Here’s the gist of the kitchen sink hoax. It starts with the end of the Mayan calendar, adds a mystery planet on a crash-course with Earth. Then there is some nonsense about the planets aligning on Dec. 21, 2012, heralding the end of the world. There are about six different pieces to this hoax, which seems to be gaining public momentum.

But the science just doesn’t hold up. Only a few pieces–yes, we will be experiencing a solar maximum and we will be in the galactic plane during this time–are actually true.

Here’s the hoax sorted out. Listen for yourself.

Beer has been flavoring human culture for at least 9,000 years. During that time, the rich brew has transformed and evolved to satisfy the complex palates of the time.

Now, science is a driving force in making beer. And, understanding some of the chemistry can refine color, aroma and flavor.

More Info:
IBU Chart Graph

Dogfish Head Brewery owner Sam Calagione talks ancient beer.

Most people don’t realize that since the advent of high-powered telescopes and a new method in planetary detection called radial velocity, over 400 new planets have been spotted orbiting distant stars. And it all began in 1995.

Now with new planet discoveries growing interest in finding Earth-like planets, some people are calling for each new world to be given its own proper name.

Dr. Wladimir Lyra just penned a 28-page paper (PDF) explaining why the extra-solar planets or exoplanets need individual names. He also includes suggestions for each new planet that has been confirmed.

Want to name your own planet? Join the Exoplanet Naming Society or contact the International Astronomical Union to make your suggestion. Or just comment below and we’ll send your suggestions on to the right people.

Members of the Surui tribe in Brazil test Open Data Kit, photo courtesy of Carl Hartung, UW

Cell phones are coming to the aid of international health workers, environmental monitors and even citizen scientists. Now loaded with a data collection tool, Open Data Kit is the brainchild of some doctoral students at University of Washington.

But early deployment into the Amazon Rainforest and Tanzania will give the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December better information when it comes to global deforestation.

Measuring of the size of rainforests is helping to deter illegal logging practices that so often escape the watchful eye of satellites. Now on the ground monitoring is turning members of the Surui tribe into citizen scientists and helping them break into the emerging carbon market in Brazil.

The man behind the recent hoax captured our attention but smeared amateur science in the process. Fame-hungry Richard Heene used his son and some faked backyard science to launch his reality TV career.

Most people thought it was highly unlikely that a 40-pound boy stowed away in the balloon and floated 50 miles away at over 7,000 feet in the air. But everyone gave this family the benefit of the doubt.

Until the facts stopped adding up.

Just how mad is this amateur scientist? Well, a science reality TV show proposal helps paint the picture. But a YouTube series, called The Psyicence Detectives showcases Heene’s knowledge base when it comes to science. It appears he favors the paranormal, alien and conspiracy theories over real science.

A little green frog is causing big problems across Hawaii, where the coqui has become the latest invasive species to get a strong foothold.

But Hawaii may be the only place experiencing a surging frog population. Around the world, frogs are dying in droves from a fungus called a chytrid.

What can we learn from the little coqui?

Brilliant minds have been challenging people to embrace math for centuries. But one man made recreational math fun and has been inspiring legions of followers for decades.

His name? Martin Gardner. This mathemagician has been transforming frightening formulas into fun.

But recreational math doesn’t just fill free time. It challenges the mind and even informs real science.

The Zebra Puzzle--a famous math puzzle

The following puzzle is a fine example of a detective math puzzle. Based on clues supplied in a narrative, answer a question by applying simple, man-on-the-street logic to the information (not all of it relevant) supplied.

