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?

Teleflex Medical design and deliver specialised instruments and devices to touch nearly every organ in the human body. With 1 well established Original Equipment Manufacture plant in Limerick (TFX OEM) and a newly announced plant being created in Athlone, this is a relatively low profile player in the Irish medical device sector which looks set to grow.

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

Recent studies into the FTO gene have revealed variants of this gene may be linked to higher body mass index and obesity. The research suggests the FTO gene is active in the area of the brain which regulates food intake, the hypothalamus, and is involved in either regulating metabolism or DNA repair. However variants of the gene cause these processes to break down and may result in changes nutrient intake and energy expenditure.
According to the study one in six people of European decent carry two copies of the variant and compared to people with no copies of the gene had a 70% risk of obesity and could be an average of 3kg heavier.

ScienceNews reports that a new type of dinosaur, Limusaurus inextricabilis, has been discovered at a fossil dig site in China. The find is especially exciting due to the dinosaur’s apparent close relation to birds, further proving some scientists’ theory that one group of dinosaurs actually evolved instead of dying out. This group of dinosaurs, called theropods, walked on two legs, and the new dinosaur fossils that was discovered in China extend the link between theropods and modern day birds because of its clear similarity to bird hand-bone arrangements.

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.

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.”

Just saw this on RTE news, amazing story. Connie Culp, 46, was shot in the face by her husband in 2004 - he then turned the gun on himself. 30 operations later, she still did not have the ability to perform ‘ordinary’ facial functions. A 22 hr operation, led by 11 surgeons has reHer news conference afterwards was special too, kids used to call her a monster. Connie used to have to carry a photo of herself to show them what she used to look like. It will be very interesting to see if she regains the ability to smell and drink (not using a straw) - things we all take for granted.

-BHC