An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc, science on Mar 6th, 2010
From Science Daily: Water Practically Flies Off ‘Near Perfect’ Hydrophobic Surface That Refuses to Get Wet.
Engineering researchers have crafted a flat surface that refuses to get wet. Water droplets skitter across it like ball bearings tossed on ice.
Cool, hmm? The design is inspired by spiders. Spiders!
Spiders use their water-repelling hairs to stay dry or avoid [...]
From Science Daily: Ice Cream May Target The Brain Before Your Hips, Study Suggests.
Blame your brain for sabotaging your efforts to get back on track after splurging on an extra scoop of ice cream or that second burger during Friday night’s football game.
Findings from a new UT Southwestern Medical Center study suggest that fat from [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc, science on Aug 13th, 2009
From the University of Toronto: UTM study identifies first ancestor with a grasping hand.
Elongated fingers, an opposable thumb and a grasping tail — a new fossil study by researchers at the University of Toronto Mississauga suggests that a small plant-eating mammal relative is the oldest known tree-climbing vertebrate.
The tree-climbing lifestyle of Suminia getmanovi, a Paleozoic [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc, science on Jul 3rd, 2009
From Wired.com: Make Like a Dolphin: Learn Echolocation.
With just a few weeks of training, you can learn to see objects in the dark using echolocation the same way dolphins and bats do.
Ordinary people with no special skills can use tongue clicks to visualize objects by listening to the way sound echoes off their surroundings, according [...]
Posted in science on Apr 15th, 2009
From Newsweek: Lessons In Survival.
In a laboratory, it’s extremely difficult to study why some people are better at bouncing back than others because it’s so hard to simulate the real stresses and strains of life. Scientists can show people scary pictures or movies to trigger their reactions and measure how they recover, but it’s hardly [...]
Posted in science on Mar 31st, 2009
From the University of Toronto: Bad behaviour may leave bad taste in your mouth, says U of T research.
In everyday language, people sometimes say that immoral behaviours leave a bad taste in your mouth. But this may be more than a metaphor according to new scientific evidence from the University of Toronto that shows a [...]
From the University of Toronto News: Canadian scientists read minds with infrared scan.
Researchers at U of T and Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation hospital have developed a technique that uses infrared light brain imaging to decode preference — with the goal of ultimately opening the world of choice to children who can’t speak or move.
In a [...]
From the Beeb: Gene could allow lab-grown teeth.
Scientists believe they have found a way to grow teeth in the laboratory, a discovery that could put an end to fillings and dentures.
The US team from Oregon have located the gene responsible for the growth of enamel, the hard outer layer of teeth which cannot grow back [...]
From abcnews.go.com: Ecuadorean Dwarfs May Unlock Cancer Clues.
Twenty years ago, when Guevara began treating and studying the dwarfs of southern Ecuador, it was because he wanted to help them. But an interesting and quirky pattern started to emerge. He realized that there has never been a single incidence of cancer or diabetes among them.
"I start [...]
Posted in science on Nov 3rd, 2008
From Science Daily: Odorprints Like Fingerprints? Personal Odors Remain Distinguishable Regardless Of Diet.
Scientists from the Monell Center present behavioral and chemical findings to reveal that an individual’s underlying odor signature remains detectable even in the face of major dietary changes.
"The findings using this animal model support the proposition that body odors provide a consistent ‘odorprint’ [...]
Posted in science on Nov 1st, 2008
From Discover Magazine: Why Darwin Would Have Loved Botox.
During unconscious facial mimicry, Schilbach discovered, several regions of the brain become active. One of those, the left precentral gyrus, becomes active when people get the urge to move their facial muscles (such as when a song makes them sad). Other regions (the right hippocampus and the [...]
From the New York Times: Dry-Ice Martini and Electric Cake.
When does a recipe become a science project?
Is it when the compulsion to create an edible electrical circuit keeps a cook up all night, wrapping Twizzler string licorice in pure silver?
Is it when a baker decides to bake 20 equilateral-triangle-shaped pecan pies for Thanksgiving, then attach [...]
Posted in science on Oct 24th, 2008
From csmonitor.com: Iceland’s new island is an exclusive club – for scientists only.
