May 28, 2008
Porn star names originally posted in August 2005, this was something of a joke post about how porn star names have become almost the post-modern equivalent of a person’s astrological star sign, and a whole lot more scientifically valid, if you ask me, with names like Lucky Cocker and Goldie Black common. That’s despite first appearing almost three years ago, this post has had almost 14,000 readers so far …
May 26, 2008
Long gone are the days of a summer break where the biggest health risks were stepping in donkey droppings on the beach or being sick on a fairground ride. These days, trips abroad provide the traveller with a whole range of diseases, so what’s our defence?
Our first line of defence against many of these diseases is our immune system. Unfortunately the immune system is not perfect and cannot always mount …
May 23, 2008
I’ve played guitar - classical, acoustic, electric - for three decades, ever since I pilfered my sister’s nylon string at the age of 12, although even before that, I’d had a couple of those mini toy guitars with real strings at various points in my childhood. I eventually learned to follow music and guitar tablature, but was only really any good at keeping up with a score if I …
May 21, 2008
More popular science news with a spectroscopic bent from the desk of David Bradley, this week: Heavy metal and Alzheimer’s - While the protein-like plaques that form in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease and in other tissues in a wide range of different disorders are well known, what is less well known is that fairly high concentrations of transition metal elements, including copper, iron, …
May 19, 2008
My Alchemist column on ChemWeb is live once again: This week’s award is for science that sheds light on a range of physical phenomena including liquid-metal surfaces and condensed matter. The recipient of the award, Oleg Shpyrko of the University of California San Diego, will receive the 2008 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award from Argonne National Laboratory. I asked him what the award means to him:
“It is …
May 16, 2008
Lots of visitors are hitting the Sciencebase site look for information on stem cell research. It is a subject I’ve written about before, both on this site and elsewhere, but I thought it might be useful, given that my alma mater is at the forefront of stem cell research in the UK, to provide a FAQ on the subject of stem cells. Just to be clear, usually when the …
May 14, 2008
Are you happy to eat genetically modified foods? What about your friends and colleagues? Do the GM pros outweigh the cons?
I asked a few contacts for some answers by way of building up to a more formal response to those kinds of questions that will be published soon in the International Journal of Biotechnology (IJBT, 2008, 10, 240-259).
Plant geneticist Dennis Lee, Director of Research at mAbGen, in …
May 12, 2008
The May issue of my Spotlight column over on the Intute site is now online, this month featuring:
Flush with nanoparticles - What happens to carbon-based nanoparticles when they enter groundwater? Can municipal water supplies filter them out? And, if they cannot will they cause health problems? These are crucial questions that need answers now, as nanotechnology grows. Now, a new study by Kurt Pennell, of the Georgia Institute of …
May 9, 2008
I commented on a post on the Bad Language blog, produced by my good friend Matthew Stibbe, earlier this week. He was waxing lyrical about cutting power consumption in his SOHO and mentioned how he prefers to brew tea with freshly drawn water. I pointed out that while this may have benefits it would actually increase his kettle limescale problems through the addition of extra calcium and magnesium ions. …
May 7, 2008
How does one measure the worth of the science base? From the scientists’ perspective it is their bread and butter, or low-fat spread and rye biscuit, perhaps, in some cases. From industry’s standpoint, it is occasionally a source of interesting and potentially money-spinning ideas. Sometimes, it sits in its ivory tower and, to the public, it is the root of all those media scare stories. At worst, the science …
May 5, 2008
Social engineering attacks, what used to be known as a confidence, or con, tricks, can only be defeated by potential victims taking a sceptical attitude to unsolicited approaches and requests for privileged information and resources. That is the message that arrives from European researchers.
Most of us have received probably dozens of phishing messages and emails from scammers on the African continent seeking to relieve us of our hard-earned cash. …
May 2, 2008
There have been 32 issues of my science news column on spectroscopynow.com since it was last officially called Spectral Lines, but I thought it was a nice name so occasionally resurrect it here when I highlight the latest research findings I cover on the site. It also gives me an excuse to re-use a logo I did in the early days of the site touting the line “David Bradley On …
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