We are still in the stoneage of green technology and I hope it’s not too late yet. But how long will it take to make people aware how to save themselves? Science is only as effective as it is accepted by us and supported by laws and the industry.

Joseph Niepce took this picture 1826. Wow!

Mankind has long feared lunar and solar eclipses. Often these events lead to fear and religious madness.

But it has to be said that a few wise man figured it all out and recognized that these were natural and predictable events (from Wikipedia):

Ancient Greek astronomers noticed that during lunar eclipses the edge of the shadow was always circular; they thus concluded that the Earth was spherical. In 499, Indian mathematician Aryabhata gave accurate calculations for both the solar eclipse and lunar eclipse. In 1504, while stranded on Jamaica, Christopher Columbus “predicted” a lunar eclipse (actually, he knew from celestial tables that he had brought with him that a lunar eclipse was to occur on February 29 of that year), thereby intimidating the island’s natives into continuing to provision him and his men and thus saving them from death by starvation.

Today we simply enjoy the spectacle! This weeks solar eclipse images: BBC and of course the corresponding Flickr Group

BBC News: Cement makers come clean 

Cement is one of our oldest building materials - it was already known and used by the Romans. By cement releases a lot of heat and CO2 while hardening. Cement makers hope to reduce the emissions and create a greener cement.

Excellent!

There is still so much that can be improved - like semitransparent concrete. I think this could be a great energy saver for industrial buildings. Great idea!

Where no man has gone before! Apes always led the way - we just followed. They test our medicine, they have to test our vehicles and even fly into outer space for us.

More? Ape-O-nauts.org

BBC News: Diet choices ‘written in genes’

Not you choose what to eat, but your cravings and your DNA have something to say about that as well. But it’s still no excuse to eat only crap. We might not have a completely free will - but we are not just mindless eating machines at all.

Every few weeks you can read about some new form of bacteria or virus getting immune against medical defenses. Penicillin ain’t the big cure it used to be. More and more little buggers get resistant - and we actually help them. Hospitals turn out be excellent breeding and training grounds. All kind of diseases, people and dugs meet for a big get together and exchange of ‘code’. Since evolution does happen - sometimes at an alarming rate - these buggers already kills thousands of people every year.

The big fear and real possibility is that one of these days one of them leaves the ‘lab’ and visits us all. If it’s just an influenza virus that would be bad enough - but it could also be something more lethal.

The thing about genetics that scares me most is that we could create creatures only serve our weird social and emotional needs. It’s already bad enough that we slaughter, abuse and eat most of them anyway. Cats and dogs should be enough for emotionally deprived humans.

source: humandescent.com

Who killed the electric car? Please go and visit the website of this upcoming documentation. What an amazing site and what a chilling insight into the workings of car manufacturers and oil magnates. The go and buy a big gun and shot the bastards!

Make also sure to watch the trailer first to get into the story.

A highly interesting article over at the Scientific American Mind. Neurosciene is still very young, we hardly know how our brains and minds work.

Overall reproduction and the spreading of our genes dictates how we select partners. Most people think we are mostly turned on by money, full lips, big tits and fat wallets. But our quest for good partner goes much deeper.

But we also sniff out compatible partners: we can judge by the smell of a person if their genetic code gives our offspring’s a greater variety and therefore a better chance for survival. The greater the variety the sexier the smell.

So perfume may help a bit to enhance your chances, but overall you can’t hide your genetic code/small forever.

Although we have used wind for a long time, I don’t think it will play a huge role in our future. Windfarms are hard to build and work only in certain areas. Solar collectors are much easier to install and work even in less sunny areas.

Ok, the magnetic poles will change or even flip in the next few decades. But I am wondering if this will have other and nastier consequences then just making your compass useless.

Today we save all data on magnetic media. Can you imagine a global wipe out? What about the magnetic field that protects us? It would be pretty nasty if it would weaken or even fail during any changes.

Galactic Roast Beef anyone?

I find this old idea that animals have no emotions or a soul is very disturbing. I can’t guarantee that a dog’s soul will go to heaven, but anyone who ever handled an animal know that they have feelings too.

They certainly feel pain - and many animals like Elephants, Wolfs, Chimps and Dolphins have shown that they have a very rich social life as well. And there is no social life without relationships and feelings - no matter how primitive they are compared to ours.

Anyone how owns a pet like a dog or cat has seen them dreaming and do strange stuff while sleeping …

From the BBC:

Praying for patients undergoing heart operations does not improve their outcomes, a US study suggests.

A study found those who were prayed for were as likely to have a setback in hospital, be re-admitted, or die within six months as those not prayed for.

The Duke University Medical Center study of 700 patients, in the Lancet, said music, image and touch therapy did appear to reduce patients’ distress.

Heart experts said patients could benefit from feeling more optimistic.

