Snippets on Science and Tech today

Hey, appy, if you read at the speed of light then no time passes and you can read as many google articles as you like!

HI ALL, just reading some of the snippits again, and enjoying them all.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2003/0210rotation.html

Suzy, found this about wobble of the earth orbit. back in 2003, NASA said weather causes a wobble . now i am wondering here in 2008, if the reverse is not also true? a wobble caused by the tsunami could cause weather changes?

I read somewhere that the earth has always wobbled in orbit and was major cause of the mini ice age recorded in England, in the dark ages. cannot find that article now.

DINO, guess I should increase my reading speed then! what happens as you approach the speed of light? I never have enough time to gogle and read all I want to read!

More input, more input!

Ah ha!! Spent almost whole day in reading articles, sub articles, links..so on.Now a bit dizzy, got a feeling,that I've attended a non stop lecture on astrophysics!!!!
ok coming to the point, Dino, the article quite convincing and with not much of maths, and fancy equations, is the following link..
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/speed_of_light.html
It concludes the argument on the speed of light thus...
"Finally, we come to the conclusion that the speed of light is not only observed to be constant; in the light of well tested theories of physics, it does not even make any sense to say that it varies."

Dino, Digging deep into my memory banks, which is an unreliable activity for me these days, I think the 'double the speed of light' assumption comes from actual measurements made of objects moving at everyday speeds, like trains and cars. They then take those findings to 'predict' what they will see and have an hypothesis which can be tested. Of course I may have been taught that by someone who didn't really know.....

When you google 'speed', you get a lot of stuff about the movie and drugs.... Not very helpful here... changed to 'relative speed' and that was much more interesting, except I ended up on an 'ask a scientist' page and got stuck there for ages reading all the strange questions and answers.....

British researchers are gathering seeds from rare Australian plants to be preserved forever at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, south-west of London.
The Millennium Seed Bank Project is trying to collect seeds from 10 per cent of the world's plants - that's 24,000 species - by 2010.

I like that article MizT! The article talks about weather moving the earth, but not about the earth's movements changing the weather. It's a little chicken and egg isn't it?

Lol, Suzy. I did the same... got stuck on the 'ask a scientist' page.
Appy, thanks for the reference. Haven't yet had time to digest it. There's so much about general relativity and special relativity to put into my brain, and also the relevance of gravity.

I posted this on Easy today as well. Suzy mentioned that those of us with blue eyes are mutants, but I prefer to think of us as UNIQUE.

People with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor, according to new research.

A team of scientists has tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. The mutation occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, so before then, there were no blue eyes.

"Originally, we all had brown eyes," said Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.

The mutation affected the so-called OCA2 gene, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives color to our hair, eyes and skin.

"A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a 'switch,' which literally 'turned off' the ability to produce brown eyes," Eiberg said.

The genetic switch is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 and rather than completely turning off the gene, the switch limits its action, which reduces the production of melanin in the iris. In effect, the turned-down switch diluted brown eyes to blue.

If the OCA2 gene had been completely shut down, our hair, eyes and skin would be melanin-less, a condition known as albinism.

"It's exactly what I sort of expected to see from what we know about selection around this area," said John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, referring to the study results regarding the OCA2 gene. Hawks was not involved in the current study.

Baby blues
Eiberg and his team examined DNA from mitochondria, the cells' energy-making structures, of blue-eyed individuals in countries including Jordan, Denmark and Turkey. This genetic material comes from females, so it can trace maternal lineages.

They specifically looked at sequences of DNA on the OCA2 gene and the genetic mutation associated with turning down melanin production.

Over the course of several generations, segments of ancestral DNA get shuffled so that individuals have varying sequences. Some of these segments, however, that haven't been reshuffled are called haplotypes. If a group of individuals shares long haplotypes, that means the sequence arose relatively recently in our human ancestors. The DNA sequence didn't have enough time to get mixed up.

"What they were able to show is that the people who have blue eyes in Denmark, as far as Jordan, these people all have this same haplotype, they all have exactly the same gene changes that are all linked to this one mutation that makes eyes blue," Hawks said in a telephone interview.

Melanin switch
The mutation is what regulates the OCA2 switch for melanin production. And depending on the amount of melanin in the iris, a person can end up with eye color ranging from brown to green. Brown-eyed individuals have considerable individual variation in the area of their DNA that controls melanin production. But they fou

'Missing Link' to Crocodile Discovered
RIO DE JANEIRO (Jan. 31) - Brazilian paleontologists said on Thursday they had found the fossil of a new species of prehistoric predator that represented a "missing link" to modern-day crocodiles.

The well-preserved fossil of Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi, a medium-sized lizard-like predator measuring about 5 1/2 feet from head to tail, dates back about 80 million years to the Late Cretaceous period.

