15 SPECTACULAR TRICKS FOR YOUR BODY!

1) If you've got an itch in your throat, scratch your ear. When the
nerves in the ear get stimulated, they create a reflex in the throat
that causes a muscle spasm, which cures the itch.
2) Having trouble hearing someone at a party or on the phone?

Use your right ear it's better at picking up rapid speech. But, the left is better at picking up music tones.
3) If you need to relieve yourself BADLY, but you're not anywhere
near a bathroom, fantasize about RELATIONS. That preoccupies your brain and distracts it.
4) Next time the doctor's going to give you an injection, COUGH as
the needle is going in. The cough raises the level of pressure in your spinal canal, which limits the pain sensation as it tries to travel to your brain.
5) Clear a stuffed nose or relieve sinus pressure by pushing your
tongue against the roof of your mouth then pressing a finger between your eyebrows. Repeat that for 20 seconds it causes the vomer bone to rock, which loosens your congestion and clears you up.
6) If you ate a big meal and you're feeling full as you go to sleep,
lay on your left side. That'll keep you from suffering from acid reflux it keeps your stomach lower than your esophagus, which will helps keep stomach acid from sliding up your throat.
7) You can stop a toothache by rubbing ice on the back of your
hand, on the webbed area between your thumb and index finger.
The nerve pathways there stimulate a part of the brain that blocks
pain signals from your mouth.
8) If you get all messed up on liquor, and the room starts spinning, put your hand on something stable. The reason: Alcohol dilutes the blood in the part of your ear called the cupula, which regulates balance. Putting your hand on something stable gives your brain another reference point, which will help make the world stop spinning.
9) Stop a nose bleed by putting some cotton on your upper gums right behind the small dent below your nose and press against it hard. Most of the bleeding comes from the cartilage wall that divides the nose, so pressing there helps get it to stop.
10) Nervous? Slow your heart rate down by blowing on your thumb. The vagus nerve controls your heart rate, and you can calm it down by breathing.
11) Need to breathe underwater for a while? Instead of taking a huge breath, HYPERVENTILATE before you go under, by taking a bunch of short breaths. That'll trick your brain into thinking it has more oxygen, and buy you about 10 extra seconds.
12) You can prevent BRAIN FREEZE by pressing your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, covering as much surface area as possible. Brain freeze happens because the nerves in the roof of your mouth get extremely cold, so your brain thinks your whole body is cold. It compensates by overheating which causes your head to hurt. By warming up the roof of your mouth, you'll chill your brain and feel better.
13) If your hand falls asleep, rock your head from side to side. That'll wake your hand or arm up in less than a minute. Your hand falls asleep because of the nerves in your neck compressing so loosening your neck is the cure. If your foot falls asleep, that's governed by nerves lower in the body, so you need to stand up and walk around.
14) Finally, this one's totally USELESS, but a nice trick. Have someone stick their arm out to the side, straight, palm down. Press down on his wrist with two fingers. He'll resist, and his arm will stay horizontal. Then, have him put his foot on a surface that's half an inch off the ground, like a stack of magazines, and do the trick again. Because his spine position is thrown off, his arm will fall right to his side, no matter how much he tries to resist.
15) Got the hiccups? Press thumb and second finger over your
eyebrows until the hiccups are over - usually, in a short while.

Interesting Facts About Sperm

• Intricate sperm production

Sperm is produced in the testes in the small structures called epididymis. During sexual arousal, the muscles push sperm from these structures through a tube called vas deferens. Here the sperm is mixed with other fluids, such as those from the prostate gland, the seminal vesicles and the Cowper's gland that all make up semen. Only one percent of the semen is actually sperm, the rest is fructose, amino acids, vitamin C, calcium, protein, sodium, zinc and citric acid.


• How sperm is welcomed

Couple's chances of successful conception depend not only on sperm's quality, but the environment, where it gets in. Sperm can be viable in alkaline conditions, while most of the time cervical mucus is acidic, meaning that sperm cannot survive in it. However, prior and during ovulation, time which is favorable for conception, the pH of woman's cervical mucus becomes sperm-friendly environment, allowing it to swim and fertilize the egg.


• High temperatures and sperm

Don't wear tight underwear, put your laptop near your privates or take warm baths. Men often hear those warnings, but what's the problem with heat? Nature is wise, that's why man's testicles are located outside the body, where temeperature is lower than inside the body. The thing is that sperm is made only at lower temperatures. When the scrotal temperature increases, it can damage sperm, thus your chances of conceiving a baby.


• Sperm allergy

If sex is not a source of pleasure for you, but rather make your privates swell, itch and result in other icky symptoms, you may be one of those rare people, who suffer from sperm allergy. Women, who are allergic to sperm, are actually allergic to particular protein in the semen. There are even cases when a man is allergic to his own semen, having flulike symptoms after ejaculation. Interestingly, semen allergy is treated with semen, but very small amounts of it.


