Guided Tours of the Sky
A very good addition to browsing “Goggle Earth” or “Goggle Sky” is the browsing of the new Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope (WWT), the new Web 2.0 software, released on May 13. This new online tool can be downloaded on to our own computer free of charge. Microsoft researchers have dedicated this new computer program to the memory of Jim Gray, the famous American computer scientist who disappeared last year when he went sailing alone in California. He spent a large amount of time in his life to explore with astronomers on how to present map and satellite images of the world and the universe online. Thanks to Curtis Wong, head of a new media research group at Microsoft, who continues this challenging work, I can now make a virtual tour of the night sky to see the images of the universe from the best ground and space based, by just sitting in my own room. I can use my own computer to zoom in and out for a good look at different planets in the night sky. Better still, I can get close in to see the dust of the Milky Way Galaxy condenses into stars and planets in vivid 3-dimensions. The Worldwide Telescope inspires me to become an amateur explorer of the Universe without space traveling. I am sure that scientists and educators will also find this new software most useful to stimulate interest in astronomy. This is a real innovation, a contribution to public education and the scientific study of the Universe.
Filed under Science, Travel | Comment (0)Virgin Birth
It has been known before that bony fish, bees and ants can reproduce without having sexual contact with the males. Now scientists also confirm that female sharks and lizards can also do the same. Richard Gibson, Curator at the Zoological Society of London said that Parthenogenesis has been described before in about 70 species of vertebrates, but it has always been regarded to be very unusual or abnormal phenomenon. The Greek calls this type of reproduction “Parthenogenesis”, a pregnancy that occurs when an egg cell is triggered to develop as an embryo without the addition of any genetic material from a male sperm cell. Scientist at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska had produced evidence from studying a captive shark delivery a pub in 2001 despite having had no contact with a male. And in 2006, the Chester Zoo and the London Zoo in the United Kingdom also reported that two female Komodor dragons having produced offspring without any male contact. The genetic make-up of the offspring of this kind of virgin birth only comes from the mother. Now that we know that virgin birth is much more widespread and common phenomenon of life on earth than we previously thought. We should then go back and look again at the bible story about the virgin birth. Maybe it is not as unusual at all that “asexual reproduction” can happen to human female as well.
Filed under Science | Comment (0)Genetically-modified Babies
We are getting closer to producing babies that can avoid some diseases carried in the genes of their parent. In the next two years, Patrick Chinnery, the British Professor of Neurogenetics at the Newcastle University said, couples will benefit from the results of the research conducted on embryos created with DNA from 3 people, two women and one man. The research group had successfully created 10 such embryos using normal embryos from one man and one woman that had defective mitochondria in the woman’s egg, and implanted that embryo into an emptied egg donated from a second woman who had healthy mitochondria. It was found that mistakes in the mitochondria’s genetic code could result in serious diseases such as muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, strokes and mental retardation. The House of Commons will discuss the issue to allow the procedure to be regulated as a therapy for couples in March this year. I think this is very good news for the future parents who wants to swap bad genes for good ones so that they don’t have to pass gene carrying diseases such as muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, strokes and mental retardation to the next generation.
Filed under Science | Comment (0)Understanding Baboon’s Mind
Thanks to biologists such as Dr. Dorothy Cheney and Dr. Robert Seyfarth of the University of Pennsylvania, I have gained a scientifically proved knowledge that animals can exhibit emotions and patterns of cognition once thought of as strictly human. The result of their 14 years of observation and scientific research on the behavior of Moremi baboons in Botswana has shown mehow baboons thinkand how their minds are specialized for social interaction understanding the structure of their society and navigating their way within it with feelings and emotions. The baboon’s mind is proved to be no different from the human mind, a product of evolution, which reminds me of an article I read last year written by Cornelia Dean for the New York Times, Science of the Soul? “I Think, Therefore I Am” Is Losing Force. In her article, she interviewed V.S. Ramachandran, a brain scientist of the University of California who said that there maybe soul in the sense of the universal spirit of the cosmos but the soul as it is usually spoken of an immaterial spirit that occupies individual brain and that only evolved in humans – all that is complete nonsense and that belief in that kind of soul is basically superstition. Other scientists have also asserted that the theory of a soul cannot be proved scientifically. Therefore, I think it is exciting that we live in a time of challenge to religious people who continue to believe in the “Creationist Theory” that “God” gives humans a special place in the creation scheme of things, by equipping them with souls, ignoring the fact that scientists have discovered physical bases for the feelings such as empathy, disgust and joy from which moral sense emerges, not just in people, but in other animals as well.
