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The Sparkliest Star in the Milky Way

 

Among the many celestial objects in this galaxy, there are few that stand out more than this proverbial gem of a planet. This isn’t just any gem, it’s a massive, super dense crystal made of carbon; it’s a diamond.

Recently, a research team at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia lead by Professor Matthew Bailes discovered a massive diamond planet orbiting around a pulsar star located 4000 light years away from Earth. This planet is assumed to be the extremely dense center core of a once giant planet that lost its outer layer due to the radiation emitted from the dead neutron star in which it orbits every 2.2 hours. The orbit is so tight that rotation of the planet around the pulsar would fit inside the sun.

 

Source: Swinburne Astronomy

 

The planet is about five times the size of Earth and weighs as much as Jupiter, but is approximately 20 times denser. The majority of the outer core has been shed leaving only 0.01% of the original mass which leads scientists to believe that it is a carbon white dwarf. According to Professor Bailes “the evolutionary history and amazing density of the planet all suggest it is comprised of carbon”. Based on their research, scientists also believe that the planet is likely to contain oxygen at the surface with very rare quantities at the center of the dense carbon core. Lighter elements such as helium and hydrogen are assumed to be non-existent.

 

Source: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

 

The question that some researchers are wondering now is whether the planet actually looks like a giant diamond up close. Researchers have not devised a way to look at the planet directly, but Professor Bailes has hypothesized that a beam of light hitting the planet would cause it to sparkle just like a real diamond. As long as scientists are unable to view the planet directly however, we will simply have to use our imagination and attempt to picture what this new mysterious planet could look like.

Reporter Discusses the Diamond Star on Newsy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1lRUxuo0fA

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Biological Sciences Public Engagement Science in the News

The Ugly Truth of Fast-Food Playlands

When you go into a typical fast food restaurant, you see workers busily cleaning the tables and washing the floors to make sure everything are sanitized. However, do you ever ponder how often and how well they clean the children’s playgrounds in the restaurant?

Dr.Erin Carr-Jordan, a child development professor and a mother of four children from Arizona, has visited dozens of restaurant playgrounds in 11 states and over 50 restaurants, such as McDonald’s, Burger King and Peter Piper Pizza, to test them for cleanliness. After taking samples from each playground, she sent the specimen Legend Techincal Services Inc., which is a commercial laboratory that analyses the types of bacteria or pathogens present.

Dr. Erin Carr-Jordan checking playgrounds' sanitation levels

 

The results were even more shocking than the horrible physical conditions of the playgrounds. Not only were some playgrounds covered with filth and contamination, it was full of harmful microorganisms. The lab analyses have shown a widespread of presence of pathogens. Two strains of bacteria called Streptococcus pneumoniae was found, which causes meningitis. There are two forms of Meningitis, viral and bacterial, and bacterial meningitis is more serious since it can cause severe disease that can result in brain damage and even death.

 

In addition, the results revealed four strains of Staphylococcus, which is a group of bacteria that can cause a multitude of diseases as a result of infection in various tissues of the body. Over 30 different types of Staphylococcus can infect

humans, but most common one is Staphylococcus aureus. It causes Staphylococcal infection, which can progress to crusting or inflammation of the skin. If the bacteria enter the bloodstream, and spread to other organs, a number of serious infections can occur. Staphylococcal pneumonia can affect the lung and lead to abscess formation within the lungs. The infections are contagious and can be transmitted from person to person. Since children, who have weaker immune system, are the ones who use playgrounds, it is appalling to see how contaminated these places are.

 

Although Dr.Carr-Jordan has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology, she is not an expert in microbiology. Therefore, Philip M. Tierno Jr., director of clinical microbiology and immunology at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York has surveyed Dr. Carr-Jordan’s results to authenticate her claims. He strongly agrees with her by saying “There are very high counts, and that means these places are not cleaned properly or not cleaned at all.”

