The Lounge

I thought I'd share some odd paper titles I've stumbled upon recently. (Of course, they're only funny if you're a big science geek.) "One name to rule them all, one name to find them: Lord of the Rings and 'seated immobility thromboembolism (SIT) syndrome'." - NZ Med J. "Kinky binding and SECsy insertions." -Mol. Cell. "A cunning stunt*: an alternative mechanism of eukaryotic translation initiation." - Science. Anyone got any more? *This one could just be my dirty imagination...

I am working in Chemical Company but I don’t have much knowledge about chemical cas no, coa, msds, etc. but through Exporter Lab Chemicals, which is not only a chemical company but also a chemical search engine, I got sufficient knowledge about Chemicals. There are wide ranges of products listed in alphabetical order. The Product list consists of more than 7000 items with CAS no. and COA. One can really get his requirements fulfilled here in a simple and a convenient way. Through its website, I also found that Alpha Lab chemicals is among the top 5 chemical companies in India. To know more about Exporter Lab Chemicals, visit http://www.exporterlabchemicals.com

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24234/ Check out this article about an "artificial black hole." Except it isn't a black hole, it's a material that is almost perfectly black within a certain spectrum of microwaves. But wait! It "bends space!" But wait! No, it doesn't, just "as far as light is concerned," whatever that means. How sensational! And it's in Technology Review, which is published by MIT.

Well, it's snowing here in the Czech Republic. In friggin' October, it's snowing. Not two days ago I was still running around in T-Shirts, and not 10 years ago there wouldn't be any snow for at least another month and a half. Ironic, our president still denies global warming...I hope he's looking out of the window right now. What's it like at your place?

Is it possible to believe in an intelligent designer and evolution? Hypothetical Question: Say the bible and all other creation texts and stories did not exist. But instead we found some old stone books that told the story of an intelligent designer creating the universe and earth - and through a guided process of evolution, humankind was eventually formed in the creators ultimate vision. If that book existed and was the only book, would everyone believe in an intelligent designer without question?? With us not knowing the origin of life, sex, the universe etc., can one believe in evolution and an intelligent designer (assuming the universe is not infinite)?

Although the traditional sources of energy like the fossil fuels and the crude oil has been found to be costly and replete with negative aspects, they still form a dominant source of energy. This can be attributed to the lack of awareness among the people about the other alternate energy sources like the renewable sources of energy. To promote the usage of renewable energy and to tap the huge potential present in the renewable energy sector, the world energy research was formed. The use of fossil fuels has resulted in many negative consequences. It has led to severe pollution, political conflict, economic control and total dependence of countries that lack this natu…

Hello, I am new to these forums, but came to ask a question to those who might know: I am an undergraduate philosophy major with minors in mathematics and history of science. I want to pursue a degree in HPS, emphasis on the PS. I have had the hardest time finding out what contemporary philosophy of science is. I'm not talking about last century, but the last couple of years. I have looked up journals, but don't know which ones are still active, nor which ones are looked to by philosophers of science themselves. There are so many journals... so many articles... can anyone help me figure out how to get into contemporary philosophy of science?

[math]r[/math] stands for...? Is there a website anywhere that briefly explains all such letters, i.e. what each represents?

This was the crash that happened in Greece, where the plane depressurized at altitude and everyone was knocked out or died, and the plane flew around on autopilot and eventually crashed. It looks like they've put together a timeline of what happened. It's not pretty. As with many accidents, there were a number of factors working in conjunction. Veteran pilots sometimes refer to this as the "three strikes" rule -- the idea that it's almost never a single factor that causes an accident, but rather a tragic combination of mistakes. The surprise here is the human factor that turned what should have been a minor maintenance mistake into a complete disaster. To …

This is related a bit to the "Man arrested for being naked in his own house" thread. Someone commented along the lines of "what is this country coming too?" Now my question I'd like your thoughts on, is: Are these kind of apparently crazy stories happening more often, or are they just better reported. 10, even 5 years ago there's no way I'd ever have heard about this story having happened in the USA, now I'm aware of it... But that doesn't mean these cases are more frequent just that there is more of this kind of reporting both locally and internationally... So what do you think it is...

You just lost the game.

