Muscle injections!

What with Captain America and all becoming a superhero through some magical drug therapy etc, it might cause one to question the feasibility of such an experiment.

While not on the supersoldier level Captain America is on, the drug combats degenerative muscle conditions.  Having been proven to be safe and effective in animal testing, they've applied to the FDA to begin tests on humans.

Not leading to Hulked out levels of muscles, the results have a degree of regulation to keep them in check.

What they do is take some DNA that produces the protein follistatin, which turns off a gene called myostatin, which halts muscle growth, and put it in hollowed-out virus cells. 

Wham, bang, boom, inject in to muscle, and after about six weeks' time, improvements can be seen.

Full article for injection found: here

Alas, no superheroes are birthed this way...yet.  But time may tell.

Amputee tortoise gets prosthetic

A 12-year-old 20 pound African spur-thighed tortoise received a caster wheel as a prosthetic in place of a leg removed at the shoulder.

Fixed to his shell with epoxy, he's taken to the new lifestyle with reckless abandon, ready to live life to the edge.

There's no slowing this bad ass down, as he's already gained three more pounds with his cybernetic attachment.

                                                                                Henry Moore, Jr.

Hopefully he has many more active years ahead of his awesome self.

Full article: here

Lions eat humans more after full moons

But it's not because of werewolves.  Or is it?  No, it's really not werewolves, sorry.

It turns out that the frequency of lions attacking humans in Tanzania increases in a period of ten days after full moons.  There's little superstitious claim to be held here.  Lions hunt better in the dark.  In moonlight, they hunt less because they function poorer, so they go hungrier.  As they're hungrier, they attack more.  With it being darker, and them hungrier...they attack more.  Elementary, my dear Watson.

                                                                    Wikimedia Commons

Article can be found: here

The brain's mirror system

When you watch someone doing something, your brain analyzes the varying things you would have to do yourself to imitate the action; movements, positions, attentions, etc.

In this study, a woman born without limbs was showed videos of people performing activities, some she can't do, some she can do, etc.  Her mirroring systems in her brain fired up in all cases, be they when it was a task she couldn't perform, or one she could perform in a different manner, etc.

In cases where she viewed actions that were impossible for her to maneuver, the mirroring system and other regions of the brain fired up to support the mirror system.  They're believed to help in a process termed "mentalizing", that is, trying to understand what another person is thinking.

“What’s interesting is that even when she can’t do it, when it’s impossible for her, she still recruits her mirror system, but she additionally recruits these mentalizing regions,” Aziz-Zadeh says.

Offers some very interesting insight into how the brain functions!

Full article: here

Mausoleum solar panels

A small town in Spain had an idea for curbing some of their power demand.  They would put solar panels on mausoleums.  I mean, why not, right?  The space isn't being used for much else...

Understandably, I suppose, they were met with some opposition at the idea.  After a couple years of pushing through, it managed to become a reality.

462 panels on a quarter acre of mausoleums, 100 kilowatts produced.

                                                                                       Albert Gea

Small when you think about it, but in theory, it has strong implications.  Space management, alternative power sources, etc.  It's an excellent example of taking the first step of transitioning to renewable power sources.  Kudos!

Article: here

Flying car!

In California they've been testing a...car-plane.  Yes, you get in one side if you wish to drive, you get in the other if you wish to fly.  Jetsons, here we come.

Capable of managing 820 miles on a single tank of gas/35 miles on batteries alone, while driving, it isn't too shabby.

It looks pretty...weird, but hey, that's the price of progress!

Full article: here

Search engines bad for memory

A recent study shows that people are better about retaining the location of information, rather than the information itself.

It's a bit of a heuristic thing.  Rather than remembering all the information about everything, we know we can Google it and find the information instantly.  When we know we can bookmark something later and come back to it, or keep a tab open and come back to it, or simply just search up about it, we tend to forget the details and just keep track of how to find said details.

"The experience of losing our internet connection becomes more and more like losing a friend. We must remain plugged in to know what Google knows."

 My best friend confirmed the claim, and I agree.  It's become pretty damn integral.

Full article: here

Augmented Reality App for Ipad 2

Utilizing NASA technology, an app for the Ipad 2 for something called "augmented reality" has been developed.

It can map your entire local environment in 3-d and your location up to under a centimeter in accuracy.  In this case it makes use of the camera on the device, and functions with a game called Ball Invasion, which consists of shooting evil balls bouncing around you...or some such.

Originally, the functionality was developed to help robots peer around their locale and build a 3-d environment they can follow and navigate in.

Really quite nifty and...fun, it seems.  Altho I imagine you'd seem rather insane walking around your neighborhood blasting space balls with your Ipad...but hey, don't let anyone judge you.  Do your own thing.  *thumbs up*

Full article: here

Inflatable satellite dish, fun for the family!

Pretty low-tech, simple, and easy to carry, the inflatable satellite dish has been developed.

Functioning similarly to an exercise ball, it's inflated comparatively, but also has an antenna, of course.  Made up of two separate hemispheres constructed of nylon, it offers a secure and manageable communication link for soldiers in the field of war, or workers providing aid in lands stricken by disaster.

Either or, it's pretty nifty and convenient.

Full article: here

Ambient lighting...from your wallpaper.

A newly developed wallpaper by Philips features ambient lighting via embedded adjustable LEDs.  Pretty darn cool, I'd say.

They also function to acoustically muffle sounds and reduce echo, but may also become able to respond to audio input.  That is to say, you could DJ a party in a room lined with this wallpaper, and the wallpaper could change and match the beats.

                                                                                       via Philips

A lot like interactive, personal art...it's really neat.  It also may hold the potential to completely replace traditional light fixtures and sources.

Full article: here

Robots are taking over!

Robotic engineers are seeking research to make robots more functionally like humans; able to perform complex tasks humans would consider effortless, able to move about and function as humans do, etc.

Contention exists about how to even begin start programming something to function this way, bottom-up vs. top-down.

Tests with robots and their humanistic capabilities so far prove to be extremely 'brittle' and slow-paced.  They falter if single variables are changed in the slightest fashion.  They move at a fraction of the pace we function at.

New York Times

Research and funding abound, people are hopeful and positive in what will eventually be discovered.

Full article: here

Complex spuds finally cracked!

Apparently potatoes are extremely complex.  Did you know this?  I didn't know this.  And they've been trying to sequence the genome for some time!

And well, they were successful!  They found a variety of S. tuberosum.  It turns out they have 800 disease-resistance genes...and that's pretty awesome.  Total bonus with all their health benefits and lack of fat!

Suddenly...potatoes!

Full article: here

Many things, in belly buttons!

A recent belly button study of great importantness has determined that a large number of microbes make their homes in our belly buttons...and a lot of them are previously undiscovered...and some are from Japan and the oceans and such...

  Stefano Bolognini

          EVIL THINGS HIDE IN HERE.

Full article after the jump!

Visit space, drink red wine

Red wine has health benefits.  Yeah that's old news.  But now red wine fights problems stemming from weightlessness!  Alright!  It helps prevent bone density loss and muscle atrophy.  So the next time you're going to the moon, take a bottle or two with you.

Pouring wine in space looks like this.

Things like reservjv4atol and flavornerds are what do the trick.  Maybe a supplement of just these things would do the job without getting you hammered, but that's just no fun when you're taking the shuttle for a joyride.

Yeehaw!

Mystery lead coffin unearthed in the whereabouts of Rome

While doing an archaeology dig-up sort of thing in an ancient abandoned city near Rome, digger-uppers discovered a lead coffin weighing in the area of one thousand pounds.

Speculation puts the inhabitant as something akin to a bishop or a gladiator, as using this much metal was extremely costly...but we all know better than this, don't we?

