Jan 31, 2006
We reported on claims to have found the world’s smallest fish that appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. The aquatic critter measured just 7.9 mm apparently and was found in a peat swamp in Southeast Asia. However, it seems the authors of the paper failed to note that a much, much smaller sexually mature angler fish was reported in the autumn of 2005 at just 6.2 mm to 7.4 mm …
A combination of physics and chemistry helped researchers identify the two “new” chemical elements - 113 and 115. The elemental discoveries took place at the Russian nuclear research centre (JNIR) in Dubna in 2003, but ongoing experiments are underway to provide additional evidence.
Heavy elements decay by emitting alpha particles (helium nucleus). American, Russian and Swiss scientists used this decay to prove the existence of elements 115 and its alpha decay product 113. In order …
Jan 30, 2006
I’ve been a science and technical writer for over fifteen years and so I know what it means to find a reliable source, one that really gives it to you straight. I rely on my PC for doing my job, any glitches or downtime can mean deadlines missed. So when I found a great source that would give me the real skinny on protecting my PC from hackers and crackers, eliminate viruses, worms and trojans, …
Read my interview with Jean-Claude Bradley Drexel U chemist and UsefulChem uber-blogmeister in the January issue of Reactive Reports. JCB [no relation] believes chemistry can solve global problems and is blogging to save the world.
Ana Antón Solanas, a research assistant in the Dietetics and Diet Therapy Unit of the University of Navarra, hopes to tailor diet and exercise regimes to women with specific types of obesity. She has received a fellowship from The Danone Institute to investigate the effects of a hypocaloric diet and physical training in the metabolic and hormonal response in a group of obese women.
The women in the study have a genetic difference (a Gln27Glu polymorphism …
Jan 29, 2006
If you’re a Chemistry World reader you may have their freebie wallplanner tacked to the pinboard in your lab. But, watch out when you’re booking meetings towards the end of June this year. In their efforts to get as many conference ads into the chart, publisher the Royal Society of Chemistry skips a beat, with Friday June 30 leaping to Wednesday July 1.
Of course, if you’re using the freebie wallplanner from almost any other learned …
Jan 27, 2006
…you name it, the file swappers will have tried it. From the early days of usenet via chat rooms to the distributed torrent systems, file sharing is still thriving with users sharing everything from music and software to images and movies. According to a report on scenta, court action against file-sharers across the world has not reduced illegal downloading.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI) claims that it is “containing” the problem. However, as …
Exposing yourself - Have you recently made an important discovery? Is your research now in press or accepted for publication? Does your research deserve to reach as wide an audience as possible?
If you’re about to complete your degree in science and contemplating your future, then one area of science that is persistently digging up the past could be worth investigating. Check out our feature article on scientific research in the past.
Even if that doesn’t provide you with career inspiration, then take a look at our Science Jobs channel.
Jan 26, 2006
“Research has shown that most essential nutrient deficiencies can be eliminated by small increases in diversity in the diet,” says Dr Emile Frison, Director General of IPGRI (the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute). He stresses that “this has important implications for the health and nutrition of people living in the West, but it is even more important for people living in developing countries.”
The bottom line is that you should put away those health food …
According to a report due to appear in the journal Environmental Science & Technology on February 15, properly designed rain gardens can trap and retain almost all common pollutants from urban storm water runoff. The finding could have a huge impact on improving water quality and ensuring that potentially harmful pollutants are remediated into less harmful compounds.
Most important, however, is that rain gardens are affordable and easy to design, say the authors, Michael Dietz and …
“Imagine you are standing, John Wayne style, on the backs of two runaway horses pulling a stagecoach. You try to bring the horses to a stop but instead the harnesses break, the horses separate, and an unlucky passenger gets thrown from the stage.”
That’s how the latest chemistry news release from Sandia National Laboratories. Poetic in its own way, I suppose, but couldn’t they have got the scientist in question Carl Hayden to put …
Jan 25, 2006
What a relief! Sciencebase has not been blacklisted by Beijing in their efforts to censor Google: sciencebase - on 搜索
If I mention the Dal*i L*m* will I get dropped though?
The BBC’s Roland Pease reports on the world’s smallest fish, recently discovered in a Sumatran swamp: Smallest fish. According to Pease, “Mature individuals of the Paedocypris genus can be as small as 7.9mm (0.3in) long, researchers write in a journal published by the UK’s Royal Society.”
7.9mm? I suppose saying “about 8mm” would be too imprecise and would have the Guiness people up in arms. But, what happened to the precision in the conversion …
33 people have searched the Sciencebase site for the phrase Erin Ellington since the beginning of the year and keen as I am to provide a useful service for all comers to the site I cannot yet think of a valid and scientifically sound excuse to include a picture of said centerfold.
Of course, those visitors may not have been searching for the model at all. There was an Erin Ellington on the 1995 UW-Oshkosh women’s …
Jan 24, 2006
Peter Lawrence of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, in Cambridge, UK argues in a paper published in Plos Biology, that men and women really are different and that current political correctness simply glosses over the inherent bias in job interviews and tests. Indeed, these assessments, he argues, favour male candidates because they seek out characteristics such as self-confidence and aggression, which are, despite attempts at being wholly PC, predominant in …
Most people have heard of the traditional wedding anniversary gifts - silver, ruby, gold, cotton, paper etc, but we’ve compiled a list of wedding anniversary gifts aimed at the chemical couple in your life. So, if you’re looking to celebrate a stable bond take a look, but please avoid if you’re easily offended, some of the entries might cause a reaction.
