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Free Hangover Cure Now IV For 500 Dollars In Las Vegas

Free Hangover Cure Now IV For 500 Dollars In Las Vegas

Apr 12 2012 | comment(s)

Why take something for free and feel cheap if you can pay half a grand and support quackery? Precisely! Hangovers from alcohol are almost entirely due to dehydration, read: too little water in your body. Although you drank a lot of water along with the spirit, the alcohol made your body dehydrate; no matter you didn’t even dance enough to break a sweat. Our bodies also do not like the alcohol metabolites, the main problem being acetaldehyde from the action of the liver enzyme alcohol-dehydrogenase, and then acetic acid. I wrote about these and why Asians should be especially careful with booze in “Alcohol in China and Enzyme Evolution”.

The US Spent $48 Billion On Clean Energy In 2011

The US Spent $48 Billion On Clean Energy In 2011

Apr 11 2012 | comment(s)

Global spending on cleaner energy grew to a record $263 billion in 2011, a 6.5 percent increase over the previous year, according to new research by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The United States reclaimed the top spot among all G-20 nations, thanks to $48 billion primarily in government subsidies, but with $45.5 billion in private investments, China is the real hub of clean energy activity - leading the world in wind energy investment and deployment, as well as wind and solar manufacturing. 

Buy More Coal To Halt Climate Change

Buy More Coal To Halt Climate Change

Apr 11 2012 | comment(s)

Mitigation, rationing, taxes. Environmental policy claims have historically been driven by negative thinking - a demand-side mindset that seeks to limit consumption of fossil fuels through pollution permits, greater expenses for consumers and multi-national climate change treaties. 

New research from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University suggests that encouraging the purchase of coal, oil and other dirty fossil fuel deposits could be a much better way to fight climate change.
The Sweet Smell Of Synthetic Whale Ambergris

The Sweet Smell Of Synthetic Whale Ambergris

Apr 11 2012 | comment(s)

In Moby Dick, Melville scoffs that “fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale.” Following the example of the Ancient Egyptians and Chinese, the fragrance industry has employed this essence, called ambergris, in perfume making for years.

Akrotiri Archaeology: Santorini Site Set To Reopen After 7 Years

Akrotiri Archaeology: Santorini Site Set To Reopen After 7 Years

Apr 11 2012 | comment(s)

Greece has reopened a major archaeological site on the island of Santorini. It was closed for over six years years after a roof collapsed, killing a tourist.

The bronze-age town at Akrotiri reopened today, following completion of a new roof that shelters the entire site of the excavation from the elements.

Santorini
History Explains Occupy Movements

History Explains Occupy Movements

Apr 11 2012 | comment(s)

As soon as protestors began to occupy Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in New York City, people began to wonder why? Was it the result of disgust towards the New York Stock Exchange, chronic unemployment, or even boredom? Or are Americans working through the stages of an on-going cycle of generational behavior? Yes, to the latter. Sorry #ows, you are not original, but instead the correct timing of social movements and civic duty.

Does Voting Make Epigenetic Changes?

Does Voting Make Epigenetic Changes?

Apr 11 2012 | comment(s)

We know that voting changes your brain a little - just reading that sentence changed your brain a little, so actions and behaviors certainly change us.  But does voting change your descendants?

Epigenetics is really a nascent field and that means there is a lot of interpretation. That also means people can try to make the case that politics is genetic. Which means partisan spinmeisters, within science and outside it, will find new avenues for the confirmation bias of their faithful.
Basil Fawlty, Manuel And Linguicism

Basil Fawlty, Manuel And Linguicism

Apr 11 2012 | comment(s)

The number of scholarly authors who have formally studied the significance of verbal (and physical) interactions at Fawlty Towers is very limited. Nonetheless, professor Annjo Klungervik Greenall, of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, has recently done so – examining in detail the many (often heated) exchanges between Manuel and Basil Fawlty, and asking how they might contribute to the idea of Linguicism.
Tsunami Expected In Sumatra Now

Tsunami Expected In Sumatra Now

Apr 11 2012 | comment(s)

A powerful earthquake has struck an hour ago, at 8.30UT, very close to the place where a similar event occurred on December 26th 2004. The earthquake has an estimated magnitude of 8.7 and occurred at a depth of 33km, according to NOAA. The map below shows the location of the event and the potentially affected areas.


Skulls On Stakes - Stone Age Swedes Did Not Mess Around

Skulls On Stakes - Stone Age Swedes Did Not Mess Around

Apr 10 2012 | comment(s)

Why would Stone Age man remove brains from skulls and put them on stakes? At the bottom of a pond?
 
Why would Stone Age man carve a wooden fish?

It's a science mystery.

It’s unusual to find a stone burial mound this old. Swedish burial mounds did not become common until around 500 B.C., the Iron Age - its location at the bottom of a little pond is yet another puzzle.


Science Not Settled: Pollutants Down But Ozone Up In B.C.

Science Not Settled: Pollutants Down But Ozone Up In B.C.

