Clipmarks | pokkets's 'water' clips

what do 300 calorie meals look like?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:23:37 GMT

clipped by: boozich
clipper's remarks: gawd!! hate to see what a curry with meat amounts to

Breakfast - 290 Calories
1 whole wheat English muffin
2 pats low fat butter
1 hard boiled egg
1/2 cup of fruit
8 oz fruit juice
8 oz water

Baked potato - 305 Calories
1 medium baked potato
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons salsa
1 cup sliced melon
12 oz water

Oatmeal - 325 Calories
1 cup oatmeal with raisins
1 cup of fruit
1 cup coffee or tea
1 banana

Chicken - 345 Calories
6 oz of chicken
1 cup of green beans
2 pats of low-fat butter
1 small tossed salad
2 tablespoons reduced fat oil and vinegar dressing
12 oz water

Scrambled eggs - 360 Calories
2 scrambled eggs
2 strips of turkey bacon
1 piece whole wheat toast
1 pat of low fat butter
1 coffee or tea
8 oz water

Chicken and Rice - 395 Calories
6 oz cooked chicken
2 tablespoons of barbecue sauce
1 cup of mixed vegetables
1/2 cup of brown rice
1 small tossed salad
2 tablespoons reduced fat oil and vinegar dressing
12 oz water

Nemo's nose helps find way home

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:20:11 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They discovered some of the scents that attracted the clown fish to to the reefs that provide a suitable habitat. The scent from the leaves of one coastal plant Xanthostemon, a kind of myrtle attracted them. They also found scents, such as the leaves from the Melaleuca Nervosa, a kind of paperbark which is another type of myrtle, that repelled them. They say this could have implications regarding tree planting and reforestation near marine habitats.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Darren Osborne

The animated clownfish Nemo may have found his way home a lot sooner if he had trusted his nose

research by scientists from Australia, France and the US, has revealed that a species of clownfish (Amphiprion percula) uses its olfactory senses to help it locate a suitable habitat.

The findings appear in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Professor Geoff Jones of James Cook University, Townsville, says that although previous research has shown clownfish can smell, these new findings identify the scents they are using.

"We've actually narrowed down the chemical signals that they may be using to find their home."

Almost all exhibited a strong preference for water collected from reefs that contained islands.

The researchers then used water that contained the scent of an anemone or leaves from coastal plants such as Xanthostemon.

When given a choice between scented or unscented water the fish spent more than 90% of their time in the scented water.

Hydrogen harvested using nature's recipe

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:59:05 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Dani Cooper

Researchers have split water into hydrogen and oxygen by replicating how plants use photosynthesis to make carbohydrates.

The team of Australian and US researchers says their findings, published in the latest Angewandte Chemie International Edition could lead to a cheap and easy way of making hydrogen, which many experts believe is the green fuel of the future.

Professor Leone Spiccia, of Monash University's School of Chemistry says the team has mimicked the process of photosynthesis, whereby plants convert light and atmospheric carbon dioxide into energy.

The new system involves an electrode coated with a proton conductor that is then impregnated with a form of manganese.

Manganese clusters are essential to a plant's ability to use water, carbon dioxide and sunlight to make carbohydrates

However instead of creating carbohydrates, the team have used nature's recipe to split water into its two elements, oxygen and hydrogen.

with the help of sunlight and 1.2 volts of electricity.

Invisibility cloak within sight

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:45:26 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: News of the latest research

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Maggie Fox

Scientists have created two new types of materials that can bend light the wrong way, creating the first step toward an invisibility cloaking device.

the vanishing act takes place on a nanoscale, measured in billionths of a metre

experiments, led by Professor Xiang Zhang at the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, are reported simultaneously today in the British journal Nature and the US-based journal Science.

Both are so-called metamaterials, artificially engineered structures that have properties not seen in nature, such as negative refractive index

When you see a fish in the water, the fish will appear to be in front of the position it really is. Or if you put a stick in the water, the stick seems to bend away from you

The negative refraction achieved by the teams at Berkeley would be different

Instead of the fish appearing to be slightly ahead of where it is in the water, it would actually appear to be above the water's surface

The hottest water on Earth

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:42:03 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: "Black smokers deep in the Atlantic are spouting 'supercritical' water at over 407 °C – something never before been seen in nature."

Clip Source: environment.newscientist.com

Even Jules Verne did not foresee this one. Deep down at the very bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, geochemist Andrea Koschinsky has found something truly extraordinary: "It's water," she says, "but not as we know it."

At over 3 kilometres beneath the surface, sitting atop what could be a huge bubble of magma, it's the hottest water ever found on Earth. The fluid is in a "supercritical" state that has never before been seen in nature.

Tags: science, geology, water, black smokers

What Makes Earth Special Compared to Other Planets

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:10:09 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "The most impressive attribute of the Earth is the existence and amount of liquid water on its surface,"

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Earth is one special planet.

