Clipmarks | bignosemousie's 'science' clips

Which of these can't you live without?

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:22:39 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Answers and more questions at the source.

Clip Source: www.mortonsalt.com

1) Which word comes from salt?

Salad
Salary
Salvation
Salute

6) What shape changed the history of salt?

The pyramid
The diamond
The cylinder
The pentagon

9) Which of these can’t you live without?

Money
Love
Salt
Chocolate

Tags: salt, trivia, history, fun, science

Lessons from Hurricane Humberto

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:49:30 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Everyone went to bed expecting to "weather the tropical storm" and a hurricane woke them up.

Clip Source: www.chron.com

By ERIC BERGER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

The rapidity with which Humberto spun from a cluster of thunderstorms into a Category 1 hurricane has highlighted a potential flaw in the Houston region's emergency plans.

What would the area do if a large hurricane mushroomed just off the coast, moving so quickly ashore that few, if any, residents had time to safely evacuate? Humberto proved this is not an abstract question and underlined the fact that forecasting a storm's intensity remains as much art as science.

Tags: hurricane, humberto, disaster plans, science, meteorology, weather, texas, whoops, wait.a.minute.that.is.not.what.we.expected

Oh, hell to the no

Wed, 02 May 2007 15:56:07 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: And when all those damn roaches get loose from the exhibit? I'll have to avoid the museum altogether until this exhibit goes away. Seriously, after the exhibit are they going to loose all those bugs into "nearby park lands?" Hopefully the next exhibit will be the Giant Shoes of the World.

Clip Source: www.chron.com

In a city with trillions of American cockroaches, the Houston Museum of Natural Science has agreed to pay a quarter per bug — up to 1,000 — as it seeks to populate a new insect exhibit alongside its Cockrell Butterfly Center.

"We needed more roaches for the exhibit, so I sent this message out to everyone in the museum asking people to bring them in. Well, someone decided to tell the press, and all hell has broken loose.

"But we really do need cockroaches."

What if the museum is overwhelmed with cockroach donations?

Extras will be dumped in nearby park lands.

Tags: houston, texas, museum, science, bugs, cockroach

Women: unrepressed anger will kill you

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:20:27 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Even science is telling women that showing anger is bad bad bad. Now repress your outrage and get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich.

Clip Source: today.reuters.co.uk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some women who make a habit of venting their anger may be more likely to develop blockages in the heart arteries, new research suggests.

Researchers found that women who tended to outwardly express their anger had a higher risk of artery blockages if they also had one of several other heart risk factors: older age, diabetes or high cholesterol. Other measures of hostility, like suppressed anger and hostile temperament in general, were unrelated to the risk of coronary artery disease.

It's possible that expressed anger was the most "toxic" aspect of a hostile temperament, according to the study authors, led by Dr. David S. Krantz of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science in Bethesda, Maryland.

Clip Source: today.reuters.co.uk

Only expressed anger was linked to the risk of showing objective artery blockages on an angiogram, but women who had more symptoms scored higher on all measures of anger and hostility than women with fewer symptoms.

Tags: women, health, science, anger, heart disease

Mystery Fat is delicious

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:36:39 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: "If anyone's had popcorn, they've had Z Trim. That's basically what it is."

Clip Source: news.aol.com

PITTSBURGH (Jan. 19) - It isn't mystery meat - it's more like mystery fat. And the kids in the Plum Borough School District have been eating it and liking it.

The secret ingredient is a plant-based fat substitute called Z Trim. It's been in the school's popular ranch dressing for months, quietly reducing the fat and calories students are getting when they load up their salads and chicken with it.

Z Trim, which has no fat, is made from the hulls of corn, oats, soy, rice and barley. It was developed by a scientists at a U.S. Department of Agriculture lab in Illinois in the mid-1990s.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group that often speaks out on unhealthy food, said it has no safety concerns about Z Trim.

Sold as a gel or powder, it can be used in dressings, dips, sauces, baked goods, processed meats, snack foods, cookies, pies and other foods. Unfortunately, it cannot be fried.

The company believes Z Trim could play a crucial role in fighting the obesity epidemic.

"This is a true plant fiber. It's something people have been eating," Harris said. "If anyone's had popcorn, they've had Z Trim. That's basically what it is."

"It tastes the same," said R.J. Fazio, a 15-year-old sophomore feasting on ravioli and a side salad topped with white globs of ranch dressing. "It doesn't bother me."

Tags: food, fat, diet, nutrition, science

Dr G. Forensics Quiz

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 01:48:26 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Dr. G Medical Examiner Quiz: Go to the source to take the quiz. See if all those hours of watching Dr. G and CSI have made you smarter. I did pretty good, but I watch too much tv.

Clip Source: health.discovery.com

Tags: doctor g, quiz, forensics, entertainment, science

chill a bottle of wine in 6 minutes

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 23:45:40 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: I imagine this would work with any beverage in a bottle or can.

