chatarra
All posts tagged "science"
Random Wikipedia Facts: Behavioral sink »
“In 1958, ethologist John B. Calhoun conducted over-population experiments on rats on a farmland in Rockville, Maryland which resulted in the publication of an article in the Scientific American of a study of behavior under conditions of overcrowding.
Calhoun provided a cage of rats with food and water replenished to support any increase in population, but the cage was fixed at a size considered sufficient for only 50 rats. Population peaked at 80 rats and thereafter exhibited a variety of abnormal, often destructive behaviors; his conclusion was that space itself is a necessity. When forced interactions exceed some threshold, social norms break down […].
Notable conditions in the behavioral sink include hyperaggression, failure to breed and nurture young normally, infant cannibalism, increased mortality at all ages, and abnormal sexual patterns. Often, population peaks, then crashes. Actual physical disease, mental illness, and psychosomatic disorders increase. There are eating disorders; in human populations, drug and alcohol use rises.
The only known counter to the effect of the behavioral sink is to reduce the frequency and intensity of social interaction.”
Microwave Tissue Soldering »
“A portable microwave generator and hand-held antenna are used to seal wounds, binding the edges of the wound together using a biodegradable protein sealant or “solder”. This method could be used for repairing wounds in emergency settings, by restoring the wound surface to its original strength within minutes. This technique could also be utilized for surgical purposes involving solid visceral organs (i.e., liver, spleen, and kidney) that currently do not respond well to ordinary surgical procedures.
The experimental approach utilized was to produce a “test wound” in bovine muscle using a scalpel. Once the incision or cut was made, different candidate protein solders and varying microwave parameters/frequencies were tested for wound closure efficacy. To date, over 200 tests have been performed. Once sealed, the effectiveness of wound closure was measured using a tensile strength meter. Welds stronger than the uninjured (uncut) muscle have been consistently and precisely achieved.”
Ingredientes humanos. La idea me encanta aunque bonita, lo que se dice bonita, no es.
(via livercake)
Women suffer from more nightmares than men, but men are more likely to dream of sexual intercourse.
In other totally awesome news, men are also stronger and able to pee directionally while stood up :D
British psychologist Jennie Parker asked about 200 18-to-25 year olds to keep a dream diary, and found that not only do the gals have more nightmares than the guys, but that their nightmares are more emotionally intense and psychologically significant.
Confirming the male’s horndog status, Parker also discovered that men have more dreams involving sexual activity, and when a woman does dream of sex, it is less likely to contain actual intercourse.(source)
Super Perfect
Uno de los miembros más destacados de mi círculo nos ha obsequiado hoy con la siguiente perla.
“…aprovecho para arrojar algo de luz en este tema, que es ni más ni menos que el cagar, también conocido como Number 2.
El perfect sería, pues, la cagada tan precisa y exacta que no requiere ser limpiada con papel, ya que al usar éste se nos muestra tan blanco y puro como al principio.
El super perfect es el perfect que ni siquiera requiere la comprobación del papel. Simplemente sabes que estás impoluto.
El cool water consiste en la caída del tordo con tal fuerza y peso que levanta una oleada allá abajo, dándose la casualidad de que una gota de agua incide en el ojete del usuario, refrescándolo sumamente.”
En los viejos tiempos, solía escribir aquí. Pero un día se puso el traje, las botas y partió hacia el yermo armado sólo con la BB Gun…
“We ourselves are technological devices, invented by ancient bacterial communities as means of genetic survival.”
This is how one must feel during an alien invasion. Destructive energy bolts included.
(via)
This is what 13,500 pages micro-etched into nickel looks like. The Rosetta Disk is “intended to be a durable archive of human languages, as well as an aesthetic object that suggests a journey of the imagination across culture and history.”
The Disk surface shown here, meant to be a guide to the contents, is etched with a central image of the earth and a message written in eight major world languages: “Languages of the World: This is an archive of over 1,500 human languages assembled in the year 02008 C.E. Magnify 1,000 times to find over 13,000 pages of language documentation.” The text begins at eye-readable scale and spirals down to nano-scale. This tapered ring of languages is intended to maximize the number of people that will be able to read something immediately upon picking up the Disk, as well as implying the directions for using it—‘get a magnifier and there is more.’
On the reverse side of the disk from the globe graphic are over 13,000 microetched pages of language documentation. Since each page is a physical rather than digital image, there is no platform or format dependency. Reading the Disk requires only optical magnification. Each page is .019 inches, or half a millimeter, across. This is about equal in width to 5 human hairs, and can be read with a 650X microscope (individual pages are clearly visible with 100X magnification).
Random Wikipedia facts: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 »
“The impact of Shoemaker-Levy 9 highlighted Jupiter’s role as a kind of “cosmic vacuum cleaner” for the inner solar system. The planet’s strong gravitational influence leads to many small comets and asteroids colliding with the planet, and the rate of cometary impacts on Jupiter is thought to be between two thousand and eight thousand times higher than the rate on Earth. If Jupiter were not present, the probability of asteroid impacts with the Solar System’s inner planets would be greater.”
(via hellaposer)
MITOCHONDRIA!
(verses)
Floating round in a cell,
making A T P
In your own kind of hell
in the cytoplasmic seaYou got own DNA
Came maternally
Never sure how you stayed
Endosymbiotically(Chorus)
Mitochondria, Mitochondria, Mitochondria, Mitochondria
Mitochondria, Mitochondria, Mitochondria, Mitochondria(Bridge)
Inner membrane, oxidation, many cristae, metabolism
Electron transportation chain!REPEAT VERSES
(via)
A Future Timeline of Humanity and the Universe »
For years, this has been one of my favorite websites. Favorite in the 1.0 way: a static, rarely updated page one can visit from time to time, without any “hot” new content to assimilate but a long, well documented, carefully pre-written essay.
“Every cause, no matter how noble, tends to degenerate into a cult unless sufficient energy is expended on counteracting this tendency, just like matter tends to slide into higher entropy states unless you put more energy into the system.”
“Giant listening horns used to listen for approaching aircraft during WWI. Image on display at the Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC.”
(via)
February no longer a month »
“Emboldened by their success in declaring Pluto not a planet, the International Astronomical Union determined this week by a close vote that February is too short to be considered a true month. It has, however, been granted the newly created status of “dwarf month.” It shares this dubious distinction with several other calendar time spans, including Labor Day Weekend, Christmas Vacation, and the Time Between When You Were Supposed to Get Your Oil Changed and When You Actually Did.”
x”D (via)
