taretha - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Bullshit (Score 1) 251

by taretha on Monday August 02, 2010 @07:56PM (#33117918) Attached to: Sex Boosts Brain Growth

Historically, how common is it for scientists to get serious work done when they're in love or chasing hot women?

You might want to talk with Schrödinger about that. A little journey with his mistress in the Alps seemed profitable enough to me to science.

Students, the Other Unprotected Lab Animals 236

Posted by kdawson on Saturday May 23, 2009 @11:53PM from the protection-available-but-not-to-you dept.

theodp writes "Slate reports on the horrible — and preventable — death of a young UCLA biochemist in a t-butyl lithium incident, which led a Chemical Health and Safety columnist to the disheartening conclusion that most academic laboratories are unsafe venues for work or study. It's estimated that accidents and injuries occur hundreds of times more frequently in academic labs than in industrial ones. Why? For one thing, Slate says, occupational safety and health laws that protect workers in hazardous jobs apply only to employees, not to undergrads, grad students, or research fellows who receive stipends from outside funders."

How to Deal With an Aging Brain? 684

Posted by timothy on Saturday November 22, 2008 @08:29PM from the swap-in-hans-delbrueck's dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I'm sure this is something all older Slashdotters are aware of: as I get older my once-sharp brain is, well, getting worse. In particular, I'm not able to remember things as well as I once did. As a geek my capacity in this area was always what defined me as a geek. Nowadays things seem to go in OK, but then leak out. A few weeks later I've mostly forgotten. So, I ask Slashdot: how do you cope with your mind getting older? What's your trick? Fish-oil? Brain Training on the DS? Exercise? Or just trying harder to remember things?"

First Secure Quantum Crypto Network Up and Running 102

Posted by timothy on Friday October 10, 2008 @07:47AM from the all-new-perfect-forever-place-your-bets dept.

John Lam was one of many readers to send in news that on Thursday, "at a conference in Vienna, Austria, as reported by the BBC, a European Community science working group built a quantum backbone using 200-km of standard commercial optical fiber running among seven sites and successfully demonstrated the first secure quantum cryptographic key distribution network. In addition, each of the seven links used a different kind of quantum encryption, demonstrating interoperability between the technologies. To paraphrase, the project focused on the trusted repeater paradigm and developed an architecture allowing seamless integration of heterogeneous quantum-key distribution-link devices in a unified framework. Network node-modules managing all classical communication tasks provide the underlying quantum devices with authentic classical channels. The node-module architecture uses a layered model to provision network-wide, end-to-end, provably secure key distribution."

Hubble Finds Unidentified Object In Space 716

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday September 15, 2008 @01:17PM from the cosmic-dust-on-the-lens dept.

Gizmodo is reporting that the Hubble space telescope has found a new unidentified object in the middle of nowhere. Some are even suggesting that this could be a new class of object. Of course, without actually understanding more about it, the speculation seems a bit wild. "The object also appeared out of nowhere. It just wasn't there before. In fact, they don't even know where it is exactly located because it didn't behave like anything they know. Apparently, it can't be closer than 130 light-years but it can be as far as 11 billion light-years away. It's not in any known galaxy either. And they have ruled out a supernova too. It's something that they have never encountered before. In other words: they don't have a single clue about where or what the heck this thing is."

White House Briefed On "Potential For Life" On Mars 610

Posted by CmdrTaco on Saturday August 02, 2008 @11:02AM from the spin-the-wheel dept.

Veeoh writes "FTA: It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix scientists about the discovery of something more 'provocative' than the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. This news comes just as the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) confirmed experimental evidence for the existence of water in the Mars regolith on Thursday."

Comment Re:What first? (Score 1) 639

by taretha on Wednesday July 09, 2008 @10:40PM (#24128647) Attached to: Ask Aubrey de Grey About Longevity Research

As you can read on his website or in his book, de Grey is focusing on extending healthy life, not on simply adding decades of illness. Most of the approaches he discusses mainly deal with the age-related diseases' damage done to the organism, which seems to be often (if not always) the cause of both debilitating effects and death.

Trees' Leaves Grow At a Cool 70° All Over the World 537

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 19, 2008 @04:51PM from the 73°-is-right-out dept.

biogeochick writes "Ever turn on the air conditioner on a hot day? How about a heater when it gets cold? OK, so we all know that humans act to keep themselves cool, but what about trees? A recent article on tree core isotopic evidence has shown that trees from tropical to boreal forests all grow at 70 degrees. The study, published in Nature by some fantastic researchers (so one of them is my adviser, so sue me) and covered by NPR on All Things Considered, has shed some light on the convergent temperature at which trees perform photosynthesis." Update: 06/19 21:31 GMT by T : I give, I give -- that's 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

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