Science News Digest 21st June 2010
In the science news this week, we take a look at some new evidence that call us to re-write the laws of physics, new research that shows people can tell the strength of a man by listening to his voice, our distorted mental image of our hands, ape gestures are decoded and finally, scientists beat the fashion industry to creating the 'new black'
Breaking the law.
New data from the Tevatron particle accelerator in the USA is pointing towards the current accepted laws in particle physics being out of date. The direct implications of this are that Fermilab’s counterparts in Cern, Geneva should be hunting for not just one ‘God Particle’, known as the Higgs Boson, but five.
The Higgs Boson is so important to physicists because they believe it is the sub atomic particle that could finally explain why all other particles have mass.
The current standard model in particle physics has proven very robust thus far, but the new results from the states are proving a problem to fit in.
The researchers at Fermilab are looking to see why we are surrounded by normal matter and not anti matter and in the process of studying this; they observed collisions of protons and anti-protons in the Tevatron.
However, the collisions they observed produced pairs of matter particles more often than they yielded anti-matter particles, with a 1% difference in the production of pairs of muon (matter) particles and pairs of anti-muons (anti-matter particles).
Therefore the results demonstrated an "asymmetry" of matter and anti-matter, which could not be explained by the Standard Model, pointing towards the existence of multiple Higgs bosons.
Read the full article in the BBC.
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Like the back of your hand.
The phrase to know something like the back of your hand could be horribly inaccurate in the light of new research from University College London.
A study by neuroscientists has suggested that the mental image we have of our hands is quite worryingly inaccurate.
The distorted view is out by as much as an extra two thirds of the width and one third shorter in length, making our hands appear in our heads to be more like a mole’s than a human’s.
Perhaps this might explain Robert Green’s calamity during England’s world cup match against the USA last week.
In a straightforward test, the participants were asked to put their hands under a covered board and judge the perceived location of their fingertips and knuckles.
The thumb size was gauged correctly, but the rest of the fingers were not, with the little finger fairing the worst. It is suggested that the underestimations are linked to ‘the relative sensory sensitivity in each of our fingers’ as reported in the Times.
The scientists are still hoping to uncover whether this effect is for a specific reason or was a trade off for having a better sense of touch in other parts of the hand.
The mental image of our hands is interestingly in direct contrast with our evolutionary history, as our ancestors generally had longer and narrower hands, rather than shorter and fatter, so rather than being an ‘evolutionary hangover’ from this, they believe it could be from a time when assessing someone else’s physical prowess was a matter of life and death.
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Fighting talk.
Research from the University of California shows that you may be able to tell the strength of a man just by hearing his voice. Combining the recording of short, non aggressive statements using voices from all around the world, with hand grip tests and psychological questionnaires, the researchers created a strength perception test.
A group of male and female participants listened to the voices and had to rate on a scale of 1-7 how strong the thought the person in the recording was based solely on their voice. Amazingly, they guessed correctly almost half of the time, which is almost as accurate as physically seeing the person in front of you and then guessing.
The researchers used the psychological questionnaires and hand grip tests to chart the subjects actual strength and aggression to compare the scores with the participants guesses.
Dr Aaron Sell, of the University of California who led the research, said "Looking at a man's body gives you a good idea of how strong he is," said Dr Sell. "Listening to his voice isn't that much worse."
Read more in the Telegraph
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Apes' Japes
British scientists have identified a language of 40 gestures among Orang-utans in three zoos across Europe.
Hitting the ground, hair pulling, biting the air, swatting, grabbing, and walking in tandem with another individual are all widely used methods of communicating with each other.
Back rolls, placing objects on the head, and blowing raspberries all indicated that they wanted to play, while nudging and shooing movements suggested the apes want to be given some space.
Over a three month period 64 gesture types were identified and of those, 40 were used frequently enough for their meaning to be analysed.
Apparently the apes have six social goals according to the Daily Mail , ‘to initiate contact, grooming or play, request objects, share objects, instigate joint movement or 'co-locomotion', cause a partner to move back, or halt an action.’
Professor Richard Byrne and Dr Erica Cartmill who worked on the study wrote 'Orangutan gestures are made with the expectation of specific behavioural responses, and thus have intentional meaning as well as functional consequences.’
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And finally.....
The new black is….er black.
Not naturally occurring, the new black created by scientists at Purdue Univeristy in the USA is actually a metamaterial and is decribed by the Guardian as being ‘an intricately constructed array of tiny silver wires embedded in aluminium oxide, which does weird things to the light waves that hit it, bending them in odd ways and sending them in unnatural directions.’
The creation is something that reflects almost no light, giving it a very, very black appearance. The primary use of this is thought to be for military purposes, for building equipment that is invisible to radar.
