What is Bedwetting?

The medical name for not being able to control urination is Enuresis (pronounced: en-yuh-ree-sis). It is sometimes also called involuntary urination. Nocturnal enuresis is involuntary urination that occurs at night, usually while the childis sleeping.

There are two kinds: Primary and Secondary. Primary is bedwetting that has occurred since infancy. Secondary develops at least 6 months, or even several years, after the child has learned to control their bladder.

Do you remember the dijet mass bump found by CDF in W plus jets events ? That signal, whose significance exceeded four standard deviations, had everybody around go crazy for a while.

Millions of people are suffering from back pain, making it a major continuous source of physical discomfort for many. Normally, each vertebra in the spine is cushioned by intervertebral discs (see figure 1). But these discs can degenerate due to age or injury, potentially pinching nerves, causing pain and impeding movement. The normal course of treatment for degenerated discs, is the administration of painkillers, physical therapy and steroid injections to ease inflammation. As a last resort, surgery to fuse two vertebra together can be done, limiting back flexibility. Artificial discs have been developed in the past few years, but these are all made of plastic or metal, and they can wear out and don’t provide a full range of motion.

   

Arctic Ice August 2011

In the days of sailing ships and the early days of steam, even into the early years of the 20th century, much of the Arctic remained inaccessible due to the extensive pack ice.

When explorers attempted to penetrate the ice, it is often found from their journals that they did so in late August.  There are many references to be found of an 'open season' during which it was possible to maneuver a ship through an open lead during a period which was often only of two weeks duration, or less.  In some years, the ice simply did not open as expected, and the explorers would either go home or overwinter nearby, to try again the next year.

The hormone oxytocin may be the "cuddle chemical" but recent research has found that oxytocin can promote negative emotions too.

Salespeople love oxytocin - they think if they spray it on customers will trust them more.  Mothers bond with babies due to oxytocin.  It's positive effects are well known but studies have also found that oxytocin can increase gloating and envy.

Molecules of oxygen have been found in the nearby Orion star-forming complex, the first undisputed detection of oxygen molecules in space.   Previous missions looking for the molecular variety, two atoms of oxygen bonded together, had been fruitless.

Yet as interesting as the discovery is, it leads to a bigger question; the observed amount of atomic oxygen is far less than expected.  Where is all the oxygen hiding in the cold clouds?

Dark oxygen, anyone?

Some stereotypes are self-reinforcing.   If someone tells you over and over that you are oppressed, if you hit an obstacle and fail, like all of us do at some point in our lives, a convenient excuse is that you are discriminated against.(1)

There is zero data showing women are discriminated against in science, math or engineering - none.   But because there used to be far more men and those men were not lined up against the wall and shot to make room for women in faculty, the claim is that science academia is still prejudiced against women.

With an oil issue that is pinching us on two fronts, cost and pollution, alternative energy research is going fuel speed ahead, including on solutions that have tried and failed in the past, like ethanol.

But ethanol was not flawed as a concept, it was just pushed by activists who ignored the science and wanted it rushed to market - using food as inefficient fuel was not a great idea but bio-ethanol made from biomass, like left over cornstalks or weeds instead of fuel, might work to improve pollution issues.

In both biology and economy, game-theory models are used to understand human behavior, mainly concerning cooperation. These models usually incorporate gains, benefits, and reciprocity. And this reciprocity seems to be very important. Basically, if you do something for me, I’ll return the favor (in such a way that the benefits for me outweigh the costs). But human beings also show generosity towards complete strangers in one-shot encounters. How, then, can this be explained?

As with everything, my insatiable curiosity leads me to adventures.  This past week I went on a hike to one of the remote areas of Trinity River Audubon Center to view a pond that I hadn't seen before (because you have to hack your way through a lot of brush to get there, and I'd never gotten around to it.)  It's been hot here in Texas (you may have noticed) but the sight of the pond itself was eerie.  The shores had receded nearly 40 feet in some areas and there were dead carp (skeletons) strewn on the shoreline and at least 40 large dead mussels.  Wading birds were wading in the water, but it wasn't very deep water.