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The Science Page


It's time to give up on dark matter

NewScientist May 2014
(The magazine should be available at your local library.)

"but we still have no direct evidence that dark matter exists..."
"Dark matter theorists must fit a made-to-measure amount and distribution of dark matter."
"Dark matter was the hypothesis of least daring... . [MOND] appalled people." (Chown, 2014)
 
Science history from my courses:
You all know the disease tuberculosis, either as a bacterial infection or that thing the main girl in moulin rouge had. It causes lesions in the lungs as a general anemia (that's a shortage of blood cells). Back in the pre-bacteria times when animals could talk and the pope had illegal kids, people didn't know what caused tuberculosis. Most historians believe that the myth of vampirism sprouted from the inexplicable disease. Most people started looking pale, had swollen eyes and coughed up blood. Families where a person died because of tbc, also started to weaken (because of the infection spreading) which people thought was the vampire that was feeding on relatives to replenish the coughed up blood. In the same way rabies could explain the myth of werewolves (which is proposed by historians already).
More a fact but hey...

This one is for the aussies:
You all know that the stomach produces acid. And very powerful acid with a pH lower than 4 which is needed for digestion and protection from many small trouble-makers. For that reason the stomach is presumed to be sterile or so many thought.
In the stomach sometimes lives a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori, which according to his name (pylorus is the end of the stomach) lives happily along your digesting pasta. However it doesn't live quietly as it creates stomach ulcers which are really painful and not that benign. Before 1984 however scientists thought stomach ulcers were generally caused by environmental causes like stress or a bad diet. A lot of studies were conducted to find all the risk factors but none were conclusive enough to point out the big cause of ulcers.
In 1984 Robin Warren and Barry Marshall (both aussies) discovered a weird creature inside the stomach ulcer samples. It was a small germ that they called H. pylori and after dissecting more ulcers, they found the same organism.
When they released their findings, most scientist called it fake or non-conclusive. It went on and on for a couple of years and it finally got accepted after more studies showed the same results. Robin Warren even swallowed the bacteria to prove he was right and afterwards got a bad stomach ulcer.
In 2006 the two aussies both received the nobel prize for medicine. The things you have to do to get the nobel prize.
 
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Let me tell you about a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. It's a small protozoa (difficult name for an animal that is mostly 1 cell) which lives in cats and mostly rats (any warm-blooded animal). It's not really dangerous and it is estimated that 1/3 of the entire population on earth has the parasite. It is dangerous for pregnant women but how and why, you'll have to ask your doctor.

T gondii does have some very strange talents. I've already said that T gondii lives in rats, and everyone know that rats are terrified of cats. It's their nature to avoid and run from predators like cats. If a rat is infected by T gondii that behavior changes. The rat is 'told' by the parasite to start loving the scent of cats. It stops being afraid for cats and starts looking them up and 'loving' the scent of cats. This makes them easier to catch for cats and the parasite can then continue his life cycle in his second host. It's also proposed that female rats are more attracted by the scent of male infected rats, so that the chances of T gondii to further infect more rats are increased.

I already said that T gondii also infects humans and it is hypothesised that it causes schizophrenia and other mental disturbances. Some even say that women are more attracted to men who are infected because of the change in pheromones caused by the parasite. Imagine that we could separate the genes of T gondii that are able to change scents of people and put those genes into cells that produce sweat. We could have skin transplants of armpits to be more attractive to women. Even with the knowledge of the scent mechanism we could construct the best perfume in the world that works every time with each person. Just because of a parasite that you can't see with the bare eye. I'm not making this up, but these things have been proposed by researchers to try to get funding for new investigations for several researches.

It made me think of that movie, perfume without the killing.
 
Ok, another fun fact about genes today.

With the recent developments in science and discoveries in dna, you might have heard about the possibility of choosing what your child will look/be like. Now this isn't yet possible or plausible to happen but the sex of a child could be set.

Now how would you do this? I hope most of you know that humans have two sex chromosomes (chromosomes are sets of dna wrapped together) called the X and Y chromosome. The combo of these two decide if you're a man or woman. If you have XX you're a girl, if it's XY then it's a man. Only men have Y genes so they're the only ones to pass them on. Spermcells thus have either a Y or X chromosome to give to an eggcell. So all you need to do, is find Y-sperms. But how? You can't cut them, or put them under the microscope cause in the end it needs to stay alive.