However, because the wavelength of visible light is so much smaller than radio waves, it is still going to be a while before we get objects that are visible to the naked eye.
Breaking the law.
New data from the Tevatron particle accelerator in the USA is pointing towards the current accepted laws in particle physics being out of date. The direct implications of this are that Fermilab’s counterparts in Cern, Geneva should be hunting for not just one ‘God Particle’, known as the Higgs Boson, but five.
The Higgs Boson is so important to physicists because they believe it is the sub atomic particle that could finally explain why all other particles have mass.
The current standard model in particle physics has proven very robust thus far, but the new results from the states are proving a problem to fit in.
The researchers at Fermilab are looking to see why we are surrounded by normal matter and not anti matter and in the process of studying this; they observed collisions of protons and anti-protons in the Tevatron.
However, the collisions they observed produced pairs of matter particles more often than they yielded anti-matter particles, with a 1% difference in the production of pairs of muon (matter) particles and pairs of anti-muons (anti-matter particles).
Therefore the results demonstrated an "asymmetry" of matter and anti-matter, which could not be explained by the Standard Model, pointing towards the existence of multiple Higgs bosons.
Read the full article in the BBC.
-----------------------------------------
Like the back of your hand.
The phrase to know something like the back of your hand could be horribly inaccurate in the light of new research from University College London.
A study by neuroscientists has suggested that the mental image we have of our hands is quite worryingly inaccurate.
The distorted view is out by as much as an extra two thirds of the width and one third shorter in length, making our hands appear in our heads to be more like a mole’s than a human’s.
Perhaps this might explain Robert Green’s calamity during England’s world cup match against the USA last week.
In a straightforward test, the participants were asked to put their hands under a covered board and judge the perceived location of their fingertips and knuckles.
The thumb size was gauged correctly, but the rest of the fingers were not, with the little finger fairing the worst. It is suggested that the underestimations are linked to ‘the relative sensory sensitivity in each of our fingers’ as reported in the Times.
The scientists are still hoping to uncover whether this effect is for a specific reason or was a trade off for having a better sense of touch in other parts of the hand.
The mental image of our hands is interestingly in direct contrast with our evolutionary history, as our ancestors generally had longer and narrower hands, rather than shorter and fatter, so rather than being an ‘evolutionary hangover’ from this, they believe it could be from a time when assessing someone else’s physical prowess was a matter of life and death.
------------------------------------
Fighting talk.
Research from the University of California shows that you may be able to tell the strength of a man just by hearing his voice. Combining the recording of short, non aggressive statements using voices from all around the world, with hand grip tests and psychological questionnaires, the researchers created a strength perception test.
A group of male and female participants listened to the voices and had to rate on a scale of 1-7 how strong the thought the person in the recording was based solely on their voice. Amazingly, they guessed correctly almost half of the time, which is almost as accurate as physically seeing the person in front of you and then guessing.
The researchers used the psychological questionnaires and hand grip tests to chart the subjects actual strength and aggression to compare the scores with the participants guesses.
Dr Aaron Sell, of the University of California who led the research, said "Looking at a man's body gives you a good idea of how strong he is," said Dr Sell. "Listening to his voice isn't that much worse."
Read more in the Telegraph
-------------------------------------
Apes' Japes
British scientists have identified a language of 40 gestures among Orang-utans in three zoos across Europe.
Hitting the ground, hair pulling, biting the air, swatting, grabbing, and walking in tandem with another individual are all widely used methods of communicating with each other.
Back rolls, placing objects on the head, and blowing raspberries all indicated that they wanted to play, while nudging and shooing movements suggested the apes want to be given some space.
Over a three month period 64 gesture types were identified and of those, 40 were used frequently enough for their meaning to be analysed.
Apparently the apes have six social goals according to the Daily Mail , ‘to initiate contact, grooming or play, request objects, share objects, instigate joint movement or 'co-locomotion', cause a partner to move back, or halt an action.’
Professor Richard Byrne and Dr Erica Cartmill who worked on the study wrote 'Orangutan gestures are made with the expectation of specific behavioural responses, and thus have intentional meaning as well as functional consequences.’
-----------------------------------------
And finally.....
The new black is….er black.
Not naturally occurring, the new black created by scientists at Purdue Univeristy in the USA is actually a metamaterial and is decribed by the Guardian as being ‘an intricately constructed array of tiny silver wires embedded in aluminium oxide, which does weird things to the light waves that hit it, bending them in odd ways and sending them in unnatural directions.’
The creation is something that reflects almost no light, giving it a very, very black appearance. The primary use of this is thought to be for military purposes, for building equipment that is invisible to radar.
However, because the wavelength of visible light is so much smaller than radio waves, it is still going to be a while before we get objects that are visible to the naked eye.
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