The Daily Science Nugget...

[D. Allan]

Viennese physicist Anton Zeilinger has been transferring the properties of light particles over certain distances onto other light particles, with no time delay.

This is related to what Einstien called "spooky action at a distance."

There is a nice interview with Mr. Zeilinger at

SPOOKY ACTION AND BEYOND.

Illustration of the teleportation of light particles under the Danube

[D. Allan]

Scientists worry that they might not recognize life on other planets even when it is actually there.

Here's a snippet from a report issued yesterday:

"Scientists should be peering through microscopes, not telescopes, to find life on other planets, says a report by the National Academies' National Research Council issued today. The report urges more research on Earth--both in the lab and in extreme environments such as Yellowstone's boiling hot springs--in order to understand the potential for life based on chemistry that differs drastically from our own. Without such work, the report warns, future searches run the risk of finding life in space but not recognizing it."

there is more at : http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/706/2

The report urges abandonning assumptions that life will alway be Earth-like. Example: life may not require water because other liquids such as ammonia or formamide could work as the solvent in cells.

[D. Allan]

Scientists Study Baby Poop

to find answers about how bacteria colonize human GI tracts. The germs have various beneficial effect for us humans.

"Scientists say it's important to know how bacteria colonize the gut because the germs are now known to protect against pathogens, trigger blood vessel growth and regulate storage of fat."

hmmm... tantalizing... that about regulating fat storage.

source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/...n1.43bec7d.html

[olger]

Scientists Study Baby Poop

to find answers about how bacteria colonize human GI tracts. The germs have various beneficial effect for us humans.

"Scientists say it's important to know how bacteria colonize the gut because the germs are now known to protect against pathogens, trigger blood vessel growth and regulate storage of fat."

hmmm... tantalizing... that about regulating fat storage.

source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/...n1.43bec7d.html

That job stinks

[D. Allan]

Quote:

That job stinks

i never could change a messy diaper

[D. Allan]

Are lemurs into recreational use of drugs?

A millipede's defense system includes certain chemicals which they secrete through pores along the sides of their bodys: poisonous liquids or hydrogen cyanide gas.

"Lemurs have been observed intentionally irritating millipedes in order to rub the chemicals on themselves to repel insect pests,

and possibly to produce a psychoactive effect."

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millipede

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Hey! What a coincidence! I'm selling a book on ebay, printed in 1793. One of the recipes that I copied for the auction was on the use of millepedes!!!

Quote:

EXPRESSION OF MILLEPEDES

Take of live millepedes, (commonly called wood-lice), three ounces; simple fennel-water, one pint; compound horse-radish water, half a pint. Bruise the millepedes, gradually adding to them the distilled waters; and afterwards press out the liquor.

This is an excellent diuretic, sweetener and cleanser of the blood, and a most efficacious medicine in all chronic cases, that are to be relieved by promoting the urinary discharges, as are many inveterate ulcers, strumas, and scrophulous disorders, and such as frequently are the fore-runners of scorbutic dropsies, from a retention of such humours as obstruct the viscera, and fill the whole habit with water and viscidities. Hence, it is of singular efficacy in the stone, jaundice, nephritic pains, dysury, cholic, and asthma.

Anybody need a diuretic????

**pondering** I wonder if Millipedes are clear or unclean?? **cough**

[D. Allan]

I'm curious where that book was printed. I wonder what brand of millepedes they had in mind. The one in the picture above is Narceus americanus a large North American millipede. of the eastern seaboard of the U.S.A.

" Armadillidium is a genus of the small terrestrial crustacean known as the woodlouse. Armadillidium are also commonly known as "pill woodlice", "pill bugs" or "roly-polies", and are often confused with pill millipedes such as Glomeris marginata".

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillidium

So it might be that the bugs in the recipe are "terrestrial crustaceans" (!) not genuine millipedes.

The real thing has two pair of legs for most segments. Pill woodlice have one pair per segment.

[D. Allan]

Armadillidium

Armadillidium vulgare

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Subphylum: Crustacea

Class: Malacostraca

Order: Isopoda

Suborder: Oniscidea

Family: Armadillidiidae

Genus: Armadillidium

Brandt, 1833

Diversity

about 200 species

[D. Allan]

The scientific study of crustaceans (about 52,000 species) is known as carcinology and the student as a carcinologist, crustaceologist or crustalogist.

lobsters, crabs, shrimp, crayfish and barnacles all are crustaceans.

There is an order of cute little shrimp-like crustaceans called amphipoda.

