Scientific American 60 Second Science听抄（有音频文件）

深海lavenderUID: 2350207

LZ加油!

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

On msn video, there is a TV/History channel. You can find many interesting tales. Recently I watched two tales about ghosts. Halloween is coming!
One ghost story is about white House in Washington DC. After many years, some people saw Mrs. Adams, the first hostess of the building, haunting with laundry. The most stunning story is about Abraham Lincoln. He saw his death in a dream shortly before his assassination.  In 1940, a visiting Queen saw Lincoln at midnight.
Another story is about a girl who likes lavender clothing. Lavender is purplish color. Two boys drove a car for a ball part at a high school. They met the girl at a black bridge. The girl was in a lavender dress. Because there are few girls at the dancing part, they picked the girl up. They did not realize anything special until they came back from the party. Because it was too chilly, one of the boys took off his jacket to keep the girl warm. At the bridge the girl got off the car but did not return the jacket. She told the boy to meet tomorrow. The next morning tow boys visited a house near the bridge. The hostess was a very old lady. She told boys she knew the girl. She said the girl was her daughter. The boys could not believe because the lady was too old to have such a young daughter. The lady told boys her daughter loved dancing and was killed by a truck at that bridge when she was practicing dance. So the lavender dress girl was a ghost! One boy asked the lady how she could prove it. The lady said her daughter’s tomb was in a cemetery. So the boys followed the lady to the cemetery. To their surprise, the jacket was on the epitaph.

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

Elephants squeeze at smaller habitats where people live in their territory, and this causes problems. Hungry elephants can charge to villages and towns, destroy across buildings. Sometimes people respond it by shooting. This conflict between human and elephants may soon get help from a simple low cost solution: bees. It turned out that elephants are afraid of them. It was known that elephant were out way to avoid bees. So, scientists in Kenya decide to test whether bees can be used to deliberately scare elephants off. They recorded sound of disturbed hives. They placed the recorders near a tree around no elephant family. Another tree plays control of white noise buzz. With just over a minute, 16 or 17 element family has fled the scene of bee sound. Half of them split in the first 10 seconds. In contrast, none left in white noise in ten seconds, only a few in a minute. Scientists believe bee hut may be one more tools to avoid elephant-human clash, not mention the money to be made from selling honey. A winning solution are all around.

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

Varying studies suggest eating garlic can be good for you. It has been credited with lowering blood pressure, protecting again heart disease, providing blood clots, even fighting off cold. Now researchers from University of Alabama, Birmingham think they had a better idea how garlic might work dysgenic magic. The Alabama team exposed red blood cells to the juicy price from standard supermarket issued clove garlic
They found garlic cells give high hydrogen sulfide which is the gas given off rotten egg from decay. Ok, I know you probably think that smell like sewage seems even more odious than original garlic. But I like the level. A pinch of garlic can be just what doctor ordered. Because hydrogen sulfide serves chemical messenger help to relax blood vessel and increase flood flow, which could explain some cardiovascular benefits. Of curse, more studies are needed to show whether probable really does and keep doctor away. At the meantime, enjoy your garlic bread. Don’t worry about garlic breath. Just think inside your order must smile alike.

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

The Internet changed the world. But information resources provided can be out of reach to those physical disability that affected their hands and arms. Now scientists at University of Washington are developed a resolution using human voice, which is called voice joystick. Maybe thinking, ok, the software recognizes speech. So someone say to turn down the page for response. But speaking sentence takes too long. People with physical disabilities could not get that fast than that. Instead of whole sentence, vowels move joystick at each direction. Sounds such a, e, u, k, or ch release the mouth. Raise the pitch of voice, speak to the curser. Develop joystick for internet for playing video game even for operating a robot’s arm. Developers could eventually allow people to drive their wheelchair using their sound. They also plan on cooperation on other vocal version such as trail or brindle into literal version, which eventually like something singing to a computer.

