Homely Scientist

In 1867 nanomachines where first theorized and the first was "Maxwell’s Demon".  In 1867 you couldn’t work with things on the molecular or sub-molecular scale (that’s really, really small).  Times have changed and Maxwell’s Demon has inspired a real nanomachine (via Engadget and Yahoo News):

Regardless of their personal differences, David Leigh has borrowed an idea from 1867 in crafting "a minuscule motor that could lead to the creation of microscopic nanomachines," and while he credits the "Maxwell’s Demon" as its inspiration, he hopes these plans will actually lead to something substantial. The bantam motor is entirely solar-powered, and has been …read more

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I never thought about it, but making the components for concrete is a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.  I  know!  Shocking!  A News.com piece opened my eyes to this problem:

As a result, Ulm and Constantinides believe that it may be possible to make concrete out of different materials and processes. Concrete is currently made by heating limestone (calcium, carbon and oxygen) and clay (silicon, aluminum and other materials) to high temperatures (1,500 degrees Celsius). The process generates significant amounts of carbon dioxide.Replacing the calcium from limestone with another material such as magnesium could conceivably lead to lower processing temperatures, …read more

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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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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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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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You might think finding more planets out there in space would be easy right?  Just look for them.  Not really.  In the great scheme of things, planets are pretty small.  So once you get to the outer reaches of even our solar system you have to look for the indicators of planets.  Things like effects on orbits and something passing in front of something larger.  Huh?  When a planet passes in front of its star, well that can be seen.  Kinda.  If the planet is big enough.
Since the confirmation of the discovery of the first exoplanet in 1995, more than …read more

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