My opinion of Albert Einstein has not been a good one up until now. I just read a quote by him that changed my opinion of him as a human being, utterly, and for the better. Here is the quote as it was presented in the philosophy science forum : " Our task must be to free ourselves ... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it`s beauty" " Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. " unquote Perhaps there is some hope for we humans after all. Yes I am a vegetarian and reading those words of his meant a lot to me. I am too tired…

Hello. I took an IQ test a week ago an i will describe my experience. First task was to memorize symbols that applied to numbers 1-9 and then you were supposed to write the symbols under a about 10 rows of random numbers and you had 2 minutes to fill everything up. I did good at that. then there were tasks such as aligning cubes with 4 differend patterns on each side to the picture shown to me. That was time measured. And when im under pressure i cant concentrate and i couldn´t control my own hands, It was like i had Parkinson´s disease so i didn´t do well at that task. then there were basic knowledge, aligning of storylines, puzzles, mathematics, memory of nu…

My memory is bad. Possible reasons?

The government inspector ---- at the moment, she ---- around the factory. A) has come/is being shown B) comes/is shown C) has been coming/shows D) came/is showing E) is coming/will be shown I didn't understand..what is correct answer?

Translation: "Six questions that help identify any hidden psychological diseases a young soldier might have. If the soldier can’t see the number in one of the 6 circles on the test picture, then he may suffer from:" (original version here) Can’t see circle 1: High aggression, proneness to conflict, the recommendation is to add more physical excercise and cold showers. Can’t see circle 2: Possible low than average intellectual abilities, can’t serve with sophisticated equipment. Can’t see circle 3: Possible debauchery, soldier should get increased daily ration, should get more physical activity tasks, should not be connected to food supplies, etc. Can’t see circ…

in graphite electrodes are the layers of carbon and therefore the 'sea of electrons' inbetween arranged in straight lines all the way through the electrode? and if so, is this the case in any piece of graphite?

Just kidding... Actually, I've been thinking about something for awhile now. Joining SFN has really enlightened me on alot of topics. One of those being the theory of evolution. I've always struggled with certain ideas that abound in a "creationist"....ahem..."community." You must understand, I have a religious background and still regularly attend church. Mostly because I feel the need to and because of "pressure." This is the simple summation of my thoughts the past few months. 1. Creationism is a fallacy ridden ideology. 2. God and an evolutionary origin are not compatible. I know there are many prominent scientists who believe in God, but after rea…

I'm looking for an Chinese-English e-book thanks in advance

Hello. I recently decided that I should use the internet more to get closure on all the strange and sometimes silly ideas and questions that occur to me for whatever reason late at night. Googling "best science forum" gave SFN, so I registered here. I was wondering what other forums people use for science and other related subjects. What are the best forums, with the best posters (educated but noob-friendly)? Topics I am interested in right now are: Economics, Geology, History, Art, Medicine, Religion (pretty much everything really) Any recommendations? Thx!

Not sure where to put this...Anyway, I have a goal in my life to memorize 50,000 letters of pi. If you have the same strange goal, you can look at the first 50,000 digits of pi here. 3. 141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944 592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647 093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559 644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233786783165 271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273 724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360 011330530548820466521384146951941511609433057270365759591953 0921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527…

I might as well post this considering it began in my former hometown... http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/15/colorado.boy.balloon/index.html The story began with the announcement that a 6-year-old boy had constructed a relatively large UFO-shaped helium balloon along with his father. Allegedly, one of his brothers reported that the boy had hopped aboard the balloon shortly before it broke free of the ground and floated up into the air. (Bonus points: calculate the volume of helium needed to lift your average 6-year-old into the air and see if it is even plausible for this much helium to fit in a 20' diameter 5' tall circular balloon) After an hour in the air,…

It is the most basic and fundamental science. Why Study Physics? http://www.aps.org/programs/education/whystudy.cfm do you agree with this ? which is most basic and fundamental science? physics or math?

A few favorites: How to Kiss A Woman ~ Captain Kirk 0VuIShM5kAQ I watch this next one when I'm sick to boost my immune system: Richard Simmons ~ 'Who's Line Is It Anyways?' 7POvKK3hXUs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7POvKK3hXUs

Corrupted is a great band. First of all they hail from Japan but they sing in Spanish, that by itself is way cool. Second the music is very heavy, something around electric wizard but heavier, which suits the music as its droner metal overall as far as classifications could be made I think. The music itself has a lot of lucid type psychological aspects to it along with philosophy that I am sure would not suit a great deal of people, but to me its simply awesome. In one song in towards the beginning you could almost make it out in English like he said "they honor DNA and call it their god". This goes along with lots of other interesting aspects that make the band to say th…