On my mind

A light year is a distance that is almost 6 trillion miles. The
nearest star to our sun is 4.3 light years away or roughly 25 trillion
miles. Our Milky Way Galaxy contains 200 to 400 billion stars and is
about 100,000 light years across. This alone is a staggering size
and at one time we thought that our galaxy was the entire Universe.
(Why would you need anything else?)

Then people began to discover other galaxies, the closest of which is
about 2.5 million light years away. We now know that there are at
least a hundred billion other galaxies, which makes for a Universe so
large that it defies comprehension, at least for my brain.

Nobody knows where the center of the Universe is. It appears as if we
are in the center, but this is thought to be an illusion caused by
space itself expanding. I haven't yet bought into the notion that
space is expanding, but many people smarter than me believe it.

The entire mass of our galaxy is about a trillion times the mass of
our sun. Like most galaxies, it has at least one black hole in the
center whose gravitational tug helps hold the galaxy together.
>>
>

Nanonets give rust a boost as agent in water splitting's hydrogen harvest

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110209164007.htm

Fwd: Deja Vu

From: larry.r.trout

'For 15 million years, an icebound lake has remained sealed deep beneath Antarctica's frozen crust, possibly hiding prehistoric or unknown life. Now Russian scientists are on the brink of piercing through to its secrets.

"There's only a bit left to go," Alexei Turkeyev, chief of the Russian polar Vostok Station, told Reuters by satellite phone. His team has drilled for weeks in a race to reach the lake, 3,750 meters (12,000 ft) beneath the polar ice cap, before the end of the brief Antarctic summer.

It was here that the coldest temperature ever found on Earth -- minus 89.2 Celsius (minus 128.6 Fahrenheit) -- was recorded.

With the rapid onset of winter, scientists will be forced to leave on the last flight out for this season, on Feb 6.'

Isn't this how Clive Barker's "The Thing" Started…..

Adult skin cells converted directly to beating heart cells

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110130213901.htm

Cheap, clean ways to produce hydrogen for use in fuel cells? A dash of disorder yields a very efficient photocatalyst

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110128165212.htm

Italian Scientists Claim (Dubious) Cold Fusion Breakthrough

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/24/italian-scientists-claim-cold-fusion-breakthrough/?test=faces#

Re: battery-less hybrids

I like it!

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 19, 2011, at 1:01 PM, larry.r.trout  wrote:

'When a driver is approaching a stop sign, some of the braking energy pumps fluid into the tank. When it's time to go again, the vehicle's gasoline engine shuts off completely and the pressure in the tank is released to drive. When it's needed, the gas engine takes over again.

The system increases fuel efficiency by about 30% to 35% in overall driving and up to 60% in city driving, according to the EPA.

0:00 /2:43The future inside your car

Among the benefits of the system, according to the EPA, is its low cost and simplicity. Once produced in high volumes, the system will pay for itself through fuel savings in less than three years, the EPA predicts. Battery-electric hybrid cars typically take much longer.'

http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/19/autos/chrysler_epa_hydraulic_hybrid/index.htm?hpt=T2

Woolly Mammoth Could Walk the Earth Again in 4 Years

http://www.dailytech.com/Woolly+Mammoth+Could+Walk+the+Earth+Again+in+4+Years+/article20666.htm

Breakthrough in converting heat waste to electricity: Automotive, chemical, brick and glass industries could benefit from discovery

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110118143228.htm

New glass stronger and tougher than steel

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110110121709.htm

Thunderstorms proven to create antimatter

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/10/thunderstorms-proven-to-create-antimatter/

GM pigs: Green ham with your eggs?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12113859

Was Israel the birthplace of modern humans?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101230123554.htm

Alpha particle

"Most smoke detectors contain a small amount of the alpha emitter americium-241. The alpha particles ionize air between a small gap. A small current is passed through that ionized air. Smoke particles from fire that enter the air gap reduce the current flow, sounding the alarm. The isotope is extremely dangerous if inhaled or ingested, but the danger is minimal if the source is kept sealed. Many municipalities have established programs to collect and dispose of old smoke detectors, to keep them out of the general waste stream."

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_particle

Traveling-Wave Reactor

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22114/

NASA announcement: Arsenic-based life form discovered on Earth

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR201012
0204183.html

UN 'to appoint space ambassador to greet alien visitors'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8025832/UN-to-appoint-space-ambassador-to-greet-alien-visitors.html

How many stars are there? More than you thought

http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B053U20101201?ca=rdt

NASA finds new life

http://m.gizmodo.com/5704158/nasa-finds-new-life

reverse aging

I was aware of telomeres.  They are like a fuse that shortens every time cells replicate.   

