Snippets on Science and Tech today

It's sounding like the earth wasn't knocked off its axis, though lots of other stuff happened. Here's another link that is easier to read than the last one...
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/12/28/1103996533891.html

This is interesting. Wobbling is a lot different than being moved to another spot! Thanks, Suzy, for researching that.

Do germs thrive in soaps? strangely yes..they live in the moist wet condition and die as the soap dries.They also multiply in the bottom of the dish and cracks of the soap et al. Liquid soaps and the cap seems to be less vulnerable.

The family of a seven year old boy living in Singapore is looking for a University willing to take him. The family considers him a Chemistry prodigy and fear his education will stall if they can't find a University that will take him. Hmmm. I'm imagining my daughters at 7 in a University environment. In my humble opinion, it doesn't matter how smart he is, he's still 7...

Suzy - My feelings also. I think I would want to go to school with my 7 year old for fear of them getting lost in the Hallways! I think children need to be children. They grow up too fast.

AP - That is an interesting thought. We have had several cases in our area of the MRCA staph infection. I try to get my family to wash hands often!

Strange but True: The Largest Organism on Earth Is a Fungus.
The blue whale is big, but nowhere near as huge as a sprawling fungus in eastern Oregon.
Next time you purchase white button mushrooms at the grocery store, just remember, they may be cute and bite-size but they have a relative out west that occupies some 2,384 acres (965 hectares) of soil in Oregon's Blue Mountains. Put another way, this humongous fungus would encompass 1,665 football fields, or nearly four square miles (10 square kilometers) of turf.

Did you know that the best, and most effective, cure for an MRSA infection is sunlight?

Einstein's theory of relativity has been measured again - using a particle accelerator. It was first measured in 1938 using the Doppler effect (changes in the pitch of sound when moving towards or away from each other). Satellites have to compensate for time dilation when sending GPS signals.

Storing energy in paper:

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new energy storage device that easily could be mistaken for a simple sheet of black paper.
The nanoengineered battery is lightweight, ultra thin, completely flexible, and geared toward meeting the trickiest design and energy requirements of tomorrow’s gadgets, implantable medical equipment, and transportation vehicles.
Along with its ability to function in temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero, the device is completely integrated and can be printed like paper. The device is also unique in that it can function as both a high-energy battery and a high-power supercapacitor, which are generally separate components in most electrical systems. Another key feature is the capability to use human blood or sweat to help power the battery.

Word for the day: neuroeconomics--the way the brain makes decisions

A British opera singer has grown a 13th pair of ribs and had risky surgery to have it removed so that she could continue to sing. The astonishing thing is that 1 in 400 people apparently suffer from this condition - called Cervical Rib.

"Swallowing a daily dose of fish oil may stop young people vulnerable to schizophrenia from ever developing the condition, a landmark study has found." The article says that high risk youngsters, they had already had an experience with delusions, for example, were given fish oil for a year. At the end of the year only 3% of the people taking fish oil had developed schizophrenia, while 28% of a control group with no fish oil had. Early detection and treatment leading to a far less harmful solution! As with any good scientific study, they are now working to relicate the findings. I bet it is hard to get funding for a study that doesn't put big money in drub companies pockets. Businesses usually like a return on their investment, and rightly so, but it does make it hard sometimes. It would be interesting to find out who is funding these studies.

Bionic body parts and new pharmaceuticals may be easier to develop with the launch of a new Australian device that can see what's happening at the atomic level.

The Inphaze impedance spectrometer, which is the size of a shoebox, uses electricity to detect the structure of samples at the nanometer scale, and could replace larger measuring devices which cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=329033 for more

“Scientific evidence suggests but does not prove that eating 1.5 ounces per day of most nuts, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.”
(1.5 ounce serving is equivalent to about 1/3 cup of nuts)

Also weight watchers shall safely use the same amt(a handful of nuts/1.5 ounces)in their weight loss diet, for it help prevent weight gain and possibly promote weight loss. The fat, protein and fiber in nuts help you feel full longer, so you may eat less during the day. By helping induce a feeling of satiety, nuts may help people feel less deprived and not like they're "dieting." Just limit your portion to a healthy handful.

And nuts play a significant role in reducing the blood pressure too, when consumed unsalted.
Well, now if you are associated with 'nuts' that raise your BP, then these nuts shall help up to some extent!!!