"This is scientifically important because the specimen literally is the link between more primitive crocodiles that lived in the era of the dinosaurs 80-85 million years ago and modern species," said paleontologist Ismar de Souza Carvalho of Rio de Janeiro Federal University.

Bizarre New Mammal Species Caught on Film
(Jan. 31) - Sporting a trunk-like nose and a jet-black rump, a new species of a bizarre furry mammal was caught on film as it scuttled along a forest floor in Tanzania.

Researchers first sighted the elephant-shrew (Rhynchocyon udzungwensis) in 2005, but not until recently did they confirm the animal as a new species of giant sengi. They filmed the cat-size creature in March 2006 as it twitched its slender snout while searching for insect snacks in the Ndundulu Forest in Tanzania.

But what exactly is it?

Weighing a little more than 1.5 pounds, the elephant-shrew is 25 percent to 50 percent heftier than its closest relatives. Its body extends an average of just under two feet.

"This is one of the most exciting discoveries of my career," said lead author of the new species description Galen Rathbun of the California Academy of Sciences. "From the moment I first lifted one of the animals into our photography tent, I knew it must be a new species—not just because of its distinct coloring, but because it was so heavy."

In the 1970s, Rathbun first described the monogamous behavior of elephant-shrews, which maintain exclusive mating pairs. They got their nickname due to the animals' long, flexible snouts. But recent research has shown that elephant-shrews, also called sengis, are more closely related to elephants than to shrews.

With the addition of the new species, there are now four species of giant sengis identified and a total of 16 species of both giant and normal-size sengis.

Like other giant sengis, the new one has a hunchbacked posture, slender legs and nostrils tipping the end of its nose, though it stands out due to its black rump hairs, distinctive gray face and even larger than normal body size.

Francesco Rovero of the Trento Museum of Natural Sciences in Italy first caught the new species on film in 2005 in the remote Ndundulu Forest in Tanzania's Udzungwa Mountains. The next year, Rovero and his colleagues embarked on a two-week expedition, during which they captured four of the animals and made several observations to confirm the new species.

The recent research, published in the Feb. 4 issue of the Journal of Zoology, suggests the new species is confined to two high-altitude forest blocks in the mountains of south-central Tanzania.

I saw an article on the new mammal species too Julie. Wasn't the photo amazing? Truly bizarre!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/capricorn/7219910.stm

This article about the tropic of capricorn is very interesting. It talks about the fact that it moves and why...

A female worm-like amphibian, called a caecilian, allows her young to peel off and eat her skin. The caecilian babies only eat their mother's skin for about 10 minutes, once every three days.

Spices like basil, turmeric, garlic, ginger and aloe vera seems to control the degeneration of the brain cells.It has been discovered that these plants and similar kind,acted to prevent the breakdown of neurotransmitters, improving memory and concentration in people with Alzheimer's disease - the most common form of dementia. The scientists are now trying to identify the chemical compounds responsible so they can be used to develop more effective drugs.

An Australian TV show called Sleek Geeks recently took to the streets with a petition to ban Dihydrogen monoxide, it was stated that DHMO was very dangerous, linked to 98% of cancers and linked to many other diseases! People were very anxious to sign the petition. There is a even a website DHMO.org. Just shows how easy it is to frighten people with science.

That DHMO is nasty stuff Lynda! I first heard about it as a verbal report submitted by a high school student. If true it is amazing that a high school student caught on before the regulators did!! Here is a warning for all...

"Each year, Dihydrogen Monoxide is a known causative component in many thousands of deaths and is a major contributor to millions upon millions of dollars in damage to property and the environment. Some of the known perils of Dihydrogen Monoxide are: Death due to accidental inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities.
Prolonged exposure to solid DHMO causes severe tissue damage.
Excessive ingestion produces a number of unpleasant though not typically life-threatening side-effects.
DHMO is a major component of acid rain.
Gaseous DHMO can cause severe burns.
Contributes to soil erosion.
Leads to corrosion and oxidation of many metals.
Contamination of electrical systems often causes short-circuits.
Exposure decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes.
Found in biopsies of pre-cancerous tumors and lesions.
Often associated with killer cyclones in the U.S. Midwest and elsewhere.
Thermal variations in DHMO are a suspected contributor to the El Nino weather effect."

watch out guys, this DMHO is everywhere and the government is doing nothing to protect us!

it I say!

We are suppose to be able to see a Total Lunar Elcipse this evening. There isn't a cloud in the sky right now! I believe it is suppose to happen between 8:15 and midnight.

