Tuesday, May 22, 2007

We're Back: 100% More Boners


A new study, conducted on hamsters has discovered the one of the active ingredients in Viagra is helpful in stopping the problems that come about when travelling. Namely, jetlag. And this is just great, now we will have instead of thousands of weary travellers, we will have thousands of perky travellers all rocking massive Viagra-enhanced erections. Yikes.


Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, is known to inhibit the degradation of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), a messenger molecule that advances the body clock in response to light. So researchers assumed, Golombek says, that higher levels would increase the sensitivity of the circadian system and, in the process, "accelerate adaptation to a changing light schedule."

Their results, published in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA: Hamsters given sildenafil (in concentrations of 3.5 parts per million in solution) adjusted to a six-hour change in their light-dark cycle (the equivalent of the time-change experienced by passengers traveling between New York City and Paris) in eight days; it took hamsters injected with saline solution 12 days to recover, as measured by what time they began their daily jog on running wheels in their cages. A larger dose of sildenafil sliced the adjustment time in half to six days, but also brought on penile erections, as the drug was approved to do.

I love you Science.
(via SciAm)Viagra May Give a Boost to the Jet-Lagged

Friday, May 11, 2007

Once Again, Ipods Are Not For Old People


A new study confirms that which we at CB HQ have known all along. Some people are just too old for iPods. This study says that people who have pacemakers and use iPods may be putting themselves at risk. The iPod causes interference with the pacemaker's ability to read the heart rates.


"Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users," Jongnarangsin says, adding that, for this reason, it is unclear how often iPods may cause misreadings of heart rates. "This needs to be studied more," Jongnarangsin adds.

Thaker says he is interested in doing a similar study about how another type of implantable device, called a cardioverter defibrillator (ICDs), may be affected by iPods.

If you are old and have a pacemaker, stick to the Walkman. It's for your health!

(via New Scientist) iPods may cause pacemakers to miss a beat

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Yes, I Will Sell My Soul For a Freebee


In an interesting development in Japan (where they have all the cool stuff), vending machines will start to give out drinks for free(as in beer), but not as in free beer. If you get my drift. Watch the 30 second adverstiment, get a free drink. Watch the 30 second advertisment, get a free drink. Rinse. Repeat.


Thirsty Japanese will soon be able to drink coffee or other non-alcoholic beverages at a low price or even for free -- as long as they watch a 30-second advertisement on the vending machines.

Vending machine operator Apex Corp. will start a service next month to turn its machines into a new medium for advertisers, who will pick up the partial or full cost of drinks.

If only this worked on my TV at home. I watch a lot of commericals and I'm always thirsty. Genius!
(via the Khaleej Times)Watch ads and drink for free in Japan
(found on Engadget)

Information Technology To Be Used For Information

In a surprising turn of events this week, the scientific community has decided to use the internet (mankind's latest and greatest vehicle for the distribution of pornography) to compile a "Book of Life":

The Encyclopedia of Life project aims to detail all 1.8 million known plant and animal species in a net archive.

Individual species pages will include photographs, video, sound and maps, collected and written by experts.

The archive, to be built over 10 years, could help conservation efforts as well as being a useful tool for education.


Among other features, the archive will include a forum where users will be able to discuss the finer points of science, such as whether or not Lamarck's theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics was "teh gay," or how to keep the rare amur leopard from being "pwned by u homos." Speculation is tentative right now, but if the archive is successful enough, each species will have it's own myspace page, blog, and youtube highlight reel. Rawr.

Read the whole story here on BBC News Science/Nature

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Don't Look At That Billboard!



It is looking back!
A new technology has been developed that allows cameras mounted on billboards or advertisments to see if people are looking at them. Hopefully, we won't progress to the Minority Report level of advertisments where the ad will talk back to us. But right now the ads record how many people have looked at it, allowing advertisers to pay per eyeball? Also, it allows the advertisment to do something if an eye loses interest, for example show "YOU ARE A WINNER!!!!!!" in a million colors so that it gives me a seizure to look at it.


The developers behind the technology – dubbed Eyebox2 – believe it could have a range of possible applications, but should particularly interest advertisers. This is because it allows billboards to track people's attention and perhaps respond when it wanes.
Until now, eye-tracking systems have only worked over about half a metre.
"It's less accurate than those systems, but it is good enough to let us know whether you are looking at a display or billboard or not," says lead developer Roel Vertegaal from Queen's University in Ontario, Canada.