• Sperm's lifespan

It takes around 10 weeks for the sperm to reach maturity. Once the sperm is inside the woman's body it can live up to 5 days or even longer under favorable conditions. However, when it is outside the body, it can only survive from few minutes to several hours.


• Male and female sperm

There is an equal number of male and female sperm. The female sperm (X sperm) is slower, but stronger, while the male sperm (Y sperm) is faster, but weaker


• Taste of the semen

It is believed that food man eats, affects the taste of his semen. Fruits are known to make semen taste better, while meat, dairy, coffee, onion and garlic can make semen taste bitter or acidic. Other things like smoking, medications, hygiene may also affect the taste of semen.


• Unused sperm

Every day a man produces about 70 to 150 million sperm, while during ejaculation he can produce from 200 to 500 million sperm. But what happens, if man does not have sex or masturbates? In this case, the sperm is broken down and reabsorbed by the body with all its nutrients and its untapped potential.


• Lucky guy

A healthy male produces up to 150 million sperm every day. And while the average ejaculate contains as much as a quarter billion sperm, the route to the egg is not an easy one. There are a lot of obstacles, such as unfavorable conditions of the vagina or the wrong direction it takes to the other fallopian tube. Only about a hundred of sperm can make it closer to the egg and only one: the strongest and the fastest, fertilizes the egg.


• Unfailing supply of sperm

While women are born with the limited amount of eggs, men can never run out of sperm. In fact, men can renew their sperm supply just after 15 minutes after ejaculation. However, it should be mentioned that with the age the quality of sperm may become a bit worse with greater number of slower swimmers and more sperm with DNA damage.

Sea of the Devil: Dragon Triangle

The Bermuda triangle's infamous association with disappearing boats and aircraft is known across the globe. Less well known is an area off the west coast of Japan which has an equally deadly history. It is an area where Japanese sailors fear to voyage; they call it 'Ma-no Uni' – the "Sea of the Devil".

Legend has it that huge restless dragons surface from their deep shelters to seize any unfortunate passing mariners. Japanese sailors have often recorded freakish occurrences in the area and talk of hearing terrible noises and seeing awful red lights. They believe one particularly potent creature lives in an immense palace beneath the waves. They call this monster 'Li-Lung', the "Dragon King of the Western Sea", and say his lair is decorated with the ships he has captured.

This mysterious zone stretches from western Japan to Yap island in the south and Taiwan to the west. Like the Bermuda Triangle, it is seen as having an above average number of navigation and communication failures. In truth, this area of ocean bears a remarkable resemblance to its Western cousin. Both areas are known for extreme changes in weather conditions, unexpected fogs, tidal waves, seaquakes and hurricanes, and both have examples of agonic lines, lines upon which a compass needle will point true north and south. Their most unwelcome similarities are the truly horrifying levels of unexplained sinkings and disappearances.

By the late 1940s, the amount of ships being lost without trace in the region lead to the Japanese government declaring the area a danger zone. In the early 1950s they decided to dispatch a research vessel to study the area. Despite enjoying good visibility and calm seas, the Kiao Maru No.5 disappeared without trace on 24th September 1952. The lives of all twenty-two crew and nine scientists were lost. The vessel has never been found. They are regular occurrences which stretch back for centuries and continue to this day. Whether it is dragons or not, the real evidence behind this ocean’s terrible secret remains on the seabed.

Weirdest Animal Genetic Alterations

9.The Ear Mouse

One of the first genetic images to go viral was the “ear mouse.” The mouse appears to have a human ear attached to its back, but it is actually just human cartilage that was molded into an ear form. It is often confused with a real human ear, but that process is still a long way away.

 

 

 

 

8. Cow’s Breast Milk

Human DNA was mixed with a cow’s milk genetics to produce breast milk straight from the udder. Years from now, you could actually buy breast milk from a store instead of baby formula.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 7. Spider-Goat

Marvel may have the inspiration for its newest superhero with the Spider-Goat. Using genetics from spiders, goats have been born with the ability to produce a webbing protein in their milk. This webbing could be used to make all kinds of products in the future.

 

6. Blue Strawberries

Apparently mushy strawberries from the freezer have been a big enough concern that scientists felt the need to do something about it. Using DNA from an Arctic Flounder Fish, a new ge

netically altered strawberry turns blue while growing. The new strawberry could withstand harsher temperatures, but it will take years of research to see if it is ready for consumption.

 

5. The Sheep Humans

Several B-horror movies seem to be coming to life with the recent genetic alterations on sheep. Injecting human DNA into a sheep has resulted in 15% of the sheep to be made up of huma

n body parts. These parts include lungs, livers and other organs that could potentially be used for human transplants years in the future

4. Double-Sized Salmon Fish

DNA has been altered in salmon to make the fish grow double their size. The eggs are being sold to fish farms that can quickly grow the salmon, and then sell it. The sale of these fish in the United States could be approved within the next couple of years.