Clip Source: www.tradetricks.org

Bartender

To chill a bottle of white wine quickly, put the bottle in a bucket with ice, water and a large handful of salt. The salt reduces the freezing point of water and will allow it to become superchilled, which will in turn chill the bottle of wine in six minutes flat.

-- Angus Winchester

Posted by Matthew at April 1, 2005 11:33 AM

Tags: wine, water, salt, science

Ig Noble Prize winners

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:55:37 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: More interesting science stuff at source.

Clip Source: sciencenow.sciencemag.org

Woodpecker Headaches and Hiccup Treatments Honored

By Mary Beckman
ScienceNOW Daily News
6 October 2006

It's not quite a Nobel prize, but it's arguably more fun. Last night, scientists from Australia to Kuwait descended on the Sanders Theater at Harvard University for the tongue-in-cheek 16th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. They were honored for achievements ranging from blink-free photos to erudition.

The Ig Nobels, bequeathed annually by the science humor journal The Annals of Improbable Research, recognize findings that are based in science but are funny, bizarre, and sometimes downright disturbing, such as a 2003 winner who documented duck necrophilia. This year, Ivan Schwab of the University of California, Davis, accepted his Ornithology Prize replete in a beak and a giant plume of red, for his work explaining why woodpeckers don't get headaches. Their brains and eyes, Schwab claims, are very tightly compacted in their skulls according to modern packing theory, and therefore do not bounce around in their skulls as they peck. Emergency physician Frances Fesmire of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Chattanooga earned the Medicine Prize for a technique he pioneered 18 years ago to eliminate intractable hiccups: digital rectal massage. In his acceptance speech, Fesmire told a rapt audience, "My son said it's sort of like winning a Darwin award, but you don't have to die to get it." Fesmire distributed Dr. Fran's Anti-Hiccup Kits after the ceremony.

Tags: ig noble prize, science, awards, annals of improbable research, funny, bizarre

squirrel fishing

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 19:40:37 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: I heart science.

Clip Source: www.eecs.harvard.edu

Squirrel Fishing

A new approach to rodent performance evaluation

Nikolas Gloy and Yasuhiro Endo
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Harvard University

We simply tie peanuts to the end of the string (using slipknot). No hook was used and no squirrel was harmed during this "research."

The Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (the buildings in this photograph) has significantly expanded its Computer Systems work in recent years. However, there has been a noticeable lack of quality work on Rodent Performance Evaluation. This study is a first attempt to remedy this deficiency.
We chose gray squirrels as our subject of study because of their abundance in the immediate surroundings of the Aiken Computation Lab, with many large oak trees nearby.

Tags: squirrel, rodent, fishing, science

The myths and science of drink

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 16:43:14 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: See source for the science of items listed.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The myths and science of drink

Contrary to how it may feel in the morning, recent research suggests smoking may reduce the effects of alcohol - nicotine may prevent the passage of alcohol into the intestine where it's easily absorbed.

In the long run, the scientists say this will harm drinkers, who will have to consume more to get the desired effect. But it provides a scientific basis for a belief long-cherished by some smokers - that their vice was ameliorating their other vice.

How about other pieces of conventional wisdom about drinking?

DRINK ON A FULL STOMACH

SOME DRINKS MAKE YOU MORE HUNGOVER

DRINK WATER BEFORE GOING TO BED

FIZZY DRINKS MAKE YOU MORE DRUNK

HAIR OF THE DOG THAT BIT YOU

Tags: alcohol, myths, science

Science of the X-Files

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 21:52:14 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator

Clip Source: huah.net

SEASON 1
> Pilot
> Ghost In The Machine
> Ice
> Eve
> Darkness Falls
> The Erlenmeyer Flask
SEASON 2
> Little Green Men
> The Host
> Die Hand Die Verletzt
> Our Town
SEASON 3
> D.P.O.
> The List
> Wetwired
SEASON 4
> Unruhe
> The Field Where I Died
> El Mundo Gira
> Kaddish
> Never Again
> Leonard Betts
> Memento Mori
> Unrequited
> Tempus Fugit/Max
> Demons
SEASON 5
> Bad Blood
SEASON 6
> Tithonus

Tags: scifi, science fiction, x-files, xfiles

Clipmarks | bignosemousie's 'science' clips

Which of these can't you live without?

Lessons from Hurricane Humberto

Oh, hell to the no

Women: unrepressed anger will kill you

Mystery Fat is delicious

Dr G. Forensics Quiz

chill a bottle of wine in 6 minutes

Bartender

Ig Noble Prize winners

Woodpecker Headaches and Hiccup Treatments Honored

squirrel fishing

Squirrel Fishing A new approach to rodent performance evaluation Nikolas Gloy and Yasuhiro Endo Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences Harvard University

The myths and science of drink

Science of the X-Files

Squirrel Fishing

A new approach to rodent performance evaluation

Nikolas Gloy and Yasuhiro Endo
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Harvard University