I'm going to be the first in line to buy the sunglasses that block this kind of nonsense. Freedom!
(via New Scientist) Tracking billboards could give you the eyeball

If Only Gilligan Knew...

Locals in Papua New Guinea have finally done the impossible- used the coconut for something other than a novelty brazziere. Faced with the rising cost of gasoline, the intrepid islanders have begun brewing a coconut-based fuel in backyard refineries:

Matthias Horn, a German migrant and an engineer, operates one such refinery.

"They sometimes refer to me as the Mad German because how can you do that to your car... filling it with some coconut juice that you normally fry your fish in," he said.

Funny. I normally fry my fish in gasoline (unleaded, of course).

Read the whole story here on
BBC News Science/Nature

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Mirror, Mirror In My House, What Purse Goes With This Blouse?



In an effort to get people to buy more shit that they don't need, a company has come up with mirrors that have RFID readers in them to read the RFID tags in clothes. These will mainly be in dressing rooms, so that the mirrors can tell you what some computer algorithm thinks will go great with that shirt.


Being demonstrated by the Paxar Corporation at the Material World show in Miami Beach, the magicmirror is intended to read the tags on clothing, and present the customer with accessories or coordinating items they might like to buy.

Being that I'm never in a dressing room, except save for a refridgerator-sized dressing room in Iceland, this does not effect me. However, I hope this technology doesn't get co-opted to overly flatter or overly tear apart our style choices. Also, and please no recording cameras in said mirror.
(via the Register) RFID mirror automatically insults your fashion sense

Sailing Not Just For Assholes Anymore

Sailing, a leisure activity once limited to waspy rich folk, is being touted as the newest and bestest option for exploring the cosmos. Finnish researchers have proposed a sail made of wire that will enable mankind to harness the power of plasma as we go yachting gracefully into the final frontier:

Results drawn from computer simulations indicate that in an average solar wind, a 440-pound spacecraft could achieve final speeds of up to 62 miles a second (or 1.9 billion miles a year), allowing a spacecraft to reach Pluto in less than five years.


Whether croquet, bocce, or badminton shall be played when the space sail finally docks is still the subject of hot debate. Either way, scientists are busy at work making khaki and pastel colored spacesuits for the flight.

Read the whole story here on Wired

Monday, May 7, 2007

Fibonacci's Flowers


In today's hectic world, rarely does one have time to stop and look at the flowers anymore. Regardless, an international consortium of mathematicians and botanists have finally cracked the code that lies at the heart of many a plant. As it turns out, the Fibonacci sequence has deeper roots than we all thought (pardon the pun):

Plants with spiral patterns related to the golden angle also display another curious mathematical property. The seeds of a flower head form interlocking spirals in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions. The number of clockwise spirals differs from the number of counterclockwise spirals, and these two numbers are called the plant's parastichy numbers (pronounced pi-RAS-tik-ee or PEHR-us-tik-ee).

These numbers have a remarkable consistency. They are almost always two consecutive Fibonacci numbers, which are another one of nature's mathematical favorites. The Fibonacci numbers form the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 . . . , in which each number is the sum of the previous two.


Read the whole story here on
ScienceNews.org

Code Words


Here at CB HQ, there are a few words that make our ears perk up like Pavlov's dogs at the sound of a bell. Those words are simple: nanites, Singularity, and anti-matter.
New information discovered by our world's intrepid scientists points to the fact that the BEST. SUPERNOVA. EVAR. was the result of anti-matter. They think this because the explosion showed so much more energy than the star held itself. To me, this smacks of "OMG! We can't see what caused this, it must have been. *gasp* ANTI-MATTER!". But, hey, they are the scientists, I'm just the dude that makes fun of them.


With 100 times the energy of a typical supernova explosion, SN 2006gy was simply too energetic to be explained by the explosion of a lightweight object like a white dwarf star, even if it were to collide with the core of a red giant, says team member Craig Wheeler of the University of Texas in Austin, US.

"That kind of explanation could not produce the energy we're seeing," he told New Scientist.

I don't mean to sound as skeptical as I do above, but as much as I love anti-matter, until I see it, I'm going to be skeptical. (Yes, I realize that you can't SEE anti-matter, but you get my point.)
(via New Scientist) Did antimatter 'factory' spark brightest supernova?