3. Tweeting Mice

No, mice have not yet learned how to use Twitter, but hundreds of them are tweeting in a Japanese laboratory. Over the years, genetic mutations from dozens of animals have been performed

on the mice, with one of the rare successes coming from a bird, with some mice using bird songs and tweets to make noise. 

 

 

Watch this video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLu37VvCozw&feature

 

2. Scorpion Cabbage

What do scorpions and cabbage have in common? On a farm in California, they actually share the same venom. In an effort to prevent caterpillars from eating crops, this cabbage has bee

n genetically altered to contain scorpion venom that will kill the creatures instantly. The venom has been altered enough to cause no harm to humans.

 

 

1. Glowing Kittens

In an effort to prevent the spread of feline AIDS, a selected group of cat reproductive eggs were injected with genetic altering material that could prevent the disease, but also made

the animal glow. The glowing process is used to track the disease, but any new kittens born from these cats could possess the glowing power as well

NASA Mars 'Returner'

Curiosity is making amazing progress even as we dawdle on Facebook right now. Just earlier this week, it discovered sediment that mimics deposits of what an Earth stream would leave if it were there on Mars. Hopefully this is the sort of discovery that might precede discovering remnants of microbial, or even advanced life (or even currently living organisms!).

The sad thing is that those potential samples are still anywhere between 36 - 250 million miles away (depending on orbital comparisons) from Earth. A mild hindrance for us in investigating these sedimentary samples, and even any biological samples, under clean-room laboratory conditions befitting of the potential discoveries.

This can all change in the very near-future thanks to some provisional mission plans from the great minds at NASA...

NASA's Mars Program Planning Group released on Tuesday (25th September 2012) several key mechanisms that could be employed in order to bring samples of sediment, strata and even bio-matter back to Earth for analysis and study!

Out of these options laid out, NASA have decided upon one, but refuse to commit pen to the proverbial paper until the Whitehouse release their 2014 fiscal year budget request.

One such mechanism involves the use of containment tubes, sealed several times over to protect against deep-space. These are then mounted into a supersonic rocket which relays the samples to an orbiting base-station.
Much like a carrier-pigeon, this station then passes the projectile into a larger vessel, which is propelled towards Earth. Once in proximity to Earth, it will be collected by a human-manned craft and brought down to the planet for investigation.
Quite literally a shuttle relay run!

Other options involve the use of Sky-cranes, much like how Curiosity was delivered, which drop off several collection robots which continually collect and deliver specimens.

The key thoughts and considerations here are that Mars is now potentially being 'contaminated' by Earth - what is to say that bacteria wasn't present in Curiosity or the Rover? Similarly, what is to say that specimens brought back from Mars are able to be controlled through our known methods of decontamination and bio-hazard procedures in laboratories?

Would it not be a stroke of irony, if not typical human-luck, that a newly discovered bacterium from Mars wipes out our planet, simply because we are not adapted to combat it? Well, NASA may be able to use the International Space Station to study the samples within, so we may be safe...

The Theory of Special relativity and Time Travel.

Time travel is one of my favorite topics! I have posted some time travel concepts before on this very page, and I have continued to study this fascinating concept as the time have passed by.

We all travel in time. During the last year, I've moved forward one year and so have you. Another way to say that is that we travel in time at the rate of 1 hour per hour.

But the question is, can we travel in time faster or slower than "1 hour per hour"? Or can we actually travel backward in time, going back, say 2 hours per hour, or 10 or 100 years per hour?

It is mind-boggling to think about time travel. What if you went back in time and prevented your father and mother from meeting? You would prevent yourself from ever having been born! But then if you hadn't been born, you could not have gone back in time to prevent them from meeting.
Albert Einstein

The great 20th century scientist Albert Einstein developed a theory called Special Relativity. The ideas of Special Relativity are very hard to imagine because they aren't about what we experience in everyday life, but scientists have confirmed them. This theory says that space and time are really aspects of the same thing—space-time. There's a speed limit of 300,000 kilometers per second (or 186,000 miles per second) for anything that travels through space-time, and light always travels the speed limit through empty space.

Special Relativity also says that a surprising thing happens when you move through space-time, especially when your speed relative to other objects is close to the speed of light. Time goes slower for you than for the people you left behind. You won't notice this effect until you return to those stationary people.

Say you were 15 years old when you left Earth in a spacecraft traveling at about 99.5% of the speed of light (which is much faster than we can achieve now), and celebrated only five birthdays during your space voyage. When you get home at the age of 20, you would find that all your classmates were 65 years old, retired, and enjoying their grandchildren! Because time passed more slowly for you, you will have experienced only five years of life, while your classmates will have experienced a full 50 years.

Time traveler

So, if your journey began in 2003, it would have taken you only 5 years to travel to the year 2053, whereas it would have taken all of your friends 50 years. In a sense, this means you have been time traveling. This is a way of going to the future at a rate faster than 1 hour per hour.

