Aug 31, 2006
Mosts chemists get to see some wacky periodic tables during their careers – circular ones, spiral ones, ones that rearrange all the elements etc etc. Then there are the foody ones and then there are the giant periodic tables, the arty farty ones, the online version, the flash table.
And, then there’s the periodic table of sex.
I didn’t think it was real at first, but several sciencebase visitors have …
Aug 30, 2006
A posting about telemarketing on digg reminded me how a teacher friend used to mess with the heads of cold callers, asking them obviously dumb questions.
One of the less subtle was to ask the telemarketer from British Gas, which now also offer electricity as well as natural gas to UK customers, whether he’d be able to run his TV from the gas supply.
They caller would politely tell him no, but become increasingly frustrated as my …
The UK’s Food Standards Agency announced (August 21, 2006) that it has received an application from a food additive manufacturer to use glucosamine hydrochloride in a range of foods, including smoothies and sports drinks. The company, Cargill, makes glucosamine hydrochloride from the black mould Aspergillus niger.
But, why would they want to do this? Cargill wants to use its glucosamine as an ingredient in a range of pasteurised food products. These will include fruit …
Aug 29, 2006
Everyone with even a passing interest in science will have heard about the challenge to science published as a full-page ad in The Economist by Irish company Steorn. Steorn has developed a system it reckons challenges the First Law of Thermodynamics, one of the fundamental principles of science. Such a challenge offers the possibility of limitless clean energy and Steorn is keen to recruit twelve of the most sceptical scientists to test their …
When I first wrote about the doubts scientists were raising concerning sunscreens in Chem & Industry magazine some time in the early 1990s, it seemed that the findings would simply confuse consumers and cause a storm among manufacturers. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case, sun worshippers carried on frying themselves, slapping on only meagre amounts of purportedly protective cream, partly out of laziness and partly because it is just so expensive and manufacturers …
Aug 27, 2006
Well, the votes were counted and the decision made: Pluto was demoted to less than planetary status. The astronomy and science textbook publishers are rubbing their hands with glee as new editions will have to be printed and plucked from their shelves by eager homeschoolers and teachers keen to get their facts right.
Unfortunately, things are never so clear cut.
A fierce backlash has begun against the decision has begun, says the BBC. The lead scientist …
