Reader blogs
Hello FUNdamentals!
Welcome to the Ecology Class's Science Blog. I hope you find this to be a novel and interesting way to connect to your classmates (and classwork!) from home.
A few ground rules:
1. Please compose your blog entries as you would any other graded work. Please avoid abbreviations, slang, misspellings and the like.
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Energy (E) can be expressed as a function of temperature. absolute zero is a theoretical lower limit of temperature (just above which we see interesting things happen to physical particles, such as bose-einstein and fermi-einstein condensates) at which, hypothetically speaking, the properties of the fabric of the spacetime reach a dimensional limit.
let's speculate then--with sporting disregard for any research evidence or theory that heretofor suggests otherwise--that this limit is the point at which temperature can be reduced no further without "tearing" or "reducing" the dimensional properties of the continuum.
As a follow up to my earlier posting on human drones, researchers on Monday unveiled genetically engineered mice that can run farther and longer than their naturally bred brethren, bringing genetic doping of athletes a step closer.
The gene engineered in these mice essentially mimics exercise, conferring endurance and preventing the modified mice from becoming obese—even when they are inactive and fed a high-fat diet.
The research paper has been published in the online journal Public Library of Science Biology.
The engineered mice apparently ran 1,800 meters and stayed on the treadmill an hour longer than the natural mice.
As the Olympic Games approach, there is considerable concern about doping to enhance physical performance. But what about for us mere mortals? Could employers create human drones that work consistently all day long, without slacking off towards lunch time or the end of the day? Some recent research indicates that blocking dopamine receptors might just do that.
Procrastinating monkeys were turned into workaholics using a gene treatment to block a key brain compound. Blocking cells from receiving dopamine made the monkeys work harder at a task -- and they were better at it, too. Dr. Barry Richmond and colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health used a new genetic technique to block the D2 gene, which makes a receptor for dopamine, a key brain messenger.
Communications' way is changing, Voice to Text.
Internet make world small and text-communications big.
So writing skills and treating text-data is more important.
Have we over-estimated the importance of genomes (and by implication the Human Genome Project)? Is epigenesis a more fruitful field for understanding human disease and behavior? Is the rush to patent genes equivalent to seeking patents for each word in the dictionary?
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Matt Ridley in an article titled "Humans have no more genes than mice, but don't feel small" points out that the more we find out about genomes, the more humiliating the news they bring us. He says, "the human genome turns out to be profoundly ordinary. We have known for decades that human beings have one fewer chromosome than chimpanzees, which should have been ample warning. We have known for years that grasshoppers have three times as much DNA per cell as we do, deep sea shrimps ten times, salamanders 20 times and African lungfish a staggering 40 times. But we still kidded ourselves until just the last few years that human beings would prove to have more genes, arranged in a more sophisticated way, than most other creatures. How else to explain our exquisite brains?"
What knowledge do CNA's have of feeding techniques in nursing homes?
In a study conducted in the AJSLP, it was found that CNA's overall had poor knowledge of technical skills, safety, and communication across all facilities studied.
Feeding Techniques:
Most CNA's did demonstrate use of verbal/physical prompts for feeding, wiping the face, and removing food from clothing.
They were also aware of choking or coughing and difficulties with chewing food. A wet or gurgly voice was only mentioned by one CNA in the study.
Overall they demonstrated adequate knowledge.
Communication Skills:
The following article describes creation of a polio virus cobbled together from bits bought over the internet. Britain’s Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees thinks we only have an even chance of making it to the end of this century (Rees 2003). He adds together the remote possibilities of nanobots running amuck and strangelets escaping from a heavy ion collider, to the more familiar threats of an asteroid impact, global warming, nasty pandemics, and environmental degradation. He does not like the resultant odds. He sees new opportunities from science and technology as well as threats. Civilization is now at threat of death by misadventure as well as by deliberate design. He believes that scientists have a special responsibility to make sure that he is wrong. Could the desire to make new forms of life be the ultimate fatal mistake?
Maybe someone with a better grounding in immunology can answer my question. Does this mean AIDS-like diseases have been around millions of years, or that the protein involved here simply is a catch-all kind of thing that tackles HIV and numerous other, older bugs as well? Question 2: Now that it's identified, what good is it? Can medicines be devloped with it/based on it?
Leapfrogging was how the Thailand’s Prime Minister described his vision of Thailand moving up the manufacturing value chain. Thaksin Shinawatra named the country’s auto assembly and auto parts industries as candidates for this ambitious undertaking (The Nation Editorial - 10 June 2004).
“If the frog is to jump a long distance, it needs to leap from hard ground. This is supposed to be food for thought, for now,” he was quoted as saying to a group of reporters at Government House.
The editorial writer responded by using the boiling frog analogy. “For the frog – by which Thaksin means Thailand – to take this proposed leap of faith, it will need to be rescued from the heated-up water in the pan, by which we mean the government’s manipulation of the population’s unprincipled wants and needs with its populist policies, chief among them the oil price controls which are cushioning both industry and consumers. Like the frog, Thais cannot be expected to get strong or competitive by staying in the “comfort zone” forever. If Thaksin wants it to leap, he should avoid boiling it.”
One of the more interesting outcomes of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro has been the proliferation of Local Agenda 21 plans. The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) currently lists some 460 members, representing more than 300 million people, dedicated to creating sustainable cities. It is believed that cities are the best test bed to protect and repair the environment, because they represent the institutions closest to the people and their problems. If this is true, then one would expect to find breakthrough technologies first appearing in cities committed to sustainability. However, is it even possible to imagine a truly sustainable city?
"Ancient Peruvians made chicha with local grains and fruit, which is quite different from today's commercial beers typically made with barley and hops." Prediction: Trader Joe's will have a version of this on the market within 18 months. Also, this does nothing to dispel the notion that beer=civilization
Update: Chicha de Maní recipe (Peanut Beverage)
Ancient brewery discovered on mountaintop in Peru - [Science Blog]
