The Daily Science Nugget...

[D. Allan]

William A. Whitelaw, a professor in the department of medicine at the University of Calgary, explains what happens during a hiccup:

"A hiccup is not simply a twitch of the diaphragm but a complex motor act. During one, the diaphragm and the complete set of inspiratory muscles (intercostal muscles, neck muscles and others) make a sudden, very strong, contraction. The expiratory muscles are also strongly inhibited. Just after the contraction begins, the glottis (commonly called the vocal cords) clamp shut, making the "hic" sound. Before the diaphragm contracts, the roof of the mouth moves up, as does the back of the tongue, and there is often an associated burp. The heart slows a bit as well. In addition, hiccups are seldom isolated events but tend to recur every few seconds, sometimes for hours." - sciam.com

[D. Allan]

Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste. By burning away all the pesky carbon and other impurities, coal power plants produce heaps of radiation.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste

[phkrause]

Who knew!! Very interesting, never would have thought that,

pkrause

[D. Allan]

Me either, pk. And I never guessed babies were hardwired to make social judgements. Look at this:

Your Baby is Watching (and Judging) You

By Meredith F. Small, LiveScience's Human Nature Columnist

posted: 28 December 2007 01:16 pm ET

"Next time the baby shoots you a dirty look, it might not be gas. Instead, the baby might be really disgusted by your behavior. ... "

more at: http://www.livescience.com/history/071228-hn-babies.html

[D. Allan]

Snake Oil Salesmen Were on to Something

Snake oil really is a cure for what ails you, if that happens to be arthritis, heart disease or maybe even depression - By Cynthia Graber .

read it at: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=snake-oil-salesmen-knew-something

[D. Allan]

GOT MILK?: Men have all the necessary equipment to produce milk, and on occasion it can happen.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-males-can-lactate

[D. Allan]

The Top 10 Intelligent Designs (or Creation Myths)

find these top 10 at: http://www.livescience.com/history/top10_intelligent_designs.html

[D. Allan]

Mind-Bending Therapies

The drugs that put the “psychedelic” into the sixties are now the subject of renewed research interest because of their therapeutic potential.

Psychedelics such as LSD and the compound in magic mushrooms could ease a variety of difficult-to-treat mental illnesses, such as chronic depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and drug or alcohol dependency.

Clinical trials with various substances are now under way in humans.

more: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=psychedelic-healing

[D. Allan]

Hot Science Topics Avoided by Presidential Candidates

including such topics as stem-cell research; creationism vs. evolution in public schools

an interesting article here: http://www.livescience.com/history/080103-presidential-cands.html

[D. Allan]

Why Do Drops of Liquid Form Spheres in Space?

January 4, 2008

Whether water sits in a lake or a glass of water, Earth’s gravity pulls the liquid downward into the shape of the container it’s in.

But in space, gravity’s effects are different. Objects in orbit are indeed affected by gravity, but they are in freefall, moving constantly sideways while falling toward Earth. This renders them effectively weightless.

Up there, surface tension shapes water into spheres. Magnetic-like molecules on water’s surface cause the surface to behave like an elastic skin. Each molecule is pulled with equal tension by its neighbors.

The tight-knit group forms the smallest possible area—a sphere.

- Corey Binns at: http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/080104-llm-space-spheres.html

[D. Allan]

A rendering of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which promises to offer “the biggest movie ever.”

"When completed in 2014, the telescope — 330 inches in diameter and armed with a three-billion-pixel detector — will survey the entire night sky visible from its intended perch on Cerro Pachón in northern Chile once every three nights, allowing astronomers to monitor changes in stars and the motions of asteroids and everything else that moves in the sky. It will also allow researchers to map dark matter and the effects of the mysterious dark energy that is speeding the universe’s expansion."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/science/space/05scope.html?ref=science

[D. Allan]

Does anyone ever wonder: "Is mathematics a branch of philosophy?" Consider this statement:

"As German mathematician Georg Cantor demonstrated in the late 19th century, there exists a variety of infinities—and some are simply larger than others."

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-infinity-comes-in-different-sizes

[D. Allan]

"Often spinal cord injuries result in the severing of the long nerve fibers connecting the brain to the spinal cord, disrupting one's ability to walk, among other things. But even with the primary top-to-bottom signal highway rendered out of order, the nervous system can, over time, reroute itself, finding neural detours and side streets that restore movement, according to a new study out of the University of California, Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.)."

scientific american magazine

[D. Allan]

"A physicist, a biologist and a mathematician walk into a bar. Bartender says, “Any of you believe in God?” Which of the three is most likely to say yes? Answer: the mathematician. Mathematicians believe in God at a rate two and a half times that of biologists, a survey of members of the National Academy of Sciences a decade ago revealed. Admittedly, this rate is not very high in absolute terms. Only 14.6 percent of the mathematicians embraced the God hypothesis (versus 5.5 percent of the biologists)."

