Did You Feel It? | Earthquake Information Database

USGS |  22 September 2011

Did You Feel It? is a site hosted by the US Geological Survey where anyone can quickly [and anonymously] contribute data about earthquakes.

A list of earthquakes [is provided], and once you enter your zip code, you are given the opportunity to answer several questions (were you inside or outside, if you were asleep, did any objects fall, the duration of the shaking) that help scientists at the USGS judge the intensity of the earthquake. This information is especially valuable when it comes from individuals far from the epicenter.

The site has a tremendous amount of information, including maps, seismograms, animations, predictions and probabilties, tips on preparedness, and an archive of past earthquakes.

io9

Space Shuttle Discovery Flight Deck | 360 Degree View

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Click here for an amazing 360 degree view of the Space Shuttle Discovery's flight deck during decommissioning in the Orbiter Processing Facility

Thanks, Rick

The Neuroscience Of Brain Farts

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Robert T. Gonzalez has written an interesting article about those "D'oh" moments when our brains miscommunicate with our bodies.

Brain farts, the momentary lapses in attention that strike when you least expect them, may actually be rooted in abnormal patterns of brain activity. Neuroscientists call them "maladaptive brain states." We spoke to researchers in an emerging field of neuroscience that examines these brain states to learn about the neurological basis of brain farts, their potential evolutionary origins, and how they might one day be a thing of the past.

For a long time, the mistakes caused by brain farts during monotonous tasks were chalked up to momentary, unavoidable fluctuations in brain activity. Consequently, much of the research since the early nineties surrounding human error and brain activity has been focused on how our brains react to mistakes in order to facilitate processes like correction and learning. In contrast, very little attention has been paid to what goes on in our brains in the moments leading up to a mistake.

But a handful of recent studies have demonstrated that what we refer to colloquially as "brain farts" may actually be rooted in a number maladaptive brain states. These unusual neural patterns happen when you're doing monotonous or repetitive activities — and they can develop as many as thirty seconds before a mistake occurs. It's this aspect of the maladaptive brain state that has led some scientists to conclude that we may one day be capable of predicting, and preventing, the elusive brain fart.

Read the rest of the article and get links for source material at io9.

io9 | 25 Great Books By Legendary Scientists

#1. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

Alasdair Wilkins writes:

... here are twenty-five amazing books written by world-famous scientists. These are legendary texts, popular science explainers, personal memoirs, and controversial new theories, and they're all enduring monuments to the power of science.

The list includes books by James Watson, Jonas Salk, Richard Feynman, Margaret Mead, Jane Goodall, Richard Dawkins, Mary Leakey, and Primo Levi. The only nits I have to pick are the inclusion of The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud [I would nominate the two-volume Principles of Psychology by William James instead] and the absence of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Read the article and see the complete list at io9.

Brain Imaging | A Beautiful Mind

Broad Overview of a Human Hippocampus | Tamily Weissman, Jeff Lichtman and Joshua Sanes

Fluorescent proteins with confocal microscopy | 2005

It was the hippocampus as no one had ever seen it, illuminated in radiant hues. The image is called, aptly, a Brainbow, the colors serving a scientific purpose by highlighting specific neural structures. Yet their choice also reflects an artistic bent; scientists display the brain not the way it is (an undifferentiated gray) but the way we want to see it, “painted” with bursts of fluorescent color.

This image, created in 2005, is one of many that Carl Schoon­over, a doctoral candidate in neurobiology and behavior at Columbia University, has collected in his recent Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain From Antiquity to the 21st Century (Abrams). As science has probed the brain’s structure and function, scientists have had to rely on art to translate their discoveries to visual form.

Another image from the article:

Human Cerebral Cortex | Alfonso Rodríguez-Baeza and Marisa Ortega-Sánchez

Scanning electron microscope | 2009

Proto via 3 Quarks Daily

Crispian's Science Map

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I am a freelance IT consultant specialising in the development of software test strategies and managing the full software testing of complex systems. I write the satirical skeptical blog, “Science, Reason & Critical Thinking”, and am the co-founder and co-organiser of the Hampshire Skeptics Society and Winchester Skeptics in the Pub.

The map of modern science was created to celebrate the achievements of the scientific method through the age of reason, the enlightenment and modernity. Despite many of the scientific disciplines mapped having more ancient origins, I have restricted the map to modern science starting from the 16th century scientific revolution.

The map primarily includes modern scientists who have made significant advances to our understanding of the world, however I have also included many present day scientists who fuel a passion for, and advances in, science through communication and science popularisation.

Crispian Jago