Buckled in? Check. Life jacket secure? Check. Noise-reduction headphones on? Check. No seeds in any of your belongings? Check. You sure? Yes. And up lifts the Icelandic Coast Guard’s Super Puma helicopter ferrying me to Iceland’s jealously guarded natural gem, Surtsey Island.
Though it [...]
Posted in science on Oct 24th, 2008
From the Globe and Mail: Scientists target mouse memories to erase.
It seems like a movie plot, but scientists have developed a way to erase specific memories in mice while leaving others intact and not damaging the brain.
By manipulating levels of an important protein in the brain, certain memories can be selectively deleted, researchers led by [...]
Posted in science on Sep 28th, 2008
From Science Daily: New Life Found In Ancient Tombs.
Life has been discovered in the barren depths of Rome’s ancient tombs, proving catacombs are not just a resting place for the dead. The two new species of bacteria found growing on the walls of the Roman tombs may help protect our cultural heritage monuments, according to [...]
Posted in science on Sep 28th, 2008
From National Geographic: Best Science Images of 2008.
Tiny green diatoms create the illusion of a fernlike forest as they attach to their marine-invertebrate hosts. [continue, see photos]
Thanks to Marilyn of Intelligent Travel for writing to tell me about this.
Posted in health, history & archaeology, science on Sep 16th, 2008
From the BBC: Body exhumed in fight against flu.
The body of an aristocrat who died nearly 90 years ago has been exhumed in the hope that it will help scientists combat a future flu pandemic.
Yorkshire landowner Sir Mark Sykes died in France in 1919 from Spanish flu.
Sir Mark was buried in a lead coffin which [...]
Posted in science on Sep 13th, 2008
From iol.co.za: Study may boost forecasts for Vesuvius blasts.
The magma pool feeding the Italian volcano that destroyed Pompeii in AD 79 has shifted in the past 2 000 years, a discovery that could help in predicting future eruptions, researchers said in the journal Nature.
Vesuvius is in southern Italy near Naples, one of the most densely [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, science on Sep 3rd, 2008
From Build a Tree-Ring Timeline
If you’re the skeptical type, you might raise an eyebrow when you hear that a particular Viking ship was built in the year 819. How could anyone determine the age of such an aged object so precisely, especially when there are absolutely no records to verify the date?
Well, tree-ring dating, or [...]
Now this is the kind of science I really like: How useless is a Chocolate Teapot? From The Naked Scientists:
You have heard the saying, but it is meaningless unless you know exactly how useful a chocolate teapot actually is. We try to find out how thick the walls of a chocolate teapot would have to [...]
From the Washington Post: In Our Genes, Old Fossils Take On New Roles.
Over the past 15 years, scientists have been comparing the inherited genetic material — the genomes — of dozens of organisms, acquiring a life history of life itself. (…) It turns out that about 8 percent of the human genome is made up [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, science on Aug 26th, 2008
From Science Daily: Tahitian Vanilla Originated In Maya Forests, Says Botanist.
The origin of the Tahitian vanilla orchid, whose cured fruit is the source of the rare and highly esteemed gourmet French Polynesian spice, has long eluded botanists. Known by the scientific name Vanilla tahitensis, Tahitian vanilla is found to exist only in cultivation; natural, wild [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc, science on Aug 9th, 2008
From discovery.com: Bees, Fish Analyzed to Understand Serial Killers.
Studying species in the animal world helps police catch human criminals — and vice versa. Originally developed to catch serial killers, a method called geographic profiling is now being used to study great white sharks, bats and bees.
In turn, criminologists expect that these biological studies will help [...]
From the New York Times: In the Summer Kitchen, the Thrill of the Chill.
It lasted only a moment, but it was the most refreshed I’ve ever felt at the dining table. All of a sudden my mouth was shockingly cold, so cold that I could see my breath. As the cold dissipated I could sense [...]
Posted in science on Jun 18th, 2008
From the Guardian: Face of fear: how a terrified expression could keep you alive.
The evolutionary mystery of why our faces contort when we are scared has been solved by a team of Canadian neuroscientists.
When our facial expression shifts to one of eye-bulging, nostril-flaring fear, our ability to sense attackers or other imminent danger improves dramatically, [...]