Comment Re:And why is this important? (Score 5, Interesting) 142
Well, the closer we can get to finding an island of stability, the better.
Comment Re:Sid Mayer's Civilization and evolution (Score 1) 244
In Civilization 1, Darwin's Voyage was a Wonder of the World that gave you two immediate science advances. So yeah, I'd say they included it.
Submission + - Virtualbox 3.0 announces opengl/Direct3D support (virtualbox.org)
Submission + - Daily sex helps improve fertility (examiner.com)
mmmscience writes: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1242-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m7d1-Daily-sex-helps-improve-fertility While fertility studies lately seem to have been exclusively focused on in vitro fertilization [IVF], new data coming out of Australia may help with unaided successful conceptions. The study has found that men who have ejaculate daily produce sperm with less damaged DNA. While such actions decrease sperm concentration, it does increase motility, meaning healthier sperm have a better chance of making it all the way to the egg. Good news, as another report [http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/esfh-cpa063009.php] has found severe chromosome abnormalities in over 90% of IVF eggs, meaning artificial insemination is just now discovering a whole new field of problems.
Comment Re:Just give up (Score 1) 461
No, they'd change Am to BankofAmericium before that, and then make Barium become Bm so that they could have Ba.
Comment Re:WOW! (Score 1) 159
They're looking for Adamantine.
That's a general and/or fictional substance. Did you mean:
a) Adamantium: Wolverine's metallic skeletal covering (fictional)
b) Adamantite: A metal found in the Outlands in World of Warcraft. (fictional)
c) Adamantane: A big hydrocarbon known for its interesting diamond-like structure. (real)
Comment Re:Tricky things, lawyers. (Score 1) 321
Here's an amusing speculation: maybe when they worked for the film companies, they got sick of losing case after frivolous case (looks bad on their record). The lawyers might even have smarted up and thought to themselves that they could stick it to the film companies as a bit of sweet revenge (granted they get paid either way, but I like to think they went into law with a least a shred of dignity and morality).
Comment Re:Screw that! (Score 1) 145
We'd have to change the whole phrase then, in order to be chronologically accurate.
"Chicken for dinner, eh? How is it?"
"Tastes like dino."
"Chicken for dinner, eh? How is it?"
"Tastes like dino."
Comment Re:IAAC (Score 1) 386
He waited until he got to the bathroom to wash his hands? IAAC also, and that means that every door handle he touched on the way to the bathroom probably has some lab chemicals on it.
That said, the worst thing one can see in a chemistry building/lab (or bio, biochem, and any other wet lab) is someone wearing gloves outside of a lab and interacting with the environment. That means everything they touched since they put those gloves on (like nasty chemicals or biohazards) is now spread to public "glove-less" areas. I have a tendency to upbraid people who I see walking down the hall in nitrile or latex gloves. Nothing like touching a restroom door handle and then brushing your nose and smelling something that unmistakably came from a bottle of lab chemicals. It has happened to me before.
That said, the worst thing one can see in a chemistry building/lab (or bio, biochem, and any other wet lab) is someone wearing gloves outside of a lab and interacting with the environment. That means everything they touched since they put those gloves on (like nasty chemicals or biohazards) is now spread to public "glove-less" areas. I have a tendency to upbraid people who I see walking down the hall in nitrile or latex gloves. Nothing like touching a restroom door handle and then brushing your nose and smelling something that unmistakably came from a bottle of lab chemicals. It has happened to me before.
Submission + - Google Releases Chrome v2.0 (blogspot.com) 1
RadiusK writes: Google has released the second major version of the Chrome browser. This version features more speed improvements thanks to a newer version of V8 JavaScript engine and WebKit. JavaScript-heavy web pages will now run about 30% faster. Other new features include form autofill, fullscreen mode, and improved New Tab page. If you're already using Google Chrome, you'll be automatically updated with these new features soon. If you haven't downloaded Google Chrome, you can get the latest version at google.com/chrome.
Submission + - Secrets of the Phallus
ASuitableBoy writes: Scientific American is running an article on the why the penis is shape the way it is.
"According to evolutionary psychologist Gordon Gallup of the State University of New York at Albany, the human penis is actually an impressive "tool" in the truest sense of the word, one manufactured by nature over hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution."
"If you start with what you see today--in this case, the oddly shaped penis, with its bulbous glans (the "head" in common parlance), its long, rigid shaft, and the coronal ridge that forms a sort of umbrella-lip between these two parts--and work your way backward regarding how it came to look like that, the reverse-engineer is able to posit a set of function-based hypotheses derived from evolutionary theory"
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=secrets-of-the-phallus
Comment Re:Element Abuse (Score 1) 103
"At twenty-five atmospheres, calling it an ideal gas is kind of an insult."
(From my undergraduate physical chemistry prof)
(From my undergraduate physical chemistry prof)
Submission + - Linux the size of a plug (nytimes.com)
Guanine writes: "Today, Saul Hansell's Bits Blog featured the PlugComputer: a 1.2GHz ARM compliant processor, 512mb DDR2, 512mb flash, USB 2.0, gigabit ethernet — all in a power-brick sized, wall-plug mounted computer. Is the hardware worth the money?
"The first plausible use for the plug computer is to attach one of these gizmos to a USB hard drive. Voila, you've got a network server. Cloud Engines, a startup, has in fact built a $99 plug computer called Pogoplug, that will let you share the files on your hard drive, not only in your home but also anywhere on the Internet.
Submission + - Life may have originated billions of years earlier (examiner.com)
mmmscience writes: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1242-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m5d21-Life-may-have-originated-millions-of-years-earlier A new theory states that life as we know it may have started much earlier than previously thought. Contrary to previous beliefs, a computer model shows life would have survived a large asteroid event 3.9 billion years ago, meaning life could have started as early as 4.4 billion years ago when the oceans first formed. This theory helps explain the geological evidence of life at 3.83 billion years ago--life which shouldn't have existed if the Late Heavy Bombardment (which threw Kansas-sized asteroids at the Earth) managed to wipe out all living things during its 20-200 million asteroid-happy era.
Submission + - Original cast onboard for Ghostbusters 3 (sffmedia.com)
bowman9991 writes: "Dan Aykroyd reveals that all the original cast have now signed on for Ghostbusters 3, including Sigourney Weaver, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson. Apparently Bill Murray, who holds a one-fifth controlling interest, was very reluctant at first, not even willing to read a third draft of Aykroyd's script. Aykroyd would like to see Ivan Reitman or Harold Ramis direct, wants to introduce a "new generation" of Ghostbusters, and believes they could be filming the new Ghostbuster movie by winter."
