Artist: Science

I don't think Albert Einstein was sweating this one out. Not the least of all because he's no longer alive. But, 103 years after Einstein published his most famous equation, that posits energy equals mass times the speed of light in a vacuum square, it has finally been corroborated by European scientists . The equation, which essentially says that energy can be converted into mass and vice versa was used as the foundation for the creation of the atomic weapon. A brainpower consortium led by Laurent Lellouch of France's Centre for Theoretical Physics, [...]

Perhaps one of the most fascinating things I've read in a few weeks. "This is not a political blog. However, this is a story I couldn't pass up: the story of how voting patterns in the 2008 election were essentially determined 85 million years ago, in the Cretaceous Period. It's also a story about how soil science relates to political science, by way of historical chance." There are also maps involved. Lots of maps. The convergence of history, geography and politics - what more could you want? [ Vigorous North via Kottke ]

Woah. I didn't realize that Nicholas Copernicus, the astronomer best known for advancing the theory that the sun was at the center of the solar system and not the Earth, was buried in an unmarked grave and his final resting spot was unknown until now. Polish archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski told a news conference that forensic facial reconstruction of the skull, missing the lower jaw, his team found in 2005 buried in a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork, Poland, bears striking resemblance to existing portraits of Copernicus. The reconstruction shows a broken [...]

The kangaroo and human genomes are more similar than scientists imagined. But the question is how similar? Is this like baboons and humans or pigs and humans? On the sliding scale of human genome similarity where does the kangaroo fit. Also, if my kidney shuts down can I use a kangaroo kidney? Scientists said they had for the first time mapped the genetic code of the Australian marsupials and found much of it was similar to the genome for humans, the government-backed Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics said. "There are a few [...]

We finally have the answer .

The latest edition of Tangled Bank , another science blogging carnival, is up at Submitted to a Candid World . Science with a political Nichole alerted me to a contest at Grosgrain in which you can win a water color portrait of your progeny. Bad luck for Nichole as I am totally going to win.

I've literally got students coming out the wazoo today, so I'll keep things short and simple... After ranting about premature Christmas decorations and my general disdain for the holiday , I've been tasked with coming up with a personalized message for my company's Christmas cards. This is, by far, the most difficult three or four sentences I've ever had to churn out. Any suggestions? ---------- I'm pleased to be the host for Mendel's Garden #26 . Mendel's Garden, the genetics blog carnival, is looking for the best genetics posts in the [...]

• Bouncing Souls - Serenity

Someone's done the math, wikipedia listing... http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/ wiki/Cat-Toast_Device

Getting in the middle of a scientific controversy is more dangerous than you might think. I have fond memories of a conference at which, under the influence of the product of yeast anaerobic sugar metabolim, I watched two well known professors very nearly come to blows over a question regarding the role of chromatin in gene expression. When you throw in a group of pseudo-scientific know nothings , that debate becomes both fiercer and more absurd. Such is the "controversy" around macroevolution - evolution at the species level - it regrettably melds science, religion [...]

• Radiohead - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

An American living in Berlin suffered from both AIDS and leukemia. Hoping to extend his life, the 42-year-old underwent a bone marrow transplant for leukemia, but instead he might have just won his battle against AIDS. The virus has been undetected in the American's body for nearly 600 days now. He has stopped taking his retroantivirals, which in your average AIDS patient would cause the virus to stampede the body within days or weeks. But that isn't the case here, thanks to 39 year-old hemotologist Dr. Gero Hutter ( left ) and his [...]

I'll go to sleep now...you guys take over now...watch this in the meantime....

The New Yorker has written an article on the differences between teenage sex/pregnancy in traditionally blue states and red states. It's fascinating, if for nothing else, then for putting into words what most people think is a giant elephant in the American sex room . During the campaign, the media has largely respected calls to treat Bristol Palin's pregnancy as a private matter. But the reactions to it have exposed a cultural rift that mirrors America's dominant political divide. Social liberals in the country's "blue states" tend to support sex education and are not particularly [...]

"Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You've heard about some of these pet projects they really don't make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not " - Sarah Palin, October 24 Damn it. I had placed a voluntary moratorium on political posts here at A Free Man. My vote is in. My guy is well ahead. I was happy [...]

• Treepeople - Flies In My Coffee

I'm freaking out man. The startling images were reportedly taken in Atheron, close to Queensland's (Australia) tropical north. Despite their unlikely subject matter, the pictures appear to be real. Joel Shakespeare, head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park, said the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver. "Normally they prey on large insects??? it's unusual to see one eating a bird," he told ninemsn.com. Mr Shakepeare said he had seen Golden Orb Weaver spiders as big as a human [...]

Eddie Adcock, a pillar in the bluegrass community, underwent brain surgery to alleviate tremors in his hands and played banjo during the surgery to gauge the success of the operation.?? By playing the banjo, surgeons at Vanderbilt Medical Center were able to identify the cause of the tremors; by placing electrodes in Mr. Adcock's brain and fitting a pace maker in his chest which delivered a small current surgeons shut down the region of his brain causing the tremors. Click here to view the embedded video.

I'm running out of energy for political posts this election cycle and am on the verge of putting a moratorium on politics on A Free Man. But, I've had this one in the queue for some time and wanted to throw it out there before the ban. Today, I want to talk about science and politics. That's right, boys and girls, a two-fer. Chris from Formerly Fun* sent me a link to the Scientists and Engineers for America's comparison of the two major presidential candidates statements on issues of science, health care and technology. [...]

• » RyanAdams_PoliticalScientist.mp3

Your underwhelming correspondent is slowly spreading his tentacles around the interweb. Check out my guest post on America's game over at esmon dot ne t. And I'm delighted to have one of my science posts picked up by Tangled Bank , a biweekly blog carnival featuring the best science and medicine posts in the blogosphere. See which one they chose here at Evolved and Rational . "Behold, I can make fire from a little box."

When I was born, thirty-ahremeah years ago, there were about 3.7 billion people in the world. The most recent estimates place the population of this planet at 6.725 billion, which means that world's population has nearly doubled in less than four decades. At our current growth rate we face an imminent Malthusian crisis. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but at some point we're going to reach the tipping point at which there will not be enough agriculture to sustain the world's population. Food prices are on the rise and This is one of the reasons that I chose to [...]

• Aimee Mann - Frankenstein

The other day Listner Jim told me about an interesting study by Scientists and Experts. It seems that you can take someone who is pretty set in their beliefs about something, and show them actual, factual evidence that their beliefs are wrong —and not only will it not matter that they're wrong, but the factual evidence to the contrary will make their adherence to their incorrect beliefs even stronger . I don't know exactly which study Listner Jim had in mind, but you can find lots of them if you Google "belief perseverance" or "confirmation bias." [...]

I was really interested in the LHC , and read as much as I could about it, but I'm not a bleedin' physicist, so never really got it. Luckily, my homie Aoibhinn is! So yesterday, we went for dinner in the Porthouse and then a pint in Hogans (that's us in the photee, having a bevvie) where she explained everything to me, so now I get it a little more. Aoibhinn actually worked at CERN on the SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron) part of the accelerator complex, so she knows her stuff. She [...]