Science For Life

Do you want to speed up your metabolism?

2011-07-17T00:00:00.001+05:30

We could all use a faster metabolism when it comes to weight loss.

Follow these simple steps to speed up metabolism.

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1.Don't skip breakfast. While you sleep your body goes into energy conservation mode by slowing your metabolism. Eating first thing will help speed up metabolism by giving it a good kick start. A good breakfast consists of complex carbohydrates like oatmeal or whole grain bread, egg whites, and fruit like bananas.

2.Eat 5-6 meals a day. You don't need to eat more food just more frequently. By doing this your body knows that its energy source is steady and will burn more calories instead of storing it as fat for later use. This is a key factor in speeding up your metabolism.

3.Change what you eat. Just as eating more frequently will speed up your metabolism so will what you eat. Eating foods high in sugar content will cause your blood sugar to spike forcing your body to store it as fat. Try to eat more whole grain foods, fruits, and vegetables. Make sure to also balance your meals with protein (like egg whites and lean meats) and healthy fat (essential fatty acids found in nuts and fish).

4.Drink Green Tea. Green tea has amazing fat burning properties. Numerous studies have shown the positive effects it has on increasing metabolism. You will find green tea in many diet pills because of this.

5.Exercise. Ok, that's obvious but most people don't do it. If you aren't exercising start by doing something whether it's walking the dog or playing with the kids. You need to move your body to speed up your metabolism and burn calories.

6.Interval Training. Have you ever noticed that some people do a ton of cardio but stop losing weight after awhile? That's because their metabolism has stabilized. Your body's metabolism will quickly adapt to it's environment. To fix this use interval training by starting off at a slower speed and kicking it up to high levels then back down. There are many ways to do this. The key is to push your body to different levels. If you do it right you can really speed up your metabolism and burn a ton of calories.

7.Weight Training. By building more muscle your body's metabolism will speed up to support that new muscle, causing you to burn more calories. Women shouldn't fear weight training you don't have enough testosterone to bulk you up. If you really want a faster metabolism weight training is a must.

Radiation levels up to ten times higher than normal in Tokyo

2011-06-10T23:56:00.000+05:30

Terrified residents began to flee Tokyo today as a nuclear power plant destroyed by the tsunami threatened to send a cloud of radioactive dust across Japan.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant suffered a third reactor explosion overnight and another reactor on the site caught fire.

Radiation levels are soaring across the country this afternoon as radioactive material is spewed directly into the atmosphere - while emergency crews fight to avoid a catastrophic meltdown.

Levels of radiation were ten times higher than normal in the capital today, as experts warned that people in Japan could face an increased cancer risk even if the crisis does not deteriorate.

The situation is worse for 140,000 people who live within an 18-mile exclusion zone around the plant. They were today ordered to stay indoors or be exposed to a dangerous level of radiation.

READ MORE WITH PICTURES>>>>

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366308/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-Meltdown-3rd-reactor-blast-hits-nuclear-plant.html#ixzz1GghyEwI6

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FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN HELP
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http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116806675064006

PLEASE COPY PASTE THE METHODS IN THE TWO UPPER MENTIONED LINKS IN A NOTE AND TAG MANY FRIENDS AS YOU CAN. DON'T FORGET WE ARE ALL HUMANS WITH LITTLE DIFFERENCE AND ONE ANCESTOR!

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Why, Where, How, and When We Might Leave Our Home Planet

2011-06-10T23:55:00.002+05:30

Humanity may have millennia to find a new home in the universe--or just a few years!

Earth won’t always be fit for occupation. We know that in two billion years or so, an expanding sun will boil away our oceans, leaving our home in the universe uninhabitable—unless, that is, we haven’t already been wiped out by the Andromeda galaxy, which is on a multibillion-year collision course with our Milky Way. Moreover, at least a third of the thousand mile-wide asteroids that hurtle across our orbital path will eventually crash into us, at a rate of about one every 300,000 years.