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 30, 2010, at 1:58 PM, "larry.r.trout

'Aging is generally accompanied by a gradual decline in cellular and organ functioning that eventually results in increased mortality risk. One proposed mechanism for aging focuses on telomere maintenance. Telomeres are the ends of chromosomes that, for mechanical reasons, require a special copying enzyme. Human germ cells produce a complex called telomerase to maintain telomere length; other human cells do not. As a result, the telomeres of most cells get shorter with each cell division. Eventually, their reduced length activates DNA damage signaling pathways that induce the cell to enter a sort of senescence…

Ron DePinho and his colleagues have just added telomerase back into these telomerase deficient mice to see if this would halt, or possibly even reverse, the tissue degeneration. Their report appears in Nature.

First, they determined that the reinstated telomerase works; when it was induced in cultured cells, it elongated telomeres. Moreover, the cells were no longer subjected to DNA damage signals, so they resumed proliferating. '

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/11/gene-reactivation-reverses-aging-related-brain-deficits-in-mice.ars

Re: reverse aging

I was aware of telomeres.  They are like a fuse that shortens every time cells replicate.   

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 30, 2010, at 1:58 PM, "larry.r.trout

'Aging is generally accompanied by a gradual decline in cellular and organ functioning that eventually results in increased mortality risk. One proposed mechanism for aging focuses on telomere maintenance. Telomeres are the ends of chromosomes that, for mechanical reasons, require a special copying enzyme. Human germ cells produce a complex called telomerase to maintain telomere length; other human cells do not. As a result, the telomeres of most cells get shorter with each cell division. Eventually, their reduced length activates DNA damage signaling pathways that induce the cell to enter a sort of senescence…

Ron DePinho and his colleagues have just added telomerase back into these telomerase deficient mice to see if this would halt, or possibly even reverse, the tissue degeneration. Their report appears in Nature.

First, they determined that the reinstated telomerase works; when it was induced in cultured cells, it elongated telomeres. Moreover, the cells were no longer subjected to DNA damage signals, so they resumed proliferating. '

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/11/gene-reactivation-reverses-aging-related-brain-deficits-in-mice.ars

Discovery Health "Caffeine and Adenosine"

"The problem with caffeine is the longer-term effects, which tend to
spiral. For example, once the adrenaline wears off, you face fatigue and
depression. So what are you going to do? You consume more caffeine to
get the adrenaline going again. As you might imagine, having your body
in a state of emergency all day long isn't very healthy, and it also
makes you jumpy and irritable.

The most important long-term problem is the effect that caffeine has on
sleep. Adenosine reception is important to sleep, and especially to deep
sleep. The half-life of caffeine in your body is about six hours. That
means that if you consume a big cup of coffee with 200 mg of caffeine in
it at 3:00 p.m., by 9:00 p.m. about 100 mg of that caffeine is still in
your system. You may be able to fall asleep, but your body will probably
miss out on the benefits of deep sleep."

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/drugs-alcohol/caffeine3.htm

Electrowetting breakthrough may lead to disposable e-Readers fast enough for video

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101122102804.htm

Albert Einstein

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep
moving."

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

New Microscope

From: larry.r.trout

'For the first time, there is no need to chemically fix, stain or cut cells in order to study them. Instead, whole living cells are fast-frozen and studied in their natural environment. The new method delivers an immediate 3-D image, thereby closing a gap between conventional microscopic techniques.

The new microscope delivers a high-resolution 3-D image of the entire cell in one step. This is an advantage over electron microscopy, in which a 3-D image is assembled out of many thin sections. This can take up to weeks for just one cell. Also, the cell need not be labelled with dyes, unlike in fluorescence microscopy, where only the labelled structures become visible. The new X-ray microscope instead exploits the natural contrast between organic material and water to form an image of all cell structures. Dr. Gerd Schneider and his microscopy team at the Institute for Soft Matter and Functional Materials have published their development in Nature Methods.'

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101119102354.htm

An Introduction to TerraPower

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIfMmqKYC6w

Bill Gates also talks about this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieX88nBFVS4&feature=related

The Young Double-Slit Experiment

The first 20 seconds of the TV series "The Big Bang Theory" caused me to go look this up ...

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/quantum.html


I was somewhat familiar with this already, but I didn't understand what they meant in the TV show about "observation" so this link allowed me to deepen my understanding.

More on the double slit experiment can be found here ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment

The nuclear reactor that could clean up

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/5081833/The-nuclear-reactor-that-coul
d-clean-up.html

100 year starship

Seems like a mute point to me.  Long space voyages will require some sort of nuclear powered propulsion, like an ion drive that will get us there faster. 

 <larry.r.trout wrote:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/10/29/nasa-cover-up-hundred-year-starship/

Astrophysicists discover new galaxy clusters revealed by cosmic 'shadows'

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101101161907.htm