Author Archives: curiouscat

Fun Fungi

Fungi, on the other hand, are fundamentally alien.
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Some lurk in the Earth, spreading out over hundreds of acres. Others live inside insects, forcing them to climb to the tip of a blade of grass, so that they can shower their spores down on new victims. Instead of ingesting their food, fungi dump their digestive enzymes into their surroundings and suck up the ensuing goo. Their reproductive cycles are like labyrinths. And of the estimated 1.5 million species of fungi on Earth, scientists have identified only five percent.

Flushed Drugs Pollute Water

Flushed drugs pollute water by Ron Seely (site broke the link so I removed it):

An extensive nationwide study by the U.S. Geologic Survey has found evidence of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics and hormonal drugs, such as birth control pills, in surface waters throughout the nation.
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Whether the presence of drugs in water translates into human health impacts is still being studied. But research has shown that drugs containing hormones such as estrogen are causing changes and deformities in fish and other aquatic creatures.

The World Health Organization indicates that human risk assessments have shown low concentrations of pharmaceuticals in drinking water have a negligible health risk. But WHO points out that long-term exposures have not been evaluated, especially in populations with other illnesses or with compromised immune systems. Also, according to the WHO, antibiotics in water supplies are a potential concern because the most frequently used antibiotics are becoming less effective as the infections they are designed to combat become resistant.

Ocean Warming’s Effect on Phytoplankton

Ocean warming’s effect on phytoplankton:

When the climate warms, there is a drop in the abundance of the ocean’s phytoplankton, the tiny plants that feed krill, fish and whales, according to scientists who say new research offers the first clues to the future of marine life under global warming.

Ocean temperatures have generally risen over the last 50 years as the atmosphere warms. And now nine years of NASA satellite data published today in the journal Nature show that the growth rate and abundance of phytoplankton around the world decreases in warm ocean years and increases in cooler ocean years.

Physicists Find Long Sought Particle

Long the fixation of physicists worldwide, a tiny particle is found:

After decades of intensive effort by both experimental and theoretical physicists worldwide, a tiny particle with no charge, a very low mass and a lifetime much shorter than a nanosecond, dubbed the “axion,” has now been detected by the University at Buffalo physicist who first suggested its existence in a little-read paper as early as 1974.
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“We identified each vertex for each electron pair and we would not accept any electron pair unless we knew its vertex,” he said. “There was a congestion of all kinds of low mass particles, including axions, near the detector. The background has to be filtered out from this congestion in order to obtain the signal of the axion.”

Water flowed ‘recently’ on Mars

Two gullies that were originally photographed in 1999 and 2001, and imaged again in 2004 and 2005, showed changes consistent with water flowing down the crater walls, according to the study.

In both cases, scientists found bright, light-coloured deposits in the gullies that were not present in the original photos. They concluded that the deposits – possibly mud, salt or frost – were left there when water recently cascaded through the channels.

Other scientists think it possible that gullies like this were caused not by water but by liquid carbon dioxide.

Electrical Engineering vs. Computer Science

Electrical Engineering vs. Computer Science:

Once upon a time, in a kingdom not far from here, a king summoned two of his advisors for a test. He showed them both a shiny metal box with two slots in the top, a control knob, and a lever. “What do you think this is?”