Read in detail at:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-02/after-earth-why-where-how-and-when-we-might-leave-our-home-planet

Quoted from
www.popsci.com

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Biggest Full Moon in 19 Years

On March 19th, the moon will be closer to Earth than it's been since 1992. The full moon that night will appear about 14 percent larger and significantly brighter than usual, but despite the brightness, the supermoon has a dark side. Supermoons have been linked to massive natural disasters in the past, from earthquakes to floods--but that connection is typically touted by astrologists. Astronomers and scientists, with typical drollness, say a catastrophe is unlikely.

Read more :
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/biggest-full-moon-20-years-almost-certainly-wont-cause-huge-natural-disaster

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How Does Nuclear Radiation Do Its Damage?

2011-06-10T23:53:00.003+05:30

Ionizing radiation—the kind that minerals, atom bombs and nuclear reactors emit—does one main thing to the human body: it weakens and breaks up DNA, either damaging cells enough to kill them or causing them to mutate in ways that may eventually lead to cancer.

After last earthquake and tsunami in Japan, four nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are now damaged and releasing radiation. Workers trying to keep the reactors from getting worse are themselves being exposed, while the Japanese government has called for anyone within 20 kilometers of the plant to evacuate.

Nuclear radiation, unlike the radiation from a light bulb or a microwave, is energetic enough to ionize atoms by knocking off their electrons. This ionizing radiation can damage DNA molecules directly, by breaking the bonds between atoms, or it can ionize water molecules and form free radicals, which are highly reactive and also disrupt the bonds of surrounding molecules, including DNA...

Read the rest of it at
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/fyi-how-does-nuclear-radiation-do-its-damage

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ALSO...

Where are the World's Nuclear Reactors
http://www.newscientist.com/embedded/nuclear-reactor-map

Interactive aftershock map : Japan Quake
http://www.newscientist.com/embedded/japan-quake

Gravity satellite's Potato Earth & Virgin Oceanic ocean explorer

2011-06-10T23:51:00.002+05:30

Gravity satellite yields 'Potato Earth' view

It looks like a giant potato in space.

And yet, the information in this model is the sharpest view we have of how gravity varies across the Earth.

The globe has been released by the team working on Europe's Goce satellite.

It is a highly exaggerated rendering, but it neatly illustrates how the tug we feel from the mass of rock under our feet is not the same in every location.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12911806

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Sir Richard Branson may have already branded his Necker Nymph aero submarine with the "Virgin Oceanic" moniker, but he's now finally taken things to the next logical (and ambitious) step. He's just announced a new, full-fledged venture of the same name, which promises to do to nothing short of dive to the deepest part of each of the Earth's five oceans -- all within the next two years, no less.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/05/richard-branson-launches-virgin-oceanic-to-explore-the-oceans-d/

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Trying on the headsets that can read your mind

2011-06-10T23:50:00.002+05:30

"Burn, burn!" I think, as I glare at the laptop in front of me. "Hurry up and burn!" No, I've not had a tech-support meltdown – I'm trying out MindWave, the latest device from brain-computer interface (BCI) firm NeuroSky, based in San Jose, California. On screen is a virtual barrel of gunpowder that I'm attempting to ignite by concentrating my attention, but I'm finding it hard to link my thoughts to fanning the animated flames.

"I sing a song in my head," suggests Tansy Brook, head of communications at NeuroSky – thinking of the lyrics helps her concentrate. She explains that it can take some time to train your thoughts to the system, but I really have no idea what I should be thinking about.

The device reading my thoughts is a lightweight headset with a band that reaches halfway across my forehead, at the end of which is a single electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor that Brook says is nearly as accurate as medical-grade devices, but at a fraction of the cost. It detects the strength of my beta and alpha brainwaves, which correspond to my attention and relaxation levels, and transmits them wirelessly to the laptop.

