Category: Science

Y’know how, if you accept the Old Earth theory the way the pope seems to, our solar system is supposed to have formed slowly out of a gently, congealing dust cloud somewhere?

Well, maybe it didn’t.

Maybe it formed in a really dense nebula in which there were big honking stars that blowed up . . . blowed up real good!

THIS THEORY HAS SOME NEW SUPPORT.

Scientists have found evidence from a meteoric mineral called solarmanite sodalite that the early solar system contained chlorine-36, only one tablespoon of which is able to purify 36 gallongs of pool water, which could support the nebular nova origin for the solar system.

Chlorine-36 can form in two ways: by a supernova
explosion, or by a nebular cloud being bombarded by radiation near the
forming Sun.

The researchers consider the latter explanation is unlikely since sodalite must have formed some distance away from our star.

"There is no ancient live chlorine-36 in the Solar
System now," said co-author Laurie Leshin, director of Arizona State’s
Center for Meteorite Studies.

"But this is direct evidence that it was here in the early Solar System."

This still all sounds pretty tentative, but who knows: If the universe began with a Bang, not a whimper, maybe the solar system began with a Less-Big Bang.

IT’S TRUE!

Only it’s not the Pokemon you think. It’s a gene called Pokemon, and it seems to be a "master switch" gene that allows for all sorts of cancers.

It appears that we may be able to make significant headway in the fight against cancer if we can find a way to take this gene and, like many parents yell when their kids watch too many episodes of the TV show, "Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!"

What the heck has the CDC been thinking???

They apparently have an AIDS-fighting treatment that, if administered immediately after exposure to the virus, may prevent the person from becoming infected.

While ethical limitations prevent testing the effectiveness of the drug coctail on humans in any direct way, animal model results are extremely promising. (How about a 100% prevention rate in monkeys if given within the first twenty-four hours?)

Up to now they’ve been reserving the use of this treatment for medical personnel accidentally exposed to the virus and

IT’S ONLY NOW THAT THEY’RE RECOMMENDING IT BE USED FOR THE GENERAL POPULACE.

That’s OUTRAGEOUS.

Though it is politically incorrect to say so, researchers have noted for some time that there are differences in the cognition of men and women. Specifically: Women on average have greater verbal ability than men and men on average have greater spatial ability than women. (These are statistical averages. In the concrete, many women have greater spatial aptitude than many men and many men have greater verbal aptitude than many women.)

Why is this?

Well . . .

THIS MAY BE WHY.

It appears that there are significant differences in the grey matter
and white matter of men’s and women’s brains as associated with
intelligence:

Researchers say white and gray matter are both necessary for general intelligence, but they perform different functions. Gray matter represents information processing centers in the brain, and white matter represents the network or connections between those processing centers.

In the study, researchers studied brain scans of men and women who
had identical IQ (intelligence quotient, a measure of intelligence)
scores.

Overall, the
results showed that men had approximately 6.5 times the amount of gray
matter in areas related to general intelligence than women. Meanwhile,
women had nearly 10 times the amount of white matter in areas related
to intelligence than men.

They
say the findings may help explain why men tend to excel at tasks that
require more local processing, such as mathematics, while women tend to
excel at integrating information, a skill used in language.

The
study also showed differences in brain regions between men and women
related to intelligence. In particular, 84 percent of gray matter
regions and 86 percent of white matter regions involved in women’s
intelligence were found in their frontal lobes or front portion of the
brain compared with 45 percent and 0 percent for men, respectively.
Instead, regions throughout the left side of the brain seems to drive
male intelligence.

Y’all will recall (if you live here in the U.S.) all the hubbub about the flu vaccine shortage that happened late last year.

I heard that they eventually scrounged up enough vaccine that they eased some of the restrictions on who should get a flu shot (originally it was just the very elderly, the very young, and those in poor health). I didn’t realize, however, just how much they had now been eased.

Thursday night I was in a local health food store to get some nutritional supplements and, as I was checking out, I noticed a young lady manning a flu shot table. Surprised to see such a table in a health food store, as short as they said they had been on the vaccine, I approached her and asked what restrictions were now in place: Was it still heavily restricted or could just anybody get a flu shot now?

She said they could, unless they had a severe egg allergy (flu shots are cultured in eggs), had had a bad reaction to a previous flu shot, or were currently feverish.

So yesterday I got me a flu shot. Woo-hoo!

If you would like to get one, you might want to get one now.

