Slashdot Mirror

Of course, oil isn't energy positive either.
Okay, sure it's energy positive from the time we extract it from the ground, but any fair consideration needs to take into account the amount of energy that, once upon a time, was required to create that oil, since essentially what we're required to do is replace the whole supply chain (or, wait a few hundred thousand years -- or more! -- for the supply chain to replenish the stocks we've taken).

I'm led to believe that the figure is approximately 24 tonnes of plants to produce one litre of petrol as an end product. Considered this way, then ethanol, biodiesel or hydrogen are all far less energy negative.

The bonus is that waiting several hundred thousand years for the fuel supply to renew itself isn't necessary with the other energy-negative part-solutions.

Oh, and converting a standard four-stroke petrol engine to run on ethanol is not that hard, either -- as proven by a recent entry of a 1925 Austin in the Darwin to Adelaide Panasonic World Solar Challenge. Bigger carburetor jets (or similar adjustments in a fuel injected vehicle), cylinder head lubricant (probably not necessary on most unleaded vehicles), and some timing adjustments are about the mix of it, and come to think of it EFI systems could be designed to handle such adjustments mostly automatically.

Thank you very much! This article does shed some more light on the issue.

If you doubt this, just ask the Europeans, whose traditionally balmy climate is fast disappearing due to the weakening of the Gulf Stream

There are many examples of what biologists term 'gigantism' on islands.

There are even more examples of dwarfism on islands because of the low energy environment and relative lack of predators. Pygmy mammoths are one good example. The recently found hobbits are another.

I wonder how "Evolution" feels about the award - 4 billion years of hard work, and now it gets recognition.

... the better SF reference is not to "Fantastic Voyage", for that movie used mAcrotech made tiny, without any changes allowing for different effects of nano-scale. The atomic-powered minisub was a normal atomic-powered minisub, the two-handed surgical laser was a normal two-handed surgical laser, and the madatory busty female was a normal mandatory busty female. They were simply rendered smaller, that's all.

In contrast, Borg nano-technology takes full advantage of the unique properties of objects in small scale, just as does the self-assembling peptide nanofibers referenced in the announcement.

We wouldn't want our SF references to be unrealistic, would we?

Regarding fructose, here's a story I tried submitting to slashdot which didn't get through:

Fructose Tricks Body Into Being Hungrier

Researchers at the University of Florida have recently discovered that fructose may be a primary cause of America's growing obesity rate. According to their research, fructose tricks the body into being hungrier than it should be. High-fructose corn syrup is often used as a sweetener in US soft drinks and foods due to corn subsidies and sugar import tariffs.

* San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth research and "nonvolcanic" tremors.
* Earth is potentially out of new farm land.
* New insights into the rate of ozone recovery.
* Southeast Asia faces another danger of a large tsunami in the next few decades
* Cassino spots icy plumes on Saturn

how about using it before it is "stored"

The NYT story is pretty light on the technical details....a more detail-oriented write-up can be found here... and you don't have to register to read it.

UWB's data capacity, speed, low power requirements, and resistance to interference have attracted the attention of major electronic corporations who recognize the technology's commercial potential. Because UWB can penetrate walls, it could become the center of all communications within homes and small offices. UWB signals could carry voice, data, and video. Products could speed downloading images from a digital camera to a computer, connecting printers to computers, and routing high-definition signals to televisions. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) currently restricts commercial UWB applications to between 3.1 and 10.6 gigahertz because of a concern they could interfere with existing transmissions, especially flight radios, beacons, and the Global Positioning System. FCC rules also limit UWB commercial devices to less than 1 watt, which prevents them from working beyond a relatively short distance (about 10 meters).

Using an experimental license, Livermore has developed numerous UWB systems in frequency bands ranging from 200 megahertz to 100 gigahertz. Tests at Livermore have shown that the devices do not cause undue interference with other electronic devices operating in this broad frequency range. Livermore efforts are directed at developing UWB devices for the government that operate both above and below the 3.1- to 10.6-gigahertz band designated for commercial devices.

