With opening day in baseball less than a week away (April 4th, Sox v Yankees, 1am Irish time – be there!), this is as good a time as any to do a baseball book review. But it’s also sceintific! Moneyball is subtitled “The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” and it chronicles the paradigm shift that sabermetrics brought to the game, the transition of baseball from the historical way of scouting players to the new technique which involved statistics, statistics and more statistics.

Battery life decreases during in the cold.
Some studies suggest 20-40% reduction, although in modern batteries this is only temporary. This is due the the atoms (or ions in the case of batteries) randomly moving at a slower pace. We must thus impart them with more energy to make them move. A representation is trying to get something over a hill. We need to impart force to get them is, and after the crest of the hill they can “travel” the rest themselves. Thus the crest represents a threshold which must …

This week we’re in Christmas mood and looking at the Science of the carious aspects of Christmas and Santa Claus. We will attempt to answer the following:
-How can Santa get down the chimney?
-How is Rudolf’s nose red?
-The logistics behind the day itself.
-How can reindeer fly?

A couple of favourites from college and friends working in Science (apologies in advance!)

2 Hydrogen atoms walk into a bar. 1 stops and says:
“Oh no, I’ve lost my electron!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m positive.”

A bacterium walks into a bar, and heads towards the barman.
Barman: “Oi, no bacteria allowed in here.”
Bacterium: “It’s OK, I’m Staph!”

Interesting article coming from a number of sources who say the Arsenal striker Robin van Persie has flown to Serbia to visit a housewife who claims to have magical healing powers by way of utilising fluid from a placenta to massage.

Sources include the Irish Independent, The Daily Mail and other online sources. Funnily enough, Indo states that the fluid is human of origin, whereas the other sources state its horse placental fluid. You’d have to believe it was the latter and that someone in the Indo is “slightly” mistaken. RvP’s injury has come from a tackle from Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini in a recent Holland v Italy match.

Trinity Biotech plc is a public company (NASDAQ: TRIB) with manufacturing facilities in Bray, Ireland, Jamestown, New York and Carlsbad, California.
The company specialises in the development, manufacture and marketing of diagnostic products which utilise immunoassay technologies. Trinity markets over 120 products through distributors in 80 countries.

The company was formed in 1992 and attained its first full year of profit in 1997. Trinity Biotech has expanded through a combination of internal and acquisition-led growth.

Through a combination of in-house R & D and acquisitions, the company has assembled an impressive product portfolio and achieved an excellence in developing, manufacturing and marketing quality products that meet market demands. Its product range utilises immunoassay techniques, which have been employed to develop tests in five main formats. One-step rapid tests which utilise the company’s proprietary Uni-Gold™ Technology, multiple tests on Microtitre plates, Western Blot, immunofluorescence and coagulation

One of the biggest advantages to being able to use a cell phone as a scientific tool is the ability for underdeveloped nations to have fairly easy access to the same means as those more advanced. Here are
5 applications already available for use in tandem with a cell phone.

Propofol is very short acting hypnotic agent used to induce general anesthesia and to maintain patients who are mechanically ventilated. For those of you who have undergone general anesthesia, the milky white liquid is probably the last thing you see prior to being knocked out - as once injected propofol will induce unconsciousness in around 10 seconds. Due to its ability to impair memory while under its influence and its appearance as a white liquid, propofol is jokingly called “milk of amnesia” by medical professionals. Interestingly, Michael called propofol his “milk”.

SO WHAT WENT WRONG…?

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.

Inspiration from reading a Times article recently and my own debilitating state post Mammy birthday celebrations, makes me soberly (ish) face up to why alcohol causes hangovers in the human body.

Headaches are caused by a lot of processes going on in your body whilst succumbing to the post pub affliction. Here are just a couple:
Alcohol suppresses the anti diuretic hormone in the brain. The ADH signals the kidneys to reabsorb water back into the body but without it the water goes to the bladder which is why there’s a constant flow of people to the pub toilet.

-Niamh (niamh dot buckley at lifescience dot ie)