Scite of the Day

This is one that I've been intending to put up for a while. Today seems like a good day; there's a slew of interesting stories. Science Daily is a great site for keeping up with current news in science generally- that is, it doesn't focus on any single discipline in science. The stories are often just passing along or paraphrasing of press releases, which has some weaknesses. Press releases are simply a form of advertising, and advertising is a form of propaganda. Don't expect any real examination of the weaknesses of the discovery or study, and do expect emphasis of the potential benefits (especially with respect to anything having to do with medicine) as opposed to likely benefits.

Despite this weakness, these releases are a great way to keep up with breaking science news, whatever your particular interests may be. If you scroll down toward the bottom, you can sign up for a daily newsletter or an RSS feed. I haven't figured ot RSS yet, but I love newsletters than I can read as my schedule and interest permit. I generally read only a few articles out of each newsletter (maybe one in eight), but often the paragraph accompanying each headline and link is enough to give me enough info that I don't feel the need for more detail. For eaxmple, from today,

Increase In Drunk Driving Fatalities Followed Ban On Smoking In Bars (May 21, 2008) -- A ban on cigarette smoking in bars is meant to save lives by reducing patrons' exposure to secondhand smoke. But it may actually be having an unintended consequence. By comparing data from a variety of locations around the United States where laws requiring smoke-free bars exist with locations without bans, researchers found a relative increase in fatalities caused by drunk driving following ban enactment. It seems that smokers are willing to drive longer distances to an establishment that allows smoking. ... > full story

Now I really appreciate that: I've got the gist of the story and an explanation. I don't need to read the whole article. Someone more interested than me in these issues might want more detail and click to read the whole thing. So lets look at a couple that I did read...

Halting Methane Squanderlust: Catalyst Converts Methane To More Useful Compounds (May 22, 2008) -- The pipes that rise from oil fields, topped with burning flames of natural gas, waste fossil fuels and dump carbon dioxide into the air. Scientists have identified the structure of a catalytic material that can turn methane into a safe and easy-to-transport liquid. The insight lays the foundation for converting excess methane into a variety of useful fuels and chemicals. ... > full story

I've long been troubled by the amount of "flaring" that takes place in the petroleum industry. Producing crude oil often involves the production of a great deal of methane, the main component of so-called "natural gas." It is often economically unfeasable to deliver this methane to market, so it's simply pumped up a pipe and burned, or "flared." In this day and age, indeed since I first learned what was happening, this has struck me as unforgivably wasteful, though I do understand the economic imperatives at work. So the idea is that a zeolite mineral with molybdenum oxide on its surface can convert methane to benzene (which despite the paragraph above is not exactly safe: it's a potent carcinogen). Benzene is an extremely important industrial chemical, as a solvent and as a precursor for a whole lot of organic materials. Still (and to reiterate my point about news releases) the process/catalyst is not yet economically feasible. Nevertheless, this is an important step in research I hadn't heard of previously... news to me.

Observation Of X-rays From Birth Of Supernova Leads To All-out Effort To Record Stellar Death (May 21, 2008) -- NASA's Swift satellite caught the rare birth of a supernova earlier this year, allowing astronomers to rapidly deploy ground-based telescopes to follow its evolution and learn about normal stellar explosions. Astronomers have analyzed the data to conclude that the original star was more than 30 times the mass of the sun, but only slightly larger, when its core ran out of fuel and imploded, blowing the star to smithereens. ... > full story

OK, so I'm a sucker for anything supernova. They're only the most energetic events that take place in our extended neighborhood. (Gamma Ray Bursts seem to be restricted to the early universe, so we see them only in distant galaxies- which is a very good thing). This is kind of a geeky article, but through one of those rare happenstances that are so important for science (luck favors the prepared researcher), orbital observatories caught a supernova in a not-too-distant galaxy in the very first stages of the explosion.

Ancient Amphibian: Debate Over Origin Of Frogs And Salamanders Settled With Discovery Of Missing Link (May 21, 2008) -- The description of an ancient amphibian that millions of years ago swam in quiet pools and caught mayflies on the surrounding land in Texas has set to rest one of the greatest current controversies in vertebrate evolution. ... > full story

Turns out that frogs and salamanders did come from the same group, and later than previously thought. The last-known ancestor of both groups has been discovered. They have an interesting "artist's conception" picture of the beastie; I wish they had a photo or at least sketch of the skeleton.

So there you have it: whether you visit the site, which is constantly being updated, get the e-mail newsletter (as I do), or the RSS feed, Science Daily is a great place to get general science news days before the MSM picks up a fraction of the interesting stories.