Jan 30, 2009
With regulations set to ban incandescent light bulbs, the illuminating invention we’ve used since the nineteenth century, a replacement is needed. LEDs hold promise but are dim compared with the bulbs they seek to replace. Compact fluorescent tubes, are a bright idea. They are essentially a miniaturised version of the strip lighting by which shoppers and workers everywhere have been lit for decades. These CFLs use a fraction of …
Jan 28, 2009
I recently reported on the spit test being developed for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It’s in the very early stages of development (this is not an antenatal test), but the details were certainly of interest to the target audience on the SpecNOW site.
Of course, the mainstream media picked up on the news of the possibility of such a simple test for autism too and the publication also coincided with literary …
Jan 26, 2009
UPDATED: Is it possible that obesity, like the common cold is infectious? You’d think so if you believed research that’s been carried out over the last decade and hits the tabloid headlines again this week.
The research suggests that a highly infectious virus might be behind some cases of obesity. There is constant talk of an epidemic of overweight in the developed world. Overindulgence, lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyles are …
Jan 23, 2009
Today is my twentieth anniversary as a science writer-editor and yet it seems like only yesterday that I walked into the editorial offices of the Royal Society of Chemistry, having abandoned the chemical lab in favour of publishing on 23rd January 1989. A fateful day. Not only did it represent a permanent move to Cambridge and a totally different career direction to what I’d imagined …
Jan 21, 2009
First story to fall under the gaze of The Alchemist this week is synthetic HDL, a potential alternative therapy for cholesterol problems wrought through gold nanotechnology. Next, we hear of atomic ink that avoids the push and shove of microscopic manipulation by introducing the metallic nano swap meet.
Bed bugs, are apparently evolving resistance to second-generation pesticides, an international team has revealed the channel-swapping mechanism, which could help …
Jan 19, 2009
UPDATED UPDATE: Two men have been served a death sentence for their involvement in China’s melamine contaminated milk scandal. The former boss of the Sanlu dairy at the centre of the scandal was given life imprisonment. 19 other sentences handed down by the court in northern China, where Sanlu is based, are of lower severity.
More than 200 families whose babies were hospitalised after drinking infant milk formula tainted with the industrial chemical …
Yellow and black bile were considered by the ancients as two of the four vital humours of the human body along with phlegm and blood. Ancient and mediaeval Greco-Roman alternative medicine. Imbalances in these humours caused illness. The Greek names for the terms gave rise to the words “choler” (bile) [the prefix in cholesterol, of course] and “melancholia” (black bile). Excessive bile was supposed …
Jan 16, 2009
On 4th October 1957, the Soviets made the shock announcement that they had sent the first craft ever into orbit around the Earth. The Americans were stunned, how could the USSR have stolen a march on them in this way. That shock then turned to fear with the realisation that the Soviets were obviously that much more technologically advanced than they had suspected.
This revelation led to the advent …
If you happen to have one of those luxurious portable gadgets, like an iPhone or the slightly less luxurious Google Android, then you can now read your favourite Science-based blog without all the visual effects simply by loading up the following URL – http://m.sciencebase.com for the mobile version of the site.
For those who care about these things, the m.sciencebase.com sub-domain ports to a special Google Reader address that …
Jan 14, 2009
The January issue of my Intute Spotlight column is now live
3D astrophysics – Astrophysicists are using a novel 3D computer visualization technique to help them understand the role of gravity in the formation of vast, stellar nurseries, also known as molecular clouds. …
Cosmic nanodiamonds – Tiny particles of crystalline carbon found in sediments at six sites in North America dating back almost 13000 years, suggest that a swarm of carbon-and-water-rich comets …
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Jan 13, 2009
As some of you will know, Guy Kawasaki and the team at Alltop.com added the Sciencebase newsfeed to their excellent virtual magazine rack in the Science section. You may not be aware of the many other science-related sections on the Alltop.com site, so here’s a short list:
Biotechnology, includes headlines from FierceBiotech, ScienceDaily, My Biotech Life
Nanotechnology, Nanowerk, Azonano, NanoVIP
Electricity, EE Times, EIN News, Topix
Engineering, …
Jan 8, 2009
I carried out a little ad hoc experiment in social media this week. Having backed up my twitter friends and followers using Tweetake, I figured it was time to make them earn their keep…I jest. No, seriously, I’d downloaded the lists, which come as CSV files you can open in a spreadsheet program, and just for fun I thought …
Jan 7, 2009
The Alchemist took a seasonable tipple over the holiday period but discovered that he needn’t have splashed out on all that expensive wine thanks to the field effect. He also discovers that all those spent coffee grounds he produces could be harvested to make biodiesel and hears of plans to rejuvenate the Baltic Sea with a giant fish-tank oxygenator. Drug users could soon be spotted by their glowing fingerprints, thanks to the latest development in …
Jan 5, 2009
A radical plan to curb global warming and apparently reverse climate change caused by our rampant burning of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution would involve simply covering large areas of the world’s deserts with reflective sheeting.
The idea is discussed in detail in the January issue of the International Journal of Global Environmental Issues and was reported widely in the press …
Jan 2, 2009
The first 2009 issue of SpectroscopyNOW is now available:
Tweezing out leukemia spectra – US researchers have used laser tweezers Raman spectroscopy (LTRS) to help them characterize the effects of different chemical fixation procedures on the spectra of healthy cells and leukemia cells and to avoid the misinterpretation of data.
Crime and punishment – A truly interdisciplinary collaboration between biology, law and neuroscience at Vanderbilt …
Jan 1, 2009
Best wishes from me, David Bradley, for the coming year. Thanks for all your support and comments in 2008 and let’s hope for even more exciting science, technology, and medical news in 2009
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