Interesting? Read more...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20375-trying-on-the-headsets-that-can-read-your-mind.html

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Retired shuttles find new homes
http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/space/retired-shuttles-find-new-homes-1.1055981

Dark matter could make planets habitable
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20320-dark-matter-could-make-planets-habitable.html

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Researchers Succeed in Quantum Teleportation of Light Waves

2011-06-10T23:49:00.002+05:30

In a real-life use of Schrödinger's theoretical paradoxical cat, researchers report that they were able to quickly transfer a complex set of quantum information while preserving its integrity. The information, in the form of light, was manipulated in such a way that it existed in two states at the same time, and it was destroyed in one spot and recreated in another. The new breakthrough is a major step toward building safe, effective quantum computers.

No felines were harmed in the making of this experiment, which actually studied wave packets of light that existed in a state of quantum superposition, meaning they existed in two different phases simultaneously. This phenomenon is described in Erwin Schrodinger’s quantum mechanics thought experiment, in which a cat is simultaneously dead and alive, depending on the state of a subatomic particle.

In this experiment, researchers in Australia and Japan were able to....

Read the rest at http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-04/quantum-teleportation-breakthrough-could-lead-instantanous-computing

EARTH DAY!!!

2011-06-10T23:45:00.002+05:30

Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this first Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year.Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues. In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day.

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THIS YEAR, Earth Day's theme is themed after A Billion Acts of Green: our people-powered campaign to generate a billion acts of environmental service and advocacy before Rio +20. Check out the cool new Billion Acts of Green Facebook app on
http://apps.facebook.com/billionactsofgreen

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And see what 2011 Earth Day is about and what you can do to inspire the community
http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2011

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CELEBRATE EARTH DAY AT THE MOVIES!

Be the first to see the breathtaking new animated adventure, Mia and the Migoo, and help us plant trees! GKIDS is donating 100% of Earth Day weekend ticket proceeds to The Canopy Project to plant trees in deforested areas around the globe.

Goto http://www.gkids.tv/earthday/ and check when the show is about to hit your city.

Created from an astonishing 500,000 hand-painted frames of animation, MIA AND THE MIGOO is a beautiful and thrilling family adventure, with stunning backgrounds inspired by Van Gogh, Monet, and Cezanne. The film is a man-against-nature fable, pitting wild-haired young heroine Mia against the forces of destruction, with the future of life on Earth in the balance.

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The First New Home For Humans

2011-06-03T23:35:00.001+05:30

The world -- located 20 light-years from Earth -- might sustain liquid water, but it would be a very alien place to visit.

A rocky world orbiting a nearby star has been confirmed as the first planet outside our solar system to meet key requirements for sustaining life, scientists said on Monday.

Modeling of planet Gliese 581d shows it has the potential to be warm and wet enough to nurture Earth-like life, they said.

It orbits a red dwarf star called Gliese 581, located around 20 light years from Earth, which makes it one of our closest neighbors.

Gliese 581d orbits on the outer fringes of the star's "Goldilocks zone", where it is not so hot that water boils away, nor so cold that water is perpetually frozen. Instead, the temperature is just right for water to exist in liquid form.

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http://news.discovery.com/space/exoplanet-gliese-581d-human-habitation-110516.html

First Commercial Quantum Computer

2011-06-03T23:34:00.001+05:30

Whether or not D-Wave has actually built a quantum computer is still a matter of debate (though, a study authored by the company and published in Nature claims to prove its success) but, whatever it is these crafty Canadians have created, you can order one now and start crunching qubits with abandon. The D-Wave One is the first commercially available quantum computer and, while its 128-qubit processor can only handle very specific tasks and is easily outperformed by traditional CPUs, it could represent a revolution in the field of supercomputing. As D-Wave scales up to thousands or tens-of-thousands of qubits, complex number theory problems and advanced cryptographic systems could crumble before the mighty power of quantum annealing... or at least give us faster Google searches.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/18/d-wave-one-claims-mantle-of-first-commercial-quantum-computer/

First solar-powered international flight

2011-06-03T23:33:00.000+05:30

Solar Impulse completes first solar-powered international flight, Captain Piccard returns to earth...