New "Peaceful" Hurting Gun Developed


Anti-violence just got a little more violent this morning as a new "gun" has been developed which has the ability to fire several different types of "peaceful" ow-you-just-hurt me alternatives.


The Anti-Violence Electrode Shock Gun (but you can call it Pain) is a multi-talented weapon that can be used with paint bullets, rubber bullets (we all know how anti-violent THEY are, don't we?), pepper spray, as well as the rather scary-sounding probe cartridges, which override the central nervous system and cause temporary incapacitation, rather like a Taser gun.

With all those options, who would choose turning this monster into a glorified painball gun? I think the shut-down-the-central-nervous-system option would be the most popular addon to this gun.
(via Gizmodo) The Anti-Violence Electrode Shock Gun: Anti-Violence = Everything But Death

Friday, May 4, 2007

We Fully Embrace Our New Robot Prostate Snipping Overlords


File this one under the "Ouch, Please don't hurt me!" Category: There are new robots that are used to operate on your prostate. So, the little robot arms going in little robot made holes in your balls and cut out all the bad stuff without getting all the good stuff. I would love to think of these as nanites, but they are actually controlled by doctors who know what they are supposed to do. The machines cost millions and millions of dollars, but because the little robot arms are able to not snip the ol' "sex drive" line, gentlemen are willing to pay a little more to get the good service. Suprisingly enough. Additionally, because the holes for the robot arms are so small, recovery time is much shorter.

Let's weigh the pros and cons here:
Pros: Still getting to take your girl to Pound Town. (Good) Not being laid up in the hosipital for very long and getting back home so you can take your girl to Pound Town. (All Good!)
Cons: None that I can see.
If I'm 1 in 6, gimme the robot!

(via SciAm)Robots in Your Prostate

This One Just Writes Itself


Some famous people in Mexico are banding together to protect the endangered species of sea turtle. See, apparently in Mexico there is a rumor that eating (baby?!) turtle meat and eggs is an aphrodisiac and helps the boys swim (to use a metaphor). This is the second aphrodisiac story this week at CB and you said we didn't look out for you! Famous people include colorful former goalie Jorge Campos, some weird wrestler (above) and Argentinean model Dorismar.


The egg campaign was initiated two years ago, but made a big splash thanks to celeb spokesperson Dorismar. The model appeared in print ads wearing a slinky black bikini alongside baby turtles scurrying across a beach. "My man doesn't need sea turtle eggs, because he knows they don't make him more potent," reads the ad's caption. A common misconception is that sea turtle eggs have aphrodisiac power, but they are simply rich in protein, explains Aida Navarro, WiLDCOAST's wildlife conservation program manager.

So, the moral of the story is, don't eat turtle eggs and (baby?!) turtle meat, it's not an aphrodisiac, it's just really good for you.
(via Sciam) Mexican Wrestler Goes to the Mat for Endangered Sea Turtles

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Don't Freak Out, It's Not Beer Going To Waste


So, us here at CB HQ freaked out a little bit when we read the title of this article. We usually only like our beer turned into energy inside our bodies. However, our fears were calmed as we learned the real story. Scientists have created a fuel cell that takes waste from the brewery and turns it into electricity and it's byproduct - clean water. Sounds like a win-win situation to us.


The battery produces electricity plus clean water, said Prof. Jurg Keller, the university's wastewater expert.

The complex technology harnesses the chemical energy that the bacteria releases from the organic material, converting it into electrical energy.

By the way, this is the Foster's plant. Which apparently, they brew in Australia, who knew?
(from physorg)Beer Maker, Scientists to Create Energy
(via Endagadget)Foster's to aid in first "beer battery" fuel cell project

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

All You Ever Needed to Know About Science and Techmology



Ali G drops some knowledge on our heads and asks some suits about Science and "Techmology". Respec? Respec.

Study Finds It's Still Fucking Stupid to Stand Around Smokers


So, apparently, the intrepid scientists of our great nation have discovered yet another reason for you not to inhale that second-hand smoke: Alzheimers and dementia. As if they needed a study to discover that hanging out with smokers makes you crazy.


"There have been studies that have shown that exposure to secondhand smoke is related to subclinical cardiovascular disease and clinical cardiovascular disease," Haight noted. "There also have been studies showing that atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries, is related to an increased risk of dementia."

The current study completes the loop by showing that inhaling someone else's smoke increases the incidence of dementia, he said.

