Skulls in the Stars

“Dr. SkySkull” selects several notable posts each week from a miscellany of ResearchBlogging.org categories. He blogs at Skulls in the Stars.

• The ‘artful dodge’: The danger of a smooth talker. These results could explain pretty much all of politics!  Rita Hendrich at The Jury Room describes a study that demonstrates that, in politics, answers that artfully dodge questions poll better than direct answers.
• Looking to the Past in Search of New Drugs. Dan Bailey at Smells Like Science describes an ironically novel approach to drug development — analyzing the remnants of chemicals used by the ancients!
• Supermassive Black Holes. How much do you know about black holes?  At his eponymous blog, The Astronomist introduces us to the ideas of black holes, popular misconceptions about them, and the importance of supermassive black holes!
• Get those computers spinning. An important ingredient in quantum computing schemes is the idea of quantum spin; at All That Matters, Joerg Heber explains the concept and how it relates to recent research results.

Check back next Monday for more “miscellaneous” suggestions!

The Giant’s Shoulders #30 is now out at Whewell’s Ghost, and is A (Scientific) Christmas Carol! Many thanks to Rebekah Higgitt for hosting and putting together a lovely carnival!

The next edition is tentatively scheduled to be hosted at Morning Coffee Physics on January 16th; submissions are due on January 15th.  They can be sent directly to the host blog or through blogcarnival.com (though, as of this writing, blogcarnival is currently offline).

“Dr. SkySkull” selects several notable posts each week from a miscellany of ResearchBlogging.org categories. He blogs at Skulls in the Stars.

• At a Loss for Words: Modern Lessons From a Lost Language. This year, a 17th century letter in Peru was uncovered that contains traces of an unknown and otherwise lost language.  This is fascinating in and of itself, but Krystal D’Costa of Anthropology in Practice discusses how this discovery reflects on the modern race to document rapidly vanishing languages.
• Redefining Great Britain. Traditionally, maps have been drawn using geographical features, population centers, and a nontrivial amount of politics.  Recently, though, a group of researchers decided to look at a new metric for defining the boundaries of regions: telephone networks.  Over at Maniraptora: Tastes Like Chicken, GrrlScientist explains the details.
• Solar powered hornets? There’s been a lot of talk over the past week or so about arsenic-eating bacteria, but there are plenty of other creatures that draw sustenance from unusual sources!   Dan Bailey at Smells Like Science describes recent research that suggests that a certain species of hornet may be partially solar powered!
• Meet the Milky Way. Finally, sarah at One Small Step introduces us to: The Milky Way!  She describes a new citizen science project in which regular folks can play a role in classifying objects in our own galaxy.

Check back next week for more “miscellaneous” suggestions!

“Dr. SkySkull” selects several notable posts each week from a miscellany of ResearchBlogging.org categories. He blogs at Skulls in the Stars.

Running a little late this evening — end of semester grading is overwhelming my days!  Here are my Monday’s selections, a little behind schedule:

• The Flying Snake Portion of your Dissertation Work… Snakes are not the first thing that naturally comes to mind when one thinks of aerodynamics.  However, Scicurious at Neurotic Physiology discusses one of the most unusual sights of the animal kingdom — the “flying snake” — and the research done on its flight capabilities!
• Searching for wormholes with general relativity. Wormholes are a staple of science fiction, but if they actually exist, how would we find them?  Greg Fish at weird things discusses the possibilities, and the rather gruesome possibilities that might result from journeying through a wormhole!
• 50 years of metallic glasses. Under most natural conditions, metals form a nice crystalline structure.  In a lab, however, they can be made to take a glassy state — Joerg Haber of All That Matters explains how it is done, and what it is good for!
• Cape Cod Crabs Consume Haline Hay. Where has all the haline hay gone?  Some careful scientific detective work has indicated that crabs are the culprit; Sam of Oceanographer’s Choice gives a clear explanation of the evidence so far, and what other questions should be answered.

Check back next week for more “miscellaneous” suggestions!