Clipmarks | saan-kpa's clips

Watermelon rejects a source of energy

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:57:34 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa

Researchers have shown that the juice of reject watermelons can be efficiently fermented into ethanol.

Wayne Fish worked with a team of researchers at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service’s South Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Lane, Oklahoma, US, to evaluate the biofuel potential of juice from ‘cull’ watermelons – those not sold due to cosmetic imperfections, and currently ploughed back into the field. He said, “About 20% of each annual watermelon crop is left in the field because of surface blemishes or because they are misshapen. We’ve shown that the juice of these melons is a source of readily fermentable sugars, representing a heretofore untapped feedstock for ethanol biofuel production”.

Coming Soon: Printable, Paintable Solar Cells

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:07:04 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 2009) — Solar cells could soon be produced more cheaply using nanoparticle “inks” that allow them to be printed like newspaper or painted onto the sides of buildings or rooftops to absorb electricity-producing sunlight.

Brian Korgel, a University of Texas at Austin chemical engineer, is hoping to cut costs to one-tenth of their current price by replacing the standard manufacturing process for solar cells – gas-phase deposition in a vacuum chamber, which requires high temperatures and is relatively expensive.

light-absorbing nanomaterials, which are 10,000 times thinner than a strand of hair

His team has developed solar-cell prototypes with efficiencies at one percent; however, they need to be about 10 percent.

He also said that the inks, which are semi-transparent, could help realize the prospect of having windows that double as solar cells.

Tone-deafness may be traced to brain's wiring

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:34:58 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa

Clip Source: wellness.blogs.time.com

A new study from researchers at Beth Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School suggests that tone-deafness may be the result of a missing neural connection. By using a brain imaging technique that allows them to examine the links between the right temporal and frontal lobes, the scientists compared the neural connectivity of 10 tone-deaf subjects against 10 control participants. They found that, in the tone-deaf subjects, there was less connectivity of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), a white matter tract of fiber that serves as a "highway" between the temporal and front brain regions, and is known to be involved in linking language, music and vocal production.

this stretch of fiber was both smaller and less dense in people who are tone-deaf, and that one branch of the neural pathway was in fact undetectable on the scans.

may have similarities to other speech disorders in which there is also an interrupted link between what people hear and what they are able to produce.

Paralyzed rats move again after injection of blue dye

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:47:02 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa
clipper's remarks: I can't help but think of Hank McCoy (Beast) from the X-Men.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

July 27, 2009--Fifteen minutes after researchers intentionally paralyzed this rat by dropping a weight on its back, they injected the rodent with Brilliant Blue G dye, a derivative of common food coloring Blue Number One. The dye reduced inflammation of the spinal cord, which allowed the rats to take clumsy steps—but not walk—within weeks, a new study says.

In both rats and people, secondary inflammation following spinal cord trauma causes more lasting damage than the initial injury: Swelling sparks a small "stroke," which stops blood flow and eventually kills off the surrounding tissue.

Other than blue skin and eyes, "we can find no clinical effect on the rat," said Maiken Nedergaard, a neuroscientist at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York.

lack of side effects may also help make the blue dye a boon to paralyzed humans

unlike previous compounds used to treat spinal cord injuries, which had toxic effects.

Tags: blue, rats, paralysis, spine, injury, cure, research, experiment

Chinese scientists grow live mice from skin cells

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:07:37 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese researchers have managed to create powerful stem cells from mouse skin and used these to generate fertile live mouse pups.

They used induced pluripotent skin cells, or iPS cells -- cells that have been reprogrammed to look and act like embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells, taken from days-old embryos, have the power to morph into any cell type and, in mice, can be implanted into a mother's womb to create living mouse pups.

Their experiment, published in Nature, means that it is theoretically possible to clone someone using ordinary connective tissue cells found on the person's skin, but the experts were quick to distance themselves from such controversy.

"It has generated now more than 100 of second-generation (mice) and more than 100 third-generation (mice). It really demonstrates how fertile and strong the system is."

Tags: mice, stem cell research, reprogramming cells, experiment, cloning

New element has new name?

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:37:23 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Discovered 13 years ago, and officially added to the periodic table just weeks ago, element 112 finally has a name.

It will be called "copernicium", with the symbol Cp, in honour of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

Copernicus deduced that the planets revolved around the Sun, and finally refuted the belief that the Earth was the centre of the Universe.

The team of scientists who discovered the element chose the name to honour the man who "changed our world view".

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) will officially endorse the new element's name in six month's time in order to give the scientific community "time to discuss the suggestion".

Girl with two hearts recovers

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:36:55 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Hannah Clark's own heart is now in perfect working order three-and-a-half years after her "piggy-back" donor heart was removed.

The original operation in 1995 saved Hannah's life because she had cardiomyopathy - a condition which made her heart double in size and risk giving out within a year.

The donor heart was able to take over most of the role of pumping blood around Hannah's body, effectively allowing her own beating heart to rest.

I am really excited about starting a job working with animals. I couldn't do that before because the fur could have affected my chest.

experts were working to perfect a mechanical heart, called a ventricular assist device, that can be used in children temporarily to take over the work of a weak heart while it recovers.

A similar device already exists for adults with heart failure awaiting a donor transplant.

Lost your wallet? Hope you got a baby picture in there.

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:13:09 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Hundreds of wallets were planted on the streets of Edinburgh by psychologists last year.

nearly half of the 240 wallets were posted back

Richard Wiseman, a psychologist, and his team inserted one of four photographs behind a clear plastic window inside, showing either a smiling baby, a cute puppy, a happy family or a contented elderly couple. Some wallets had no image and some had charity papers inside.

