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Comments · 22
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Some years ago on SA
I remember an article on Scientific American about limb regeneration. Salamanders are the gold standard for regenerating limbs but the article stated that rat/mice are capable of fully regenerate fingers (don't remember if talking of common rat or MRL mice) and with treatment a human could regrow part of fingers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_(biology)#Mammals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_Roths_Large http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392774&cat=1_2 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=regrowing-human-limbs
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Re:probably a bit ignorant here
The beaches coated in oil by the Exxon Valdez still have oil just a few inches down.
Glancing through recent articles on the matter, it appears to be a matter of local anaerobic conditions preventing the breakdown of oil and related materials in certain regions. The thing is that these conditions appear to occur anyway, to be a condition of the local environment not of the presence of oil. So it's not clear to me that having oil in these places is all that different from what other organic compounds would be there.
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Re:Just under three thousand people would disagree
It was discussed some time ago on Schneier's blog, but I can't find the proper reference. This is pretty close along with this but I can't find the long term impact on people's travel habits which is needed to get the total up the the level of the casualties on the day. Also the extent to which it's security measures rather than fear of flying is really needed to back up the statistic I stated.
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Re:Captain Obvious
And if you've had one, keep away from me - you're more, not less, likely to have a compromised immune system in the long run if you get annual flu shots.
May you please provide some evidence for this claim? If you are talking about antigenic sin, that only applies if you get the shot regularly, but then skip a year:
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392095
The flu shot is a crap-shoot in terms of effectiveness
From http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113154000,
"If you are vaccinated with the injected vaccine, you have about a 70 percent chance of preventing influenza."
70% is a crap-shoot? Really?
latest virus is no more fatal than the average
About 36,000 a year die on average from the flu each year.
Anyway, the flu shot isn't a "crap-shoot" and an immune system destroyer as you claim... it is exactly the opposite, actually.
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Re:Question:
There aren't too many buildingd in the middle of the ocean.
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392711
and there's an mp3 recording of it here:
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news/2005/07_20_05.htm
So yes, you are guessing, but incorrectly. A bit of searching on the net shows this is not a rarity. My guess, is they all make sound but I'll leave that as an exercise for someone else to look up. -
Re:Uhhh, well>Maybe the Brits are terrified of the idea of talking while driving, but I suppose not many of us outside Britain find it particularly strange. Get over your chauvinism. It's nothing to do with nationality or location; drivers everywhere are human beings, and have the same weaknesses. Try reading this:
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392815&cat=1_all
Note this passage in particular:
'...[T]he drivers did not even realize that they weren't really "seeing" everything in front of them on the road. They thought they were driving perfectly safely, and figured that if anyone had a problem driving while using a cell phone, it would be "the other guy." He explains, "Part of this inattention blindness shuts down their own processing and their own assessment of how well they're driving. So they themselves are not as aware of their driving performance while they're using a cell phone."'
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Re:Light on details...
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218393052 [the rest of this comment is invisible]
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Re:Can we have the exercise ones, please?
In 2003 they solve the exercise problem with genetics....
Muscle Gene -
Re:Because we all know
"You're no better than anyone else", "Take your place and shut up", "Slow down and learn at the same rate as everybody else; you're not special". All the while, within myself, I was thinking "But I can go faster than everyone else", "I can see a better way to do this", and "I am special". When the very core of your being is surpressed, you naturally look for a way to allow it to flourish.
and"I don't need you to tell me what to do; I'm quite capable of figuring it out for myself."
I can appreciate what you are saying. In school, the most frustrating part about it all was that after summer break, half the year was spent reviewing what had been learned last year (especially in math classes). So while most of the other students were re-learning stuff that they already learned, I was bored out of my skull. I'd argue that if students forget stuff over the summer break, then what's the point of teaching it again? They're just going to forget it again. If I were a math teacher and students said "we're never gonna use this stuff!" then that would tell me that it's pointless to teach them. If people don't like to learn things, then these same people aren't going to turn around and become an engineer or a programmer or a physicist; these professions that do use algebra and beyond are also all about learning.
On the other hand, you have to be careful. You can start to sound very self-aggrandizing very quickly. While I may have been better in high school math than most other students, I am not so foolish as to think that I am flat out smarter than everyone else. Everyone has something he excels at, and too often he thinks that means he can do EVERYTHING better than everyone else. And that just makes a person look stupid and arrogant. And if there's one thing worse than someone who is stupid, it's someone who is also arrogant. It's just like driving: everyone thinks he is a better driver than everyone else. That is statistically impossible. So, while you may be special in your own eyes, and in the eyes of your mother, your significant other, etc, the cold hard reality is that you are, in many ways, just like everyone else. -
How about something like this?
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?ty
p e=article&article_id=218392803
If they have both nanotech ducks in a row there, you could do without the batteries even... -
so what...
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Re:Way too dangerous
Even too long exposition to bright blue light can be dangerous.
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Science Video
For the great science news in the form of video I recommend ScienCentral.
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Re:How long?