But the jury is still out, anyway. :-)

Neurogenesis seems to be well documented for songbird neocortex, though.

Since the argument we're discussing assumes working genetic engineering in the body, it seems like a smaller problem to extend the functioning from the speech center of birds to mammal brains... :-)

While the idea of black holes, dark matter, etc seems intringing, it is still a lot of theory. It is nice to see that people haven't given up, but that's not to say that this article is just as much speculation as the next.

With that said, wouldn't it be nice to focus all of humanities efforts on answering the questions we don't yet know the answers for ... instead of killing each other? I know that we already have the answer, but 42 only answers the ultimate question, we can't even answer the simple things like "do black holes exist?"

sheesh link an article that explains cool flow visualization techniques, on an interesting subject, and draws interesting conclusions...

But not a single picture. So I did my own digging. Here's one. And another.

Mass Produced Carbon Nanotubes

7 meters per minute!

Future Hi

False hope means that there is no reasonable chance of success; that's not the case. Stop reading Slashdot and start reading EurekAlert for a while; it's likely not as far off as you think.

For example, the Mount Pinatubo eruption

lowered the temperature by the addition of aerosols (dust and sulfuric gasses), which mostly leave the atmosphere over the next several years. CO2 does not (there is sequestering, but it's a slow process). CFCs do not (half-lives often over a hundred years). Methane does not, although it is one of the shorter lived greenhouse gasses (12 years) and some of our actions have added new permanent influxes (for example, dambuilding). Etc. Mt. Pinatubo actually helped validate models of global warming

There is nothing unique in time scale or magnitude

Yes, there distinctly is.

The little climatic optimum ... the little ice age

Was nothing compared to recent temperature change; check the graphs. Some conservative sites distort the issue by citing temperature changes *In Europe* during this period, not global temperatures. If you want to talk *regional* climate change, be my guest - compare Europe's little ice age change to the modern Arctic climate change.

lasting about 1000 years on average

Completely false (unless you're, for some reason, talking about small-fraction-of-a-degree changes, as opposed to real ice ages). Again, look at the graphs; I can't stress enough that you review the data again, because you're wrong about what it says.

The pre-holocene glacial period had prpbably some of the most rapid climate changes in history, yet they still took a 650-3000 years to accomplish what we've done in a two hundred, and what we will repeat in 50 or less.

This stems from these editors not actually having science or engineering degrees. Try Eureka Alert for real breaking edge news.

Dr. Ioannidis (who is Greek, like me) is right: I read daily public announcements from universities, as well as some scientific papers, and I have found that most of them are unimportant, wrong or simply motivated by financial reasons (some universities must use all their expenses allowance in order to continue receiving government money). Not only scientific papers are wrong (often the result of vanity), but students dislike studying science and technology. Recently RPI President Jackson called for a national strategy to overcome this problem. USA must invest more in science, otherwise rival nations. How would you feel to see a communist Chinese flag on Mars? You can prevent this by persuading your representatives to invest more in science and technology. The first step would be to enact more reasonable copyright and patent laws. Science, like free software benefits from openess, which is now hindered by copyright and patents. Richard M. Stallman has published an article in Nature about this, and you can read it here.

I don't know why they're bandying the term "nanotechnology" around, because it's not. It's a silica coating that prevents fogging. In fact, the only reason this made it to slashdot is because the term "nanotechnology" was used in the title of the original press release. You'd think the people at MIT and the ACS would know better.

the science and technology of building electronic circuits and devices from single atoms and molecules.

This does not meet those criteria.

Bacteria used to convert grain to plastic

I know that I would not want live in that state.

This is a bit naive. In fact there exists research that suggests people actually tend to adapt quite well to moderate disability, and remain just about as happy as they were before it. You just can't know until you get there yourself.

...to post some cool links. Here's Nature's Quicktime video of the sheets being produced (coral cache).

http://www.nature.com.nyud.net:8090/news/2005/0508 15/full/050815-8.html

And the official press release from UT Dallas...

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/uot a-utd081505.php

The original article is here. More details.