Jan 23, 2006
Licorice root could be the dentist’s nightmare come true - a “candy” that actually prevents cavities. Researchers at UCLA have demonstrated that an extract from the plant root used to make all sorts of candies and other products contains at least two chemicals that block replication of the bacterium Streptococcus mutans, a major cause of dental caries.
Qing-Yi Lu and Wenyuan Shi point out that more studies are needed before these compounds could ever be considered …
Science writer Nancy Greenspan, biographer of Nobel quantum physicist Max Born, emailed to alert me to her imminent conversation tour with Born’s son, Professor Gustav Born FRS. The pair will discuss the great scientist’s life and work:
Cambridge: Monday 6 February - 5-6.30pm Sidgwick Hall, Newnham College. Tel (Whipple Museum of the History of Science): 01223 330906
London: Wednesday 8 February - 6.30-8.30pm British Library Conference Centre. Tel: …
The BBC reports today that millions of TV watchers, tech-heads, and gadget freaks are costing us the earth when they put their equipment into standby rather than switching it off “properly”: TV’s ’sleep’ button stands accused.
Apparently, standby mode is costing Britain 7TWh of energy and emitting around 800,000 tonnes of carbon a year. That’s purely wasted energy. With TV standby mode using up to two-thirds the “on” power for some TVs, …
Jan 20, 2006
Bradley’s Almanac [no relation] reveals a hidden treasure from a 1960s American childhood - The Exciting Game of Career Girls, a board game not unlike Monopoly for 2-4 players through which young ladies can decide your future career.
Good at Biology? asks one token, that’s good for nurse and teacher apparently, a propensity to neatness is perfect for an airline hostess, teacher, nurse, and model. Being pretty suits you being a model or an …
It’s almost been as if the chattering classes were hoping to find that cellphones give you brain cancer. It would give them something else to chatter about, after all. But, the BBC reports that a study of almost 3000 people in the UK effectively debunks this myth - The amount of mobile phone use does not correlate with glioma, the most common form of brain tumour.
If you want to talk about this give …
Jan 19, 2006
The vast magnetic fields astronomers observe across galaxy clusters and galaxies themselves, but cannot yet explain, may have been seeded by lesser fields that formed in the very early Universe, even before the first atoms existed, read about the cosmic magnetic seeds in the latest issue of Spotlight.
In the latest issue of Spotlight, we discuss oceanic extremes and how global warming could quickly disrupt ocean processes and lead to drastic climatological changes around the world
Chemical analysis could help elephants and people live more harmoniously in countries such as Kenya where large free-roaming herds can wreak havoc on villages, livestock, and farmed crops, according to researchers at the University of Utah. You can read my full report in the latest issue of PSIgate Spotlight
BioProcess International provides the global biotherapeutic industry with the most up-to-date peer-reviewed information available today. The magazine is the first and only international publication devoted to the development, scale-up, and manufacture of biotherapeutics.
If you’re working in biopharmaceutical, biovaccine, and biodiagnostic development and manufacturing processes you could qualify for a free subscription
As some of you may have noticed, Sciencebase has had a face lift, and it’s about time too given that its original incarnation as Elemental Discoveries appeared ten years ago this May, which makes it a very old site indeed in net terms.
If you don’t believe me follow this link to the CHEMED-L archives for July 1996, which announced an imminent issue 2 and an earlier Spring edition!
Jan 18, 2006
Imperial College is on a roll today, with the second press release appearing within seconds of the news reported in my earlier posting.
Now, IC scientists reckon they have found new evidence of link between cat faeces and schizophrenia. Sounds bizarre, but apparently invasion or replication of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii in rats can be inhibited by using the anti-psychotic or mood-stabilising drugs commonly prescribed for schizophrenia. T gondii is found in infected cat …
Researchers at Imperial College London and Queen Mary, London, are suggesting that drugs related to the withdrawn Vioxx may still be the best drugs for treating arthritis.
They argue that although Vioxx and related drugs have been associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, the same might also be true for the more conventional non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
Jane Mitchell and her colleagues have reviewed the medical literature on …
Jan 17, 2006
A paper in the journal Vibrational Spectroscopy describes the forensic classification of ballpoint pen inks using high performance liquid chromatography and infrared spectroscopy with principal components analysis and linear discriminant analysis, apparently.
Remind me though, what’s a ballpoint pen?
Primary age school kids will be exposed to chemistry for the first time, thanks to an initiative instigated by scientists at Queen’s University Belfast.
Chris Hardacre and Marie Migaud of QUB hope to catch students at a young age through their new science programme, which will be tested on final year primary children (age 10-11 years).
Universities in Ireland and the UK are struggling to attract new students, doors have closed at several departments in the last …
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Nature Reviews Drug Discovery publishes the highest-quality reviews and perspectives plus news stories and features that investigate key issues in drug discovery...moreover if you check my resume, you'll see that the magazine is in my client list. more info...
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