Category Archives: science

beliefs, medical, memes, personal, photography, ramblings, science

4AM


4AM, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 39/52 (2008 week 47).

4 AM and I can’t sleep, so I figured I may as well get up for a bit and play.

And as this is week 39 of my 52 weeks “self-portrait a week” I figured I’d do a 13 things as well; so …

13 Things which bore me and which I therefore try to ignore …
1. Richard Dawkins
2. stem cells
3. IVF
4. embryo research
5. climate change
6. Africa
7. elephants
8. whales
9. Lord Winston
10. quantum computing
11. the scientific fetish that life can be only water and carbon based
12. penguins
13. Christianity and Islam

books, medical, memes, people, personal, science, topographical

My Birth Meme

2 Comments

Jamie over at Duward Discussion has laid down a new meme, so I just have to give it a go!

This is what you do:
Go to The Birthday Calculator, This Day in History and/or Google and enter your date of birth to find all sorts of interesting things about what was happening when you were born.
Now tell us about some of these interesting things.
Then, if you wish, tag a few of your friends to do the same.
And post a comment to this post so we know who’s followed the meme.

OK so here goes for me!

Birthday: Thursday 11 January 1951, 1250 PM GMT in University College Hospital, London. My mother has told me that I was 2 weeks early. This means I was conceived in the early days of May 1950.

Astrological Sign: Capricorn

Birthstone: Garnet; said to be a power stone
Alternative Birthstones: Emerald, Rose Quartz.
(Interestingly I’m not so keen on Emeralds, but I love Rose Quartz)

Fortune Cookie: There is no limit to love’s forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure.

Chinese Year: Tiger

Native American Zodiac Sign: Goose
Plant: Bramble

I share my birthday with: Golfer Ben Crenshaw (b. 1952) and Anthony Powell’s younger son John (b. 1946)

Lucky Day: Saturday
Lucky Number: 8
Ruling Planets: Saturn & Uranus

Birth Tree: Fir Tree, the Mysterious. Extraordinary taste, dignity, cultivated airs, loves anything beautiful, moody, stubborn, tends to egoism but cares for those close to it, rather modest, very ambitious, talented, industrious uncontent lover, many friends, many foes, very reliable.

Lunar Phase: waxing crescent

The day I was born:
There appear to have been no major world events, births or deaths.
Arsenal beat Carlisle United 4-1 away in an FA Cup replay.
London Algebra Colloquium met to discuss “Non-Archimedian Normed Spaces”

On this day in other years:
1973. Britain’s Open University awards its first degrees
1946. Enver Hoxha proclaims the People’s Republic of Albania
1922. First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient
1864. London’s Charing Cross station opened
1787. William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus
1569. The first national lottery is held in England; 40,000 lots, at 10 shillings each, go on sale at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London

Top Song of 1951: Mockin’ Bird Hill by Les Paul & Mary Ford

All in all it seems to have been a fairy dull day, so I guess I fit in well.

medical, science

On the Common or Garden Cold

1 Comment

Her generosity knows no bounds. Being a devoted wife (more devoted than I deserve) Noreen decided that I should be allowed to share her latest snotty cold. I declined to be enthused. But no matter I was given a share anyway. Such generosity!

In the process of trying to slough off this torment over the last couple of days I was set to wonder about the modern common cold.

Are colds really so much more virulent now? I have no memory of feeling so flu-y, so depressed, so totally incapable and so absolutely wiped out with colds when I was younger. One seems much less able to work through colds these days. Are we becoming less resistant to these viruses? Or are the viruses themselves becoming more virulent? Is it a delusion; a trick of memory? Or is this some effect of ageing; we are affected more as we get older, despite (one would have thought) having built up better resistance? I don’t know, but I certainly seem to feel worse with colds now than I did in days of yore.

I was also pondering the art of nose-blowing, as one does! I’ve always been a sniffer rather than a blower. Nasty habit I know, but more effective for me unless my nose is really full. I remember as a kid always being told “Blow, don’t sniff”. But blowing my nose was a total waste of time; hard as I tried it did no good and produced little result. By comparison sniffing cleared my nose. Now I’m prepared to believe this may be partly in the technique, and that I never succumbed to best practice in nose-blowing technique; but maybe that’s because I’m a sniffer? Is this a slightly circular argument? Could it be that my nose is constructed (I typed “constricted”, maybe that’s better?) such that sniffing works for me and blowing won’t? Something to do with the fine structure of the anatomy? And maybe it all relates to my long-standing history of sinus problems? Which is chicken and which is egg? Do I have sinus problems because I sniff, or vice versa.

Given the amount of time lost because of such stupid little viruses, we demand answers to these fundamental questions of the universe.

Off for another hot toddy or three. Chin-chin!

medical, ramblings, science

The Dirty Hands Brigade

2 Comments

A rather surprising news snippet in this week’s issue of New Scientist describes research showing that women’s hands are much filthier than those of men! It’s only short, so here’s the full item:

Women’s hands boast more bugs

Ladies, your hands are a zoo. Sampling the DNA on human skin has revealed that while women’s hands get washed more often than men’s, they teem with a more diverse selection of bacteria.

Noah Fierer and colleagues at the University of Colorado at Boulder swabbed the palms of 51 students leaving an exam. When they amplified and sequenced the DNA, they found 4742 species of bacteria in total – nearly 100 times as many as previously seen. On average, each student carried 150 distinct species and 3200 different strains. Women had different bacteria and a greater number of species than men (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0807920105).

When the team tracked the bacterial composition of eight people’s hands after they had been washed, they found that some bacteria preferred clean hands, while others appeared later. Men always had fewer species, though. The researchers suspect this is because men’s skin is more acidic, as in nature acidic environments have less microbial diversity.

Surprisingly, every hand was very different. Only five species were found on all hands, while any two hands – even from the same person – shared just 13 per cent of species. Fierer says it may be possible to tell from the bacteria on an object which individuals have touched it.

Apart from the observation that men’s skin is more acidic that women’s (I can’t even see why this is; must be something to do with hormones, I guess) it is hard to see what might cause this. Basic hygiene is clearly not the answer. Go figure!

amusements, food+drink, ramblings, science

Equilateral Chocolate

1 Comment

In his “Anti Gravity” column in the latest (November issue) Scientific American Steve Mirsky write rather mischievously, even zen mischievously, about recent food research “trivia”. The article contains this gem of a paragraph:

The journal Science reports that mathematicians from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and the Free University of Brussels have igured out a better way to wrap spherical pieces of chocolate. There’s a lot of wasted material when wrapping spheres with square pieces of foil or paper. But our intrepid geometers found that by using equilateral triangles rather than squares, they could generate a savings of 0.1 percent. That’s one full square saved for every 1,000 pieces of triangle-wrapped chocolate you eat.

Doh? Well so what? Well let’s (very roughly) translate that into something meaningful.

Making some reasonable assumptions about wrapper size and weight … If every man, woman and child in the UK ate just 10 triangular wrapped chocolates this Christmas the savings in the wrappings would amount enough paper/foil to cover a full size football pitch. Can’t imagine Wembley Stadium covered in chocolate wrappers? OK. The weight of that saved wrapping is roughly equivalent to 1,000 ½lb boxes of chocolates! Now that’s a lot of over indulgence, even by my standards!

Oh and you can find the full Steve Mirsky article here.

books, memes, natural history, personal, photography, pleasures, science

Animal Meme


Anmimal Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

1. Cat’s eye, 2. Jaguar im Manu Nationalpark in Peru, 3. Steve-O, Which Channel is CNN ?, 4. Eeyore, 5. Not Afraid, 6. Alice Liddell and the Cheshire Cat, 7. Aquarium, 8. Sporting Lucas Terrier – Wandle Peter, 9. Morgana a fada!, 10. Animal skeleton, 11. Little Black Cat, 12. Small Fish from the Amazon

Questions and Answers:
1. What is your favorite animal? Domestic cats
2. Laws have changed, you now can own an exotic or wild animal as a pet. What animal would you own? Jaguar, they’re just slightly more manageable than tigers
3. Some people are cat fanciers and some are canine cuddlers. Which is is for you cats or dogs? Cats, every time; no question; cats are magic
4. What one word best describes your personality? What animal do you associate with that word? Depressive, so it has to be Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh tho’ I’d much rather be Tigger
5. Confess! What animal/insect/reptile/amphibian are you secretly (or not so secretly) afraid of? I don’t do “afraid”; I’m certainly in awe of the big cats; and I hate maggots; but I’m not afraid of anything
6. What was your favorite animal character from a children’s book when you were younger? Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland; I never did work out how to do that gradual disappearing trick. 🙁
7. You’re spending the day at the Zoo, it’s getting close to closing and you’re tired, but you’re definitely not leaving until you see the . . . Aquarium. Hah! Caught you! You thought I was going to say the big cats, but I’ve already seen them. 🙂
8. What kind of pet did you have when you were a kid or do you remember a particularly unusual pet you had? When I was 7 we got a small dog, a Lucas Terrier; but there were always cats at home too.
9. If you were to be reincarnated as an animal, what would you want to be? Why? Domestic cat with me to look after me
10. Animals in films always seem to tug at our heartstrings. What cinematic animal was your hero or a favorite? No animal hero or favourite ‘cos I don’t do films; I never did; it isn’t in my culture
11. If you had a stuffed animal as a child, what was it (extra points if you remember its name)? Little Black Cat and yes here he is, the original, snapshotted (can I say that?) specially for this occasion!
12. National Geographic has hired you to go on a photo shoot anywhere in the world you choose. What animal would you want to showcase in your full-color magazine spread (and where are you traveling to)? Fishes of the River Amazon and while we’re there we’ll have a few jaguars and parrots for good measure

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

history, pleasures, science, thoughts, topographical

Bell Damaged Brain

1 Comment

If I’m not getting serious brain damage I should be — and yes, more than normal, even for me. Not to mention ringing in the ears. I’ve just had my mind completely blown away. I’ve been listening to a CD of handbells; change ringing on handbells. I know not everyone gets change ringing (or even bells) and it is a peculiarly English eccentricity. But if you line bells in general, handbells in particular or change ringing, then hunt out Change Ringing on Handbells issued on CD by Saydisc (CD-SDL310).

I had this on vinyl many years ago and recently discovered that Saydisc had eventually issued it on CD. I’d forgotten how incredible it is. It has seriously done my head in. Although I get the principle I can’t get my (mathematical and logical) brain round change ringing at the best of times but certainly not done on handbells and at the speed with which these guys manage it so faultlessly. Maybe the logic is the problem?

The CD is available from Amazon UK, Amazon.com or direct from Saydisc themselves. It is just incredible!

And there’s an interesting, albeit scientifically slanted, introduction to church bells and bellringing over at Cocktail Party Physics.

medical, memes, personal, photography, science

Pieces of Me


Pieces of Me, originally uploaded by kcm76.

This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 31/52 (2008 week 39).

This is the collection of metal I wear permenantly; this scan was the first time they have all been removed in years — even the last couple of times I’ve had operations I’ve kept my wedding ring (middle right) on (but taped over).