Please do yourself a favor and never ever link to them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_intelligence

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/cdr i-bai042505.php

How about the implications of mapping out and finding out what each race's genes say about members of that race?

If genetic information of individuals is kept private, what about corps (or various other groups, government), using genetic mapping of various sets and subsets of the population to determine who is most at risk for certain conditions and (possibly) lines of work.

For example determining whether or not higher rates of skin cancer among whites, or higher levels of prostate cancer among black males, will be factored into things such as insurance rates.

If the genes are "useless" as you say, they don't code for proteins, in which case the cell appears the same to the immune system.
Who says they can't code for proteins and still be irrelevant to the normal operation of malaria? When I said "useless" I was referring to the physical functionality of the malaria. Obviously they are very useful as a "cloaking device"!

And you obviously didn't Google for it (though admittedly I didn't either until goaded by your less than genteel response) since I found references almost immediately.

Of the first page of results this article is closest to the one I read originally, though unfortunately less detailed.
      (I will leave further investigation as an exercise for the pedantic parent poster, er, I mean gentle reader... :).

The best we could give them before was a hug and a doctor mumbling that they were "interesting,"...

I take it you are denigrating what are known as Cognitive Therapies here. Were you aware that one study has shown that at least as effective as drugs in the treatment of severe depression?

Gasoline doesn't just flow up from the ground. It would be education to look at how much energy is needed to produce a "consumer-ready" gallon of gasoline.

Link for thought:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-10/uou -bm9102603.php

Error-correction in quantum algorithms is actually the key issue in future development of quantum computing. And, not only that, but you have to come up with a correction algorithm where the complexity scales polynomially with the size of the system. Also,

It is a hard problem - even if we have years of theoretical research, the first succesful experiment that probed the real error correction was done only few months ago (see Nature - Dec 1 2004), or http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-12/nio s-ndd112904.php

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/uof -fft061005.php

Also read about it at the University of Alberta website and in the Press release

• physicstoday.org
• sciencenews.org
• http://www.eurekalert.org/

Yeah, what was I thinking? I am not a chemistry expert, just speculating "where would I go if I were a hydrogen atom". For the record, here is a semmingly authoritative article that describes what happens to hydrogen in the environment, besides being dissolved in the ocean and naturally oxidized in the atmosphere:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-08/nsf -asg082003.php

Try this http://www.eurekalert.org/. It isn't perfect ... but neat all the same. Cheers

Its a shame Physorg failed to mention that these generate about one-thousandth the power of a chemical battery, making them quite useless for most all consumer electronics devices that are remotely power hungry. See the press release.

Sigh... Sorry that the link I provided did not answer every possible aspect of my comment.

Since you are incapible of doing your own google search before making ill-informed statements; I'll do it for you:

http://autism.about.com/od/autisminprint/i/brainpr ocessing_2.htm

http://brain.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/ 125/7/1594

http://128.226.8.112/icdext/info/aspergers.html

http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/bgrh/vpost ?id=157312

http://www.autistics.cc/AspSleepNeuroStudy.html

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/uow -sec030405.php

--dv

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=11 184

Macworld is reporting that the Journal of Consumer Research came across a study drawing a parallel between consumerism and religion.

The team looked at several brands, including those form the automobile industry, sci-fi TV series and Macs. "All of these brand communities have been demonstrated to be capable of producing transformative experiences in their consumers and all have traces of magic, religion or the supernatural," sez Macworld.

Not that hard to swallow considering the fervor and zealotry behind people's choice of sugared water.

So are you one of the faithful, a convert or a heretic?

This reminds me of something I saw from a while back, the idea of an optical black hole.

Basically, it has nothing to do with gravitational black holes, but the semi-hysterical press stories didn't pick up on that at the time either.

I'd explain it, but follow the link, or try this one for something clearer and simpler. I got these links from this search, but not all the results look relevant. Still, you may be able to find more, at least starting there.

Refoming gasoline using catalytic converters.

Text to the article.

