Roban H K

Artemis Racing sailor Andrew Simpson dies in training accident

Thu, 09 May 2013 23:28:24 -0400

Artemis Racing sailor Andrew Simpson dies in training accident:

It is with immense sadness that Artemis Racing confirms the tragic death of crewmember Andrew “Bart” Simpson today in San Francisco. Our heartfelt condolences are with Andrew’s wife and family.

Oh no.

Ammonia Leak on Station

Thu, 09 May 2013 23:23:13 -0400

colchrishadfield:

Station’s power relies on ammonia coolant. A few hours ago, we determined that the ammonia was leaking out of the Station and into space. At the analyzed rate, one of the Station’s cooling loops could shut down within 48 hours.

It is a serious situation, but between crew and experts on the ground, it appears to have been stabilized. Tomorrow we find out for certain.

Stan 1.2.0 and RStan 1.2.0 now available for download

Thu, 02 May 2013 21:34:48 -0400

columbiascience:

by Bob Carpenter

Stan 1.2.0 and RStan 1.2.0 are now available for download: http://mc-stan.org/

Highlights after the jump.

Read More

neaq: Karma loves playing ball: Our animal caregivers found a...

Thu, 02 May 2013 21:01:13 -0400

neaq:

Karma loves playing ball: Our animal caregivers found a new toy for the octopus. And she loves it.

Photo

Thu, 02 May 2013 19:05:17 -0400

It's Okay To Be Smart: This GIF might break your brain a little:

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:58:56 -0400

It's Okay To Be Smart: This GIF might break your brain a little::

jtotheizzoe:

Take a look at the sequence of images below (I recommend clicking through to enlarge, Tumblr Dashboard folks). Works best if you stare at the dot:

Color? Or black and white?

The rods and cones of your retina respond to the illumination (black-white) and color of a scene, respectively….

Rogueleaderr: How to notify/email yourself when an EC2 instance terminates

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:31:48 -0400

Rogueleaderr: How to notify/email yourself when an EC2 instance terminates:

rogueleaderr:

I make pretty heavy use of EC2 spot instances, which as you know can terminate at any time with no warning.

In order to get my spots back up ASAP, I’d like be notified when they terminate…

This looks super useful.

jtotheizzoe: The New York Times has created an interactive...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 23:13:51 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

The New York Times has created an interactive feature tallying all of the exoplanets discovered by NASA’s Kepler Telescope. You should really check out the link, because theirs is animated, and much bigger, and completely awesome.

This comes after news of Kepler’s detection of a new multiplanet system, with not one but two planets in the habitable zone (original research paper). Doesn’t mean that either of them would, could, or should have life, but put a check mark next to criteria #1 for biology.

This brings us to a total of 871 confirmed exoplanets, which is a drop in a drop in a drop in the bucket for how many are estimated to be out there. Those 871 confirmed exoplanets represent a mere 0.0000008% of the likely number in just the Milky Way.

Bonus: Find out more about how astrobiologists calculate the odds of extraterrestrial civilizations in this episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart: The Odds of Finding Life and Love.

1ucasvb: Line integral of a scalar field This animation of...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 21:52:03 -0400

1ucasvb:

Line integral of a scalar field

This animation of mine is today’s Picture of the Day on Wikimedia Commons and several Wikipedia languages.

A scalar field has a value associated to each point in space. Examples of scalar fields are height, temperature or pressure maps. In a two-dimensional field, the value at each point can be thought of as a height of a surface embedded in three dimensions. The line integral of a curve along this scalar field is equivalent to the area under a curve traced over the surface defined by the field.

In this animation, all these processes are represented step-by-step, directly linking the concept of the line integral over a scalar field to the representation of integrals familiar to students, as the area under a simpler curve. A breakdown of the steps:

The color-coded scalar field f and a curve C are shown. The curve C starts at a and ends at b

The field is rotated in 3D to illustrate how the scalar field describes a surface. The curve C, in blue, is now shown along this surface. This shows how at each point in the curve, a scalar value (the height) can be associated.

