14
POPSA new hobby- Biohackers interesting story, i find it pointing to the shifting balance of knowledge, from central locations to the periphery. it is A big change. the high level of availability enables an individual somewhere to make a difference.
12
POPSRethinking science and religion "But at the same time, we have uncovered profound mysteries - dark matter and dark energy, for example, 95 percent (!) of the cosmic order but of unknown character - and these awaken a tangible sense of humility: We do not know it all. Today, religious people have cause to rejoice. The god of the gaps may be dead, but spiritual life is reinvigorated because God is no longer just the perfunctory explanation for mystery. God is the author of wonder." i think that behind science wonder exists, its parallel in religion is bewilderment.
11
POPSBiological clock... Interesting account from a female point of view on how the biological clock is perceived. Is it the most basic of human experience? i am not sure.
18
POPSAntarctic peninsula marine life The first comprehensive inventory of sea and land animals around the South Orkney islands off the tip of the Antarctic peninsula has revealed a region rich in biodiversity, with more species than the Galapagos
18
POPSSexual strategies Breaking it down to the genes and fertility percentages does create a nice twist sometimes to the world of sex, and being a human. ;-)
11
POPS'Supermice' who can resist cancer and age almost half as fast as normal "By simultaneously increasing the amounts of telomerase and the resistance to cancer we are able to delay ageing in mice and also to extend their life span by 40 per cent," said Maria A. Blasco, from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), who carried out the study with colleagues from Valencia University. "These mice get to live for as long as the eldest mice in records of the same kind. "If we were to parallel it to humans, then it would mean reaching 120 years of age and also to start ageing much later in life." Now the question is what will we do in the added time?
9
POPSCyborg is possible A very interesting direction, augmenting the bodily capabilities, the interface of biology and technology takes a step further.
10
POPSAlife, i.e. artificial life ahead "Just as 19th-century engineers studied the flight of birds and dreamed of being airborne, he says, so today's computer engineers marvel at the intelligence in all forms of life and contemplate the potential of more efficient computation." It may be sooner that expected, are we ready for it? does it matter? I think it does. I think we as a human society much put more effort in thinking the future ahead of us.
8
POPSBiologically inspired unique design Wow, that would be the day... the idea of taking 2 concepts (e.g. biology, technology) and paralleling them is nice. The kissing borders may yield anew synthesis
10
POPSDecoding the sense of smell In future work, the team plans to work with researchers worldwide, including MIT's Media Lab and Department of Biology, to develop a portable microfluidic device that can identify an array of different odors. Such a device could be used in medicine for the early diagnosis of certain diseases that produce distinctive odors, such as diabetes and lung, bladder and skin cancers, Zhang said. There are also a wide range of industrial applications for such a smell-based biosensing device, he said. One application i can think of is developing an antidote for smelly things, people etc.. :)
6
POPSGames and reality, Which affects which? on the other hand, "some biologists think the game could have educational value just by making users think about science, like an entertaining hook into evolutionary biology." "Ultimately, games are made to engage the people who play them. Provoking wonderment or debate is a good thing. Wright abstracts grandiose topics, and he does it well. Not enough game designers have the stones or the vision to try the same, which is why we get battered with endless versions of Madden NFL (also put out by Electronic Arts). In the end, that's also why Spore leaves such an impression. It's more than just fun. It's worth arguing about."
11
POPSBacteria-human communication I think this double face of the pim gene, points to cellular levels where bacteria and human cell communicate and regulate co- benefitial existence. some say that the importance of this connection goes even beyond mere protection and peaceful co existence. interesting...
8
POPSA man made "plague" to treat a plague It's a new concept, that looks very promising. pre treating the disease, by infecting the carriers, mosquitos, with a virus which is harmless for humans. Very interesting!
5
POPSA friend or a crow ?-) "After their experiments on campus, Marzluff and his students tested the effect with more realistic masks. Using a half-dozen students as models, they enlisted a professional mask maker, then wore the new masks while trapping crows at several sites in and around Seattle. The researchers then gave a mix of neutral and dangerous masks to volunteer observers who, unaware of the masks' histories, wore them at the trapping sites and recorded the crows' responses. The reaction to one of the dangerous masks was "quite spectacular," said one volunteer, Bill Pochmerski, a retired telephone company manager who lives near Snohomish. "The birds were really raucous, screaming persistently," he said, "and it was clear they weren't upset about something in general. They were upset with me."
9
POPSThe math of elephants I find it remarkable; it points that the definition we use for what is intelligence and how is it distributed, must evolve.
12
POPSIs it so different? "After the female deposits her unfertilized eggs into the male, the outer shell of the eggs breaks down, and tissue from the male grows up around the eggs in the pouch. After fertilizing the eggs, the male closely controls the prenatal environment of the embryos in his pouch. The male keeps blood flowing around the embryos, controls the salt concentrations in the pouch, and provides oxygen and nutrition to the developing offspring through a placenta-like structure until he gives birth." " in some species of pipefish, the sex roles are reversed because males become pregnant and there is limited brood pouch space. So females compete for access to available males, and thus secondary sex traits (such as brightly colored ornamentation) evolve in female pipefish instead of males."
Newest Clips
see Newest Clips
2
Latest Pops
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Tags
Print
Save
Turn on live update