The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

So that’s what written Pict looks like….

Discovery News takes another look at Iron Age Scotland and finds something more than pretty pictures:

The ancestors of modern Scottish people left behind mysterious, carved stones that new research has just determined contain the written language of the Picts, an Iron Age society that existed in Scotland from 300 to 843.

The highly stylized rock engravings, found on what are known as the Pictish Stones, had once been thought to be rock art or tied to heraldry.

…

Although Lee and his team have not yet deciphered the Pictish language, some of the symbols provide intriguing clues. One symbol looks like a dog’s head, for example, while others look like horses, trumpets, mirrors, combs, stags, weapons and crosses.

The later Pictish Stones also contain images, like Celtic knots, similar to those found in the Book of Kells and other early works from nearby regions. These more decorative looking images frame what Lee and his team believe is the written Pictish language.

Entered on 31 March 2010 at 21:16 in the Science file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Is Alzheimer’s a yeast infection? Are the plaques the *cure*?

The Corante blog is taking a second look at brain research that could turn Alzheimer’s thinking on its head:

A recent paper in PLoS One makes the case that beta-amyloid, the protein that has been fingered for decades as a major player in Alzheimer’s disease, is actually part of the body’s antimicrobial defenses.

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When this latest team checked the amyloid protein’s activity, it turns out to be pretty active. The prototype peptide in this area, LL-37, appears to have a broader spectrum of activity, but A-beta beats it against several organisms, most notably the yeast C. albicans. And as it turns out, brain homogenates from Alzheimer’s patients are much more active against yeast in vitro than samples from age-matched controls without the disease.

Check the comments on Corante for more fascinating conjecture – it’s also possible Alzheimer’s is related to diabetes, or (even more speculatively) that demon Toxoplasmosis, the brain parasite you get from kitty litter.

Entered on 29 March 2010 at 6:02 in the Science file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Science Art: Galileo’s Sunspots, 1612

^{Click to embiggen}.

Originally published in 1612 in published in Istoria e Dimostrazioni Intorno Alle Macchie Solari e Loro Accidenti Rome.

found via Woolgathersome.

Entered on 28 March 2010 at 19:49 in the Science Art file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

SONG: The Stick That Never Strikes the Snare

SONG: “The Stick That Never Strikes the Snare” _{(To download: double right-click & “Save As”)}

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: “Scientists supersize quantum mechanics,” Nature , 17 March 2010, as used in the post “Quantum drum beats without beating.”

ABSTRACT: So, they made a thing you can see with your naked eye that moves and doesn’t move at the same time. And it’s a drum – so not only can you see it, but with the right amplification, you could hear it, too. What would it sound like? A buzz? A whisper? A white-noise-like absence of sound? How would our senses react to quantum reality? Or would it be different at all? It’s just… reality, after all. How things work.

I knew before I picked a subject that I wanted to record a song in A minor on the banjo, because that’s what I’ve been playing when I sit down and start fidgeting with my fingers. The idea of the quantum drum and the beat itself (kind of borrowed from “And I Love Her”) both happened at once. And I knew the vocals would have that delay on key words for a kind of there/not there feeling. Figuring out what kinds of things to say, though, took a while, and I’ve had a lot of living in the past month (con: bad bronchial cold, pro: become a grandfather, prematurely). But this is it. A song about the beat that’s always there and never audible.

Now, onto a penitential cover to make up for my tardiness.

Entered on 27 March 2010 at 6:39 in the Songs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Maple syrup – now *that’s* sweet….

Science Daily reveals the health-boosting chemicals found in maple syrup:

University of Rhode Island researcher Navindra Seeram, who specializes in medicinal plant research, has found more than 20 compounds in maple syrup from Canada that have been linked to human health, 13 of which are newly discovered in maple syrup. In addition, eight of the compounds have been found in the Acer (maple) family for the first time.