Parapropalaehoplophorus:(oops need a tution to pronounce that I bet)
Scientists have unearthed high in the Andes mountains in Chile the remains of a tank-like mammal related to armadillos that grazed 18 million years ago.And it was a primitive relative of a line of heavily armored mammals that culminated in the massive, impregnable Gyptodon, a two-ton, 10-foot(3-meter)-long beast covered in armored plates and a spiky tail.
The scientists found remains of the shell, jaws, legs and backbone. It was one of the oldest members of the glyptodont family, and the discovery prompted the scientists to craft a new evolutionary tree for glyptodonts and their closest kin.

I hope everyone realises that bees; both domestic and native; are being decimated by some kind of insect leukaemia. This is a serious problem because of their importance as pollen vectors of both native and crop plants. It is said that the most likely cause of the problem is mobile phone signals.

Re: The Great Sumatran Earthquake
From relevant data, an at least temporary change in rate of terrestrial rotation was indeed associated with this event. I have mused as to whether this was an effect, or whether it was part of the causal chain that led to the quake.
My explanation of a possible effect is that the newly-forming subduction-tongue resisted residual momentum of magma relative to crust, until the intruding rock itself melted to magma. This would explain the temporary nature of the alteration of terrestrial rotation.
However, about 40 hours AFTER the quake, earth received the largest pulse of electromagntic radiation from outer space ever recorded. The energy source for that was a distant (about 50k light years away) megastar within our own galaxy. My hypothesis on this is that tachyon-radiation (say neutrinos), was closely associated with the pulse; but, because the former was travelling at a velocity greater than present-day light, the tachyons arrived earlier than the recorded electromagnetic radiation. On arrival, the tachyons either: (i) affected local gravitional fields, and/or (ii) disturbed the magma; say by heating it [either directly or by triggering nuclear reactions at the earth-core followed by plume convection], to finally cause the quake. Also the quake co-incided with synergy; so the moon's then proximal gravitational influence, at that very place and close in time to the event, acted as the final trigger; probably by opening up the tectonic plate contact there. That might occur both through direct gravitational pull on the crust or/and through lunar-induced tidal responses.

Bzzzzzz, bzzzzzz aaaaaack!

Yo Bee, keep outa that mobile and those wireless stuff, eh??....

Happy new year to all who make a visit here.
NEW STEEL: University of Michigan researchers have found a way to make a composite plastic that's as strong steel but lighter, transparent and thin as a piece of plastic wrap.
yes you guessed it right. Its all abt nano particles again.These nanoinfused plastics could aid in the development of dent and scratch-resistant cars and windshields.

I understand from hot electronic news reports that floppies are going to make a come-back with the introduction of software that can format each disk to store an almost infinite quantity of data

Stephen Hawking...He has come to be thought of as the greatest mind in physics since Albert Einstein. He remains extremely busy, his work hardly slowed by Lou Gehrig's disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that affects muscle control) for which he uses a wheelchair and speaks through a computer and voice synthesizer!!
Boy, I was complaining about my migraine...(shame)

Hawkings Radiation theory has stunned the scientists and changed the way they look at the black hole phenomenon.He has mathematically concluded that black hole, left alone and unfed, should radiate away its mass, slowly at first but then faster and faster as it shrinks, finally dying in a blaze of glory like a hydrogen bomb.

why Stephen and his theory suddenly, if you all are wondering, well, Jan 8th is his B'day and I wanted to make a post on behalf of it..but the site got stuffed and things didnt work out!!

Rayray does that mean we can use the existing ones we have? I have hundreds of the things. When I order a new computer I always have to ask now for a floppy drive as they don't come as standard, but I like one there just in case, handy for bios updates and the like.

Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2007.
10. Transistors Get Way Smaller.
Intel announced that the element hafnium and some new metal alloys will allow them to make the millions of switches on their microprocessors far smaller.And it is the biggest change in transistor technology since the 1960s.
9. Scientists Clone Rhesus Monkey to Produce Stem Cells.
At Oregon Health and Science University, Shoukhrat Mitalipov and his team cloned a Rhesus Monkey and used the resulting embryo to create stem cells. Until then, the impressive feat had been performed only with mice.
8. Planet Discovered That Could Harbor Life.
Stéphane Udry and his colleagues found a pair of planets that they believed could harbor life, other researchers disputed which of the two is most habitable, but agreed that the distant solar system is worthy of further study. Both of the celestial bodies orbit the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which is only 20 light years from earth.

