Category: 2015
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November 2, 2015
Why Translation and Editing Software is Bad for Your Reputation
You got that modest grant to carry out your research. You ran your study as frugally as possible and ate ramen noodles five nights a week. Now you’re tempted to run your data and text through inexpensive translation and grammar software before submitting for publication. Think again. Translation software is not savvy. Humans are. Even though … Read more
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October 21, 2015
The Eccentric Asteroid Approaches
Halloween might be a little scarier this year. NASA has discovered, just ten days ago, an asteroid that is due to pass by earth in the early morning hours of 31st October. Asteroid 2015 TB145 is currently hurtling through space at approximately 126,000 km/h. It will pass earth within 1.3 lunar distances, or 499,000 km. That … Read more
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October 18, 2015
Is This the Future of Research Funding?
The never ending quest to obtain funding for scientific research just got more difficult for a lot of scientists. The U.S. National Institutes of Health is taking steps to radically change the way it funds cardiology studies, making the move to allocate money to fewer studies with a deeper reach. The agency is confronting the … Read more
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October 14, 2015
Can we treat genetic diseases in utero?
Now that screening for genetic disorders before birth has become not only possible but common, science is looking at how to target specific diseases in order to mitigate their effects…before a child is even born. This week researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden announced they will be coordinating the first ever comparison study of … Read more
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October 11, 2015
5 Things You Might Not Know About Your DNA
Even at the sublimely beautiful molecular level, humans are far from perfect. Over decades of research it’s clear; our DNA molecules are inherently unstable. So how do we survive? The answer is DNA repair mechanisms within our cells, multitudes of them, which see to it that we make it to the end of the day, … Read more
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October 7, 2015
Why the 2015 Nobel Prize for Medicine is Important
Parasitic diseases rarely cause morbidity or mortality in countries north of the equator. But for the vast number of the world’s poorest people residing in tropical and subtropical areas of the planet, these diseases are enormous barriers to improvements in health and productivity. The Nobel committee this week awarded the prize in Physiology or Medicine … Read more
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October 4, 2015
The Hidden World of Sand
Even if you lay your cheek upon the surface of a sun-baked beach, you’re unlikely to see clearly the kaleidoscopic world beneath you. Gary Greenburg, a research affiliate at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, created a 3D high-definition light microscope in the 1990s, and he’s been capturing fascinating sand close-ups since then. He’s put out … Read more
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September 29, 2015
Might we be Martians?
Watch out Mars, here we come. Maybe. Someday. NASA used to play down the notion that the arid, desolate landscape of Mars could ever possibly be home to future life. However, the recent announcement confirming the flow of liquid water on Mars is causing its planetary science division to reconsider. In a recent paper published … Read more
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September 27, 2015
Get ready for the Super Blood Moon eclipse
Want to see all the sunrises and sunsets in the world at one time reflected off the surface of the full moon? That’s what we observe during a total lunar eclipse. Combine this with the moon passing closest to the earth during its monthly orbit, known as a supermoon, and you’re in for a rare astronomical treat. If … Read more