Month: August 2012

Sonic bug repellants don’t work

More deceived wisdom debunked, this time sonic bug repellants.

Whether they are meant to repel mosquitoes, cockroaches or ants they don’t. They are based on junk science, according to a Texas A&M entomologist Roger Gold who has studied these products for two decades. The Android and iPhone apps all fail too, even the paid ones. You are better advised to buy traps or chemical repellents that actually work or just ignore the bugs and live your life.

Stop Wasting Money on Sonic Bug Repellants: They Don’t Work.

Martin Fleischmann Obituary

Telegraph reports that Martin Fleischmann has died at the age of 85 years. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was once regarded as one of Britain’s brightest electrochemists. However, he is most well known for the curious incidence of cold fusion back in 1989, which caused no little stir in the scientific community just as I was starting my science writing career.

Along with colleague, Stanley Pons, Fleischmann’s reputation was seriously compromised when they stunned the scientific world by announcing they had achieved nuclear fusion in a glass jar at room temperature. They hadn’t. Cold fusion does not occur.

Fleischmann read chemistry at Imperial College London where he developed his interest in palladium and hydrogen and then went on to do a PhD (or should that be pHD). He subsequently lectured at King’s College Durham (now more familiar as my alma mater, the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne).

Fleischmann is also known in science for his 1974 important role in the discovery of Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) and in the 1980s he developed the ultramicroelectrode.

Martin Fleischmann – Telegraph.

Monosodium glutamate, deceived wisdom

It sounds like a nasty chemical and people have been worrying about it for year. MSG. Monosodium glutamate. But the monosdium, that’s just sodium ions from common salt and the glutamate is just the soluble form of the essential protein-making amino acid, glutamic acid.

The question of its safety arose in a Facebook discussion but it seems that much of the research into alleged negative effects of MSG refer to ingesting around 4 milligrams per kilogram of body mass. For a big bloke that’s still less than half a gram. Whereas we naturally ingest several grams of glutamate from proteins we eat daily.

So, once again deceived wisdom leads to chemophobia. I’m pretty sure all the negative stuff about this flavour enhancer is just a red herring…which, of course would be even tastier with a dash of MSG…

Monosodium Glutamate.

Deceived Wisdom – Sciencebase Book

TL:DR – My book Deceived Wisdom was published in 2012. I am no longer offering free Kindle copies.

The “book of the blog” and a whole lot more: Deceived Wisdom, published by Elliott & Thompson, available in hardback from the usual outlets, free on Audible (read by Kris Dyer) as your introductory trial book, and as an e-book (PDF, mobi, and ePub formats).

Here’s how my publisher, E&T, described the book:

David Bradley’s clear and witty writing examines the science behind the statements to reveal the truth behind many popular myths. There are entries entitled: ‘A different kind of snow’, ‘Infernal combustion and the mobile phone’, ‘Sweetener for my sweet’, ‘Only dedicated practise makes perfect’, ‘Theory under pressure skates on thin ice’, ‘The three Rs of Sustainability: Reduce. Re-use. Recycle.’, ‘Red, red wine’, ‘Highly Strung’ and ‘Dozy Deceptions’.

Doctor Who. It’s for kids…

…as Al Murray would have it…but that doesn’t mean us big kids cannot watch it and run behind the sofa crying for Mummy all over again when the Daleks appear!

The Guardian describes the five new episodes that will air before Christmas 2012 as the big finale to Steven Moffat’s epic three-year story. And, just look at all those Daleks…aaaaaghghghghghgh….mummeeeeeey!

Damaged electronic goods

Electronic devices are susceptible to damage from radiation, potentially cosmic radiation and even ultraviolet radiation. A study using spectroscopy reveals that the amount of optical damage, as opposed to structural damage, that can be caused may be more than ten times greater than studies suggested.

“These are somewhat new ideas, especially in my opinion the concept of ‘optical damage’ versus ‘structural damage’ where as people normally focus on the later, I believe the former is a very much unexplored area with important implications for actual, real, operating nanodevices,” research leader Andrew Steigerwald of Vanderbilt University told me.

