blog.spathis.com

Random musings & skepsis…

Entries Comments



Category: science

Ahhh….

isen.blog: Mobile phones, bees and the future

17 April, 2007 (21:28) | science, technology | By: Constantine

David Isenberg has a great post into the cell-phone towers and bees controversy. A must read:

isen.blog: Mobile phones, bees and the future: “Mobile phones, bees and the future
I’m wicked skeptical about reports of negative effects of mobile phones (brain cancer, etc.) when the public and the press can’t seem to get worked up at all about way more direct, obvious problems like mobile phones and car crashes (and state legislatures pass stupid laws on same).

Needless to say if the link between cell-phone towers and a reduction in the bee population is confirmed it means bad news all around…

Technorati Tags:
, ,

Stunning Diabetes Breakthrough…

15 December, 2006 (13:31) | science | By: Constantine

    Our world is becoming an amazing place, a team of Canadian scientists appear to have reversed diabetes. The treatment works so well they were shocked by it. The essence of their discovery is that there is link between neurological activity and the production of insulin. The traditional view of diabetes is that the body's own immune system turns against itself and begins attacking the Islets of Langerhorn, the actual insulin producing cells in the pancreas. This attack suppresses the ability of the Islets to produce insulin.

    Why are the Islets attacked to begin with? This has been the key question dogging diabetes research, now it seems they may have found an answer. According to the Canadian team the nerves themselves are what cause the problem, it seems that the nerves may be signaling "pain" to the brain and the brain may be using the absence  of a neuro-peptide to suppress the insulin production. The team used capcasin (think chili pepper) to deaden these pain nerves in the pancreas. Suddenly normal insulin production.

Stunning, truly stunning.

    Read all about it in at the National Post or read the actual paper "TRPV1+ Sensory Neurons Control β Cell Stress and Islet Inflammation in Autoimmune Diabetes". What is particularly exciting is that their treatment may be applicable to a wide range of auto-immune diseases, including asthma, diabetes, & crohn's disease.

Wow, amazing work, kudos to all involved… 

Darwin’s Dilemma Solved?

10 December, 2006 (20:29) | science | By: Constantine

For approximately 3 Billion years evolution operated on a mostly single-cell basis, but then something strange happened approximately 500 millions years ago. A sudden development of multi-cellular creatures that eventually led to man. What caused that change and the resulting rapid rise of multi-cellular life? This is the essence of Darwin's Dilemma. Don E. Canfield, Simon W. Poulton, and Guy M. Narbonne have just published a paper that advances a theory to solve at least some of that dilemma. The paper titled "Late-Neoproterozoic Deep-Ocean Oxygenation and the Rise of Animal Life" ties a sudden increase in oxygen in the worlds oceans to the rise of the first known members of the Ediacara biota and that a "a prolonged stable oxic environment may have permitted the emergence of bilateral motile animals some 25 million years later"

Fascinating stuff, I'm following it over at the PhysOrg forums…

Confirmed! NASA announces water on Mars…

6 December, 2006 (13:35) | science | By: Constantine

The implications of today's announcement are immense, NASA confirms the presence of liquid water on Mars today in a press conference, additionally they have found evidence of recent cratering (past few years). This is stunning confirmation of what many have suspected. We may be on the threshold of a new golden age of space exploration.

Something significant is up at NASA

6 December, 2006 (00:45) | science | By: Constantine

NASA has called a press conference tomorrow at 1 pm EST to discuss a "significant find" by the Mars Global Surveyor. Rumors are significant amounts of water have been found. The press conference is sure to be fascinating & you can watch it live over at NASA TV off the NASA homepage.

UPDATE: Rumors confirmed, NASA has announced that they have found water on Mars and that they see evidence of recent cratering. Paper will be published in the upcoming edition of Science. What a historic day!

Dawkins at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College….

25 November, 2006 (14:40) | science | By: Constantine

Absolutely stunning video of Richard Dawkins taking on all comers at Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Apparently quite a few "students" from Falwell's Liberty "University" (please note the quotes, enough said) showed up and tried to challenge him.  Dawkins brilliantly destroys their arguments and statements. What I find particularly funny is that a number of "scientists" work at Liberty "University" and try to cross swords with him.

Update: Thanks Ken , I hate spelling mistakes….

Update 2: By far the best is the last guy from Liberty who is really into "Physics" (probably was to scared to call himself a physicist after the beating the Liberty crowd took) and actually believes dinosaurs are 6000 years old (no, that is not a typo). Dawkins last comment is priceless…

Nanotechnology…

14 November, 2006 (06:58) | science | By: Constantine

Behold the power of nanotechnology. It's certainly no mystery that the next exciting frontier lies in human health advances using many of the new technological advances. The next twenty years will be an exciting time in the health-care field. 

Guide to becoming a nobel prize winning physicist…

31 March, 2006 (10:29) | internet, science | By: Constantine

Gerard ‘t Hooft is a noble prize winning physicist that has put a guide together and incredible guide HOW to BECOME a GOOD THEORETICAL PHYSICIST. This is what the internet was made for. Go enjoy…

The family that walks on all fours….

7 March, 2006 (19:59) | science | By: Constantine

Fascinating, read all about it over at the Daily Mail
 
Powered By Qumana

The endless hackability of Google Earth….

28 November, 2005 (17:03) | science | By: Constantine

E. O. Wilson’s seminal work The Ants is a landmark in myrmecology (the study of ants). It deservedly won the Pulitzer in 1991 and stands as a hallmark to accessible scientific writing. Behavior, habitat, social norms are all presented in an engaging and very readable way. If you have some time its well worth the effort.

If you loved the book like I did you will want to check out Antweb’s Google Earth interface. Google is fundamentally changing how science is done. The endless hackability of google earth and of the entire web infrastructure bodes well for a vast number of fields. Myrmecology is only the latest.