http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spleen Behold! The Spleen! These days, one of our less considered organs, though popular enough with medieval generations across many cultures, each of which ascribed it different responsibilities to our humours. The word spleen comes from the Greek and is the idiomatic equivalent of the heart in English, i.e. to be good-spleened means to be […]
Tag Archives: Science
Microscope reveals how bacteria breathe toxic metals (3/20/2009)
http://www.chemistrytimes.com/research/Microscope_reveals_how_bacteria_breathe_toxic_metals.asp Researchers are studying some common soil bacteria that “inhale” toxic metals and “exhale” them in a non-toxic form. The bacteria might one day be used to clean up toxic chemicals left over from nuclear weapons production decades ago. Using a unique combination of microscopes, researchers at Ohio State University and their colleagues were able […]
Ottawa boys invisible invention warns birds about deadly windows – CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/01/21/ot-090121-bird-decals.html Teenaged Canadian bird nerd comes up with a compelling product to prevent window strikes. My old office was a mirrored building in the middle of a woodland – a dark joke for the neighbourhood birds, who would plow into it with sickening regularity, despite the presence of falcon silhouettes. As one poster points out, […]
Scented mist drove vultures from Haile – Local – BradentonHerald.com
http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/story/1185021.html School district officials employed an experimental weapon to drive the huge birds away: The smell of grape bubble gum, better-known by its scientific name, methyl anthranilate. Methyl anthranilate, or – as my friend insists on calling it – “purple flavour”!
White Phosphorus (WP)
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/wp.htm News, tonight, that Israel used Willy Pete during its bombing of Gaza. Doctors treating patients couldn’t figure out how to treat burns that were still smouldering, and Israel finally owned up. One news report on the CBC showed a girl of about 5 or 6 whose thumb had to be cut off, as it […]
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http://threadbombing.com/data/media/2/water_balloon.gif Slow-mo + slapstick = science.
How To Identify A Meteorite
http://epswww.unm.edu/iom/ident/index.html A guide to identifying meteorites. I doubt that I’ll ever stumble across one, but the hope remains. I’d love to find something as beautiful and naturally-made as this:
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Snowflake_300um_LTSEM,_13368.jpg Was about to thumb this down, before reading the clue in the URL. WOW.
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http://faltu.tv/tricks-illusions/491-how-to-turn-water-into-marbles.html This is nifty, but to one as unschooled as I in science, potentially fraught with peril. I don’t care that the demonstrator seems to have made it out with his digits intact – I’m waiting for Frannyy to try it first. If he’s able to report back in a timely manner (i.e. without his […]