Time travel of a sort also occurs for objects in gravitational fields. Einstein had another remarkable theory called General Relativity, which predicts that time passes more slowly for objects in gravitational fields (like here on Earth) than for objects far from such fields. So there are all kinds of space and time distortions near black holes, where the gravity can be very intense.

In the past few years, some scientists have used those distortions in space-time to think of possible ways time machines could work. Some like the idea of "worm holes," which may be shortcuts through space-time. This and other ideas are wonderfully interesting, but we don't know at this point whether they are possible for real objects. Still the ideas are based on good, solid science. In all time travel theories allowed by real science, there is no way a traveler can go back in time to before the time machine was built.

I am confident time travel into the future is possible, but we would need to develop some very advanced technology to do it. We could travel 10,000 years into the future and age only 1 year during that journey. However, such a trip would consume an extraordinary amount of energy. Time travel to the past is more difficult. We do not understand the science as well.

Actually, scientists and engineers who plan and operate some space missions must account for the time distortions that occur because of both General and Special Relativity. These effects are far too small to matter in most human terms or even over a human lifetime. However, very tiny fractions of a second do matter for the precise work necessary to fly spacecraft throughout the solar system.

Have Aliens Left The Universe?

Recently, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking stated that he too believes aliens exist: “To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational.”

Hawking thinks we should be cautious about interacting with aliens — that they might raid Earth’s resources, take our ores, and then move on like pirates. “I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.”

But where are they all anyhow?

For years, NASA and others have been searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. The universe is 13.7 billion years old and contains some 10 billion trillion stars. Surely, in this lapse of suns, advanced life would have evolved if it were possible. Yet despite half a century of scanning the sky, astronomers have failed to find any evidence of life or to pick up any of the interstellar radio signals that our great antennas should be able to easily detect.

Some scientists point to the “Fermi Paradox,” noting that extraterrestrials should have had plenty of time to colonize the entire galaxy but that perhaps they’ve blown themselves up. It’s conceivable the problem is more fundamental and that the answer has to do with the evolutionary course of life itself.

Look at the plants in your backyard. What are they but a stem with roots and leaves bringing nutriments to the organism? After billions of years of evolution, it was inevitable life would acquire the ability to locomote, to hunt and see, to protect itself from competitors. Observe the ants in the woodpile — they can engage in combat just as resolutely as humans. Our guns and ICBM are merely the mandibles of a cleverer ant. The effort for self-preservation is vague and varied. But when we’ve overcome our struggles, what do we do next? Build taller and more splendid houses?

What happens after life completes its transition to perfection? Perhaps across space, more advanced intelligences have taken the next evolutionary step. Perhaps they’ve evolved beyond the three dimensions we vertebrates know. A new theory — Biocentrism — tells us that space and time aren’t physical matrices, but simply tools our mind uses to put everything together. These algorithms are the key to consciousness, and why space and time — indeed the properties of matter itself — are relative to the observer. More advanced civilizations would surely understand these algorithms well enough to create realities that we can’t even imagine, and to have expanded beyond our corporeal cage.

Like breathing, we take for granted how our mind puts everything together. I can recall a dream I had of a flying saucer landing in Times Square. It was so real it took awhile to convince myself that it was a dream (that I was actually at home in bed). I was standing in a crowd surrounded by skyscrapers when a massive spaceship appeared overhead. Everyone started running. My mind had somehow generated this spatio-temporal experience out of electrochemical information. I could feel the vibrations under my feet as the ship started to land, merging this 3D world with my inner thoughts and sensations.

Although I was in bed with my eyes closed, I was able to run and move my arms and fingers. My mind had created a fully functioning body and placed it in a virtual world (replete with clouds in the sky and the Sun) that was indistinguishable from the one I’m in right now. Life as we know it is defined by this spatial-temporal logic, which traps us in the universe of up and down. But like my dream, quantum theory confirms that the properties of particles in the “real” world are also observer-determined.

Other information systems surely exist that correspond to other physical realities, universes based on logic completely different from ours and not based on space and time as we know it. In fact, the simplest invertebrates may only experience existence in one dimension of space. Evolutionary biology suggests life has progressed from a one dimensional reality, to two dimensions to three dimensions, and there’s no scientific reason to think that the evolution of life stops there.

Advanced civilizations would certainly have changed the algorithms so that instead of being trapped in the linear dimensions we find ourselves in, their consciousness moves through the multiverse and beyond. Why would Aliens build massive ships and spend thousands of years to colonize planetary systems (most of which are probably useless and barren), when they could simply tinker with the algorithms and get whatever they want?

Life on Earth is just beginning to send its shoots upward into the heavens. We’ve even flung a piece of metal outside the solar system. Affixed to the spacecraft is a record with greetings in 60 languages. One can’t but wonder whether some civilization more advanced than ours will come upon it. Or will it just drift across the gulf of space? To me the answer is clear. But in case I’m wrong, I have a pitch fork guarding the ore in my backyard.

