Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Science

  • Deepak – Stop Digging!

    I seem to recall that I used a similar tagline for Professor Rubenstein a couple of months back when he followed up one load of codswallop with an even bigger load.
     
    Now Deepak Chopra has done the same. Apparently stung by the derision heaped on him following his asinine crap in the Huffington Post a couple of days ago, he’s retorted with another post. I love the somewhat hurt tone he adopts:
    If you are opposing my comments with passionate vehemence, I’d suggest that you are not friendly to the open discussion of evolution, no matter which camp you belong to.
    No, Deepak, the passion comes from a sense of frustration over people like you who never seem to understand that what you are saying is false and the resulting overwhelming sense of irritation that, because you hold doolally ideas, then the rest of us with more than one brain cell to rub together have to "respectfully engage in a polite discussion". Sorry, Deepak, but crap is crap, and tying it up in the fancy ribbon of "respect" doesn’t change the sight, or the smell, of a stinking pile of ordure one jot or tittle.

  • IDiot

    PZ Myers delivers a surgical flensing of some twaddle spouted by Deepak Chopra. When one is faced with such monumental stupidity such as this asinine crap from Chopra (e.g. the oxygen atom is intelligent) it is difficult to restrain oneself from calling for an intervention by the gene police ("Oi, you, out of the pool, now!).

  • BT’s Innovation Timeline

    BT (British Telecom) has published its 2005 predictions about innovations and when they are likely to happen. Check out the interactive version, or read the full list. It would have been good to have BT also publish some of the reasons as to why they assign events along the timeline where they do. For all I know they could just be waving a wet finger in the air…

  • Skin Graft Farms?

    An interesting story in the Guardian today about a new experimental technique for treating burns. It uses skin that has been grown from an aborted foetus. If that strikes you as a gruesome idea, then go and read the full story. It makes a lot of sense, and if the technique pans out, may bring a new way of treating burn victims.
     
    It reminds me of the story behind HeLa cells, used in cancer research. They are cancer cells originally taken from a cancerous cervix in 1951 and cultured in vitro ever since. The resulting biomass of cells far exceeds the body mass of the woman from whom the biopsy was taken. HeLa stands for Henrietta Lacks, the woman in question. There’s a bittersweet article about Henrietta, her family, and the chain of events that led to HeLa cells. Well worth reading.

  • Mosquitoes Drawn to People With Malaria

    You may recall that, back in April, I commented on research that demonstrated how parasites can affect the personality of their hosts.
     
    Now, New Scientist reports on a new study that indicates that mosquitoes are more likely to be attracted to people already affected with malaria. And it appears that it is the parasite that is causing this, in order to secure its onward transmission to new hosts.
     
    Another example of "who’s in the driving seat? – the host or the parasite?" Oh, and I can’t resist a book plug here for Carl Zimmer’s terrific (in all senses of the word) book: Parasite Rex. It is, by turns, amazing, fascinating, chilling, scary and downright horrifying…

  • Richard Feynman

    In 1979, the late, great Richard Feynman gave a series of four lectures on physics at the University of Auckland. These were filmed and they are available online as streaming videos here.
     
    Feynman was such a brilliant communicator and it is a real pleasure to be able to watch and listen to him explain fundamental physics using nothing more than his intelligence, his wit, a piece of chalk and a blackboard.
     
    (hat tip to the Poor Man for the link)

  • Ice on Mars

    The Mars Express probe has taken magnificent pictures of an ice lake on Mars. The story, and links to other aspects of the mission is here, and the hi-res versions of the images are available from the European Space Agency site here.
     
     

  • Saturn’s Radio Emissions

    The Cassinin-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan has captured radio emissions from Saturn. The two researchers who have published their findings describe the eerie-sounding emissions as a "Halloween soundtrack".
     
    I think they’re wrong; the sounds are strongly reminiscent of Louis and Bebe Barron’s soundtrack for Forbidden Planet. Listen to "Once around Altair" here, for example.

  • I Hate You – Now Feed Me…

    Those were the words – white on a black background – on a poster I saw on the Toronto Metro some years ago.
     
    It turned out that it was supposedly a cat talking to its owner. I was reminded of that when I read today that cats are unable to taste sweet things – they have a defect in one of the genes that codes for part of the sweet taste receptor.

  • Cheap Solar Power?

    Interesting story over at the World Changing blog on a new plastic solar cell that holds out hope of being much cheaper than the current silicon photovoltaic panels ($15/square metre as compared to $800/square metre).
     
    However, before we all get too excited, there’s a couple of downsides to be considered – the power generating effiiciency of the new material is much lower (of the order of 0.2% – 5%, as compared to 12% – 15% of conventional panels), and the operational lifetime of the new material is much less (2 years as opposed to 25 years).
     
