Science Etcetera, Mercuryday 20080528

May 28th, 2008

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter caught a photo of the Phoenix landing.

Pheonix Landing

An idea so simple it makes you wonder. Professor Arkadi Vigalok has found a way to make chemistry greener by replacing chemical solvents with water.

For the cost of the Iraq War we could have built 320 nuclear reactors, potentially eliminating a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions.

Automakers are rolling out the fuel-efficient tires.

Kids who imbibe energy drinks take more risks. Imagine Ned Flander’s kids on pixie sticks.

Tragically, dreams of a record-setting skydive may be over as the balloon left without the skydiver. Somebody please loan him another $200k for another balloon please?

Freakin sweet. The NYT has a “network visualization linking different diseases, represented by circles, to the genes they have in common, represented by squares.” It’s a lot cooler than it sounds, and it’s flashy

The Human “Diseasome”

Male bees prefer mating with the Ophrys orchid to mating with a female bee. I’m thinking there’s a point I could make about the porn industry using a similar evolutionarily exploitive tactic on human males, but I need to hurry up and get this blog post done so I can go stare at the Suicide Girls.

Antarctic icebergs set adrift due to global warming are smothering seals.

A computer program predicts that religion will flourish evolutionarily (You can view the code here (I’m often amazed at how simple most of these programs with revolutionary findings are)).

Insurance Companies value a human life at $50k, but a new study shows a human life is worth closer to $129k.

An Archeologist who wears an Indian Jones hat believes he has found Cleopatra’s Tomb, and this time there are no Nazis, Russians, or Savage Natives to fight off.

A microscopic organism, Daphnien, interfaces with a computer with a beautiful result: