Archive
Good tutorials
http://nhscience.lonestar.edu/bioL/animatio.htm
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0072437316/120060/ravenanimation.html
http://juang.bst.ntu.edu.tw/BCbasics/Animation.htm
http://www.medicinenet.com/diseases_and_conditions/article.htm
http://www.nature.com//focus/rnai/animations/index.html#download
http://www.crystalinks.com/paleontology.html
http://www.cdfound.to.it/HTML/at_indt1.htm#t1
http://www.bio.cmu.edu/Courses/03121/mov_anim.html
http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_liquids.htm
http://www.genomeknowledge.org/cgi-bin/eventbrowser?
DB=gk_current&FOCUS_SPECIES=Homo%20sapiens&ID=74217
CEREBRAL PALSY
CEREBRAL PALSY
- Spastic cerebral palsy. Most children with cerebral palsy have spastic cerebral palsy. This form of the condition causes muscles to stiffen, which makes movement difficult. It can affect both legs (spastic diplegia), or it can affect one side of the body (spastic hemiplegia). In the most severe cases, all four limbs and the trunk are affected (spastic quadriplegia).
- Athetotic cerebral palsy. About one in five people with cerebral palsy have this form, which is also referred to as extrapyramidal cerebral palsy. It affects the entire body and often causes uncontrolled, slow movements.
- Ataxic cerebral palsy. This is the least common of the major types of cerebral palsy. It affects balance and coordination.
- Lack of muscle coordination when performing voluntary movements (ataxia)
- Stiff muscles and exaggerated reflexes (spasticity)
- Asymmetrical walking gait, with one foot or leg dragging
- Variations in muscle tone, from too stiff to too floppy
- Excessive drooling or difficulties swallowing, sucking or speaking
- Tremors
- Difficulty with precise motions, such as writing or buttoning a shirt
Doctors and researchers have now identified many possible causes of congenital cerebral palsy, including:
- Maternal infection during pregnancy, such as rubella or other viral infections
- Severe jaundice in newborns, which may be caused by infection, severe bruising or problems with red blood cells due to ABO or Rh incompatibility — two incompatibilities between the blood of the mother and her fetus
- Abnormal brain development before birth, resulting from genetic causes or metabolic disorders
- Disturbance to brain circulation before birth, caused by an artery spasm or blood clot, similar to a stroke in adults
- Babies that are premature or have a low birth weight
- Fetuses in a feet-first position (breech presentation) at the beginning of labor
- Complicated labor and delivery
- Maternal infection during pregnancy
- Health problems in the mother during pregnancy that impair normal blood circulation to the uterus and placenta
- Computerized tomography (CT) scan. Images created with a CT scanner show the structure of your child’s brain, as well as the presence and extent of any damage.
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. The cylinder-shaped MRI scanner uses no X-rays. Instead, a computer creates tissue-slice images of the brain from data generated by a powerful magnetic field and radio waves. These images can be viewed from any direction or plane.
- Other tests. Some children may need genetic or metabolic tests to help rule out other conditions.
- Development of joint deformities or dislocation, if there’s considerable spasticity
- Nutrition problems, if there are swallowing or feeding difficulties
- Difficulty with vision, hearing and speech
- Dental problems
- Mental retardation
- Seizures
- Abnormal sensation or perception
- Urinary incontinence
- Physical therapy. Physical therapists work to help your child reach his or her maximum potential for functional independence through a variety of approaches including exercise, mobility training, orthotics or braces, and use of other equipment. Muscle training and exercises may help your child’s strength, flexibility, balance, motor development and mobility, as well as ease caregiving.
- Occupational therapy. Therapists in this field focus on the development of fine motor skills and self-care skills. Using exercises, facilitated practice, alternative strategies and adaptive equipment, they work to promote your child’s independent participation in daily activities and routines in the home, school and community. They may also address difficulties with feeding and swallowing.
- Speech therapy. A speech therapist works with your child on both the receptive (understanding) part of speech and language as well as the expressive part (talking). Speech therapists help improve your child’s ability to speak clearly or communicate using alternative means such as an augmentative communication device or sign language. Speech therapists may also help with difficulties related to feeding and swallowing.
- Vision and hearing aids. Depending on how severely your child’s eyes are affected, he or she may need eyeglasses or surgery to correct a condition, such as cross-eye or other inability of the eyes to focus together properly (strabismus). Hearing aids may help correct any hearing problems.