On an odd little street in the town of Somewhere, there are five house in a row. Each house is a different color, each is inhabited by a woman of different nationality, and the owners of the houses also have their differences: each owner has a different pet, prefers a different drink and works in a different profession. A detective, charged with the task of discovering who drinks water and who owns the Zebra, gathered the following information, itemized for your convenience:

1. The Englishwoman lives in the red house.
2. The Spaniard owns a dog.
3. Coffee is drunk in the green house
4. The Ukrainian drinks tea.
5. The green house is immediately to the right of the Ivory house.
6. The engineer owns the snail.
7. The diplomat lives in the yellow house.
8. Milk is drunk in the middle house.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house on the left.
10. The doctor lives next to the owner of the fox.
11. The diplomat lives next to the owner of the horse.
12. The teacher drinks orange juice.
13. The carpenter is Japanese.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

Now it’s your job to find out Who owns the zebra and who drinks water.

Cabeus Crater, impact zone for LCROSS mission

When NASA smashed an expensive satellite and rocket into the moon, many people wondered why the space agency would do such a thing.

Then on October 9, with hundreds of thousands of people watching, the big plume of dirt and ice that would indicate a successful mission was barely a blip on the radar.

So what happened? Well, it’s still early too tell what the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite picked up when a centaur rocket smashed into a crater on the lunar south pole.

But NASA is saying the mission was a success. Now scientists just have to sift through the mountain of data to determine what they have.

Evidence of global warming is hitting the Arctic harder than anywhere else. The rate of climate change is twice that of the rest of the world.

And, now scientists are discovering the Arctic region plays an important role in capturing atmospheric carbon, both in the ocean and on land.

But that delicate system might be in jeopardy as the polar ice caps melt, triggering a feedback loop of increased warming and melting.

As permafrost melts for the first time ever, there might be a big threat looming–methane–which could help convert the Arctic carbon sink into a big greenhouse gas emitter.

Visualization of a river bed created using VisTrails, a system developed by University of Utah computer scientists Photo by: Juliana Freire and Claudio Silva, University of Utah

A two-year experiment to build a framework to analyze the massive amount of data scientists are collecting will push research to better understand our planet, our bodies and the limits of the Internet.

The National Science Foundation initiative called Cluster Exploratory or the CLuE program is a partnership between I.B.M. and Google to put scientists to work solving the problem of how to deal with so much information.

The answer? Cloud computing. Using virtual locations online to cope with the large data stream will allow science to answer some big and complex questions.

Top 8 in the Science Cloud:

Sloan Digital Sky Survey–obtained deep, multi-color images covering more than a quarter of the sky and created 3-dimensional maps containing more than 930,000 galaxies and more than 120,000 quasars.

Visible Human–is an anatomical data set licensed from the National Library of Medicine, Visible Human Project.

IRIS Seismology Database–allows you to monitor global earthquakes in near real-time, visit seismic stations around the world, and search the web for earthquake or region-related information.

Protein Data Bank–contains information about experimentally-determined structures of proteins, nucleic acids, and complex assemblies.

Linguistic Data Consortium–supports language-related education, research and technology development by creating and sharing linguistic resources.

TerraFly–View images and data anywhere in the United States and in much of the World.

Large Synoptic Survey Telescope–A large aperture, wide field survey telescope and 3200 Megapixel camera to image faint astronomical objects across the sky.

Open Topography–provides integrated access to high-resolution topographic data and web-based processing tools as well as enables its user community to share knowledge, resources and build science collaborations.

While most serious scientists are wringing their hands, wondering who will win the Nobel prizes, a different group of scientists is celebrating the lighter–but just as bona fide–side of science.

The 19th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony shined a silly look at science at Harvard last week. Here’s a breakdown of the winners in each category. The Ig Nobel goes to…

Economics:
Icelandic bank management and auditors–for demonstrating how to bankrupt a national economy.

Math:
Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank–for printing currency ranging from one cent to 100 trillion dollars.

Public Health:
Elena Bodnar–for inventing a bra that’s good during an emergency.

Physics:
Katherine Whitcome, Daniel Lieberman and Liza Shapiro–for answering the question: Why don’t pregnant women tip over?

Medicine:
Donald Unger–for proving his mother wrong and discovering that knuckle cracking doesn’t cause arthritis.

Veterinary Medicine:
Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson–for discovering that cows with names give more milk at dairy farms.

