It's official. Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first living cell to be controlled entirely by synthetic DNA. The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software" and transplanted it into a host cell. The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species "dictated" by the synthetic DNA.
The researchers copied an existing bacterial genome. They sequenced its genetic code and then used "synthesis machines" to chemically construct a copy.
Amazing. Of course, the ethical discussions are yet to come.
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
A Mind Controlled Arm
Otto Bock Healthcare, has developed a mind-controlled technology, which is ready to leave the laboratory and be put to everyday use. It involves a new technique known as targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR), where nerves that once controlled a lost limb are used to control a prosthesis. The transplanted nerves allow electrical impulses from the brain to reach the muscles in the chest. The muscles act like a booster, amplifying the signal to a level that can be picked up by electrodes on the surface of the chest. These signals are interpreted by a micro-computer, and used to control a prosthesis which responds in real time to thoughts from the brain.
Artificial Muscles
Researchers engineered a polymer to reproduce the properties of titin - a protein which largely determines the elastic properties of muscle.
The authors suggest that the properties of this material could even be fine-tuned to resemble specific types of muscle by adjusting the compositions of the proteins.
Initially, the discovery could assist in the healing of tissue tears, acting as a tough stretchy scaffold that allows new tissue to grow across the wound.
The authors suggest that the properties of this material could even be fine-tuned to resemble specific types of muscle by adjusting the compositions of the proteins.
Initially, the discovery could assist in the healing of tissue tears, acting as a tough stretchy scaffold that allows new tissue to grow across the wound.
Lack of sleep linked to early death
Getting less than six hours sleep a night can lead to an early grave, UK and Italian researchers have warned.
They also found an association between sleeping for more than nine hours and early death, although that much sleep may merely be a marker of ill health.
Sleep journal reports the findings, based on 1.5m people in 16 studies.
The study looked at the relationship between sleep and mortality by reviewing earlier studies from the UK, US and European and East Asian countries.
Premature death from all causes was linked to getting either too little or too much sleep outside of the "ideal" six to eight hours per night.
Interesting... I understand why lack of sleep can be linked to early death, but sleeping for more than 8 hours...?
They also found an association between sleeping for more than nine hours and early death, although that much sleep may merely be a marker of ill health.
Sleep journal reports the findings, based on 1.5m people in 16 studies.
The study looked at the relationship between sleep and mortality by reviewing earlier studies from the UK, US and European and East Asian countries.
Premature death from all causes was linked to getting either too little or too much sleep outside of the "ideal" six to eight hours per night.
Interesting... I understand why lack of sleep can be linked to early death, but sleeping for more than 8 hours...?
Prostate cancer vaccine approved
A "vaccine" which harnesses the body's own immune system to fight prostate cancer has been approved for use by US drug regulators.
The drug is not a "cure" but is used in advanced prostate cancer that has spread to other sites in the body and is no longer responding to standard hormone treatment.
Clinical trials showed that the treatment extended the lives of patients by four months.
The drug is not a "cure" but is used in advanced prostate cancer that has spread to other sites in the body and is no longer responding to standard hormone treatment.
Clinical trials showed that the treatment extended the lives of patients by four months.
Chocolate = Depression?
People who regularly eat chocolate are more depressive, experts have found. Research in Archives of Internal Medicine shows those who eat at least a bar every week are more glum than those who only eat chocolate now and again.
Many believe chocolate has the power to lift mood, and the US team say this may be true, although scientific proof for this is lacking.
Which means, when you are depressed, you eat chocolate and then you get more depressed and eat more chocolate and gain weight and get more depressed and ahhh..:)
Many believe chocolate has the power to lift mood, and the US team say this may be true, although scientific proof for this is lacking.
Which means, when you are depressed, you eat chocolate and then you get more depressed and eat more chocolate and gain weight and get more depressed and ahhh..:)
Aliens May Exist
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking says aliens almost certainly exist but warns it would be a bad idea to contact them. He said that if extraterrestrials visited the planet the outcome would be similar to when Christopher Columbus landed in America, which, he added, didn't turn out well for the Native Americans.
Quite possible...
Quite possible...
Fastest Car in the World
Bloodhound SSC is being built to smash the world land speed record by topping 1,000mph (1,610km/h). Wow!
Initial iterations of the car's aerodynamic shape produced dangerous amounts of lift at the vehicle's rear. But the latest modelling work indicates the team has finally found a stable configuration, allowing the project to push ahead with other design areas. It will be powered by a combination of a hybrid rocket and a jet engine from a Eurofighter-Typhoon. The wheels be designed to endure tremendous forces as Bloodhound races across the pan.
Watch the amazing video here.
Initial iterations of the car's aerodynamic shape produced dangerous amounts of lift at the vehicle's rear. But the latest modelling work indicates the team has finally found a stable configuration, allowing the project to push ahead with other design areas. It will be powered by a combination of a hybrid rocket and a jet engine from a Eurofighter-Typhoon. The wheels be designed to endure tremendous forces as Bloodhound races across the pan.
Watch the amazing video here.
Water on the Moon
The US space agency's (Nasa) Mini-Sar experiment found more than 40 small craters containing water-ice. Temperatures in some of these permanently darkened craters can drop as low as 25 Kelvin (-248C; -415F) - colder than the surface of Pluto - allowing water-ice to remain stable.
Dr Paul Spudis, from the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, estimated there was at least 600 million metric tonnes of water-ice held within these impact craters.
The equivalent amount, expressed as rocket fuel, would be enough to launch one space shuttle per day for 2,200 years, he told journalists at the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Dr Paul Spudis, from the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, estimated there was at least 600 million metric tonnes of water-ice held within these impact craters.
The equivalent amount, expressed as rocket fuel, would be enough to launch one space shuttle per day for 2,200 years, he told journalists at the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Oh, oh, I'm an Alien
Scientists say that a meteorite that crashed into Earth 40 years ago contains millions of different carbon-containing, or organic, molecules.
The Murchison meteorite landed in a town of that name in Australia in 1969. It has been examined before by scientists looking for specific compounds but this is the first non-targeted analysis and has confirmed a huge variety of carbon-based chemicals.
It is thought the Murchison meteorite could even be older than the Sun, originated more than 4.65 billion years ago. The researchers say it probably passed through primordial clouds in the early Solar System, picking up organic chemicals.
The chances of such a meteorite crashing into the Earth billions of years ago and thus creating life in all its diversity are pretty high. Well, doesn't this make us aliens... What do you think?
[source:bbc.co.uk]
The Murchison meteorite landed in a town of that name in Australia in 1969. It has been examined before by scientists looking for specific compounds but this is the first non-targeted analysis and has confirmed a huge variety of carbon-based chemicals.
It is thought the Murchison meteorite could even be older than the Sun, originated more than 4.65 billion years ago. The researchers say it probably passed through primordial clouds in the early Solar System, picking up organic chemicals.
The chances of such a meteorite crashing into the Earth billions of years ago and thus creating life in all its diversity are pretty high. Well, doesn't this make us aliens... What do you think?
[source:bbc.co.uk]
Pluto's Changing Color
Images taken by the Hubble space telescope show the dwarf planet Pluto, on the edge of our solar system, is redder than it used to be.
From 1954 to 2000, Pluto didn't change in color when it was photographed from Earth. But after that, it did. The red levels increased by 20 percent, maybe up to 30 percent, and stabilized from about 2000 to 2002.
Nasa's scientists believe these are seasonal changes - as the planet heads into a new phase of its 248-year-long seasonal cycle.
The new images are said to show frozen nitrogen brightening in the north and becoming darker in the south.
How Sperm Works
Sperm do not start swimming from the moment of ejaculation - they have only limited resources, and to stand much chance of reaching the egg, they need to delay their frantic dash until they are closer to the egg.
Scientists discovered that tiny pores on the sperm's surface allow it to change its internal pH, which in turn starts its tail movements. These pores, or Hv1 proton channels, as they have been termed, seem to be primed to open at precisely the right moment. They respond to a substance called anandamide, which is present in the female reproductive tract, and in particularly high levels near the egg.
The human body doesn't stop to amaze me.
[source:bbc.co.uk]
Scientists discovered that tiny pores on the sperm's surface allow it to change its internal pH, which in turn starts its tail movements. These pores, or Hv1 proton channels, as they have been termed, seem to be primed to open at precisely the right moment. They respond to a substance called anandamide, which is present in the female reproductive tract, and in particularly high levels near the egg.
The human body doesn't stop to amaze me.
[source:bbc.co.uk]
Not Going to the Moon
US President Barack Obama has cancelled the American project designed to take humans back to the Moon - a $18 billion project over five years. With the economy at its low, I support his decision of turning the project to the private sector. What do you think?
Best Full Moon
Tonight is the first full moon of 2010 and it will be the biggest full moon this year. The full moon will coincide with the moon's perigee – it's closest point to Earth. The first moon of the year is also known as the Old Moon. Other names are Wolf Moon, Moon After Yule, and Ice Moon. In Hindi it is known as Paush Poornima. Its Sinhala (Buddhist) name is Duruthu Poya. Don't miss it out. Enjoy!
What to Wear or Not to Wear?
One of the latest inventions is turning cotton and polyester fabrics into batteries. The approach is based on dipping fabrics into a batch of nanotube dye, and is then pressed, to thin and even out the coating.
How cool is that? This will allow personal electronic devices to become even slimmer because nowadays the main culprit is the battery. The Nokia Morph may not be not that far away after all.
How cool is that? This will allow personal electronic devices to become even slimmer because nowadays the main culprit is the battery. The Nokia Morph may not be not that far away after all.
Wooden bones
Scientists in Italy have developed a way of turning rattan wood into bone that is almost identical to the human tissue. The rattan wood has porous properties, which enable blood, nerves and other compounds to travel through it. Within a few months, the real and the artificial bone will be like one continuous bone.
A herd of sheep have already been implanted with the bones. So far, there are no signs of rejection or infection in the sheep. This will be truelly beneficial for people with major trauma accidents or cancer, the current range of alternatives can be weak and do not fuse with the existing bone.
The new bone-from-wood programme is being funded by the European Union and implants into humans are about five years away.
A herd of sheep have already been implanted with the bones. So far, there are no signs of rejection or infection in the sheep. This will be truelly beneficial for people with major trauma accidents or cancer, the current range of alternatives can be weak and do not fuse with the existing bone.
The new bone-from-wood programme is being funded by the European Union and implants into humans are about five years away.
Human Body - Little known facts
1. The nose can remember 50,000 cents.
2. The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes or stirrup bone located in the middle ear. It is approximately 0.11 inches.
3. Similar to finger prints, everybody's tongue has a unique tongue print.
4. The average human sheds 40 lbs of skin in a lifetime.
5. A fingernail takes about 6 months to grow from base to tip.
6. Human tight bones are stronger than concrete.
7. Humans have as many hairs per square inch as chimpanzees.
8. The energy used by the brain is enough to light a 25 watt bulb.
9. The heart produces enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet.
10. You get a new stomach lining every three to four days. If you didn't, the strong acids your stomach uses to digest food would also digest your stomach.
11. There are over 650 muscles in the body.
12. The small intestines are about 23 feet long.
13. A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball.
14. Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.
15. A pair of feet have 500,000 sweat glands.
2. The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes or stirrup bone located in the middle ear. It is approximately 0.11 inches.
3. Similar to finger prints, everybody's tongue has a unique tongue print.
4. The average human sheds 40 lbs of skin in a lifetime.
5. A fingernail takes about 6 months to grow from base to tip.
6. Human tight bones are stronger than concrete.
7. Humans have as many hairs per square inch as chimpanzees.
8. The energy used by the brain is enough to light a 25 watt bulb.
9. The heart produces enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet.
10. You get a new stomach lining every three to four days. If you didn't, the strong acids your stomach uses to digest food would also digest your stomach.
11. There are over 650 muscles in the body.
12. The small intestines are about 23 feet long.
13. A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball.
14. Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.
15. A pair of feet have 500,000 sweat glands.
50 Things we've learned in 2009
1. Domestic pigs can quickly learn how mirrors work and use them to find food.
2. Grumpy people think more clearly because negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking.
3. High cholesterol levels in midlife are associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia later in life.
4. Analysis of Greenland ice samples shows Europe froze solid in less than 12 months 12,800 years ago, partly due to a slowdown of the Gulf Stream. Once triggered, the cold persisted for 1,300 years.
5. One mutated gene is the reason humans have language, and chimpanzees, our closest relative, do not.
6. Obesity in teenage girls may increase their risk of later developing multiple sclerosis.
7. A fossil skeleton of an Aardonyx celestae dinosaur discovered in South Africa appears to be the missing link between the earliest dinosaurs that walked on two legs and the large plant-eating sauropods that walked on all four.
8. Women who have undergone successful breast cancer treatment are more likely to experience a recurrence if they have dense breast tissue.
9. Babies pick up their parents' accents from the womb, and infants are born crying in their native dialect. Researchers found that French newborns cry in a rising French accent, and German babies cry with a characteristic falling inflection.
10. Surfing the Internet may help delay dementia because it creates stimulation that exercises portions of the brain.
11. The oldest known silken spider webs, dating back 140 million years, were discovered in Sussex, England, preserved in amber. The webs were spun by spiders closely related to modern-day orb-web garden spiders.
12. Scientists have discovered how to scan brain activity and convert what people are seeing or remembering into crude video images.
13. Pumpkin skin contains a substance that inhibits growth of microbes that cause yeast infections.
14. Hormones that signal whether whales are pregnant, lactating or in the mood to mate have been extracted from whales' lung mucus, captured by dangling nylon stockings from a pole over their blowholes as they surface to breathe. (This method could allow scientists to study whales without having to slaughter them.)
15. The higher a patient's body-mass index, the less respect he or she gets from doctors.
16. The blue morpho butterfly, which lives in Central and South America, has tiny ears on its wings and can distinguish between high- and low-pitch sounds. The butterfly may use its ears to listen for nearby predatory birds.
17. The ochre starfish or sea star pumps itself up with cold seawater to lower its body temperature when exposed to the sun at low tide. It is equivalent to a human drinking 1.8 gallons of water before heading into the midday sun, scientists say.
18. The eyes of the mantis shrimp possess a feature that could make DVDs and CDs perform better. By emulating this structure, which displays color wavelengths at all ranges, developers could create a new category of optical devices.
19. The calmest place on Earth is on top of an icy plateau in Antarctica known as Ridge A, several hundred miles from the South Pole. It is so still that stars do not twinkle in the sky because there is no turbulence in the atmosphere to distort the light.
20. The thrill of driving a sports car makes the body produce more testosterone. The findings suggest a biological explanation for why some men buy a sports car when struck by a "midlife crisis."
21. Remains discovered in China of a flying reptile named Darwinopterus could be a missing link between short-tailed pterodactyls and their huge, long-tailed descendants.
22. Bagheera kiplingi, a jumping arachnid from Central America, is the first known vegetarian spider. It eats nectar-filled leaf tips rather than other animals.
23. A massive, nearly invisible ring of ice and dust particles surrounds Saturn. The ring's entire volume can hold 1 billion Earths.
24. A new chemical compound that mimics the body's ability t o fight bacteria could be added to cleaning detergents to prevent bacterial infections in hospitals.
25. Seven new glow-in-the-dark mushroom species have been discovered, increasing the number of known luminescent fungi species from 64 to 71. The fungi, discovered in Belize, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia and Puerto Rico, glow constantly, emitting a bright, yellowish-green light.
26. Hormones in oral contraceptives might suppress a woman's interest in masculine men and make boyish males more attractive to her.
27. Women who revealed about 40 percent of their skin attracted twice as many men as those who covered up. Any more than 40 percent and the signal changes from allure to one indicating general availability and future infidelity.
28. Communities of 850 species of previously undiscovered insects, small crustaceans, spiders, worms and other creatures were found living in underground water, caves and micro-caverns across Australia.
29. The human body emits a glow that is 1,000 times less than what our eyes can detect.
30. If you're trying to attract a partner, an athletic body helps, but a good-looking face is more important.
31. Cockroaches hold their breath for five to seven minutes at a time through a respiratory system that delivers oxygen directly to cells from air-filled tubes. One reason they hold their breath may be to prevent their bodies from getting too much oxygen, which could be toxic to them.
32. Earth was bombarded in 2008 with high levels of solar energy at a time when the sun was in an unusually quiet phase and sunspots had virtually disappeared.
33. Scientists have discovered female eggs in the genitalia of a third of all American male smallmouth bass and a fifth of their largemouth cousins. Female bass occasionally show signs of male testes in their reproductive organs.
34. Nearly all animals emit the same stench when they die, and have done so for more than 400 million years.
35. Previously unknown molecules called hydroxyl radicals are produced by nature and are believed to act as cleaning agents that scrub away toxic air pollution in Earth's atmosphere.
36. A new species of giant rat was discovered in a remote rainforest in Papua New Guinea. At 32.2 inches from nose to tail and 3.3 pounds, it's thought to be one of the largest rats ever found.
37. Differences in body odors produced by people who are more prone to insect bites show they have lower levels of fruity-smelling compounds in their sweat than those who are resistant to mosquitoes.
38. A chemical component in broccoli can protect the lining of arteries from blockage that leads to angina, heart attack and stroke.
39. The length, curl and texture of a dog's fur are controlled by only three genes.
40. The speed of U.S Internet broadband lags far behind other industrial nations, including Japan, Finland, South Korea, France and Canada.
41. Polar bear skulls have shrunk 2 percent to 9 percent since the early 20th century. It's the result, scientists theorize, of stress from pollution and melting habitat.
42. A mysterious disease that killed off more than a third of American honeybees in 2007-08 may have been caused in part by a virus.
43. A group of deep sea worms dubbed "green bombers" are capable of casting off appendages that glow a brilliant green once detached from their bodies. The tactic is believed to be used by the worms to confuse attackers.
44. A flesh-eating pitcher plant that grows more than 4 feet long can swallow and devour rats that are lured into its slipperlike mouth to drown or die of exhaustion before being slowly dissolved by digestive enzymes.
45. An orchid on the Chinese island of Hainan gets hornets to spread its pollen by producing an aroma identical to that made by bees under attack. The hornets feed on bee larvae, so when they get a whiff of the alarm pheromone, they head to the orchids figuring bees are inside.
46. More than 350 new animal species were discovered in the eastern Himalayas, including the world's smallest deer and a flying frog.
47. The spleen is a reservoir for huge numbers of immune cells called monocyte. In the event of a serious health crisis, such as a heart attack, wound or infection, the spleen will disgorge them bloodstream to help defend the body.
48. The Amazon River is about 11 million years old and took its present shape about 2.4 million years ago.
49. A close relationship with a caregiver can give Alzheimer's patients an edge in retaining brain function over time.
50. Watermelon is more efficient at rehydrating our bodies than drinking water. It contains 92 percent water and essential rehydration salts.
[source:att.net]
2. Grumpy people think more clearly because negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking.
3. High cholesterol levels in midlife are associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia later in life.
4. Analysis of Greenland ice samples shows Europe froze solid in less than 12 months 12,800 years ago, partly due to a slowdown of the Gulf Stream. Once triggered, the cold persisted for 1,300 years.
5. One mutated gene is the reason humans have language, and chimpanzees, our closest relative, do not.
6. Obesity in teenage girls may increase their risk of later developing multiple sclerosis.
7. A fossil skeleton of an Aardonyx celestae dinosaur discovered in South Africa appears to be the missing link between the earliest dinosaurs that walked on two legs and the large plant-eating sauropods that walked on all four.
8. Women who have undergone successful breast cancer treatment are more likely to experience a recurrence if they have dense breast tissue.
9. Babies pick up their parents' accents from the womb, and infants are born crying in their native dialect. Researchers found that French newborns cry in a rising French accent, and German babies cry with a characteristic falling inflection.
10. Surfing the Internet may help delay dementia because it creates stimulation that exercises portions of the brain.
11. The oldest known silken spider webs, dating back 140 million years, were discovered in Sussex, England, preserved in amber. The webs were spun by spiders closely related to modern-day orb-web garden spiders.
12. Scientists have discovered how to scan brain activity and convert what people are seeing or remembering into crude video images.
13. Pumpkin skin contains a substance that inhibits growth of microbes that cause yeast infections.
14. Hormones that signal whether whales are pregnant, lactating or in the mood to mate have been extracted from whales' lung mucus, captured by dangling nylon stockings from a pole over their blowholes as they surface to breathe. (This method could allow scientists to study whales without having to slaughter them.)
15. The higher a patient's body-mass index, the less respect he or she gets from doctors.
16. The blue morpho butterfly, which lives in Central and South America, has tiny ears on its wings and can distinguish between high- and low-pitch sounds. The butterfly may use its ears to listen for nearby predatory birds.
17. The ochre starfish or sea star pumps itself up with cold seawater to lower its body temperature when exposed to the sun at low tide. It is equivalent to a human drinking 1.8 gallons of water before heading into the midday sun, scientists say.
18. The eyes of the mantis shrimp possess a feature that could make DVDs and CDs perform better. By emulating this structure, which displays color wavelengths at all ranges, developers could create a new category of optical devices.
19. The calmest place on Earth is on top of an icy plateau in Antarctica known as Ridge A, several hundred miles from the South Pole. It is so still that stars do not twinkle in the sky because there is no turbulence in the atmosphere to distort the light.
20. The thrill of driving a sports car makes the body produce more testosterone. The findings suggest a biological explanation for why some men buy a sports car when struck by a "midlife crisis."
21. Remains discovered in China of a flying reptile named Darwinopterus could be a missing link between short-tailed pterodactyls and their huge, long-tailed descendants.
22. Bagheera kiplingi, a jumping arachnid from Central America, is the first known vegetarian spider. It eats nectar-filled leaf tips rather than other animals.
23. A massive, nearly invisible ring of ice and dust particles surrounds Saturn. The ring's entire volume can hold 1 billion Earths.
24. A new chemical compound that mimics the body's ability t o fight bacteria could be added to cleaning detergents to prevent bacterial infections in hospitals.
25. Seven new glow-in-the-dark mushroom species have been discovered, increasing the number of known luminescent fungi species from 64 to 71. The fungi, discovered in Belize, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia and Puerto Rico, glow constantly, emitting a bright, yellowish-green light.
26. Hormones in oral contraceptives might suppress a woman's interest in masculine men and make boyish males more attractive to her.
27. Women who revealed about 40 percent of their skin attracted twice as many men as those who covered up. Any more than 40 percent and the signal changes from allure to one indicating general availability and future infidelity.
28. Communities of 850 species of previously undiscovered insects, small crustaceans, spiders, worms and other creatures were found living in underground water, caves and micro-caverns across Australia.
29. The human body emits a glow that is 1,000 times less than what our eyes can detect.
30. If you're trying to attract a partner, an athletic body helps, but a good-looking face is more important.
31. Cockroaches hold their breath for five to seven minutes at a time through a respiratory system that delivers oxygen directly to cells from air-filled tubes. One reason they hold their breath may be to prevent their bodies from getting too much oxygen, which could be toxic to them.
32. Earth was bombarded in 2008 with high levels of solar energy at a time when the sun was in an unusually quiet phase and sunspots had virtually disappeared.
