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Don't be put off by prestigious universities. Especially if you are looking to do postgraduate study instead of an undergraduate degree. You should seriously consider two things: your avionics experience will definitely count for something, and references and test scores from your army days will be considered by any university prestige is about the quality of research, not how difficult it is to get in. It might also be difficult for most people to get in to those universities, but most people are close to average. If you're significantly more motivated and intelligent than most people, you don't need to use their standards. Screw the reputation, if you want to get in to one of those schools, do it. You should contact the schools directly to talk about what routes you can take to get into the subject, how much your experience counts for, and whether you can go straight to postgraduate study or you have to take an undergrad degree (and if you have to take one, are there any parts you can skip).

He's saying that you can represent one, two or three dimensions of space: linear (i.e. x-axis), two-dimensional (x and y axis) and three-dimensional (x,y and z-axis). Then he argues that since we can't represent any more than three dimensions, there must be only three. Then he concludes that since we can perceive all three of these dimensions in the real world, i.e. in existence, that the whole of existence must be perfect and complete. Then he further derives that since the whole universe is perfect, each constituent part is perfect and complete, and that the perfect parts interact with one another. Essentially, it's nonsense.

If it was green, it's most likely a Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) larva. It sounds very likely to be a caterpillar. What country do you live in? I may be able to suggest a species. The white substance may have been silk or faeces. If it looks like this: it's a Cydia nigricana, the pea moth larva. The powdery white/green stuff is faeces, and its colour depends on how developed the peas are when they eat them and what species of legume they are eating. The adults look like this:

OK, this is why I asked you for a description at the beginning, so we didn't have to go back and forth with guesses. So, can you just describe exactly what it looked like? Answer the following questions: What colour was it? How many legs did it have? Could you see wings? Was it obviously segmented (like a beetle or centipede) or did it look smooth and continuous (like a worm)? Did it look hard (chitinous) or soft? What were the approximate dimensions? (i.e. length, width) What species of plant were the peas from? Was it Pisum sativum? I've never heard of a Bee Weevil, but we remove bean weevils from seeds with forceps under a microscope. Usually we can spot them in x-rays or when we cut-test seeds (to see if they are healthy).

As others have said, it's perfectly common among curious people to firstly find textbooks are a very linear method of gaining knowledge, and secondly knowledge generates questions faster than answers. My own solution to the textbook problem is about how I take notes and study. When reading a textbook I always have a notebook and a laptop, I take notes when I feel it's necessary and always write my own questions about the material in a different colour. When I finish a small topic I review the notes and research all the questions I came up with on the internet. Usually this takes considerably longer than the textbook topic, and often generates a whole new set of questions. It can take days, but satisfying your curiosity rather than suppressing it is one of the most satisfying things there is. Often you will come up with questions (especially in biology) that nobody knows the answer to. The subject is growing extremely fast and this makes it exciting as a research area. Keep them in mind, because as you learn more you might start to think of new ways to tackle problems and there's a good chance you could add something valuable to the subject. Never be afraid to post all your questions on here if you want to quickly get pointed in the right direction. Forums are great for non-linear learning.

Yeah, biomedical engineering as DrRocket suggested, or biomechatronics. Robotics would also be a good route as you will learn engineering, electrical engineering and computer science targeted towards robotic solutions. from the Wikipedia page for biomechatronics: "Biomechatronics is a rapidly growing field but as of now there are very few labs which conduct research. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, University of California at Berkley, MIT, and University of Twente in the Netherlands are the researching leaders in biomechatronics. Three main areas are emphasized in the current research. Analyzing human motions, which are complex, to aid in the design of biomechatronic devices Studying how electronic devices can be interfaced with the nervous system. Testing the ways to use living muscle tissue as actuators for electronic devices" Given that you already have electronics experience, and given your motivation, you might find that bypassing the undergraduate degree, or at least entering into a later year of it, is possible. If I were you, I'd get in touch with some researchers in the field and explain your situation, asking for their advice. Showing an interest and getting your name seen by important people is always a good idea. You might start with Hugh Herr at MIT.

Sorry when I said a more exact description I meant a physical description... Anyway there's a reasonable chance that it was a seed beetle (also known as bean weevils, although they aren't true weevils) of some sort, in the family Bruchidae. They are mostly extremely small, usually less than 1mm. They lay their eggs on seeds, especially seeds of legumes (plant family Fabaceae). The larva chew into the seed and eat the endosperm and sometimes the cotyledons of the seed, then pupate. The adult beetle emerges from the seed. You can get anything from one to dozens of weevils inside one seed. We have a collection of them here at work (the Millennium Seed Bank) which we have extracted during the cleaning of incoming seed specimens.

There are many thousands of insects it could be, do you have any photographs or can you at least give a more exact description? Was the white substance on the peas or the insect? Was it solid or liquid? And if solid, was it powdery, crystaline, what?

All the protocols you need are available free on openwetware's protocols section.

Another interesting link is this guy who has used the CBTBO radionuclide monitoring network data to model the atmospheric dispersion of the radionuclides... Quote from the current article about it in Science:

A reliable source? I've been watching every single live press conference from TEPCO and Edano - nobody has said there is deadly radiation or that they should have been telling people sooner.

Do you have a source for that? 'Deadly radiation'? 'A while now'? Sounds like you just made it up.