The curve is projected onto the plane XY (in gray), giving us the red curve, which is exactly the curve C as seen from above in the beginning. This is red curve is the curve in which the line integral is performed. The distances from the projected curve (red) to the curve along the surface (blue) describes a “curtain” surface (in blue).

The graph is rotated to face the curve from a better angle

The projected curve is rectified (made straight), and the same transformation follows on the blue curve, along the surface. This shows how the line integral is applied to the arc length of the given curve

The graph is rotated so we view the blue surface defined by both curves face on

This final view illustrates the line integral as the familiar integral of a function, whose value is the “signed area” between the X axis (the red curve, now a straight line) and the blue curve (which gives the value of the scalar field at each point). Thus, we conclude that the two integrals are the same, illustrating the concept of a line integral on a scalar field in an intuitive way.

Another “indestructible” toy bites the dust.

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 22:20:01 -0400

Another “indestructible” toy bites the dust.

ecastrospection: I love wikipedia! It has really good and...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 17:29:15 -0400

ecastrospection:

I love wikipedia! It has really good and complete entries. And the most important, entries related to almost everything interesting.

For example… just five minutes ago I didn’t know that brain regulates the breathing frequency only by the blood’s carbon dioxide concentration readings that the brainstem makes and adjusting our need to breath in that basis.

When we feel the urgent need to breath, it’s due to the CO2 levels are increasing,not because we are running out of oxygen in blood. That’s quite interesting!

Here in the picture there are two graphics about the diving and normal breathing time, in two different situations. Practising and not practising induced hypocapnia. Hypocapnia is when blood CO2 are abnormally low. That provokes vasoconstriction in brain and consequently brain hypoxia, (really dangerous!)

The wiki’s article talks about some swimmers and freedivers using hyperventilation to induce themselves hypocapnia and postponing the incoming need to breath while diving, and allow them to dive for more time.

But, hyperventilation doesn’t increase the O2 levels, in fact, it makes them decrease a little, so practising doesnt’ represents any advantatge to the brain, and underwater blackout and drowning can easily happen in hypocapnia conditons.

Be aware of that!

jtotheizzoe: the-science-llama: Animal Eye Close-Ups By Suren...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:39:58 -0400

Caiman

British short hair cat

Blue Crayfish

Lark

Blue-yellow macaw parrot

Husky dog

jtotheizzoe:

the-science-llama:

Animal Eye Close-Ups

By Suren Manvelyan

Jeepers creepers, where’d you get them peepers?

Aren’t eyes just great? It’s amazing to see how evolution has solved a single problem in such a myriad of ways. Actually, to be more accurate, it’s amazing to see that evolution has molded such diverse and intricate machinery from perhaps the same starting point.

That’s right. Although it’s long been thought that animal eyes evolved separately as many as 40 times, eyes most likely owe their varied existence all to one single gene. That gene is named Pax6, and it’s a master control switch for many of the things that end up becoming eyes in jellyfish, flies, snakes and even humans. It doesn’t make eyes on its own, but acts like the conductor during the symphony of development. The protein it makes looks like this:

Now that we are sequencing more and more genomes, and deciphering the precise DNA sequence of Pax6 in all of those diverse creatures, we are able to map out how that gene has changed over time. Like a game of molecular telephone, DNA sequences (usually) get more and more scrambled as they spread into new species. Follow the molecular breadcrumbs back far enough, and you can find out where you came from.

And for all those oodles of eyes, all gorgeous, intricate and exquisite, Pax6 might hold the key to seeing where vision began.

radioon: oreillymedia: In this handbook, data expert Q. Ethan...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:21:58 -0400

radioon:

oreillymedia:

In this handbook, data expert Q. Ethan McCallum has gathered 19 colleagues from every corner of the data arena to reveal how they’ve recovered from nasty data problems. Get our ebook Deal/Day: Bad Data Handbook: Mapping the World of Data Problems - $15.99 (Save 50%) Use code DEAL http://oreil.ly/103Iw5f

Hey! My book is on sale. Buy it.

