Archive for the 'Science' Category
Russian scientists operate computer with the power of mind
• June, 2009Russian scientists operate computer with the power of mind 15.04.2009 Russian scientists now can use the power of mind to give commands to a computer. A system of electrodes shaped in a helmet and a special program reads the impulses of the brain and transforms them into symbols on the computer screen. A person wearing the helmet will be able to type texts and control mechanical devices by means of mere thinking. The equipment can be helpful to people of limited physical abilities. “A paralyzed…
Monsanto’s Bt Cotton Kills the Soil as Well as Farmers
• June, 2009Monsanto’s Bt Cotton Kills the Soil as Well as Farmers ISIS Report 23/02/09 Biosafety refers to ensuring that GMO’s do not harm the environment or health. The soil, its fertility, and the organisms which maintain the fertility of soil are a vital aspect of the environment, especially in the context of food and agricultural production. A recent scientific study carried out by Navdanya, compared the soil of fields where Bt-cotton had been planted for 3 years with adjoining fields with non GMO cotton or other…
U.S. expands Pakistani drone-strike zone
• May, 2009U.S. expands Pakistani drone-strike zone Wed Apr 1, 2009 By Alamgir Bitani A pilotless U.S. drone fired a missile at a Taliban compound in Pakistan’s Orakzai region on Wednesday, killing 12 people in the first such attack in the area, a security official and residents said. The raid came a day after Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud said his group had carried out an assault on a police training centre in the eastern city of Lahore in retaliation for U.S. drone attacks. The missile hit…
Second team finds natural super flu fighter
• May, 2009Second team finds natural super flu fighter Reporting by Maggie Fox; Additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by Eric Walsh Thu Feb 26, 2009 An antibody being developed by a Dutch drug company chokes off both seasonal flu and the H5N1 avian flu virus and might offer a way to develop better treatments and vaccines. Crucell NV’s antibody, a naturally occurring immune system protein, grabs onto a hidden part of flu viruses, stopping them from infecting cells, they reported in the journal Science.…
Psychedelic Fish – Named New Species
• May, 2009Psychedelic Fish – New Species .::. <<video>> <<Editors notE>> Behold our very own brand of fish: the Psychedelic Fish -aka Mandarin Fish-. Named because of his funky movements and of course, psychedelic colors and stripes. More information about this fish, please check out the following page on wikipedia and learn all about it
Gene-engineered viruses build a better battery
• May, 2009Gene-engineered viruses build a better battery By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON – Researchers who have trained a tiny virus to do their bidding said on Thursday they made it build a more efficient and powerful lithium battery. They changed two genes in the virus, called M13, and got it to do two things: build a shell made out of a compound called iron phosphate, and then attach to a carbon nanotube to make a powerful and tiny electrode. Such an electrode could…
Greenhouse Designed to Grow Veggies on Moon
• May, 2009Greenhouse Designed to Grow Veggies on Moon Bryn Bailer, AFP Astronauts’ meals have come a long way from the freeze-dried powders and semi-liquid pastes of decades ago: now U.S. scientists want to grow vegetables in mini-greenhouses on the moon. Although space fare has steadily improved over time, a team of scientists says the best is yet to come. They look forward to when residents of future lunar or even Martian outposts can dine on luxuries such as fresh vegetables. Paragon Space Development Corporation has unveiled…
Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists
• April, 2009Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists Exclusive by Mark Hughes Crime correspondent Saturday, 28 March 2009 Drastic new tactics to prevent school pupils as young as 13 falling into extremism Two hundred schoolchildren in Britain, some as young as 13, have been identified as potential terrorists by a police scheme that aims to spot youngsters who are “vulnerable” to Islamic radicalisation. The number was revealed to The Independent by Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police and Britain’s most senior officer…
Earth Critters Hitch Ride to Martian Moon and Back
• April, 2009Earth Critters Hitch Ride to Martian Moon and Back Irene Klotz No one knows if there is life on Mars, but if all goes well with a Russian science mission later this year, there will be life on the Martian moon Phobos — for a short time anyway. An assortment of critters and microbes are scheduled to make a round-trip journey to Phobos as passengers aboard a Russian spacecraft, scheduled to launch in October. The mission, called Phobos-Grunt, aims to return samples of the Martian…
Blind, Yet Seeing: The Brain’s Subconscious Visual Sense
• April, 2009Blind, Yet Seeing: The Brain’s Subconscious Visual Sense By BENEDICT CAREY Published: December 22, 2008 BLINDSIGHT A patient whose visual lobes in the brain were destroyed was able to navigate an obstacle course and recognize fearful faces subconsciously. The man, a doctor left blind by two successive strokes, refused to take part in the experiment. He could not see anything, he said, and had no interest in navigating an obstacle course — a cluttered hallway — for the benefit of science. Why bother? When he…
Researchers find safer way to make stem cells
• April, 2009Researchers find safer way to make stem cells By Ben Hirschler Sun Mar 1, 2009 Researchers said on Sunday they had found a safer way to transform ordinary skin cells into powerful stem cells in a move that could eventually remove the need to use human embryos. It is the first time that scientists have turned skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells — which look and act like embryonic stem cells — without having to use viruses in the process. The…
Search for ‘Alien Life’ Could Start on Earth
• April, 2009Search for ‘Alien Life’ Could Start on Earth Irene Klotz, Discovery News Feb. 17, 2008 No need to leave the planet to look for alien life perhaps it’s here, in peaceful coexistence with or complete isolation from the standard variety that permeates Earth. “If life does form readily under Earth-like conditions, shouldn’t it have formed many times over, right here on our home planet?” said Paul Davies, a theoretical cosmologist and astrobiologist at Arizona State University. “There’s no planet more Earth-like than Earth itself.” The…
Wheelchair Arm Controlled by Thought Alone
• April, 2009Wheelchair Arm Controlled by Thought Alone Eric Bland Feb. 27, 2009 A wheelchair-mounted robotic arm controlled by thought alone has been created by scientists at the University of South Florida. The device could give people with amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or full body paralysis the ability to perform simple day to day functions that would otherwise be impossible. “We aren’t reading people’s thoughts,” said Redwan Alqasemi, a scientist at the University of South Florida who, along with Rajiv Dubey and Emanuel Donchin of USF, helped…