Archive for the 'Science Etcetera' Category

h1

Science Etcetera, Saturnday 20080809

Saturday, August 9th, 2008
  • Smallest Snake EVER.

  • Leptotyphlops carlae

    Leptotyphlops carlae
  • Hottest water on Earth EVER.
  • Strongest Bite EVER.
  • A census from the Wildlife Conservation Society has found the motherload of gorillas in the Republic of Congo, showing protections are working and populations are better than expected.

    Female gorillas produce on the average one baby in intervals of about five years

    Female gorillas produce on the average one baby in intervals of about five years
    Credit: Thomas Breuer
  • Natalie Angier’s article on how smell triggers memories explains why I think of grandma’s house every time I smell natural gas burning, and it also has a cool experiment to try using a bag of flavored jelly beans.
  • I dunno, but maybe gas prices are so high because Exxon Mobil makes $1,485 a second.
  • A lens-free microscope inspired by the floaters in our eyes could be made for $10.
  • solar Eclipse filmed from an airplane:


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Venusday 20080808

    Friday, August 8th, 2008
  • September 10!!! The sub-atomic rumble!!! As the LHC Starts Up!!!! Be There! BE THERE!! BE THERE!!!
  • Quasicrystals lack long range order, like aluminum and teflon, but do have repeating patterns, making them extremely complex for scientists to understand. Now researchers have modeled one using plastic beads.

  • Quasicrystal

    Quasicrystal
  • Lactate acid doesn’t cause sore muscles, older athletes redefining aging, and a lack of an “athletic gene” are just some suggestions for science stories for the Olympics.
  • There’s an ocean of air above our heads, and the emerging science of aeroecology studies the organisms and environment that exists within it.
  • Wonderful photoset of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

  • ATLAS Magnet Toroid End-Cap

    ATLAS Magnet Toroid End-Cap
    Credit: CERN
  • The science of boredom, and how it can inspire creativity.
  • Medical societies must punish doctors who are complicit in torture.
  • 970 trillion kWh fall from the sky everyday:


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Jupiterday 20080807

    Thursday, August 7th, 2008
  • Topographical Overlay for Google Earth.

  • Topographical Overlay for Google Earth

    Topographical Overlay for Google Earth
  • Handheld “electronic tongue” will tell you the grape and vintage of wine.
  • Dan Vergano of USA Today has summer science reading suggestions.
  • How many Elements can you name in 15 minutes?

  • Perodic Table Quiz

    Perodic Table Quiz
  • Kids who play outside have lower incidence of short-sightedness.
  • Animal Rights Protesters recently tried to kill researchers using “Molotov cocktails on steroids”.
  • Buzz Aldrin goes Mike Tyson on a Moon Landing Hoax Conspiracy nut:


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Mercuryday 20080806

    Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
  • A Dutch school teacher, volunteering for the galaxyzoo.org project, has found a cosmic ghost, illuminated gas possible left over from a dead quasar.

  • Hannys Voorwerp

    Hanny’s Voorwerp
    Credit: Dan Smith, Peter Herbert, Matt Jarvis & the ING
  • Banning smoking in public places cut heart attack rates by 17 percent in Scotland.
  • “Astronomers now know that Zodiacal light represents reflected sunlight shining on scattered space debris clustered most densely near the sun,” thanks to Queen guitarist Brian May, who published his doctoral thesis recently.
  • Photos of 5,000-year-old rock art.

  • Ketley Crag Northumberland

    Ketley Crag Northumberland
    Credit: English Heritage
  • A better measure of School success is how much students learn rather than what they learn.
  • A form of mass psychosis caused the Dancing Plague of 1518, when 400 people danced convulsively until many of them dropped dead.
  • Take a ride on a train that doesn’t stop:


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Moonday 20080804

    Monday, August 4th, 2008
  • The Lomatia tasmanica is a plant that has cloned itself for 43,000 years, making it vulnerable to threats, which is why environmentalists are asking for help to expand its population.

  • Lomatia tasmanica

    Lomatia tasmanica
    Credit: Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens
  • Water bugs breath underwater by trapping a thin layer of air to their bodies, which allows some to hibernate all winter underwater.
  • Parasitic dodder vines read the RNA of their host tomato plants.
  • Welcome to the blogosphere Pillonaut, who’s is blogging from bed for a NASA study of the effects of long-term immobility on the human body.
  • New research claims the dinosaur soft tissue found in a Tyrannosaurus thigh bone is actually bacterial slime.
  • Photo: International Space Station transitions across the Sun.

  • ISS Passing Across the Sun

    ISS Passing Across the Sun
  • Is religious diversity an evolutionary defense against disease?
  • We have mosquitoes to thank (in part) for defending the forests we have today from over-development by humans.
  • People who live in older towns have lower rates of obesity, because such places were designed with walking in mind.
  • Soon you will be able to own a jetpack that gets 30 minutes of flight time for $100,000. I’ll be adding this to my Amazon wishlist if anyone’s thinking Winter Solstice presents for me.
  • The Large Hadron Collider Rap:


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Saturnday 20080802

    Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
  • Chem4Kids.com has a great site for learning the Elements.