Nexi robot

Nexi robot helps Northeastern University track effects of shifty body language (video)

MIT's Nexi robot has been teaching us about social interaction for years, and has even done a stint with the US Navy. Its latest role, however, involved

studying those moments when society falls apart. Northeastern University researchers made Nexi the key ingredient of an experiment where subjects were asked to play a Prisoner's Dilemma-style game immediately after a conversation, whether it was with a human or a machine. Nexi showed that humans are better judges of trustworthiness after they see the telltale body language of dishonesty -- crossed arms, leaning back and other cues -- even when those expressions come from a collection of metal and plastic. The study suggests not just that humans are tuned to watch for subtle hints of sketchy behavior, but that future humanoid robots could foster trust by using the right gestures. We'll look forward to the friendlier machine assistants that result... and keep in mind the room for deception when the robots invariably plot to take over the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQLo06V-q2M&feature=player_embedded

Robotic Cheetah

DARPA’s robotic cheetah has now surpassed the human land speed record, running as fast as 28.3 mph, faster than the fastest known human, Usain Bolt.

In a new video just released by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the robot designed around the anatomy of a cheetah, is seen “running as fast as 28.3 mph before it trips and falls on what would be its face, if it had one.”

YOUR HANDWRITING CAN TELL SO MUCH ABOUT YOU!

If letters slant to the left: Indicates introspection and a lot of emotional control.

If letter slant to the right: Reveals a person who’s outgoing, friendly, impulsive, and emotionally open.

If letters are straight up and down: The sign of someone who’s ruled by the head, not the heart.

Letters that slant in more than one direction: Indicates versatility and adaptability.

An erratic slant: Usually means a lack of flexibility.

Heavy pressure writing (like you can feel the rib made on the back of the paper): The writer is agitated.

Moderate pressure (the writing is dark, but you can’t feel the rib on the other side of the paper): Shows ability to deal with stress.

Light pressure: Indicates someone who seems to take life in stride.

Tiny letters: Indicate the writer is has somewhat low self esteem but is intelligent.

Small letters: The hallmark of quiet, introspective types – they’re generally detail- oriented and have good concentration.

Large letters: Sign of a confident, easygoing individual.

Huge letters: Indicate someone who’s theatrical, usually loud, and needs to be the center of attention at all times.

Wide letters (their width and height are about the same): The mark of someone who’s open and friendly.

Narrow letters: Show someone who’s somewhat shy and inhibited but very self- disciplined.

Letters that don’t touch: Indicate an impulsive, artistic, sometimes impractical free thinker.

Some letters connecting: Means the writer’s personality blends logic and intuition.

All letters making contact: The sign of someone who’s highly cautious.

A curved first mark: Shows a person who’s traditional and plays by the rules.

A straight beginning stroke: Reveals someone who’s rigid and doesn’t like being told what to do.

A final stroke straight across: The writer is cautious.

An end mark that curves up : Reveals generosity.

Perfect penmanship: The hallmark of a communicative person.

An indecipherable scrawl: Indicates a person who’s secretive, closed-up and likes to keep his thoughts to himself.

Top 10 Lies Of Science Your Teachers Told You In School

1. Law of Gravity was Discovered because of an Apple.
From Eve’s mistake to the proposition of law of gravity; apple enjoys exalted position among all other fruits. But the real stor

y of Isaac newton founding the law of gravity has nothing to do with the fruit.
In fact the story was tailored long after the discovery of law of gravity. Newton never mentioned the incident anywhere himself. So for now this tale is regarded as the biggest lie told to us in school.
 

 

 

 

 

2. Seasons are caused by varying distance of sun from the Earth
Here again, the reasons provided to us for having four seasons was the distance between earth and the sun. The part of

earth experiencing summer is supposed to be closer to sun, but it has been proved otherwise. Seasons are due to angle of earth on its own axis, it is due to this reason that many cities experience summer even when distance between sun and the earth is elongated.
Most radiations are received by the earth when it is perpendicular to sun, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees on its axis. It is this angle which is responsible of variations in seasons

3. Black holes suck all the matter in environs
We have been told about the existence of a mysterious black hole in space which sucks in itself everything around it. But as the discoveries say, the hole does not necessarily suck in everything. The stars which collapsed in the black hole owe it to some exclusive processes. Its mass and gravitational pull is quite low to attract objects to itself. Rather, misconceptions are caused due to the stronger gravitational forces on its outer surface only

 

 

4. Great Wall of China is visible from the moon
The rumor basically spread by Richard Halliburton and endorsed by teachers and syllabus setter. Literature has many instances mentionin

g the great wall being the only man made thing visible from the moon. There is no evidence found in observations made by Apollo astronauts, nor any account by the astronauts orbiting the earth. There are somehow, some images taken from upper space showing some thing of the “city lights” sort. The rumor has now been busted by Jay Apt


 

 