Peace:
Stephan Bollinger–for determining that empty beer bottles will do more damage then full ones when smashed over someone’s head.

Chemistry:
Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor Castano–for making diamonds out of tequila.

Biology:
Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei–for finding a bacteria in panda poop that eats kitchen garbage.

Literature:
Ireland’s Police Service–for writing more than 50 traffic tickets to Prawo Jazdy, the most frequent driving offender in Ireland. The name in Polish means…”Driving License.”

Every year (since 1901) the Nobel Foundation has been honoring the final wish of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.

This year the three science prizes went to nine scientists who overcame a big biology problem, harnessed light and unraveled the mechanism at the heart of a cell.

Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology:
Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak

Nobel Prize for Physics:
Charles Kao, Willard Boyle and George Smith

Nobel Prize for Chemistry:
Thomas Seitz, Ada Yonath and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

The CDC hopes that at least 150 million Americans will get the shot or nasal spray to fight the H1N1 flu virus that began its worldwide rampage in April.

Some are worried about side effects. But the CDC and other research groups are teaming up to monitor people who get the vaccine. Others are worried about a preservative in the vaccine. If you want a thimerasol-free vaccine, just ask.

This is slated to be the biggest voluntary vaccination program in U.S. history. And if the demand calls for it the federal government is prepared to vaccinate the entire population in the next few months.

But public opinion surveys show only about 40% will definitely get their vaccination when it is made available.

Some want to get both seasonal vaccine and the new H1N1 flu vaccine. Is that advisable? The CDC says, Yes. But a new Canadian report finds an unexpected link among those who got the seasonal flu vaccine last year and those who fell ill with swine flu.

To prevent the flu, the CDC recommends:

Washing your hands–with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Cover you mouth–when you cough and sneeze.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth–that’s how germs spread easily.
Stay home if you feel sick–don’t go to school or work and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

For more information, go to www.flu.gov.

When the ants go marching two by two, pay attention to what they are doing. Scientists are. And they are discovering clever ways to improve cyber security just by mimicking the behavior of ants.

The foraging insects use something called swarm intelligence to efficiently locate and gather food. Computer scientists are applying this behavior to computer networks to find viruses, worms and other electronic threats.

Story written and produced by Michelle Ma

The biggest business lobby in the U.S. is pushing for the EPA to hold a public hearing to debate the science of global warming.

The move, calling for the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st Century, is proving too much for some chamber members, from big utilities to Nike and Johnson & Johnson.

Yesterday, the EPA announced it was moving forward with its plan to regulate stationary sources of greenhouse gas, including some 14,000 coal-fired power plants and refineries.

Now the ball is back in the chamber’s court and it’s time for it to decide whether it wants to sue the EPA and try to put the science on trial.

REALscience dissects the petition submitted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which reads like an anti-global warming play book.

Cast of ABC Television's Flash Forward, courtesy of ABC

When the ABC Television series FlashForward pushed the collective consciousness of the world (in the context of the show) forward six months, the book on which the action-adventure series is based flashed up the Amazon book ranking last week.

The content of the show is being closely guarded but to get a sense of what’s coming, look no further than FlashForward, the novel by Robert J. Sawyer.

Or to the real-world particle physics about to start at CERN below Switzerland.

New research coming from Johnson & Johnson shows that Listerine antiseptic not only kills germs that cause bad breath and gum disease but also could prevent those germs from entering the bloodstream where they can lead to diabetes, heart disease and pneumonia.

This follows on the heels of an Australian study showing “sufficient evidence” that alcohol-containing mouthwashes–including Listerine–may be associated with a greater risk of mouth cancer.

So the question remains, is this 120-year-old health product both helping and harming us?

President Obama Addresses UN Climate Summit

In what could be considered his most strongly-worded warning about the threat of climate change, U.S. President Barack Obama told the United Nations that there is little time to act before permanent environmental damage is irreversible.