  • Periodic Table and the Elements

    Periodic Table and the Elements
    Chem4Kids.com
  • Should the government start buying old cars to get them off the road?
  • While there is a strong consensus on Global Warming, the debate over the details gets the public confused about it.
  • Glass molecules are indistinguishable from that of a liquid, so why is glass a solid?
  • Scientists working with the Mars Lander must shift their schedules 40 minutes every day, keeping them in a state of perpetual jet lag.
  • AION - Giant Rolling Ball Clock.

  • Markinetic

    Markinetic
  • Talking to people with Alzheimer’s as if they were children causes them to become resistant because they are adults trying to maintain their adult identities.
  • Female fruit flies mate with many males, storing the sperm in specialized organs. This causes rapid evolution of sperm proteins, which must compete to fertilize the eggs.
  • Economists estimate 33% of China’s carbon footprint goes toward manufacturing exports.
  • What kinds of homosexual couples want to get legally married? Those who believe in god and have kids.
  • Robert Bruce Thompson on the demise of the chemistry set:


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Venusday 20080801

    Friday, August 1st, 2008
  • You can watch today’s solar eclipse live online.

  • Total Eclipse 20080801

    Total Eclipse 20080801
    Credit: NASA
  • OFFICIAL, touched and tasted, water on Mars.
  • Here’s a guide to the IAU’s perpetually changing lexicon for the stuff in our solar system.
  • A four-square-kilometre of the Arctic ice shelf has broken off.
  • NPR has the sounds of howler monkeys!!!
  • Liquid lake of hydrocarbons, complete with beach, confirmed on Saturn’s Moon Titan.

  • Artists Conception of Lake on Titan

    Artists Conception of Lake on Titan
    Credit: NASA
  • The Olympic Committee is ready to test female athletes to find out if they are men.
  • The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) has issued a warning about the dangers of text-messaging while walking.
  • Carbon Credits is now a $63 Billion industry.
  • Using x-ray machines, researchers are revealing the secrets of the Antikythera Mechanism, the world’s oldest analog computer at 2,100 years.
  • Elephant Beetle, Biggest in Mexico, one of the Biggest in the World (HT Oranchak)


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Jupiterday 20080731

    Thursday, July 31st, 2008
  • Happy National Orgasm Day!
  • CERS’ SafeRoadMaps.org helps you plot the safest routes to you destination.

  • SafeRoadMaps.org

    SafeRoadMaps.org
  • The Union of Concerned Scientists has posted the Top 12 Political Cartoons from their yearly Science Idol Contest. They just get better every year.
  • Women start out happier, but men overtake women in happiness later in life, as they find more financial and familial satisfaction.
  • The mechanism of “memory replay” during sleep dimishes with age, possibly hampering our brains’ ability to consolidate memories.
  • Oxytocin, the hormone we get from cuddling, helps us to encode positive social memories.

  • Oxytocin Molecule

    Oxytocin Molecule
    Credit: ????? ??????
  • Ways to hallucinate without drugs.
  • People worry about sharks at the beach, when rip currents are the real killer.
  • As oil prices skyrocket, sailboats return for shipping.
  • It’s a mini panda baby boom as four giant panda cubs born in 14 hours.
  • Growing Salt Crystals with a toilet paper roll:


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Mercuryday 20080730

    Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
  • I want this periodic coffee table.

  • Periodic Table Coffee Tables

    Periodic Table Coffee Table
    Credit: B.S Halpern/Science
  • A new study provides insight as to why poor people play the lottery more than other demographics, mostly because they feel it’s their only chance to rise economically.
  • Skeptical Hmmmmm… at this study showing meditation slows HIV progression, but will have to wait for a real scientists to critique it.
  • 0.3% of the Saharan Sun is enough to power Europe.
  • In a lineup of photos people will incorrectly choose an enhanced version of themselves, when asked to pick the real one.
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder leaves clear scars visible in brain images.
  • In two years HP plans to start building a Central Nervous System for the Earth, using a trillion sensors to monitor the health of our planet.
  • Another lunch martini? Geek Logik provides algebraic equations for daily decision-making.
  • Weeds are evolving resistance to herbicides. Some scientists believe it is gene-swapping with herbicide-resistant crops.
  • Companies are abusing the Carbon Market and making a mockery of it.
  • Livescience has five interesting facts about pain.
  • Compound produces greenshift when exposed to UV light:


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Marsday 20080729

    Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
  • A new study shows that there are no oceans escaping human impact.

  • No Pristine Oceans

    No Pristine Oceans
    Credit: B.S Halpern/Science
  • Young scientists looking to study evolution in the field should check out Canyon bacteria as those living on either side have adapted to slightly different environments in different ways.
  • University of Michigan will soon be offering DIY microfluidic devices.
  • Typhoons bury tons of carbon in the oceans.
  • SETI has added a new algorithm for analyzing signals from space.
  • The Bush administration is proposing a fire sale on the Rocky Mountains to get at the oil-shale there, but oil companies don’t have the tech to get it yet.
  • Super market chain, Giant Foods, will stop selling unsustainable sea food. Hooray!!!.
  • Cambridge is working its way toward winning the n-prize with balloons to achieve space flight within £999.99.