Instead of spark plugs and cylinders, environmentally friendly fuel cell engines may be under the hoods of the cars of the future. But first, scientists must find a practical and economical way to supply the hydrogen gas needed to power them. Chemical engineers at Argonne have developed and patented a compact fuel processor that "reforms" ordinary gasoline into a hydrogen-rich gas to power fuel cells. The technology was recently named one of the top 100 inventions of the year by R&D magazine.

Fuel cells convert hydrogen gas into electricity and water. Compared to internal combustion engines, the energy conversion is clean and efficient. "You can think of fuel cells as batteries that are continuously charged by supplying fuel," said Jim Miller, manager of Argonne's Electrochemical Technology Program.

A team of scientists in the Chemical Technology Division, led by Mike Krumpelt and Shabbir Ahmed, have synthesized new types of catalysts to form hydrogen by reacting gasoline with oxygen. Catalysts are materials that speed chemical reactions by cutting the energy required to start the reaction. While catalysts help some chemical bonds form and others break, catalysts remain unchanged. Using the Argonne catalyst, Ahmed designed and built an inexpensive, easy-to-manufacture fuel-reforming reactor.

Don't burn it, reform it

Fuel cell engines are clean. They efficiently convert hydrogen and oxygen into electric power with water and heat as the only by-products. The fuel cell is expected to be 60 percent efficient -- twice as efficient as today's internal combustion engines. And fuel cells should cut carbon dioxide output to half that of a combustion engine.

Using hydrogen directly to power fuel cell engines would be environmentally ideal, but it is not practical today. Hydrogen-storage devices are heavy and bulky, and no retailing infrastructure exists for supplying hydrogen to consumers. These challenges prompted scientists to investigate compact processors that could produce hydrogen from conventional fuels to power the fuel cell onboard the vehicle.

Researchers originally developed methanol reformers but switched to gasoline because its production, distribution and retailing infrastructure is established. Fuel-cell car owners would use the pumps at the gas station to refuel just as they do now, but they would only need half as much gas.

History

The first fuel cells were built in 1839, but their role as a practical power generator did not emerge until the 1960s when the U.S. space program developed fuel cells to power the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft.

The space program continues to use fuel cells -- they produce electricity and water for space shuttle astronauts -- while fuel cell research has expanded into stationary and vehicle power generation. Argonne scientists have been involved with fuel cell research for nearly three decades.

Reformer design

In designing the fuel reformer, Ahmed used a simple, inexpensive plan similar to catalytic converters in today's cars. Catalytic converters pass the car's exhaust over a catalyst that converts carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide to eliminate the poisonous gas.

In Ahmed's gasoline reformer, vaporized gasoline is mixed with steam and air and then sent through a catalyst-packed cylinder. The result is a mixture of gases with a high hydrogen concentration, which is fed to the fuel cell. Some carbon monoxide is also present in the gas mixture. Before it goes to the fuel cell, it passes through a secondary processor, which reacts water vapor and the carbon monoxide to form carbon dioxide and additional hydrogen.

Wanted: A few good catalysts

In addition to the reformer design, researchers needed new catalysts to spur the gasoline-to-hydrogen-gas chemical reaction. Hydrogen gas consists of twin hydrogen atoms bound tog

Really, should we consider these to be statements without facts to back them up?

On point 1. Some European countries do allow firearms, and in fact in some cases mandate ownership, these are typically the nations with lower crime rates. Evidence also does not support that restricting firearms reduces crime.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/cft a-rfn020805.php/

On Point 2, here is a list of European articles that do not support the huge Global Warming scare industry. All European articles from this month. Should you want more citations I can gladly supply them.
Natural climate change may be larger than commonly thought
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/src -ncc020905.php/
Discounting global warming, and more importantly the costs of fighting it even if it is true. http://www.lomborg.com/index.html
And before people say, as they always do, "wasn't he discredited?" No, those that tried to discredit him were in fact told to "put up or shut up" and since they had no facts that proved him wrong they had to shut up.
Prometheus: A Climate of Staged Angst Archives (English reprint of German article)
http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archi ves/climate_change/000343a_climate_of_staged_.html
UK Anti-global warming Blog
http://greenspin.blogspot.com/
Polar bears defy extinction threat
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm? id=143012005
RUSSIA SHOULD DENOUNCE KYOTO PROTOCOL IMMEDIATELY
http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id =5377079&startrow=1&date=2005-02-04&do_alert=0
ILLARIONOV CRITICIZES CENSORSHIP BIAS AT CLIMATIC CONFERENCE
http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id =5371407&startrow=1&date=2005-02-02&do_alert=0

