There was an army baloonist who actualy jumped on purpose from 100 000+ feet and lived to tell about it. This jump was done to test the feasibility of a paraschute rescue for the X-1 rocket plane project, which would work in high stratosphere.
First there was a small paraschute, which should stabilise the man, and to prevent him from going supersonic in thin air. The main shute would then open authomaticaly, at muchg lower altitude.
The test worked on a dummy, but with a live man, there was a mishap: the small parashute did not open. The poor guy was falling fater and faster and he thought to himself: "Damn, I am going to go supersonic. I must not spin, or I would get ripped appart. So he tried if he could do a skydiving spread, but at 100 000 feet there is not much resistance and it was difficult for him to control his body during the descent. He was falling fast and beginning to spin and he passed out. When he got back concious, at low altitutude, the main shute opened automaticaly. I think he was the only person who felt out on supersonic speed and survived.
This event goes contrary to everything what is known about the star life cycle so far. The most strange thing is the luminosity and the fact that resulting object is a big star, and not a collapsed object (like black hole, neutron star or white dwarf)
Life on Venus
on
Venus and Life
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
1. Strongly acidic media (diluted sulfuric acid) is not a big deal: there are microbs on Earth that thrive in diluted sulfuric acid (like pH=0)
2. Strong UV is bigger problem: enegetic UV is enormously destructive to carbon-based life
3. Some moisture is probably needed, and there is not much of it in the clouds in liquid form
4. The strongly UV-absorbing material in clouds can very easily be a mixture of sulfurous compounds: The products formed in system H2S + SO2 + S (irradiated by UV) are qute complex and very, very UV absorbing. They form and decompose easily. So we may have the photochemical processes high up in the clouds (which produce or destroys the compounds) and pyrolitic processes by the surface (which does a different chemistry). So we would have these various bands of cloud material with different levels of UV absorbing sulfur compounds - depending whether they were iradiated by strong UV or exposed to the hot interior of the atmosphere.
You do not need a life to explain this - a simple thermal convection will do the same.
And, I found the idea of life (single cell -like?) in atmosphere causing its super-rotation on planetary level (because it gives these microbs an evolutionary advantage) just preposterous. No living organism can produce energy enough to move around atmosphere of entire planet at speeds 200+mph. Only the sun energy can do that.
...because fungi spores were the only allergenic stuff found to be increased on stormy days. That is, from the stuff that we know about.
This is loose, loose connection: it can be also a sudden air pressure drop, sudden spike in humidity, electric discharge or static electricity causing increased smog particle agglomeration, and so on.
During severe storms, there is also increased incidence of heart attacks and strokes - and the fungi spores are hardly to blame for this.
The above canadian study seems pretty non-interesting, and it is taken out of context by NYTimes. "Dr. Dales said that hospital visits for asthma were 15 percent more frequent on days with thunderstorms than on other days."
15% increase during stormy days - that means 8 instead of 7 asthma ER patients. Big deal! Things like cocroaches in the kitchen, neighbour smoker or fabric softener may have bigger impact on life of asthmatics than storms.
I do not read NYTimes science section, because they are sensational and reliably lame.
About 1 in 3 chicken is infected with salmonella. Eating undercooked chicken is the most common cause of food poisoning. Since eggs pass through the rear of the hen, a lot of eggs is infected with salmonella too. Thats why use of non-pasteurised egg products (i.e. mayonaise) is banned in US.
Now, this antibody requires 1. hens to be given vaccination shots, alot of them 2. their eggs being freeze dried. 3. taking this wonderful non-sterile egg-powder and sprinkling it onto lousy food from wending machine or 7/24 truck food stop.
They should at least include 100% alcohol or radiation treatment step during the manufacture of this stuff, to keep us from getting a food-borne sicknes from such "antibody"
Several proteins mentioned in the article
on
Baldness Be Gone?
·
· Score: 1
are actually promising cancer therapy targets.
My company is developing assays and testing drug candidates to target the mentioned proliferation/cell adhesion mechanisms. (Can't be more specific here). Not only Homer Simpson will be happy when these cell signaling mechanism get understood in more detail.
Cows and pigs are not supposed eat grains and soya all the time - but it makes them grow quick and their meat is more tender & juicy (=intramuscular fat). High calory/low fieber diet can make the animals sick - the bacteria in the gut would produce a lot of acidic products that irritate/cause inflamation of the gut, resulting in indigestion, diarrhea and poor absorbtion of the feed. But if you suppress bacteria by adding antibiotics, you can feed this stuff with impunity.
Although, the antibiotic resistance may not have anything to do with this: the pathogen looks to me more like a virus, quite possibly of the influenza variety. Please remember that influenza viruses are *exceptionaly* variable, fast- mutating. They have their natural reservoir in birds (wild population and chicken as weel) and also pigs, and only infect humans when they mutate. Influenza virus needs the host to have a protease capable of activating the key virus protein. Most often these proteases are specific to the particular tissue and animal species - that is until the key virus protein eventualy mutates and a new host becames vulnerable to it. When the mutation would happen is unpredictable and if the new influenza virus is only a cousin-relative to the common influenza virus, the neuramidinaze inhibitors may not work at all on it. Muhammar
Slashdot Mirror
Here's how it's killing the poor infected cells: by bursting them.