In a stirring speech, he called upon Congress, scientists, engineers and citizens to take climate change seriously and work toward solutions to prevent the worst and adapt to the inevitable.

He also announced that the U.S. would begin tracking greenhouse gas emissions across the country and work toward eliminating long-standing fossil fuel subsidies.

Video of President Obama’s UN climate speech:

Amy Wright Collects Samples While Diving, courtesy of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University

Cures to the most mundane and deadly illnesses have been found deep in the jungles, high in the mountains and hidden in the rainforests. But until recently not many scientists were looking to the ocean as another source of medicine.

But sponges, coral, snails and other marine creatures have a lot to offer the medical community. The small molecules that make them so adaptive to their harsh environments could give medical science an edge in fighting cancer, chronic pain and auto-immune diseases.

Story written and produced by Michelle Ma

Entangled Photons and The Lost Symbol

Avid fiction aficionados have anxiously awaited author Dan Brown’s latest rip-snorting adventure through the mysterious. The Lost Symbol is Brown’s new book, which features the largely unknown field of noetic sciences as a means to move his plot along.

Loosely based on the quantum mechanical principle of entanglement, noetics aims to scientifically understand the mind-connection as a way to discover the unconscious.

The Institute of Noetics has been using physics to drive research that has appeared in bona fide peer-reviewed journals. And, now it’s front-and-center position in Brown’s book will surely push it into public consciousness.

AltaRock Energy Site in California

After hitting a fault in Basel, Switerland and triggering a 3.4 earthquake that shook the city, Markus Haring shut down his project. In August German geothermal company Geox caused a few quakes and is investigating. And, in California, AltaRock Energy just suspended it’s exploration of an area north of San Francisco.

Is Geothermal energy too dangerous? Or do the small micro-seismic events resulting from drilling deep and fracturing hard rock relieve built-up pressure and prevent bigger quakes?

Science is still trying to decide. But the search for renewable power sources has led many to the core of the planet, where a seemingly unending source of heat can be found and captured.

Apoptosis in Action

Apoptosis is essentially cell suicide. It is the natural process by which damaged or unfit cells get expelled, making rooms for robust healthy cells.

This field of biological study has been around for a long time. But scientists are just starting to unravel the highly complex processes involved in cell death.

And, the answers they are uncovering may lead to new medical, based on harnessing the power of cell life and death.

Cotton-top Tamarin, courtesy of University of Wisconsin, photo by Bryce Richter

Music is an important part and key ingredient of our culture. But it might also extend to the animal kingdom.

New research by University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology professor Charles Snowdon has found that while monkeys don’t respond to the likes of human Top 40, they do prefer hearing their own vocalizations.

Story written and produced by Michelle Ma.

Hwang Woo Suk's Fake Cloned Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Scientific papers are the hallmark of any scientist’s career and achievements. And having a published paper retracted spells trouble.

Do rising retraction rates hurt the public trust in science? Or does closer scrutiny signal improved safeguards against fraudulent science?

A new study shows that 106 papers were retracted between January and July this year, setting a 20-year record for most retractions in one year. And the year has months to go.

Just as we have to monitor our own health, now we have to be more aware of our computer’s health. While high cholesterol and blood pressure aren’t issues for our machines, keeping them free of viruses and worms are.

A new piece of malware, known as the Conficker worm, that has been worming its way into millions of computers for the better part of a year is self-replicating–just like a human virus. And, it is raising new security concerns from experts in law enforcment, science and government.

It’s time for a new sub-discipline of computer science–computer virology.

Urban geologist David Williams is a big stone kinda guy. He is not one to shy away from a nice chunk of gneiss. Nor will he wilt at the sight of weathered brownstone–one of his favorites.

Now, the author of Stories in Stone: Travels in Urban Geology, Williams shares his passion for rocks–from travertine to pop–in his new book that gets at the heart of Earth.

It’s a tour-de-force through plate tectonics, dinosaurs and even the possibility of life on other planets but the stories that stones tell are firmly rooted in our cultural and economic lives.