Image: Sassoferrato - The Virgin in Prayer

Medicine has made huge advances in the last 100 years - compared to all centuries before today we can heal terrible diseases and injuries - and even replace parts of our bodies. Amazing!

More? How artificial hearts work

I love you.
I love YOU.
I love you.

Please repeat forever in random order.

It’s amazing how the most sophisticated brain on this planet gets pretty limited by the right cocktail or hormones and mental stimulation. Some brain scientists have compared brains in love to serious conditions of mental illness, because it’s often over stimulated and highly stressed. Happiness overkill. But the ‘good’ news is, that no body can keep up that high outpouring of internal chemicals - so the stress will go away and your subject of desire will turn into a normal human and so will you.

Wikipedia entry

The first of 41 satellites. One of the greatest achievements of mankind and one of the greatest PR move ever! America was shocked out of it’s wits by the Russian Beeper in space.

Some videos from that time: Russian Show reel, Dutch report, American reel and great BBC dramatization.

Happy Sputnik day!

I still find it highly amusing that a scientist from the Soviet era ‘discovers’ the conditioning reflex. Somehow rulers and animals trainers / breeders knew this before. But as a scientist he at least ‘proved’ it’s existence and documented it. Oh well …

From Wikipedia:

In the 1890s, Pavlov was investigating the gastric function of dogs by externalizing a salivary gland so he could collect, measure, and analyze the saliva produced in response to food under different conditions. He noticed that the dogs tended to salivate before food was actually delivered to their mouths, and set out to investigate this “psychic secretion”, as he called it. He decided that this was more interesting than the chemistry of saliva, and changed the focus of his research, carrying out a long series of experiments in which he manipulated the stimuli occurring before the presentation of food. He thereby established the basic laws for the establishment and extinction of what he called “conditional reflexes” — i.e., reflex responses, like salivation, that only occurred conditional upon specific previous experiences of the animal. These experiments were carried out in the 1890s and 1900s, and were known to western scientists through translations of individual accounts, but first became fully available in English in a book published in 1927.

Pavlov was a dextrous operator who was compulsive about his working hours and habits. He would sit down to lunch at exactly 12 o’clock, he would go to bed at exactly the same time each evening, would always feed his dogs at exactly the same time each night and he would always leave Leningrad for Estonia on vacation on the same day each year. This behavior changed when his son Victor died in the White Army — after which he suffered from insomnia.

Unlike many pre-revolutionary scientists, Pavlov was highly regarded by the Soviet government, and he was able to continue his researches until he reached a considerable age. Pavlov himself was not favorable towards Marxism, but as a Nobel laureate he was seen as a valuable political asset, and as such was lavishly funded. After the murder of Sergei Kirov in 1934, Pavlov wrote several letters to Molotov criticizing the mass persecutions which followed and asking for the reconsideration of cases pertaining to several people he knew personally. In later life he was particularly interested in trying to use conditioning to establish an experimental model of the induction of neuroses. He died in Leningrad. His laboratory in St Petersburg has been carefully preserved.

From BBC News: A method of creating super-nutritious but flatulence-free beans has been developed by scientists. Beans are a cheap and key source of nutrition especially in the developing world, but many people are thought to be put off by anti-social side-effects.

A Venezuelan team says fermenting beans with certain friendly bacteria can cut the amount of wind-causing compounds, and boost beans’ nutritional value. The research appears in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Flatulence is caused by bacteria that live in the large intestine breaking down parts of food - such as soluble fibre - that have not been digested higher in the gut .

So - no reason anymore to blame your dog for anything!

BBC News:  Pedophiles’ brains ‘different’

We have just begun to understand ourselves, how our brains and our minds work. Psychology and neuro sciences are pretty young.

Chemical imbalance, a small injury or a tumor can totally change your personality - your desires and moral judgement.

I think neither our justice system or society care about these insights. We often consider terrible things like Pedophilia a choice. In some cases it might be - but we are all slaves to our brains. Even ‘normal’ people can totally run amok when their brains get whacked.

We need more science on this, better laws and understanding of ourselves. In this area there are no simple answers.

Well, finally science has something to say about the conservative mindset or brains. They are really limited according to a new study of the New York University and UCLA:

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

…

Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.

So why are these people allowed to vote - if they have such a hard time to adopt to change and new situations? In an ever changing world we need leaders (and voters) that can cope with change!

Another great link from Ed. Check out if your brain is more arty-farty or logical. (I am actually not sure if that rotation test is enough, but try it for yourself.)

Or maybe try the longer and more serious BBC Brain Sex Profile test?

Ed sent me this great link: BBC Global Dimming (from 2005). A great documentation about the complexity and effects of climate change. This one concentrates less on CO2 and Methane (the usual suspects) but simply on dirt & dust in the atmosphere.

Here is a more scientific Wikipedia link for some more background information. As usual with BBC stuff: highly recommended.

Thanks Ed!