- Orthotics. A variety of orthotics or “braces” or “splints” may be recommended for your child. These may be used on your child’s legs, arms or trunk. Some of these supports are used to help with function, such as improved walking. The purpose of others is for additional stretching or optimal positioning of a joint. You’ll need to pay careful attention to your child’s skin under the orthotics to make sure that the skin isn’t becoming irritated. Just like your child needs new shoes as they grow, they may also need new orthotics over time. Your rehabilitation team can help you decide which type of orthotic is most useful at what time of your child’s life.
- Medications. These may include muscle relaxants to ease muscle spasticity and anticonvulsants to reduce seizures. Injections of botulinum toxin (Botox) directly into spastic muscles also may be helpful.
-
Surgery. Children with severe contractures or deformities may need surgery on tendons, bones or joints to place their arms and legs in their correct positions. This can make it easier to use a walker, braces or crutches. Children with severe spasticity who haven’t responded to oral medications may also benefit from surgical procedures.
-
One option is dorsal rhizotomy, a procedure in which surgeons identify and cut a portion of the spinal sensory roots that provide input to spastic leg muscles. Another option is intrathecal baclofen. In this procedure, an intraspinal catheter is placed and connected to a reservoir under the skin of the abdomen. This mechanism continuously pumps small amounts of an antispastic medication called baclofen into the fluid around the spinal cord.
-
These surgeries require careful screening and an expert team of health professionals, including pediatric neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, pediatric neurologists, pediatric physiatrists and physical therapists.
- Assistive technology. A range of devices and gadgets can help with communication, mobility and daily tasks. Assistive technology includes such small things as rails, grab bars, magnifiers, and Velcro grips attached to forks and pens to make them easier to grasp. It also includes more expensive, high-tech tools, such as customized wheelchairs, voice communication devices, computer software programs, and positioning equipment that puts a child in the correct posture to sit or stand with other kids or family members. These devices and gadgets for school and home can make a big difference in the lives of children with cerebral palsy.
- Make sure you’re immunized. Immunization against diseases such as rubella may prevent an infection that could cause fetal brain damage.
- Take care of yourself. The healthier you are heading into a pregnancy, the less likely you’ll be to develop an infection that may result in cerebral palsy.
- Seek early and continuous prenatal care. Regular visits to your doctor during your pregnancy are a good way to reduce health risks to you and your unborn baby. Seeing your doctor regularly can help prevent premature birth, low birth weight and infections.
- Foster your child’s independence. Encourage any effort at independence, no matter how small. Just because you can do something faster and quicker doesn’t mean you should.
- Be an advocate for your child. You are an important part of your child’s health care team. Don’t be afraid to speak out on your child’s behalf or to ask tough questions of your physicians, therapists and teachers.
- Find support. A circle of support can make a big difference in helping you cope with cerebral palsy and its effects. As a parent, you may feel grief and guilt over your child’s disability. Your doctor can help you locate support groups, organizations and counseling services in your community. Your child may benefit from family support programs, school programs and counseling.
- http://www.freewebs.com/earscreening
The Difference Bewteen Abortive and Preventive Headache Medications
Many people who suffer with migraines or chronic headaches take medicines called “preventives” or “abortives”. Or, perhaps they are like me and take both kinds. Until recently, I didn’t think there was ANY difference between an abortive and preventative medication, and I have two college degrees. I was recently set straight by my primary doctor, Dr. Fountain Of Youth Face.
However, if I made the mistake, then perhaps other readers out there in the blogosphere will, too. I’ve seen the terms used interchangeably in medical websites, and I’m sure I’m guilty of doing the same thing on this blog. I’ll be going back through some of my older posts to correct that mistake.
Anyway…
An abortive medication stops something once it already begins. Such a medicine would be Zomig nasal spray, or Imitrex (sumatriptan), which is taken as soon as you feel a migraine coming on. (And remember — an abortive does NOT mean it will give you a sudden abortion. It’s just a name.)
On the other hand, a preventive medicine stops anything from even starting in the first place. In the wacky world of migraines, you would have to take this medicine every day, no matter how you were feeling. Such a medicine would be DHE. Another medication would be verapamil, which is actually a high blood pressure medication that (as a side effect) often reduced the frequency of migraine attacks in migraineurs.