That's what I'm getting at...you know it.

Anyway.  The University of Michigan digging team plans on utilizing minimally invasive techniques to take peeks inside.  Lead coffins are effective for keeping things extremely well-preserved, so they want to take as much care as possible in the process.  Directly opening it up might lead to damaged goods, so other methods, such as thermography and endoscopy, are being considered primarily.

Full article: buried here

Sitting a lot. It's bad for you.

AND IT WILL KILL YOU.

Probly with something like this.

Well.  Maybe not exactly in that fashion.  But it will shorten your life significantly.

We'll become an entire nation of short people.  And songs will be written about us.  And our platform shoes on our nasty little feet.

Yes...a scientific study was done on sitting.  If you do it too much, it is unhealthy.  Unhealthy enough to shave years off your life.  Significantly more if you're a woman rather than a man.

Perhaps you sit so much because of preexisting conditions...

Or perhaps not...

Either way, there's a link.  And this link is of worthy note.  So you should sit less.  Move.  Jump around.  Jump up, jump up, and get down.

That is all.

Full article can be found: sitting on its ass

Rawr rawr dinosaurs! And they might be warm-blooded, too.

Recently scientists have figured out how to determine the temperature of dinosaurs: those long-disappeared large creature things native to Jurassic Park and the like that dreams are made of.

Yes, this place right here.

Some dealy investigating their teeth and whatnot.  Maybe dentures, seeing as how they're quite old.  You know the score.  But yes, they investigated the teeth and determined that dinosaurs possessed body temperatures at a human level of warmth and upwards!

Check it and see.

And this completely destroys the worldview of hundreds, if not thousands, of children taught that dinosaurs are real and their bones aren't a diabolical plot by Satan.  And something with being coldblooded like lizards.

I'm watching you sleep.

It could be because they were just so large and retained so much heat in their bodies...chubbies.  Eh.  And not that it's because they had high metabolism and were extremely active.  Either or.  The teeth finding indicates that they had warm body temperatures either way.  Very interesting!

Full article to be archaeologically excavated at: this pile of bones

Cloud watching, or inherited survival technique?

Cloud gazing is an awesome past-time for just about everybody at one point or another.  Whether relaxing and picking out casual shapes, or searching intently for obscure forms, it offers a distraction for all sorts of people.  What's often not thought of is why we see forms in the sky, and/or how.

Evolution has designed us that way. When our hunter-gatherer ancestors walked through dense forests with random noises and shapes everywhere, it was important to spot a lion, see a snake as quickly as possible. Same for people's faces. A glimpse of eye, a snatch of mouth, (smiling? threatening? friend? foe?), you want to know right away if you want to live.

In this article, the how and why of cloud gazing is explored and explained.  Something most people consider lighthearted entertainment has its roots deep in our genes.  It's not just a distraction, it's survival!  The clouds are going to attack, watch your back.

There's a lil bit of a quiz at the end of the article, also.  They were rough until I checked the clues...

Full article can be found at: Up in the sky!

Europe Space Freigther Destroyed In Planned Crash

This is a very interesting look at the current and future states of space exploration.  From remotely shipping supplies to the International Space Station to departing with refuse and burning up in the atmosphere to laying the roadwork for novel manned vessels exploring "beyond the space station, to the Moon, asteroids and Mars."

'"I don't want to beat about the bush - I think it would be fantastic if there would be a mission going beyond low-Earth orbit for this barter. But once again we need to understand the technical details," said Thomas Reiter, the former German astronaut now in charge of Esa's human spaceflight programme.'

Hopeful for the future of space travel!

Full article can be found at: Europe's ATV space freighter burns up

Howdy!

This is my first go around for this sort of thing! 

What I'd like to...try to do is keep track of regular occurrences in the global science community; a sort of ongoing history of sorts; something to peruse and say "ahh, I remember the days before sliced bread!" 

For significant scientific things and insignificant, just anything interesting really.

Cheers!