REALscience sat down with Williams and discovered why he is so passionate about these rocks.

Route of Ocean Watch Through the Northwest Passage

Ocean Watch, the 64-foot sailboat that also doubles as a voyage of scientific discovery is traveling over the top of North America, in an effort to traverse the rapidly melting yet still dangerous Northwest Passage.

The fabled shipping route has been long sought by explorers as a quick way from Europe to the far East. Thanks to a little help from Mother Nature in the form of climate change the passage is now passable for a few weeks each summer.

And sailors of all levels of experience are flocking to the far north in an effort to be part of an elite group traveling through this largely unexplored area.

Despite annual melting of the sea ice, sailing through the Canadian archipelago is a tricky business.

REALscience continues its coverage of the voyage of Ocean Watch as it makes an attempt to circumnavigate North and South America.

In a move to take science from the lab and place it in the public square, the World Science Festival is about to start its second year of inciting curiosity.

REALscience talked with organizer and physicist Brian Greene to hear what we can expect at this year’s festival.

Photo: Physicist and Co-Founder Brian Greene
Credit: Suzie Horgan for World Science Festival

Listen here. [display_podcast]

Buy Tickets (if you are in the New York City area.)

REALscience correspondent Richard Romano will have a full report from the festival next week.

Festival highlights:
Opening Gala to celebrate E.O. Wilson’s 80th Birthday.

Pioneers in Science, a discussion with Harold Varmus and Sylvia Earle led by New York City high school students.

Transparent Brain, a neurological exploration of how close we are to reading the mind of others.

Watching Wilson and Watson, actress Anna Deavere Smith’s trip down the rabbit hole and into the minds of these two mega scientists.

Notes & Neurons, a musical adventure with Bobby McFerrin (of Don’t Worry, Be Happy fame.)

World Science Festival Street Fair, an all-day outdoor science fair with the Math Midway, Discovery Labs, CSI, and much, much more.

REALscience is excited to announce a partnership with Science, Naturally! to produce an audio version of its book, One-Minute Mysteries 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science!

Click here to listen to A Fair Contest, the mystery featured on Science Friday.

Book authors Eric and Natalie Yoder are guests on NPRs Science Friday today, where they discuss their book and the upcoming One-Minute Mysteries 65 Short Mysteries You Solve with Math!

The United States is in a recession. The signs are all around. But how is an official recession calculated or determined? The National Bureau of Economic Research announced that a recession began in December 2007. It took a year of housing foreclosures, bank failures and massive layoffs to slow economic growth after a long 15-year run.

The United States is in a recession. The signs are all around. But how is an official recession calculated or determined? The National Bureau of Economic Research announced that a recession began in December 2007.

It took a year of housing foreclosures, bank failures and massive layoffs to slow economic growth after a long 15-year run.

Some of the top scientific minds met at University of Washington last spring. Their purpose–to discuss the future of personal genomics.

They met on the eve of the passage of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act.

MIT biology professor Eric Lander, The Wellcome Trust’s Dr. Leena Peltonen, Bill Gates III, and Harvard Geneticist George Church discussed the state of the science.

Dr. Maynard Olson moderated the panel as they discussed the implications of knowing genetic predispositions for disease, talked about ways to get the public more engaged and, they shared whether or not they each had their genome sequenced or would if the chance arose.

Bill Gates, through his foundation, is trying to find cures to what ails us. He’s taking on malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases that kill millions every year. With better understanding of genes and our whole genetic map–our genomes–he says we can eradicate these global killers.

Eric Lander Background (26 minutes)
eric-lander-biology-background.mp3

Discussion moderated by Maynard Olson (37 minutes)
moderated-discussion-with-maynard-olson.mp3

Bill Gates comments (8 minutes)
bill-gates-on-personalized-genome.mp3

Scientists and policymakers are urging immediate attention and research into a growing concern that the world’s oceans are becoming more acidic.

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell held a field hearing in Seattle yesterday to stress the importance of learning more about this phenomenon that could threaten all fish and marine animals.

