NBL -- no battery left

* CTTC -- can't talk, teacher's coming

* TWD -- typing while driving

* CMT (CMF, CMM, CMB) -- check my Twitter (Facebook, Myspace, blog)

* CYE (CYF, CYM, CYB)--check your email (Facebook, Myspace, blog)

And a few just for iPhone owners:

* SPLETS -- send pics later; Edge too slow

* CSVUI -- can't send video, using iPhone

* BPWMI -- boss playing with my iPhone

* SIK -- sorry, iPhone keyboard

* OOM -- out of messages (for iPhone users who haven't upgraded their AT&T "200 messages a month" plan)

Here's some special acronyms for oldtimers:

* WIWYA -- when I was your age

* YKT – you kids today

* CRRE -- conversation required; remove earbuds

* WDO? -- what are you doing online?

* NIWYM -- no idea what you mean

* NCK -- not a chance, kid

* B2W -- back to work

* AYD? -- are you drunk?

* LODH -- log off, do homework

* DYMK? -- does your mother know?

* IGAT -- I've got abbreviations, too

Ali G and Kent Hovind

Always from retrospectacle.

Way to go!!!

It's been a while since I've been to Retrospectacle.

And now I see this: Shelley reports of a psychotic patient who killed himself by slowly pushing a ballpen through his eye in his brain... Ugh!!!

Apparently, the guy stayed conscious all the way for four days before dying, but didn't tell the doctors trying to save him what he did!!!

Forecasting the weather 30-year in the future.

Again, from Nature, a reminders that thirty years ago Climate Scientist J.S. Sawyer predicted that with the expected 25% increase in CO2 in the atmosphere, the average T on the planet surface would go up 0.6 Celsius. The observed value has been 0.5. A remarkable prediction, especially considering that at the time we were thought to be heading into another ice age (which we would be, were it not for man's action, I guess). So, very few people gave credit to the thought of an inversion.

So, now what?

Cicadas attack Japan!!!

Nature reports that japanese cicadas have been descending in masse over the arcipelago, and they don't just make noise.

They also destroy the country's fiber-optic infrastructure, since they mistake the hanging cables for withered branches, and punch them with their ovopositors in order to put an egg in the cosy place.

Jewel Squid.

A wonderful picture of a deep-sea squid in Deep Sea News.

Despite its delicate, decorated appearance, this jewel squid was found 1,650 lung-crushing feet (500 meters) beneath the surface of the North Atlantic. Scientists on a recent deep-sea expedition found the squid, called Histioteuthis, along with an abundance of other species thought to be very rare, if not unknown, elsewhere. Jewel squid are known for their mismatched eyes, one of which is larger than the other to scope for prey in the deep's darkness.

Does the dissimmetry in the eye mirror an equivalent dissimmetry in the brain to better process the different input? I am surprised as I thought that down there no light would make it, so predators would rely on other senses to hunt their preys...

Why is Hello Kittty so popular?

I mean, I get cited in the PostDoc carnival, twice, and get an increase in traffic. Good. Except for the fact that most of the increase is for my citation of a NY Times article about police officers in SE Asia being forced to wear Hello Kitty badges of shame, when acting against the rules. So, I guess the conclusion is that Science is much much weaker than Cuddliness.

The best science book of my year

I just finished this book, and I must say that I loved it. The sheer breadth and depth of arguments treated in the book is mindboggling. The authors cover from the birth of the universe, through that of our planet, to Evolution, our role in the cosmos (or lack thereof) and our best survival strategy in a universe which, if not downright evil, is at least very uninterested to our existence.

Mind opening in so many levels, it really is the very first 'science' novel.

I was a bit skeptic about the alternating structure at first, one chapter of novel followed by an explanatory chapter of science. Yet it does pick up and work wonderfully, giving you a light and varied yet interesting read. 10+!!!

(ps: I am looking forward to read the next one, now.

Surfing mices!!!

who would've thought that mouses mice could surf? it's not only penguins who can!


which penguins am I talking about? these penguins:

ACS: Avogadro's out

From the skeptical chemist:

ACS: Avogadro's out

The ACS Nomenclature commitee plans to get rid of 6.0221415 × 10²³, or better to relate it to the Planck Constant (h) and other fundamental numbers. How? My guess is as good as yours, but I put my money on the relation between the gas constant R and the Boltzmann constant k_B:

Narrativium rules!

I loved Good Omens, from Gaiman and Pratchett. The Discworld I could not bear, Pratchett's humour needs to be tempered by someone else hand, otherwise it's just too much.

RTight now I am reading "The Science of Discworld", and I'm too lazy to translate from Italian what I posted in a private forum: here it is. The final part is about Stardust, the gaiman-inspired movie which is getting very good reviews from both critics and audience.

Proprio ora sto leggendo "The science of Discworld", che e' parte racconto fantasy, con i maghi della Unseen University che creano x accidente il 'nostro' universo e ne osservano gli eventi, parte divulgazione con articoli di Ian Stewart e Jack Cohen (e Pratchett ovviamente) che trattano degli stessi argomenti in maniera leggera e molto originale. Son a meta' del primo e me lo sto godendo davvero, non vedo l'ora di attaccare il secondo e il terzo che ho comprato insieme.

riguardo Stardust, ecco un altro paio di reviews:

Da un sito amatoriale.

Dal sito di Sci-Fi Channel

NY Times

sembra OK.

su IMDB si e' beccato un gran bel 8.3.

here's the trailer:

(whenever youtube wakes up)