Still, It’s Not A Cure All
No matter if you take an abortive or a preventive medication (or both), you still need other painkillers, ways of coping with stress and to identify and avoid anything that might trigger a migraine. Keeping a headache journal helps you identify your triggers.
Hope this helps.
Science News
Science News
August 6, 2008
Costly By-product Of Human Brain Evolution? – Metabolic changes responsible for the evolution of our unique cognitive abilities indicate that the brain may have been pushed to the limit of its capabilities.
Military Use Of Robots Increases – War casualties are typically kept behind tightly closed doors, but one company keeps the mangled pieces of its first casualty on display.
How The First Stars In The Universe Came Into Existence – Researchers believe that our universe began with the Big Bang about 13 billion years ago, and that soon after that event, matter began to form as small dust grains and gases.
August 5, 2008
World’s Smallest Snake Found In Barbados – The world’s smallest species of snake, with adults averaging just under four inches in length, has been identified on the Caribbean island of Barbados.
Smart Contact Lenses Dispense Medication – “Smart” contact lenses that measure pressure within the eye and dispense medication accordingly could be made possible using a new material developed by biomedical engineers at UC Davis.
Schizophrenia Researchers Welcome New Blood – Researchers from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute are set to conduct a world-first trial into the link between prenatal vitamin D levels and schizophrenia prevalence.
August 4, 2008
NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water – Laboratory tests aboard NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample.
Elephants On Path To Extinction By 2020? – African elephants are being slaughtered for their ivory at a pace unseen since an international ban on the ivory trade took effect in 1989.
Brain Tweak Lets Sleep-deprived Flies Stay Sharp – Staying awake slows down our brains, scientists have long recognized. Mental performance is at its peak after sleep but inevitably trends downward throughout the day, and sleep deprivation only worsens these effects.
August 1, 2008
Mechanism For Postpartum Depression Found In Mice – Researchers have pinpointed a mechanism in the brains of mice that could explain why some human mothers become depressed following childbirth.
Improved Estrogen Reception May Sharpen Fuzzy Memory – Estrogen treatments may sharpen mental performance in women with certain medical conditions.
Watching A ‘New Star’ Make The Universe Dusty – Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer, and its remarkable acuity, astronomers were able for the first time to witness the appearance of a shell of dusty gas around a star that had just erupted, and follow its evolution for more than 100 days.
July 31, 2008
Statins May Protect Against Memory Loss – People at high risk for dementia who took cholesterol-lowering statins are half as likely to develop dementia as those who do not take statins, a new study shows.
Alleviating The Fear Of Falling – Getting old isn’t just about body aches and pains. As we get older, our risk of falling greatly increases. Old bones don’t heal like young ones, and for senior citizens, falls are a leading cause of death.
Saturn’s Moon Titan Has Liquid Surface Lake – Scientists have confirmed that at least one body in our solar system, other than Earth, has a surface liquid lake.
July 30, 2008
The Kids Most Likely To Go Armed – A recent report from Ofted stated that up to one in ten of the most vulnerable youths said carrying a weapon made them feel safer.
Fungus Foot Baths Could Save Bees – One of the biggest world wide threats to honey bees, the varroa mite, could soon be about to meet its nemesis. Researchers at the University of Warwick are examining naturally occurring fungi that kill the varroa mite.
Flexible Electronics With Nanonet Circuits – Researchers have overcome a major obstacle in producing transistors from networks of carbon nanotubes, a technology that could make it possible to print circuits on plastic sheets for applications including flexible displays and an electronic skin to cover an entire aircraft to monitor crack formation.
July 29, 2008
No Gender Differences In Math Performance – We’ve all heard it. Many of us in fact believe it. Girls just aren’t as good at math as boys. But is it true?
Feeling Robots Learn To Read Human Emotions – A robot with empathy sounds like the stuff of sci-fi movies, but with the aid of neural networks European researchers are developing robots in tune with our emotions.
Hip Bone Density Helps Predict Breast Cancer Risk – Measuring a woman’s bone mineral density can provide additional information that may help more accurately determine a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.
July 28, 2008
Older People May Need Less Sleep – Along with all the other changes that come with age, healthy older people also lose some capacity for sleep.
Exoplanet Orbiting Sun-like Star Discovered – A team of European scientists working with COROT have discovered an exoplanet orbiting a star slightly more massive than the Sun.
