Decaflon Clips

Injured? Horsing Around With Stem Cells May Get You Back in the Saddle

Tyme — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:01:38

Doctors might soon be able to regrow injured muscles, tendons and bones without invasive surgery, simply by injecting a person's own stem cells into the site of an injury. Veterinarians are already doing it with injured horses, and research into human applications is well under way.

Spider vs. Bee... BBC vs. National Geographic

Scrivs — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:38:53

When The Ranger was young he enjoyed greatly the diverting summer sport of tossing hapless invertebrates into spiders' webs and seeing the ensuing fight. Even today he's not above the odd experiment, just to see what happens. Of course, we all know what's likely to happen. That's why it's such fun.

A solar cooled air-conditioning system

Tyme — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:15:19

Spanish scientists have developed a new eco-friendly air-conditioning system. The researchers are relying on solar energy for cooling their devices. They claim that their technology does not harm the ozone layer and reduces the use of greenhouse gases.

'Sleepless' gene hints at the nature of slumber

Tyme — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:52:24

Flies with a single genetic mutation sleep 80% less than normal flies, and some get by with no shut-eye at all.

The mutation – in a gene that controls how brain cells fire and now dubbed Sleepless – suggests that, at the most basic level, sleep is caused by a slowdown in certain neurons.

Trap Jaw Ants Leap Out of Trouble

Scrivs — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:28:05

You don't need superhuman powers, just the power of ants to be the most incredible person in the world.

Mystery insect bugging experts at London museum

Scrivs — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:06:59

The experts at London's Natural History Museum pride themselves on being able to identify species from around the globe, from birds and mammals to insects and snakes. Yet they can't figure out a tiny red-and-black bug that has appeared in the museum's own gardens.

How ESP Works

Tyme — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:58:23

Intuitionist Laura Day receives $10,000 a month to give her insight to companies around the world. But is ESP real, or is it just a crock? What's the evidence?

Scientific Method: Relationships Among Scientific Paradigms

Scrivs — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:34:26

This map was constructed by sorting roughly 800,000 published papers into 776 different scientific paradigms (shown as pale circular nodes) based on how often the papers were cited together by authors of other papers. Links (curved black lines) were made between the paradigms that shared papers, then treated as rubber bands, holding similar paradigms nearer one another when a physical simulation forced every paradigm to repel every other; thus the layout derives directly from the data. Larger paradigms have more papers; node proximity and darker links indicate how many papers are shared between two paradigms. Flowing labels list common words unique to each paradigm, large labels general areas of scientific inquiry.

How Time Travel Will Work

Tyme — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:06:49

Time travel has fascinated humankind for ages. And even though it may never happen, the theories surrounding the possibility of time travel are fascinating.

Why can't you say "toy boat" three times fast?

Tyme — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:08:05

Try saying "toy boat" three times fast. By the time you're done, the words will be all distorted. It's a classic tongue twister, but is it your tongue or your brain that's really tangled up?

Gene Editing Could Make Anyone Immune to AIDS

Scrivs — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:06:33

Some people have a mutation that makes them amazingly resistant to HIV -- and now, scientists may have found a way to give that immunity to anyone.

Your brain lies to you

ShyOne — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:38:22

This phenomenon, known as source amnesia, can also lead people to forget whether a statement is true. Even when a lie is presented with a disclaimer, people often later remember it as true.

Killing cancer cells — one at a time

Tyme — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:00:07

A team of U.S. engineers and researchers have developed a laser surgery probe which targets individual cancer cells. This ‘microscalpel’ can destroy a single cancerous cell while leaving nearby cells intact.

Invisible to the Naked Eye

Scrivs — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:46:22

When Uranus didn't travel exactly as astronomers expected it to, a French mathematician, Urbain Joseph Le Verrier, proposed the position and mass of another as yet unknown planet that could cause the observed changes to Uranus's orbit. After being ignored by French astronomers, Le Verrier sent his predictions to Johann Gottfried Galle at the Berlin Observatory, who found Neptune on his first night of searching in 1846. Seventeen days later, its largest moon, Triton, was also discovered.

Conservatives are more happy than Liberals

Ozone42 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:14:05

Studies show that conservatives tend to be more happy than liberals. Scientific American talks about why.

Light Echoes From a Red Supergiant

Scrivs — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:16:44

This Hubble Space Telescope image of the star V838 Monocerotis reveals dramatic changes in the illumination of surrounding dusty cloud structures. The effect, called a light echo, unveiled never-before-seen dust patterns when the star suddenly brightened for several weeks in early 2002.

Nice Diamond, Is It Real Or Just Kinda Real?

Mike — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:47:39

Lab-grown gemstones are now practically indistinguishable from mined diamonds. Scientists and engineers see a world of possibilities; jewelers are less enthusiastic

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

Menthos — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:05:52

Genetically alterating of bugs – very, very small ones – so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.

Scientists Create Life From Nothing

Mike — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:08:35

Very, very interesting.

This child's model of a cell drifted in the chemical soup that created it until the correct nucleotides were absorbed and allowed it to replicated the DNA.
If it sounds hideously unlikely, be aware that some Harvard researchers, including Harvard Medical School's Jack Szostak, have managed exactly that.

