Category: Science, Engineering & Technology
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… Is through his stomach." Apparently this age old adage may have more to it than just a gastronomical angle. Men, it seems are attracted to women of differeng body shapes depending on how hungry they are. Satiated men with full stomachs find slender women appealing. Hungry men on the other hand, are attracted to…
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A flag story before the 4th of July, 2006 is history. RICHARDSON, Texas — Imagine singing "Oh, say, can you see" to a flag you can’t see. That’s what graduate students at the University of Texas at Dallas had in mind when they created the likeness of an American flag so small it would take more…
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Two stories related to brain function. One did not come as much of a surprise – the other did. The first one claims that how you solve math problems may depend on the language you speak. I wonder what Thomas Friedman will make of these findings. He will probably clamor for making Mandarin compulsory in…
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Summer has begun in earnest, at least in Houston and along with that will set in lethargy among bloggers and readers. Some bloggers I read regularly are slowing down. Others have disappeared inexplicably without so much as a "see ya later." My own co-bloggers will be scattered over the world – Anna in China, Sujatha…
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This report combines a couple of peculiar and oddly unexpected (for different reasons) stories that were recently in the news – one from the world of entertainment and the other from the annals of medical research. Contrary to what scientists have long suspected, smoking marijuana does not appear to cause any increase in the risk…
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News of innovations in drug and medical research including those affecting women’s health make for interesting reading. While I do not take an academic interest in all pharmaceutical R&D, I do pay a fair amount of attention to what is reported in the popular news outlets. A story on the front page of Houston Chronicle…
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In the fast developing friendly atmosphere of co-operation between the world’s oldest and largest democracies, as the US and India like to call themseves, a new collaborative frontier has opened up. According to an agreement signed between NASA and the Indian Space Agency, the Indian unmanned mission to the moon in 2008 will include carrying…
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Read this for a clear perspective before you go out and buy cute animal cards for Mother’s Day. (Image from National Geographic photo galleries: Animal Mothers and Babies) Oh, mothers! Dear noble, selfless, tender and ferocious defenders of progeny all across nature’s phylogeny: How well you deserve our admiration as Mother’s Day draws near, and…
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Many of us find waiting in the doctor’s office for a surgical procedure more stressful than the procedure itself. Most of us prefer to remove a band-aid with a quick yank rather than a slow pull. Sometimes the human brain dislikes waiting for an unfavorable outcome more than it does the outcome itself. The cost…
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April 18th this year was the hundredth anniversary of the dreadful San Francisco earthquake of 1906. San Francisco was shaken badly in that quake of 7.8 magnitude. An estimated 3000 people died, mostly from the resulting fires. The city and the surrounding bay area sit on two geological time bombs – the San Andreas and…
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A little more than a week ago I posted an article here about a book by John Carey – "What Good Are Arts?" in which the author questions the value/ futility of defining "art". Carey surmises that the definition of good or bad art is best left to the consumer until there is a…
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And you thought your trip to the dentist was painful. The primitive man visited the dentist and had his teeth drilled. The procedure was done presumably without anesthesia, using drills made out of flint. This means that dentists were practising their trade as early as 7000 years ago if archaeological findings in Pakistan are to be…
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