Wednesday, February 6, 2008
An Unlikely Candidate: Carbon Dioxide for Fuel...
Carbon dioxide, the scourge of global warming, may be a fuel of the future. By using sunlight, scientists at New Mexico ’s Sandia National Laboratories believe they can split carbon dioxide and make hydrocarbon fuels. Called “Sunlight to Petrol”, the process uses heat from the sun to split CO2 into...
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Sunday, February 3, 2008
Bright Sun, Black Hole...
BrightIrish has an interesting post on the Sun, go take a look! That gave me the idea to post the following, involving the latest speculations about the black hole at the center of our galaxy. ‘High winds are the norm at the centre of the Milky Way [about 26,000 light years away from Earth.]...
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Friday, February 1, 2008
You may not think this is a Big Deal – but it is...
One morning in 1997, Stanley Miller lifted a glass vial from a cold, bubbling vat. For 25 years he had tended the vial as though it were an exotic orchid, checking it daily, adding a few pellets of dry ice as needed to keep it at -108 degrees Fahrenheit. He had told hardly a soul about it. Now he...
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Thursday, January 31, 2008
Help! We Need Frequent Flyer Miles for Our Crooks...
Police in Vancouver, B.C., estimate that 2,500 fugitives from other jurisdictions roam free because they are wanted on “no-return” warrants from provinces that won’t pay to bring them back for trial. Police have appealed for public donations and frequent flyer miles to fly the fugitives home. A...
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
‘Swami’ Uses Eggs in Shell Game...
All it took was a dozen eggs and a magic trick for “Roshanbhai” to convince people that he was a spiritual healer who could fix their family, health and business problems – and help them win the lottery. The catch? They had to fork over money for a special ceremony, in some cases more than $100,000....
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Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Load-Lightening Backpack
A few hardcover textbooks in a school backpack are enough to cause muscle strain. Lawrence C. Rome of the University of Pennsylvania and of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and his colleagues have developed a backpack suspension system that minimizes stress on its wearer. As...
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Sunday, January 27, 2008
Of Mice as Men...
In the Harvard University lab of biologist Catherine Dulac, some of the female mice act peculiarly like males. When other mice enter their enclosure, these females squeak like male mice, sniff around the intruders’ backsides, and attempt to copulate. The only thing distinguishing these gender...
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Friday, January 25, 2008
The Latest Out of Thailand: Chick-Bearing Frog is Good Luck...
Tongsai Boommrungtai [sic] has become a sensation in the Thai town of Roi Et, after she stumbled on what turned out to be an auspicious frog about to devour a chick already stuffed in its mouth. Tongsai stared the amphibian down [?]; it ejected the chick and joined Tongsai’s family. Now,...
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Thursday, January 24, 2008
And in Slovenia, Pickled Vermin are ‘Special’...
When pickle buyer Lenka Komparova opened a jar recently she was horrified to find a mouse’s foot inside. She thought her complaint to the Ministry of Health would bring an instant call to action. Instead, officials called the foot a “special additive.” Explains a Ministry spokeswoman: “It’s...
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Bone, Sweet Bone...
Although sweets can help weaken teeth, sugars are apparently key to making bone strong. The extraordinary strength of bone depends on the complex, precise way in which its organic and inorganic components are ordered. Scientists had long thought that collagen and other proteins directly control the...
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