5.There are only 5 senses
This is the most common myth taught to children since early ages that we have five senses. Which means our brain can interpret five types of signals i.e. si

ght, smell, touch, sound and taste. But this myth has been busted by the discovery that our brain can actually sense 9 to 20 different types of signals: surprising isn’t it??
Scientist have expanded the theory to include that our bodies have some other senses as well such as sense of equilibrium and speed, nociception to feel pain, proprioception to sense positioning, thermoception for sensing temperature etc. the list also includes hunger, itching sense of time, sense of stomach need, nature call and a lot more

6. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is an injurious pollutant
The environmental societies with the mission of saving our habitat, reducing greenhouse effects always proclaim the production and co

nsumption of carbon dioxide to be injurious. In the pollutants section of our science book, CO2 topped the list. But this isn’t true. In fact, the presence of carbon dioxide is inevitable for life. It is taken in by plants and without this one gas, our existence would be impossible. The main culprit is basically nitrogen which is a major component our atmosphere; 80% of air is composed of nitrogen. If the ratio was 100% we won’t be able to breath. Though the toxic materials of industrial waste mixed with CO2 are liable for pollution

7. Bats can’t see
I still remember my science teacher; inspiring our awes and oo’s when she revealed the apparent fact about bat’s blindness, but alas, it wasn’t really true. The trut

h is that most of the scientist initially believed that the bats did not have eyes, since the primary sense they used to locate objects was bio sonar. Bio sonar is the ability by which bats produced sounds which echo back to tell them about the hindrances in their way and how far they may be. But bats do have eyes and that too can sight objects the same way as others, but they aren’t used as a primary sense

8.Eight glasses of water necessary for healthy life
Teachers and parents both emphasize on the apparently “proper” intake of water which according to them is eight glasses and is qui

te necessary for life. But the truth is, to keep ourselves hydrated not only water but other liquids such as juices as well as fruits and vegetables play their part too. In fact it has been observed that people survived without in taking water for several months while using juices and other substitutes. So the next time your mommy compels you to drink water, show her the facts

9. Everyone is different
We have always been taught that each of is different and have distinctive behavioral patterns. But this isn’t true in its sense. Experiments have proven that we humans only differ in outlook, but if exposed to similar situations we will behave on similar patterns. The reactions and responses might be different for different age groups and professions but even then, they are groups after all. This myth is false and we only believed in it because we were taught so

10. Duck’s Quake does not Echo
When inquired about the inaudibility of ducks’ quack, I was told that unlike other sounds it does not echo and thus does not reach our ear drum for us to sense that. But science has now proven it otherwise. It’s not about the quake being special not to echo but our ears who cannot respond to the particular frequencies the sound has due to some external conditions. This fact was proved after performing series of experiments in which the duck was allowed to quack in a room specially designed to reflect sound waves. The echo was then heard which put to rest the myth about its uniqueness

The Lightning Research Lab

The Labs That Go Boom: The Lightning Research Lab Builds its Own Bolts

A lucky few engineering students at the University of Florida get to do something vaguely magical: conjure their own lightning. To make bolts, students fire specially designed rockets, each of which trails metal wires connected to sensors, directly into thunderstorms. Students examine high-speed video of strikes to study lightning-bolt physics and test materials by directing bolts toward a target.

Pomegranate: A Natural Pharmacy In A Single Fruit!

 

 

1.The fruit and juice are bursting with the most powerful antioxidants of any other fruit or juice!

2. The fruit and juice could lower your high blood pressure and cholesterol levels!
This fruit is safe and healthy for your heart!

3. The fruit and its juice may prevent a stroke!

4. It shines light into the darkness of Alzheimer’s disease!

5. It's natural sugars could also be something sweet and safe for diabetics!

6.It may help in the area of hot flashes, menopause and bone loss!

7. This juice is even important for strong teeth!

8. You can easily make delicious fresh-squeezed juice in your own kitchen!

9. The fruit and juice are delicious additions to all your recipes!

10. You’ll want to know more about how you can benefit from them
when you find out the facts!

Did you know that they…are one of the only fruits that may keep your skin looking young and wrinkle free if you eat them regularly?

Who doesn’t want to look younger and enjoy smooth beautiful skin, especially in the golden years? Everyone will think you’re ten years younger than you really are and you won’t have to worry about resorting to unsafe products for your skin.

Why do galaxies rotate?

There are two levels I can use to explain this. First, I’ll use a more Newtonian model of the universe, as it is the simplest way of explaining it.

In a Newtonian universe the answer is pretty simple. To start with, anything that wasn’t orbiting around the super-massive black hole located in the center of the galaxy would simply fall in a straight line to the black hole. The reason why is the exact same reason why if you drop a pencil it will fall in a straight line to the Earth, which is likely the most dominant gravitational force nearby.

By contrast anything that is orbiting the black hole has what is called centrifugal force. Centrifugal force is why if you hold a weight and swing your arm in a circle the weight feels like it is pulling on your hand even when it is upside down. There is of course a very long and perfectly well reasoned explanation for why centrifugal force appears to disregard gravity, but that’s a post for another time.

