Saying that the Aral Sea might "recover" is slightly misleading. The North Aral Sea is about 5% of the size of the Aral Sea as a whole. It's like saying that the whole of the US sank into the ocean except for Wyoming and Utah, but it might recover.
Really? I would say that is not the case based on my experience with Wikipedia. Having just done a rough count of those articles in the articles lacking sources category, roughly 4% of all wikipedia articles are tagged as having no sources.
And using an admittedly small sample of 20 random articles (discarding the disambiguation pages), only five were sourced - and that's including three stubs with one source apiece. I'm sure YMMV with that standard, however, as I came across 2 articles in the aforementioned category, which would be a disproportionally large.
I'm sorry, man. I knew that it was Mathews house, not BJ - I just forgot about that. As to the Physics dept thing, hey - rumors fly. I've also heard that they dismantled part of a smoke detector and used the americium there to make the reactor. I guess I shouldn't be writing this speculation and vague rumors I've heard, but this is Slashdot - what better place for them?
As a side note, ScavHunt has been one of those things to which the history has fallen into the realm of legend. I haven't seen the movie, so I can't tell whether or not it touches on the history, but as far as I know, there isn't a ScavHunt history text or anything where the facts can be double-checked. If there is, though, I would be really really interested in seeing it or learning about it.
More info in the previous Slashdot story at http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/05/20/132025 6&mode=thread&tid=134. As far as I've heard, their Resident Masters had connections with the physics department. The BJ team has always been a little nutso like that. But it's better than being kinda sucky, like the Shoreland team (mine).
ScavHunt can be a little detrimental, though. I was actually in the film, apparently dressed up as a Chaotic Evil Half-Elf Ranger. What's not on film is that immediately prior to that I was taking my Organic Chemistry midterm. Now, I don't know about many of the other participants, but since the list of items was released the previous night, I was up reading the list, instead of studying for my exam. And I'm a Chemistry major. So that kinda hurt my grade. But I can say with a decent amount of confidence that I am the only person to have ever taken an Organic Chemistry exam dressed as an elf, with cardboard ears, and with a sword by my side.
Well, could be, but there are questions and concerns to be raised.
IANAMD, but my mother is an infectious disease doctor (working, in fact, in a trial testing a prototype HIV vaccine). I have yet to ask her about this (seeing as I am at work), but one of the common concerns she has when she hears about antibiotics being used frequently is that strains of resistant bacteria may result faster due to overprescription of drugs.
There seems to be very little on the web about HPAs, but from what I've gathered, there seems to be conflicting, hazy theories about how they work on viruses. Now, HPAs very well may be resistance-proof: if a virus cannot replicate due to the physical constraints on retroviral replication, then they have little chance. However, evolution is a weird thing (to put it lightly). The most far-fetched mutation of a virus might just end up working, resulting in its proliferation.
Then there are the safety issues. Even though does not decompose in neutral solutions (and therefore compatable with the pH of blood), there are still the standard concerns about toxicity, carcinogenicity (is that a word?), and the like. One site I found seems to have a description of a HPA that worked....until it started causing cancer in the patients.
Of course, this all might work, too. I hate to sound like a nay-sayer, though, but it's got a ways to go.
Sources are reporting that a recent attempt to slow the depletion of the karma pool at Slashdot have proven unsuccessful. Internal audits leaked to this station have revealed that, in fact, karma utilization has risen in the past hours.
One person close to the Slashdot team has stated: "We thought that the moderators would realize that the posts would be perfect fodder for modding down. Unfortunately, we were wrong."
In addition to many people modding comments highlighting the duplicate postings up, there have been unconfirmed reports of cross-posting of ideas getting modded up. If these reports are true, it is still to be seen whether this represents a duplication of ideas or an intentional abuse of the system.
Physics does have a place in Chemistry, I readily admit this. But from my (admittedly young) knowledge of Chemistry (I am going into my 2nd year for a Chemistry B.S.), you're gonna have a difficult time trying to find what I personally consider the interesting parts of Chemistry in Physics.
For example, having a knowledge of QED (as the post below suggests) or any Physics background, in fact, won't help too much in an Organic Chemistry course. Now, I'll admit I have hardly taken any Physics (save a summer school course in High School), but I gotta say that I thoroughly enjoyed and understood OChem without it (as well as without Bio).
Now, certain specific disciplines within Chemistry (especially Physical Chemistry) would benefit a great deal from a background in Physics (it is a prerequisite, in fact, at my University), but not always.
I guess the key to understanding what the difference between the disciplines is is scale. Physics takes both extremes, examining both the quark and gluon as well as the star and the quantum singularity. Chemistry takes the "small" area - we examine molecules (obviously), while Bio looks at organisms, and Biochem falling in between.
You'd, in the end, be fairly surprised how anti-intuitively molecules can act WRT the laws of Physics.
As for books, I wish I could help, but I'm really just a young'un. All I can say is that my OChem book was fairly decent and took a good overview of the basics. The book I used in AP Chem was pretty good (although I used the 2nd ed, I think). Of course, being textbooks, they will cost you a ton, but they're a good way to go. Hope I could help!
Slashdot Mirror
Saying that the Aral Sea might "recover" is slightly misleading. The North Aral Sea is about 5% of the size of the Aral Sea as a whole. It's like saying that the whole of the US sank into the ocean except for Wyoming and Utah, but it might recover.