When faced with the photograph of the baby people were far more likely to send the wallet back, the study found. In fact, only one in ten were hard-hearted enough not to do so. With no picture to tug at the emotions, just one in seven were sent back.

The baby photograph wallets had the highest return rate, with 88 per cent of the 40 being sent back. Next came the puppy, the family and the elderly couple, with 53 per cent, 48 and 28 respectively. At 20 per cent and 15, the charity card and control wallets had the lowest return rates.

Tags: wallet, pictures, psychology

Sperm travels faster toward more attractive females

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:41:46 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa
clipper's remarks: Nature can be cruel in a high school kind of way.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

New research found that males can adjust the speed and effectiveness of their sperm by allocating more or less seminal fluid to copulations. The determining factor is whether the male finds the female attractive.

growing body of evidence that males throughout many promiscuous species in the animal kingdom, including humans, can mate with many females, but chances of fertilization are greater when the female is deemed to be attractive

Pixar grants dying girl's wish to see "Up"

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:47:32 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa
clipper's remarks: Full heartbreaking article at source. :'(

Clip Source: www.ocregister.com

Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer

Colby was a movie fan, Lisa Curtin said, and she latched onto Pixar’s movies because she loved animals.

On June 4 her mother asked a hospice company to bring a wheelchair for Colby so she could visit a theater to see "Up." However, the weekend went by and the wheelchair was not delivered

June 9, Colby could no longer be transported to a theater

Pixar officials listened to Colby’s story and agreed to send someone to Colby’s house the next day with a DVD of "Up,"

“I’m ready (to die), but I’m going to wait for the movie,”

Pixar employee came to the Curtins’ home with the DVD.

He had a bag of stuffed animals of characters in the movie and a movie poster.

Colby couldn't see the screen because the pain kept her eyes closed so her mother gave her a play-by-play of the film.

Colby died about seven hours after seeing the film.

Ants can be freeloaders too

Tue, 12 May 2009 03:46:39 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

To understand what is really going on in a colony of ants or bees, Dr. Dornhaus, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, tracks the little creatures individually — hence the paint and the numbers.

studies of whether the efficiency of ant society, based on a division of labor among ant specialists, is important to their success

briefly anesthetized 1,200 ants, one by one, and painted them using a single wire-size brush, with model airplane paint

two video cameras aiming down on an insect-size stage, she analyzed 300 hours of videotape of the ants in action

behavior more worthy of Aesop’s grasshopper than the proverbial industrious ants

fast ants took one to five minutes to perform a task

slow ants took more than an hour, and sometimes two

about 50 percent of the other ants do not do any work at all

small colonies may sometimes rely on a single hyperactive overachiever

Tags: ants, paint, dornhaus, work, labor

Bendy concrete!

Fri, 08 May 2009 01:30:26 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Traditional concrete is brittle and is easily fractured during an earthquake or by overuse.

By contrast, the new concrete composite can bend into a U-shape without breaking. When strained, the material forms hairline cracks, which auto-seal after a few days of light rain.

Dry material exposed by the cracks reacts with rainwater and carbon dioxide in the air to form "scars" of calcium carbonate, a strong compound found naturally in seashells, said study co-author Victor Li of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Although it costs three times as much as traditional concrete, the material is a cost-saver in the long run, due to its reduced maintenance needs and energy demands, Li said.

Tags: flexible concrete, concrete, building

Gay penguins get married

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:24:02 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa
clipper's remarks: On a related note, people against gay marriage say that it's going to destroy the family. What to think of a pair of same-sex creatures getting married after proving they were the best parents in the zoo?

Clip Source: www.thesun.co.uk

They were once given the cold shoulder at the wildlife park in China for stealing heterosexual couples' eggs to nest as their own.

But after being allowed to try out with eggs rejected by their mothers the couple have become the zoo's best penguin parents.

Now keepers at Polarland Zoo in Harbin, north east China, have rewarded their devotion with a wedding day.

Tags: penguin, wedding, gay, family, zoo, china

Human-assisted robots find their way through NY

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:10:08 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa

Clip Source: www.tweenbots.com

we are very occupied with getting from one place to another. I wondered: could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find in it?

To answer these questions, I built robots.

Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.

Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, "You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”

Tags: robots, tweenbots, new york, strangers, humanity, cute, travel

Wild dogs share the Moscow commute

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:57:06 GMT

clipped by: saan-kpa
clipper's remarks: "The Moscow mutts are not the first animals to use public transport. In 2006 a Jack Russell in Dunnington, North Yorks, began taking the bus to his local pub in search of sausages.

And two years ago passengers in Wolverhampton were stunned when a cat called Macavity started catching the 331 bus to a fish and chip shop."

Clip Source: www.thesun.co.uk

STRAY dogs are commuting to and from a city centre on underground trains in search of food scraps.

The clever canines board the Tube each morning.

After a hard day scavenging and begging on the streets, they hop back on the train and return to the suburbs where they spend the night.

Experts studying the dogs say they even work together to make sure they get off at the right stop — after learning to judge the length of time they need to spend on the train.

They have also developed tactics to hustle humans into giving them more food

“They jump on the train seconds before the doors shut, risking their tails getting jammed. They do it for fun. And sometimes they fall asleep and get off at the wrong stop.”

The dogs have learned to use traffic lights to cross the road safely

Tags: dogs, commute, subway, train, scavenging, food, moscow