TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[Tizer]

The UK Government's Chief Scientist, Sir Mark Walport, warns of increasing danger to marine life from ocean acidification, and work done at the University of Exeter is reported (BBC):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29746880
A link on the BBC page leads to an interesting web site called Digital Explorer which has explanations of science for students and for use by teachers.
http://digitalexplorer.com/

[Stanley]

I heard that report as well Tiz. It's frightening the number of instances where there are sow but significant changes that are eventually going to affect us. There are some advantages in being old! Perhaps I'll escape the worst consequences. But then, there is the small matter of the kids.....

[Tizer]

Then you'll be glad that today there is a step forward in avoiding one of the consequences of getting older...the media are excited by the results of an American study confirming that dietary flavanols can indeed reverse memory loss (not Alzheimer's but the more common `age-related memory loss'). The researchers developed a couple of new techniques for studying memory loss: one for 3-D imaging of the detate gyrus, the bit of the brain where this change occurs, and the other for psychological assessment of memory loss. Also the food company Mars developed a new way of extracting flavanols (phenolic compounds) from cocoa beans that made the research easier. These compounds were given to participants in a test drink over a 3-month period.

According to a report:
"When we imaged our research subjects' brains, we found noticeable improvements in the function of the dentate gyrus in those who consumed the high-cocoa-flavanol drink," said lead author Adam M. Brickman, PhD, associate professor of neuropsychology at the Taub Institute. The high-flavanol group also performed significantly better on the memory test. "If a participant had the memory of a typical 60-year-old at the beginning of the study, after three months that person on average had the memory of a typical 30- or 40-year-old," said Dr. Small. He cautioned, however, that the findings need to be replicated in a larger study -- which he and his team plan to do.

Media headlines are shouting things like "A cup of cocoa a day cures memory loss" but the test drink was not `a cup of cocoa'. Chocolate and commercial cocoa drinks have less flavanol due to the processsing of the beans. The new Mars method can minimise this loss and provide a flavanol-rich drink. So don't think a cup of ordinary cocao will make much difference! Also, many other foods contain flavanols and we get them from many sources in a good balanced diet. But at least we are on the right track now. Until this research all the results had been merely statistical correlations but the new work is a direct observation of the effects of flavanols on memory. This is the best kind of research! Here is a report of the work, a proper report, not a Daily Express headline:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 195046.htm

[Stanley]

I looked up dietary sources of flavonoids and found that onions, baked beans and most fruit are rich in them. Don't tell Maz but no mention of greens.... So I may be getting my fair ration!

[Tizer]

You'll not escape greens that easily - they have different healthy components such as glucosinolates, sulphoraphane and indole which have been found to inhibit cancer. Eat lots of brassicas - broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and aim for the dark green rather than light green.

[Stanley]

I shall be cooking spring cabbage today......

[Tizer]

BBC, 12 November 2014
'Twisted light' beamed across Vienna
Physicists have sent a beam of twisted light 3km through the air above Vienna. It is the first time that information has been transmitted outdoors using the "twist" of a visible light beam. This twisting property could allow very fast communication because light with different amounts of twist, encoding separate channels of information, could be sent simultaneously. Reported in the New Journal of Physics, the technique was tested by sending three images of famous Austrians. The images were black-and-white portraits of the physicists Ludwig Boltzmann and Erwin Schroedinger, and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Above the rooftops of Mozart's own city, where the only long-range signal known to the famous composer would have been church bells, his portrait was broken down into pixels and travelled through the night inside a green laser beam.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29953239

[plaques]

What happens when it rains?

[Stanley]

'Twisted Light'. Are there any limits to our ingenuity?

[Bodger]

Good idea ?
Everykey, a US-based technology start-up, hopes to solve the headache so many of us experience in the world of multi-passwords: a wristband that acts as a repository for access to our digital world.

The company says its Bluetooth-enabled device, which features a flexible silicon exterior over a lightweight flexible metal skeleton, “allows immediate access to a user’s password-protected electronics, such as a smartphone, tablet or computer”.

Everykey also claims the wristband can access physically-locked items “including doors, car doors, bike locks and other controlled-access devices”.

When within range of a user’s device the wristband allows the user to bypass that device’s password, or physically unlock it automatically, “eliminating the need for complicated passwords and cumbersome keys”.

Christopher Wentz, Everykey’s chief executive, said the product “utilises military-grade encryption, allowing only you to access your personal property and accounts.

“Like a credit card, you can instantly disable your Everykey if it ever gets lost or stolen,” he added.

[Stanley]

At first glance if it isn't a spoof it's a very bad idea!

[Tizer]

Having one of those on your wrist sounds like an invitation to have your hand chopped off! Note the phrase “utilises military-grade encryption" - I wonder if Everkey is run by the military or police, or gets secret funding from them? It would be great from their point of view to be able to snip one of those off your wrist and get access to your life. Perhaps even reload other data on it then accuse you of being involved in something nasty.

