Limp Wrists And tight Fists: What Your Handshake Says About You

From Scientific American:

There is a man—a very well-known man, a legend of sorts—whom I’ve been privileged enough to have seen on occasion through the years at various venues and events. (Never mind his reputation. To protect my career, he shall remain anonymous.) Our exchanges have been pleasant enough, I should say—inconsequential, really, and empty of any real substance. Now, as an admiring subordinate, I have enormous respect for this person. I suspect I probably also have a mild envy given his vast and ever-lasting contributions to our shared discipline. But our first interaction, which lasted mere seconds, left me with a rather negative, viscerally based impression of him.

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Learning Keeps Brain Healthy: Mental Activity Could Stave Off Age-Related Cognitive And Memory Decline

New findings suggest that learning promotes brain health -- and, therefore, that mental stimulation could limit the debilitating effects of aging on memory and the mind. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Mar. 3, 2010) — UC Irvine neurobiologists are providing the first visual evidence that learning promotes brain health -- and, therefore, that mental stimulation could limit the debilitating effects of aging on memory and the mind.

Using a novel visualization technique they devised to study memory, a research team led by Lulu Chen and Christine Gall found that everyday forms of learning animate neuron receptors that help keep brain cells functioning at optimum levels.

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Earth's Earthquake Hotspots

The Seward highway in Alaska after the 1964 earthquake / USGS

From Live Science:

The powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake that rocked Chile was strong enough to shift the planet's axis by 3 inches, and came soon after the catastrophic magnitude 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti and right after a magnitude 7.0 event hit off the coast of Japan.

Where might earthquakes hit next? Earth scientists might not be able to give us a date and time, but using history and plate tectonics as a guide they can come up with some rough estimates as to where.

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Polar Bear And Its Cub Drift On Shrinking Ice 12 Miles From Land ... But Is It All It Seems?

Adrift: The polar bear cub snuggles against its mother as they drift 12 miles from land

From The Daily Mail:

A forlorn polar bear cub is comforted by its mother as they drift miles from shore on a rapidly shrinking ice floe.

The Arctic-dwelling animals have become an iconic cause for green campaigners, who claim dramatic images such as these prove that global warming is destroying the world.

But despite this image being released today, it was actually taken in August last year, when it is normal for coastal ice to naturally break up and melt.

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Androids Will Challenge The iPad

Image: Tap and go: This prototype device runs on the Android operating system and features a customizable home screen. The interface was created by Boston-based company Tap 'n Tap.
Credit: Tap 'n Tap

From Technology Review:

Tablets powered by Google's mobile operating system are set to debut.

Apple's iPad is certain to grab headlines when it hits stores next month. But a number of touch-screen tablets powered by Google's Android operating system will also debut this year. Competing with Apple's latest consumer gadget won't be easy, but analysts say the software behind these devices could give them a few key advantages.

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Secrets Of The Ancients

Pharaoh Tuthankamen's famous burial mask.
Credit: Wikimedia

From Cosmos:

King Tut is only one in a growing list of ancient humans forced to reveal their secrets through high-tech prodding. By rushing into such studies, we may be opening a historical Pandora's Box.

On 26 November 1922, the British Egyptology Howard Carter peered through a tiny hole into the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings.

"I see wonderful things," he gasped as he glimpsed a profusion of gold and ebony, hidden for more than 30 centuries.

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Why Chile’s Massive Earthquake Could Have Been Much Worse

From Discover Magazine:

Less than two months after the earthquake that shook Haiti, and only hours after a quake causing small tsunamis occurred near Japan, the largest of 2010’s seeming barrage of big seismic events hit Chile. The 8.8 earthquake is the fifth largest since 1900. “We call them great earthquakes. Everybody else calls them horrible,” said USGS geophysicist Ken Hudnut. “There’s only a few in this league” [AP].

According to seismologists, the confluence of earthquakes these last couple months are probably coincidental; they’re all separated by too great a distance to be directly related. However, some say the latest quake is related to the 1960 quake in Chile that remains the largest ever recorded, a 9.5 on the Richter scale.

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Mars Rover Spirit Could Rise Again

NASA's Spirit rover

From New Scientist:

NASA's Spirit rover should be able to wriggle free of its sandy trap on Mars after all, says a scientist for the mission. But the plucky robotic explorer will need to survive the bitter Martian winter first.

In April 2009, Spirit's wheels broke through a thin surface crust and got mired in the loose sand below. After months of trying unsuccessfully to free the rover, NASA declared on 26 January that Spirit would henceforth be a stationary lander mission rather than a rover.

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Massive Solar Storms of the Future Could Reap Katrina-Scale Devastation

Plasma of the Sun I'm looking at you, Earth Hinode JAXA/NASA

From Popular Science:

If storms as strong as the biggest recorded in the last few two centuries, our electronics-dependent world of today could be in trouble.

No electricity, no running water, and no phone service for millions of people. That scenario could easily become reality if a solar storm as intense as those found throughout the history of our planet were to strike Earth today. NPR reported on FEMA's recent simulation of such a storm, and the grim conditions it uncovered.

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Facebook Users Keep It Real In Online Profiles

From New Science:

Young adults apparently present their true selves on the world's biggest social network.

“On the Internet,” one dog tells another in a classic New Yorker cartoon, “nobody knows you’re a dog.”

The Internet is notorious for its digital dens of deception. But on Facebook, what you see tends to be what you get — at least in one study of tailless, two-legged young adults.