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

Mussels are delicious when cooked in a white wine broth, but they also have two other well-known qualities before they’re put in a pot: they stick to virtually all inorganic and organic surfaces, and they stick with amazing tenacity.
Northwestern University biomedical engineer Phillip B. Messersmith already has developed a material that mimics the strength of the bonds; now he has produced a versatile coating method that mimics the mussels’ ability to attach to a wide variety of objects.
Messersmith and his research team, in a study to be published in the Oct. 19 issue of the journal Science, report that a broad variety of materials can be coated and functionalized through the application of a surface layer of polydopamine.

Potential applications of the simple and inexpensive method include flexible electronics, such as bendable and flexible displays, biosensors, medical devices, marine anti-fouling coatings, and water processing and treatment, such as removing heavy metals from contaminated water.

Key to the coating method is the small molecule dopamine, commonly known as a neurotransmitter. Dopamine, it turns out, is a good mimic of the essential components of mussel adhesive proteins, and the researchers use it as a building block for polymer coatings. (Dopamine itself is not found in mussels.) So, like a mussel, Messersmith’s coating sticks to anything.

“This is an astonishingly simple and versatile approach to functional surface modification of materials,” said Messersmith, professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, who led the research. “We dissolve dopamine, which we buy at low cost, in a beaker of water exposed to air. We adjust the water’s pH to marine pH, about 8.5, put in an object and several hours later it’s coated with a thin film of polydopamine. That’s it.”

Solid objects of any size and shape can be immersed in the solution. (The dopamine solution is very dilute -- only two milligrams of dopamine per one milliliter of water.) At marine pH, there are chemical changes in the dopamine molecule that result in polymerization of the molecules together to form a polymer, polydopamine, which coats the object. The polymer is fairly similar to what is found in the mussel adhesive protein.

And to make things more interesting, the polydopamine coating, in turn, provides a very chemically reactive surface onto which the researchers can deposit a second coating. And because the surface is so reactive in so many different ways, a wide variety of second coatings can be applied.

“We take advantage of that reactivity to apply the second layer,” said Messersmith. “As a simple example, I could put an iPod in the dopamine solution, and a thin polydopamine coating would form. Then I could take it out and put it in a metal salt solution and form a coating of copper or silver.”

This second coating, depending on what it is, promises to take researchers and industry in multiple directions as far as applications go. In addition to cladding objects with metal coatings, this includes inhibiting biofouling of materials (such as for medical devices), engineering surfaces to support biospecific interactions with cells (such as for culture and expansion of stem cells) and applying self-assembled monolayers to nonmetal surfaces (such as for biosensors).

Messersmith and his colleagues tested the two-step process on 25 different substrate materials (but not an iPod) with a wide range of characteristics representing all major classes of materials, from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, from inorganic to organic, as well as the traditionally difficult material Teflon, all with positive results. They then demonstrated deposition of metal and organic coatings and self-assembled monolayers onto the polydopamine coating.

“Existing methods for modifying material surfaces are fairly restricted to specific materials -- what works well on glass would not work well on gold,” said Messersmith. “Our method is a much more general strategy for a variety of surfaces. We haven’t found a material to which we can’t apply polydopamine.”

Source: Northwestern University

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

Dopamine is a crucial brain chemical involving problem solving and feeling pleasure. Now it gets scientists into stick situation, because they use dopamine to make biological based super glue. The research appeared in October 19th issue of journal Science. Engineers at Northwestern University were looking to produce glue strong and versatile cemented by muscles, which can glue rock, ship holes to each other. Muscle glue made of protein which can be treated as fault, so scientists treat dopamine because the same chemical component was found in gummy protein. Sure enough, when engineers make up dopamine, just PH match seawater, they found it sticks to pretty everything. All you have to do is to dip item interested and instant coating with dopamine glue. Best of all you can get other stuff into dopamine coating. See what lead drinking water, just let wash sticky dopamine and torched middle stage. Fascinatingly the dopamine in the research of brain probably helps solve problem creating. Dopamine sticks like muscles.