No word on whether or not ACTUALLY SMOKING the cigarettes could possibly cause these problems as well.
(via Forbes)Secondhand Smoke Boosts Risk for Alzheimer's>

Making Robots More Real Than Ever

In the ongoing attempt to have robot-kind be able to pass the dreaded nasal version of the
Turing Test, scientists in the UK have developed an artificial mucus to help electronic noses smell better. CB propposes the following names for their new creation:

  • Ro-snot
  • SnotBot
  • Mucus Lucas

Read the whole story here on Ananova

Jupiter's Vagina, Leaked Onto The Internet


After getting drunk at a popular solar system hotspot last week, Jupiter unwittingly flashed it's vagina to NASA's New Horizons probe. Naturally, the scientific community couldn't be more excited:

"Galileo was orbiting Jupiter for six years, taking pictures of Io over that period but it never saw a plume like that," said John Spencer, a mission scientist from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, US.
Check out the uncensored photo fest here on BBC News Science/Nature

This Makes The Skeleton in Your High School Bio Class Look Tame


So, apparently people are signing up for this process called "plastination" after they die so that their bodies can be preserved forever. "Preserved" may not be the right word, more like they will look like statues and be able to be taken apart by dozens of mischevious 2nd and 3rd graders on the yearly field trip to the Science Center.


...plastination, a process in which body fluids are replaced by liquid plastic. The plastic hardens, leaving tissues intact and allowing bodies to be displayed in their natural color and without formaldehyde.

The process was made popular by Gunther von Hagens' "Body Worlds," a controversial anatomy exhibit that puts real human specimens on view. Most are flayed and dissected, revealing their organs. Others are kept intact and displayed in dramatic action poses, such as a basketball player driving to the hoop or a runner in full stride.

So, don't consider me the first in line to have my dead, crystallized body turned into a runner for little kids to look at and be grossed out. I'd like a little more honor in death, thank you.
(via CNN) Thousands sign up for journey beyond death

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

This Just In: Whale Poo Makes People Horny, Smell Good


Have you ever thought that you would be much, much richer if you had just collected that whale do-do instead of tossing it back in the sea? Well, it is true. Specific parts of whale do-do brown are worth up to $18,000. It is called ambergis and has apparently many uses. Well, I'll let the article explain.


...scientists postulate that whales do not expel ambergris through their mouths. No one has ever seen a sperm whale excrete ambergris, although sperm whale expert Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, admits that it is assumed the voiding takes place as fecal excretion, because when first cast out, he says, "Well, it smells more like the back end than the front."
...
Internationally, however, the trade is legal and Perrin has no problem finding French perfume companies to buy his stock. "We also sell it to a royal family in the Middle East and they use it as an aphrodisiac. Apparently they take some milk, some honey, and grind up small quantities of the amber and put that in as well," he says.

Ok, maybe I'll say no the next time someone asks me if I want to eat or use a "natural aphrodisiac".

(via SciAm)Strange but True: Whale Waste Is Extremely Valuable

Hawking Soars



For those of you who wanted it, here it is: footage of one of our generation's most brilliant minds being passed around like a volleyball at MTV spring break.

Read the full story here on New Scientist Space

New Idiot Tracking System Now in Place

Ever wonder if you could track those idiots on the Segways so that you wouldn't have to deal with them or the temptation of pushing them over?
Well now you can as a new company has put RFID tracking chips in Segways.
Now if there was only a way I could track them on the internet...

(via the Register)RFID-tracking Segways unleashed on hoi polloi

Becoming A Superhero


Comic book geeks and science nerds the world over can breathe easy now. A team of Italian researchers has come one step closer to making every spider-fan's wet dream a sticky reality with carbon nanotube arrays designed to mimic the gripping power of a gecko. Next step: brightly colored spandex costumes that don't make the wearer look like a schlub or a fruitcake.

Read it here on NewScientist.com

Sorry, Superman


It looks like our furtive glances to the sky in hope that a hero will come and save us from a random purse-snatcher (it's a european carry-all!) or come and turn back time are all for naught.
An archeological dig in Serbia found a mineral that has the exact make-up as Kryptonite.


"apparently one Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum discovered the correspondence by Googling "sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide," which as you can easily verify brings up Wikipedia's entry on kryptonite."

(via SciAm)Kryptonite Discovered Adamantium Remains Elusive