New Cellular Pathway Linked To Cancer Identified – In the life of a cell, the response to DNA damage determines whether the cell is fated to pause and repair itself, commit suicide, or grow uncontrollably, a route leading to cancer.
July 25, 2008
Balance Problems? Step Into The IShoe – Your grandmother might have little in common with an astronaut, but both could benefit from a new device an MIT graduate student is designing to test balancing ability.
Human Visual System Could Make Powerful Computer – Since the idea of using DNA to create faster, smaller, and more powerful computers originated in 1994, scientists have been scrambling to develop successful ways to use genetic code for computation.
Glia Guide Brain Development In Worms – Again and again, experiments confirmed it. Without glia, neurons die. So scientists who wanted to study in living animals what glia – the most abundant brain cells – do for neurons besides keep them alive were out of luck. But now, a breakthrough.
July 24, 2008
Epilepsy Drug May Increase Risk Of Birth Defects – Taking the epilepsy drug topiramate alone or along with other epilepsy drugs during pregnancy may increase the risk of birth defects.
Micro Air Vehicle Dragonfly Takes Flight – Engineers have made a new tiny DelFly Micro air vehicle. This successor to the DelFly I and II weighs barely 3 grams, and with its flapping wings is very similar to a dragonfly.
Antarctic Was Once Much Warmer – A new fossil discovery- the first of its kind from the whole of the Antarctic continent- provides scientists with new evidence to support the theory that the polar region was once much warmer.
Reflecting On Values Promotes Love, Acceptance – No one enjoys being told that their behavior is harmful to themselves or others. In fact, most people respond defensively when confronted with evidence that their behavior is irrational, irresponsible, or unhealthy.
Using Magenetic Nanoparticles To Combat Cancer – Scientists at Georgia Tech have developed a potential new treatment against cancer that attaches magnetic nanoparticles to cancer cells, allowing them to be captured and carried out of the body.
NASA’s Deep Impact Films Earth As An Alien World – NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft has created a video of the moon transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft’s point of view 31 million miles away. Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds.
July 22, 2008
Heart Attack Not A Death Sentence – Survivors of cardiac arrest who received intensive care can expect long-term quality of life at reasonable expense to the health care system.
Rapid Alzheimer’s Improvement With Novel Drug – New research into the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease reports improvement in language abilities using a novel immune-based approach.
Software Helps Developers Get Started With PIV Cards – The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed two demonstration software packages that show how Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards can be used with Windows and Linux systems to perform logon, digital signing and verification, and other services.
July 21, 2008
Solar Cooling Becomes A New Air-conditioning System – Scientists from the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) have developed an environmentally friendly cooling technology that does not harm the ozone layer.
Vaccine For Koala Chlamydia Close – Eighteen female koalas treated with an anti-chlamydia vaccine are showing positive results, giving scientists hope they have an answer to the disease that is threatening the survival of koalas in the wild.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Linked To Brain Activity – Cambridge researchers have discovered that measuring activity in a region of the brain could help to identify people at risk of developing obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
July 18, 2008
Men And Women May Need Different Diets – Diet can strongly influence how long you live and your reproductive success, but now scientists have discovered that what works for males can be very different for females.
Birds Have A Good Sense Of Smell – Sight and hearing are the most important senses for birds – this is at least the received wisdom. By studying bird DNA, however, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, along with a colleague at the Cawthron Institute in New Zealand, have now provided genetic evidence that many bird species have a well-developed sense of smell.
Phoenix Rasps Frozen Layer, Collects Sample – A powered rasp on the back of the robotic arm scoop of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander successfully drilled into the frozen soil and loosened material that was collected in the lander’s scoop.
July 17, 2008
New Way To Weigh Giant Black Holes – How do you weigh the biggest black holes in the universe? One answer now comes from a completely new and independent technique that astronomers have developed using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Scientists Reduce Alzheimer’s-like Plaques In Fly Brain – Neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) are part of a collaboration that has succeeded in demonstrating that overexpression of an enzyme in the brain can reduce telltale deposits causally linked with Alzheimer’s disease.
Virtual World Is Sign Of Future For Scientists, Engineers – Purdue University is operating a virtual environment that enables scientists and engineers to interpret raw data collected with powerful instruments called dynamic atomic force microscopes.