Congressman Jay Inslee thinks that ocean acidification is the first major sign of global warming. Here’s what he said at the hearingJay Inslee.

New research from Alabama may spell the end for sickle cell anemia, a serious blood disorder that affects many African Americans. Using the new non-embryonic stem cell technique that was announced a couple of weeks ago, Dr. Tim Townes has created a way to correct the DNA mutation and make new sickle-free blood cells. Next stop. Diabetes.

See the video interview with Dr. Townes, courtesy of University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The glaciers of the Himalayas feed over a billion people with the rivers that originate high in the range. The current rate of melt is staggering, caused by excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is a global problem and one that leaders from over 190 countries will discuss December 3-14 at the Bali Climate Change Summit. There a two-year process to create a new pact to cut greenhouse-gas emissions will begin. The plan that comes from this meeting will guide the world after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Some are calling it crunch time in the fight against global warming. And, the whole world will be watching.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer outlines goals for the summit.

Download:

Glaciers around the world are melting but western Canada’s seem to be hitting new records and uncovering buried remnants that have been hidden in the ice for thousands of years.

Garibaldi Provincial Park video

I consider outreach to the general public a very important component of my research and have given presentations to the general public, written articles for newspapers and magazines, and am involved in Meltwatch, an outreach project of the David Suzuki Foundation. Furthermore, I have worked as staff geologist on the M.V. Polar Star along the westcoast of South America, in Antarctica, and in northern Europe, where I presented general as well as regional/local Earth Science topics. In 2006 I was teaching first, third, and fourth year classes in the Departments of Earth Sciences and Geography at Simon Fraser University.

A new color composite picture from the Hubble Telescope shows two interacting galaxies—performing a cosmic dance. This photo of Arp 87 is a high resolution version a fuzzy photo from the 1960s. This picture, taken in February 2007 used the Wide Field Panetary Camera 2.

NASA movie of Arp 87

25-30 percent of the population have the MRSA bacteria in their bodies. In its regular staph form it is usually harmless. But somehow a virulent anti-biotic resistant strain of the bacteria most often found in hospitals and nursing homes is racing across the country, closing schools and killing otherwise healthy people. Is this a superbug or just a super nasty infection?

MRSA–Is this the new Superbug?

Centers for Disease Control: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Key facts about MRSA infections in the United States, including schools and healthcare settings.

MRSA: Key Facts

Date Released: 10/23/2007
Running time: 4:57
Author: National Center for Preparedness, Detection, and Control of Infectious Diseases

Nobel Prize for Physiology & Medicine: Mario Capecchi, Sir Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies
“for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells”

Nobel Prize for Physics: Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg
“for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance”

Nobel Prize for Chemistry: Gerhard Ertl
“for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces”

Nobel Prize for Literature: Doris Lessing
“that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny”

Nobel Peace Prize: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.
“for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”

The Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences: Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson
“for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory”

The International team of researchers plumbing the 2.5-mile depths of the Arctic Ocean didn’t find what they were looking for—exactly. But they didn’t come up empty-handed either.

An extraordinarily rare sea creature has just been spotted off the coast of Washington state. Believed to be extinct for 100 million years the reef-building glass sponge is thriving in the chilly Pacific, out in the open ocean.

After years of inventing useful peanut-based foods, Mohomed Ahmedna has announced his latest creation–the allergen-free peanut.

For the first time, a basic assumption of physics called molecular chaos, has been proven in the lab. A team of Baylor University physicists created a model out of ball-bearings.

See the movie here.

What’s killing all the honey bees? No one knows for sure. But a lot of different people are pointing at more than one culprit. Colony Collapse Disorder is the newly-minted term for bees abandoning their hives when they go out to pollinate fruit and vegetable crops . Even the Secretary of Agriculture is worried that the missing bees could cost at least $15 billion.

The bottled water business is booming–up to $100 billion a year. But, some think the cost may outweigh the benefits.