Science briefs

The ultimate hangover cure!

Science has provided us with the ultimate cure for hangovers. A hangover can occur when doses of ethanol (large or small) are converted into a chemical know as acetate in your body. Rats were given headaches by dosing them with small amounts of ethanol.

The headaches were relieved when the rats where provided a dose of caffeine and an anti-inflammatory.

So there you go. The answer is coffee and aspirin! So simple it hurts.

NASA wikileaks itself

As NASA begins to shut down the shuttle program, they are getting rid of excess detritus. This massive list of stuff includes old computers and hard drives.
In a statement, NASA inspector general Paul Martin says:

“Our review found serious breaches in NASA’s IT (information technology) security practices that could lead to the improper release of sensitive information related to the space shuttle and other NASA programs.” 

The security breaches have been deemed serious by investigators. Ten computers were released to the public that did not pass testing to determine if they were cleansed of sensitive information. Investigators also found pallets of computers that had Internet Protocol addresses, which could ultimately have been used to gain access to NASA’s internal network if released to the public
Investigators also said that various hard drives were stored in dumpsters that could have been accessed by anyone.

You can wash your jeans less often

If you’re like me, you probably don’t wash you jeans often; as long as they are visibly clean, it’s all good. However, a recent study shows that this kind of carelessness to clean denim poses no health concerns.

An Edmonton student, Josh Le, wore one pair of jeans for 15 months without washing them. After the 15 months, the jeans were swabbed for bacteria. The sample was compared to a control sample two weeks post-washing and similar amounts of bacteria were found on the more recently washed jeans to the 15-month-old jeans. This proves that little difference is made regardless of how frequently you wash your jeans.

Will this affect how often you wash your jeans?

I can haz cold fusion for realz?

“Cold fusion” is the near-room-temperature reaction of two small nuclei coming together to form one larger one while releasing large amounts of clean and cheap energy. The science world is generally very skeptical in regards to cold fusion therories since the 1980s, when reports of cold fusion surfaced. However, when results could not be reproduced from early tests, it was deemed to be illegitimate. Many subsequent studies have show that cold fusion is theoretically implausible.
However, two scientists, Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi of the University of Bologna, have announced that they have built a cold fusion reactor capable of producing 12,400 watts of heat while requiring the input of only 400 watts of energy.

The team have been met with comments from skeptics and their paper on the subject has been rejected by peer-reviewed journals.

Giuseppe Levi, a nuclear physicist from INFN (Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics), attended a demonstration and confirmed that the reactor produced 12,000 watts of energy and will attempt to replicated the results.

70% of Turkey’s birds are in danger of extinction

Turkey is home to over 435 different species of birds and 95 are facing serious decreases in numbers and another 101 species face extinction. This is because Turkey’s wetlands are drying up rapidly both naturally and due to human interference, leaving little to no suitable habitat for these migratory birds.

2010: The warmest year yet

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed that 2010 was the warmest year yet when compared to the 1961-90 baseline. The world was .53C warmer globally than previous years.

The WMO compiles its data from three highly regarded researchers including NASA and National Climatic Data Center.

The WMO also detected the lowest extent of sea ice coverage globally, which suggest the Earth is in fact warmer.

However, while many parts of the word experienced seasonally warm temperatures such as Africa and Southern and Western Asia, the U.K. and large parts of Eastern Europe were the coldest they have been in 100 years.