Super-complex organic molecules found in interstellar space
“A team of scientists from the Instituto Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of Texas has succeeded in identifying one of the most complex organic molecules yet found in the material between the stars, the so-called interstellar medium. The discovery of anthracene could help resolve a decades-old astrophysical mystery concerning the production of organic molecules in space. The researchers report their findings in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
‘We have detected the presence of anthracene molecules in a dense cloud in the direction of the star Cernis 52 in Perseus, about 700 light years from the Sun,’ explains Susana Iglesias Groth, the IAC researcher heading the study.
In her opinion, the next step is to investigate the presence of amino acids. Molecules like anthracene are prebiotic, so when they are subjected to ultraviolet radiation and combined with water and ammonia, they could produce amino acids and other compounds essential for the development of life
‘Two years ago,’ says Iglesias, ‘we found proof of the existence of another organic molecule, naphthalene, in the same place, so everything indicates that we have discovered a star formation region rich in prebiotic chemistry.’ Until now, anthracene had been detected only in meteorites and never in the interstellar medium. Oxidized forms of this molecule are common in living systems and are biochemically active. On our planet, oxidized anthracene is a basic component of aloe and has anti-inflammatory properties.
The new finding suggests that a good part of the key components in terrestrial prebiotic chemistry could be present in interstellar matter.”
Read more at Physorg
Brain study shows that the opinions of others matter
“Simon Cowell may appear to relish arguing with his fellow judges when they disagree with him, but new research out today suggests that – at least at a neuronal level – he would find their agreement much more satisfying.
Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) in collaboration with Aarhus University in Denmark have found that the ‘reward’ area of the brain is activated when people agree with our opinions. The study, published today in the journal Current Biology, suggests that scientists may be able to predict how much people can be influenced by the opinions of others on the basis of the level of activity in the reward area.
In a study of 28 volunteers in the UK, Professor Chris Frith and colleagues examined the effect that having experts agree with a person’s opinions has on activity in their ventral striatum, the area of the brain associated with receiving rewards. Expert opinions about a piece of music produced more activity in this brain area when the subject shared the opinion. Expert opinions could also alter the amount of ventral striatum reward activity that receiving the music could produce – depending on how likely the person was to change his or her mind on the basis of those opinions.”
Read more at Brain Mysteries
The Writer Who Couldn’t Read
“In January of 2002,” writes the neuroscientist Oliver Sacks, “I received a letter from Howard Engel, a Canadian novelist describing a strange problem.” Engel’s problem was so strange, I decided to create a short video to let you see his story. Our narrator and animator is San Francisco artist Lev Yilmaz.
Birmingham and Sunderland
Back to the Birmingham Alex and the loveliest in-house crew in the country. It was a joy to re-convene with Mike and Milton and Stu and John and the rest of the gang. We are ourselves a happy little family, though (apart from Simon, our excellent company manager), not a true ‘theatre’ bunch, and when we find a friendly crew it’s a lovely treat that we all enjoy. Very often there is an unhappy relationship in theatres between the in-house backstage crew on the one hand and the management and ‘front of house’ on the other. This sometimes results in the place, despite assurances from the management, not being ready as it should be when we arrive, normally because our specifications not having been properly communicated to the technical people who are to construct the bare bones of the show for us. This poor communication between front and back of theatres is a common frustration to touring shows. The Birmingham Alex is a glowing beacon of how well everything works when the relationship is a happy one and all parties involved enjoy their work and get along famously. Everyone – from usher to management to chief electrician – seems to constitute a true family and it is a true honour to put on the show under their roof. On Thursday night the Alex crew, some of the front of house staff and us lot went out for a late trek round the night-time bars of Brum and had a splendid evening. This was such a treat, and many theatres would benefit from this happy, family approach to putting on shows. (And a particular thank you to Chris at Island Bar who conjured up some sensational cocktails.)
Of course the other half of the enjoyment of a venue comes from the audience. Tuesday night, being at the start of the week, brought a slightly tired and quiet audience: a surprise for this city. Each day, as we moved through the week, the crowd got livelier and more responsive, and of course the show transforms with it. It’s one of the frustrations of performing that you don’t know why you can’t replicate a great performance you’ve had one night with an amazing audience the next night with a flat one. The relationship is of course famously symbiotic, with the audience giving much more than they are aware of. Anyone coming on the Tuesday night, no matter how much they might have enjoyed it, would have been struck by the difference on the Friday or Saturday. If only it were easy to keep the same pace and energy when the crowd is flat… I suppose that’s the challenge of doing it.
Friday lunch time was spent at the house of Judy (the blind lady who featured in the Bronnikov documentary), Marg her quite brilliant helper, and Reg, Judy’s hubby. Marg had prepared a huge spread of food and made trifle and cake: this was the finest treat we could imagine. Normally we have to grab food on the go, or eat soullessly in some hotel bar. To be lavished upon in this way was wonderful. We’re still finishing off the lemon sponge in the intervals.