  • Cambridge Space Balloons

    Cambridge Space Balloons
  • An historian is predicting the end of “science superpowers”.
  • July 2010 Los Angeles will ban plastic bags.
  • Uh oh! Soy lowers sperm counts. Possibly something to do with the estrogen in it.
  • New research suggests whale sharks are getting smaller as a result of human exploitation.
  • Robotic Water Snake:


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Moonday 20080728

    Monday, July 28th, 2008
  • Visit the new NASA Images website for all you NASA media needs.

  • NASA Images

    NASA Images
  • Japan is eating bluefin tuna into extinction.
  • Answer to a 30-year-old mystery: Magnetic reconnection occurring one-third the distance to the Moon causes the aurora borealis.
  • No gender differences in Math performance. So can we please move on now?
  • Seed magazine has a slide show up of laboratories at night.

  • Kostiuk Laboratory

    Kostiuk Laboratory
  • Randy Pausch has died at 47 his video Achieving Your Childhood Dreams was a viral hit.
  • USA is now Number-One in Wind Energy Production. W00T!!!
  • How apropos! The Library of Alexandria will host the 2008 Wikipedia Conference.
  • Origami with DaVinci surgical robot:


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Saturnday 20080726

    Saturday, July 26th, 2008
  • Check out the new supertree of dinosaur evolution.

  • Dinosaur Evolutionary Tree

    Dinosaur Evolutionary Tree
    Credit: Royal Society
  • Even humans should lick their wounds, as scientists have found the compound in saliva that speeds up healing.
  • Belly fat is rich in stem cells.
  • Studying magic tricks could improve our understanding of cognitive science.
  • North American brushfires could cool the Arctic.

  • Canadian Brush Fires, January 2007

    Canadian Brush Fires, January 2007
    Credit: NASA
  • Researchers at Northwestern University are warning Olympic Spectators that Beijing Pollution may trigger Heart Attacks and Strokes.
  • The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is working on smart electric grids in preparation for the imminent electric car revolution’s effect on the power grid.
  • One in five people is so distracted with technology that it is impacting their lives, which carries grave ramifications for… excuse me, I’ve just received a new tweet.
  • Feather vs. Nitrogen Triiodide (HT BMF):


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Venusday 20080725

    Friday, July 25th, 2008
  • There are so many times I could have used this feature, Google Maps has added walking directions, but I doubt they’ll give you the shortcut through your neighbor’s backyard.

  • Now I Can Walk to the Science Center!

    Now I Can Walk to the Science Center!
  • “The greenhouse gas emissions arising every year from the production and consumption of cheeseburgers is roughly the amount emitted by 6.5 million to 19.6 million SUVs.” Complete with supporting math.
  • Photo essay: Leopard takes on a crocodile (HT oranchak).
  • Men and women both seeking to get pregnant should get preconception advice from their doctor before getting busy.
  • An archeologist has found up to 450 possible archaeological sites on Google Earth in countries he couldn’t go to personally for security reasons.

  • Citadel of Bust in Registan

    Citadel of Bust in Registan
    Credit: Google Earth
  • Britian’s Office of Communication has reported that the documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle misrepresented Global Warming scientists and took their statements out of context.
  • A few of the psychology tricks retailers use to get us to buy their products, like putting “50% Off” signs on overpriced stuff.
  • Seven best Old Growth Forests National Parks, one’s named after John Muir!
  • Scientists for Better PCR (wikipedia PCR Entry to help get the joke (I didn’t get it at first… still don’t)):


  • h1

    Science Etcetera, Jupiterday 20080724

    Thursday, July 24th, 2008
  • Odorrana tormota is a frog that can tune its ears to different frequencies.

  • Odorrana tormota

    Odorrana tormota
    Credit: Albert Feng
  • An estimated 19 percent of total energy used in America goes toward food production. Healthy eating and traditional farming could reduce that energy consumption by 50 percent.
  • Dentists are learning bedside manners from virtual patients in Second Life.
  • Large, highly detailed, and zoomable map of the US Patent System’s classification system.

  • US Patent Hierarchy (detail)

    US Patent Hierarchy (detail)
  • The Bush Administration tried to find a way to redefined CO2 emissions from automobiles as not being CO2 to avoid having it classified a pollutant.
  • There is 90 billion tons of microbial carbon mass in the deep ocean.
  • Noise Awareness Billboards.
  • Outflow from the Amazon river is feeding plant life thousands of kilometers into the Atlantic Ocean, creating a powerful carbon sink.

  • True-color image of the Amazon outflow

    True-color image of the Amazon outflow
    Credit: Norman Kuring/NASA
  • Awesome talking point: Blind salamanders disprove creationism.
  • Samsung Presents 10 Optical Illusions in 2 Minutes (HT Clint):