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Is The iPad Launch Really Delayed?

(Credit: Apple)

From The CNET:

When Apple introduced the iPad in January, it said the device would be made available in late March. However, one analyst is now saying the launch may be delayed.

Peter Misek, an analyst with Canaccord Adams, wrote in a note to clients on Monday that production problems could limit Apple's launch of the iPad. The production issues could be bad enough to even delay the launch for a month, according to a report on AppleInsider.

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Chilean Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days

This view of Earth comes from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard the Terra satellite. (Credit: NASA)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Mar. 2, 2010) — The Feb. 27 magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have shortened the length of each Earth day.

JPL research scientist Richard Gross computed how Earth's rotation should have changed as a result of the Feb. 27 quake. Using a complex model, he and fellow scientists came up with a preliminary calculation that the quake should have shortened the length of an Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).

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Titanic vs. Lusitania: Time Determined Who Survived

The RMS Titanic being towed

From Live Science:

The time people have during survival situations might affect whether they behave selfishly or socially. Examining two shipwrecks, the Titanic and the Lusitania, researchers recently found the longer passengers had to react to the disaster, the more likely they were to follow social mores. The less time, the more selfishly passengers behaved.

The result: It was every man for himself aboard the rapidly sinking Lusitania, and so the fittest were the most likely to survive that accident. During the lengthy Titanic shipwreck, women in their reproductive years were the most likely to make it, while men of the same age had a lower probability of surviving.

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Most Detailed Pictures Of Earth Revealed By Nasa

The view of our home planet was taken from 700 km above the Earth's surface and is made up of thousands of images 'stitched' together Photo: BARCROFT

From The Telegraph:

The most detailed and amazing set of composite satellite images of the Earth ever produced, have been disclosed by Nasa scientists.

Perfectly capturing the fragility of the Earth in one remarkable shot, the composition shows the entire North American continent, Central America, the northern half of South America, Greenland and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

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What's Wrong With Venture Capital?

The exception: Google’s successful initial public offering over five years ago did not usher in a new era of good times for venture capitalists; it merely served to underscore how rare these happy events have become. Credit: Getty Images

From Technology Review:

The old mechanism for funding the commercialization of new technologies is in trouble.

In the summer of 1996, Silicon Valley venture capitalists put a few million dollars into a telecom-equipment startup called Juniper Networks. Three years later, after a few more rounds of funding and the release of its first product, Juniper enjoyed an initial public offering of shares, or IPO. At the end of its first day of trading, it was worth nearly $5 billion, and within nine months, it was worth almost 10 times that. The original venture investors, meanwhile, were able to walk away with profits of better than 10,000 percent.

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Coldest Winter In UK For More Than 30 Years... But Met Office Defends Its Long Range Forecast

Mothers tow children on their sledges in Hampshire, in January. The Met Office has confirmed that 2009/10 winter was the coldest since 1978/79

From The Daily Mail:

Perhaps someone should ask workers at the Met Office to take a rain check on their optimism.

After predicting just a 20 per cent chance of a colder than average winter, they were left embarrassed again when official figures revealed it was the coldest for more than 30 years.

Temperatures in December, January and February struggled to stay above zero, with the UK's average a chilly 1.5c (35f), making it the deepest freeze since 1978-79.

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The Mystery Of The Silent Aliens

From New Scientist:

Sixty years ago, space aliens were the preserve of lunatics and eccentrics, thanks to decades of sci-fi schlock, flying-saucer nonsense and Lowellian fantasies of Martian canals. Then, in 1950, came Enrico Fermi and his paradox - "Where the hell is everyone?" - and, 10 years later, the first attempts to put the search for ET on a scientific footing, courtesy of Frank Drake, who pointed a radio telescope at Tau Ceti and heard... silence.

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Etched Ostrich Eggs Illustrate Human Sophistication

From The BBC:

Inscribed ostrich shell fragments found in South Africa are among the earliest examples of the use of symbolism by modern humans, scientists say.

The etched shells from Diepkloof Rock Shelter in Western Cape have been dated to about 60,000 years ago.

Details are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers, who have investigated the material since 1999, argue that the markings are almost certainly a form of messaging - of graphic communication.

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'Ministrokes' May Cause More Damage Than Thought

From New Science:

Common test given to patients after the passing attacks appears to miss some cognitive impairments.

SAN ANTONIO — As many as four in 10 people referred to a clinic with signs of a “ministroke” may have subtle cognitive damage that standard tests miss, a new study shows.

The findings, reported by Canadian researchers February 24 at the International Stroke Conference in San Antonio, Texas, suggest that after suffering the ministrokes many patients lose some ability to process abstract thoughts, reason things out and make quick calculations — what doctors call “executive function.”

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Titanic vs. Lusitania: How People Behave In A Disaster

An illustration of the Titanic as it sank in the Atlantic Ocean
Time & Life Pictures / Getty

From Time Magazine:

It's hard to remember your manners when you think you're about to die. The human species may have developed an elaborate social and behavioral code, but we drop it fast when we're scared enough — as any stampeding mob reveals.

That primal push-pull is at work during wars, natural disasters and any other time our hides are on the line. It was perhaps never more poignantly played out than during the two greatest maritime disasters in history: the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania. A team of behavioral economists from Switzerland and Australia have published a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that takes an imaginative new look at who survived and who perished aboard the two ships, and what the demographics of death say about how well social norms hold up in a crisis.

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