Category: Science, Engineering & Technology
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Here is something to ponder. "In the largest scientific test of its kind, heart surgery patients showed no benefit when strangers prayed for their recovery. And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications. Doctors in the $2.4 million study could only guess why. The researchers emphasized that…
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Although the mystery of eclipses has long been solved and they no longer cause the fear and trembling that unnerved the primitive man, eclipses continue to fascinate. A total solar eclipse in particular, is one of the coolest metereological phenomena and also one of the rarest. I saw a total solar eclipse in February of…
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We know well about the outsourcing of glittering hi-tech jobs to India and manufacturing ones to China. The justification is the easy availablity of well trained, hardworking, disciplined labor forces willing to work for less than the average worker in the west. What is less well known is that these hugely populous nations, with large…
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The Cold Faithful : NASA’s spacecraft Cassini, currently orbiting Saturn, has detected geysers of water containing carbon particles erupting from Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. This has planetary scientists all agog with expectation. Presence of water and carbon particles raises hopes of finding biological activity in that far off (and very cold) planet. "Experts think…
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Honda has yet to make an official announcement, but rumors are flying all over the news that Honda will begin producing a low-cost hybrid car as early as next year. Honda Motor Co. plans to sell a low-cost hybrid car, a version of its popular Fit subcompact, a Japanese daily reported, signaling the auto maker’s…
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A few interesting and uplifting items from the world of science. Always refreshing to get away from the acrimonious world of politics, war and religious cartoons. A Found World : A team of scientists from the US, Inonesia and Australia have discovered a patch of pristine natural world tucked away in the Foja Mountain region…
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Boston’s very own deadly disease factory: coming soon to a neighborhood near you. Boston University won final federal approval Thursday for a controversial plan to build a research laboratory in the city’s South End that would handle some of the world’s most dangerous and exotic germs. The decision by the National Institutes of Health secures…
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I am not in favor of championing the cause of science by invoking the divine – even for the sake of truth and rationality. But the Vatican is a religious institution, as is the Discovery Institute. So it is okay with me if they fight it out between themselves as to what "God" may or…
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Where are all the sexy scientists? Or the scientists who love poetry, ride motorcyles, paint, play music, are social activists? And those who are loving fathers and mothers? Could it be that there are no scientists who fit the bill? Or is it that they exist but we just don’t associate these "human" qualities and…
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All those serene and earnest sounding messages you see and hear on pharmaceutical company ads, promising to find a cure for this deadly disease and that … don’t believe them. They are about as sincere as Exxon Mobil and British Petroleum promising to clean up the environment. Edward Jenner, Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin could…
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If you thought that the ubiquitous and versatile bacterium, E-coli only causes violent stomach upsets, read about its artistic side. "As part of a contest to demonstrate innovative uses for genetically engineered organisms, graduate students in Texas and California have produced "living photographs" from sheets of bacteria growing in a petri dish. The team engineered…
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Two icons of the right wing punditocracy have weighed in heavily on the foolishness of Intelligent Design. George Will and Charles Krauthammer are alarmed by the social conservatives’ efforts to degrade and demean the teaching of science. Unlike the silly statement by George Bush about teaching "both sides", Will and Krauthammer do not equivocate on…
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That blinking 00:00 on the VCR that you don’t know how to program, is doing more than just being a nuisance. That, the TV, computer, modem, microwave, coffee maker and other appliances which you leave plugged in when not in use, are sucking up electricity round the clock. So are your cell phone charger, cordless…
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Should those who are opposed to the scientific method because it clashes with their own narrow religious beliefs, be made to forgo the resultant fruits of its progress for their personal aggrandizement and well being ? Some think that they should. The high handed manner in which the Kansas Board of Education steamrollered Intelligent Design…
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China has a habit of hiding or downplaying news of outbreaks of infectious diseases (AIDS, avian flu) lest that should scare away eager foreign investors. Outside observers have reported that Chinese farmers have fed their poultry Amantadine, one of the two main types of flu medication used for humans. There is evidence that the drug…
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