Homely Scientist

So this post is both a Jedi Knight and Sith Lords kind of science post.  David on ScienceBase is taking issue with the "superheated beverage" phenomenon that is oft reported:

There is an urban myth that has done the rounds for many years that it is possible to cause yourself serious injury by reheating a cup of coffee in a microwave oven and then giving it a stir as soon as you remove it from the oven, thus causing the supposedly “superheated” drink to release its pent up energy in a great scalding geyser. Who hasn’t received the spam-mail describing the …read more

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Sick of cleaning your plastic stuff around the house (like the computer)?  Well self-cleaning plastics might be closer than you think.  From Wired:

In essence, a combination of water-repellent surface (to prevent the material absorbing it) and microscopic surface characteristics that keep dirt slightly elevated (so beads of water can pick them up) make for easy, contact-free cleaning. The hard part is in abrading the material’s surface just so. That’ll require "femtosecond pulsed laser micromachining," which sounds rather like it will cost money.
"The phenomenon of self cleaning surfaces is demonstrated in nature by the leafs of nelumbo nucifera, the lotus flower. …read more

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From ScienceBase comes some interesting news.  Scientists have figured out how to correlate volcanic activity to particles trapped in the Antarctic ice sheets:

Volcanic activity can have serious consequences for climate change as particles and gases spewed out by volcanoes enter the upper atmosphere and change its chemical balance altering how Solar radiation is absorbed or reflected. Now, French and US researchers have devised a technique for determining how past volcanic eruptions could have affected this delicate chemical balance. Their findings could reduce significantly the uncertainty in current models of global climate change and so provide more accurate predictions of future …read more

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It sounds like if you have a gum chewing habit you can put that habit to good use if you chew gum with vitamin C.

It could help. In a recent study, gum chewers experienced less gingivitis-like bleeding than nonchewers, but only if their gum of choice was enriched with vitamin C. Better yet, they didn’t have to chew for a long time to get the benefit

Hmm, maybe I’ll look for some on my next trip into town.
Hat tip to LifeHacker.
Tags: dental health, vitamin c, gum

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Hey did you know if you put grapes in the microwave they will do this:

I know!  Cool eh?  How do you do it?  Read here.
Tags: glowing grapes

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It wouldn’t be early in the month if there wasn’t a SciHealth Theme day now would it?  January is no different.  Yeah a little later in the month than usual, but I think we can be allowed a little break.  Regardless, our theme this month is looking back at 2006 (best posts, summary, whatever).  Angela at Breastfeeding 1-2-3 is hosting this shin dig this month, lots of my fellow SciHealth bloggers already have their posts up.  Since I like to blog in the moment, and my little battle (losing) with insomnia has me up late and sleeping in a bit, …read more

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It’s snowing here today.  This is actually a rare occurrence for this part of Canada.  Canada is, btw, the only country in the world that contains all the major ecozones within its borders (yes including desert and rainforest).  Anyway this post is about snow, actually predicting snow.  According to the Victoria radio station I listen to, they got walloped.  Here on Pender, not so much.  Why is that?  Well snow is one of those strange weather things that is so dependant on external conditions that this is a hard thing to predict.  A little wiggle in the storm track, a …read more

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Gas?  No, not petrol or the like, apple gas.  As fruit ripens it gives off ethylene gas, ethylene gas also helps other fruit ripen too, but how can you harness it?  Simple, a plastic bag.
Okay I bought some green bananas recently (they were on sale).  Way too green to eat, but I also picked up some apples (mmm, apples).  So I put one apple in the plastic bag with the bananas and this morning they are riper (not completely ripe because someone wanted to eat the apple).  It’s really cool.  This whole process can make for a little fun kitchen …read more

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Thanks to Laura for pinging me on this …
The inflatable roof over B.C. Place Stadium has collapsed (CTV)!  This is a developing story, so I’ll update the science on this in a min or two … Canada.com (part of CanWest) has a picture from a towercam of what it looks like (check the CTV story for the "before" picture).
Updates …
Now that the post is out …
Early word (via the radio … JackFM Victoria …) that a panel blew off which, I guess, burst it’s bubble.  What is an inflatable roof?  It is what is sounds like.  There is a pressure …read more

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As a good follow-up to yesterday’s post on middens, is something that I always do when visiting a beach, I look at my feet.  Huh?  Well, what I mean is, I look at what kind of beach I"m standing on.  Sandy?  Pebbly?  Rocky?  I’m not going to get into examining the sand itself (though it is cool if you find a beach made up of crushed shells), but what you’re standing can tell you a lot about how the beach forms, grows, shrinks, etc.
The beach in the midden example (at least above the high-tide line is made up of small …read more

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