They’re expecting flu season to really heat up in about five weeks, and it takes two to three weeks for the immunity to build up in your body after you get the shot.

Don’t forget your pneumonia shot if you haven’t had one in the last five years.

New Chemical Testing Points to Ancient Origin for Burial Shroud of Jesus; Los Alamos Scientist Proves 1988 Carbon-14 Dating of the Shroud of Turin Used Invalid Rewoven Sample.

(Cowboy hat tip to the reader who sent this in.)

Y’know how in all the TV shows that were on in the mid-1960s (Gilligan’s Island, Bewitched, etc.) there was a transition made from filiming in black and white to filming in color? It was customary to add a tag line "In Color!" after the switch was made, to encourage people to go out and buy those new-fangled, blurry color television sets.

Well, the boys at NASA have now added color to their images of Titan, based on spectral analysis of the chemical composition of what the Huygens lander is snapping pictures of.

Bear in mind, that if you were on the surface of Titan, you wouldn’t see these colors. It’s too dark. At that distance, the sun itself is "a cold-hearted orb that rules the night, and robs the colors from our sight. Red is grey and yellow white," but the boys at NASA decide what is  right, and what is an illusion.

Here’s an image colorized for what Titan would look like if you shone very powerful bright lights on it (and in which, NASA explains, the two rock-like objects below the center of the picture are about 6 inches and 1.5 inches across, respecively):

DAILY PLANET: Today Saturn Girl of the Legion of Super-Heroes released a statement saying, "I am very gratified that the boys at NASA have released photos of my homeworld, Titan, that better convey to the public the visual impression it makes on eyes properly accustomed to the dark. Now can some optometrist here on Earth help me replenish my supply of super-pupil-contracting fluid?"

MORE SATURN SYSTEM PHOTOS.

The Huygens probe has returned the first photos from the surface of Saturn’s largest moon (and the solar system’s largest moon), Titan.

KEWL!

GET THE STORY!

The Daily Planet reports: Saturn Girl of the 30th century Legion of Super Heroes, and a native of Titan, told reporters: "It may look like just a lot of rocks right now, but in the 30th century it will be the home of one of the most technologically-advanced, telepathic societies in the galaxy. Watch us grow!"

Rocks of ice, that is! Right down near the mountains of madness.

Yee-haw!

Are you ready to RUUUUUMMMMBBBBLLLLLE???

It’s a polar showdown grudge match between two bodacious beefy blocks of ice!

Take it away . . . NASA!

Get Ready for the Largest Demolition Derby on the Planet
Scientists say Slow-Motion Collision Near Antarctic Research Station Imminent

It is an event so large that the best seat in the house is in space: a
massive iceberg is on a collision course with a floating glacier near
the McMurdo Research Station in Antarctica. NASA satellites have
witnessed the 100-mile-long B-15A iceberg moving steadily towards the
Drygalski Ice Tongue. Though the iceberg’s pace has slowed in recent
days, NASA scientists expect a collision to occur no later than January
15, 2005.

"It’s a clash of the titans, a radical and uncommon event," says Robert
Bindshadler, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and if
the two giant slabs of ice collide, we could see one of the best
demolition derbies on the planet.

If the collision occurs as predicted, this could be an event that we
witness again and again. The tides that drive the iceberg’s motion tend
to push it in circles.

Hoooooooooooooooo-eeeee! YEAH! Clash! Rocks! Clash!

GET THE TITANIC STORY!

The Mote In God’s Eye is considered by some to be the greatest science fiction novel of all time. It’s certainly a great read.

It was first published in 1970 and written by the dynamic duo of Larry Niven (who imagined Ringworld) and Jerry Pournelle (who invented the blog). The novel is set 1000 years in the future, where an interstellar human civilization is putting itself back together (as "The Second Empire of Man") following a dark ages that temporarily separated many worlds when the Empire of Man fell apart.

At the time the novel is set, people are walking around with pocketphones and pocketcomps.

The realization that those were coming was pretty prescient for Niven and Pournelle, especially back in 1970.

What they may not have realized was how soon those two items would be coming.

What they also didn’t appear to realize was that, just a few years after their appearance, the two devices would be merged so you only have to carry one doo-dad around in your pocket. Hence, many portable computers are also cell phones now.

I don’t have one of those, but I do have a cameraphone.

What else are cell phones likely to do for us in the near future?

FIND OUT.

At least we won’t have to wait for the Second Empire of Man to get these goodies.