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Scientific American
 100 Years Ago: Engineering a City--New York City's Bridges
DECEMBER 1958EVOLUTION OF BEHAVIOR-- “But is it not possible that beneath all the variations of individual behavior there lies an inner structure of inherited behavior which characterizes all the members of a given species, genus or larger taxonomic group--just as the skeleton of a primordial ancestor characterizes the form and structure of all mammals today? Yes, it is possible! Let me give an example which, while seemingly trivial, has a bearing on this question. Anyone who has watched a dog scratch its jaw or a bird preen its head feathers can attest to the fact that they do so in the same way. A bird also scratches with a hind limb (that is, its claw), and in doing so it lowers its wing and reaches its claw forward in front of its shoulder. One might think that it would be simpler for the bird to move its claw directly to its head without moving its wing, which lies folded out of the way on its back. I do not see how to explain this clumsy action unless we admit that it is inborn. --Konrad Z. Lorenz” [More]
After the Crash: How Software Models Doomed the Markets
If Hollywood makes a movie about the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a basement room in a government building in Washington will serve as the setting for a key scene. There investment bankers from the largest institutions pleaded successfully with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officials during a short meeting in 2004 to lift a rule specifying debt limits and capital reserves needed for a rainy day. This decision, a real event described in the New York Times, freed billions to invest in complex mortgage-backed securities and derivatives that helped to bring about the financial meltdown in September. In the script, the next scene will be the one in which number-savvy specialists that Wall Street has come to know as quants consult with their superiors about implementing the regulatory change. These lapsed physicists and mathematical virtuosos were the ones who both invented these oblique securities and created software models that supposedly measured the risk a firm would incur by holding them in its portfolio. Without the formal requirement to maintain debt ceilings and capital reserves, the commission had freed these firms to police themselves using risk tools crafted by cadres of quants. [More]
Microsoft changes direction, will offer free security software
Microsoft is changing its tune on computer security, two years after its much-heralded foray into the security space turned out to be less than spectacular. Instead of charging customers $50 per year for its Windows Live OneCare subscription security service, Microsoft says that beginning June 30 it will instead offer free software code-named "Morro," designed to seek and destroy viruses, spyware, rootkits and Trojans. [More]
A Cut above: Ultrapowerful Laser Offers Greater Precision Sans Heat Damage [S...
Most lasers rely on continuous waves of energy to generate heat that allows doctors to make cuts during surgery, computers to burn information onto CDs and DVDs, and scanners to read bar codes. But a newer type of laser promises to do all of these things more efficiently using quick, short blasts of energy. This pulsed-laser technology has been around since the 1980s but high cost has kept it from becoming widely used. Petaluma, Calif.–based Raydiance, Inc., however, hopes to overcome that obstacle with the latest version of its ultrashort pulse (USP) laser system unveiled Wednesday. [More]
Red (Planet) Alert: Massive Subsurface Glaciers Discovered on Mars
The more we learn about Mars, it seems, the icier the Red Planet appears to be. The recently departed Phoenix lander dug up water ice and even spotted falling snow from its position in the northern polar plains. And now data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter point to vast glaciers buried beneath thin layers of crustal debris, much closer to the equator. [More]
As Somali pirates step up attacks, shippers consider technology options for d...
Piracy on the high seas is making a comeback this year, particularly off the coast of the African nation Somalia, where raiders are using increasingly more powerful and sophisticated technologies to attack ships and hold their crew and cargo for ransom. Technology makers are hoping to come to the rescue with ultra-loud sound systems, electrified guardrails and other gadgets designed to help shippers avoid becoming the next victim. [More]
Farmed fish can be organic, too, ag advisors say
What exactly makes a fish organic? Apparently, one that feeds on a non-organic diet. [More]
Candid criminal: undercover psychologists find bad behavior may be contagious
Attention, shoppers: If the cart you selected has a handle greased with Vaseline, you may be an unwitting participant in an undercover experiment. [More]
Wine Made from Tiger Bones
[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.] [More]
Bush moves may endanger Endangered Species Act
The Bush Administration's push for "midnight regulations" in the last moments of office continues. [More]
Cell Phone Use Endangers Boneheads
[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.] The jury is still out on the relationship between cell phone use and brain tumors. But the American Association of Neurological Surgeons has issued a statement to remind people that cell phones present lots of other risks to your brain. Of course, we all know about yapping while driving. A Harvard study finds that 2,600 people die each year in accidents related to cell distraction and 12,000 more are injured. Canadian research shows that you’re four times more likely to be in an accident while on the phone. [More]
Bird Brains: Are Parrots Smarter than a Human Two-Year Old?
Irene Pepperberg is associate research professor at Brandeis University and the author of a new book, Alex and Me. She and Jonah Lehrer, the editor of Mind Matters, discuss what Alex and other African Grey Parrots can teach us about the evolution of intelligence and the concept of zero. [More]
Updates: Whatever Happened to Midsize Black Holes?