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Several of these anti-oxidant compounds newly identified in maple syrup are also reported to have anti-cancer, anti-bacterial and anti-diabetic properties.

Prior to the study, the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers already knew that its product was full of naturally occurring minerals such as zinc, thiamine and calcium. But it enlisted Seeram to research the presence of plant anti-oxidants.

Entered on 26 March 2010 at 6:00 in the Science file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Men and women have different nightmares.

PhysOrg divides bad dreams between the sleeping sexes:

The study, carried out by Dr Michael Schredl of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, involved over 2,000 people, who were asked to report on their bad dreams.

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The study found nightmares about being fired from a job, or about violence were more common in men, while for women nightmares of sexual harassment or a death of a loved one were more prevalent. Women were also more likely to have bad dreams about losing their hair or teeth, perhaps suggesting an anxiety about becoming unattractive. Both genders reported nightmares about failing exams, and they could have such dreams even if they were not students.

Entered on 25 March 2010 at 6:24 in the Science file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

No song… yet.

Very close to making the deadline this month BUT NO CIGAR.

I am, however, a grandfather now. So there’s that.

A new song will be forthcoming, as will a penitential cover in short order.

Please stand by.

Entered on 24 March 2010 at 2:09 in the Guild Affairs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Corn syrup not so sweet.

Princeton University researchers have found the bitter truth about HFCS:

The first study showed that male rats given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup in addition to a standard diet of rat chow gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, in conjunction with the standard diet. The concentration of sugar in the sucrose solution was the same as is found in some commercial soft drinks, while the high-fructose corn syrup solution was half as concentrated as most sodas.

The second experiment — the first long-term study of the effects of high-fructose corn syrup consumption on obesity in lab animals — monitored weight gain, body fat and triglyceride levels in rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup over a period of six months. Compared to animals eating only rat chow, rats on a diet rich in high-fructose corn syrup showed characteristic signs of a dangerous condition known in humans as the metabolic syndrome, including abnormal weight gain, significant increases in circulating triglycerides and augmented fat deposition, especially visceral fat around the belly. Male rats in particular ballooned in size: Animals with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained 48 percent more weight than those eating a normal diet. In humans, this would be equivalent to a 200-pound man gaining 96 pounds.

Yeah, it’s not just the sweets… it’s the *kind* of sweets.

Entered on 23 March 2010 at 6:56 in the Science file | 1 Observation |  Print

Cookbook ecology

“Trophic level” is a measure of how far up the food chain an animal is. It’s generally used in ecological studies to show how much impact a predator has on its habitat – sharks have high trophic levels, because they eat lots of smaller fish. New Scientist is using trophic levels in a different way – to get ecological information out of our cookbooks:

Over the 122 years of the study, the average trophic level of the recipes rose from 2.92 to more than 3.4. In other words, newer recipes were more likely to call for the large, predatory fish than were older recipes.

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Levin had expected the opposite trend, because decades of intense fishing have depleted the populations of many fish with a high trophic level, and as a result more and more of the world’s fish harvest is now made up of smaller “trash” fish of lower trophic levels. He suggests it didn’t work out that way because cookbooks don’t reflect what we eat so much as what we aspire to eat. “It’s more about culture than fish,” he says.

Indeed, Levin suspects that rarity may be partly responsible for the prestige of fish like cod and tuna. “When food is expensive, that’s the stuff that shows up in cookbooks,” he says. If so, cooks will continue to seek out these species even as their populations dwindle still further – a perverse demand that could stymie efforts to restore healthy fish populations.

Entered on 22 March 2010 at 6:58 in the Science file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Science Art: Aghatis Dammars, Nordisk familjebok

This is Agathis dammara, the tree from which we get dammar gum, used as a varnish on paintings, a glaze on food or an ingredient in incense.

Image found in a very special category on Wikimedia Commons.

Entered on 21 March 2010 at 6:13 in the Science file | Care to make an observation? |  Print