Defrosting The Freezer

There are many ways to defrost a freezer.  You can just switch off the power and wait for room temperature to permeate the ice.  You can use a heat source such as a hair-dryer or hot air gun.  Or you could chip away the ice and dump it where it will melt naturally due to local atmospheric temperature.

As I write this, Britain is shivering in its worst winter for 30 years.  A temperature has been measured in Scotland insignificantly different from the current temperature at the South Pole. Supplies of grit, salt and gas are being rationed.

A large number of comments have been posted on newspaper websites claiming that our current U.K. weather disproves the theory of global warming.

A group of marine organisms called Echinoderms, which includes starfish and sea urchin, has a significant impact on the levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and that influence has been greatly underestimated by scientists, argues a new paper in Ecological Monographs.

"Climate models must take this carbon sink into account," says Mario Lebrato, lead author of the study. Globally, the seabed habitats occupy more than 300 million million square metres, from the intertidal flats and pools to the mightiest deep-sea trenches at 11,000 meters. The benthos – the animals living on and in the sediments – populate this vast ecosystem.

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that calcium channels on the tongue are the targets of compounds that can enhance taste. In addition to molecules that directly trigger specific taste buds (salty, sweet etc.), there are other substances which have no flavor of their own but can enhance the flavors they are paired with (known as kokumi taste in Japanese cuisine). The results appear in the January 8 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Exploiting this enhancement could have practical uses in food modulation; for example, creating healthy foods that contain minimal sugar or salt but still elicit strong taste. At the moment, though, the mode of action for these substances is poorly understood.

A team of radiologists publishing in Autism Research says that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) process sound and language a fraction of a second slower than children without ASDs, and measuring magnetic signals that mark this delay may become a standardized way to diagnose autism.

The researchers used magnetoencephalography (MEG), which detects magnetic fields in the brain, similar to the way electroencephalography (EEG) detects electrical fields. Using a helmet that surrounds the child’s head, the team presents a series of recorded beeps, vowels and sentences. As the child’s brain responds to each sound, noninvasive detectors in the MEG machine analyze the brain’s changing magnetic fields.

“Respected expert and director of the institute…”

These are the words you hear as you are being introduced at a black-tie speaking engagement. You are an inventor, scientist, or artist, and this flattering introduction is music to your ears; had you seen these words written in the paper you would have saved a copy to show Mom.

Finally, you are at the place every creative mind wishes to reach. The words wash back over you. “Respected”: The members of your community appreciate you. “Expert”: Your more than twenty years of dedication to the field have not gone unnoticed. “Director”: You have powerful tools and competent personnel to support your efforts. And “Institute”: Your work has attracted the funding of government, benefactors or investors.

Here is a molecular biology discovery that we can chalk up to our increasing love of lean bacon:

"ZBED6, a Novel Transcription Factor Derived from a Domesticated DNA Transposon Regulates IGF2 Expression and Muscle Growth", in PLoS Biology.

If you're a bacon lover, you may not realize how much your culinary satisfaction is intertwined with genetics. The drive to breed leaner pigs has led to the search for genetic variants that affect muscle mass and fat deposition in pigs. Some years back, in order to find such genetic variants, a Swedish research group crossed European Wild Boars and Large White domestic pigs.