That exciting discovery by NASA I posted about earlier, the one annoucing discovery of a microbe that could use arsenic instead of phosphorus to build the backbone of its DNA? Maybe it was just crappy research:
As soon Redfield started to read the paper, she was shocked. "I was outraged at how bad the science was," she told me.
This week's winner of the "Do as I say, not as I do" award is Ted Turner, savior of Earth and father of five:
Today's "Well, duh" story:
If you've ever wondered why it's hard to stay on a diet, consider this observation from Ralph DiLeone, a brain scientist at Yale University: "The motivation to take cocaine in the case of a drug addict is probably engaging similar circuits that the motivation to eat is in a hungry person."
Wow. News from NASA:
The space boffins have found a bacterium living in an arsenic lake near California's Yosemite National Park.
The finding is important because the bacterium uses arsenic in place of phosphorus - an element previously considered vital for all forms of life.
If there can be life without phosphorus then there are thousands more planets which could sustain life of some sort.
It's tough enough trying to figure out whether we're getting a bargain or getting screwed in the marketplace. Now, the Better Business Bureau warns that we should study carefully the claims of "green" companies who say they're helping the environment while making a profit from us:
Bah, humbug. Scientists in Britain have done a study showing that age 52 is when adults become "more grumpy than happy":
It is then that both men and women begin to suffer a sharp decline in their sense of humour and get increasingly grumpy, according to scientists at the University of Glamorgan.
Rats. This would happen during the week when my starship is in the shop:
Astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable planet of similar size to Earth in orbit around a nearby star.
A team of planet hunters spotted the alien world circling a red dwarf star called Gliese 581, 20 light years away.
(Via an IU news release) The September 2010 issue of the Indiana Magazine of History examines Indiana's unfortunate role in the eugenics movement of the early 20th century. One article by Jennifer Burek Pierce examines John H. Hurty, a Hoosier health pioneer and leading eugenics proponent. He left a positive legacy of improved public sanitation and health practices. But:
I think there have probably been times when, numbed with fatigue, I have said something like, "Man, I'd kill for a cup of good coffee right now." But I really didn't mean it -- honest:
A Kentucky man accused of strangling his wife is poised to claim excessive caffeine from sodas, energy drinks and diet pills left him so mentally unstable he couldn't have knowingly killed her, his lawyer has notified a court.
Under Indiana law, prosecutors can't seek the death penalty against Andrew Conley of rural Ohio County because he was only 17 when he killed his 10-year-old brother.
