Archive for the 'Science' Category

ADHD drugs for kids need hallucination warning

• February, 2009

ADHD drugs for kids need hallucination warning By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY Visual or tactile sensations of bugs an uncommon, but possible, reaction, study finds. A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended Wednesday that the agency add information about a possible risk of hallucinations in children to the labels of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drugs. The committee also urged the FDA to develop a consumer-friendly medication guide explaining to parents that they should talk to their child’s doctor about stopping the medication should hallucinations occur.

Scientists Not So Sure ‘Doomsday Machine’ Won’t Destroy World

• February, 2009

Scientists Not So Sure ‘Doomsday Machine’ Won’t Destroy World Wednesday, January 28, 2009 By Paul Wagenseil Still worried that the Large Hadron Collider will create a black hole that will destroy the Earth when it’s finally switched on this summer? Three physicists have reexamined the math surrounding the creation of microscopic black holes in the Switzerland-based LHC, the world’s largest particle collider, and determined that they won’t simply evaporate in a millisecond as had previously been predicted.

Coffee Could Fuel You, and Your Car

• February, 2009

Coffee Could Fuel You, and Your Car Emily Sohn, Discovery News Coffee can do more than just fuel you through an afternoon slump. It might also power your car. That’s the idea behind a new study that turned used coffee grounds into biodiesel fuel. Coffee will probably never replace petroleum, but discarded cappuccino scraps might someday help reduce our impact on the environment, say the study’s authors. They imagine a day when the byproducts of your latte end up in the gas tank of your

Earth’s Magnetic Field Changes Climate

• February, 2009

Earth’s Magnetic Field Changes Climate Jan. 13, 2009 The Earth’s climate has been significantly affected by the planet’s magnetic field, according to a Danish study published Monday that is unlikely to challenge the notion that human emissions are largely responsible for global warming. “Our results show a strong correlation between the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field and the amount of precipitation in the tropics,” one of the two Danish geophysicists behind the study, Mads Faurschou Knudsen of the geology department at Aarhus University in

Mars Methane Found, Raising Possibility of Life

• February, 2009

Mars Methane Found, Raising Possibility of Life Irene Klotz, Discovery News Scientists have discovered rich plumes of methane on Mars that not only disappear quickly, but are replenished by unknown sources that could be biological or geochemical in origin. “Either way, it’s very interesting,” planetary scientist Michael Mumma, with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told Discovery News. “Mars is not a dead planet.” Mumma and colleagues used infrared spectrometers on three ground-based telescopes to monitor concentrations of methane in Mars’ atmosphere over

Antarctica’s 15-Million Year-Old Lake -A Living Bio Lab?

• February, 2009

Antarctica’s 15-Million Year-Old Lake -A Living Bio Lab? Casey Kazan. Researchers have thawed ice estimated to be perhaps a million years old or more from above Lake Vostok, an ancient lake that lies hidden more than two miles beneath the frozen surface of Antarctica using novel genomic techniques to determine how tiny, living “time capsules” survived the ages in total darkness, in freezing cold, and without food and energy from the sun.

Czech speedway rider knocked out in crash wakes up speaking perfect English

• January, 2009

Czech speedway rider knocked out in crash wakes up speaking perfect English By CHRIS BROOKE 14 September 2007 When Matej Kus’s teammates heard him talking after he was knocked out in a speedway accident, they were relieved he was conscious. But they were also a little surprised. For although the 18-year- old Czech knew only the most basic English phrases, he was conversing fluently in the language with paramedics.

2000-year-old computer recreated

• January, 2009

2000-year-old computer recreated .::. <<video>> <<Editors notE>> Interesting indeed. Would even find this device useful during these days, just for home-use ;) Archimedes and the 2000-year-old computer MARCELLUS and his men blockaded Syracuse, in Sicily, for two years. The Roman general expected to conquer the Greek city state easily, but the ingenious siege towers and catapults designed by Archimedes helped to keep his troops at bay. Then, in 212 BC, the Syracusans neglected their defences during a festival to the goddess Artemis, and the Romans

Do we live in a holographic universe?

• January, 2009

Do we live in a holographic universe? by Marcus Chown 15 January 2009 DRIVING through the countryside south of Hanover, it would be easy to miss the GEO600 experiment. From the outside, it doesn’t look much: in the corner of a field stands an assortment of boxy temporary buildings, from which two long trenches emerge, at a right angle to each other, covered with corrugated iron. Underneath the metal sheets, however, lies a detector that stretches for 600 metres. For the past seven years, this

Facts melted by global warming

• January, 2009

Facts melted by ‘global warming’ Christopher Booker 31 Dec 2008 Last weekend, that heroically diligent US meteorologist Anthony Watts noticed that something very odd had happened to the daily updated graph on the official Nansen website that shows how much sea-ice there is in the Arctic. Without explanation, as he reported on his Watts Up With That website, half a million square kilometres of ice simply vanished overnight.

World’s first flying car on the roads

• January, 2009

World’s first flying car on the roads from next year – yours for just £130,000 By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 4:50 PM on 18th December 2008 It’s been a pipe dream for 30 years but now the world’s first fully available flying car is set to hit the roads next year. Ever since the Back to the Future movies lit up our screens in the 80s, designers have dreamt of an automobile that could take to the skies at the push of a

China finds “largest dinosaur fossil site” in world

• January, 2009

China finds “largest dinosaur fossil site” in world Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie Tue Dec 30, 2008 BEIJING (Reuters) Scientists in China say they have discovered the world’s largest dinosaur fossil site in the eastern province of Shandong, state media reported on Tuesday. Scientists had recovered some 7,600 fossils from a 300 meter (980 ft) long pit near Zhucheng city over the past seven months, Xinhua news agency said. The finds included remains of a 20-meter hadrosaurus, which could be a record size for

Scientists plan to ignite tiny man-made star =Update=

• January, 2009

Scientists plan to ignite tiny man-made star by using the National Ignition Facility. By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent Last Updated: 4:50PM GMT 27 Dec 2008 It is science’s star experiment: an attempt to create an artificial sun on earth — and provide an answer to the world’s impending energy shortage. While it has seemed an impossible goal for nearly 100 years, scientists now believe that they are on brink of cracking one of the biggest problems in physics by harnessing the power of nuclear fusion,