We're big fans of charming, ungainly Solar Impulse, and of Captain Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg's quest to circumnavigate the globe in a solar-powered plane. In case you missed the live stream: the Swiss flier just got a little closer to that goal by completing its first international flight, taking off near Berne, Switzerland and landing in Brussels, Belgium, just under 13 hours later. That's half the flight time of an earlier test, in which the craft's 200-foot wingspan, covered with 12,000 photovoltaic solar cells, kept it aloft for 26 hours. Of course, a controlled test flight is one thing -- making solar-powered flight commercially viable means proving your plane can successfully navigate busy airspace.

Video available too. Click on the following link...

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/14/solar-impulse-completes-first-solar-powered-international-flight/

Google demonstrates quantum computer image search

2009-12-14T23:18:00.003+05:30

Google's web services may be considered cutting edge, but they run in warehouses filled with conventional computers. Now the search giant has revealed it is investigating the use of quantum computers to run its next generation of faster applications.

Source : New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18272-google-demonstrates-quantum-computer-image-search.html

MIT gestural computing makes multi-touch look old

2009-12-14T23:18:00.001+05:30

The MIT Media Lab, home to Big Bird's illegitimate progeny, augmented reality projects aplenty, and now three-dimensional gestural computing. The new bi-directional display being demoed by the Cambridge-based boffins performs both multitouch functions that we're familiar with and hand movement recognition in the space in front of the screen -- which we're also familiar with, but mostly from the movies.

Source : Engadget

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/11/mit-gestural-computing-makes-multitouch-look-old-hat/

Flexible solar cell implant could restore vision

2009-12-14T23:17:00.001+05:30

The first flexible retinal implant could restore some vision to people with certain forms of visual impairment.

Conditions such as age-related macular degeneration occur when some of the photoreceptors in the eye stop functioning properly. But as other parts of the eye still work, it should be possible to restore vision using an implant that mimics the photoreceptor layer, says Rostam Dinyari at Stanford University in California.

Source : New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18275-flexible-solar-cell-implant-could-restore-vision.html

Our atmosphere came from outer space

2009-12-14T23:16:00.004+05:30

Comets from outer space may have created Earth's atmosphere – not volcanoes spewing out gases from deep within the planet.

The origin of the gases in Earth's atmosphere has long been a puzzle. One of the main theories is that the gases bubbled up out of the mantle via volcanoes.

Greg Holland of the University of Manchester, UK, and colleagues have arrived at a different theory after collecting samples of the noble gas krypton from several hundred kilometres beneath New Mexico.

Source : New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18277-our-atmosphere-came-from-outer-space.html

Homosexual selection: The power of same-sex liaisons

2009-12-14T23:16:00.001+05:30

NOT long ago, the news was full of reports about two male Humboldt penguins at a zoo in Germany that adopted an egg, hatched it and reared the chick together. It seems like every time you turn around, the media spotlight has fallen on another example of same-sex liaisons in the animal kingdom.

Source : New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427370.800-homosexual-selection-the-power-of-samesex-liaisons.html

Early-bird dinosaur found in New Mexico

2009-12-14T23:15:00.002+05:30

The remains of a two-legged meat-eating predator that roamed the Earth at the dawn of dinosaurs have been uncovered in an ancient bone bed by fossil hunters.

The feathered beast, named Tawa hallae, was the size of a large dog and sported a long neck and tail, a slender snout, and sharp, curved teeth to catch and kill its prey.

Source : guardian.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/10/tawa-hallae-feathered-theropod-mexico

Pregnant women develop emotion-reading superpowers

2009-12-14T23:14:00.002+05:30

RAGING hormones during pregnancy prompt mood swings, but may also lead to a heightened ability to recognize threatening or aggressive faces. This may have evolved because it makes future mothers hyper-vigilant, yet it could also make them more vulnerable to anxiety.