To go back to galaxy, all of the objects that are orbiting the galaxy have centrifugal force. That force is constantly pushing on them in the opposite direction as the gravity of the black hole, thus allowing a stable or semi-stable orbit.

Now Isaac Newton was a brilliant man and all, but he still spent most of his life in the seventeenth century. Since we are all in the twenty-first century, things have gotten a good bit more complex. This will get kind of technical, so read at your own risk.

Albert Einstein was the first physicist to suggest that space-time could be non-uniform in density. He basically took Minkowski’s idea of space-time and added the (very important) concept of non-uniformity. What that means is that if you have on cubic meter of empty space (a complete vacuum), it is possible for half of it to be denser than the other half. This probably doesn’t make much sense. It isn’t that the other half has more “space” in it, because it is still half a cubic meter. It doesn’t have more “nothing” either, because a vacuum is a vacuum, that’s about as empty as it gets (though how empty a vacuum is highly debatable. But that is a post for another time). The best way to explain it is with the analogy of a graph. It would be like if you taped to half pages of graph paper together, where one half has four squares to an inch and the other half has five squares to an inch. You still have one sheet of graph paper, but half of it is denser.

If that didn’t make much sense to you, it only gets worse. Because using Einstein’s understanding of the universe, the objects in a galaxy don’t orbit. For that matter, the Earth also does not orbit. The reason why is simple: An orbit is a circle. According to Einstein, gravity only causes objects to travel in straight lines. Never circles or arches. This is probably contrary to everything you know about how anything from a solar system to a galaxy works. But fear not, for an explanation is ahead.

The concept of non-uniform density in space is the reason why something can look like it is traveling in a circle (like the Earth orbiting the sun) but really be traveling in a straight line.

Gravity, according to Einstein, doesn’t really pull on objects in the same way that Isaac Newton believed. Instead, the gravitational field condenses space itself. The stronger the gravity, the denser the space. Newton discovered this equation to calculate the gravitation force between two objects:

F = (G)(m1)(m2)/r^2

Where F is the gravitational force, m is the mass of the two objects in question, G is Newton’s constant, and r is the distance between the two objects. This explains why gravity has a much lesser effect over larger distances. Due to this, the closer you get to an object, the more its gravity condenses space.

Before I tie all of these concepts together I have one more thing to bring up: circles. Everybody loves them. One very important thing about circles is that the circumference of the innermost edge of the circle will always be less than the outermost edge. Now lets imagine we had a sharpie with a tip as big around as the diameter of the Earth. Now that’s a sharpie. If you use that sharpie to draw a circle, the innermost edge of that circle will be WAY smaller than the outermost edge. Therefore when the planet Earth is orbiting the sun, the innermost part of it is traveling less distance. Except for the fact that the innermost part is considerably closer to the sun, and therefore that space is denser. So it looks like it is traveling less distance, but because of how the sun is deforming and condensing space, the innermost part of the Earth and the outermost part of the Earth are traveling the same equivalent distance. Since both sides are traveling the same distance, the Earth isn’t moving in a circle at all, but instead a straight line. The illusion of circular movement is caused by our own inability to properly perceive space, but the math is pretty clear, and Relativity is fairly bulletproof.

References:

Leonard Susskind
Albert Einstein
Isaac Newton

Picture courtesy of criticalmass.uk.com

Now, charge your phone by simply holding it.........

LONDON: Next time your cellphone runs out of battery, you can charge it by just holding it in your hand, as scientists claim to have developed a new technology that turns body heat into electricity. Researchers say they have developed a way to turn body heat into electricity using nanotechnology to put tiny carbon tubes into miniscule plastic fibres and made them look like a fabric.
...
The 'Power Felt' can keep your phone going for up to 20% longer just through the power of touch, meaning simply holding one, or even sitting on it, could recharge the cell. The technology has been created by professor David Carroll of Wakeforest University's centre for nanotechnology and molecular materials in the US.

According to Carrol, it could be the first wave of inexpensive ways to produce electricity that were far more affordable than current renewables such as solar, which was being held back by the high cost.

Nadia~

Ninja!

We all think of a masked man in black clothes and a sword when we hear the word 'Ninja'. They are fascinating, fast, and deadly! But how much do you really know about Ninjas?

A ninja or shinobi was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan who specialized in unorthodox warfare. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, and open combat in certain situations. Their covert methods of waging war contrasted the ninja with the samurai, who observed strict rules about honor and combat. The shinobi proper, a specially trained group of spies and mercenaries, appeared in the Sengoku or "warring states" period, in the 15th century, but antecedents may have existed in the 14th century, and possibly even in the 12th century (Heian or early Kamakura era).

By the time of the Meiji Restoration (1868), the tradition of the shinobi had become a topic of popular imagination and mystery in Japan. Ninja figured prominently in folklore and legend, and as a result it is often difficult to separate historical fact from myth. Some legendary abilities purported to be in the province of ninja training include invisibility, walking on water, and control over the natural elements. As a consequence, their perception in western popular culture in the 20th century was based more on such legend and folklore than on the historical spies of the Sengoku period.

