TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[Stanley]

That looks like a win-win situation Bodge.....

[Tizer]

They can have all the stacks of tyres that are lying around on farms near us! It sounds useful for getting rid of the tyres but I can't tell from the report how adding it to diesel reduces emission of nitrogen oxides and particulates.

Here's a brownie point for the UK...
`UK schoolboy corrects Nasa data error' LINK
"A British teenager has contacted scientists at Nasa to point out an error in a set of their own data. A-level student Miles Soloman found that radiation sensors on the International Space Station (ISS) were recording false data. The 17-year-old from Tapton school in Sheffield said it was "pretty cool" to email the space agency. The correction was said to be "appreciated" by Nasa, which invited him to help analyse the problem...."

[Tizer]

New findings from the last NZ earthquake and some stunning pictures...don't miss the cows in the video at the end of the web page.
Kaikoura: 'Most complex quake ever studied'

[Cathy]

I watched a doctor on TV this morning talking about a new Anti-Ageing Drug. He described it as 'revved up vitamin B3' (niacin). It has been tested on mice and is now about to be tested on humans. The doctor said that hopefully it will be available in about 2 yrs time.
The benefits that the mice tests showed are 20% more energy and rejuvenation of all cells in the body including skin so that you look younger.
I did a bit of research on-line and it said that too much niacin can cause some unpleasant side-effects so hopefully by the time (if) it is offered to the general public they will have ironed out any side-effect problems.

[Tizer]

Was the doctor a very young-looking 90-year-old, Cathy?

[Cathy]

No but he was definitely enthusiastic about it, and the show presenters said that the whole crew had been asking him questions.
I wrote a few notes down, and now I just have to remember to research it again in a couple of years time... Haha.

[Stanley]

They could be on to something Cathy. After all the biggest factor in ageing well is eating the right grub!

[Tizer]

`Manipulating Light with Magnetic Bacteria' LINK
Researchers have shown that magnetic bacteria and a magnetic field can be used to orient liquid crystals instead of using an electric field. This shows that magnetic bacteria offer an alternative to liquid crystals in display and spatial light modulator technology. The original research paper was published in a journal in November 2016 under the less snappy title `A Bacteria-Based Remotely Tunable Photonic Device': LINK

[Stanley]

Twenty years ago that would have been akin to witchcraft!

[Tizer]

Everything is magic or witchcraft until you understand it. Whoever came up with the phrase `ignorance is bliss' was wrong: it should be `ignorance is hell'. War, poverty and famine are all still major hazards to human civilisation but the biggest danger of all is ignorance.

[Stanley]

And incompetence!

[Stanley]

THIS caught my ear this morning. A new use is being explored by MU for Graphene, making filters fine enough to separate the salt from seawater for desalination. Another example of how innovative our scientists can be if given the chance.
This in a country that is starving education of funds..... Takes some weighing up!

[PanBiker]

Think what we could do if our science was properly funded.

[Tizer]

If enough research funds had been provided in earlier years we wouldn't still be relying on fossil fuels for our energy. But there are too many vested interests blocking the way and too much anti-science activity. The Victorians were more tuned into science than we are now.

[Tripps]

Think what we could do if our science was properly funded.

Difficult to say perhaps that graphene has not been 'properly funded.'

Graphene research

[Tizer]

The article seems to say that funding graphene was worthwhile.

The newspapers have been getting mileage out of this report, but they've done it by a misleading presentation of the facts. They've presented it as a `much earlier Brexit', an earlier `breaking away of Britain from the continent of Europe'. They always fail to recognise (through ignorance or desire to mislead) that the British Isles are part of the continent of Europe. A continent is not defined as the bit of land that shows above sea level, it's the part of the Earth's crust that rises above the ocean depths. It includes the land that shows above sea level and the continental shelf that extends outwards from the land before plunging into the ocean abyss. The European continent ends way out to the wets of the British Isles.

[Tripps]

The article seems to say that funding graphene was worthwhile.

I was commenting on the assertion that it may not have been properly funded. After thirteen years there does not seem to be any widespread application emerging, and the idea that it can be used as an industrial scale water filter is plainly ridiculous. I'll hope for the best, but file it away alongside nuclear fusion.

[Stanley]

David, almost all innovation is 'ridiculous' until the applications are worked out and become common.

[Tizer]

The limiting factor in development of graphene applications at the moment is improving and scaling up the manufacturing methods. In the meantime further applications are being discovered. The work has also led to other new two-dimensional materials.

[Tripps]

Let us hope so - time will tell. I hope I live long enough.

[Stanley]

Cheer up David! Like me, you are going to live forever!

[Tizer]

Seeing the word `octopus' mentioned on another OG topic reminded me of a radio interview I listened to recently about a neuroscientist. At one point he got side-tracked into describing the nervous system of the octopus. Whereas the bulk of our nervous system is concentrated in a large lump of tissue just behind the eyes the octopus system is dispersed throughout the body. This leads to the eight legs each having `a mind of its own' and explains how the tentacles seem to go about their business independently. He told a story of a diver who was studying a small octopus and was `taken on a walk' by the animal. It took much interest in the diver and one of its tentacles attached itself to his arm. Then the octopus became distracted, lost interest and swam away. But the tentacle continued to clasp his arm so the diver allowed it to take him `for a walk': a small octopus leading a large man on an investigation of the sea floor!

[Stanley]

Octopuses have always fascinated us, perhaps this is why. Can you remember the horror films of giant octopuses and squid attacking ships? I have this image of John Wayne as a diver in an old Siebe Gorman suit doing battle with one.....



Reap the Wild Wind......

[Tizer]

The octopus story was mentioned in this programme:

`Daniel Dennett on the evolution of the human brain' The Life Scientific LINK
Daniel Dennett has never been one to swallow accepted wisdom undigested. As a student he happily sought to undermine the work of his supervisor, Willard Quine. Only one of the most respected figures in 20th century philosophy, a thinker eminent enough to appear on US postage stamps. Later in Oxford, he became frustrated by his fellow philosophers' utter lack of interest in how our brains worked and was delighted when a medical friend introduced him to neurons. And so began an intellectual quest to understand the human mind that spans five decades. He has always believed that our minds are machines. And anyone who disagrees lacks imagination, he says. Reading The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins introduced him to the power of Darwin's theory of evolution. And he has, perhaps, taken Darwinism further than anyone, seeking to explain how we evolved from uncomprehending bacteria to highly intelligent human beings. We know humans and chimpanzees evolved from a common ancestor. And that we share 99 % of our DNA with our closest animal relatives. So why would poetry, ethics, science and literature be somehow cut-off or insulated from our underlying biology? "You've given this much ground. Think about giving a little bit more".
-------------------------------------------------------

There's a lot more about the octopus on these web pages: How the octopus works
...including this: "...recent research suggests those arms may have minds of their own. Studies indicate that octopus arms each have their own independent nervous system [source: Mayell]. It turns out the brain may simply delegate orders, while the arm is responsible for deciding exactly how to execute the order. Essentially this means that the brain can give a quick assignment to the arm and then not have to think about it anymore. Scientists tested this by severing the nerves in the arms from other nerves in the body and brain and then tickling the arms. Amazingly, the arms responded to the tickling just as they would in a healthy octopus [source: Pickrell]."

[Stanley]

I listened to that programme as well and was fascinated. Give the BBC their due, they do expose us to concepts that we would otherwise have been ignorant of. 'In Our Time' with Melvyn Bragg is another gem, I never miss it!