[Stanley]

I've been keeping an eye on the Rosetta comet lander. An amazing feat! Bad news is that it's gone into hibernation because it's in the shade and the solar panels aren't charging the battery. However, before it went to sleep they managed to get it upright and drill into the ground and analyse the sample. There is a chance that as the comet moves in space the sun can get at again and waken it up.
08:00. Only a small thing but I have just heard a BBC reporter say that the lander had gone to sleep because "it could not charge its solar cells". Wrong of course, the solar cells charge the batteries and that's why it has gone into sleep mode. As I say, not a biggie but it signals that the reporter doesn't fully understand what he is reporting on and this is how erroneous 'facts' are propagated. We need precision especially in science reporting.

[Pluggy]

Amazing since it was 10 years since it was launched and has been travelling through space all this time. Must be a pig to remote control something when the radio signal takes around half an hour to get there and half an hour back for the confirmation its actioned it. On top of that as the comet rotates , its only got a communications path part of the time. I hope they get good science from it.

[Stanley]

They reckon they have achieved 80% of their programme and there is still a chance that the sun will get to the lander and charge the batteries. Equally amazing is the fact that they have the mother ship flying in formation with the comet! That's an achievement in itself!

[Tizer]

But once you get the spaceship and the comet on the same path and at the same speed you don't need to do anything else, you can `take your hands off the wheel' so to speak.

[Stanley]

True Tiz but as far as I can make out they have Rosetta in an orbit round the comet and as the gravity is so low they are having to steer it. I watched the programme on BBC4 last night and learned a bit more but oh how I hate the over-enthusiastic and theatrical antics of one of the presenters.....

[Tizer]

But at least it's like steering around a stationary object. What frustrates me is when the reporters keep banging on about how amazing it is to do all this at 100,000 mph or whatever the comet's speed. When you're in empty space with no air, no turbulence, no friction then the speed of a spaceship can only have meaning when related to another body. Two objects close together moving forward at 100,000mph, even circling around each other, are the same as if they were not moving forward at all in Earth terms. But that doesn't detract from my amazement at what the scientists have achieved, it's just the reporters who don't present the story properly.

[Stanley]

I agree Tiz. Most of them have little or no understanding of what they are reporting and even those that do can be seduced by their role as presenters into the over-theatrical mode that TV seems to demand nowadays. The test I apply is to ask myself what my reaction would be to this person if he or she used the same approach in real life? I'm afraid they would come across as slightly weird!
Many years ago I warned a heritage attraction manager that the guides were gradually deteriorating into parodies of their role as interpreters, even old miners and textile workers succumbed. The effort to be 'interesting' and 'exciting' over-rode their native credibility and interpretation suffered.

[Tizer]

Very true, and the people on TV and radio are now `intoning' their presentations rather than speaking normally. Even some news readers are doing it. Another gradual change has been the shift to `judgemental' reporting instead of purely objective; the use of emotive adjectives and adverbs. Every explosion or earthquake has to be "devastating", for example. Murders are "horrific". When I was in technical journalism in the 1990s I attended courses intended for general news journalists and run by organisations such as Reed International. We were told never to be judgemental, it was essential to leave judgement to the reader; the journalists must restrict themselves to reporting facts in an objective style.

Back to science...a new theory on the mechanism of lightning strikes:
`Sun's magnetic field boosts lightning strikes across the UK'
The number of lightning strikes across the UK has been significantly affected by solar activity, according to new research. Scientists say the Sun's magnetic field is bending the Earth's own field, increasing our exposure to cosmic rays. These rays are believed to increase the number of thunderclouds and trigger lightning bolts in some locations. Over five years, the UK experienced 50% more strikes when the Earth's magnetic field was affected by the Sun.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30103561

[PanBiker]

The geomagnetic effects of the sun operate on an 11 year cycle. 2012/13 was the latest solar maximum, we are now starting on the downward slope. From a radio propagation point of view this will lead to poorer conditions on the HF bands for the next 5 years or so.

[Stanley]

I agree about the 'intoning' and dramatic pauses. Remember IDS telling us he was the Quiet Man? The use of superfluous adjectives has even spread to the Weather Forecast.
Didn't I see a report the other day that global warming will also increase the number of lightning strikes because of increased humidity in the upper atmosphere?

[Tizer]

Yes, and it's mentioned later in the report about the solar effects.

Ian's comment reminded me of hearing about telegraph operators in the USA in the 1800s who reported that when there was a strong solar flare they were able to switch off the batteries and still keep transmitting.

[PanBiker]

One of the largest ever coronal mass ejection events (CME's) was this:

The Carrington Event

I mentioned this over in the Amateur Radio Propagation thread a while back, powerful body the Sun!

[Stanley]

I've just heard a scientist from Manchester University on Radio4 talking about experiments on mind control of maggots! I kid you not. Evidently the idea was to find out what the mechanism was that guided maggots to a food source so they tried different methods. Smell turned out the be the key factor and this could be modified by using blue light. I can't find any mention on the web but isn't it wonderful what there is out there to be investigated.
I am reminded of a bloke in Nelson who once asked me to modify some packing tables in his factory. They were packing sterile dressings for hospitals. I noted that all the table tops were jet black and asked him about it and he told me that black surfaces were easier to keep sterile, Funny how we automatically think of white but evidently this is not the case.