|  Drunk on YouTube: Funny Videos Don't Tell the Whole Story Videos of people falling over drunk are popular on YouTube, but such glimpses of inebriation do not show the negative consequences of drinking too much alcohol, a new study finds. In the study, the researchers watched 70 popular videos of drunkenness on YouTube, which had more than 300 million views combined. In addition, only 7 percent referred to alcohol dependence (such as withdrawal symptoms), but alcohol dependence is common among frequent heavy drinkers, the researchers said. "This is important because brand-name references are known to be particularly potent in terms of encouraging drinking," Dr. Brian Primack, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh, said in a statement. Read More » Swamps, Simulations and Mad Drone Skills: Filming 'LIGO: Generations'  | In 1915, Albert Einstein presented his theory of general relativity. He predicted that massive, compact, accelerating objects would cause ripples in the fabric of space-time — gravitational waves. One hundred years later, following more than two decades effort, the U.S. National Science Foundation's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) is nearly ready to come on-line in its search for cataclysmic events in distant galaxies. As a filmmaker, I have had the great fortune of producing two films about LIGO, and through those projects, come to a much deeper understanding of the science and human drive required to undertake such an effort.
| Read More » Planck Satellite Brings Early Universe into Focus (Kavli Hangout)  | Kelen Tuttle, writer and editor for the Kavli Foundation, contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. From its orbit 930,000 miles above Earth, the Planck satellite spent more than four years detecting the oldest light in the universe: the cosmic microwave background radiation. Just last week, Planck released new maps of the cosmic microwave background supporting the theory of cosmic inflation, which posits that the universe underwent a monumental expansion in the moments following the Big Bang. On Feb. 18 from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m. EST, George Efstathiou, Clement Pryke and Paul Steinhardt will answer your questions in a Google Hangout about the earliest light in the universe, what it can tell us about the theory of inflation, and what we can expect to learn about the very early universe in the coming decade.
| Read More » Could This 'Thinking Cap' Help You Learn?  | Charlie Heck, multimedia news editor at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Woodman approached NSF, and with their support, Woodman and his team at the university's Visual Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory tested their theory that electrical stimulation of the brain's medial-frontal cortex can boost learning and improve decision-making. NSF: What is the medial-frontal cortex and how does this thinking cap affect its function? Geoffrey Woodman: The cortex is the outer layer of the brain.
| Read More » Anthony Anderson on the Power of Portrayals (Video)  | It is tough to have a conversation about the importance of a support system. At the 2014 awards, Anderson was sporting a green ribbon pin, clearly visible in the video, created by Each Mind Matters and the California Mental Health Services Authority to further awareness of those issues.
| Read More » It's Not Just Ice: 10 Tips to Avoid a Bad Fall  | So many older adults are falling that it's now the leading cause of accidental death among the elderly. Nationally in 2012, 2.4 million non-fatal falls among older adults were treated in emergency rooms and more than 722,000 of these patients were hospitalized, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, I've seen that patients who have fallen before often develop a fear of falling, which puts them at an even higher risk of falling again.
| Read More » Mars on Earth? What Life Is Like on the 'Red Planet'  | Kellie Gerardi is the business development specialist for aerospace firm Masten Space Systems and the media specialist for the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a U.S. trade association advancing commercial human spaceflight. As a member of Mars Desert Research Station Crew 149, Gerardi contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. This is the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), one of the world's few analog Martian habitats, where a variety of national space agencies and scientists can simulate in situ resource utilization and analog Martian field research. Most recently, the prototype laboratory has brought together me, Belgian NASA Ames researcher Ann-Sofie Schreurs, Canadian educator Pamela Nicoletatos, American Medevac pilot Ken Sullivan, German trauma surgeon Dr. Elena Miscodan, American lawyer and locally-elected public official Paul Bakken, and Japanese microbiologist Takeshi Naganuma.
| Read More » ADHD is the New Normal (Op-Ed)  | In sparkly letters, the title read, "ADHD." The child by the poster, a cute, freckled redhead, was telling anyone and everyone about her ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). As a neurologist, I see my share of ADHD, as well as the purely attentional version, ADD (attention deficit disorder). Validated scales (such as Conners' scale and the Child Behavior Checklist) exist to help guide the evaluation and treatment of ADHD. Then what happens to their ADHD?
