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Feed: SCIENCEBASE SCIENCE BLOG
Science Blog from Freelance Science Writer David Bradley
Felix Baumgartner to freefall from almost 40 km up
07-Feb-12 By: David Bradley
Real-life action hero Felix Baumgartner plans to take a balloon up to the edge of space and then to jump out. In freefall he hopes to break the speed record for a human travelling without a machine, the needle, as it were, reaching speeds in excess of the speed of sound. In the BBC newsclip [...]Felix Baumgartner to freefall from almost 40 km up is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
Kinect could help phantom limb pain
07-Feb-12 By: David Bradley
A phantom limb is the perception that an amputated or missing limb or other body part is still attached to the body. The sensations, by most accounts, are unpleasant and commonly painful. Mirror therapy has been used to help alleviate some of the problems experienced by veterans, accident victims and others who have lossed limbs [...]Kinect could help phantom limb pain is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
Testing times, but no pardon for Turing
07-Feb-12 By: David Bradley
UK government minister, Lord McNally, responded for the government declining to pardon Turing: The question of granting a posthumous pardon to Mr Turing was considered by the previous Government in 2009. As a result of the previous campaign, the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an unequivocal posthumous apology to Mr Turing on behalf of [...]Testing times, but no pardon for Turing is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
10 out of 10 for boron’s coordinated effort
06-Feb-12 By: David Bradley
A team in the US has created a boron compound that has the highest coordination number of any planar species, squeezing 10 spoke-like bonds from a central metal hub to 10 boron atoms equally spaced around a nanoscopic wheel. I asked theoretical chemist Pekka Pyykkö of the University of Helsinki, Finland, for his thoughts on [...]10 out of 10 for boron’s coordinated effort is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
Layers of graphene, water and helium
31-Jan-12 By: David Bradley
Graphene is perhaps the thinnest material known. Essentially it is a single, isolated layer of the carbon allotrope graphite. In SpectroscopyNOW this week I discuss new research into how a single layer of graphene is transparent to water molecules in the sense that the water can “see” whatever is underneath without the graphene influence. More [...]Layers of graphene, water and helium is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
Post mortem breast implants
31-Jan-12 By: David Bradley
When you leave your body to medical science you might imagine some marvellous discovery among your organs and tissues that leads researchers to the wondrous discovery of a universal anticancer drug or something equally stupendous. In reality, it can be a much more mundane, especially for any women donating their mortal coil. Researchers at Emory [...]Post mortem breast implants is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
Deodorants still don’t cause breast cancer
30-Jan-12 By: David Bradley
It was perhaps inevitable that a paper published in the journal Journal of Applied Toxicology that showed parabens (a preservative used in underarm deodorants and countless other products) to be present in breast cancer tissue samples would be grabbed by the tabloids and others and turned into the latest scare story about how deodorants cause [...]Deodorants still don’t cause breast cancer is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
Alchemist Chemistry News
28-Jan-12 By: David Bradley
The Alchemist learns how to manipulate tiny polystyrene beads with a set of micro-tweezers this week and spots the smoking gun in forensics using capillary-scale ion chromatography and suppressed conductivity. In the world of chemophobia has asked why parabens are still the focus of research into underarm hygiene and breast cancer despite the lack of [...]Alchemist Chemistry News is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
Shape of snowflakes
26-Jan-12 By: David Bradley
On Christmas Day 2006, I posted a blog about how snowflakes are not all different and some of the science underlying the formation of snowflakes. The American Chemical Society had a nice infographic at the time showing the principles of snowflake formation (PDF here). There’s no snow around here, but this is Britain, the weather [...]Shape of snowflakes is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
The Northern Lights are in my mind
25-Jan-12 By: David Bradley
I’ve not yet seen the Aurora borealis, nor the Aurora australis, but they’re always on my mind. I am sure they’re amaaazing and wunderfuuul. This week a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun stimulated the earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field to produce some marvellous lights that were even seen as far south as Northern [...]The Northern Lights are in my mind is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog
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