July 16, 2008
Brightest Star In The Galaxy Has New Competition – A contender for the title of brightest star in our Milky Way galaxy has been unearthed in the dusty metropolis of the galaxy’s center.
Scientists Test Method For Sanitizing Leafy Produce – Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are studying new sanitizing methods to enhance the safety of leafy greens-technology that may result in safer salads.
Mechanism Behind Mind-body Connection Discovered – Every cell contains a tiny clock called a telomere, which shortens each time the cell divides. Short telomeres are linked to a range of human diseases, including HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease and aging.
July 15, 2008
Will Our Future Brains Be Smaller? – The speed at which we react to threatening situations can have life or death implications.
New Generation Of Home Robots Have Gentle Touch – Who doesn’t long for household help at times? Service robots will soon be able to relieve us of heavy, dirty, monotonous or irksome tasks.
New Helmet May Reduce Forces To Neck During Head-first Impact – University of British Columbia researchers have invented a sports helmet that reduces direct impact to the neck by up to 56 per cent, according to preliminary tests.
July 14, 2008
Rare ‘Star-Making Machine’ Found In Distant Universe – Astronomers have uncovered an extreme stellar machine – a galaxy in the very remote universe pumping out stars at a surprising rate of up to 4,000 per year. In comparison, our own Milky Way galaxy turns out an average of just 10 stars per year.
New Mode Of Gene Regulation Discovered In Mammals – Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have discovered a type of gene regulation never before observed in mammals – a “ribozyme” that controls the activity of an important family of genes in several different species.
Brain Cells Related To Fear Identified – The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that in any given year, about 40 million adults (18 or older) will suffer from some form of anxiety disorder, including debilitating conditions such as phobias, panic disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
July 11, 2008
Types Of Genes Necessary For Brain Development Discovered – Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brandeis University have successfully completed a full-genome RNAi screen in neurons, showing what types of genes are necessary for brain development.
Evidence Of Water Found Deep Within The Moon – A Brown University-led research team has for the first time discovered evidence of water that came from deep within the Moon.
Pocket-sized Magnetic Resonance Imaginge – The term “MRI scan” brings to mind the gigantic, expensive machines that are installed in hospitals. But research scientists have now developed small portable MRI scanners that perform their services in the field: for instance to examine ice cores.
July 10, 2008
Sex Really Does Get Better With Age – An increasing number of 70 year olds are having good sex and more often, and women in this age group are particularly satisfied with their sex lives, according to a study published on the British Medical Journal website.
Volcanic Activity Shaped Mercury After All – Scientists have long anguished over how little is known about Mercury, the innermost of the four terrestrial planetary bodies in our solar system.
Do We Think That Machines Can Think? – When our PC goes on strike again we tend to curse it as if it was a human. The question of why and under what circumstances we attribute human-like properties to machines and how such processes manifest on a cortical level was investigated in a project led by Dr. Sören Krach and Prof. Tilo Kircher from the RWTH Aachen University.
July 9, 2008
Whales And Dolphins Influence New Wind Turbine Design – Sea creatures have evolved over millions of years to maximise efficiency of movement through water; humans have been trying to perfect streamlined designs for barely a century. So shouldn’t we be taking more notice of the experts?
Einstein Was Right, Astrophysicists Say – Researchers at McGill University’s Department of Physics – along with colleagues from several countries – have confirmed a long-held prediction of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, via observations of a binary-pulsar star system.
Japanese Encephalitis Virus Causes ‘Double Trouble’ To Brain – Japanese encephalitis (JE), commonly known as brain fever, is one of the prevalent mosquito-borne encephalitis in India and entire South East (SE) Asia.
July 8, 2008
Asteroid Impacts On Earth: A Protection Plan – A century ago this week, an event in far-off Siberia rang a cosmic wake-up call for Earth. That explosive event over remote Tunguska is generally viewed by scientists as a large space rock that pierced through the atmosphere of Siberia, then detonated to flatten some 2,000 square kilometers of trees.
New Antibiotic Beats Superbugs At Their Own Game – The problem with antibiotics is that, eventually, bacteria outsmart them and become resistant. But by targeting the gene that confers such resistance, a new drug may be able to finally outwit them.
Woman Aquires New Accent After Stroke – A woman in southern Ontario is one of the first cases in Canada of a rare neurological syndrome in which a person starts speaking with a different accent, McMaster University researchers report in the July issue of the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences.