But you can weigh them.

Ever wondered why it's X and Y and not M and W (man and woman)? Because the chromosomes are shaped like an x and y. That means the X is heavier than the Y cause you need more dna to make an X. The difference is noticable to be able to calculate weight. Separate the heavy from the light and voila instant sex choice (not sexuality though).

Wonder if the x-men are then just a bunch of secret girls...
 
Also, I can't find the article I read, but here. Difficult to believe, but here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light
Note: In the article I read (maybe in this one too, I didn't read it too thoroughly) (the article I read was in Popular Science, if you don't read it, you should subscribe), it's reasoning for not being able to go faster than light is that the particle you could use (PopSci article said that positrons, I believe, I lost the issue with the article) could not be ejected in front of the ship, because the positrons would n't be able to go faster than light, unless they had a warp drive, and then the positrons that make the warp drive work on the positrons that make the warp drive work would need another one, and it'd go on, and on, and on. I was thinking, just go a bit slower than light speed, huh? That's plenty fast until a device that makes FTL travel possible comes out.

edit: also, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive I think that's the idea from the PopSci article I read.

Sorry about all of the edits, but I just had the wonderful idea of putting "popular science" at the end of my search, and presto! here's the article: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-03/warp-factor
 
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Reactions: B_n
Quoting wiki pages for science? Hmm, dangerous. My professor of anatomy showed how of it is by finding five mistakes (with references that were faulty) in 15 minutes. But nevertheless cool concepts!

Another fact for y'all and pretty funny.

I study at an university hospital (however you say it) which has a pretty big campus/facility. Every building get a certain letter according to what it's used for: p stands for policlinic, k for kliniek (that's hospital in dutch) and several others. Since there are many different building they get an additional number so you get p1 to p8 and so on. One building though has an extra letter assigned and it's called k12f. It's the psychiatric ward and research building but why didn't they just call it k12? Well there already is a k12. So why not k13?
Because 13 is an unlucky number.
To prevent anxiety and further problems they named the psych ward k12f. Seems ironic.

Apparently most hospitals avoid using the number 13 and they either skip the number or use an extra code for it. Try to find it for yourself in your next visit...
 
Will_em said:
snip...
Click to expand...

Having been in many old high rise buildings throughout my career, I can tell you that it isnt just hospitals. Most older buildings (and even some new ones) would totally eliminate the 13th floor. So floor numbers would be 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 and so on.

I guess people back in the day, and still today even, dont wanna live on lucky 13!
 
Will_em said:
Quoting wiki pages for science? Hmm, dangerous. My professor of anatomy showed how of it is by finding five mistakes (with references that were faulty) in 15 minutes. But nevertheless cool concepts!
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was feeling too lazy to delete it...
 
Ok, another fact for you science guys.

You guys probably seen jurasic park, world famous and also based on the novels by Michael Crichton. The story is about an entrepeneur who discovers DNA of a dinosaur in a bit of amber where a mosquito is set in.

Now let me explain how one would theoretically make a dinosaur from DNA.
DNA is in essence a code which encodes proteins. It uses a combination of 4 bases (which are represented by 4 letters: A, G, T, C) to make 3 letter combinations which code for a specific amino acid. Amino acids are put into a large chain which folds and forms a protein. Proteins make everything necessary to make a body and such (simplified).
The thing is that DNA code isn't straight forward. It's controlled by proteins who bind on parts to promoted, change or inhibit certain parts. Some DNA isn't even coded into a protein and is what we call an intron: the piece is cut out before it's decoded by the cell.

Now the writer for jurassic park made a fictional DNA code in his first book which didn't make much sense for the modern genetic researchers. Most DNA is conserved and shows certain patterns throughout the code, a bit like every blueprint for a building has an entrance and exit.
For the development of the second book, the author got some help from a real scientist (who I forget the name of) and he created a very good estimate of the code for dinosaurs. The scientist was a great fan and he placed a little secret into the code of the second book.
If you translate the introns of the DNA code into the amino acid sequence letter code, you get a secret message: BRAD WAS HERE.

I'll get the source and info from this later, and maybe edit it more for a better explanation.
 
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