It has liquid water, plate tectonics, and an atmosphere that shelters it from the worst of the sun's rays. But many scientists agree our planet's most special feature might just be us.

"It's the only planet we know of that has life," said Alan Boss, a planet formation theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington, D.C.

Though other bodies in our solar system, such as Saturn's moon Titan, seem like they could have once been hospitable to some form of life, and scientists still have hope of eventually digging up microbes beneath the surface of Mars, Earth is still the only world known to support life.

"So far, we haven't found it anywhere else," said Alex Wolszczan of Pennsylvania State University, who co-discovered the first planets beyond our solar system. He agreed that life was Earth's single most impressive characteristic.

Tags: earth, us, water

Ancient mineral reveals watery past.

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:08:43 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They also reason, that life may have been able to develop earlier, with liquid water being available.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Jessica Marshall

An analysis of elements in ancient mineral crystals suggests liquid water existed on earth as long as 4.3 billion years ago, 100 million years earlier than previously thought.

No rocks have been found on earth older than 4 billion years, which has led many geologists to believe that for the first 550 million years of earth's existence, the world was literally hellish - preventing solid rock from forming.

But 25 years ago in a remote part of Western Australia, researchers found a few grains of zircon - a mineral that's extremely resistant to chemical changes - that were older than 4 billion years old.

In 2001, Professor John Valley from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues reported finding zircon that was 4.4 billion years old.

In subsequent experiments they analysed oxygen isotopes in zircons that suggested that by 4.2 billion years ago, the Earth was no longer hellishly hot, but at a low enough temperature that liquid water would have been present.

Ocean review finds warming on the rise.

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:49:11 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: It isn't just that ice is melting that is making the sea level rise, it is also the fact that water expands as it heats. With the volume of water in the ocean - 2/3 of the Earth's surface is covered with water, even a small temperature increase can have a dramatic effect. The way the expansion, and melting are factored into the research reports can make them a lot clearer, and more accurate.
While there are the best of intentions, regarding some kind of remedy, I don't remember anyone being able to literally turn back the tide, which seems like the bottom line.
King Canute had a go, but he was trying to prove that point to some knucklehead courtiers, who'd flattered him. He knew they were full of hot air, but figured it was worth getting wet to see the look on their faces.
Don't you hate it when a King calls your bluff.
Still you can look at the bright side. The world is getting more like Venice every day.
All you have to do is buy shares in a Gondola Company.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Thursday, 19 June 2008 Darren Osborne
ABC

A long-standing difference between climate models and observations has been resolved with researchers finding that the world's oceans have been warming faster than previously thought.

The paper, published today in Nature, shows ocean warming and thermal expansion trends for the past five decades are 50% larger than earlier previously estimated.

"For the first time, we can provide a reasonable account of the processes causing the rate of global sea-level rise over the past four decades - a puzzle that has led to a lot of scientific discussion since the 2001 IPCC report but with no significant advances until now," says CSIRO scientist, Dr Catia Domingues, from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research.

Understanding how ocean warming and the resulting thermal expansion contributes to rising sea levels is critically important to understanding climate change, and forecasting future temperature rises, scientists say.

Fast fish fly through the ocean

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:15:39 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: It's just the Air is thick down there.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Tuesday, 17 June 2008 Darren Osborne
ABC

A team of researchers has found how some reef fish use their fins to fly underwater, allowing them to survive in the sometimes cyclonic currents surrounding coral reefs.

Reef fish such as blue parrotfish have developed wings to swim with greater force (Source: iStockphoto)

The research, led by Dr Chris Fulton, from The Australian National University, appears in the journal Coral Reef.

Fulton says he first noticed the wing-like fins during surveys of coral reefs in Australia.

The wing shape allows fish such as parrotfish, wrasse and surgeonfish to fly through the water using a figure-of-eight pattern.

He says fish with wing-shaped fins keep them spread at all times and sweep in a figure-of-eight pattern that constantly generates thrust.

"They do this by inclining their fins at just the right angle to create lift from the water flowing over the fin, similar to the way air moves over the wing of a bird to propel them through their air," Fulton says.

Water Affecting Lives (17 pictures)

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:00:27 GMT

clipped by: constantskeptic
clipper's remarks: What a great post. Captions for each photo provided on the original website.