Well according to this
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/07 01_040701_oceantrap.html
many deep sea fish die simply in the process of being captured and transported to the surface due to changes in "temperature and pressure"
Of course! In such cases the changes in pressure and temperature can be rapid, which would naturally be damaging to most organisms. There can also be excessive oxygen present, which can also be fatal.
and according to this
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?art icle_id=218391869&cat=1_1
at least one known fish has an enzyme which simply doesn't work at aquarium pressures (so it dies)
One example of a high-pressure-adapted enzyme does not contradict my point.
And according to this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sea_fish
"These fish live at depths of several kilometres with pressures of several hundred atmospheres; as a result they cannot survive at sea level and any attempts to keep them in captivity has led to their death."
This is not a valid statement. Living at pressures of several hundred atmospheres does not of itself imply that that such organisms can't survive at sea level. This is obviously false as there are many animals that normally migrate between such pressure ranges!
So raising them in captivity is probably a bit more complicated than simply turning down the lights and attaching a small refrigeration unit.
There are very, very many reasons why wild animals die in capitivity, and they can be very complex. For example, the animals may starve as a result of the lack of chemical cues in the water. Some deep-sea squid species will grow to a certain age in captivity but then stop eating because some (as yet) unknown factor is present. -
Re:How long?
Well according to this
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/07 01_040701_oceantrap.html
many deep sea fish die simply in the process of being captured and transported to the surface due to changes in "temperature and pressure"
and according to this
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?art icle_id=218391869&cat=1_1
at least one known fish has an enzyme which simply doesn't work at aquarium pressures (so it dies)
And according to this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sea_fish
"These fish live at depths of several kilometres with pressures of several hundred atmospheres; as a result they cannot survive at sea level and any attempts to keep them in captivity has led to their death."
So raising them in captivity is probably a bit more complicated than simply turning down the lights and attaching a small refrigeration unit. -
Retirement...
Being able to live much older than before through the creation of an anti-aging drug (more than a decade away from possible creation, according to http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?ar
t icle_id=218392210&language=english) would be cool, really cool considering that in the article link I posted they say that such a drug could "45-year old at the age of 90, and could eventually help you live to be 200? " if the research they do is successful, but wouldn't it seriosuly fuck up the retirement age and stuff like that? -
Re:Quote from TFA
Also from the FA:
direct link to the QT video:
http://www.sciencentral.com/news/image_db/2022144/ BattlefieldBandaids_MSTR.mov
And if you dont want to use their crappy sign up process, just click the link that says "i am 13" and it will log you in!
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This is the "long-term non-progressor" issueA mutation that seems to prevent AIDS progression has been known for a while. There's a very small number of people who are HIV-positive but do not develop AIDS symptoms, even over decades. The mutation seems to inhibit the process that causes T-cell death. This small group is very heavily studied.
Early this year, some work at Rockefeller University looked promising, but then came a retraction. A lab technique problem made the results look better than they were. Work continues to try to unscramble this mess. Because there are so few people showing this kind of immunity, it's hard to figure out what's really going on.
These people are benign carriers; i.e. they can infect others. This isn't like a vaccine response.
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Biological cause for hoarding
It's interesting that recent research has found a distinct signature in the brain of hoarders: an inactive cingulate gyru. Contrary to assumption, it's totally distinct from obsessive compulsive disorder.
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It's more than data storageThe first thing I thought was that I can carry around one of those keychain flash memories. But you don't know what icky schmootz is on the keyboard, or if there's a keystroke logger in the terminal, or if the terminal is set up to trash your keychain memory. There is more than a question of data storage here.
You wouldn't trust a public terminal, but you could probably trust a public power supply so you don't need to carry around batteries. People already trust public wifi networks ala Starbucks. CPUs and memory can continue to shrink, but what about keyboards and screens?
Keyboards can be embedded in cloth which could be rolled up. Displays could be made to be rolled up also (1, 2, 3). People are working on non-volatile nanotube-based memories which could replace bulky, fragile hard disks. Cool, zero boot-up time.
It's pretty reasonable to imagine that in five or ten years there could be a cheap computer with the feel and durability of thick cloth, that rolls up to be about 6 inches long and maybe an inch wide. Maybe you velcro it around your forearm when not in use. I'd buy one.
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Space Elevators
If you really want to make the USA into a Space Faring Nation again, we should put our money into space elevators.
In just 2 decades, this idea has gone from being impossible to far-out to design studies.
By comparison, the ISS is a waste and the Moon would be an expensive diversion. Space elevators would really open the solar system up for human - not just robot - exploration. -
Re:Lighting 101 / Cost Savings of CFL'sI used to be a big fan of CFLs. Not any more.
Cheap, you say? Only because the price is subsidized. Either that, or you get a mail-in rebate to fill out (yay, more junk mail).
A $5 CFL is just as vulnerable to an errant baseball as a $0.25 incandescent.
They don't work well in cold weather.
Some brands are complete shit. I had a ring-shaped CFL made by Lights of America that almost caught fire because the ballast overheated.
These bulbs contain mercury. How do you dispose of them in an environmentally responsible manner?
Besides, in 5 years, they'll be obsolete