Self-Healing Rubber Keeps on Stretching, Rip after Rip: A new stretchy material can be cut and rejoined at the same spot just by pressing the broken ends together for a few minutes. The self-healing rubber stays stretchy even after being severed five or six times, or cut and left on the countertop overnight.
The material's secret is its molecular structure, which resembles a plate of spaghetti.
The strands straighten out when pulled, but they relax back to their tangled shape when the tension is released. The result is a rubber that can stretch to six times its resting length.
If you have ever thought/dream of self-healing toys, pipe seals and pavement as well as plastic medical pouches that can be punctured and reused, perhaps it may come true!!!!

The DMHO conspiricy runs deeper than you can imagine. After just now learning about it and reading what I could at DMHO.org, I turned to my wife and asked her what she knew about it and all I got was that look that I took to mean "If you have to ask, then you don't need to know". She is one of 'them'. After all these years, and I never knew.

aha!!
AHA...(Alpha Hydroxy Acids)
Now what the heck is that??
AHA is made from the juices of citric acid fruits.It reverses sun damage and imparts a more youthful glow to the skin.Beauty products worldwide are including them in skin creams in the highest concentration the FDA will allow,for
it has been found to reduce tiny facial lines and fade age spots on the skin.
But it no way lift up a sag, or fills the deep lines!!:(...

St.Patrick's day greetings...
Think got a fitting post for the day..
someting on/abt green...
Green Buildings May Be Cheapest Way to Slow Global Warming..Isnt it great to hear...By building green--and retrofitting existing buildings--the countries of North America could cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25 percent.Simply constructing more energy-efficient buildings—and upgrading the insulation and windows in the existing ones—could save a whopping 1.7 billion tons annually,researchers say.And it is claimed to be the best systems and technology that can be applied to reduce energy consumption as well as paying attention to resource inputs.

I thought this article in the paper was very interesting. It was titled The God Particle.
'British physicist Peter Higgs says it should soon be possible to prove the existence of a force which gives mass to the universe and makes life possible - as he first argued 40 years ago.

Professor Higgs said he believes a particle named the "Higgs boson", which originates from the force, will be found when a vast particle collider at the CERN research centre on the Franco-Swiss border begins operating fully early next year.

"The likelihood is that the particle will show up pretty quickly ... I'm more than 90 per cent certain that it will," he told journalists.

The 78-year-old's original efforts in the early 1960s to explain why the force, dubbed the Higgs field, must exist were dismissed at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research.

Today, the existence of the invisible field is widely accepted by scientists, who believe it came into being milliseconds after the Big Bang created the universe some 15 billion years ago.

Finding the Higgs boson would prove this theory right'.

I haven't had time to visit here much, but thought I would share this interesting Oz-based bit of information.

Ancient Tools Unearthed in Australia
By TANALEE SMITH,AP
Posted: 2008-04-07 20:41:36
Filed Under: Science News
SYDNEY, Australia (April 7) - Tools dating back at least 35,000 years have been unearthed in a rock shelter in Australia's remote northwest, making it one of the oldest archaeological finds in that part of the country, archaeologists said Monday.

The tools include a piece of flint the size of a small cell phone and hundreds of tiny sharp stones that were used as knives. One local Aboriginal elder saw it as vindication of what his people have said all along — that they have inhabited this land for tens of thousands of years.

"I'm ecstatic, I'm over the moon, because it's now indisputable," Slim Parker, an elder of the Martidja Banyjima people, told The Associated Press by telephone from Western Australia.

The tools, along with seeds, bark and other plant material, were found nearly 6 1/2 feet beneath the floor of the shelter — a slight crevice in the hillside protected by an overhang of rock — on the edges of an iron ore mine site about 590 miles northeast of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.

"This area of land, in regard to our culture and customs and beliefs, is of great significance to us," Parker said. "We have songs and stories relating to that area as a sustaining resource that has provided for and cared for our people for thousands of years."

The excavation was carried out between October and February by archaeologists from Australian Cultural Heritage Management who were hired by the local Aborigines to find and preserve heritage sites within the mine area run by resource giant Rio Tinto.

Rio Tinto, which had been expanding its Hope Downs mine, halted all work when the rock shelter was discovered, company spokesman Gervase Greene said.

The company will amend its expansion plans to preserve the shelter, Greene said.

Archaeologist Neale Draper said the tools included at least one "beautifully made" piece of flint from which sharp knifelike shards were knocked off, hundreds of tiny knives and pieces of grindstones. He hopes that testing of the knives will reveal residue that could indicate what the people ate.

"Very old sites are rare, and this is one of the oldest" in this region, Draper said by telephone from Adelaide in central Australia.

"We're filling in a picture of who the first Australians were and what they were doing where they were really, really early," Draper said.

Draper said the team has sent other materials for carbon sampling — including a piece of charcoal — that were found in the dirt layers below the tools.

"These could be another 5,000 to 10,000 years old, and that would be really exciting," Draper said.

A dozen similar rock shelters in the area will also be excavated, he said.