Filed under Science | Comment (0)Reading Brain Activity
It is nice to know that I can tell my brain to turn on a television, change channels and then switch on my computer notebook just lying in my bed. This new Hitachi technology called optical topography, can send a small amount of infrared light through my brain surface to map out changes in my blood flow. Fun to know that one has a power to move things around just by thinking about it. The trouble is this brain-machine interface device is too big and cumbersome to put on your head. But Hitachi technologist promises us that the new lighter model, a kind of headband, will soon come out for general marketing. Life is going to be fun for the kids when they can move toys around by simply thinking. The headband is much better than the the idea of implanting of a chip under the skull, which requires a brain operation.
Filed under Funny, Science | Comment (0)Climate Change and Society
There is significant progress in the move towards a low-carbon economy. The Global roundtable on climate change, organized on Thursday, 17 May 2007 in Bonn, Germany by Columbia University as a side event at the 26th Sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), shows how some business corporations have done a good job in setting up policies and action plans to reduce carbon dioxide emission from both direct and indirect sources. BASF targets to reduce GHG emission by 38%, relative to a 1990 baseline, and sets a goal to reduce specific GHG emissions per ton of sales products. Deutsche Telekom targets to reduce GHG emissions by 50%, relative to a 1995 baseline, by 2010, and aims to decouple energy consumption from carbon dioxide emission. DuPont achieves the target to reduce GHG emission by 40%, relative to a 1990 baseline, by 1990, ahead of time. The company sets a new target to reduce emissions by 65% by 2010 with sustainability goals to reduce DuPont ‘s footprint regarding water conservation, car fleet fuel efficiency and air carcinogens. Endesa, a global electricity and gas company, sets energy efficiency measures and plans to reduce emissions post 2012 and participate in variety of Carbon Funds. Columbia University’s global roundtable on climate change provides a forum for discussion, analysis and exchange of ideas among businesses from all economic sectors and all parts of the world, including international institutions, NGOs and leading academic experts. To meet the needs for professionals who understand the links between climate and society, the Columbia University contributes greatly by providing new knowledge and skills in this area. The university’s campus in New York City organizes courses for an M.A degree in the field of Climate Change, Climate Prediction, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences to international students from around the world to promote knowledge and encourage voluntary action by world community at all levels to deal with the problem that we all face on climate change. For people who are interested in organizing community action, look for the present state of knowledge that is made available to us by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Filed under Environment, Science, United Nations, World Affairs | Comment (1)Security Implication of Changing Climate
There are potential drivers of conflict at national and international level from climate change and global warming. Damage to earth’s weather systems from Greenhouse gases will change rainfall pattern. Up to 30 percent of animal and plant species will be vulnerable to extinction if global temperatures rise by 1.5 - 2.5 degrees Celsius, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report said. Conflict among people arise when resources become scarce and when access to energy, water and food are limited. The rise of sea level from melting of glaziers, and the change of landscape, especially along the coastal areas, will bring about border disputes among countries. Thanks to the initiative of the United Kingdom, Chair of the Security Council for April, these security risks will be put on the table for discussions. For the first time, members of the UN Security Council will debate the security implication of global warming on April 17. These debates will surely raise public awareness on future security implications and future dangers that we are facing. The timing of the Security Council debate is good as an appropriate follow-up to difficult negotiations by governments and scientists at the recent IPCC Meeting in Brussels, Belgium. The study of climate change around the world forecast different impact among the different regions affecting billions of people. Africa will be hardest hit by water shortage. Asia will face massive flooding by the melting of ice from the Himalayas. Australia will loose it’s corals of the Great Barrier Reef. And North America will have to deal with more severe storm. We are waiting for the outcome of this important Security Council debates and the following recommendations for action to prevent impending global disaster.