From a book review of 'Irreligion,' a book by mathematician, John Allen Paulos in which he considers arguments for the existence of God. The reviewer, Jim Holt, writes a good review, sympathetic to people who put faith above 'logic.' Mr. Holt is currently at work on his own book about the 'puzzle of existence.' If it is as well written as this review it will be a most interesting book!

"Read the review at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/books/review/Holt-t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bu&oref=slogin

And read the 1st chapter of the Mr. Paulos's book, 'Irreligion' at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/books/chapters/1st-chapter-irreligion.html?ref=review

[D. Allan]

"Today, a new field is using illusions to unmask a sixth sense, the moral sense. Moral intuitions are being drawn out of people in the lab, on Web sites and in brain scanners, and are being explained with tools from game theory, neuroscience and evolutionary biology."

- from an article by Steven Pinker at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Psychology-t.html?ref=science

[D. Allan]

A really fantastic new discovery:

"Source of Mysterious Antimatter Found"

- Article By Charles Q. Choi, Special to SPACE.com

Read the article at http://www.livescience.com/space/scienceastronomy/080111-antimatter-space.html

[D. Allan]

"Research shows that teenagers’ body clocks are set to a schedule that is different from that of younger children or adults. This prevents adolescents from dropping off until around 11 p.m., when they produce the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, and waking up much before 8 a.m. when their bodies stop producing melatonin. The result is that the first class of the morning is often a waste, with as many as 28 percent of students falling asleep, according to a National Sleep Foundation poll. Some are so sleepy they don’t even show up, contributing to failure and dropout rates."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/opinion/14kalish.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

[D. Allan]

A bright light can cause some people to sneeze.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=looking-at-the-sun-can-trigger-a-sneeze

This reaction is caused by the "photic sneeze reflex."

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=why-does-bright-light-cau

[D. Allan]

For today a beautiful picture:

Jupiter's moon, Io.

[D. Allan]

From Scientific American Magazine: 60-Second Psych - January 17, 2008

"Bisexuality is a Distinct Sexual Orientation

Results from a 10-year study show that bisexuality in women is not a transitional phase enroute to lesbianism, but rather a distinct and long-term sexual orientation.

In 2005 a paper in Psychological Science debunked the idea that men have bisexual attraction (they’re either gay or straight the study concluded). Ok, still up for debate.

But what about women? Does bisexuality legitimately exist in women?

This week the American Psychological Association published the first longitudinal study of female bisexuality. Dr. Lisa Diamond studied 79 women over a 10-year period, in an attempt to define female bisexuality.

She found no evidence for the commonly held view that bisexuality is an experimental phase, enroute to lesbianism or heterosexuality.

Rather she found that bisexuality in women is a distinct and consistent sexual orientation.

Interestingly, she also found that as women age, they become more aware of their sexual fluidity, and thus tend to turn more toward bisexuality than away from it.

And check this out: even though bisexuals continue to be attracted to both sexes as they age, they are more likely than heterosexuals or lesbians, to settle into monogamous relationships.

Hm. The more fluid you are sexually, the more stable you become behaviorally.

What’s up with that?"

http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=8902D6F8-F97C-E6FE-74B6D67845F05FEA

[D. Allan]

"Japanese researchers have spent five years developing a humanoid robot system that can understand and respond to simultaneous speakers. They posit a restaurant scenario in which the robot is a waiter. When three people stand before the robot and simultaneously order pork cutlet meals or French dinners, the robot understands at about 70 percent comprehension, responding by repeating each order and giving the total price. This process takes less than two seconds and, crucially, requires no prior voice training."

- http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=AC9BC82B-E7F2-99DF-3AFED884B44A2A8C

[D. Allan]

A facinating study may explain why people love to argue on this forum. Even though a mere argument falls short of physical violence, still there is an aggressive quality to it.

"New research on mice shows the brain processes aggressive behavior as it does other rewards. Mice sought violence, in fact, picking fights for no apparent reason other than the rewarding feeling.

The mouse brain is thought to be analogous to the human brain in this study, which could shed light on our fascination with brutal sports as well as our own penchant for the classic bar brawl.

In fact, the researcher say, humans seem to crave violence just like they do sex, food or drugs. "

More at : http://www.livescience.com/health/080117-violent-cravings.html

[Guest charis]

Quote:

A facinating study may explain why people love to argue on this forum. Even though a mere argument falls short of physical violence, still there is an aggressive quality to it.

Yes, this is about as close to physical violence one can do on a forum. or

But IMHO, there is a great deal of emotional violence that goes on here on this forum.

[D. Allan]

[Yes, this is about as close to physical violence one can do on a forum. or

But IMHO, there is a great deal of emotional violence that goes on here on this forum.

Yes, all for a daily fix of dopamine! There are better ways to get it, huh? Yeh huh!

[Guest charis]

Perhaps it is the only way some people can get an endorphin rush.. :R

en·dor·phin (ěn-dôr'fĭn) Pronunciation Key

n. Any of a group of peptide hormones that bind to opiate receptors and are found mainly in the brain. Endorphins reduce the sensation of pain and affect emotions.

American Heritage Dictionary