In all the cry of Big Warming is "Everyone knows its true" Which only holds when you discount those that do not hold it is true, those that do not hold its true include the majority of climatologists.

And since when is the European opinion the end all be all in the discussion? How does "The Europeans believe it so it must be true!" statement work. Regardless the majority of Big Warming is here in the States, not in Europe, so your statement makes no sense, because the Majority of GW BS is domestic, not imported.


It should also be noted that the scientists that discovered the flaws, and poor science, in the infamous "Hockey Stick" data are Canadians, McIntyre and McKitrick.

Really, should we consider these to be statements without facts to back them up?

On point 1. Some European countries do allow firearms, and in fact in some cases mandate ownership, these are typically the nations with lower crime rates. Evidence also does not support that restricting firearms reduces crime.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/cft a-rfn020805.php/

On Point 2, here is a list of European articles that do not support the huge Global Warming scare industry. All European articles from this month. Should you want more citations I can gladly supply them.
Natural climate change may be larger than commonly thought
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/src -ncc020905.php/
Discounting global warming, and more importantly the costs of fighting it even if it is true. http://www.lomborg.com/index.html
And before people say, as they always do, "wasn't he discredited?" No, those that tried to discredit him were in fact told to "put up or shut up" and since they had no facts that proved him wrong they had to shut up.
Prometheus: A Climate of Staged Angst Archives (English reprint of German article)
http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archi ves/climate_change/000343a_climate_of_staged_.html
UK Anti-global warming Blog
http://greenspin.blogspot.com/
Polar bears defy extinction threat
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm? id=143012005
RUSSIA SHOULD DENOUNCE KYOTO PROTOCOL IMMEDIATELY
http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id =5377079&startrow=1&date=2005-02-04&do_alert=0
ILLARIONOV CRITICIZES CENSORSHIP BIAS AT CLIMATIC CONFERENCE
http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id =5371407&startrow=1&date=2005-02-02&do_alert=0

In all the cry of Big Warming is "Everyone knows its true" Which only holds when you discount those that do not hold it is true, those that do not hold its true include the majority of climatologists.

And since when is the European opinion the end all be all in the discussion? How does "The Europeans believe it so it must be true!" statement work. Regardless the majority of Big Warming is here in the States, not in Europe, so your statement makes no sense, because the Majority of GW BS is domestic, not imported.


It should also be noted that the scientists that discovered the flaws, and poor science, in the infamous "Hockey Stick" data are Canadians, McIntyre and McKitrick.

Maybe because Humans, Neanderthals, Australopithecines All Variations on One Species, and that apes and such are vastly different from humans??

Not everything they say on the Discovery Channel and on National Geographic is true about the origin of man.

Best Regards,

dan :)

Maybe because Humans, Neanderthals, Australopithecines All Variations on One Species, and that apes and such are vastly different from humans??

Not everything they say on the Discovery Channel and on National Geographic is true about the origin of man.

Best Regards,

dan :)

Made-to-measure skin and bones, which could be used to treat burn victims or patients who have suffered severe disfigurements, may soon be a reality using inkjets which can print human cells.

[...]

Professor Brian Derby, Head of the Ink-Jet Printing of Human Cells Project research team, said: "It is difficult for a surgeon to reconstruct any complex disfiguring of the face using CT scans, but with this technology we are able to build a fragment which will fit exactly. We can place cells in any designed position in order to grow tissue or bone."