Apr 10 2012 | comment(s)

The key air pollutants that combine to cause smog have dropped due to emissions regulations but baseline levels of ozone are continuing to creep up in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.

Scientists from the University of British Columbia, along with state and environmental groups, are trying to figure out why average levels of ground-level ozone haven't dropped with emissions over the last decade and have instead gone up. A new report from Metro Vancouver shows ambient levels of fine particulate matter, like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, have declined by 20 to 60 percent since 2001, but ozone has continued to rise in that same period, up 20 percent. 
Antimicrobial drugs from plants : future prospects

Antimicrobial drugs from plants : future prospects

Apr 10 2012 | comment(s)

The problem of microbial resistance is growing and the outlook for the use of antimicrobial drugs in the future is still uncertain. This problem can be reduced by controlling the use of antibiotic, develop research to better understand the genetic mechanisms of resistance, and to continue studies to develop new drugs, either synthetic or natural. The ultimate goal is to offer appropriate and efficient antimicrobial drugs to the patient. From centuries, plants have been a valuable source of natural products for maintaining human health (Kapoor, 1990). Many plants have been used because of their antimicrobial traits, which are due to compounds synthesized in the secondary metabolism of the plant.
Autism Diagnosis - The Short Form

Autism Diagnosis - The Short Form

Apr 10 2012 | comment(s)

Want to get an autism diagnosis but are just too darn busy?

Researchers at Harvard Medical School are here to help.  Yes, the process of diagnosing autism is complex and subjective but what about if qualified people are not there to help or you are in a rush?
LHC @ 8 TeV: First Week Of 2012 Run

LHC @ 8 TeV: First Week Of 2012 Run

Apr 10 2012 | comment(s)

Last week the Large Hadron Collider has started producing collisions at the record high 8-TeV centre-of-mass energy to the ATLAS and CMS detectors.

In the course of the first week of run almost 200 inverse picobarns have been delivered to CMS, which is absolutely satisfactory.

The integrated luminosity versus time is shown below.



And here is the peak instantaneous luminosity reached during these first few days of running:


(NB: I believe the above figure lacks a "s^-1" units).
Scientization Of Politics: R03 Grants To Justify Tax Increases

Scientization Of Politics: R03 Grants To Justify Tax Increases

Apr 10 2012 | comment(s)

Everyone has heard of the politicization of science, where science results are framed and manipulated for political gain, but increasingly more common is the scientization of politics, where political and cultural world views are rationalized with a science - and sometimes pseudoscience - basis to gain legitimacy.
White Nose Syndrome Bat Die-Off: Blame Europe

White Nose Syndrome Bat Die-Off: Blame Europe

Apr 10 2012 | comment(s)

The deaths of millions of bats in the United States and Canada due to 'white nose syndrome' over the last few years has been linked to a fungus that came from Europe, scientists have reported.

In North America, more than 5.7 million bats have died since 2006 when white nose syndrome was first detected in a cave in upstate New York. The disease does not pose a threat to humans but people can carry fungal spores, so while it's not known exactly how the fungus crossed the Atlantic, it was likely brought accidentally introduced by tourists. Spores are known to stick to people's clothes, boots and caving gear.
Cycling Around Z2

Cycling Around Z2

Apr 10 2012 | comment(s)

I don't have a proposal right now which makes writing a research driven blog a bit awkward.  I will only say I have a proposal when I have an action, and the action has been put into the Mathematica notebook I devised in the fall of last year as part of the process that led to my retraction of GEM (the notebook tested about ten different properties of the action).
Meningioma: Frequent Dental X-Rays Linked To Common Brain Tumor

Meningioma: Frequent Dental X-Rays Linked To Common Brain Tumor

Apr 10 2012 | comment(s)

A study published in CANCER found that while dental X-rays are necessary, frequent dental X-rays in the past led to an increased risk of developing the most commonly diagnosed primary brain tumor in the United States.

Ionizing radiation is the primary environmental risk factor for developing meningioma, which is the most frequently diagnosed primary brain tumor in the United States. Dental x-rays are the most common artificial source of exposure to ionizing radiation for individuals living in America.
Colossal Squid off Australia

Colossal Squid off Australia

Apr 09 2012 | comment(s)

A new instance of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltonii, more commonly known as the colossal squid:
A HUGE squid weighing 120 kilograms found off Portland [Australia, not Oregon] last week is believed to be a rare species to south-west waters.
Local fisherman and boat operator Bob McPherson said his investigations pointed to the orange-coloured squid being a colossal type, slightly smaller than a giant squid caught off New Zealand last year.
“It’s a pretty rare species for these waters,” he told The Standard.
Social Status May Be Bad For Your Genes

Social Status May Be Bad For Your Genes

Apr 09 2012 | comment(s)

Gene expression is impacted by social dominance?  A study of rhesus macaques published in  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says a female's social status affects how her genes turn on and off, and those who rank higher tend to be healthier - unless their social status declines.