Filed under Environment, Science, United Nations, World Affairs | Comment (0)Greenland’s Ice Melting at Fast Rate
Why should we care when Greenland gets warmer? We should. Because when glaciers turn to water as a result of global warming, sea levels rise. Greenland has 630,000 cubic miles of ice and when it melted, seawater will rise by 23 feet, scientists warned. That means many islands in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans will be under water before long. Climate change is a threat to Pacific Ocean mangroves, national parks, and ancient heritage sites. For many years, small island developing countries have asked the United Nations to take tough measures in dealing with our common problem of global warming. Civil society, Non-governmental organizations and individuals around the world are taking action to plant more trees, under the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign. Community action has been taken to use new and renewable source of energy. It is time that governments of industrialized countries take serious action to reduce green house gas emission into the atmosphere.
Filed under Environment, Science | Comment (0)Massive As A Billion Suns
This is an exciting time for those of us who are interested in the existence of “Black Holes” in the universe. For over a decade, we have been wondering whether Einstein’s theory of the existence of objects in the universe so dense that even the light could not escape them, and Hawking’s theory of massive of dead stars running out of fuel collapsing under its own gravity into a black hole, are not just science fictions. Scientists and researchers are now in the process of identifying the hundreds of millions of existing black holes to measure its mass and the speed at which it spins. Marc Kaufman, the Washington Post science writer, in his excellent article, Scientists Shining Light Into Black Holes wrote that spinning and the gravitational force it reflects could be so great that black holes drag surrounding space, stars and gases into them. The spin was estimated to be as fast as 950 times a second, creating powerful magnetic fields. The NASA graphic gave wonderful image of how such a field from a supermassive black holes – with a mass of perhaps a billion suns – can send a jet of particles at almost the speed of light far beyond the center of a galaxy. Cosmologist and astronomers also believe that there are many different kinds of black holes, and that it is likely that most galaxies have a black hole at the center. Fabulous Getty images from European Space agency of supermassive black holes in the core of a galaxy named MCG-6-30-15, as seen through X-ray Multi-mirror Mission satellite, shows to us how energy is being extracted from a black hole. With new scientific instruments, scientists can test the Black Hole theories and let us know how they behave in accumulating matter and in the formation of new galaxies.
Filed under Science | Comment (0)Life-extended Strategy for Primates
I am happy to come across a prescription that may extend life article in my morning reading today that calorie restriction and simple lifestyle make primates live very long and vital lives. It is good to learn from scientific researche that aside from direct genetic manipulation, calorie restriction is the only strategy known to extend life consistently in variety of animal species. Other studies also show that calorie restriction can be more effective than exercise at preventing age-related diseases like diabetes, heart problems, Parkinson and cancer, and may slow down the progression rate of Alzheimer’s disease. If restricted calorie diet — eating about 30 percent fewer calories than normal and adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients — can make such a difference for primates, I am sure it will make a difference to us humans as well. Richard Weindruch, a gerontologist at the University of Wisconsin who directs reaserch on the monkeys said that the effects are global and calories restriction has a potential to help us identify anti-aging mechanism throughout the body.There are many recent studies on the inter-connections between the biological processes, genetics, nutrition, lifestyle which might also have impacts on human evolution. Talking about human evolution I also read, with interest an article in the magazine “Healthday” about the finding of Erik Trinkaus, professor of anthropology at the Washington University in St. Louis, that there is scientific evidence that modern humans and neanderthals have interbred about 30,000 years ago during the upper Paleolithic era when neanderthals and modern humans were thought to co-exist. Professor Trinkaus believes that there is now solid evidence that neanderthals and humans co-mingled both socially and sexually, and that they may not even have been all that different. His team’s finding from the research of collection of bones in the Pestera Nuierii cave in Romania is published in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the United States National Acedemics of Sciences.
Filed under Environment, Science | Comment (0)