Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
First replicating creature spawned in life simulator
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Insulin that doesnt need a fridge or a needle
Team researcher Bianca van Lierop said they're also using their knowledge to develop a form of insulin that could be delivered by pill.
More @ Sciguru.com
Monday, June 07, 2010
The Burger Lab: How to Make Perfect Thin and Crisp French Fries | A Hamburger Today
Fries and frozen fries, pre-blanched to various temperatures. Notice how dark the un-blanched fries are due to excess sugars browning.
Ingredients
2 pounds russet potatoes (about 4 large), peeled and cut into 1/4-inch by 1/4-inch fries (keep potatoes stored in a bowl of water)
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
Kosher salt
2 quarts peanut oil
Procedure
1. Place potatoes and vinegar in saucepan and add 2 quarts of water and 2 tablespoons of salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil for 10 minutes. Potatoes should be fully tender, but not falling apart. Drain and spread on paper towel-lined rimmed baking sheet. Allow to dry for five minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in 5-quart Dutch oven or large wok over high heat to 400°F. Add 1/3 of fries to oil (oil temperature should drop to around 360°F). Cook for 50 seconds, agitating occasionally with wire mesh spider, then remove to second paper-towel lined rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with remaining potatoes (working in two more batches), allowing oil to return to 400°F after each addition. Allow potatoes to cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Continue with step 3, or for best results, freeze potatoes at least over night, or up to 2 months.
3. Return oil to 400°F over high heat. Fry half of potatoes until crisp and light golden brown, about 3 1/2 minutes, adjusting heat to maintain at around 360°F. Drain in a bowl lined with paper towels and season immediately with kosher salt. Cooked fries can be kept hot and crisp on a wire rack set on a sheet tray in a 200°F oven while second batch is cooked. Serve immediately.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Alzheimer’s Stalks an Extended Family in Colombia - NYTimes.com
 |
For generations, the illness has tormented these and thousands of others among a sprawling group of relatives: the world’s largest family to experience Alzheimer’s disease. Now, the Colombian clan is center stage in a potentially groundbreaking assault on Alzheimer’s, a plan to see if giving treatment before dementia starts can lead to preventing Alzheimer’s altogether.
But preventive research is difficult. Participants should be people guaranteed, or highly likely, to develop dementia, and with common Alzheimer’s identifying such people is challenging because the disease’s cause is unknown. Also, because people would not be sick when treated, potential negative side effects of drugs are especially worrisome.
Since Colombians with Alzheimer’s are young, without many old-age ailments, they have “cleaner brains that can give a better picture” of whether drugs work, Dr. Buckholtz said.
And the extended family’s single location, large size and similar lifestyles provide enough comparable participants for solid scientific data.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Concorde flying again?
Work starts in £15m plan to get Concorde flying | |
The engines on a French Concorde are to be examined as the first move in a £15m project aiming to get the supersonic passenger jet back in the air. The Rolls Royce engines of the former Air France Concorde will undergo an initial examination to see what work needs to be done to start the engines. Concorde was retired seven years ago, but it is hoped the jet could return to flight in a heritage capacity. The tests by a French-British team will take place at an air museum near Paris. The work at the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum is being done through a partnership between the British Save Concorde Group, SCG, and a French group Olympus 593. 'Critical date' Vice-chairman of SCG Ben Lord said: "Today marks the most critical date in Concorde's history since she was retired almost seven years ago. "Two members of our management team are in France this weekend to observe these amazing developments. "SCG has always maintained that she could return to flight in a heritage capacity, and the findings of today will hopefully go an awfully long way to proving our point. | |
Thursday, May 27, 2010
FLASH Laser Leads to Discovery of New State of Matter
Like a scene out of Star Trek, Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. 'Transparent aluminium' previously only existed in science fiction, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with important implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Darwinian spacecraft enine to last twice as long
SPACE agencies may one day have Charles Darwin to thank for the longevity of their spacecraft. The life expectancy of a popular type of ion engine
Electrostatic ion engines are becoming popular in space missions. Instead of relying on burning large amounts of heavy liquid propellant for thrust, they use solar power to ionise a small supply of xenon gas. A high voltage applied across a pair of gridded electrodes sends the positively charged ions rushing at high speed towards the negative electrode. Most ions pass through the grid, generating thrust.
(...)
He used evolution-mimicking software (...)
After 100 generations, the GA spawned a geometry/voltage set that boosted the ion engine grid's lifetime to 5.1 years - at least in the simulator (Journal of Propulsion and Power, DOI: 10.2514/1.44358). Factors optimised included grid hole diameter, hole spacing and the thickness of the grids. The engine could be improved further, says Farnell, by evolving the other parts too.