July 7, 2008
Agriculture Linked To Frog Sexual Abnormalities – A farm irrigation canal would seem a healthier place for toads than a ditch by a supermarket parking lot.
How Tumor Cells Break Free And Form Metastases – When tumor cells acquire the capacity to move around and invade other tissues, there is a risk of metastases and cancer treatment becomes more difficult.
‘Mind’s Eye’ Influences Visual Perception – Letting your imagination run away with you may actually influence how you see the world. New research from Vanderbilt University has found that mental imagery – what we see with the “mind’s eye” – directly impacts our visual perception.
July 4, 2008
Why Do Great Master Violins Sound So Sweet? – The advantage of using medical equipment to study classical musical instruments has been proven by a Dutch researcher from the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC).
Tummy’s Taste For Red Wine With Red Meat – What happens when red wine meets red meat? If the rendezvous happens in the stomach, scientists in Israel are reporting, wine’s bounty of healthful chemical compounds may thwart formation of harmful substances released during digestion of fat in the meat.
Does This Make Me Look Fat? – The peer groups teenage girls identify with determine how they decide to control their own figure. So reports a new study by Dr. Eleanor Mackey from the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC, and her colleague Dr. Annette La Greca from the University of Miami.
July 3, 2008
Chameleon Spends Most Of Short Life In Egg – There is a newly discovered life history among the 28,300 species of known tetrapods, or four-legged animals with backbones.
Chip-cooling Technology Achieves ‘Dramatic’ 1,000-watt Capacity – Researchers at Purdue University have developed a technology that uses “microjets” to deposit liquid into tiny channels and remove five times more heat than other experimental high-performance chip-cooling methods for computers and electronics.
Men Share Their Creative Work Online More Than Women – A Northwestern University study finds that men are more likely to share their creative work online than women despite the fact that women and men engage in creative activities at essentially equal rates.
July 2, 2008
Artificial Black Hole Danger Is Pure Fiction – Particle colliders creating black holes that could devour the Earth. Sounds like a great Hollywood script. But, according to UC Santa Barbara Physics Professor Steve Giddings, it’s pure fiction.
New Map IDs The Core Of The Human Brain – An international team of researchers has created the first complete high-resolution map of how millions of neural fibers in the human cerebral cortex – the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher level thinking – connect and communicate.
Accidental Discovery Could Enable Development Of Faster Computers – Physicists at UC Riverside have made an accidental discovery in the lab that has potential to change how information in computers can be transported or stored.
July 1, 2008
How Does Language Exist In The Brain? – The La Mente Bilingüe research team that doctor Itziar Laka leads in the Faculty of Arts at the University of the Basque Country analyses bilingual processing of language.
Ancient Oak Trees Help Reduce Global Warming – The battle to reduce carbon emissions is at the heart of many eco-friendly efforts, and researchers from the University of Missouri have discovered that nature has been lending a hand.
Cluster Satellites Listen To The Sounds Of Earth – The first thing an alien race is likely to hear from Earth is chirps and whistles, a bit like R2-D2, the robot from Star Wars.
Science news and Brain Teasers
Anthrax may be ally in cancer war:
* Shrinking helium reserves may threaten more
than kids’ play:
The element that lifts balloons, spirits and voice
ranges also plays key roles in technology — but it
may run out.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/080205_helium.htm
* Did insects take down T. rex?:
A new book fingers a surprise suspect as contributor
to the dinosaurs’ demise.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/080204_dinosaurs.htm
* Search for ET beefed up — with your help:
A search for radio signals from alien civilizations
is set to become 500 times more powerful,
investigators say.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/080202_seti.htm
* Anthrax may be ally in cancer war:
Most people wouldn’t consider anthrax helpful. But
its toxin may someday be a cancer therapy,
scientists claim.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/071229_anthrax.htm
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
THE 10 MOST POPULAR STORIES of ’07:
1. Distant planet judged possibly habitable
2. Human evolution, radically reappraised
3. Drastic diet may extend human life, study finds
4. “King” of star explosions seen
5. Mom’s junk food could put babies at risk
6. On African Island, women choose the spouses
7. “Youth” pills, hawked online, win over top scientists
8. Chimps found using spears
9. Science gives beauty some of its mystery back
10. Brain stimulation “awakens” near-unconscious patient
cenTric 