Becton, Dickinson and Co., the Franklin Lakes, N.J., medical technology firm, has purchased Cytopeia, a Seattle-based maker of flow cytometry cell sorting instruments.

In 2000, Cytopeia was spun off by Seattle's Institute for Systems Biology. The company launched its first product, the InFlux Cell Sorter, four years later.

Becton, Dickinson said that Cytopeia's "InFlux" cell sorter would compliment its own "FACSAria II" system. Both instruments allow researchers to analyze and separate different subtypes of cells in a complex mixture of cells. For instance, the InFlux can go through 50,000 cells in a second.

A good explanation and animation on flow cytometry is on the Cytopeia site here.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Ger van den Engh, Cytopeia's president, will join Becton, Dickinson's BD Biosciences unit as vice president for advanced cytometry. He will manage the company's Seattle operations.

A new study says humans have changed the world's environment more by warming the climate than by directly encroaching on habitats.

The research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, also establishes a link between climate change and narrower, continental changes such as the earlier spring flight of butterflies in California, the earlier release of pollen in the Netherlands and the increased growth of pine trees in Mongolia.

Also, the research could guide policy makers as they tussle with different approaches to fighting global warming. In an article accompanying the study, two scientists ...

Microsoft has launched (an appropriate metaphor this time) its Worldwide Telescope desktop application. You must download the software, but then you're treated to a beautiful array of images and "guided tours" of the cosmos (see screenshots below). Intended for science education, "Worldwide Telescope stitches together terabytes of high-resolution images of celestial bodies, and displays them in a way that relates to their actual position in the sky."

According to Microsoft, the mission of Worldwide Telescope is:

To aggregate scientific data from major telescopes, observatories and institutions and make temporal and multi-spectral studies available through a single cohesive Internet–based portal.
To re-awaken the interest for science in the younger generations through astronomy and new technologies through the virtual observatory of the WWT. This also provides a wonderful base for teaching astronomy, scientific discovery, and computational science.

Here are some images from the application:

Comparisons will inevitably be made with Google Sky, which, as a browser-based tool, is not as immersive. But forget about the competitive rivalry and comparisons for a moment, these are great educational tools -- or just fun for those interested in astronomy.

In space, no one can hear you change your mind.

For decades, NASA kept a tight fist around the construction and operation of the spacecraft that ferried its astronauts and hardware into orbit. Sure, an army of private contractors actually built the vehicles, but NASA oversaw the designs and always kept the pink slips. Now, however, the agency seems to be shifting course, as NASA officials insist that the budding commercial spacecraft fleet represents the only way the United States can realize its dreams of solar-system conquest on schedule and at an affordable cost.

Because of a new focus for NASA’s strategic investments not to mention incentives like the Ansari X Prize, which spurred the space-tourism business, and the Google Lunar X Prize, which could do the same for payloads private-sector spaceships could be ready for government service soon, says Sam Scimemi, who heads NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. “The industry has grown up,” he tells PM. “It used to be that only NASA or the Air Force could do such things.”

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Dr. Roman Polyak is a fortunate man. In mathematics, his area of research, few get to see their discoveries translated into actual applications during their lifetime.

Yet more than two decades after he first developed his theory and published it, Polyak watched a conference presentation that showed how his mathematics had translated into a device to help treat cancer.  

“In the presentation, they showed a photo of a boy,” said Polyak, smiling as he recalled the image of a young patient helped by this new technology.  “I was in heaven.  I never dreamed, 25 years ago, that rather abstract mathematics could be used for cancer treatment.”   

Polyak, who holds a joint appointment in operations research and mathematical sciences at George Mason University, works in the field of mathematical optimization. Optimization, as the name implies, involves making something as effective as possible.

“People have been working on optimization since the ancient Greeks learned that a string encloses the most area when it is formed into the shape of a circle,” he said

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PILOBOLUS (pronounced Pil-OB-olus) is a kind of mushroom and gives its name to an American dance group founded in 1971 by four young men studying at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. The botanical reference is apt for a dance style dependent on choreography that can only be called organic.

Bodies are often in close contact, enfolded, encircling, clinging, opening out, wrapping around. The seven dancers perform the movement, based on balance and weight-shifting, with ineffable grace and skill.