Fun facts about Mickey Mouse!

The world’s most recognised cartoon character, Mickey Mouse, celebrates his birthday on November 18. How much do you really know about him?

1. Mickey became an instant hit on November 18, 1928 with the release of ‘Steamboat Willie’, the first ever cartoon with synchronised sound. At that time, most other studios were still producing silent films while Disney adopted sound and raised the standard.
2. Walt originally wanted to call Mickey ‘Mortimer Mouse’, and it was changed to ‘Mickey Mouse’ when Walt’s wife Lillian said she felt that ‘Mortimer’ sounded too pompous and suggested another name that personified the qualities of fun and humbleness.
3. In ‘Opry House’, a video short released on March 28, 1929, Mickey started wearing white gloves. He went on to wear them in most of his subsequent appearances until today.
4. Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 18, 1978, in honour of his 50th anniversary. The star is located on 6925 Hollywood Boulevard.
5. Disney’s product licensing business began in 1929, when Walt Disney accepted a deal with a stationery company for the right to imprint Mickey Mouse on school writing tablets. This later turned into what is now known as Disney Consumer Products, a multi-billion dollar business.
6. One of the most iconic Mickey Mouse products of all time is the Mickey Mouse wrist watch. The first one was produced by the Ingersoll-Waterbury company in 1933, and it was sold for USD2.95. The company presented Walt Disney with the 25-millionth Mickey Mouse watch in 1957.
7. The creation of Mickey Mouse earned Walt Disney an honorary Academy Award in 1932.
8. Mickey was given his own entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica in 1934.
9. Mickey appeared in colour for the first time in ‘The Band Concert’, which premiered on February 23, 1935.
10. Mickey appeared in black and white for the last time in ‘Mickey’s Kangaroo’, which actually premiered about two months after the first colour one!
11. Mickey Mouse’s feature film debut in ‘Fantasia’ in 1940 as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice was one of his most famous roles ever. The film introduced stereophonic sound to motion pictures through a special sound system called Fantasound, and cost US$2.28 million to make.
12. In 1955, Mickey made his debut on television in The Mickey Mouse Club television show.
13. According to Walt Disney, Mickey and Minnie Mouse have never been married on screen. But, in 1933, during an interview with Film Pictorial, Walt said, “In private life, Mickey is married to Minnie... What it really amounts to is that Minnie is, for screen purposes, his leading lady.”
14. In designing and constructing a Disney theme park or adding the final touches to an attraction, Disney Imagineers subtly “hide” Mickey Mouse silhouettes in plain sight. It later became a tradition known as ‘Hidden Mickeys’.
15. One of Walt Disney’s most famous quotes about his accomplishments is: “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing—that it was all started by a mouse.”
16.Mickey was born out of necessity when Walt discovered he had lost the rights to his previous character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. In 1932 a special Academy Award was given to Walt Disney for the creation of Mickey Mouse.
17.In 2004 Mickey and the Gang starred in two brand new feature-length animations released direct to video. The first title is ‘The Three Musketeers’, launched in August 2004, and the second is ‘Twice Upon a Christmas’, released in December 2004, featuring five all new stories. This was Mickey’s first ever 3D CGI (computer generated imagery) cartoon.
18.Mickey’s favourite sayings are “Oh Boy!”, “Gosh!”, “That sure is swell”, “Aw, gee…”, “See ya soon!”

Inflatable robots are a breeze to move around

Engineers at iRobot are developing robots with inflatable parts as part of a program to increase the mobility of these machines for the military.

Robots with inflatable yet fully controllable parts? These new blow-up bots under development at iRobot are a breath of fresh air for fuel economy and mobility.

 VIDEO: http://youtu.be/b1gcwTXm7oE

Funded by the military’s futuristic research agency known by the acronym DARPA, the Boston-based robotics company recently showed a PackBot modified with an inflatable arm to the advanced technology association IEEE’s Automation blog.
“The AIRarm is lightweight, inexpensive and stows compactly,” the blog noted. “It’s inflated and deflated with an on-board pump, and uses actuators and strings to move its joints without embedded motors.”
Check out the video below to see it in action.

Inflatable parts have the advantage of major weight reductions. The regular PackBot arm weighs between 15 and 20 pounds. The AIRarm, as the inflatable appendage is called, weighs a tenth of that.
Less weight means the robot can roam longer on a single battery charge. Even though lightweight, the arm can still manipulate objects and lift at least five pounds of dead weight.
The Inflatable arm also adds flexibility to the arm. For example, a partially inflated arm could squeeze through a hole in the wall and then fully inflate to perform a task on the other side.
DARPA recently awarded iRobot a $650,000 contract to keep working on the inflatable technology under its Maximum Mobility and Manipulation program.
Source:IEEE Spectrum, Ars Technica