04/12/2012
10/13/2011
» Medical Breakthroughs: Scientists figure out how to switch off peanut allergy(via @io9)
The peanut allergy is one of the eight most common types of food allergies, and the common use of peanuts in a wide range of foods makes it particularly dangerous.
03/12/2011
Gravity is trying to kill us with Fire… the science of fire & gravity’s role in brightening the flame
You may think it’s child’s play, a second grade science lesson, or maybe you think its just plain dumb. But truth be told, fire is an astonishing phenomenon in the most basic ways and a review of just what fire would be like under certain conditions makes science that much more intriguing when you forget there’s a science behind it at all…
The picture shown is of two flames one under our earthly conditions, the other in outerspace/zero gravity. First recall what zero gravity does not have: abundant oxygen. Fire eats oxygen. Without oxygen fire starves. Hence the almost inability of fire to be lit in zero gravity without the assistance of oxygen tanks that douse the source to keep the fire lit (think: space shuttles/space stations). My summary is more of a verbose commentary on i09’s much more comprehensive look at fire under zero gravity, and I highly recommend a review of this short but sweet article if you feel the fire within ;) i09: How does fire behave in zero gravity (source link for image & article content)
Godspeed,
-daplunga
10/04/2010
» Frederico Diaz's New Sculpture Was Made Entirely by Robots. So Who's the Artist? - Culture - GOOD
Hmmm Ray Kurzweil’s Age of Spiritual Machines begins to run its course… much like A PAINTING I one made while contemplating art by bots - “If you take all of the keys off of a keyboard is it a keyboard anymore?” -MB
06/10/2010
250 million years ago, we all disappeared…. remember that?
Question: Why did nearly all life on Earth die 250 million years ago?
Answer = uncertain.
While we may not know for sure what happened, we can’t help but ask, does a similar fate loom on our horizon? Mainstream news headlines would suggest yes. And as if this alone weren’t vexing enough, history itself has proven that humankinds’ sudden extinction (mayan 2012 theory….apocalypses….Nostradamus outlooks) isn’t far fetched - it’s happened before. Take a second to let that settle….
Will we be here in 2050? 3050?
The optimist within me says yes. But the realist in me says its definitely possible that we won’t be here for either. We know ‘our future’ is sometimes slow at innovating itself (where’s my f-ing flying car?!), so I’d like to think our doomsday moves at a similar snails pace, but only time can tell.
I will end on this (straight from the blind optimist’s point of view):
Only we can change the world, but we have to start doing it collectively (I mean EVERYBODY) & we need to start doing it now. One person. That’s all it takes to change the world, and that one person is YOU. What do you have to lose in not doing so? Well, everything….
Commentary by MB, inspired by iO9’s post
06/10/2009
Eye color’s not all in the genes….
Like most, I have lived my life under the assumption I must be adopted. Why? Because everything from my hair to my eye color has changed since birth (some more than two times), and my parents are two plain brown hair, brown eyed people, so either my genes were the offspring of someone other than them, or I was just a freak of natural science. Today, RealSimple dispelled my assumptions on eye color when a reader asked the question, “Can two brown-eyed parents have a blue-eyed child?” The answer is where the pieces of my puzzled genetic life fell into place, “Eye color is determined by the amount of melanin in the irises. A bunch of genes control how much melanin develops…. Many babies are born with blue eyes, as the genes responsible for iris pigmentation haven’t yet kicked in. If the genes end up telling the irises to produce more melanin, the eyes darken.” And there you have it, the reason for my blue to green eyes transformation at age 7. Unfortunately that melanin gene never kicked in for my lily white skin, but that’s a scientific puzzle for another day. Take heed all you multi-colored one blue, one green eye individuals, you aren’t so genetically messed up after all!
05/14/2009
CALCIUM FACTS
“A 2008 study at the Harvard School of Public Health showed that getting enough calcium may be associated with a lower risk of hypertension in adult women. And researchers at the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville, found that people who get their recommended daily allowance of calcium through dairy products may burn fat faster than people who don’t. What’s more, a new study from the National Institutes of Health suggests that adults with an adequate calcium intake may have a lower risk of colorectal cancer.”
Amount needed daily: 1000-1200mg
What has calcium in it?
Brocoli (42mg), yogurt (200-400mg), dairy products, milk (302mg nonfat, 1 cup)
——-
-from daPlunga
Source quote: REAL SIMPLE May 2009 “Calcium 101”
05/03/2009
04/17/2009
“ BABY CARROTS, pre-packaged & sliced of their imperfections require manufacturers to dose the veggies with high contents of chlorine (you know that stuff you clean a pool & city sewer system with…), a known carcinogen. Don’t believe this? Let those babies sit in the fridge for a couple of weeks, and the chlorine resurfaces in the form of a white skin/coating on all the carrots. „
Word to the wise - slice and dice your own veggies from now on
04/13/2009
“ Be skeptical of your memories. In recent years, scientists have demonstrated that human memories are surprisingly dishonest. The act of recalling an event (say, your eighth birthday party) changes the structure of that memory in the brain. Details are tweaked; the narrative is altered. The more you think about it, the less accurate your recollection becomes, and the less reliable it is as a basis for making any kind of conclusion. „
Jonah Lehrer
04/13/2009
“ Studies show that moments of insight often arrive when you’re not aware that you’re thinking of the problem, such as during a warm shower or a long stroll. This is because insights are typically generated by a rush of high-frequency gamma-band neural activity in the brain’s right hemisphere, and a mind is better able to tune in to that hemisphere when it is stress free. „
Jonah Lehrer, ‘Personal Best.’ April 2009. Real Simple.
02/27/2009
Clorox, bring back this ad for the whole flu pandemic thing…
