Everything may be different TPT

When your fundamental assumptions are wrong, there will be a lot of rethinking to do.

Interesting article in the Stanford University News


...a scientific detective investigation that could end up protecting the lives of space-walking astronauts and maybe rewriting some of the assumptions of physics....


...The story begins, in a sense, in classrooms around the world, where students are taught that the rate of decay of a specific radioactive material is a constant. This concept is relied upon, for example, when anthropologists use carbon-14 to date ancient artifacts and when doctors determine the proper dose of radioactivity to treat a cancer patient.

...

But that assumption was challenged in an unexpected way by a group of researchers from Purdue University...

...It's an effect that no one yet understands," agreed Sturrock. "Theorists are starting to say, 'What's going on?' But that's what the evidence points to. It's a challenge for the physicists and a challenge for the solar people too."

****
From an area of physics where one really would expect that the 'science is settled'.

Solar System Older TPT

Solar system may be 2 million years older than thought.

FTA: Researchers studying bits of a meteorite discovered that the space rock was 4.5682 billion years old, predating previous estimates of the solar system's age by up to 1.9 million years.
***

Actually, I doubt many people think about millions of years when the subject is in the billions.


*** Here is a link to a new article which connects to the finally published scientific report.

San Andreas Fault more overdue TPT

A new study suggests the San Andreas Fault may be more overdue for a big earthquake than scientists previously thought.

[I live within a mile or two of the SAF, but this study is about a segment far away in southern California]

Poorer TPT

From the WSJ:
Americans say they are underwhelmed by the economic recovery,...

...Yesterday's report also contained the government's annual historic GDP revisions, and growth was revised downward for the last three years. This means the U.S. is $130 billion, or 1%, poorer than previously thought and that growth will have to be that much faster to catch up...

Americans Cut Back on Visits to Doctor

From an article in the WSJ:
"People just aren't using health-care like they have," said Wayne DeVeydt, WellPoint Inc.'s chief financial officer, in an interview Wednesday. "Utilization is lower than we expected, and it's unusual."

But from a reader comment:
"Wow - it is shocking that when a consumer has to pay more for a service or all of the cost that the usage would go down. Remember Econ 101 in College? Supply & demand curves - price goes up and demand declines. It is easy to spend someone else's money."

White Matter Matters More TOT

TOT= Than Once Thought

From 2007 but still interesting.

FTA: Two research groups have turned the conventional wisdom about glial cells—that they do not form synapses with neurons—on its head, opening up new avenues of scientific exploration directed at glia. ...

Their work is the latest chapter in a succession of unanticipated results that are challenging the long-held view of glia as the necessary but unremarkable supporting cast to the reigning star of the nervous system, the neuron. ...

and finally MRIN: “Like any good study, this one raises many more questions than it answers,”

Twice as Many Grizzlies ...APT

Link
...the hair that grizzlies leave behind when they rub up against tree trunks and branches works as a genetic name tag, allowing researchers to count bears and track trends in the populations. It also turns out, that the new method is showing there are about 2.5 times more grizzlies than thought, which brings into question its status as endangered.