This is an excellent example of how scientific testing is used to in our daily lives to improve the public facilities. I wish the article covering the story in the New York times would have explained the procedures of the analyses so the public learns what happens when specimens enters the laboratories. Nonetheless, Dr.Carr-Jordan’s efforts in fighting the fast food restaurants for cleaner playground has been successful due to her evidence found in scientific analyses. Now the ugly truth has surfaced, it is time for all fast food restaurants to make the efforts to make the playground a safer and healthier place for children to play in.

 

 VIDEO

Dr.Carr-Jordan talking about her sanitation investigation

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Biological Sciences Fun! Issues in Science Science Communication

I’m sorry this is late, I really meant to post this earlier…..or iProcrastinate

As summer comes to an end and we’re back to school, some of us are still on vacation time. Assignments just keep coming, due dates are approaching and, surprisingly, nothing gets done. Where did the excitement for the new school year go? Procrastination is the answer.

Are we the only victims of procrastination? Definitely not. Ancient Greeks used to represent procrastination as a “state of acting against one’s better judgment”, or akrasia. Akratic behaviour is documented in discussion between Socrates and Protagoras. Socrates claimed “No one goes willingly toward the bad”. This makes sense from a biological prospective of natural goals of an individual. Aristotel, however, took this idea and examined it deeper. From his prospective, akrasia occurs as a result of opinion. An opinion is mentally developed form of reality or truth.

So when we think another 30min nap before writing a paper might help, we are sincere in our intentions to write the paper. However it does not necessarily mean we are right that we need a nap.

Did modern scientists figure out something more useful than ancient Greeks’ theory? Yes.

According to physiologists, procrastination arises in the front part of our brain, or prefrontal cortex. Earlier studies agreed upon the impulsive nature of procrastination. Prefrontal cortex is responsible for such brain functions as planning, attention, motivation and impulse control. When impulse control does not function in its maximum ability, the overall function of planning, attention and motivation decreases. This causes procrastination.

Is a procrastination purely physiological phenomenon or are the psychological aspects? Needless to say there are numerous psychological theories trying to explain procrastination. One of the most common theories is the lack of self-confidence. Also anxiety levels of procrastinators are especially high near exam period, and these individuals feel the most relief right after exams are done or papers are turned in.  Tice and Baumeister (1997) reported a study where they show a number of college students, procrastinators and non-procrastinators. Research found that procrastinators get lower grades than non-procrastinators, as opposed to a belief that best work is done under pressure.

Procrastination is a problem for scientists publishing a paper. As we know, whoever publishes his work first gets the acknowledgments. That is why it is so important to concentrate on true long term benefits and produce a great piece of work that will contribute to humankind, whether is it is just another paper or a finished experiment. Procrastination should neither affect the quality of our work not stay in our way of enjoying what we do.

Further reading:

Evans, James R. (8 August 2007). Handbook of Neurofeedback: Dynamics
Adler, J.E. (July 2002). “Akratic Believing?”. Philosophical Studies 110 (1): 1–27
Ferrari, J.R.(2001). Procrastination and attention: Factor analysis of attention deficit, boredomness, intelligence, self-esteem, and task delay frequencies. Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 16, 185-196

Categories
Environment Issues in Science Science Communication

True or False? Presenting Scientific Data Without Evidence

Over the course of Earth’s history there have been many mass extinctions. After each one there is the devastation of a world rid of many forms of life.  Barren and bleak, it must be a hard place to live.  Nevertheless, each mass extinction allows space for new life to grow and develop, such as dinosaurs and humans.  The uprisings, life spans and demises of several creatures have been well documented by scientists throughout history.

It is well known that mass extinctions do occur, but their exact mechanism is often unknown, or speculated at best.  For example, one of history’s greatest mysteries is what caused the massive Permian-Triassic extinction. Caused by a large volcano eruption or a meteor strike resulting in a severe lack of oxygen in the atmosphere and ocean, this extinction is estimated to have killed 85% of all living organisms on the planet. However, a recent Vancouver Sun article cites rising ocean acidity levels as the culprit for the P-T extinction, not a lack of oxygen.