Ia

Melting ice in southern Chile caused a glacial lake to swell and then empty suddenly, sending a "tsunami" rolling through a river, a scientist said Thursday. No one was injured in the remote region.Glacier scientist Gino Casassa said the melting of the Colonia glacier, which he blamed on rising world temperatures, filled the Cachet Lake and increased pressure on the ice sheet.
The water bored a 5-mile tunnel through the glacier and finally emptied into the Baker River on April 6.The remarkable thing is that the mass of water moved against the current of the river.It was a real river tsunami, the scientist claimed.

you can read more abt the vanishing glacial lakes of south America, in the following link..
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/142439.html
an interesting perspective is discussed and once , the global warming alone is not blamed for melting glaciers and vanishing waterbodies..

One more break through in the research of identifying Alzheimers presence..A particular protein that spreads between the brain cells blocking the communication between cells has been identified to be present in the retina of human eye also.so once if it is scanned for this protien in the eye, which is easier to do, one can be diagnosed at a very early stage for the disease and can be treated effectively, if not curing, atleast the progress can be slowed and further damage can be minimized.

Greensulate?
--a sustainable building material made from mushroom fibers, rice hulls and recycled paper—to resist temperature change, stop fire and repel water.With ASTM International certification, Greensulate could hit the market in early 2010, joining an array of sustainable building products gaining popularity as natural resources dwindle, energy costs rise, and consumers try to whittle their negative impacts on the environment.

That dihydrogen monoxide has reared its ugly head again...

'Dihydrogen monozide' leads to one in 10 diseases and six per cent of deaths worldwide, according to estimates in a report to be published by the World Health Organisation.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=5255072&page=1

"Flabbergasted" NASA scientists said Thursday that first analysis of Martian soil appeared to contain the requirements to support life.

"It is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline. You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. ... It is very exciting for us."

I watched a program last night presented by "Nova." It was about a man who lived with the bears in the summertime in Alaska. He was amazing. He would lay on the ground with them, let them take things from his mouth, let them come into his house, etc. He had both Black Bear and Grizzlies around him. His property was called Bear Haven. He would talk to the bear and they acted like they understood him. I don't know if he just had a special talent or just crazy! They are a wild animal!!!!

GREEK TECH: A new study of a Greek calendar calculator dating to the first century B.C. reveals how the so-called Antikythera mechanism would have worked.Divers recovered the Antikythera instrument in 1901 from a 2,000-year-old shipwreck that had sunk beneath the Mediterranean Sea.Unmatched in complexity for 1,000 years, the device counted down the months until eclipses and might once have shown the positions of the planets.As for the purpose of the Antikythera instrument, it is considered as a luxury object, given that numerical tables could have done the same job for less trouble!
Well can say.."They were expensive toys."

The bird brain, though much maligned, can perform feats while sleeping of which we can only dream--namely, it can stay awake,ducks can carefully choreograph sleeping and waking states simultaneously in different regions of the brain.
Birds achieve these two states of consciousness at once by splitting the tasks between the brain: one hemisphere falls asleep while the other stays awake and responsive. This half-brain, or unihemispheric, sleeping manifests itself as something like a prolonged wink; the eye connected to the wakeful half of the brain remains open, whereas that wired to the dozing half droops.

Coal powers China.In addition to producing about 75 percent of its electricity, the black rock is burned everywhere from industrial boilers to home stoves.Smog cloaks cities, and as the pollution builds, it forms Brown clouds, which is visible from space.
well, now comes the fact.These clouds travel across pacific, say takes a week or so to reach the western part of US, and it accounts for as much as 15 percent of the air pollution.

Swiss Chard: It is a super food, one of the most nutrient-dense of all the green vegetables.One cup of swiss chard supplies 10 mg of Lutein and Zeaxanthin, along with the carotenoids, thats most essential to keep your retina intact while your age advance...

appy, that's good news for those who know what a swiss chard is..... hmmmm, will have to look it up.

Synthetic Tree.
A scientist has invented an artificial tree designed to do the job of plants.It looks like a goal post with Venetian blinds.It would draw carbon dioxide out of the air, as plants do during photosynthesis, but retain the carbon and not release oxygen.One synthetic tree could remove 90,000 tonnes of CO2 in a year - the emissions equivalent of 15,000 cars. For now, the synthetic tree is still a paper idea,as
there are a number of engineering issues which need to be worked out.

Turning Bacteria into Plastic Factories.....
A new company has found a way to produce polymers from genetically engineered microbes that feed on sugars, replacing fossil-fuel based processes.
Escherichia coli (E. coli): Scientists have engineered the organism, to secrete BDO-butanediol,a chemical compound used to make everything from spandex to car bumpers.Cost will be the ultimate factor in whether this someday becomes a widely used plastic-making process. The results thus far have been confined only to the lab.