    Nonetheless, it’s a development worth keeping an eye on. For more info on the solar panel industry, the Solarbuzz site is worth looking at, and I can’t resist putting in a plug for my old employer as well. 

  • Man Walks On the Moon

    It hardly seems credible, but it is 36 years since a man first set foot on the Moon. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first of our species to walk on the Moon. I can forgive him the fluffing of his famous line – I’d probably be a gibbering wreck if I were in his place at the time.

    It seemed a time of innocence then – we were all dreaming of colonies on the moon and there was a real excitement about the exploration of space. Today, that seems naive and the idea of people living in moon colonies seems further away than ever – back in the realms of the golden age of Science Fiction. What happened to make us lose our innocence? Er, OK, that’s probably a rhetorical question…

     

    Update: Google is celebrating the anniversary as well…

  • Talking about A hit, a very palpable hit

     

    Kaan, over at The Consigliere blog, has been watching NASA live TV, and witnessed the moment when the Deep Impact mission achieved one of its major aims: to hit the Tempel 1 comet.

    Quote

    A hit, a very palpable hit

    Deep Impact has just hit Tempel 1 about 30 seconds ago. Been following it on NASA live TV. The TV camera was on the controllers and not on the actual image of the impact as it occurred. So I was looking at everyone getting really exited about the something off screen, making me yell out at the camera guy to turn his camera to the right.

    A lot of jumping up and down and clapping and screaming going on in the control room.

    Impactor team are wearing red t-shirts and Flyby team in blue

    Someone just commented that ‘wow, and we were expecting something subtle!”

    Finally, they are replaying the actual image of the impact

    Wow. That was pretty huge.

    Someone, possibly the mission manager, said  “Ok folks we have another vehicle to worry about, so let’s settle down.”

    No one is settling down.

    End Quote

    The BBC also reports on the success of the mission here. When it occurred (05:50 GMT) I was safely tucked up in bed. I’m getting old – when men first landed on the moon, I had dragged the TV into my bedroom and eagerly watched the landing from the comfort of my bed – I was too excited to sleep.  

    Still, now I can follow the analysis of Deep Impact on the NASA site. And I see that someone has got a sense of humour – headed toward the light, indeed!

  • Puns R Us

    I was idly scanning through the table of contents of this month’s journal of Technological Forecasting and Social Change (as one does), and came across this article:
     
    Give Peas a Chance: Transformations in food consumption and production systems
     
    groan…

  • Another Anniversary

    One Hundred years ago today, Albert Einstein published "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" ("Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper") – the third of four articles published in 1905 that together comprise the Annus Mirabilis Papers. This article laid the foundation of Special Relativity.

  • Death, Where Is Thy Sting?

    Now this is pretty scary research. I can understand the possible application, but it’s also hardly surprising that it’s drawn reactions from animal rights groups.
     
    And going to the news story, I see that plans to test this on humans should be ready within the year. Er, any volunteers out there?

  • Jack Kilby: 1923 – 2005

    Damn, there’s a run of obituaries in today’s Guardian that I feel the need to mention. The last one is of Jack Kilby, "the acknowledged inventor of the microchip, foundation of the modern electronics industry".

    He came up with the idea of the integrated circuit in 1958. The timing meant that while I spent a few years at University doing electronic engineering and circuit design based on discrete components, by the time I got into Industry, much of that was being swept aside by integrated circuits. It was amazing to watch the change that occurred in the electronics industry firsthand.

  • Charles Keeling: 1928 – 2005

    At also in today’s Guardian, the obituary of Charles Keeling, the scientist credited with being the first man to accurately measure the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. One of his four sons is a leading climate scientist, carrying the torch of science on from the father.

  • Brain scans find the penis at last

    This week’s New Scientist reports that at last scientists have found the area of the brain that is responsible for the penis.

    The scientist reporting the discovery says: "The only depressing thing, is that the representation is very small." Who said the universe didn’t have a sense of humour?

  • New Uses for Sheep Urine

    It sounds bizarre, but it’s true – sheep urine is the latest weapon in the fight against vehicle pollution according to this story in today’s Guardian.

    A bus company is trialling a scheme whereby urea – the end product of refining sheep urine – is stored in a tank on a bus, and then sprayed into the exhaust system. The urea reacts with the nitrous oxides in the exhaust fumes to produce nitrogen and water.

    It actually sounds like a really clever idea. I hope it works.

     

  • Robot Suit Takes A Step Closer

    Following on from a story reported in New Scientist in April this year, now comes news about the unveiling of the latest version of the "Robot Suit" – an exoskeleton that enables people’s physical strength to be augmented. I’ve wanted one ever since Sigourney Weaver donned an exoskeleton in Aliens for the ultimate catfight with the Alien queen.

    I just wish they hadn’t called it HAL (for Hybrid Assisted Limb). It reminds me too much of HAL 9000 – the murderous computer in 2001 – A Space Odyssey.