Science Simplified!

Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2013 at 7:29am

http://www.siliconindia.com/news/general/34000-Households-In-Bangal...
34,000 Households In Bangalore Prefer Technology Over Sanitation!

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2013 at 7:16am

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=adam-ruthe...
Adam Rutherford's Creation Science (The Real Kind) Part 2
http://www.amazon.com/Creation-Science-Reinventing-Itself-ebook/dp/...
Science journalist, author and Nature editor Adam Rutherford talks about new book Creation: How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself, which looks at the science of the origin of life and at the emerging science of synthetic biology.
Book Description
Publication Date: June 13, 2013
What is life?

Humans have been asking this question for thou­sands of years. But as technology has advanced and our understanding of biology has deepened, the answer has evolved. For decades, scientists have been exploring the limits of nature by modifying and manipulating DNA, cells and whole organisms to create new ones that could never have existed on their own.

In Creation, science writer Adam Rutherford explains how we are now radically exceeding the boundaries of evolution and engineering entirely novel creatures—from goats that produce spider silk in their milk to bacteria that excrete diesel to genetic circuits that identify and destroy cancer cells. As strange as some of these creations may sound, this new, synthetic biology is helping scientists develop radical solutions to some of the world’s most pressing crises—from food shortages to pandemic disease to climate change—and is paving the way for inventions once relegated to science fiction.

Meanwhile, these advances are shedding new light on the biggest mystery of all—how did life begin? We know that every creature on Earth came from a single cell, sparked into existence four billion years ago. And as we come closer and closer to understanding the ancient root that connects all living things, we may finally be able to achieve a second genesis—the creation of new life where none existed before.

Creation takes us on a journey four billion years in the making—from the very first cell to the ground-breaking biological inventions that will shape the future of our planet.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2013 at 7:14am

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=poor-choices-finan...
Poor Choices: Financial Worries Can Impair One’s Ability to Make Sound Decisions

New research suggests causative link between income level and cognitive function

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2013 at 6:49am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 4, 2013 at 5:23am

http://www.examiner.com/article/new-study-finds-every-minute-of-exe...
New study finds every minute of exercise counts

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 1, 2013 at 5:37am

http://www.gereports.com/the-art-of-science/
The Art of Science: Supercomputers Help Scientists See What Microscopes and Cameras Can’t Capture
Scientists at GE Global Research have been using the world’s most powerful supercomputers to simulate everything from fuel flowing through jet engine nozzles to water drops turning into ice. The results can be rewarding beyond solving research riddles. “Many times our work generates images that are visually breathtaking,” says Rick Arthur, who leads the Advanced Computing Lab at GRC.

Supercomputers are helping GE engineers speed up innovation, crack previously intractable problems, and shorten the business cycle.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 1, 2013 at 5:23am

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/352880/title/News_in_Bri...
News in Brief: Don't stand so close to me
Personal space has a measurable boundary

People have a sharp no-fly zone around their faces. Though its boundaries depend on the person, this discomfort zone usually starts between 20 and 40 centimeters away and continues right up to the face, researchers report August 28 in the Journal of Neuroscience. Threatening objects that enter this forbidden space are likely to trigger a strong defensive reaction. Scientists knew that this safety margin exists, but its boundaries hadn’t been measured.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 31, 2013 at 7:03am

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v500/n7464/full/nature12506.html Richness of human gut microbiome correlates with metabolic markers We are facing a global metabolic health crisis provoked by an obesity epidemic. Here we report the human gut microbial composition in a population sample of 123 non-obese and 169 obese Danish individuals. We find two groups of individuals that differ by the number of gut microbial genes and thus gut bacterial richness. They contain known and previously unknown bacterial species at different proportions; individuals with a low bacterial richness (23% of the population) are characterized by more marked overall adiposity, insulin resistance and dyslipidaemia and a more pronounced inflammatory phenotype when compared with high bacterial richness individuals. The obese individuals among the lower bacterial richness group also gain more weight over time. Only a few bacterial species are sufficient to distinguish between individuals with high and low bacterial richness, and even between lean and obese participants. Our classifications based on variation in the gut microbiome identify subsets of individuals in the general white adult population who may be at increased risk of progressing to adiposity-associated co-morbidities.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=staying-he...
Staying Healthy Takes Guts Full of Microbes

People whose intestines have smaller and less diverse bacterial populations are more prone to obesity and gut inflammation.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 31, 2013 at 5:56am

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/352859/description/Pover...
Poverty may tax thinking abilities
But sudden windfalls improve poor people's mental fortunes

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 30, 2013 at 6:18am

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/2013/0...
Turning the tables on obesity and BMI: When more can be better.

while obese and unhealthy people suffer from the highest mortality, people with normal BMI can also be quite unhealthy and be near the upper or mid range of the mortality scale. Conversely, an obese person can be metabolically healthy. So why is this? The short answer is that for high-BMI individuals, the right fat in the right location might provide some benefits, like soaking up toxins or being a source of energy. In case of people with normal BMI it gets even more interesting; they often suffer from a poor nutritional and metabolic status in spite of their favorable BMI profile, and this can lead to worse mortality and health.

To me, the practice of boiling down something as complicated as health or mortality to a single number like the BMI says a lot about the human desire to simplify and to use what’s readily available rather than what’s important. The belief again reminds you of the drunkard and his keys; BMI is readily measurable and it’s what we know, so why not use it? The truth is of course more convoluted. True metrics of mortality will have to take into account not just variables like fat distribution but – as the graphic illustrates – other biochemical and physiological indicators like insulin sensitivity and inflammation. It’s very much a holistic approach, something that medicine is increasingly appreciating in both diagnosis and treatment

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 1156
• 1157
• 1158
• 1159
• 1160
• …
• 1200
• Next ›
• Page