Source : New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427384.200-pregnant-women-develop-emotionreading-superpowers.html

Race is on to use embryonic stem cells in humans

2009-11-30T12:47:00.005+05:30

TISSUE grown from human embryonic stem cells, the most prized, and most controversial, cells ever grown in a lab, could at last make it into the human body.

After a decade of scientific and political wrangling, several therapies are now edging towards human trials. Which will be first?

Read More : http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427364.400-race-is-on-to-use-embryonic-stem-cells-in-humans.html

How to make ZZZs = memory

2009-11-30T12:47:00.002+05:30

Sounds played as you sleep can reinforce memories, suggest Ken Paller and his colleagues at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

They asked people to memorise which images and their associated sounds – such as a picture of a cat and a miaow – were associated with a certain area on a computer screen and then to take a nap. They played half the group the sounds in their sleep, and these people were better at remembering the associations than the rest when they woke up.

Paller hopes sounds can be used to improve all kinds of memory and next he'll be figuring out if we can learn languages while we snooze.

Read More : http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18199-sleep-success-how-to-make-zzzs--memory.html

Cern's Large Hadron Collider makes first collisions

2009-11-30T12:46:00.002+05:30

Engineers operating the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have smashed together proton beams in the machine for the very first time.

The step was described as a "great achievement" for those working on the huge physics experiment.

The low-energy collisions came after researchers circulated two beams simultaneously in the LHC's 27km-long tunnel earlier on Monday.

Read More : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8375486.stm

Romantic Jealousy

2009-11-30T12:45:00.000+05:30

"I found myself sitting curled up in the bushes, following every movement seen through the curtains in her lit-up window. I knew her boyfriend was there, and the knowledge caused me excruciating pain. It was a cold winter night, and once in a while it would drizzle. I said to myself: "I know I am a sane, well-adjusted, responsible adult. What in the world is happening to me? Have I totally lost my mind?" And yet, I continued sitting in those bushes for hours. I didn't leave until the light in the window was gone. A force larger than myself held me hypnotized to the light and to her. I have never in my life felt so close to madness."

Read More at : http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/romantic-jealousy

3D mapping drone fires lasers from a mile away

2009-11-21T20:57:00.000+05:30

"The MIT Technology Review has unearthed a new laser-based 3D mapping robot that can produce results similar to those obtained from $100,000 systems at about a fifth of the cost. Funded by the US Army, researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology have now demonstrated the Remotely Operated and Autonomous Mapping System (ROAMS, for short), which employs a mirror-based LIDAR system that bounces a laser off a rapidly rotating mirror and gleans environmental information from how long it takes for each pulse to bounce back."

Source : Engadget

URL : http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/18/3d-mapping-drone-fires-off-lasers-from-a-mile-away-video/

Beyond the LHC

2009-11-21T20:55:00.002+05:30

"The Large Hadron Collider is by no means the last of the particle smashers. A group at CERN recently explored the various scenarios that might emerge from the atomic debris in Geneva – and how they would shape what colliders we build next. We draw out the key points about each of the scenarios."

Source : New Scientist

URL : http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427354.900-future-colliders-beyond-the-lhc.html

See this also : http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/20/large-hadron-collider-is-online-higgs-boson-be-damned/

Medibots: The world's smallest surgeons

2009-11-21T20:54:00.002+05:30

"A MAN lies comatose on an operating table. The enormous spider that hangs above him has plunged four appendages into his belly. The spider, made of white steel, probes around inside the man's abdomen then withdraws one of its arms. Held in the machine's claw is a neatly sealed bag containing a scrap of bloody tissue."

Source : New Scientist

URL : http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427351.100-medibots-the-worlds-smallest-surgeons.html