Science Extra Geeky Bits from David Bradley
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The latest science extra Geeky Bits news from Sciencebase's David Bradley. The most recent 30 days of news snippets, worthies and oddities, as well as other items of interest that didn't make it on to the Sciencebase Science Blog homepage because I was (a) too busy to do a full write-up (b) too lazy to do a full write-up (c) too bored to do a full write-up. Visit the Science Extra Geeky Bits Archive for all items posted during the last year.
- Alcohol warning - May 29, 2007 → Booze in the UK will carry health warnings similar to those published on tobacco products warning of the dangerous of consuming alcohol. The announcement comes quickly in the wake of new warnings (without additional evidence, mark you) that pregnant women should drink no alcohol. Nanny state? Never!
- Insignificant bird flu outbreak - May 28, 2007 → BBC reporting 11 people ill because of bird flu outbreak in Wales, mention that this is the H7N2 strain of bird flu as opposed to the H5N1 strain is reserved for the end of the report.
- Fizzy drinks froth - May 27. 2007 → A UK researcher claims sodium benzoate could damage mitochondrial DNA. Study based on tests on yeast cells, the very organisms sodium benzoate is added to fizzy drinks to kill!
- Memory attraction - May 26, 2007 → Could a magnetic coil, help improve the power of your memory?
- Big black hole - May 25, 2007 → A light-sucking black hole on the surface of Mars has astronomers puzzled. Could simply be an entrance to a vast network of underground caves.
- Weighing up the kilo - May 24, 2007 → Scientists at the Institute for Crystal Growth in Berlin, Germany, have weighed in on the international standards debate by creating the crucial crystal of Si to redefine the SI unit for kg!
- Google your genes - May 24, 2007 → A marriage made in even between Google founder Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki founder of biotech startup 23andMe could lead to a Google for Genetics. Coupled with Google’s plans to gather unprecedented amounts of personal data, there will be nothing left of privacy.
- Lead-free chips - May 23, 2007 → Intel will eradicate lead (Pb) from its chips
- Darth Vader’s Personality Problems - May 23, 2007 → At best the use of this fictional character in a scientific treatise is a misguided publicity stunt, at worst it suggests a complete lack of sensitivity on the part of those involved in the research who have provided nothing but yet more fodder for the media to stigmatize those suffering from mental illness.
- Pink-feathered friends - May 22, 2007 → Same-sex flamingo couple rearing chick together
- Liquid Lunar Telescope - May 21, 2007 → Liquid telescope heading for moon base
- Hybrid go ahead - May 18, 2007 → UK scientists to create first hybrid human embryos
- Silent Velcro - May 17, 2007 → Velcro goes all quiet, at last
- Perplexing climate change - May 17, 2007 → Climate change myths debunked
- Baldness cure on the way - May 17, 2007 → Genetic alarm clock could lead to reversal of cranial follicular challenge
- Free from fat-free diets - May 16, 2007 → And end to fat avoidance without risking health
- The office treadmill - May 16, 2007 → Ever feel like a hamster working its wheel in the rat race? It could do you good!
- Alien map - May 15, 2007 → NASA releases the first map of an alien world
- Chemicals and breast cancer - May 14, 2007 → Chemophobic scaremongering goes wild
- One - May 12, 2007 → Surprising law of “one” mathematicians cannot explain
- Solar bullet - May 11, 2007 → Solar system is “bullet” shaped, says Voyager data
- Power Plate Baloney - May 11. 2007 → Scathing critique of Power Plate “exerciser”, explains why Madonna is wrong to endorse this product.
- Hot space - May 10, 2007 → Hot, black and exotic planet
- Oral sex causes throat cancer - May 10, 2007 → Human papillomavirus deals blow
- Buggy Rockets - May 10, 2007 → Old rockets carry bacteria to the stars
- Would you Adam and Eve it? - May 9, 2007 → Great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great…..
- Human gene - May 9, 2007 → The brainy genetic mutation that makes us human
- Super Super Nova - May 8, 2007 → Brightest stellar explosion observed
- Tortoise-Hare beats hare and tortoise - May 4, 2007 → Interval training best
- Digg users are revolting - May 3, 2007 → HD-DVD code censoring backlash
- The greatest innovations - May 02, 2007 → Leading observers suggest
- Unhealthy diesel particles - May 1, 2007 → Post-menopausal females, the elderly and males affected most by diesel particulate that compromises blood flow to bone marrow.
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