Clip Source: www.boston.com

Water is having a significant impact on many people's lives around the world right now. From droughts to quake lakes, floods to monsoons, people and animals are dealing with water in many ways. In these recent photos, we can see people play, wash, mourn, survive, escape, celebrate and marvel with something so basic as water. (17 photos total)

Department of Water and Power workers are emptying out bales of plastic balls in the Ivanhoe reservoir in Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2008. Department of Water and Power released about 400,000 black plastic 4-inch balls as the first installment of approximately 3 million to form a floating cover over 7 acres of the reservoir to protect the water from sunlight. When sunlight mixes with the bromide and chlorine in Ivanhoe's water, the carcinogen bromate can form. (Irfan Khan/AP)

Nanopaper soaks up oily spills

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:12:53 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Makes you wonder what else there is that can do a good or better job than ordinary paper. If it's a matter of cost, technological advances are reducing prices all of the time.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Eric Bland

A mat of nanowires with the touch and feel of paper could be used to clean-up oil spills or as a low cost water filter, according to US researchers.

Oil and water may not mix, but they can be difficult to separate

The water-resistant nanopaper, which has the ability to soak up to 20 times its weight in oil, appears in this month's issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

Assistant Professor Jing Kong, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-author of the paper, says the nanopaper is very similar to traditional writing paper.

"You can even print on it and cut it just like paper," he says.

Unlike normal writing paper, which is made from cellulose, nanopaper is made from solid potassium manganese oxide nanowires. Each nanowire is about 20 nanometers in diameter, and together they naturally clump together to form strands several centimeters long.

The process of making the nanopaper is the same one you would use to make [normal] paper

Mars rover eyes hot spring-like deposits

Fri, 23 May 2008 03:56:43 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Deposits of near pure silica on Mars were formed by volcanic vapours or hot-spring-type events crossing through soil and could contain traces of past life, scientists say.

Mars may have once had hot springs similar to those found at Yellowstone National Park in the US

The silica, detected in 2007 by the NASA rover Spirit is fully described in today's issue of the journal Science.

"On Earth, hydrothermal deposits teem with life and the associated silica deposits typically contain fossil remains of microbes," says study team member astrobiologist Professor Jack Farmer of the Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe.

"But we don't know if that's the case here," Farmer says, "because the rovers don't carry instruments that can detect microscopic life."

"What we can say is that this was once a habitable environment where liquid water and the energy needed for life were present," he says.

Making such pure silica requires a lot of water, says co-author Dr Steven Ruff also of ASU.

Scientists find marine metropolis

Mon, 19 May 2008 05:32:45 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: We know more about the Dark side of the Moon, than we know about the ocean floor

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Alister Doyle

Millions of starfish-like creatures have been found in a novel colony on a sub-sea mountaintop south of New Zealand, aiding knowledge of mysterious seamounts that dot the oceans

A dense aggregation of brittlestars on a seamount rock with arms feeding in the water current taken during the recent month-long survey of the Macquarie Ridge

Fewer than 200 seamounts, which are mountains that rise from the ocean floor without piercing the surface, have been surveyed out of an estimated 100,000 around the world.

Tens of millions of tiny brittlestars living arm tip to arm tip were found on a peak 90 metres below the sea surface on the sub-sea Macquarie Ridge, which stretches 1400 kilometres south of New Zealand towards Antarctica

"As far as we know, such aggregations (of brittlestars) have not been observed before on the top of a seamount," says Ashley Rowden of New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research

Usually, corals and sponges are found on the peaks

he says.

Why honey sticks to the spoon

Fri, 09 May 2008 06:43:07 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: I'm sure the bees are relieved by the findings

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Anna Salleh

The argument over why honey is so sticky has been settled, and it seems both sides were right all along.

The way molecules move in honey is like how cars move in a traffic jam. Molecules can change lane but not move forward very far (

Sugar molecules do and don't slow down the water molecules in this viscous fluid, according to an international team of researchers. It just depends on who you ask.

Australian researcher Associate Professor Glenn Hefter of Murdoch University in Perth and colleagues report how in the Journal of Chemical Physics.

Larson says the contradictory findings in previous research are not contradictory at all.

He says they are a result of different researchers measuring different kinds of water molecule movement.

Some researchers say that such fluids are sticky because sugar molecules slow down the water molecules, says chemist Dr Ian Larson of Monash University in Melbourne.

"Depending on what type of experiment you do,

he says. "Everybody's right."

Colossal squid's true size revealed

Fri, 02 May 2008 07:22:46 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Jennifer Viegas

The exact size of a frozen colossal squid that was thawed this week has been revealed by New Zealand officials.

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa says the squid shrank drastically due to water and temperature changes since it was caught accidentally by fisherman in 2007.

After waiting for the tentacles to defrost so the squid could be fully extended, the researchers measured its weight at nearly 495 kilograms and its length at over 4 metres.

The squid's heft and large beak "confirm that it was almost certainly longer and is still the largest invertebrate specimen in the world," says Te Papa spokesperson Jane Keig.

She adds that it also has the largest eye of any animal at about nearly 27 centimetres in diameter.

Colossal squids exemplify a phenomenon known as deep-sea gigantism, which is the tendency for

creatures of the deep to grow much larger than their shallower water counterparts.

Some squid, in contrast to the colossal, are just several centimetres long.