Aftermath of the Woolsery Footprints
Tracks in the snow have been in the news recently - even on a news site in India, which got a bit confused between the historical event and last week’s event: “The first footprints were recorded in 1855 by Jill Wade, a pensioner who found the hoof-like marks in the snow in her back garden in Woolsery.” (http://living.oneindia.in/insync/2009/devils-footprints-140309.html)
Dragging myself away from other snowy themes such as Max Blake’s footprints-in-the-snow quiz on his blog
http://maxzoo.blogspot.com/2009/03/back-in-early-february-as-i-am-sure-you.html
I took a trawl around some of the other science blogs on the Internet.
Careful what you drink
Researchers in Frankfurt, Germany, have just reported evidence suggesting that estrogen-mimicking chemicals can leach out of certain plastic bottles.
http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/41706/title/Bottled_water_may_contain_%E2%80%98hormones%E2%80%99_Glass
The write-up says that mineral water dispensed in some glass bottles may also contain such hormonelike pollution — and not because it leached out of the glass, but because it was polluted prior to bottling:
“Several scientists now suspect one source might be the plumbing used to move water from natural reservoirs to — and/or through — processing equipment in a bottling plant.”
Ant-homing
A detailed study of desert ants indicates they mainly rely on their sense of smell in navigational matters. Desert ants (Cataglyphis fortis) use olfactory landmarks to pinpoint the nest, reports the Frontiers in Zoology site
http://www.frontiersinzoology.com/content/6/1/5
Fast batteries could be hot stuff
On the wider science front, something that might please us all is the prospect of batteries that can charge in seconds rather than hours. Surprising to find a piece like this in “Nature” rather than a physics journal….
“Two researchers have developed battery cells that can charge up in less time than it takes to read the first two sentences of this article. The work could eventually produce ultra-fast power packs for everything from laptop computers to electric vehicles.”
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090311/full/news.2009.156.html
However, some blogs are challenging the idea. Lewis Page
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/12/fast_charge_battery_bubble_stab/) says the technology’s only proven for rapid discharge and if it were implemented for charging then it could melt your phone. Ah. That’s a heavy price to pay for a 10-second recharge.
And finally…
Kevin Doxstater’s “Scienc-y Saturday” is an interesting round-up of some of the week’s events. He says, “Rest assured that, being the opinionated sort of person I am, I'll pontificate a little (sometimes maybe a lot) when I feel it is necessary, but support my position with links so you can view the facts and judge for yourself.”
http://www.naturalvisionsphoto.com/weblog2/2009/03/science-y-saturday.html
This time out, he looks at (but not through) NASA’s Kepler telescope, and the politics of President Obama’s lifting of the restriction on use of US federal funds for embryonic stem cell research. And fulminates on the ignorance of the general populus, as demonstrated by a recent poll that indicates 47% of Americans don’t know it takes the Earth one year to go around the sun. I suspect the UK wouldn’t fare much better.
No comments:
Post a Comment