smazsyr's blog

Oh crap, now it's bogs

July 7, 2004 by smazsyr

"The world’s peat bogs are haemorrhaging carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming, warns a UK researcher. And worse still, the process appears to be feeding off itself, as rising atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are triggering further releases from the bogs." That from today's New Scientist. Crap. Just when you think you at least know what you're up against -- mainly the burning of fossil fuels -- something like this sneaks up on you. I suspect we'll hear more about this in the years ahead.

Mapping the Galaxy, and watching our backyard

July 5, 2004 by smazsyr

Just to reinforce the fact that the U.S. isn't the only one doing important space research, the ESA (or European Space Agency) is embarking on one of its most ambitious projects to date. The Gaia program aims to compile the most precise map of one thousand million stars in our Galaxy. Gaia will carry two of the most sensitive cameras ever made and is due to launch i

Multivitamin Supplements Delay Progression of HIV

July 1, 2004 by smazsyr

This is the sort of news item I love. Taking a multivitamin each day has been found to help delay the progression of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Low tech, low cost, high return. Perfect.

Speed of light may have changed recently

June 30, 2004 by smazsyr

Well that's a little upsetting. The truest of constants turns out to be off just a tad. New Scientist has the story. "The speed of light, one of the most sacrosanct of the universal physical constants, may have been lower as recently as two billion years ago - and not in some far corner of the universe, but right here on Earth. The controversial finding is turning up the heat on an already simmering debate, especially since it is based on re-analysis of old data that has long been used to argue for exactly the opposite: the

Neat, looks like I'm first

June 29, 2004 by smazsyr

I guess I'm the first to find out about/take Science Blog up on the offer. I'm keen on medicine and space, mostly. I especially like to read about advances in illnesses that get overlooked/under-funded due to small patient populations.

I'll keep this short, as I'm just getting started and want to make sure the system works. Looking forward to interacting with "the science world at large."

Smazsyr out!