Extreme Geohazards – what are they?In December 2004, we all learned one Japanese word;
tsunami (津波, lit. "harbor wave"). Japan has seen a number of tsunamis through out times, situated right there on the
Ring of Fire, and when the Sumatran earthquake hit the ocean floor in the Indian ocean in 2004 creating the monster waves killing some 300 000 people, tsunami became a household Japanese word, included in many languages.
Given that there has been
some recent interest in
Uturuncu in the media, when
Before human embryonic stem cells can be examined for therapeutic potential it must be determined whether or not transplanted cells can functionally integrate into target organs or tissues.
Human embryonic stem cells (hESC), and induced pluripotent stem cells(iPS Cells), can give rise to all of the 220 types of tissues in the human body, and have been directed in the lab to become many types of cells, including brain cells.
Glow-in-the-dark stickers are nothing new; they emit visible light after being exposed to sunlight. A paper just published in Nature Materials emits a long-lasting, near-infrared glow after a single minute of exposure to sunlight.
Why is that good? It has the potential to revolutionize medical diagnostics, give the military and law enforcement agencies a 'secret' source of illumination - because the near-infrared range can only be seen with the aid of night vision devices - and maybe even provide a foundation for solar cells that aren't complete rubbish.
A problem began to come into existence a few decades ago and in the polarized climate enabled by instant access to partisan spin, it's only going to get worse.
The problem isn't always that people are anti-science, though documenting the numerous instances of global warming deniers on one side and anti-science hippies on the other is always fun, it may be that people accept science too much - and there is a backlash on the way because people don't always understand that accepting science isn't always going to mean things don't change when new information comes to light.
Premature infants suffer a life-threatening destruction of intestinal tissue called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) have gotten a new data point for researchers to examine: Preemies with the AB blood type who develop NEC are nearly three times as likely to die from it as preemies with other blood types.
Jerry Coyne is a goose.
There, I've said it.
I mean it in the nicest possible way of course, but it had to be said.
And the reason for this unseemly outburst?
Well, if you want to see something really unseemly, check out Jerry's column of 8th February 2011 titled "Vernon + Midgley + evolution=Fail", where he referred to the British philosopher Mary Midgley thus;
Mary Midgley, famous for completely misunderstanding modern evolutionary biology and for attacking Richard Dawkins' book The Selfish Gene on completely ludicrous grounds. (See Dawkins' response here) In a prime case of the bland leading the blind..." and indulged in other cheap shots at Midgley's expense.
This was foolish for two reasons.
Energy harvested from insects may take the utility of miniature cyborgs to the next level.
Researchers say they can now harvest the insect's biological energy from either its body heat or movements, and the device converts the kinetic energy from wing movements of the insect into electricity, thus prolonging the battery life. The battery can be used to power small sensors implanted on the insect, such as a small camera, a microphone or a gas sensor in order to gather vital information from hazardous environments.
As my last few blogs have been a bit heavy on the science, I thought I'd write something a bit lighter. So here are some pretty pictures of the fieldwork for master's project, when I went to
Pantelleria to measure the CO
2 degassing that was occurring there.
Favare Grande, a fumarole on Pantelleria.
Amir K. just wants to be prepared:
Assuming this is a 6 foot 100 lbs humboldt squid, it goes red, all of its arms point together and it's about to shoot straight at you with it's 2 long feeding arms. What do you do if you are in the water? What is the best way of repelling an attack or destroying it? What are it's weaknesses?
Oh Amir! The first two "its" were perfect. Why'd you have to go and ruin my good opinion of your grammar by adding apostrophes to your second two "its"? But you know what--I'll answer the question anyway.