33. Scientists have discovered female eggs in the genitalia of a third of all American male smallmouth bass and a fifth of their largemouth cousins. Female bass occasionally show signs of male testes in their reproductive organs.
34. Nearly all animals emit the same stench when they die, and have done so for more than 400 million years.
35. Previously unknown molecules called hydroxyl radicals are produced by nature and are believed to act as cleaning agents that scrub away toxic air pollution in Earth's atmosphere.
36. A new species of giant rat was discovered in a remote rainforest in Papua New Guinea. At 32.2 inches from nose to tail and 3.3 pounds, it's thought to be one of the largest rats ever found.
37. Differences in body odors produced by people who are more prone to insect bites show they have lower levels of fruity-smelling compounds in their sweat than those who are resistant to mosquitoes.
38. A chemical component in broccoli can protect the lining of arteries from blockage that leads to angina, heart attack and stroke.
39. The length, curl and texture of a dog's fur are controlled by only three genes.
40. The speed of U.S Internet broadband lags far behind other industrial nations, including Japan, Finland, South Korea, France and Canada.
41. Polar bear skulls have shrunk 2 percent to 9 percent since the early 20th century. It's the result, scientists theorize, of stress from pollution and melting habitat.
42. A mysterious disease that killed off more than a third of American honeybees in 2007-08 may have been caused in part by a virus.
43. A group of deep sea worms dubbed "green bombers" are capable of casting off appendages that glow a brilliant green once detached from their bodies. The tactic is believed to be used by the worms to confuse attackers.
44. A flesh-eating pitcher plant that grows more than 4 feet long can swallow and devour rats that are lured into its slipperlike mouth to drown or die of exhaustion before being slowly dissolved by digestive enzymes.
45. An orchid on the Chinese island of Hainan gets hornets to spread its pollen by producing an aroma identical to that made by bees under attack. The hornets feed on bee larvae, so when they get a whiff of the alarm pheromone, they head to the orchids figuring bees are inside.
46. More than 350 new animal species were discovered in the eastern Himalayas, including the world's smallest deer and a flying frog.
47. The spleen is a reservoir for huge numbers of immune cells called monocyte. In the event of a serious health crisis, such as a heart attack, wound or infection, the spleen will disgorge them bloodstream to help defend the body.
48. The Amazon River is about 11 million years old and took its present shape about 2.4 million years ago.
49. A close relationship with a caregiver can give Alzheimer's patients an edge in retaining brain function over time.
50. Watermelon is more efficient at rehydrating our bodies than drinking water. It contains 92 percent water and essential rehydration salts.
[source:att.net]
Blue Moon - 12/31/2009
A blue moon is a full moon that is not timed to the regular monthly pattern. Most years have twelve full moons which occur approximately monthly, but in addition to those twelve full lunar cycles, each solar calendar year contains an excess of roughly eleven days compared to the lunar year. The extra days accumulate, so that every two or three years, there is an extra full moon. The extra moon is called a "blue moon".
This New Year's Eve, there will be a blue moon in the sky. What's more, this New Year's Eve, people living in the Far East will see a lunar eclipse, making this an even rarer...er rarity. A blue-moon eclipse only happens once roughly every 15 to 20 years.
Blue Moon Calendar:
2009: December 2, December 31 (Blue Moon on New Year's Eve)
2012: August 2, August 31
2015: July 2, July 31
Enjoy!
This New Year's Eve, there will be a blue moon in the sky. What's more, this New Year's Eve, people living in the Far East will see a lunar eclipse, making this an even rarer...er rarity. A blue-moon eclipse only happens once roughly every 15 to 20 years.
Blue Moon Calendar:
2009: December 2, December 31 (Blue Moon on New Year's Eve)
2012: August 2, August 31
2015: July 2, July 31
Enjoy!
Custom-made condoms for Indians
The Indian Council of Medical Research carried out a two-year study which concluded that about 60% of Indian men have penises which are between three and five centimetres shorter than international standards used in condom manufacture. It has led to a call for condoms of mixed sizes to be made more widely available in India.