Really? I would say that is not the case based on my experience with Wikipedia. Having just done a rough count of those articles in the articles lacking sources category, roughly 4% of all wikipedia articles are tagged as having no sources. And using an admittedly small sample of 20 random articles (discarding the disambiguation pages), only five were sourced - and that's including three stubs with one source apiece. I'm sure YMMV with that standard, however, as I came across 2 articles in the aforementioned category, which would be a disproportionally large.
That might be true, but in the case of the University of Chicago, it is not. Student ID numbers are separate from SSNs.
I'm coming, I'm coming! Geez. Everybody thinks I'm jocking them.
I'm sorry, man. I knew that it was Mathews house, not BJ - I just forgot about that. As to the Physics dept thing, hey - rumors fly. I've also heard that they dismantled part of a smoke detector and used the americium there to make the reactor. I guess I shouldn't be writing this speculation and vague rumors I've heard, but this is Slashdot - what better place for them?
As a side note, ScavHunt has been one of those things to which the history has fallen into the realm of legend. I haven't seen the movie, so I can't tell whether or not it touches on the history, but as far as I know, there isn't a ScavHunt history text or anything where the facts can be double-checked. If there is, though, I would be really really interested in seeing it or learning about it.
Damn, I lose coolness points.
Students Build Reactor For Scavenger Hunt
More info in the previous Slashdot story at http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/05/20/132025 6&mode=thread&tid=134. As far as I've heard, their Resident Masters had connections with the physics department. The BJ team has always been a little nutso like that. But it's better than being kinda sucky, like the Shoreland team (mine).
ScavHunt can be a little detrimental, though. I was actually in the film, apparently dressed up as a Chaotic Evil Half-Elf Ranger. What's not on film is that immediately prior to that I was taking my Organic Chemistry midterm. Now, I don't know about many of the other participants, but since the list of items was released the previous night, I was up reading the list, instead of studying for my exam. And I'm a Chemistry major. So that kinda hurt my grade. But I can say with a decent amount of confidence that I am the only person to have ever taken an Organic Chemistry exam dressed as an elf, with cardboard ears, and with a sword by my side.
Sorry, but 5/11/02 British = 11/5/02 American.
It got me too, at first.
---
:)
come on fhqwhgads
Yes? What do you want?
Well, could be, but there are questions and concerns to be raised.
IANAMD, but my mother is an infectious disease doctor (working, in fact, in a trial testing a prototype HIV vaccine). I have yet to ask her about this (seeing as I am at work), but one of the common concerns she has when she hears about antibiotics being used frequently is that strains of resistant bacteria may result faster due to overprescription of drugs.
There seems to be very little on the web about HPAs, but from what I've gathered, there seems to be conflicting, hazy theories about how they work on viruses. Now, HPAs very well may be resistance-proof: if a virus cannot replicate due to the physical constraints on retroviral replication, then they have little chance. However, evolution is a weird thing (to put it lightly). The most far-fetched mutation of a virus might just end up working, resulting in its proliferation.
Then there are the safety issues. Even though does not decompose in neutral solutions (and therefore compatable with the pH of blood), there are still the standard concerns about toxicity, carcinogenicity (is that a word?), and the like. One site I found seems to have a description of a HPA that worked....until it started causing cancer in the patients.
Of course, this all might work, too. I hate to sound like a nay-sayer, though, but it's got a ways to go.
Even though it seems like slashdot got confused by an e-mail spam, it's good that they haven't posted this before.
Seems like there's been a bunch coming out of the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up dept today.
Of course, sometimes it is possible to make similar things up.
This just in...
Sources are reporting that a recent attempt to slow the depletion of the karma pool at Slashdot have proven unsuccessful. Internal audits leaked to this station have revealed that, in fact, karma utilization has risen in the past hours.
One person close to the Slashdot team has stated: "We thought that the moderators would realize that the posts would be perfect fodder for modding down. Unfortunately, we were wrong."
In addition to many people modding comments highlighting the duplicate postings up, there have been unconfirmed reports of cross-posting of ideas getting modded up. If these reports are true, it is still to be seen whether this represents a duplication of ideas or an intentional abuse of the system.
Physics does have a place in Chemistry, I readily admit this. But from my (admittedly young) knowledge of Chemistry (I am going into my 2nd year for a Chemistry B.S.), you're gonna have a difficult time trying to find what I personally consider the interesting parts of Chemistry in Physics.
For example, having a knowledge of QED (as the post below suggests) or any Physics background, in fact, won't help too much in an Organic Chemistry course. Now, I'll admit I have hardly taken any Physics (save a summer school course in High School), but I gotta say that I thoroughly enjoyed and understood OChem without it (as well as without Bio).
Now, certain specific disciplines within Chemistry (especially Physical Chemistry) would benefit a great deal from a background in Physics (it is a prerequisite, in fact, at my University), but not always.
I guess the key to understanding what the difference between the disciplines is is scale. Physics takes both extremes, examining both the quark and gluon as well as the star and the quantum singularity. Chemistry takes the "small" area - we examine molecules (obviously), while Bio looks at organisms, and Biochem falling in between.
You'd, in the end, be fairly surprised how anti-intuitively molecules can act WRT the laws of Physics.
As for books, I wish I could help, but I'm really just a young'un. All I can say is that my OChem book was fairly decent and took a good overview of the basics. The book I used in AP Chem was pretty good (although I used the 2nd ed, I think). Of course, being textbooks, they will cost you a ton, but they're a good way to go. Hope I could help!