Making Science More Better For You 09/13

It turns out; it’s not your dealer’s fault
Official prototype of kilogram mysteriously losing weight

PARIS, France (AP) -- A kilogram just isn't what it used to be.
The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight -- if ever so slightly. Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies.
The kilogram's uncertainty could affect even countries that don't use the metric system -- it is the ultimate weight standard for the U.S. customary system, where it equals 2.2 pounds. For scientists, the inconstant metric constant is a nuisance, threatening calculation of things like electricity generation. (CNN)

Not only are things moving faster, but now we find out that we’ve all been getting a short count. The universe, it seems, has its thumb on the scale.

You call it pollution, I call it profits

'Worst Polluted Places' list unveiled
China, India, Russia each have two sites among Top 10 for 2007

Conservation groups on Wednesday issued their second annual "Worst Polluted Places" list, adding four sites — two in India and one each in Azerbaijan and China — to the top 10.

Overall, the 10 sites lie in seven countries and affect more than 12 million people, according to the Blacksmith Institute and Green Cross Switzerland.
Sites added since the 2006 list are marked with an asterisk:
Sumgayit, Azerbaijan*;
Linfen, China;
Tianying, China*;
Sukinda, India*;
Vapi, India*;
La Oroya, Peru;
Dzerzhinsk, Russia;
Norilsk, Russia;
Chernobyl, Ukraine;
Kabwe, Zambia.


A report accompanying the list said the scoring methodology was refined "to place more weight on the scale and toxicity of the pollution and on the numbers of people at risk."

It also identified three key factors: mining, Cold War era pollution and unregulated industries. (MSNBC)

Rule number one is to locate the factory in a place, the name of which you can neither spell nor pronounce.



At least texting just makes your thumbs big—JK

Hint of cancer risk after 10 years mobile phone use, say researchers

Mobile phones do not pose health problems to adults in the short term but there is a "slight hint" of a cancer risk for long-term users, according to the results of a study which could not rule out risks of brain or ear cancer for those who have used mobiles for more than 10 years.

"We found no association between incidence and exposure for people who have used their phones for less than 10 years," said Lawrie Challis, chair of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research programme. "But we cannot rule out the possibility [of] an association for exposures for more than 10 years. The numbers appeared to show some slight hint ... it's a faint suggestion that needs to be followed up."

The researchers involved in the six-year study said they would further investigate in the next phase of their work, which would also examine the effects of mobile phones on children's health. (Guardian.co.uk)

Are they dangerous? Hey it’s your call.

Feel so lonely, want to die
Robot Maker Builds Artificial Boy

RICHARDSON, Texas (AP) - David Hanson has two little Zenos to care for these days. There's his 18-month-old son Zeno, who prattles and smiles as he bounds through his father's cramped office. Then there's the robotic Zeno. It can't speak or walk yet, but has blinking eyes that can track people and a face that captivates with a range of expressions.

At 17 inches tall and 6 pounds, the artificial Zeno is the culmination of five years of work by Hanson and a small group of engineers, designers and programmers at his company, Hanson Robotics. They believe there's an emerging business in the design and sale of lifelike robotic companions, or social robots. And they'll be showing off the robot boy to students in grades 3-12 at the Wired NextFest technology conference Thursday in Los Angeles.

Unlike clearly artificial robotic toys, Hanson says he envisions Zeno as an interactive learning companion, a synthetic pal who can engage in conversation and convey human emotion through a face made of a skin-like, patented material Hanson calls frubber.

Can Robot Protective Services be far behind?

Well, it will be easier to find an apartment

Earth Might Survive Sun’s Explosion
By DENNIS OVERBYE—NYT

What happens to planets when their stars age and die?

That’s not an academic question. About five billion years from now, astronomers say, the Sun will run out of hydrogen fuel and swell temporarily more than 100 times in diameter into a so-called red giant, swallowing Mercury and Venus and dooming life on Earth, but perhaps not Earth itself.

Astronomers are announcing that they have discovered a planet that seems to have survived the puffing up of its home star, suggesting there is some hope that Earth could survive the aging and swelling of the Sun.

No more of that pesky global warming.


Bingo is feeling so much better…and he can type now, too.

Stem Cell Therapy Goes to the Dogs—and Horses
Newsweek/ By Jamie Reno
Sept. 13, 2007 - Mike Zaremba, an operations manager for a software company in Denver, was desperate and searching. His dog Nakota, a three-year-old Siberian Husky, was in severe and chronic pain and could barely walk after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery in February failed to achieve the desired result. The dog would hide in different parts of the house, he always had his head down, and he couldn’t walk without limping severely. “The surgery went as well as it could have, so another surgery wasn’t an option,” says Zaremba. “But Nakota just wasn’t healing. He was really suffering. I wanted so badly to help him, but I had run out of options.” When Zaremba’s veterinarian told him about a new procedure in which Nakota’s own fat-derived stem cells could be used to expedite the ligament’s healing, Zaremba was skeptical but willing to try it. Within a few weeks after the minimally invasive procedure, Nakota was back to running long distances and jumping into the car with no visible sign of pain. “He’s just like his old self again,” Zaremba says. “It’s unbelievable.”

And to think the administration believes researchers are barking up the wrong tree…