Automated ID System for Mass Disaster Victims
Feb 27 at 12:12am by Aileen
Japanese researchers have developed a New Automated System to identify victims of mass disasters. The type of disasters that usually end up with nothing but dental records for identification (if not DNA)… airplane crashes, suicide bombings, building collapses and such, where the victims come in small pieces, usually charred to a crisp.
The new system is a novel dental x-ray matching system that reduces the real-time input of forensic experts puzzling over parts of jaws and improves the accuracy of the results at the same time. Which is of course ‘good’ for the relatives of those victims waiting for something to bury with full honors in the family plot.
Mass disasters happen in this modern world, both natural and unnatural. Nearly 3,000 people died when terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers in 2001, and the grizzly scenes of bombings in the Middle East are standard daily fare on the news. There are also earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and cyclones that kill hundreds or thousands at a time, not all of them found inside a home where it’s pretty easy to guess who they were.
This new Japanese system can make a positive match in less than 4 seconds. Let’s face it - that’s a lot faster than any of us as next-of-kin could identify a piece of jaw as belonging to someone we’ve known all their lives. And that can be a good thing for those left behind.
Link:
New Automated System IDs Victims of Mass Disasters in Minutes
Invitations Sent, Date to Be Announced…
Feb 21 at 11:11pm by Aileen
Will the Candidates Show?
Government leaders, university presidents, leading scientists, engineering leaders, business executives, American innovators have been making the call loudly and with some help from NPR, MSNBC, the New York Times and Time Magazine as well as increasing numbers of other media outlets. Now that both the Democratic and Republican fields of potential Presidential candidates are down to two apiece, it’s time for Science Debate 2008 to happen.
The invitations to the candidates have been sent, the debate will be held at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia before the Pennsylvania primary on April 22. Thus far none of the candidates have responded that they will commit. While we all know that issues of science and technology are usually handled by advisors who have knowledge of the subjects, it would be nice to get a feel for whether the candidates for our country’s highest office have a basic grasp of those issues and a defensible position on policy. Or find out if all they’re good for is to mouth sound bites their handlers feed them.
If you’re interested in what you may be able to do to help convince them, visit the Science Debate 2008 website and sign on. And it wouldn’t hurt to write to the campaigns and request the candidates’ participation while you’re at it.
50 Weird Science Tidbits - 5
Feb 15 at 6:06pm by Aileen
Part 5: Items 41-50
This is the final installment of our 50 Weird Science tidbits, odd factoids and strange-but-true trivia. There are of course more weird things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But these 50 should get you through at least one championship round down at the pub. By the way, the word “dreamt” is the only word in the English language that ends in “mt.” That’s a freebie!
41. Plants Have Family Values Too
Researchers from Canada found that plants can have complex social interactions despite being… um, vegetative. Plants will grow more aggressively near unrelated plants than when they grow near relatives from the same maternal family.
42. The World’s Most Dangerous Animal
The not-so humble mosquito wins this award hands down. Mosquitoes transmitting countless diseases kill more animals - including humans - than any other animal (or plant) on Earth.
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50 Weird Science Tidbits - 4
Feb 14 at 8:08pm by Aileen
Part 4: Items 31-40
More obscure facts and scientific oddities that most people haven’t filed in their brains…
31. How Crowded Are We, Really?
10% of all the humans who have ever lived are alive in the world right now.
32. And You Thought Stillness Was a Meditative Virtue…
The planet Earth travels through space in its journey around the sun at a stunning 67,000 miles per hour, and we’re all moving that fast along with it!
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50 Weird Science Tidbits - 3
Feb 13 at 6:06pm by Aileen
Part 3: Items 21-30
Getting us past the halfway point in this series of things odd and quite possibly unknown, I’m going to go with some odd and interesting plant and animal facts, including an in-development “designer” breed of cat that just might steal my heart away from Maine Coons…
21. Did Tom Sawyer know these were under the raft?
These 7-foot, 220-pound Mississippi paddlefish are among the world’s biggest freshwater animals. Kin to sturgeon, they’re popular sources of meat and roe for caviar.
22. Designer Way to Help Endangered Tigers
Meet the Toyger! Breeding programs began in the 1980s to develop a breed of house cat that strongly resembles the mightiest of big cats. In 1993 Toygers were first registered with the International Cat Association [TICA], and now boasts grand champions. Must. Have. One…
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50 Weird Science Tidbits - 2
Feb 12 at 7:07pm by Aileen
Part 2: Items 11 - 20
In this second installment of weird science facts, I’ll repeat that none of the items in this series are in a particular order of weirdness. Readers are encouraged to offer their favorites in the comments, so that in the end some sort of weird-o-meter ranking applies!
Now let’s get on with the show…
11. If Only We Could Plug Into It!
A cloud to ground bolt of lightning carries between 100 million and 1 billion volts. It can reach 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit - 3-4 times hotter than the surface of the sun!
