"No longer like a toad in these foul cellars will I secret the venom of hatred -- for you shall bring me love!" - Erik
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« Science: February 2006 | Main | Science: April 2006 » ScienceVain Brain Our brains are filthy liars. They only like evidence that reinforces beliefs they already hold, they are extremely susceptible to self-flattery, and they cherry pick personal memories that fit best with our current self view. By min | March 31, 2006, 10:01 AM | Science | Comments (1)| Link Overall mental agility declined every year among all the patients. But each additional year of education equated to an additional 0.3% deterioration per year. The rest of you losers are so screwed. By min | March 28, 2006, 9:26 AM | Science | Link Min has previously shown you Slime Mold Cyborgs. Today i bring you cyborg insects. DARPA seeks innovative proposals to develop technology to create insect-cyborgs, possibly enabled by intimately integrating microsystems within insects, during their early stages of metamorphoses. The healing processes from one metamorphic stage to the next stage are expected to yield more reliable bio-electromechanical interface to insects, as compared to adhesively bonded systems to adult insects. Once these platforms are integrated, various microsystem payloads can be mounted on the platforms with the goal of controlling insect locomotion, sense local environment, and scavenge power. The final demonstration goal of the HI-MEMS program is the delivery of an insect within five meters of a specific target located at hundred meters away, using electronic remote control, and/or global positioning system (GPS). Although flying insects are of great interest (e.g. moths and dragonflies), hopping and swimming insects could also meet final demonstration goals. In conjunction with delivery, the insect must remain stationary either indefinitely or until otherwise instructed. The insect-cyborg must also be able to transmit data from DOD relevant sensors, yielding information about the local environment. These sensors can include gas sensors, microphones, video, etc.P.S. - DARPA really is the research division of the Department of Defense. This is no joke. I don't know if it's better or worse than trying to train people to kill goats with their mind, but it's up there. P.P.S. - Linking to the Goat book, i noticed that the author has left a bunch of disturbing, desperate comments on the page. Kind of sad. By fnord12 | March 17, 2006, 9:03 AM | Liberal Outrage & Science | Link You thought wrong. [...] The German team pins the blame on the 11-year solar cycle, which makes the amount of solar radiation striking Earth periodically rise and fall. Scientists already knew the cycle influenced ozone, but Dr Dameris says its role in controlling the layer's recovery has been overlooked. [...] Some chemicals introduced to replace CFCs still damage ozone, [an ozone scientist at Manchester University] said, and there are worrying signs that climate change may be making the situation worse. Scientists are particularly worried that increased amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the lower atmosphere could start to cool the stratosphere, accelerating ozone loss. By min | March 16, 2006, 9:20 AM | Science | Comments (4)| Link For those of you who (like me) fear that as soon as they figure out how to make AI work, the robots will turn on their creators, you can add "sentient slime mold" to the list. By min | March 10, 2006, 9:41 AM | Science | Link (Thanks, Rose) By fnord12 | March 7, 2006, 9:22 AM | Science
& Star Wars | Link I think the Pentagon has been watching Day of the Dolphin while smoking doobies. That's the only reasonable explanation for this. I can only hope that they are also growing George C. Scott clones in short shorts. By min | March 3, 2006, 1:11 PM | Science | Link Ana sent me a link a few weeks ago about a previously unknown area of Indonesia that they're referring to as the Lost World. On the one hand, it's nice to know there's still someplace untouched by man. Ofc, now that it's been "discovered", it's not really untouched anymore, and I'm willing to bet it won't take long for Club Med and the rest of the tourist industry to start sizing it up for resorts and guided tours. Not to mention any natural resources so far untouched that industries can exploit. Let the good times roll! Everyone remember what happened to the dodo, right? By min | March 2, 2006, 10:45 AM | Science | Comments (1)| Link A study found that chemicals in vegetables and soy beans help genes with detecting and repairing damaged DNA. Link [...] Professor Rosen's team exposed breast and prostate cancer cells to increasing levels of the natural chemicals. Depending on the dose, they boosted the activity of the DNA repairing genes by 10-15 times. Score another point for vegans. Besides them and the Asians, who the hell else is going to eat tofu? By min | March 2, 2006, 10:34 AM | Science | Link Heh. That'll get some traffic. The animal appears to have been more than a foot long and weighed nearly 2 pounds, with a tail remarkably like a beaver and seal-like teeth clearly adapted for catching and eating fish, its discoverers say. But what's most intriguing is that, until now, most scientists have thought that when dinosaurs ruled the Earth the only mammals around were primitive little creatures no bigger than rats or shrews. They were thought to subsist mostly on insects and plants, and larger, more diversified mammals evolved only later after the dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years ago. The new discovery puts that idea to rest. One of my anthropology professors in college said that the offical line of the Chinese government was that humans in China evolved independently of humans elsewhere. Maybe the discrepancy between this mammal fossil found in China and the fossils of less evolved mammals found elsewhere supports them. By fnord12 | March 1, 2006, 3:23 PM | Science | Link If this turns out to be truly applicable in the real world, it's very good news: This means high electricity bills and frequent power failures could soon be a thing of the past. The unique South African-developed solar panels will make it possible for houses to become completely self-sufficient for energy supplies. The panels are able to generate enough energy to run stoves, geysers, lights, TVs, fridges, computers - in short all the mod-cons of the modern house. Here in the United States, we're barely bothering with solar power. Our idea of reducing reliance on oil is building nuclear power plants. Why? Because the Oil and Nuclear industries give big campaign contributions. No one is going to make money in the long run with solar power. This is a major failure of capitalism. Why devote time and money researching technologies that would be beneficial to society but won't result in any revenue? (Same philosophy in medical research, for example: we can make more money developing the next Viagra or preventing male pattern baldness than we can curing cancer. Drugs to extend the life of cancer patients? Sure, anything to keep them coming back and buying more drugs. But cure it and you lose your revenue stream.) The result is that countries that rely on private corporations to develop new technologies are going to fall behind countries that better fund scientists working at public universities, etc. We in the US generally think of ourselves as being "the best", and there's a reason why. At one point, especially under FDR, Truman, and Eisenhower, we directed much more funding to developing infrastructure. But in the 70s the wealthy in this country began devoting their resources to fighting the perception that the wealthy and corporations should be taxed (via groups like the Heritage Foundation and CATO), and they've been very successful. Since then, we've been falling behind. By fnord12 | March 1, 2006, 3:09 PM | Liberal Outrage & Science | Link |
