Homely Scientist

From Wired (which has a cool series of on this day … )

1958: Data sent back by Explorer I confirms the existence of a radiation belt girdling the Earth. Because the mission is under the control of one James Van Allen, this field becomes known as the Van Allen radiation belt.
The Van Allen belt is, in effect, two croissant-shaped belts. Trapped within these belts, which run in depth from roughly 125 to 620 miles above the Earth, are radioactive particles capable of penetrating about 1 mm of lead.

Tags: Van Allen belts

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It looks like Hubble’s time of giving us amazing pictures of the universe is done.  The main camera has shut down and, well, fixing it any time soon (or at all) isn’t likely.  From Engadget:

…the main camera on the telescope, which was installed in 2002 and multiplied discovery capability by 10, has entered "safe mode," and NASA has little hope of a fix. A final shuttle-based repair mission is planned for 2008, but NASA already has a good bit on its to-do list, and since the ACS is such a complicated fix, it doesn’t look like the Hubble will have …read more

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You have to love bringing the good old chemistry set into the 21st century.  Come on, foaming test tubes is sooo last century.  DNA is hot man (sorry for you DNA folks, yes I caught the pun … old DNA sequencing techniques used radioactive materials, so they are "hot").  Hsien (our faithful leader) highlights a fun DNA kit for kids.
Can you imagine?  Dad, I need a DNA swab from you, we suspect you ate half of the last cookie ….
Tags: science for kids  DNA

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Saw this on LifeHacker today … nuke your sponges to kill bacteria.

Nuking your sponge at full power for two minutes can kill roughly 99 percent of the viruses and bacteria living inside your little cleaning disease-magnet

I’ve known this for a while, but this article reminded me about it.  Yes, it’s really true.  The reason is that the water trapped in the interstial spaces of the sponge heat to boiling and boil the little buggers to death.  So, yes, being wet is important.  Oh, and don’t leave it in there too long (I think a min is all it takes, …read more

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One of the great science mysteries of the ancient world is the famous Archimedes Death Ray.  The gist is Greek soldiers using highly polished shields to focus the Sun’s rays on an enemy ship and cause it to burst into flame.  Of course, this is based on the always fun magnifying glass and Sun trick (which has caused untold carnage to insects).  Mythbusters tried to make the Death Ray and said it was busted.  Well leave it to geeks at MIT to prove them wrong.
Okay it took some time and they probably weren’t 100% successful, but you know, they came …read more

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If you’re heading out of the solar system, you better stop off at Jupiter.  Or at least fly by.  Jupiter, as it turns out, is the place to get a huge gravity sling-shot boost if you’re heading out towards Pluto and the like.  CBC’s Quirks and Quarks blog explains:

If you’re going anywhere serious in the solar system, visit Jupiter first. You’ll save money and a lot of time. Jupiter is a planetary catapult for space probes, providing a free throw into deep space, such as the one it will give the New Horizon mission to Pluto over the coming weeks. …read more

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From the BBC,

The researchers found the beetle’s shell was covered with ultra-thin scales, measuring just five micrometres (millionths of a metre), with highly random internal 3D structures.This irregular structure, explained Dr Vukusic, was the cause of the beetle’s whiteness.While colour, he explained, could be created through highly ordered structures, whiteness is achieved through very random features that scatter all colours simultaneously."The degree of whiteness given the scales’ thinness is the really impressive thing," Dr Vukusic added."We can create this quality of white synthetically, but the materials need to be much thicker. This could have many applications."

Why is this a …read more

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Grace on flu-patrol (and no, it’s not about chimneys) pinged us SciHealth bloggers this morning with an article to Digg on some new research into the Spanish Flu (aka 1918 flu pandemic).  Sure, why not, always willing to help.  Then I read the post and had one of those OMG moments.  Here’s an excerpt:

In an immune response, cytokines provide the body’s first line of defense by activating further responses and recruiting other immune cells to the sites of infection. Further investigation of the monkeys’ immune system revealed that certain types of cytokines increased to such proportions and became so overstimulated …read more

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Thanks again to Laura for this really cool link (she fessed up she got a calendar for Xmas with a cool link a day).  Ever want to know more about snow and snowflakes than you ever thought possible?  This is the place.  I haven’t scratched the surface of the site, but I’m sure there will be cool (ha ha) projects and stuff to do.
Speaking of snowflakes, on CSY:NY last night one of the CSIs fix a snowflake to a slide with superglue to look at its structure and then be able to set a time.  Okay, I know CSI is …read more

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Thanks again to Laura for this really cool link (she fessed up she got a calendar for Xmas with a cool link a day).  Ever want to know more about snow and snowflakes than you ever thought possible?  This is the place.  I haven’t scratched the surface of the site, but I’m sure there will be cool (ha ha) projects and stuff to do.
Speaking of snowflakes, on CSY:NY last night one of the CSIs fix a snowflake to a slide with superglue to look at its structure and then be able to set a time.  Okay, I know CSI is …read more

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