Science of Mentos-Coke Explosion Explained

Scrivs — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:19:24

I just figured they didn't like each other.

Cat's Eye Nebula

Scrivs — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:22:54

Three thousand light-years away, the Cat's Eye Nebula, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the nebula to be one of the most complex planetary nebulae known. In fact, the features seen in the Cat's Eye are so complex that astronomers suspect the bright central object may actually be a binary star system. The term planetary nebula is misleading; although these objects may appear round and planet-like in small telescopes, high resolution images reveal them to be stars surrounded by cocoons of gas blown off in the late stages of stellar evolution.

Computing the Ten Millionth Bernoulli Number In Mathematica

Mike — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:05:29

But a few years ago I programmed a quite different algorithm into Mathematica. Instead of directly computing the Bernoulli numbers using a recurrence relation, I instead used a trick recently suggested by Bernd Kellner: computing Bernoulli numbers by computing the Riemann zeta function.
It’s the integrated nature of Mathematica that makes things like this practical. Without Mathematica, one has to use the simplest building blocks to make efficient algorithms. But with Mathematica, one can take for granted access to efficient very-high-level operations—like computing Riemann zeta functions.

Hypnosis - myths and facts

Tyme — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:15:08

At no point during your session will you lose control of your mind. If you hear a suggestion that you don't agree with, or don't understand, your subconscious mind will automatically reject it.

Scientists discover macaque monkeys in Indonesia that fish

Scrivs — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:48:42

Long-tailed macaque monkeys have a reputation for knowing how to find food _ whether it be grabbing fruit from jungle trees or snatching a banana from a startled tourist.

World's Species Going Extinct Faster than Scientists Thought

Scrivs — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:49:59

According to the latest research, species around the world are going extinct faster that previously thought, at a rate not seen since the extinction of the dinosaurs. The Living Planet index which was released today shows that due to destructive human activity, the diversity of all life on earth has decreased by over 30%, nearly a third in fact in the past thirty-five years.

Scientists Close to Reconstructing First Living Cell

Scrivs — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:50:45

Modern cells are like microscopic cities: They have power plants (mitochondria), trash dumps (lysosomes), local government (the nucleus, with DNA serving as the legal charter), and many other activities going on inside their boundaries. They also have a border patrol in the form of a double-layered membrane that uses a series of protein-powered pumps, pores and channels to let nutrients in and keep other chemicals and substances out.

Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world

Xiarria — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:35:03

6 ways mushrooms can save the world.

Why Men Have Breasts

SCarter — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:02:09

As much as men hate to hear this, the human fetal blueprint is initially female. We all begin as a ball of cells that quickly differentiates into various body parts. At five weeks of gestation, the fetus sports a neural tube that eventually becomes the spine, but other than that, we all look like a wad of chewing gum. Then at six weeks' gestation, the outlines of eyes, arms, legs and a face (and let's not mention the tail that also shows up for a while) appear.

Drinking the Anti-Vaccine Kool-Aid

Scrivs — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:10:26

It’s easy to scare people with “toxins” - it’s difficult to understand the research and that everything is a toxin - toxicity is all about dose and risk vs benefit. McCarthy loves to rattle off he list of supposed toxins in vaccine. The problem is - she gets the science completely wrong. She says there is still mercury in childhood vaccines, but she is wrong, or at least grossly misleading. Mercury has been removed from the routine vaccine schedule - those 36 vaccines do not contain any significant mercury. Some versions of the flu vaccine still do, but these are optional.

Number of men who will die in the US as a result of...

Scrivs — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:14:43

A beautiful graphic with some scary numbers behind it.

Top 10 Scientists Killed or Injured by Their Experiments

Scrivs — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:39:05

Man owes a great debt to the scientists on this list; all of them died or were injured in their pursuit of knowledge. The advances they have all made to science are extraordinary and many of them paved the way for some of man’s greatest discoveries and inventions.

Zombie caterpillars controlled by voodoo wasps

Scrivs — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:15:05

The parasitoid wasp Glyptapanteles lays its eggs, about 80 at a time, in young geometrid caterpillars. The eggs hatch and the larvae feed on the caterpillar's body fluids. When they are fully developed, they eat through the caterpillar's skin, attach themselves to a nearby branch or leaf and wrap themselves up in a cocoon.

Genesis of a Virus

Tyme — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:23:54

Scientists witness the birth of an HIV particle as it happens.

Dark, Perhaps Forever

Scrivs — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:49:17

A decade ago, astronomers discovered that what is true for your car keys is not true for the galaxies. Having been impelled apart by the force of the Big Bang, the galaxies, in defiance of cosmic gravity, are picking up speed on a dash toward eternity. If they were keys, they would be shooting for the ceiling.

3 People Who Are Pushing the Edge of Science

Scrivs — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:49:46

When 40-year-old materials chemist Angela Belcher was a child, she wanted to be an inventor. “I would try to build things out of scrap material that we had in the garage,” she says. To her disappointment, everything she made had already been invented. Then, in college, she “fell in love with large molecules” and found a whole new way to build things.