Month: March 2014

Interesting piece in Psychology Today about the difference between the mind and the brain in which the brain is likened to a factory and the mind the company board in order to discuss behaviour in terms of dopamine, monetary gain and the congratulatory corporate memo.

“The brain is most often associated with the mind, but they are not the same. The brain is part of the body. The mind is part of the transcendent world of wisdom and thought. Although the brain is the organ most associated with consciousness, the brain does not completely contain the mind. The mind’s intelligence permeates every human cell, extending into the environment and carrying with it the wisdom of the ancients, social journey and kinship.”

…

“The brain is about getting the dopamine, and because it does not have the panoramic vision of the mind, it makes mistakes like eating compulsively, doing narcotics, getting sucked into an Internet pornado, hatred, violence and other self destructive scenarios. Without consulting the mind, the brain cannot understand that you can never get enough of something that is almost satisfying.”

Your Mind Does Not Care What Your Brain Thinks.

I don’t use my real birthday on any websites, I hide the fake birthday where that’s possible (Facebook thinks I’m well into my second century on Earth). I never accept “birthday” app requests, please don’t send them. It’s safer that way, I also never reveal my pornstar name in public (combine your first pet’s name with your mother’s maiden name). I also think you should keep your travel and party plans offline and post photos after the event. Don’t post your phone number or home address either.

I’m not being grumpy, just trying to stay secure, I suggest you think about what you share online, you really don’t know who’s watching or to what exploit they might be able to put your private info. Meanwhile, feel free to wish me a Happy Birthday any day of the year, one day you will be right!

My teenage son is just about to land at JFK on his first trip to the USA. So, in the spirit of nostalgia here’s a snap of Sciencebase Sr 26 years ago at London Heathrow in Departures about to make his debut trip to New York City.

And the inevitable view from the top of the Empire State Building, snapped the next day.

An international team of chemists has looked at the seemingly esoteric subject of microsolvation of chloride pairs. They have found that in computer models, at least, it takes about forty water molecules to make a pair of negative chloride ions stay together.

I asked team leader Utah University’s Alexander Boldyrev about the wider importance of this study which could affect geochemical research, atmospheric and climate science as well as having implications for chemical engineering.

Steam, containing dissolved alkali halide ions, can form clusters of Na⁺(H₂O)_n and Cl-(H₂O)_n. Based on our results it is now possible to investigate hydrophobic interactions, i.e., interactions between the ions surrounded by water molecules that could clarify the physical picture of condensation in real steam. In our work we traced the formation of chloride-chloride pair in the gas phase. We think this yields an adequate picture of physical processes that occur during steam condensation in the presence of dissolved ions.

Industrial steam and geysers
We also believe that the results of our calculations indicate that the chloride-chloride pair plays the role of a trap for water molecules in steam. Probably, the increased content of dissolved chloride in the first condensate of industrial steam serves as experimental support for the appearance of stable anion pairs and their active role in nucleation observed in steam. Thus, the presence of solvated ions and pairs of ions in the steam will accelerate condensation of the industrial steam and that should be taken by engineers into account for steam system improvements. Also, we think that such stable gaseous clusters as Cl-(H₂O)₄₀Cl- can be present in geyser’s steam (boiling of the pressurized water, containing chlorides, results in the geyser effect of hot water and steam spraying out of the geyser’s surface vent – a hydrothermal explosion) and accelerate geyser’s steam condensation.

Atmospheric water vapour

Sea water becomes airborne in the form of droplets formed at the sea surface by the action of waves. These droplets can be carried by the wind, and they interact with other constituents of the atmosphere. On the surface of the small water droplets, halide anions can be converted into halogen atoms by absorption of light and the air—water interface serves to increase certain reaction probabilities. One example is the oxidation of Cl− and Br− by OH radicals or O₃ that can occur at the air—water interface, with mechanisms different from those in the bulk phase, leading to natural ozone depletion in the stratosphere. The discovered in our work stable [Cl₂(H₂O)₃₆]2− and [Cl2(H2O)40]^2− clusters are greater than 1 nanometre, so they represent water nanodroplets doped with chlorides and can be thoroughly studied with the use of quantum chemistry. Thus it might be helpful in understanding the fundamental properties of aerosols, which remain among the largest uncertainties in climate science.

Theoretical Chloride Clusters to Help Chemical Engineers and Geochemists :: ChemViews Magazine :: ChemistryViews.

The potent anti-inflammatory agent Simferopol is contraindicated with high blood pressure medications, including Sevastopol and in particular their Cr salts.

Is it true? Rust never sleeps. Too many nightmares, too much existentialist angst…

HBO’s True Detective could become this year’s Breaking Bad, with the “action” set in Louisiana rather than New Mexico and infamous crystal meth makers Walter and Jesse substituted for two dour homocide detectives, philosophical and depressive alcoholic Rust Cohle (Oscar-winning Matthew McConaughey, 44) and filandering senior partner Martin Hart (Dave Bradley lookalike [my sister says] Woody Harrelson, 52) hunting an apparently diabolistically inclined serial killer. Rust is never without his giant notebook, his sketchy pencil and his affinity for booze. Something else he is never without are the dark secrets of his past and his glass most definitely not even half full outlook:

He’s right, by the way, we are but star dust, human consciousness may well be some kind of evolutionary adaptation rather than an artefact, but we are rendered from meat, are self aware but for the blinking of an eye and the dust to which we return, though stellar in its origin, will suffer the ultimate entropic heat death of everything else in this vast, wondrous, yet godless, and unimaginable universe. I think therefore I am, yeah, so what? Despite outward appearances, True Detective is rather witty.

One of our local villages did some very worthwhile fundraising to buy a public defibrillator. From the picture on the Cambridge News site, it looks like they opted for an iPad AED from Korean company CU Medical Systems. Now, that’s all well and good, and well done on their part for the cash raised, but isn’t there likely to be some confusion, given the existence of the Apple tablet computer called an iPad?

I don’t know who had the trademark on iPad first, although CU Medical has various formats on its website for its IPAD, I-PAD products. IPAD, apparently stands for “intelligent Public Access Defibrillator”. This is something of a trademark #fail, surely?

There are several issues. Are people buying this particular brand because they think it has something to do with Apple? When they search for replacement batteries on eBay or elsewhere are they coming unstuck when they receive a unit for the Apple product rather than their defib? Is there confusion in the application of the device where members of the public might otherwise assist a heart patient but are concerned that they didn’t bring their Apple iPad with them? Moreover, there were reports a while back that the magnets in an Apple iPad could “switch off” implanted defib devices (see Forbes for example).

Maybe I’m overthinking this, but a medical first responder friend had similar qualms. Of course, the trademark people might argue that these products do not share the same commercial space, but there is overlap when it comes to them both being electronic devices and requiring batteries and the use of the word “intelligent” might lead people to draw the wrong conclusions about whether they need an Apple iPad to use the defib.

Now, there are lots of companies that use other people’s acronyms, I’ve seen “Bert’s Building Corporation” (BBC) vans driving around these here parts and there’s a pet fish company called NASA (Nellie’s Aquatic Services and Accessories) I’m sure. They’re not likely to ever be confused with their larger institutional counterparts in media, rocket science and telescopes though? If CUM made “iPads” before Apple, then there needs to be a discussion between their lawyers, if there hasn’t already been one, and one of the parties involved needs to come up with an alternative name for their device, methinks. I wonder how people in Poland get on with the http://ap.pl website, which seems to be selling Apple products and other stuff…although http://a.pl is a delicatessen.

iPad defibrillator.