Interesting Things

Catching a Tiger by its Turds.

Arkenor — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:10:04 +0000

I know I post too many faeces related stories. I can’t help it. We British are culturally hardwired to find poo hilarious, and thus interesting: The whiskers, eyes, organs, and even genitals of tigers, and other big cats, are highly sought after for many medical and religious practices. These practices, along with widespread habitat destruction, have [...]

Superoxygenated Superbeings!

Arkenor — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:05:30 +0000

This discovery is a couple of years old, but I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how humanity can improve itself (or as some folks call it “transhumanism”). Scientists from the University of Sheffield are developing an artificial ‘plastic blood’, which could act as a substitute for real blood in emergency situations. The ‘plastic blood’, [...]

Researchers create new forms of BSE-related disease

Arkenor — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:55:25 +0000

From a Cell press release: Researchers have shown that they can create entirely new strains of infectious proteins known as prions in the laboratory by simply mixing infectious prions from one species with the normal prion proteins of another species. The findings are reported in the September 5th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press [...]

Britain to get even wetter.

Arkenor — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:39:43 +0000

Durham University is predicting that the UK, already famous for being a rather damp place, is likely to get moister still in the coming years. Expert predicts ‘Monsoon Britain’ Prepare for more floods – in ways we are not used to - that’s the message from experts at Durham University who have studied rainfall and river flow [...]

Solar Phenomena seen at the ESO

Arkenor — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:17:09 +0000

Cerro Paranal, home of ESO’s Very Large Telescope, is certainly one of the best astronomical sites on the planet. Stunning images, obtained by ESO staff at Paranal, of the green and blue flashes, as well as of the so-called ‘Gegenschein’, are real cases in point. The Earth’s atmosphere is a gigantic prism that disperses sunlight. In [...]

Paper money helps to transmit disease.

Arkenor — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 13:38:35 +0000

GENEVA (AFP) - Forget retail therapy for some relief from that winter cold — a study by Swiss scientists revealed on Wednesday that the flu virus can nestle and survive on banknotes for more than two weeks. Scientists from Geneva’s University Hospital were asked by a Swiss bank to carry out the study amid worries that [...]

Coral reefs in danger from ocean acidification

Arkenor — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:46:37 +0000

Just a couple of quickies today: Stanford, CA — Carbon emissions from human activities are not just heating up the globe, they are changing the ocean’s chemistry. This could soon be fatal to coral reefs, which are havens for marine biodiversity and underpin the economies of many coastal communities. Scientists from the Carnegie Institution’s Department of [...]

Ancient Egyptian glassmaking techniques reconstructed.

Arkenor — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:51:35 +0000

A Cardiff University archaeology team has recreated a 3,000-year-old glass furnace, showing that Ancient Egyptian glassmaking methods were much more sophisticated than thought previously. Dr Paul Nicholson, of the University’s School of History and Archaeology, is leader of an Egypt Exploration Society team working on the earliest fully excavated glassmaking site in the world. The site, [...]

Reduced ice cover causes rise in Arctic sea temperature

Arkenor — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:32:48 +0000

Record-breaking amounts of ice-free water have deprived the Arctic of more of its natural “sunscreen” than ever in recent summers. The effect is so pronounced that sea surface temperatures rose to 5 C above average in one place this year, a high never before observed, says the oceanographer who has compiled the first-ever look at [...]

Is preventing homosexuality through drugs ethical?

Arkenor — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:14:40 +0000

While the biological basis for homosexuality remains a mystery, a team of neurobiologists reports they may have closed in on an answer — by a nose. The team led by University of Illinois at Chicago researcher David Featherstone has discovered that sexual orientation in fruit flies is controlled by a previously unknown regulator of synapse strength. [...]