Amphipoda

A hyperiid amphipod (Hyperia macrocephala)

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Subphylum: Crustacea

Class: Malacostraca

Order: Amphipoda

Latreille, 1816

Sub-orders

Gammaridea

Corophiidea

Hyperiidea

Ingolfiellidea

[D. Allan]

The sleeping habits of birds - interested? We humans have it easy in our homes and beds. For birds sleeping can be risky so they sleep little, just catnapping or keeping one eye open with their head on their shoulder. Then there is the danger of freezing to death. Standing on chimney tops can put them to sleep from fumes, permanently! Cities are several degrees warmer than the countryside.

Most facinating are swifts and I now quote from the BBC:

"The roosting habits of swifts are mysterious. Except when, as adults, they crawl inside holes in buildings to breed, the species stays permanently aloft - both night and day. The birds sleep on the wing but how do they avoid collisions and preserve a safe cruising altitude? Despite being an abundant summer visitor throughout the Northern Hemisphere their nocturnal behaviour has been little studied. However, in Suffolk in 1994 several hundred were watched just after dawn. Instead of flying and gliding around in the usual rapid manner, each maintained a stationary position on gently flapping wings. Basically, the birds were hovering and did so for almost an hour until the air warmed up and normal feeding flight resumed. This observation explained why radar research aimed at unravelling their actions failed to detect what they did. By moving very little, the birds rendered themselves invisible - truly, the world's first stealth aircraft.

Then came the Swedes. In 2000, using infra-red photography, they filmed swifts roosting like bats. Hanging by their toes the birds spent the night suspended on willow branches. The mystery just got deeper!"

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/birds/weeklyfeature/sleepingbeauties/

[D. Allan]

Ever feel like going bananas?

You should. And eat more bananas. They are GOOD for you.

1. Depression: According to a recent survey amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

2. Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

3. Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it the perfect way to beat high blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

4. Strokes: According to research in "The New England Journal of Medicine," eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

5. Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

6. Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

7. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around. So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, "A banana a day keeps the doctor away!"

And much much more at: http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/bananas.html

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

banana song

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

I'm curious where that book was printed. I wonder what brand of millepedes they had in mind. The one in the picture above is Narceus americanus a large North American millipede. of the eastern seaboard of the U.S.A.

" Armadillidium is a genus of the small terrestrial crustacean known as the woodlouse. Armadillidium are also commonly known as "pill woodlice", "pill bugs" or "roly-polies", and are often confused with pill millipedes such as Glomeris marginata".

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillidium

So it might be that the bugs in the recipe are "terrestrial crustaceans" (!) not genuine millipedes.

The real thing has two pair of legs for most segments. Pill woodlice have one pair per segment.

The book was printed in London 1793...so I guess it would be British millipedes...

[D. Allan]

Thanks for the banana song. I'm not wearing any colonge, just a banana under each arm.

[Amelia]

I want a banana lamp!

[John317]

I myself didn't eat any earthworms, but one time when I was photographing my little boy in our front yard, I noticed he got some grass and put it in his mouth, so I just kept taking pictures. I didn't think anything about it. Then when I got the pictures developed and enlarged we could see that it wasn't grass at all. He had a handful of juicy-looking earthworms hanging out of his mouth. He was too young to remember what they tasted like, but they must have been awfully good by the expression on his face.

[D. Allan]

Amazing facts about gold:

A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.

Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be molded with the hands.

An ounce of gold can be stretched into a wire 50 miles long.

[D. Allan]

Quote:

He had a handful of juicy-looking earthworms hanging out of his mouth. He was too young to remember what they tasted like, but they must have been awfully good by the expression on his face.

It's not only the taste, John3:17, but the texture is amazing. Also the sensation of something squirming as one chomps down is a rare treat. :-)

[D. Allan]

??WHO MADE PHILOSOPHY A STRICT SCIENCE??

"A philosopher, Edmund Husserl, in Germany, the founder of Phenomenology, a new method for the description and analysis of consciousness through which philosophy gains the character of a strict science. The method reflects an effort to resolve the opposition between Empiricism, which stresses observation, and Rationalism, which stresses reason and theory, by indicating the origin of all philosophical and scientific systems and developments of theory in the interests and structures of the experiential life." - Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition

[D. Allan]

The largest gold nugget ever found weighed 172 lbs., 13 oz.

[D. Allan]

The most abundant metal in the Earth's crust is aluminum.

The Chinese were using aluminum to make things as early as 300 AD Western civilization didn't rediscover aluminum until 1827.

[D. Allan]

The air we breathe is 78% nitrogen, 21.5% oxygen, .5% argon and other gases.

[Amelia]

Wow, the nitrogen is so high. So does that make us really nitrogen breathers instead of oxygen?

[Nan]

Yes but not users of the inhaled nitrogen!