Science Etcetera, Mercuryday 20080604

June 4th, 2008

The Milky Way was previously thought to have four major arms, that number has been cut in half… and we are still in the boondocks.

Scutum-Centaurus and Perseus arms Dominate the Milky Way Galaxy
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Novel bacteria species found in 120,000-year-old ice.

Antimicrobial surface wipes used by Hospital Staff to disinfect surfaces may actually spread pathogens, like MRSA.

Arizona Kiwi Strawberry fake juice in a can has a whopping 360 calories, which puts it on the list of America’s Unhealthiest Drinks.

The intervals on which Old Faithful explodes are based on average rainfall.

Why do we freak out over shark attacks, when bees are a 100 times deadlier?

Parts of Spain are turning into desert because of water shortages caused by mismanagement and Global Warming.

The Army’s Dr Bruce West wants us to believe Sun variations are causing Global Warming, but he can’t be bothered to submit his research to peer review.

A web browser for autistic children (More screenshots here).

ZacBrowser

A truckload (literally) of paperwork has been delivered to begin the process of opening Yucca Mountain to Nuclear Waste storage. This is the kind of bureaucracy I don’t mind.

UCSD wants to quantify the amount of information in the whole world and what types.

While the Science Festival was a huge success, the annual Book Expo America on the West Coast featured no science writing.

Heavy cannabis use linked to smaller brain parts.

Average height is a measure of a society’s overall health and well-being, and the Europeans have more of it than Americans do, but the reasons for this disparity are complex.

The Most Dangerous Species in the Mediterranean

Trovants are stones that grow after rainfalls.

Implanting electrodes into the brains of moths and junebugs, allow scientists to control them:

4 comments to “Science Etcetera, Mercuryday 20080604”

Check out the comments on the marijuana article…
by ClintJCL June 4th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Ah yes, I just heard about that marijuana study a couple days ago when someone asked me nicely if they could use my “found some weed in a parking lot” photo for some sort of article about that study. I was okay with it, because they included this disclaimer: “although rest assured pot-smokers, scientists also
claim that intelligence is unrelated to brain size”. :)
by spugbrap June 4th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Ryan: As for the article about average human height in different regions, I hardly think that “the reasons for this disparity are complex” as you said. As a fellow Pastafarian, surely you must know that the FSM is the primary reason for any height disparity, but I’ll summarize it here for the rest of your readers.

Er. well, my Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster book is downstairs, so I’ll let Darren and Christie summarize it instead:

1. Gravity might not be what we believe. Pastafarians believe we stay on earth because His Noodliness is pushing us down with His Noodly Appendages.

2. Consider this as further evidence of the FSM theory of gravity - Shorter people are touched by his Noodly Appendages more often than taller people. People now, in general, are taller than the peoples of the past because the Flying Spaghetti Monster has to touch more and more people. Basically, our touch time with the FSM has decreased as the population has increased, which has in turn allowed us to grow taller.

Clearly, Americans are being touched by His Noodly Appendages more often than Europeans are. There may be complex reasons for this, but the more likely culprit would seem to be complex carbohydrates!
by spugbrap June 4th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Clint,

There’s some very valid criticisms of the study in there. It holds less weight that some of the more comprehensive studies about marijuana health effects (although none have looked at this specific aspect (more research to come I guess)).

Spugbrap,

I saw your photo! Awesome! Be sure to talk like a Pirate to combat Global Warming! : )
by ideonexus June 4th, 2008 at 11:07 pm