This breakthrough overcomes problems currently faced by scientists who are unable to grow large tissues and have limited control over the shape or size the tissue will grow to. It also allows more than one type of cell to be printed at once, which opens up the possibility of being able to create bone grafts.

[...]

Using the printers, they are able create 3-dimensional structures, known as 'tissue scaffolds'. The shape of the scaffold determines the shape of the tissue as it grows. The structures are created by printing very thin layers of a material repeatedly on top of each other until the structure is built. Each layer is just 10 microns thick (1,000 layers equals 1cm in thickness).

[...]

Professor Derby believes the potential for this technology is huge: "You could print the scaffolding to create an organ in a day," he says.

Made-to-measure skin and bones, which could be used to treat burn victims or patients who have suffered severe disfigurements, may soon be a reality using inkjets which can print human cells.

[...]

Professor Brian Derby, Head of the Ink-Jet Printing of Human Cells Project research team, said: "It is difficult for a surgeon to reconstruct any complex disfiguring of the face using CT scans, but with this technology we are able to build a fragment which will fit exactly. We can place cells in any designed position in order to grow tissue or bone."

This breakthrough overcomes problems currently faced by scientists who are unable to grow large tissues and have limited control over the shape or size the tissue will grow to. It also allows more than one type of cell to be printed at once, which opens up the possibility of being able to create bone grafts.

[...]

Using the printers, they are able create 3-dimensional structures, known as 'tissue scaffolds'. The shape of the scaffold determines the shape of the tissue as it grows. The structures are created by printing very thin layers of a material repeatedly on top of each other until the structure is built. Each layer is just 10 microns thick (1,000 layers equals 1cm in thickness).

[...]

Professor Derby believes the potential for this technology is huge: "You could print the scaffolding to create an organ in a day," he says.

> A construction company might choose to discriminate against women because of the entirely true argument that the average woman is shorter and less strong than the average man. Yet while the argument is true, it, alone, is not enough to back up the discrimination. The average woman may be shorter and weaker than the average man, but that doesn't mean I don't know women that couldn't kick Danny DeVito's butt.

Let's say this construction compay hires people based solely on an upper body strength test. And that whiles 80% of men who apply are hired, only 30% of women are. Is this sexist discrimination, do the different numbers simply reflect the fact that men tend to have bigger muscles?

Now, it is far from proven that men are on average better than women at mathematical thinking. But it is equally unproven that the sexes are equal in their mathematical aptitude.

If it is the case that men have some statistical edge in mathematical aptitude, then perhaps we should be striving not for a 50/50 ratio in academic departments but rather for 65/35 or some other number.

It has been social science dogma since the 1960's that all gender differences are socially constructed. This notion was based not on observation but rather on philosophical ideals. The evidence refuting this postulate is substantial: my favorite can be found at this link:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-12/tau -tca121002.php

If you check the original press release, you'll notice UT says the 30% efficiency might be realized "with further improvements in efficiency". The reporter for CTV missed that little nuance.

Think about 10,000% faster, or even more.

Strained silicon is just one of the last tweaks of the silicon era. The future is either carbon, or optics.

I'm not saying that 24% isn't good (it is). But rather that it's just a short-term achievement.

To those of you who have actually managed to reproduce:

By the time you are getting around to worrying about hot laptops, the damage may already be done. Disposable nappies have been shown to increase scrotum temperature to 1 degree above body temp - and a scrotum should be BELOW body temp. This article in the Australian ABC news site from the same wire story references the problem. I know it's a small scall study, but think about it: a few hours a week with a hot laptop on your lap, compared to two to three YEARS locked inside a plastic bag, during a vital developmental stage. On report I saw pointed out that the decline in male sperm counts coincides with the introduction of disposable nappies.

My 6 month old boy is kept almost entirely in washable nappies, of the type made by Happy Hienys, Fuzzi Bunz, etc. They are as convenient as disposables to put on, much neater than the terry squares you would traditionally associate with washable nappies, and they just work.

Now the shameless plug: We have been so impressed with these nappies that my wife is setting up to sell them at babyaloo.com. The site isn't up yet, but it will be in a couple of days.