The Fount of Useless Information
Your place for useless information that just might possibly be interesting.
Report questions benefits of salt reduction
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/14/report-questions-benefits-of-salt-reduction/?hpt=hp_bn13
Earlier I talked about the ‘deadly’ nature of salt (sodium chloride, the stuff that makes food so tastee) but mentioned I was far from convinced that the rather hysterical proclamations were scientifically valid. …
Printing Electronics Just Got Easier
A new technique developed by researchers in China allows easier printing of electronic components onto paper.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130509-paper-printed-circuits-electronics-technology-science/
I think the next decade is going to be as eye popping as the last quarter century (in …
Sun Plus Nanotechnology: Can Solar Energy Get Bigger by Thinking Small?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/04/130429-nanotechnology-solar-energy-efficiency/
It seems that there are now some ideas in the lab that might transform the photovoltaic industry in the next couple of decades. For a long time I …
After 2 decades of tracking down world’s oldest trees, group ready to begin planting clones
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/22/after-2-decades-tracking-down-world-oldest-trees-group-ready-to-begin-planting/
If you assume, as I do, that trees that have lived long lives are simply lucky, meaning there wasn’t anything intrinsic in their DNA/…
Small in size, big on power: New microbatteries a boost for electronics
http://news.illinois.edu/news/13/0416microbatteries_WilliamKing.html
I haven’t looked at the paper so don’t have an opinion on the actual technology, but the idea is grand. One of the limiting factors in energy …
Monkey chatter smacks of human speech, researcher says
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-me-sci-sn-talking-monkeys-20130408,0,3583780.story
It makes a lot of sense to me that speech evolved gradually and that we would be able to find more primitive versions all around. One of the major conundrums surrounding …
Knowledge is Health
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/knowledge_is_health/
This is an interesting article, but what struck me was the idea that we (as a society) have already become cyborgs (the melding of machine and man), what with our dependence on smart phones and all. …
Can you smell obesity?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/27/health/time-obesity/index.html?hpt=hp_t5
This is also related to the idea of the microbiome that I have talked about before. I really think our medicine is going to start to transform much like the IT industry has and functional …
Heart Failure: Is There a Breath Test?
http://www.medpagetoday.com/CriticalCare/CHF/38076
It seems I haven’t talked about this before, but there is a lot of very interesting science that is under development that allows for the potential of some rather incredible medical information …
Aluminum-Air Battery to Power EVs for 1000 Miles
http://news.discovery.com/autos/fuel-and-alternative-fuel-technologies/aluminum-air-battery-1000-miles-130325.htm
The first time I saw an article like this (over a decade ago) I probably spent a week reading up on alternative energy storage mechanisms, there are dozens that are realistic …