| Read More » Throat-Closing Ailment EoE is a Mystery That Must Be Solved (Op-Ed)  | The condition is called eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), and while physicians like myself are learning more about it everyday, the cause remains unknown, and incidence continues to increase in the United States. Although no one is exactly sure what triggers EoE, the condition causes immune cells called eosinophils to inflame the esophagus. Most cases of EoE are connected to food allergies, so treatment and management includes tests to identify the allergen, elimination diets (where all foods suspected of causing problems are excluded and then reintroduced in a controlled manner), and medications. In most cases, the problems are triggered by the eight foods that cause about 90 percent of all food allergies in the United States: peanuts, tree nuts, cow's milk, eggs, wheat, soy, fish and shellfish.
| Read More » Space Station Astronauts Taking Spacewalk Today: Watch It Live  | Two NASA astronauts will perform a spacewalk outside the International Space Station today (Feb. 21) to begin outfitting the orbiting lab's docking ports to receive future private space taxis and people on Earth can watch the spacewalk live online. Barry Wilmore, commander of Expedition 42, and flight engineer Terry Virts are scheduled to exit the space station at about 7:10 a.m. EST (1210 GMT). Today's spacewalk is the first of three for Wilmore and Virts to prepare the station for the installation of new docking stations, which will allow the station to link up with future space taxis ferrying new crews to the orbiting lab. Today's excursion will mark Wilmore's second spacewalk and a career first for Virts.
| Read More » Arctic Blast Blankets Eastern US in Ice and Snow (Photo)  | An Arctic blast sweeping across the East Coast, from Canada south to Florida, left much of the country blanketed in ice and snow this week.
| Read More » Rise of the Fembots: Why Artificial Intelligence Is Often Female From Apple's iPhone assistant Siri to the mechanized attendants at Japan's first robot-staffed hotel, a seemingly disproportionate percentage of artificial intelligence systems have female personas. "I think there is a pattern here," said Karl Fredric MacDorman, a computer scientist and expert in human-computer interaction at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. One reason for the glut of female artificial intelligences (AIs) and androids (robots designed to look or act like humans) may be that these machines tend to perform jobs that have traditionally been associated with women. For example, many robots are designed to function as maids, personal assistants or museum guides, MacDorman said. Read More » History Repeats Itself: Ancient Cities Grew Much Like Modern Ones  | Before Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés destroyed the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan in 1521, he marveled at its impressive size and wealth. Tenochtitlan had boulevards, bustling markets, canals, courthouses and temples. Using archaeological data from the ruins of Tenochtitlan and thousands of other sites around it in Mexico, researchers found that private houses and public monuments were built in predictable ways. "We build cities in ways that create what I like to call social reactors," said Luis Bettencourt, who studies complex systems at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico.
| Read More » Spacewalking astronauts rigging station for new U.S. space taxis By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - A pair of U.S. astronauts floated outside the International Space Station on Saturday to begin rigging parking spots for two commercial space taxis. Station commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore, 52, and flight engineer Terry Virts, 47, left the station's Quest airlock shortly before 8 a.m. EST to begin a planned 6-1/2-hour spacewalk, the first of three outings over the next eight days. The work will prepare docking ports for upcoming flights by Boeing Co and privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, which are developing capsules to ferry crew to and from the station, which flies about 260 miles (418 km) above the Earth. The United States has been dependent on Russia for station crew transportation since the space shuttle were retired in 2011. Read More » Exclusive: Orbital explosion probe said to find debris in engine: sources By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Last October's explosion of Orbital ATK Inc's Antares rocket may have been triggered when debris inadvertently left in a fuel tank traveled into the booster's main engine, two people familiar with investigations into the accident told Reuters. The sources said the preliminary findings suggest that a simple assembly mistake by Orbital ATK could have caused the explosion, which destroyed a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station. Orbital ATK on Friday acknowledged that so-called "foreign object debris" was one of more than a half dozen credible causes of the explosion, but said it was not "a leading candidate as the most probable cause of the failure." Orbital spokesman Barry Beneski said the company-led "accident investigation board," which includes officials from NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration, had not identified any evidence of mishandling of the flight hardware by Orbital. Read More » | |