There is a moment in Symbiosis, the fourth piece in this Adelaide-only Australian debut season, when Jenny Mendez seems to roll from the floor up Manelich Minniefee's legs and body until he catches her in his arms, then swings her gently down and up again, rocking her tenderly. It's done so smoothly and easily that it looks quite natural. The controlled strength hiding the effort behind such actions is even more evident in Jun Kuribayashi's solo Pseudopodia, a terrific set of variations on the somersault. In an extraordinary interval, this tall, lean dancer stands with his legs wide apart but leaning far back, his head, arms and upper body parallel to the floor. Try it yourself sometime.

The opening number, Aquatica, while too long, has a continual flowing rhythm and some attractively evocative groups, the two women poised like ships' figureheads on the pyramids formed by the men.

It contrasts nicely with Gnomen, a series of dances for four men in black trunks, their hunky physiques made glamorous by golden sidelighting. Balance is particularly significant in some sections here: when Kuribayashi is held upside down, stiff and sloping, for instance, or when Andrew Herro is thrown out, alarmingly, towards the audience, then snatched back and forth as if lying face down on a swing.

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Does a bigger brain make you more intelligent?

Do blind people really hear better than sighted people? And why can't you get that irritating tune out of your head?

There are many myths about our brains and as many amazing facts, as revealed in a fascinating new book by SANDRA AAMODT and SAM WANG, two leading neuroscientists.

Here, they explain some of the most surprising secrets of our grey matter...

FACT: You can't tickle yourself
When a doctor examines a ticklish patient, they place one of the patient's hands over their own to prevent the tickling sensation.

Why does this work? Because no matter how ticklish you may be, you can't tickle yourself.

This is because your brain focuses on what's going on in the outside world to prevent important signals from being drowned out in the endless buzz of sensations caused by your own actions.

For instance, this means you're unlikely to notice the texture of your socks, but you would feel a tap on the shoulder.

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In light of Ben Stein’s new movie on intelligent design, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” UC Irvine biologist Dr. Francisco Ayala gave a lecture entitled “Evolution Is a Fact and It Is the Unifying Concept of Biology” on Wednesday, April 30 in Humanities Instructional Building 100.

Sponsored by the Atheists, Agnostics and Rationalists @ UCI, the speech drew on arguments from Ayala’s latest book, “Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion.” The publication heavily utilizes science to support Ayala’s arguments against proponents of intelligent design.

Ayala first pointed out that evolutionary biology follows the methodology of geology and other sciences. The fossil record, to some extent, mirrors geological evolution. As geologists discovered patterns in rock layers showing millennia of change and development, Darwin and subsequent biologists found organisms that reflected these changes over time.

Contrary to Ayala, intelligent design proponents argue that the theory of evolution is unreliable because the fossil record is missing the intermediates between one species and its evolutionary successor. Acknowledging this opposing view, Ayala’s presentation included a slideshow with photographs indicating that the intermediate species between a modern fish and its oldest ancestors “show characteristics typical of amphibians.”

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After an hours-long crawl, the space shuttle Discovery reached its launch pad on Saturday, in preparation for a May 31 liftoff to add the main piece of a huge Japanese research complex to the international space station.

With the shuttle in position, NASA will conduct a practice launch countdown with the seven-member crew next week. The mission is the third of five planned for this year.

Discovery's crew, led by Mark Kelly, includes five first-time fliers and two veterans. Kelly has made two previous spaceflights, and lead spacewalker Michael Fossum has flown once.

The crew includes Japan's Akihiko Hoshide, who will oversee the setup of Kibo, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's primary contribution to the space station. Also aboard will be pilot Ken Ham, spacewalker Ron Garan, mission specialist Karen Nyberg and space station flight engineer Greg Chamitoff.

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Take this with several grains of Lawry's Seasoned Salt, but the latest rumor going around is that Microsoft will have a Blu-ray version of the Xbox 360 ready to go for this Christmas.

Kotaku reports from a Taiwanese tech news site that a manufacturer in the country has already taken orders from Microsoft for a version of the console with a Blu-ray drive inside.

Since the general wisdom seems to be that the Blu-ray drive in the PlayStation 3 is driving sales of Sony's console this year, this move would at least make sense.

By way of verifying these claims, I looked at the Chinese original and note that it does say "blue light Xbox," but of course for all I know, it just means that they'll be on sale in Sunday's K-Mart circular.

Okay, so: Let's assume this happens, and they announce it at E3. Good idea? Bad idea? Why? Show your work.