Random Links for 7/10/09

Friday Weird Science: Careful With That Toy! (NSFW)

Having conducted an informal poll myself (in this case, known as asking my friends) most women, and some men of my acquaintance, own sex toys. Every woman I’ve ever met has at least HEARD of ‘the rabbit’, and most people know a bit about rings, dildos, beads, or regular vibrators. Studies report that 68% of adults between 18-39 use sex toys more than once a month (Foxman et al, 2006). And yet, they’re the kind of things that most people wouldn’t discuss in public if their lives depended on it, and in private, only with close friends or after a few drinks (or both).

Natural Good, Chemical Bad – Right?

Arsenic sandwich anyone? Mercury soup, deadly nightshade surprise? No? Really? Well, I’m baffled! They’re all natural you know. And as we know, natural is good; natural is pure. Best of all, natural is healthy.

#725: When the Light Turns Green Just as You’re Approaching the Intersection.

Engines revving, drivers idling, traffic lights flash red and stall the scene. Then just as you’re pulling up and about to slow down everything suddenly flicks to green.

U.S. Science Is Tops, But Most Americans Don’t Think It Is.

Only 17 percent of the public feels that U.S. scientific achievements rank first in the world, far less than the 49 percent of scientists who think so. Alan Leshner, chief executive officer of the AAAS, was surprised by the low percentage of both numbers, stating in a telephone press conference today that much of the world considers American science as the standard to seek. He goes on to note that U.S. science papers are still the most frequently cited in the world.

Random Links for 7/9/09

Sex Ed Just Got a Little More Complicated

It’s amazing how the field of stem cell research has advanced so much in such a short amount of time. Today, just a little over a decade after the first stem cell line was produced, scientists announced another breakthrough – turning stem cells into sperm.

Where the Sasquatches Roam

Dr. Lozier and his co-authors plugged in the locations of 551 bigfoot sightings and 95 footprint sites reported from 1944 to 2005 using a software package called MAXENT and came up with a possible range that spans from California to Washington, following major mountain chains. At the same time, they plugged in the range data for black bears and found that their habitat and the hypothetical distribution of sasquatches overlaps just about 85% of the time.

Fatal Error

Yep, that’s the message Gaussian greeted me with today. Looks like my attempt to optimize the DMAC-Ag complex geometry failed. Sort of like this. Anybody out there have any ideas for me? Please?

Random Links for 7/8/09

A New Way to Make Sensors that Detect Toxic Chemicals

Ohio State University researchers have developed a new method for making extremely pure, very small metal-oxide nanoparticles.

They are using this simple, fast, and low-temperature process to make materials for gas sensors that detect toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) and biological warfare agents.

Windows 7 is the Same as Ubuntu

The other day, I posted a blog titled “Windows 7: Good enough to pay for?” I described how I’d installed the Windows 7 Release Candidate on my son’s computer for his take on the OS after living with Ubuntu 9.04 (and 8.10 before that) for a few months. It’s summer break, so he basically spends every waking moment when he’s not actually interacting face-to-face with friends on the computer. No better time to have a kid do some serious testing, right?

A Truly Awesome Blog…

I was bored for a little bit yesterday afternoon, so I hit my StumbleUpon button. And it took me to the most awesome blog I’ve ever seen: 1000 Awesome Things. Go there and read the awesomeness.

Random Links for 7/7/09

Really? The Claim: Sunscreens Can Increase the Risk of Melanoma

Is it possible that a product meant to protect against skin cancer might actually cause it?

Spanish Scientists Bring Us Closer to Making the Dream of Invisibility True

Making objects invisible always has been a dream of humanity, as can be seen in different works of literature, from “The Invisible Man” by H. G. Wells to Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. Technically, any object could be made invisible if it were covered with something which could make the light surround it, instead of absorbing or reflecting it. Thus it would be impossible to see the object since the light would only pass around it and if one were to look directly at the object, one would only see what is behind it. The object would become imperceptible.

Lab Update – Using Pseudopotentials

I’m trying to finish up some of the work on p-dimethyl aminocinnamaldehyde (DMAC) that started several years ago. My goal is to refine the theoretical calculations that Diane performed last summer by including Ag atoms[1]. Hopefully the calculations will help us understand how DMAC adsorbs at the Ag surface, and maybe support the vibrational assignments that Diane made.

Random Links for 7/6/09

Caffeine Reverses Memory Impairment in Alzheimer’s Mice

Back-to-back studies published online today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, show caffeine significantly decreased abnormal levels of the protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, both in the brains and in the blood of mice exhibiting symptoms of the disease.

Bombs Bursting In Air: What’s In Those Fourth of July Fireworks, Anyway?

Red, white and blue aside, how green will this weekend’s firework festivities be? Not very, argue some.

The dazzling displays owe their colors to traces of metal compounds: strontium for red, aluminum or magnesium for white, copper for blue and barium for green.

Measuring the Carbon Footprint of a Charcol Grill

Researcher Eric Johnson recently revealed that charcoal grills leave a much larger carbon footprint than their gas-powered counterparts.

Fear of Saying the Wrong Thing Sometimes Makes Us… Say the Wrong Thing.

Harvard psychologist Daniel Wegner suggests that the embarrassing phenomenon of putting your foot in your mouth comes from your brain’s overzealous attempt to avoid social gaffes.

#12

Take a trip back in time with me. July 3, 1997. I had finished my first year teaching at Coastal Carolina University and was getting ready to teach (by command performance I might add) second semester intro physics in summer school. On July 3, I drove in to the university like I normally would, not suspecting that my and my wife’s lives would never be the same afterwards.

Random Links for 6/30/09

Quit Smoking (and Junk Food?) Through Exercise

You see a recent study published last year in the journal Psychopharmacology demonstrated that smokers who were nicotine abstinent for 15 hours, when faced with images of smoking had their mesocorticolimbic systems light up like Christmas trees. Yet Those same smokers, when exposed to 10 minutes of exercise prior to the smoking images showed no such lighting.

Water in Space: What Happens?

Well, the temperature of space is, at its coldest, just the temperature of the leftover glow from the Big Bang. This radiation, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background, bathes the entire Universe in a temperature of only 2.7 Kelvin. That’s less than 3 degrees above absolute zero, or -455 degrees Fahrenheit! But there’s also — literally — no pressure in space. So, what happens? Who wins? Does the water freeze or boil?