“Considering that, I hope in the future that our results can be extended to other materials (e.g. silicon) and perhaps coupled with a sensitive microscopy technique so that we can compare spectroscopy results with mapping of electronic states.”

Damaged goods: Probing the depths – Ezine – spectroscopyNOW.com.

Research Blogging IconSteigerwald, A., Hmelo, A.B., Varga, K., Feldman, L.C. & Tolk, N. (2012). Determination of optical damage cross-sections and volumes surrounding ion bombardment tracks in GaAs using coherent acoustic phonon spectroscopy, Journal of Applied Physics, 112 (1) DOI: 10.1063/1.4732072

Muse, Telstar and electronic keyboards

As many Sciencebase readers will know Telstar was a generic name given to a range of communications satellites (the idea for which was first posited by author Arthur C Clarke). The first two Telstar satellites were experimental. Telstar 1 was launched atop a Thor-Delta rocket on 10th July 10 1962 and successfully relayed the first television pictures, telephone calls, and fax images through space. Telstar 2 was launched May 7, 1963. Telstar 1 and 2, though no longer functional, are still in orbit as of August 2012.

Having just got back from a day at The London 2012 Olympic Games (we saw two men’s hockey matches, preliminary rounds, photos here, prog rock band Muse were in my mind when LilyThePurr mentioned the record label Telstar. Muse, of course, wrote and performed the London 2012 anthem. Intriguingly though, frontman Matt Bellamy‘s father was none other than Sunderland-born George Bellamy, rhythm guitarist with The Tornados (Billy Fury’s backing band). who had a hit with a space-age novelty track called…you guessed it, Telstar. The song recorded by infamous and ingenious record producer Joe Meek in his upstairs flat recording studio in the Holloway Road, London, featured an early electronic keyboard known as a clavioline. The upbeat and electronic sounds evoked the positive space-age and pro-science spirit of the 1950s and early 1960s.

The instrument was invented by Constant Martin in 1947 and comprised a keyboard and separate amplifier and speaker unit. It covered three octaves and tone controls to add vibrato and other effects. The instrument used by Meek was the Univox Clavioline, a successor to earlier models used on recordings since the early 1950s. Meek’s somewhat tragic story is told in the 2008 biopic Telstar. The sound of the much later Stylophone was rather reminiscent of the Clavioline and their limited but weird sounds have featured prominently in various recordings that grasp the retro cache tightly.

Meanwhile, I was hoping to unearth a comment from Lord Coe that connected him to Matt Bellamy, Bob Dylan and the whole Telstar legacy. Maybe I could ask my friend Clare, who is Matt B’s cousin instead…

Watch where you put that microphone, Seb, interviewed by Abi Griffiths.

9 ways to avoid weirdos on the bus

Esther Kim has spent years observing travellers on buses and how they will go to extreme lengths to avoid anyone taking the seat next to them. Here are her top 9 “non-social transient interaction avoidance” tips. If this doesn’t win an IgNobel Prize, I will go by car next time…

  • Avoid eye contact with other people
  • Lean against the window and stretch out your legs
  • Place a large bag on the empty seat
  • Sit on the aisle seat and turn on your iPod so you can pretend you can’t hear people asking for the window seat.
  • Place several items on the spare seat so it’s not worth the passenger’s time waiting for you to move them.
  • Look out the window with a blank stare to look crazy
  • Pretend to be asleep
  • Put your coat on the seat to make it appear already taken
  • If all else fails, lie and say the seat has been taken by someone else

Of course, as soon as the driver announces that the bus is full and all spare seats must be made available to those still standing, Kim alludes to how the battle changes from avoiding anyone sitting next to you to simply avoiding a smelly weirdo taking that seat…

Research Blogging IconKim, E.C. (2012). Nonsocial Transient Behavior: Social Disengagement on the Greyhound Bus, Symbolic Interaction, n/a. DOI: 10.1002/symb.21

Antarctica on Google Street View

Back in September 2010, Google launched the first Street View imagery of the Antarctic, allowing users to see the penguins in situ. Now they’ve embedded additional panoramic imagery of historic Antarctic locations that you we can now explore the legacy from the comfort of our digital homes.

They have added this special collection to our World Wonders site, where you can learn more about the history of South Pole exploration.