12. Patching That Ever-Growing Hole
There are lightning strikes somewhere on earth 100 times a second. And every time lightning strikes, it generates Ozone gas. This strengthens the Ozone Layer in the upper atmosphere - you know, the one with the big hole that heightens our need for sunscreen.
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50 Weird Science Tidbits & Oddities
Feb 11 at 10:10pm by Aileen
Part 1: Items 1 - 10
In my surfing journeys through the internet’s reefs and shoals, I’ve encountered some really strange stuff. Factoids hardly anybody knows, about pretty much anything that might turn up as subject matter in a rousing championship match of Trivial Pursuit down at the pub on Thursday night. Some of these are real crowd-pleasers sure to draw spontaneous applause, stunned gasps, and plenty of free beers from admirers.
While there will be ten fun, honest-to-scientific facts or odd theories in each of the five posts on this subject this week, they’re not listed in any particular order on my weird-o-meter. If you have favorites among them, please log your votes in the comments. Eventually we should have a Top Ten!
1. Octopus Beats Grinch, Heart for Heart
The Grinch (that green fuzzy guy who stole Christmas) became an official good-guy when his heart grew three sizes one day. The octopus does even better - he has three hearts!
[Further facts: The blue-ringed octopus pictured here is the most poisonous octopus, with venom that can kill an adult human in minutes. There is no known antidote.].
Attack of the Killer Bee… er, Bee Killer
Feb 7 at 9:09pm by Aileen
Bloomberg reported today that whatever killed the bees last year is back again this year, threatening some $15 billion worth of crops that depend on bees for pollination.
Honeybee Deaths Resume in U.S. Hives cites the USDA’s top honeybee researcher as saying that the effects of continuing Colony Collapse Disorder should become apparent by the end of the month, when growers will see how effective the pollination of California’s huge almond crop has been.
“Colony Collapse Disorder” is a fancy name for an unknown entity, since no one has been able to figure out what’s killing the bees. The bees that have been found (most just disappear) have devastated immune systems, but still no one knows what, exactly, they’re dying of. The US lost a quarter of all hives in 2006 and 2007, and may lose that much or more this year despite the importation of Australian bees to replenish the supply.
Some experts think a virus is responsible, others say that any illness could easily kill bees whose immune systems have been seriously compromised, so it’s whatever is attacking immune systems that is the real killer. Dead bees that remain in the hives are infected with a host of pathogens - “every known bee virus” according to UK’s The Independent newspaper - not just one. Some bees were carrying five or six viruses at the same time, along with fungal infections. That is more likely to be a pesticide or herbicide being used on the crops or on neighboring crops, though others claim it’s just stress.
Some experts in Europe, where Colony Collapse Disorder is hitting Germany hard, are concerned about pollen from genetically modified crops, many of which contain microbial toxins - pesticide - in every cell. If that turns out to be the issue, farmers may end up with restrictions on growing genetically engineered crops in regions where bee pollinated crops are also grown. Research demonstrating that the transgenes in GE crops have migrated to wild plants may make restrictions a moot point, however, and we’ll just have to come up with another way to pollinate crops.
Links:
Honeybee Deaths Resume in U.S. Hives
European Bees Also Taking a Nosedive - Perhaps GM Crops?
Mom was Right! You Are What You Eat
Feb 4 at 5:05pm by Aileen
The scary take-home lesson from the 2004 documentary Super Size Me has some new scientific confirmation from recent research at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, though evidence that a fast food diet leads to liver problems and obesity wasn’t what the researchers set out to find.
You Are What You Eat is about research that found - using mice instead of chimpanzees or humans - that some of the obvious differences between humans and chimpanzees can be attributed to the differences in our diets.
The research was published in PLoS One 3(1): e1504 entitled “Somel M., Franz H., Mueller U., Lachmann M., et al (2008) Human and Chimpanzee Gene Expression Differences Replicated in Mice Fed Different Diets.
They fed lab mice one of three different diets for two weeks - raw fruits and vegetables, Institute cafeteria food, and straight McDonalds junk. The fresh fruit and veggies diet differed very significantly on liver effects of the other two diets, which caused thousands of gene expression changes. The McDonalds mice also got fat. The conclusion?
“A significant fraction of the genes that changed in the mouse livers had previously been observed as different between humans and chimpanzees. This indicates that the differences observed in these particular genes might be caused by the difference in human and chimpanzee diets.”
The researchers also noted that these genes appear to have evolved faster than other genes, possibly because of adaptation to new diets. I could not find any indication in the article that humans who go raw vegan become chimpanzees, or that chimpanzees fed cafeteria food or fries and shakes become human. But it is quite interesting that diet alone can significantly affect gene expression (and evolution). Seems that evolutionary biology may have to include diet-caused gene changes as yet another mechanism for generating biodiversity.
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