Author: David Bradley

Cobbles

Another interesting hit on the Sciencebase site today: “why silicon is a good alternative to carbon to base a life form on”. Outside Star Trek and Doctor Who, I didn’t think it was. Silicon doesn’t concatenate (form chains of atoms) to quite the same extent as carbon or in the same way and so isn’t able to form anything like the wide array of molecules on which carbon is based (millions of them from simple hyddrocarbons to proteins and DNA).

Saying that, if a computer could evolve from a grain of sand, then perhaps that might be considered a silicon-based life form Meanwhile, support your local “cobbles” clinic.

Systematic name for bleach

It’s quite fascinating to see what visitors to the Sciencebase site are searching for. As you might expect, many of them are after science news articles and related resources. But, occasionally there are some oddities like information on whether Viagra is soluble in water or not.

Yesterday, a visitor hit the site looking for the “systematic name for bleach”. Well, it obviously depends on what you mean by bleach. Sodium hypochlorite is the active ingredient in the common household bleaches that “get right up under the rim” and “kill all known germs”, but there are now several non-chlorine bleaches that contain hydrogen peroxide (more commonly associated with those people who allegedly have more fun).

Environmental Joke

Aren’t we supposed to be cutting emissions and conserving fossil fuels? It’s less than heartening to see a British company that wants to produce even more of the former and use up even more of the latter, by bringing us that much-needed accessory, the personal air-taxi: Flying cars. Maybe I’m being dumb and this is just a sick joke or an ironic statement on our love of personal transport extrapolate to the obvious extreme…

World Year of Physics

What could be more exciting than to follow physicists from around the world as they live the World Year of Physics through the Quantum Diaries? Yeah, right! I hear you yell. But, as a matter of fact, this is a rather intriguing site and it is seriously compelling to read up on what these guys are doing day by day. It’s certainly more of an intellectual challenge to read than the usual baloney blogged around the globe on a daily basis and at least there’s a central theme and purpose to it!

Waste not, want not

We’re rapidly heading to mass panic stations over global warming climate environmental change aren’t we? Are the models valid? Who knows? There are lots of sensible scientists out there who think not and others who think that even if they are, there’s actually nothing our tinkering can do to affect the ultimate fate of the world.

Nevertheless, we could run out of fossil fuels one day, simply because we are using up resources at an exceptional rate, and growth regions around the world are doing just that, growing. My grandmother used to say, “Waste not, want not”. It’s about time we started taking heed of some sensible advice from previous generations regardless of the modern-day climatic received wisdom.

Baby, look at you now!

CERN’s Sir Tim Berners-Lee, father of the world wide web, has been honoured again, this time being named Greatest Briton 2004. Definitely a worthy recipient of the 25,000 pounds prize!

But, look at what his hyperlinking idea spawned: a more than a decade-long information revolution from Amazon to the Zoological Department of the University of Zanzibar. Interestingly, TBL never envisaged the Web evolving in the way it did. His original concept was more akin to the interactive blogs and wikis that have sprung up in that last couple of years, where visitors to a page can contribute to and edit pages and add links to other pertinent pages. I’m sure he would have kept the whole thing to himself if he could have foreseen the dot.com hype and the bursting stockmarket bubble of the 1990s.

But, where would we be without his little webby baby? Probably getting a lot more fresh air and exercise, I’d say.

Healthy Fidgeting

More from the governmental Department of the Bleeding Obvious this week. Apparently, fit people, by which I mean healthier people, tend to be more fidgety than overweight people, who sit around and move little.

According to recent research, the fidgeters spend at least two hours a day on their feet. The extra energy they use amounts to about 350 kcal per day enough to be the equivalent of 30 to 40 pounds weight loss exercise a year. The researchers suggest that fidgeting might be down to a genetic predisposition and that those who don’t have this predisposition have a greater tendency to obesity. I told you it was bleeding obvious.

Enough to make your blood boil

Folic acid was the subject of the latest medical scare story at the end of 2004, where pregnant women, taking the vitamin to reduce the risk of neural tube defects in their unborn child, were suddenly confronted with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Coincidence then, that just this week we hear that folic acid might actually reduce women’s blood pressure? It’s almost as if given the panic surrounding the breast cancer scare that a positive result was needed to counteract it. Trouble is the media generally doesn’t take into account the tiny percentage changes in risk and benefits associated with these studies.

So, maybe there is a fractional percentage increase in risk of breast cancer, and a fractional percentage decrease in hypertension. Neither value can shift the more than significant risk of neural tube defects in children whose mothers were deficient in folate when they conceived. The media needs more journalists with a scientific or medical background who can see through the statistical haze, we’d then hopefully avoid some of the unwarranted scare and hype.

Libido inhibitors

According to an article in the New York Times, a drug used to counteract the libido-inhibiting side-effects of Prozac and other selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) used as antidepressants in men and women, has a side effect of its own. Apparently, a female patient taking the popular SSRI Zoloft, was prescribed Wellbutrin to try and resurrect her vanished libido. She reported a rather odd shopping experience to her physician in which she had “suffered” an unusual side effect of the drug – an orgasm that lasted, on and off, for two hours.

The patient was apparently delighted, but her physician was concerned that the drug had triggered an episode of hypersexual mania. However, the side effects have not come again, although the patient’s libido has returned and she is enjoying an active sex life once again. I wonder what she’d make of spray-on condoms and the nasal libido spray.