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…or are they?

This is terrifying, but in a comical sense.

(via BoingBoing Gadgets)

Yet awkward in its own way.

(via MAKE Blog)

…sounds crazy, and may well turn out to be. But if it’s validated, then what?

Why does it take so long for soul mates to find each other” How does disease spread through a person’s body? When will the next computer virus attack your hard-drive?

A new theory published last month in Nature on the statistical concept of ‘First Passage Time,’ or FPT, may provide the key to answering at least a few of these questions, says theory co-author Prof. Joseph Klafter from Tel Aviv University’s School of Chemistry. And the answers may lead to breakthroughs in medicine, mathematics, the environment, and elsewhere.

Prof. Klafter and his colleagues from the University of Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris (where he has been visiting professor) are the first to have developed an analytical model that calculates the average arrival time — the mean FPT — of a randomly-moving object in a complex environment.

(via Science Blog)

(by way of Seed Magazine via Bookslut)

Hooded seal pups need super fatty milk. Elephants like green bottles. That’s what I’ve learned from the Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals. Though maybe I picked up on some of the wrong details…

(What the baby elephants actually like is the low-protein formula in the green bottle.)

(via LII)

This occurred on the Russian Soyuz-11 mission in 1971, when a seal leaked upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere; upon landing all three flight crew were found dead from asphyxiation.

Death and dying, over at NewScientist. Their self-proclaimed “Death Special.”

(via BoingBoing)

…can “see” with their chins.

(Image via Flickr. Story via ScienceBlog.)

Really, the headline says it all: “Scientist develops real-life Spiderman suit material.”

Though, admittedly, the body of the article does add some detail (and qualifiers).

(via ScienceBlog)

You want ice?  You need black cherries. (via LifeHacker)

Loneliness is bad for your health.

Bikes “aren’t transportation.”

“Our findings suggest that consumers who are focused on the future are so preoccupied with finding ways to improve their situation that they become overly sensitive to information that points to such opportunities — and lose sight of the relative advantages of their current choice,” the authors explain.

For example, Meyvis and Cooke asked study participants to choose among three stores on a series of simulated shopping trips. After each trip, they were shown the price charged for a product at their chosen store and the prices charged at each of the other two stores.

After going on a series of shopping trips, participants were then asked to indicate which store was the cheapest and whether they would want to switch to another store for a second set of shopping trips.

Notably, the investigators found that when participants were told in advance that they would make a second set of shopping trips, they were less likely to prefer the store they initially chose and more likely to switch to another store after the first set of trips. In addition, they also thought the store they chose was the most expensive fifty percent more of the time. This phenomenon was replicated in later studies even when the chosen store was less expensive than the other two stores.

In contrast, participants who did not expect to have to make a second choice accurately recalled an equal number of trips on which the chosen store was cheaper or more expensive.

(EurekAlert: “The grass isn’t greener.” [7 Aug 2007])

Elizabeth Royte, who wrote the charming eco-logue the Tapir’s Morning Bath, does a piece on New York City’s water supply. It’s interesting, both historically and also in the infrastructural how-it-works sort of gee-whiz way. (It also encourages me to move Royte’s book on garbage further up on my to-read list.)

(If the NYT can make a corny Elia Kazan reference, then I can make a tired Samuel Taylor Coleridge reference, is all I have to say for myself.)

Seriously, though: apparently boxing, whether amateur or professional, can lead to brain damage. Or might, anyway. This found in a study that looked at amateur boxers for a biochemical marker for brain damage. (The study also looked at soccer players who repeatedly headed the ball, and found none of the biochemical markers. FYI.)

(Science Blog: “Even amateur boxing causes brain damage.” [May 2, 2007])

Not exactly breaking news, but Burmese pythons are setting up shop in the Everglades, and–apparently–they quite like it.

Each year a significant number of Burmese pythons - like the snake on sale in a pet store here - are taken home by people who never quite understand the presale warning.

