Survive freezing, that is. Scientists are trying to figure out the wood frog’s anti-freeze mechanism, which allows them to survive being frozen solid for months. Suspended animation for humans? Well, not anytime soon–but it could lead to better ways to preserve organs for transport.
The first human tests have begun on a vaccine for Type 1 diabetes. If it pans out, it’s still five to 10 years away. I had an aunt who died of diabetes and have friends today who suffer from it, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
By now, you’re bound to have seen the widespread news reports about a study that suggests using a laptop computer on your lap could affect your fertility–assuming you’re male, that is. This story was on the front page of the newspaper yesterday, which made me a bit self-conscious as I sat in the coffee shop …
A new way to lose weight! (Or, more accurately, considering the environment, mass.) Join the International Space Station crew.
This looks like a really interesting story, but I fell asleep before I made it all the way to the……endzzzzzzz…
I love the Christmas season–everything from the decorations to the TV specials. And now, a new study reveals that so do most other people–or, at least, they enjoy the things that Christmas entails. How people choose to use their time, and how they experience their day-to-day activities and settings, is of interest to everyone from …
In a special issue, the magazine Science notes the conclusion from a Cornell University-led Mars rover science team: “Liquid water was once present intermittently at the martian surface at Meridiani, and at times it saturated the subsurface. Because liquid water is a key prerequisite for life, we infer that conditions at Meridiani may have been …
The Da Vinci Project keeps moving ahead; it’s announced that it has completed construction and flight qualification of the world’s largest reusable helium balloon, which will carry the Wild Fire MK VI spacecraft to its launch altitude ot 21.3 kilometres. They’re looking at a launch early in 2005 now, they say.
Check out the third paragraph of this story about a new SF series planned for Fox TV: When they arrive on the other side of moon — which is cloaked in perpetual darkness and beyond radio contact with earth — they discover a mysterious compound. News flash: there is no “dark side” of the moon. …
The home page of the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) is not only the best place to see the latest images from the neighborhood of Saturn, it’s also proof (if any more were needed) of the level of ubiquity achieved by Star Trek.
Amateur astronomer Richard Huziak is the first Saskatchewan man to have a minor planet named after him. Of course, back before I lost weight, I was in danger of becoming a minor planet…
Here’s a nice UPI story about one of the Canadian Arrow used-to-be-an-X-prize team’s private astronauts. Although I’ve blogged more about the Da Vinci project, I hope to see the Canadian Arrow do well, too. For one thing, since it’s a modified V2 rocket, it looks the way God and Heinlein intended rockets to look, darn …