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

Robert Cialdini's books are wonderfully readable books on the psychology of influence that will help you recognize when your built in psychology is used against you to influence your judgement and decision making. Although his books are often recommended to marketers and carried in bookstore's business and marketing section, they are also an excellent defense against many forms of attempted influence, from political groups and religions to business. Cialdini's books are replete with anecdotes and backed up by research and are well worth a read

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

The 12-year tenure New York Yankee manager Joe Torre ended in the last week the science conference 2000 Washington Poster baseball writer Tom Baswell discuss the Torre’s success in terms of principle set forth in a book called “the influence: the psychology persuasion” by Robert Cialdini. Science American well on commission February 2001 article by Cialdini, available at sciamdigit.com. The piece discussed six major persuading factors which Torre used to set such great effect. One is you reciprocity. People are more likely to go out some way for some one who has done so for you. The second is consistence. Acting consistently shows people you can be trusted. Third is social validation. Get enough people on the same page the rest would like to follow due to peer pressure. Fourth is simply likeability. People are more likely to respond to somebody they like. Fifth is the authority. Torre query dignity nonstandard record players himself give greater authority to the players. Sixth is scarcity. Since limited supply more than desirable, which should make one of Joe hot komarty on baseball market.

[ 本帖最后由 kevinliu6883 于 2007-10-25 10:46 编辑 ]

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

Short bursts of low intensity vibration can prevent stem cells from turning into fat cells in young mice, according to a study released Monday.

The findings, while only preliminary, suggest that burning or metabolizing calories by vigorous exercise is not the only way to fend off weight gain -- at least in the young.

Mechanical stimulation may prevent fat accumulating in the first place by influencing the development of immature or progenitor cells so that they become muscle or bone cells rather than fat cells.

If the findings can be replicated in humans, it could have implications for the prevention of childhood obesity, the authors said in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Everyone thinks of obesity as a metabolic or fat-burning disorder, but our study suggests there may also be a developmental element," said Clinton Rubin, a professor of bioengineering at Stony Brook University in New York state.

In a series of experiments on young adult mice, Rubin and his team showed that mice that were placed on a vibrating platform for 15 minutes every day for 15 weeks accumulated almost 30 percent less body fat than a group of control mice that were put on a stationary platform.

"This could be a non-pharmalogical way of controlling susceptibility to obesity in young people," said Rubin. "It won't make fat kids skinny, but it could control their propensity for getting heavy."

"And if we can inhibit fat gain in the young, we can reduce their susceptibility for diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life," he added.

Scientists do not know what the physiological impact of vibration is. One assumption is that it causes muscles to contract and relax which strengthens them and exerts pressure on the bones.

Either way, the results of this study show that even in small doses, the treatment suppressed fat accumulation both in young rodents, and rodents that tend to get fat as they age.

Rubin cautioned against seeing the study as an endorsement of some of the vibrating platforms that are marketed as exercise machines, noting that dangerously high levels of vibration have been associated with lower back pain, percussive injuries to the brain and certain cardiovascular disorders.

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

If you like mean, somewhere in your closet or maybe in your drawer, you probably have a pair of pants hoping on Sunday fitting to. Again, but staying on a diet or fighting time to exercise, it is no walking park. But wait. Before you swell off Spaghetti, scientists at StateUniversity at New York Stony Brook have launched a new way to slenderize. They found mice spending 15 minutes a day standing on vibrating platform are leaner than those just standing still. The results appeared in current on line edition of preceding National Academy of Sciences. All the animal experiments will allow eating their fill. After 15 weeks. The shaking may weigh less. But compared with mice on stationery platform, they had about 30% less fat than the middles. The SUNY scientists think giggling can affect fat cells from forming. Whether they do same for people, you never know. Here you thought New Yorker are leaner and meaner because they are always in rushing and hurry here and there, maybe it’s because they spend so much time standing on vibrating subway platforms, waiting for the uptown express.

[ 本帖最后由 kevinliu6883 于 2007-10-25 10:48 编辑 ]

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

Your height in adult life significantly affects your quality of life, with short people reporting worse physical and mental health than people of normal height. This large, peer reviewed study, which appears in Clinical Endocrinology, shows that adult height is linked to how good a person thinks their health is. Short people judge their state of health to be significantly lower than their normal height peers do.