There was an army baloonist who actualy jumped on purpose from 100 000+ feet and lived to tell about it. This jump was done to test the feasibility of a paraschute rescue for the X-1 rocket plane project, which would work in high stratosphere.
First there was a small paraschute, which should stabilise the man, and to prevent him from going supersonic in thin air. The main shute would then open authomaticaly, at muchg lower altitude.
The test worked on a dummy, but with a live man, there was a mishap: the small parashute did not open. The poor guy was falling fater and faster and he thought to himself: "Damn, I am going to go supersonic. I must not spin, or I would get ripped appart. So he tried if he could do a skydiving spread, but at 100 000 feet there is not much resistance and it was difficult for him to control his body during the descent. He was falling fast and beginning to spin and he passed out. When he got back concious, at low altitutude, the main shute opened automaticaly.
I think he was the only person who felt out on supersonic speed and survived.
This event goes contrary to everything what is known about the star life cycle so far. The most strange thing is the luminosity and the fact that resulting object is a big star, and not a collapsed object (like black hole, neutron star or white dwarf)
1. Strongly acidic media (diluted sulfuric acid) is not a big deal: there are microbs on Earth that thrive in diluted sulfuric acid (like pH=0) 2. Strong UV is bigger problem: enegetic UV is enormously destructive to carbon-based life 3. Some moisture is probably needed, and there is not much of it in the clouds in liquid form 4. The strongly UV-absorbing material in clouds can very easily be a mixture of sulfurous compounds: The products formed in system H2S + SO2 + S (irradiated by UV) are qute complex and very, very UV absorbing. They form and decompose easily. So we may have the photochemical processes high up in the clouds (which produce or destroys the compounds) and pyrolitic processes by the surface (which does a different chemistry). So we would have these various bands of cloud material with different levels of UV absorbing sulfur compounds - depending whether they were iradiated by strong UV or exposed to the hot interior of the atmosphere. You do not need a life to explain this - a simple thermal convection will do the same. And, I found the idea of life (single cell -like?) in atmosphere causing its super-rotation on planetary level (because it gives these microbs an evolutionary advantage) just preposterous. No living organism can produce energy enough to move around atmosphere of entire planet at speeds 200+mph. Only the sun energy can do that.
...because fungi spores were the only allergenic stuff found to be increased on stormy days. That is, from the stuff that we know about. This is loose, loose connection: it can be also a sudden air pressure drop, sudden spike in humidity, electric discharge or static electricity causing increased smog particle agglomeration, and so on. During severe storms, there is also increased incidence of heart attacks and strokes - and the fungi spores are hardly to blame for this. The above canadian study seems pretty non-interesting, and it is taken out of context by NYTimes. "Dr. Dales said that hospital visits for asthma were 15 percent more frequent on days with thunderstorms than on other days." 15% increase during stormy days - that means 8 instead of 7 asthma ER patients. Big deal! Things like cocroaches in the kitchen, neighbour smoker or fabric softener may have bigger impact on life of asthmatics than storms. I do not read NYTimes science section, because they are sensational and reliably lame.
n=5: 6n+5=35 (not prime enuf)
About 1 in 3 chicken is infected with salmonella. Eating undercooked chicken is the most common cause of food poisoning. Since eggs pass through the rear of the hen, a lot of eggs is infected with salmonella too. Thats why use of non-pasteurised egg products (i.e. mayonaise) is banned in US. Now, this antibody requires 1. hens to be given vaccination shots, alot of them 2. their eggs being freeze dried. 3. taking this wonderful non-sterile egg-powder and sprinkling it onto lousy food from wending machine or 7/24 truck food stop. They should at least include 100% alcohol or radiation treatment step during the manufacture of this stuff, to keep us from getting a food-borne sicknes from such "antibody"
are actually promising cancer therapy targets. My company is developing assays and testing drug candidates to target the mentioned proliferation/cell adhesion mechanisms. (Can't be more specific here). Not only Homer Simpson will be happy when these cell signaling mechanism get understood in more detail.
Cows and pigs are not supposed eat grains and soya all the time - but it makes them grow quick and their meat is more tender & juicy (=intramuscular fat). High calory/low fieber diet can make the animals sick - the bacteria in the gut would produce a lot of acidic products that irritate/cause inflamation of the gut, resulting in indigestion, diarrhea and poor absorbtion of the feed. But if you suppress bacteria by adding antibiotics, you can feed this stuff with impunity.
Although, the antibiotic resistance may not have anything to do with this: the pathogen looks to me more like a virus, quite possibly of the influenza variety. Please remember that influenza viruses are *exceptionaly* variable, fast- mutating. They have their natural reservoir in birds (wild population and chicken as weel) and also pigs, and only infect humans when they mutate. Influenza virus needs the host to have a protease capable of activating the key virus protein. Most often these proteases are specific to the particular tissue and animal species - that is until the key virus protein eventualy mutates and a new host becames vulnerable to it.
When the mutation would happen is unpredictable and if the new influenza virus is only a cousin-relative to the common influenza virus, the neuramidinaze inhibitors may not work at all on it.
Muhammar