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Science Etcetera, Saturnday 20080531

May 31st, 2008
  • Shuttle Discover is set to launch today, bringing a new laboratory, the largest room yet for the ISS.
  • Imagine this from their perspective. Photographs of an Amazon tribe thought to have never made contact with the outside world reveal them firing arrows at the helicopter flying overhead.

    • Tribespeople Thought to never had any contact with the outside world

    Tribespeople Thought to never had
    any contact with the outside world
    Photo by Gleison Miranda, Funai
  • Sperm-Powered Nanobots, Focus Fusion, and a second time dimension are three ideas pushing the edge of science.
  • NY Mayor Bloomberg opened the World Science Festival by laying into political interference in Science.
  • With disintegrating ice posing a threat to human explorers, scientists are turning to robots to explore Antarctica.
  • The United States is on track for a record tornado year.
  • The ladies are more impressed with fuel efficient cars than sports cars.
  • A curious drop in temperature in 1945, previously thought to be the result of aerosols, was more likely a bad measurement.
  • Yay! The Annals of Improbable Research has gone open access.
  • Nanoparticles tracked up a food chain in the lab do not concentrate in top-level organisms like mercury does.

    • rotifer B. calyciflorus with quantum dots assimilated from ingested ciliates appearing red.

    rotifer B. calyciflorus with quantum dots assimilated from
    ingested ciliates appearing red.
    Credit NIST
  • Carl Zimmer: What is a Species?
  • Playing golf increases your life expectancy by five years.
  • Betting on sports reduces our enjoyment of them.
  • The world’s rarest rhino has been caught on camera (attacking the camera).
  • Lot’s of countries have space programs.
  • Noise pollution isn’t just bad for our nerves, but is also bad for ecology.
  • Paleontology cat toys.
  • Festo Air Jelly:



    • 5 comments to “Science Etcetera, Saturnday 20080531”

    1. Those pictures of the tribe are really freaking cool.

      Except I would also argue it is not our job to personally isolate them from the rest of the world either. None of this “ignore them till they find us” mentality. That just seems like we are keeping them primitive and “lost” merely for our own enjoyment. Haha.

      Who knows, they might want cars.

           by DJ Nicko June 1st, 2008 at 10:31 am

    2. Apparently the real reason is that, due to their isolation, they would have no immunities to any of our diseases.

      So it’s not quite “the prime directive” in action here…

           by ClintJCL June 1st, 2008 at 12:12 pm

    3. This is really what happened before the helicopter flew overhead:

      http://oranchak.com/gary-larson-1984-far-side-anthropologists.jpg

           by Dave June 1st, 2008 at 12:46 pm

    4. They could also be immune to AIDS!
      We must steal a [dead] body to find out.

      (woo, science)

           by DJ Nicko June 1st, 2008 at 1:13 pm

    5. It looks like the “undiscovered tribe” was a hoax…

      http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23911279-23109,00.html

      I don’t think this makes the tribe any more or less protection-worthy, but the credibility of the perpetrator is absolutely shot.

      Kristina

           by FlyingSirkus June 23rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm

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