The Official Cricketweb Science Thread!

[Daemon]

Just went for a hazmat incident at the airport, what's Methyl n.o.s / methyl isopropenyl cyclohexane and should i be worried if i came into contact with it?

[wellAlbidarned]

How much did you come into contact with?

[Top_Cat]

Meh, it's just a solvent. Get enough of a gulp via airway or mouth and you'll hurt but otherwise, it's pretty wussy on the danger scale. They're just being cautious.

[nightprowler10]

Might turn your skin white on contact temporarily, but that's about it I think.

[Daemon]

Cheers guys. It's on my boots and other gear, but that should be easy to wash off. Think it seeped in through my gloves as well, I'll probably get rid of them.

[Quaggas]

Peter Higgs criticises Richard Dawkins over anti-religious 'fundamentalism'

[Top_Cat]

Mark Lynas » Lecture to Oxford Farming Conference, 3 January 2013

So I guess you’ll be wondering – what happened between 1995 and now that made me not only change my mind but come here and admit it? Well, the answer is fairly simple: I discovered science, and in the process I hope I became a better environmentalist.

Massive back-peddle.

[silentstriker]

Very cool but slightly misleading: Quantum gas goes below absolute zero : Nature News & Comment

[wellAlbidarned]

Originally Posted by silentstriker

Very cool but slightly misleading: Quantum gas goes below absolute zero : Nature News & Comment

har har

[silentstriker]

Actually technically, very hot

[wellAlbidarned]

Not sure where to put this, so I'll just leave it here
Derren Brown's Fear and Faith

Almost completely sure that some of the subjects were wise to Derren's pretty obvious set-pieces but damn awesome all the same.

[Top_Cat]

Help us, Nate Silver! - Salon.com

Brilliant introductory explanation of probability, wish my first-year texts did it this well. Particularly liked this bit;

Here is an exercise that I do with my students to make the same basic point. The larger the class, the better it works. I ask everyone in the class to take out a coin and stand up. We all flip the coin; anyone who flips heads must sit down. Assuming we start with 100 students, roughly 50 will sit down after the first flip. Then we do it again, after which 25 or so are still standing. And so on. More often than not, there will be a student standing at the end who has flipped five or six tails in a row. At that point, I ask the student questions like “How did you do it?” and “What are the best training exercises for flipping so many tails in a row?” or “Is there a special diet that helped you pull off this impressive accomplishment?” These questions elicit laughter because the class has just watched the whole process unfold; they know that the student who flipped six tails in a row has no special coin-flipping talent. He or she just happened to be the one who ended up with a lot of tails. When we see an anomalous event like that out of context, however, we assume that something besides randomness must be responsible.

[Top_Cat]

Federal Advisory Committee Draft Climate Assessment Report Released for Public Review | National Climate Assessment Development Advisory Comittee

[Spark]

Scientists hail 'potential cure for AIDS' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Scientists from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research say they have made a breakthrough that could lead to a potential cure for AIDS.

Associate Professor David Harrich says they have discovered how to modify a protein in HIV so that, instead of replicating, it protects against the infection.

"I consider that this is fighting fire with fire," he said.

"What we've actually done is taken a normal virus protein that the virus needs to grow, and we've changed this protein, so that instead of assisting the virus, it actually impedes virus replication and does it quite strongly."
Audio: Listen to Stephanie Smail's report (AM)

Associate Professor Harrich says the modified protein cannot cure HIV but it has protected human cells from AIDS in the laboratory.

"This therapy is potentially a cure for AIDS," he said.

!!!

[silentstriker]

Originally Posted by Spark

Scientists hail 'potential cure for AIDS' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)



!!!

Oh, science journalism. I haven't read the published article, but FFS it's not a cure for AIDS.

This prevents AIDS from developing in the first place.

From the article, it doesn't sound like it improves on the current therapy. It just makes it better for patients in that they have to take one pill instead of multiple - though I bet depending on where it's mechanism of action is, people will still end up taking multiple pills (it's safer) until it's demonstrably proven that this isn't any worse. Generally you want to hit as many mechanisms of actions in the virus's replication cycle as possible, to give yourself the best chance of stopping it.

HIV is a relatively manageable disease in developed countries already. Studies are starting to show that as long as you are diagnosed early, and you have excellent compliance with medications, your chances of living a long life are very good.


I'll have to read the original article before making any real judgement.