7. Engineers Create Transparent Material as Strong as Steel.
Engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have created a material similar to "transparent aluminum". The earthen material,made up of phenomenally strong nanometer-sized particles,When arranged neatly between thin layers of a sticky but weak plastic, the tiny bits of dirt act as the ultimate reinforcements -- giving the ordinary material extraordinary strength. The sturdy composite could be used in lightweight armor or aircraft.
6. Soft Tissue from T. Rex Leg Bone Analyzed.
For the first time, scientists have analyzed biological molecules from the ancient creatures
and concluded that it has a lot in common with chickens!!
5. Laboratory Mice Cured of Rett Syndrome.
Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder that afflicts one in every 10,000 female births, might be curable.

ok, rest tomorrow...

The US food safety authority says that milk and meat from cloned cattle, pigs and goats are now officially as safe to eat as their everyday counterparts.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) says Australia is still considering whether to regulate food from cloned animals and their offspring. But at this stage, the food agency says there are no such products in the food chain.

FSANZ says there are less than 100 cloned cattle and a small number of cloned sheep in Australia and New Zealand. It says researchers have voluntarily agreed to prevent these from entering the food chain.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/01/16/2139653.htm?site=science&topic=lates t

I have some questions. Light is 'bent by heavy objects. The accepted answer seems to be that space is 'curved' by the heavy object. Wouldn't it be simpler to assume that the speed of light is variable and can be affected by the heavy object? What would happen to the theory of relativity if the speed of light is actually variable, even if only in extreme circumstances?

Hi Dino
I was intrigued by your questions and did some googling - strange what some people will do for fun. I found a site where people ask questions and some scientist or other answers them. I'm not sure if it makes anything clearer, but it is an interesting read..... one of the questions is at http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/1997-03/859309604.Ph.r.html

thanks Suzy. I read the page and noticed a logical discrepancy. It says: "In this mathematics you have to assume that time can be measured differently for different observors." But why assume time can be measured differently for different observers? Why not assume that the speed of light can be different? It seems to me that our "theories" of light, time, space etc are very much dependent on mathematical constructs. Of these, something has to be held constant. If light is held constant, then time must be a variable. If time is held constant, then light becomes a variable.

Perhaps I need to look more closely at the evidence for the statement that "if you are travelling at the speed of light and measure something else travelling at the speed of light you would expect to measure its speed to be twice the speed of light. What you actually measure though is just the speed of light."
How has this been measured? Or is this a logical construct from the mathematical assumption?

Note that Lorentz's maths is based on an assumption that time can be different for different observers.

Now, if you want further confusion, see http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q1215.html which says that under certain circumstances the constancy of the speed of light is invalidated. You can blame my father for all this. He introduced me to relativity at the age of 10.(But neither of us trained in physics or maths)

ah!..sorry I couldnt post the rest of the top ten as said due to the non availability of the site..now the probs seems to be sorted out.
ok now back to the list..
4. Enzymes Convert Any Blood Type to O.
Type O -- is the blood type that almost anyone can tolerate.The discovery of enzymes that shear the problem-causing sugars from the surfaces of A, B and AB type red blood cells,could theoretically turn any kind of blood into Type O.
3. Mummified Dinosaur Excavated and Scanned.
Paleontologists from England's University of Manchester have excavated the mummy of a nearly intact plant-eating dinosaur. Preserved by minerals for over 65 million years, the petrified body is in such pristine condition that the researchers could see a striped pattern on what remains of its scales.

2. Chimpanzees Make Spears for Hunting.
Chimpanzees are capable of crafting a spear outa tree branches, by methodically removing the leaves and sharpening the edges to deadly points.
They were also observed to have been using this, some what brutally to hunt smaller mammals. Scientists explained that such sophisticated
animal behavior could reveal a great deal about how early humans used primitive tools.
1. Researchers Turn Skin Cells to Stem Cells.
Using a virus to reprogram skin cells, two teams of scientists managed to skirt the greatest ethical issue facing regenerative medicine -- the destruction of human embryos.Once the draw backs of this new discovery is overcome, it could be one of the greatest break through, that will help mankind to fight the dreadful diseases in future.

Too many theories pop up in the mind when I read Dino's question on light. I am not a pure science student but have got a lil bit of exposure to 'light'(ha!)...will brush up and if possible may post some ans for Dino's query, later..
cheers.
(shhhh, just searching for articles in Google..)