Endeavours to cure ‘an poit’ exist all over the world. Whether it’s Ancient Romans deep fried canaries, Ancient Greeks owl eggs (and sheep lungs) or Haitian-Voodoo’s method of finding the last bottle you drank from and sticking black pins into the cork… many others may have scientific merit.

Is this man clean? -Brian (brian.c at lifescience.ie)

Doomsday clock…another end to humanity?

It seems that over time and with the development and advancements made in science, it may not be too long before Science Fiction and Science Fact gradually become one and the same. In a follow up to our previous post of the impending Doomsday via a solar flame, another avenue to doomsday is also on the horizon.

Science Fiction movies, such as Terminator and the Matrix (to name but two), have predicted a day when computers evolve to a time when humans are simply an inconvenience to evolution. As abstract as this may seem, today we witness the dawn of living creatures being used to power a simple computer, visa vie the humans are batteries in the Matrix future.

Predictions abound regarding Doomsday, including Nostradamus, Merlin (Myriddin, Welsh Druidic Seer) Nostradamus, the Mayan Indians and the ancient Chinese in the I Ching, but what has come to light in recent years is that many of these predictions coalesce to the same date – 21st December 2012, the end of the Mayan calendar. The predictions are of global meltdown, of fire and brimstone and of floods and waves, but is there any science behind the predictions?

Surprisingly, the answer is maybe. On the winter solstice (Dec 21st, 2012) the earth, the sun and the centre-point (origin) of the milky-way galaxy are in exact alignment (the word exact is in dispute of, course). Furthermore NASA has predicted an exceptionally strong solar maximum between 2010 and 2012.

Scientists have found the “missing link” in human evolution, a 47-million-year-old monkey fossil that they’re calling Ida, aptly named after the discoverer’s 5 year old daughter. In terms of figuring out human evolution, Ida’s a pretty big deal — she’s got features from the non-human evolutionary line (the pro-simians, like lemurs) but is more related to the human evolutionary line (apes and the like). One of the paleontologists, Jørn Hurum of the University of Oslo Natural History Museum, sums it up: “This is the first link to all humans … …

nbelievable video, you can see the poor guy’s (Anthony Van Loo of Roeselare) body jolt @ 0.16 secs in. This device literally saved the man’s life, numerous examples have happened in the past with tragic consequences. Mohamed Abdelwahab (Egypt), and the most famous example possibly being Marc Vivien Foe, who died while playing he Confederation’s Cup for Cameroon.

Found a very cool use of technology meeting science head on. Lots of fun playing with you periodic table!
Simply follow the link -> www.ptable.com
RH

Interesting little article from the Danish Jylland’s Posten site on how Novo Nordisk, the Danish world leader in diabetes care, partook in the Saddam Hussain Oil-for-Food scheme run when the dictator was in power. The organisation’s head denied the whole thing in 2005: “I would like to inform the Danish public and the UN, that we we expose to this negative press.”

The knuckleball is an intriguing prospect from the outset. How can something which is sometimes not even thrown at 70mph compare to something thrown at 95+ mph by some fireballers (Jonathan Papelbon, Joba Chmberlain et al)??
Having experienced Tim Wakefield pitch live twice, it really is hilarious. The ball looks like it floats out of his hand towards large burly major leaguers. To see them swing violently and miss at something so slow is amazing. Which begs the question, what is the Science behind the knuckleball? As alluded to in the Ronaldo post, the principles isolated in this pitch are quite similar. The distinct lack of spin imparted to Wakefield’s pitch and Ronaldo’s strike results in the respective balls making erratic movements on the way to their targets due to increased drag, results in the goalkeeper and hitter, respectively, having trouble anticipating where the object ball will be on arrival.

Great article from yesterday’s Sunday Times about the Science behind Ronaldo’s 40 yard screamer on Wednesday vs Porto. We’ll do a few more Sports-related articles over the next few days, starting with the Science behind Tim Wakefield’s timeless knuckleball-pitch in baseball.

-Brian