 

A large meteor strike is one of the possible causes of the Permian-Triassic extinction.

While this article raises interesting points, there is a complete lack of evidence for the ocean acidity hypothesis.  As scientists it is important to remember that we haven’t found out everything there is to know about the world, and that new discoveries are being made on a daily basis.  However, each new discovery needs to have accompanying evidence to confirm the finding.  While most scientists are aware of this, and are wary of research presented without evidence, members of the public may not be so cognizant.  Thus, when new information is presented without evidence it can be misleading to people outside the scientific community.  It is therefore important that as scholars we communicate clearly with both the public and the media who will be translating our information.  This will ensure that there is no room for misinterpretation or deceptive statements.  By keeping the language we use to communicate science clear and simple, it will make it easier to convey our ideas to the general public and thereby bolster an interest in the field.

 

Categories
Biological Sciences Fun! Science Communication

It’s like Autocorrect, but for your brain

 

If you’ve ever used a word processor like Microsoft Word before, you’ve probably encountered the wonderful Autocorrect function. Autocorrect fixes some commonly made spelling errors as you type, which helps improve typing speed by reducing the need to manually correct those mistakes.

Interestingly enough, the human brain also has a built-in mechanism that catches these types of errors and mentally fixes them while they’re being read. Let’s take a look at this paragraph:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Weird, isn’t it? However, there are a few flaws in this argument.

According to the way the letters are supposed to be shuffled (the first and last letter of each word stays in the same position), words with three or fewer letters are unchanged. There are 32 words that are unaffected by the shuffling — that’s almost half the paragraph! Likewise, the shuffled four-letter words are easy to read because they can only be rearranged by swapping the middle two letters. For the remaining words, the rearrangements of the letters are fairly intuitive. For example, “porbelm” is only two letter switches away from “problem.”

Although it is true that we consider the entire word instead of just the individual letters when we read, the examples presented in the paragraph above are much too simple. Consider words like “Cgibramde” as opposed to “Cmabrigde” that was in the paragraph; a well-shuffled word is much harder to recognize.

What does this have to do with communicating science? Being able to be clearly understood is an important skill to have when it comes to sharing knowledge and information with others. While there is some truth with the “letter order doesn’t matter” argument (in the fact that the brain processes entire words at a time instead of letter-by-letter), a lot of it is just misleading science.

 

Further reading:

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SCIE 300 Course Blog

Welcome to the SCIE 300 course blog!

Here are few things to make note of before you get started with your posts.  First of all, you should read the blogging resources page under the Create menu. This will help you out a lot if you are brand new to using WordPress.  On this page you will find video tutorials about writing posts on this blog, adding media to your posts, tagging, and categorizing. You will also find a link to the rubric we’ll use to grade your blog posts.

Next, check out the blogging guidelines. Here you will find the answer to the question: “What are we supposed to blog about?” You can also check out last term’s blog for some additional inspiration.

There are a few important things to keep in mind when blogging. Please do not assume that just because something is online, it is OK for you to use it.  For example, unless it is explicitly stated, an image on the internet can not just be copied, saved, and used in your own post without permission to do so. We’ve provided you with a lot more detail about properly using online content, but if you have questions, let us know.

This blog also contains a lot of resources for you. For example, still under the Create menu, there is a list of equipment available for you to borrow and a list of suggested software to use for your projects. We’ve also collected some writing and presentation resources.

Under the Explore menu, you will find some sample podcasts and videos, links that may be of interest or assistance, a list of groups and associations related to communicating science as well as a list of local museums and science centres. The Explore menu also contains a library resources page, which you should definitely have a look at. Finally, there is a bookshelf that lists relevant books that are on reserve for you in Woodward Library or available for borrowing from Eric’s office (BioSci 3532).

Let us know if you have any questions about the blog or would like to see any other resources made available. Or, if you find something that you think would be useful to the rest of the class, tell us, and we can add it to the resources.  Better yet — write a post about it!

Happy blogging!

Eric

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