Banner
The Giant that Got Away

What with all the current talk of GMOs, I would remind folks here that some 20th century methods...

Forever Now

So it was that in the summer of 1988 I discovered America.Now doesn’t that sound like a very...

Chesterton, Darwin, and Race

One has to be careful how one reads.  A few years ago I used this short bit from Darwin’s...

From – Or To – Japan With Love?

SaffronIn one of my school history books, as I remember, there is a story that saffron was introduced...

User picture.
picture for Hank Campbellpicture for Gerhard Adampicture for Patrick Lockerbypicture for Sascha Vongehrpicture for Helen Barrattpicture for Oliver Knevitt
Robert H OlleyRSS Feed of this column.

Until recently, I worked in the Polymer Physics Group of the Physics Department at the University of Reading.

I would describe myself as a Polymer Morphologist. I am not an astronaut,

... Read More »

Blogroll
Recently a news item from Duke University appeared:

"Cute" Chimps in Ads May Harm Species' Survival

"We were testing the argument that the entertainment industry has made that exposure to chimpanzees in human settings makes people more sympathetic to their plight," said Brian Hare, an assistant professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke.  "In fact, the opposite is true. We found people became less concerned about the risks chimpanzees face after they'd seen the entertainment clips."
Brain fatigue

Brain fatigue

Oct 18 2011 | 2 comment(s)

Recently, I read an article in the New York Times entitled

Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?


which presents neurological work showing contrary effects in people trying to exercise will power:
more activity in the nucleus accumbens, the brain’s reward center, and a corresponding decrease in the amygdala, which ordinarily helps control impulses.
Glucose levels in the different parts of the brain are implicated here.  This is particularly bad for dieters, because
1. In order not to eat, a dieter needs willpower.
My attention has been drawn to this, by Anthony Watts:

Video analysis and scene replication suggests that Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project fabricated their Climate 101 video “Simple Experiment”


I would like to scrutinize it myself, but
Nad oes ynof nerth na bywyd
Fel yn gorwedd yn y bedd

I have no strength or life
Like one lying in a grave
so I would be pleased if any readers could give their verdict.
One of the things I used to enjoy as a youngster was Dundee Cake, a famous traditional Scottish fruit cake with a rich flavour.

Not long ago, one of the reporters on The One Show went up to Bonny Dundee to be put through his paces by Professor Rami Abboud of the Foot Pressure Analysis Lab/Clinic at the university.  From work there, it seems that the designers of trainers have done their job only too well, so that today’s joggers put down their heels first when they run, rather than the ball of the foot.
I just now dug up this from the Science Codex:
 

Milestone: A methane-metal marriage


relating how the group of Lucy Ziurys at the University of Arizona have found a promising new way of making methylzinc, and published it at the end of last year. 
Compounds like this have been known since the mid-nineteenth century, but it appears that the new method might require much smaller overheads for industrial scale use, as well as being exciting new chemistry.
Recently there appeared a Science 2.0 Article Algae-Based Polymer May Boost Li-Ion Battery Performance, and shortly afterwards I got an email drawing my attention to what I thought was the same work, but in fact is a different piece of work, from Leeds University,
 

Polymer Batteries for Next Generation Electronics