Interesting Articles: November 14th-December 2nd 2006

Environment:
* Mystery of the Missing Heat: Upper ocean has cooled slightly in recent years, despite warming climate (Science News). "Between 2003 and 2005, the top layers of the world's oceans cooled slightly, but scientists aren't sure where the heat went." It's legitimate articles like this that cause some people to doubt global warming. The abstract of the source article, Recent cooling of the upper ocean (Geophysical Research Letters), is available but doesn't really say much. If you want me to e-mail you a copy of the Science News article -it's interesting-, just ask.

Language:
* Things We Know We Know (WNYC's On The Media via NPR). I'm not posting this discussion of Rumsfeld's press briefings for political reasons; rather, I'm posting it because it's one of the most detailed overview of and commentary on someone's speaking habits I've seen. I'd love to see more of these for other public speakers. Also, the link to the Slate piece on the poetry of Rumsfeld is worth following.
* Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly (Applied Cognitive Psychology). An Ig Noble award winner. Reports on a number of experiments/studies that demonstrate use of unnecessarily complex vocabulary ends up sounding bad and reflecting poorly on the writer. Sadly, the full text of the article isn't accessible online without a subscription. If you have a copy of it, please send it to me.

Photography:
* Blink-free photos, guaranteed (Velocity). An Ig Noble award winner. A physicist models blinking and estimates the probability of taking blink-free pictures. The last paragraph of main article body has a handy rule of thumb.

Health:
* Death rates for poor higher in rich neighborhoods (Stanford Report). What an interesting result. One possible message: live within your means.
* Gene pool: new therapy improves memory, learning in stressed rats (Stanford Report). What can I say? Ever since I took Sapolsky's class, I've thought he was awesome. And this is neat research.
* Trimming Down Cancer: Fat could hinder body's fight against disease (Science News). Reports on a study that appears to demonstrate that fat cells themselves contribute to cancer -- this effect isn't simply a consequence of unhealthy eating or a lack of exercise. More details are available in the source article's dense abstract: Stimulatory effect of voluntary exercise or fat removal (partial lipectomy) on apoptosis in the skin of UVB light-irradiated mice (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).
* New Advice: Don't Sit Up Straight (LiveScience via Yahoo News). It's always good to investigate common "wisdom."

Reasons to Wash Your Hands:
* Hotel-room surfaces can harbor viruses (Science News). I'm not even going to cite the source article Science News used to write its piece because, frankly, I really don't like how the study was designed. I simply want to point out the conclusion, as represented by the above title.
* Many infections tied to medical settings (Science News). Again, the title says it all. This might also be a reason to be treated/examined somewhere besides a traditional hospital, if possible. The abstarct of the source article, Epidemiology of community and healthcare associated musculoskeletal infections (MSI) in hospitalized patients (Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy), is available.