They are told point-blank that their 20-inch “baby” will probably grow into a 20-foot adult and live for 25 years. That’s a lot of mice, rats, rabbits, and chickens to feed an adult snake capable of quickly dispatching other beloved pets, children, or even adults.

Authorities in South Florida suspect that many frustrated or frightened Burmese python owners have been releasing their snakes into the nearby Everglades rather than trying to find a new home in captivity for them.

…

In 2005, 95 snakes were captured in the Everglades. So far this year, more than 154 have been picked up.

But Python Pete is on the job, along with plenty of good-natured humans. Despite this, the battle’s far from over, and the outlook isn’t particularly rosy:

“We have been remarkably unsuccessful in eradicating any firmly established alien species in Florida,” says Richard Bartlett, a reptile expert in Gainesville, Fla.

(Christian Science Monitor: “Gators Beware: Pythons Moving into Everglades,” by Warren Richey [Dec 19, 2006])

…on soil remediation!

Researchers have developed a prototype that cleans soil by making mud of it and blasting it with ultrasound:

Sound waves travel through water as a series of high pressure waves with low pressure areas in between. The low pressure causes the water to boil and form microscopic bubbles. The high pressure then forces the bubbles to collapse, generating a shockwave that produces localised temperature flashes of more than 4000°C and pressures of about 1000 atmospheres. That is more than enough to break down any complex molecules in the water, Sosa Pintos says.

Trials look to have been involving a “simplified” soil medium, so it’ll be interesting to see if the technique is as successful in the field.

(NewScientist: “Sound blaster cleans contaminated soil,” by Tom Simonite [Sept 6, 2006])

Or not so much youth as longevity. Winning the Nobel prize apparently adds years to your life, maybe:

“Status seems to work a kind of health-giving magic. Once we do the statistical corrections, walking across that platform in Stockholm apparently adds about 2 years to a scientist’s life-span. How status does this, we just don’t know.”

There’s not enough info listed in the article to really dig your teeth into, but the first and likely most obvious question I have is, hello Mr. Correlation v. Mr. Causation? Say what you want about “deserving work,” but what if Nobel prize winners are simply more driven than their nominated, non-winning peers? Ignoring the notion of a status effect, it would make sense that people who are more driven would have more cause to live, and be more likely to keep going when others would give up an wither away.

Just wondering.

(EurekAlert: “New research says winning a Nobel Prize adds nearly two years to your lifespan.” [Jan 16, 2007])

…the Utne Reader of environmental blogs, though the phrase the folks there use is “traveling blog carnival”.  This month’s “issue” is posted at Perceiving Wholes.

No, really. A Princeton lab geared towards studies of ESP will be shutting down after nearly 30 years of research.

(NYT: “A Princeton Lab on ESP Plans to Close Its Doors,” by Benedict Carey [Feb 10, 2007])

Space-time paradoxes involving elephants, black holes and, yes, Alice. Also a baseball encyclopedia.

(NewScientist: “The elephant and the event horizon,” by Amanda Gefter [Oct 26, 2006])

An article in NewScientist from a whiles back details society’s progression towards 24-hour alertness, how it’s happening, what it means. (Not that anybody knows, exactly.)

We seem to be moving inescapably towards a society where sleep and wakefulness are available if not on demand then at least on request. It’s not surprising, then, that many sleep researchers have nagging worries about the long-term impact of millions of us using drugs to override the natural sleep-wake cycle.

I’m assuming some kind of twist will emerge, like that place we dream about’s the one that matters, and not the one in which we spend wakefulness. And by assuming I mean not at all, though I’ve been wrong before.

(NewScientist: “Get ready for 24-hour living,” by Graham Lawton [Feb 18, 2006])

Create all sorts of fun maps thanks to the folks at the MLA: map language-speakers by county, by zip code, and all sorts of other good stuff.  Pull-down menus and such let you re-draw the map according to your curiosity.  (The above map, FYI, is of Hungarian speakers by county.  I think.  Of course, handily, I didn’t include the color-coded key, so if you’re really curious, you’ll have to dial up the map yourself.)