The data for this study came from the 2003 Health Survey for England, carried out by the UK Department of Health(1). In this survey, participants filled out a health-related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaire and a nurse measured their height. Researchers, led by Senior Health Economist Torsten Christensen at Novo Nordisk A/S in Denmark, used this data to assess the relationship between height and HRQoL. A person’s health-related quality of life refers to their perceived physical and mental health over time. The questionnaire does not measure how good a person’s health actually is; it measures how good a person thinks their health is. The questionnaire examined five areas of well-being: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression. The researchers controlled the results in the study for the effects of other well-known indicators of HRQoL such as age, gender, body weight, long-standing illness and social class. In total, this study used the results from 14 416 respondents.

People in the shortest height category (men shorter than 162 cm and women shorter than 151 cm) reported they experience significantly lower HRQoL than people of normal height. Additionally, the shorter you are, the more pronounced this effect becomes. This means that a small increase in height has a much larger positive effect on a short person than it does on a person of normal height. The results predict that people who are of short stature could increase their HRQoL by 6.1% if their height was increased by 7 cm for men and 6 cm for women. This 6.1% difference in HRQoL is equivalent to the HRQoL benefits of losing 10-15 kg for an obese person (with a BMI greater than 30)(2).

Short height in adult life can either be due to normal development or caused by a number of diseases such as growth hormone deficiency or Turner syndrome. Treatment with growth hormone to children with these conditions can increase their final adult height by approximately 4-10 cm depending on the underlying cause(3). Previous studies have not clearly established the impact of this increase in height upon patients’ HRQoL. The results from this study show that any small increase to the height of short people can have a large positive impact upon how good they perceive their health to be when adult. HRQoL data combine physiological, physical and social well-being into one outcome measure. The results from this study may also be useful for health economic assessments (such as those used by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence) for calculating the benefits of treatments for short stature.

Researcher Torsten Christensen said:

“We know that people who are short experience more difficulties in areas of their life such as education, employment and relationships than people of normal height. However, the relationship between height and psychosocial well-being is not well understood. Using this large and nationally representative sample of the UK population, we found shorter people report that they experience lower physical and mental well-being than taller people do. Our results also indicate that the shorter someone is, the stronger this relationship becomes. For example, an increase in height of 3 cm would have a positive impact on the health related quality of life of a short person, whereas the effect of an extra 3 cm would be negligible for a person of normal height.

Although our study does not show that short height directly causes a reduction in physical and mental health, it does indicate that short people are more likely to feel that they experience a lower health-related quality of life. However, further research is now needed to clarify the precise relationship between changes in height and health-related quality of life.”-Society for Endocrinology

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

Height is correlated to a lot of things, up to a search high taller people make more money than vertical challenged. And taller presidential candidate almost always wins. Now study found your height in the adult have profound effect on your perception on your health. Short people judge their health to be worse than the average tall people judge theirs. The research’s published in the journal of Clinic Endocrinology. Dandifer study came from 2003 health survey from England. More than 14000 participated filled their questionnaires on their height measured. The study only look at how good the subject thought his or her health was, not their actual health. Questions focus on 5 areas: mobility, self-care, normal activities, pain or discomfort, anxiety or depression. Men Shorter than about 5 feet 4 and women shorter than 5 feet reported worst deceptions. But small increase in height or lowering has much big effect on perception than same increase among taller people. Other studies have shown short people on average actually live longer.

zhenzhen_163UID: 196150

Jia you!   :handshake

kevinliu6883UID: 2338522

“Look before you leap,” the old adage has it. Well it seems that the animal that first venture out onto land from sea will well quick to look when they made that leap. Research studies on eyes of lung fish which are thought to be closely living relatives to the first vertebrate that lived on land. Lung fish use giles to take oxygen but it can also breathe air if necessary. And they live in shallow fresh water habitats with a lot of light, so it would make sense that they can see pretty well nearly environment see pretty well near environment. DND and gene for visual pigments for the lung fish turned out to be much close to sequence found in four-leg animals than other kinds of fish. The work appeared in the Journal of Biomedical Century Evolutionary Biology. So the early landlord probably adapted to see well the new environment, which must come in handy for finding food and mates. First creature sea smell are probably pretty bad.