pfft - Slashdot User

Brain Surgery Linked To Sensation of Spirituality 380

Posted by timothy on Thursday February 11, 2010 @05:30PM from the applied-psychology dept.

the3stars writes "'Removing part of the brain can induce inner peace, according to researchers from Italy. Their study provides the strongest evidence to date that spiritual thinking arises in, or is limited by, specific brain areas. This raises a number of interesting issues about spirituality, among them whether or not people can be born with a strong propensity towards spirituality and also whether it can be acquired through head trauma." One critic's quoted response: "It's important to recognize that the whole study is based on changes in one self-report measure, which is a coarse measure that includes some strange items."

Daily Sex Helps Improve Fertility 174

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 01, 2009 @09:37PM from the use-it-or-lose-it dept.

mmmscience writes "While fertility studies lately seem to have been exclusively focused on in vitro fertilization [IVF], new data coming out of Australia may help with unaided successful conceptions. The study has found that men who have ejaculate daily produce sperm with less damaged DNA. While such actions decrease sperm concentration, it does increase motility, meaning healthier sperm have a better chance of making it all the way to the egg. Good news, as another report has found severe chromosome abnormalities in over 90% of IVF eggs, meaning artificial insemination is just now discovering a whole new field of problems."

Comment Re:Reminds me... (Score 5, Informative) 161

by pfft on Sunday May 17, 2009 @12:44AM (#27984343) Attached to: Shuttle and Hubble Passing In Front of the Sun

From the link: "Thierry made this image using a solar-filtered Takahashi 5-inch refracting telescope and a Canon 5D Mark II digital camera." If that's not a photo, then what is?

Comment c.f. "Stellerator: A Quantum Intimacy Machine" (Score 1) 255

by pfft on Thursday February 19, 2009 @11:15PM (#26924991) Attached to: Human Eye Could Detect Spooky Action At a Distance

See this which achives the same goal using nothing more sophisticated than a cardboard tube. Quote:

"A speculative venture I call 'quantum tantra' aims to change all that. By taking advantage of the theoretical quantum inseparability of observer and observed, quantum tantra seeks a more direct unmediated union with nature than conventional measurements can provide. Perhaps such union will take place as a communion of human minds with heretofore undetectable minds inside inanimate objects." ...

Apple Claims That Jail-Breaking Is Illegal 610

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday February 13, 2009 @02:39PM from the never-underestimate-the-power-of-greed dept.

rmav writes "Apple has finally made a statement about jail-breaking. They try to sell the idea that it is a copyright infringement and DMCA violation. This, despite the fact (as the linked article states) that courts have ruled that copying software while reverse engineering is a fair use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software. I cannot help but think that the recent flood of iPhone cracked applications is responsible for this. Before that, Apple was quietly ignoring the jailbreak scene. Now, I suppose that in the future we may only install extra applications on our iPhones as ad hoc installs using the SDK, and if we want turn-by-turn directions, tethering, and the like, we have to compile these apps by ourselves? Maybe we should go and download the cydia source code and see what we can do with it."

Comment Re:Thats' not the point. (Score 1) 254

by pfft on Sunday February 17, 2008 @08:25AM (#22452476) Attached to: Google's Addiction to Cheap Electricity

It seems rather sensationalist anyway. According to the article (thought other comments here has challanged the calculations), Google's datacenter will require 103MW. Meanwhile, a steel mill seems to require around 150MW. I'd still say that traditional heavy industries are a bigger power user than the information ones.

Cocaine Vaccine In the Works 724

Posted by kdawson on Thursday January 03, 2008 @01:15PM from the runnin-round-my-brain dept.

martyros writes "Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine are performing clinical trials of a vaccine that teaches the immune system to attack cocaine, preventing it from giving a high. The vaccine is made by attaching inactivated cocaine molecules to the outside of inactivated cholera proteins. When the immune system attacks the cholera proteins, it also 'learns' the cocaine molecules as well. The result is that the immune system 'recognizes the potent naked drug when it's ingested. The antibodies bind to the cocaine and prevent it from reaching the brain, where it normally would generate the highs that are so addictive.'" An earlier story from The Star notes that human trials for vaccines against both cocaine and nicotine are well under way.

The Universe Damaged By Observation? 521

Posted by Zonk on Friday November 23, 2007 @05:05PM from the a-bit-deep-for-me dept.

ScentCone writes "The Telegraph covers a New Scientist report about two US cosmologists who suggest that, a la Schrodinger's possibly unhappy cat, the act of observing certain facets of our universe may have shortened its life . From the article: 'Prof Krauss says that the measurement of the light from supernovae in 1998, which provided evidence of dark energy, may have reset the decay of the void to zero — back to a point when the likelihood of its surviving was falling rapidly.'"

Geek Stars From Atkinson to Zappa 320

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday October 26, 2007 @03:51AM from the brains-to-make-it-in-show-business dept.

Ian Lamont writes "You probably remember reading about Brian May getting a PhD in Astrophysics, but may not know about the many other celebrities from the music, TV, and film worlds who have studied science and technology in college and grad school, or are simply serious gearheads who like gadgets, games, and other geek pastimes. Computerworld has identified about 50 celebrities who fit the bill, including Dan Grimaldi (Patsy Parisi, The Sopranos) who has a Bachelor of Arts degree in math, a master's in operations research and a Ph.D. in data processing; Rowan Atkinson, who has a master's in electrical engineering from Queen's College, Oxford; and Todd Rundgren, who developed an early paint program called Utopia. Other folks on the list: Dr. Demento, Montel Williams, Natalie Portman, Curt Schilling, and Huey Lewis."

Give iPod Thieves an Unchargeable Brick 338

Posted by Zonk on Friday July 27, 2007 @04:23PM from the this-ones-for-the-guy-that-stole-mine dept.

Svippy writes "Apple has patented a technology for new generations of iPods that would detect when a user tries to operate the iPod on an unauthorised machine ... and will refuse to charge. Indefinitely. From the article: 'Every portable gadget with a rechargeable battery has a charging circuit that recognises when the external mains charger has been plugged in. It then manages the transfer of current to the battery. Apple's patent suggests that by attaching a "guardian circuit" to the charging circuit, it would be possible to block the charging process. When a device is plugged into an unauthorised computer, software would compare a security code in the device to a code buried in the software in the computer. Apple already employs a similar technology to "pair" iPods to iTunes running on a specific Mac or PC. If the codes do not match, then the guardian circuit could be triggered to prevent any further charging.'"

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