Then to Sunderland. This was another return visit, and another beautiful theatre. The crowd, as expected, was delightful. High drama was provided at the start: the first frisbee got stuck in the lighting rig on the front of the balcony. One chap who was obviously determined to get involved decided to retrieve it, but to do so he had to climb over the balustrade. He stepped onto what he thought was a black platform but fell into nothingness between scaffolding, grabbing at a pole and hanging for a moment. A resourceful spotlight opera tot had to calm him down and give him directions to get back up. Still the guy insisted on clambering over the length of the balcony front to get to the edge and the star is to take him downstairs. Watching him scaling the crumbling balcony faced was terrifying. It was the first we’ve come to an actual death in the show… Please don’t be doing any of that.
Tonight, after a long drive with Mr Coops, it’s Northampton. Tonight (it’s the interval as I write) has brought an older audience, and between their polite responses and the ungenerous acoustics of the auditorium (which swallow up all their sound), it’s quite a different experience from the North. Plus I managed to knock over a prop and look like an arse.
Ho hum. Must dash for Act Two
London council in religious row after ‘banning prayer for poetry readings’
The newly elected Labour leaders at Enfield Council, north London, made the controversial decision to “support and encourage the arts”. The vast majority of councils choose to start meetings with Christian Prayers while a handful of other local authorities begin with other faiths.
The National Secular Society supported the council.
The atheist group is currently pursuing a legal test case against Bideford Town Council. It has instructed a solicitor to take its battle with the North Devon council to the High CourtIt wants to stop the ”archaic practice” of holding prayers before meetings.
It believes holding prayers before council meetings is ”not appropriate in modern-day Britain”. The litigation came after atheist councillor Clive Bone raised objections to the prayers being integrated into proceedings.
Full story at the Telegraph
IBM spends 3 years building the ultimate gameshow contestant supercomputer
For the last three years, I.B.M. scientists have been developing what they expect will be the world’s most advanced “question answering” machine, able to understand a question posed in everyday human elocution — “natural language,” as computer scientists call it — and respond with a precise, factual answer. In other words, it must do more than what search engines like Google and Bing do, which is merely point to a document where you might find the answer. It has to pluck out the correct answer itself.
Technologists have long regarded this sort of artificial intelligence as a holy grail, because it would allow machines to converse more naturally with people, letting us ask questions instead of typing keywords. Software firms and university scientists have produced question-answering systems for years, but these have mostly been limited to simply phrased questions. Nobody ever tackled “Jeopardy!” because experts assumed that even for the latest artificial intelligence, the game was simply too hard: the clues are too puzzling and allusive, and the breadth of trivia is too wide.
Dawkins Interviews Biologist Jonathan Kingdon
Biologist Jonathan Kingdon explains geographic divergence in animals and importance of hands in hominid evolution. Don’t miss to see them while Kingdon and Dawkins were pretending knuckle-walking apes to demonstrate the foraging behavior. So cute!
via Atheist media
Why brown-eyed men appear more dominant than blue-eyed counterparts
Faces of brown-eyed white men make them appear more dominant than their blue-eyed counterparts even when the former’s eye colour is changed, a new Czech study reveals. For the research, a group of 62 people were asked to look at photos of 80 faces – 40 men and 40 women – and rate them for dominance.
Thereafter, the researchers Photoshopped the faces replacing the brown eyes with blue ones and vice versa. Now another group of participants were made to rate the altered images for dominance.
Surprisingly, results were the same in both cases – faces of brown-eyed men were rated more dominant than those of blue-eyed men, even when their eyes weren’t brown.
One explanation is said to be – “It is possible that subjects with blue eyes are treated as [small children] for a longer period than brown-eyed children.”
Article at IndiaTalkies
Hundreds of Possible Alien Planets Discovered By NASA Spacecraft
NASA’s Kepler spacecraft hunting for Earth-like planets around other stars has found 706 candidates for potential alien worlds while gazing at more than 156,000 stars packed into a single patch of the sky.
If all 706 of these objects pass the stringent follow-up tests to determine if they are actually planets, and not false alarms, they could nearly triple the current number of known extrasolar planets. They were announced as part of a huge release of data from the mission’s first 43 days by NASA’s Kepler science team this week.
The Kepler space observatory monitors stars for subtle changes in their brightness, which could indicate the presence of alien planets passing in front of them as seen from Earth. Astronomers will use the newly-released data from Kepler to determine if orbiting planets are responsible for the variation in brightness of several hundred stars.
Full article at Space.com
ecebrate (no brain) Cat walks and exhibits multiple gait patterns
We know some of you like cat videos – but this rather bizarre old video is doing the rounds at the moment. The cat in the video above had had it’s mind removed and is being controlled by electrical impulses sent in to the top of the brain stem. It’s also being hung from two hooks in its back. This rather cruel research was actually done to research walking mechanisms for robots.
If you find that upsetting try this one of a cat doing its own walk research instead.