This is a useful and heartening book for any data wrangler.

jtotheizzoe: wnycradiolab: science-junkie: Solar System...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:33:15 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

wnycradiolab:

science-junkie:

Solar System Sampler

In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, girls in the UK and the US used needle and thread to embroider images and text onto pieces of fabric that were called “samplers.” Samplers, which could be quite intricate, were meant to promote basic literacy and to teach patience and carefulness.

Unlike many samplers, which featured botanical, Biblical, or domestic themes, this unusual pre-printed fabric from 1811 depicts a surprisingly scientific subject: the arrangement of the solar system. (via Slate)

P.S.

The Great Comet of 1811, formally designated C/1811 F1, is a comet that was visible to the naked eye for around 260 days, a record it held until the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. In October 1811, at its brightest, it displayed an apparent magnitude of 0, with an easily visible coma. (via Wikipedia,)

More fuel for our science embroidery obsession.

I’m with you on the science embroidery obsession, Radiolab.

We’ve got embroidery! We’ve got knitting! And we’ve got adorable stitch art!

The passage at the top of the (unfinished) embroidery is the most interesting part. It’s from Milton’s Paradise Lost, and reminds us that there was once a time when scientific education had to be framed in the light of morality and “thy Glorious Works”, as it’s put above. ‘Twas a different time, eh?

jtotheizzoe: The Science of Hair Loss and Balding by...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:31:09 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

The Science of Hair Loss and Balding by the AsapSCIENCE guys. Alopeciate it if you’d watch this video.

It’s not as simple as just your maternal grandfather, but that’s part of it. Scientists have identified one of the key proteins (and its target) that make men go bald. And did you know that the major commercial treatments for androgenetic alopecia (male-pattern baldness) were found by accident? Rogaine was a blood pressure drug and Propecia was for prostate enlargement!

I’m pretty confident that these flowing blond locks of mine are gonna stick around for a while … knock on (genetic) wood.

If you are watching port scans that run at rates from 3 to 5...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:10:05 -0400

If you are watching port scans that run at rates from 3 to 5 billion IPs per hour for weeks, the Internet shrinks and seems small and empty. If you try to analyze, visualize, sort and compress the collected data, it quickly gets annoyingly gigantic again.

parislemon: John Herrman of BuzzFeed: According to data from...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:40:36 -0400

parislemon:

John Herrman of BuzzFeed:

According to data from the BuzzFeed Network, a set of tracked partner sites that collectively have over 300 million users, Google Reader is still a significant source of traffic for news — and a much larger one than Google+. The above chart, created by BuzzFeed’s data team, represents data collected from August 2012 to today.

Yikes. Did Google just shut down the wrong product?

ericcolossal: Please do not tell people who’ve had their art...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 22:59:22 -0400

ericcolossal:

Please do not tell people who’ve had their art stolen from them that they should be flattered. Thank you!

Oh, but please don’t imply intellectual property is identical to material property. That idea is so unhelpful. Yes, selling someone else’s art for your own profit is wrong, but how does the bike analogy help us understand the difference between that and reading an excerpt from a book to a room full of school children? What if I stole part of your bike in order to teach a child about gears? Is that the same?

jendarybak: One of amazing kinetic installations: ‘A million...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:28:22 -0500

jendarybak:

One of amazing kinetic installations: ‘A million times’/ Humans since 1982

jtotheizzoe: scinerds: That’s definitely one heart warming way...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:14:13 -0500

jtotheizzoe:

scinerds:

That’s definitely one heart warming way of looking at our anatomical system:

Hugs Keep Us Alive - Print by Lim Heng Swee

This is how I feel about basically all of science. Infinity hugs.