Rules for Genetically Engineered AnimalsAfter years of anticipation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released in September preliminary guidelines for genetically engineered animals [see “Does the World Need GM Foods?”; SciAm, April 2001]. The agency, which deemed that cloned meat poses no extra risk, wants to regulate engineered animals as it does drugs. Producers would have to substantiate claims and demonstrate safety. Consumer groups complain that the draft sets no provision for labeling and that safety trials can be done behind closed doors, as is the case for drug applications. Public comment on the draft ended in mid-November, and the FDA was to issue its final guidelines shortly thereafter. [More]
New Quantum Weirdness: Balls That Don't Roll Off Cliffs
A good working definition of quantum mechanics is that things are the exact opposite of what you thought they were. Empty space is full, particles are waves, and cats can be both alive and dead at the same time. Recently a group of physicists studied another quantum head spinner. You might innocently think that when a particle rolls across a tabletop and reaches the edge, it will fall off. Sorry. In fact, a quantum particle under the right conditions stays on the table and rolls back. This effect is the converse of the well-known (if no less astounding) phenomenon of quantum tunneling. If you kick a soccer ball up a hill too slowly, it will come back down. But if you kick a quantum particle up a hill at the same speed, it can make it up and over. The particle will have “tunneled” across (although no actual tunnel is involved). This process explains how particles can escape atomic nuclei, causing radioactive alpha decay. And it is the basis of many electronic devices. [More]
Pot joins the fight against Alzheimer's, memory loss
A large-scale study released this week showed that the herb gingko biloba has no effect in preventing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. But alternative medicine aficionados may find hope in a new research touting the bennies of another "herb" in preserving memory. [More]
Pygmy tarsier, a tiny primate, rediscovered in Indonesia
The tiny Furby-like pygmy tarsier, presumed to be extinct, was found during a recent expedition to Indonesia. And the cuddly, huge-eyed nocturnal critter is the very definition of cute. [More]
Presidential DNA: The next campaign controversy?
Could next election season's dirty tricks include disclosures about the candidates' genes? [More]
Quantum Computing Advances a Qubit Closer to Reality
Quantum computers are a sort of holy grail of information science. Their inherent computational advantage comes from their fundamental computational unit, the quantum bit ("qubit"). Unlike a digital bit in a classical computer, which can take the form of either 0 or 1, a qubit can be both zero and one simultaneously, throwing open the door to vastly more powerful computation. And although a usable computer based on qubits remains a far-flung fantasy, investigators continue to make strides toward their realization. [More]
Bluefin tuna: headed for extinction in Atlantic and Mediterranean
The international commission charged with saving the once abundant bluefin tuna of the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea is meeting this week in Morocco to discuss ways to reverse the decline of the dwindling fish. On the watch of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the bluefin population has plummeted as much as 90 percent due to illegal and chronic over-fishing. [More]
Daschle to be health secretary under Obama
President-elect Barack Obama has tapped former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to be his secretary of health, the Associated Press is reporting. [More]
Not in My Backyard: Stopping Illegal Export of Junked Televisions and Computers
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week fined electronics recycler Jet Ocean Technology of Chino, Calif., just over $10,000 for illegally exporting cathode-ray tubes from old television sets to China. Jet Ocean is only the second electronics recycler to be penalized for shipping and deliberately mislabeling the tubes, which contain the brain-damaging metal lead. It falsely labeled the cargo as "mixed metal scrap" when it shipped it out--and as "scrap metal" when China (after being warned by Greenpeace of the true contents) refused to accept delivery and returned it. [More]
Obama won't Bush-whack climate change
You may recall that President George W. Bush pledged to do something about climate change when campaigning for the presidency back in 2000--but reneged on that promise once in office. But it appears that President-elect Barack Obama will not follow suit, telling a gathering of governors yesterday that "few issues facing America--and the world--are more urgent than combating climate change": [More]
New space litter: Astronaut loses tool bag
Bye-bye, grease gun. [More]
Antarctic balloon on the trail of dark matter?
New results from an instrument that detects energetic particles in the upper altitudes above Antarctica show an excess of cosmic-ray electrons that may be a signal of dark matter, researchers say. The study, published today by Nature, examines data from a balloon-borne detector called ATIC (Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter). The unexpected wealth of electrons in a specific energy range, about 300 to 800 giga-electron-volts, points to a nearby source, the authors write. [More]
Scientists Sequence Half the Woolly Mammoth's Genome
Editor's note: This story will appear in our January issue but is being posted early because of a publication in today's Nature. Thousands of years after the last woolly mammoth lumbered across the tundra, scientists have sequenced a whopping 50 percent of the beast’s nuclear genome, they report in a new study. Earlier attempts to sequence the DNA of these icons of the Ice Age produced only tiny quantities of code. The new work marks the first time that so much of the genetic material of an extinct creature has been retrieved. Not only has the feat provided insight into the evolutionary history of mammoths, but it is a step toward realizing the science-fiction dream of being able to resurrect a long-gone animal. [More]
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