That comment is inaccurate if you're implying that governments cover up radiation. It's impossible to cover it up - any person can make their own radiation readings and publicise them. Also how is it surprising that a country which just had a huge portion of its infrastructure wiped out, and is in the process of one of the largest humanitarian responses ever carried out by a single government, was slow to make foreign media aware of radiation readings so they can all panic about it? I think it's fairly understandable. Actually you are right that the TEPCO site hasn't updated the numbers today, but the MEXT (Japanese Department of Education) have a team putting together PDFs of radiation monitoring data from all the public access stations downwind of the plant: http://eq.wide.ad.jp/index_en.html Many of them are also in English, although it seems the volunteer translation team is working a few PDFs behind the data publishing team. For example, here is the latest data (Japanese PDF): http://eq.wide.ad.jp...ushima_1900.pdf The columns read as follows: The number of the recording station in brackets, followed by the linear distance from the Fukushima site and the direction (asee below) The time and date of the reading (bsee below) The radiation reading in microSv/hour The weather conditions The data source a Compass directions in Japanese are: 北 = north, 西 = west, and combinations thereof can be directly translated (e.g. 北西 is north west) - you don't need others to interpret this PDF as the wind is blowing towards the north west. b 3月18日13時45分 means 3rd month, 18th day, 13th hour, 45th minute; i.e. 18th March, 13:45. At the bottom of the PDF you can see a map showing the last 3 readings at each site. Site 32 is much higher than all the others, at 150µSv/h. Other PDFs linked from the site show data for other areas of Japan - if you want to know what something means just ask.

The graph in the first link has been updated every 6 hours for the last 5 days. The numbers have changed slightly as the graph shows. The numbers on the map in the second link are updated daily. The pink dots indicate stations which were cut off from the network in the earthquake/tsunami and are currently being repaired. Obviously those aren't all the monitoring stations in Japan, there are at least 6 at each of the 51 reactors, then most universities also have them and a whole network of others run by TEPCO and various agencies. The map shows the stations which that particular news agency has access to. But at the moment most people have more to worry about than whether foreigners believe the data they are openly publishing.

This has already been explained several times. I'll say it again: The batteries were used until they ran out Backup generators were knocked out by the quake The electrical control room was flooded by the tsunami Replacement generators which were sent to the site could not be connected because of the flooded basement and because they could not connect them to the system at the plant Now they are working to restore the electrical control room to a safe working condition and to ensure a reliable connection to the power grid can be made so they can restore power to the water pumps for the cooling system, which should bring the problem under control. @swansont yes they were directly pumping seawater into the buildings for a couple of days, using fire hoses. They are still doing this at two sites, but they stopped at two others sites because they were failing to get sufficient quantities in and it was not worth risking the radiation exposure of staff for the minimal effect it was having. They want to flood the exposed spent rods at reactor 4, hence the helicopter drops.

If you care to look just two posts up, you'll see I posted three links which allow you to see the readings from dozens of different monitoring stations in Japan, including those surrounding the plant.

If anyone is interested in keeping up to date with the latest, there are now several websites with daily updated radiation readings from around Japan. The Ministry of Education is providing this PDF (in English): http://i.yimg.jp/images/tecblog/emg/pdf/0316/110315fukushima_2030_en.pdf The Bousai news agency has this interactive map (in Japanese, but the numbers are obvious): http://www.bousai.ne.jp/vis/index.php and the TEPCO site (the company who operates the plants) is now showing readings from their monitoring stations around the plant (Japanese, obvious numbers): http://www.tohoku-epco.co.jp/electr/genshi/onagawa/mp.html Units are all in nGy/h (which is nanoGray/hour, 1 nanoGray/hour approx = to 1 nanoSievert/hour or 0.001 microSievert/hour)

This is somewhat similar to how I learned some aspects of organic chemistry. I actually started out with IUPAC nomenclature as I found it easier to learn the structures by associating them with the logical linguistic structure. By trying to name compounds and, in the other direction, derive structures from names, I came to grasp it better. Once you can know the structure of a compound and can give it a meaningful name, you can associate the structure with function much more easily (or at least, I could). It is also much easier to remember larger and more complex structures when you can break it up into manageable parts (groups, chain, rings etc). Another thing I did similarly to language learning is to use language learning software to remember the organic chemistry terminology. I do this with all scientific terminology I learn, because memorising words is easy, and associating words with images or concepts is easy, but memorising concepts is not so easy. The software I use is called Anki (free and open source), it's a spaced repetition system in which you make flashcards and then rate yourself on how well you remember the answers. Your ratings influence how soon the card reappears in your deck. I highly recommend the software for memorisation.

When you have a lot of rabbits, you see a lot of humping. They will hump anything that's even remotely rabbit sized or shaped, including their food bowls, peoples feet, the temperature adjuster on the radiator, etc. The interest of watching it rapidly diminishes

I've seen several of our pet rabbits humping in their sleep over the years (though I didn't hang around to check out the result).

Foreign media is reporting a completely different situation from what the local news stations are saying. It's hard to tell who's making it up.

Yes, there is a charge for repatriation and it depends on the country and the situation. Usually the cost is covered by travel insurance, but it may also be covered on your credit card insurance (bizarrely). I highly doubt there is a bulk discount from any country! If repatriating from the UK you have to pay for full embalming, a zinc-lined coffin, various certificates and a certification that the body is not infectious. http://www.uk-funerals.co.uk/repatriation.html

Western news is a bit slow, but there was a press conference a short while ago on Japanese television. Basically there is no chance of any major radiation leak event, and the explosion was caused by a hydrogen leak which exploded. The momentary rise in radiation near the perimeter was caused by the release of slightly irradiated steam, and the radiation level has now dropped down to 70.5 microsieverts. The reactor is completely undamaged. It is a light water reactor which relies on the presence of water as the coolant and neutron moderator for the reaction to continue, so when they released the coolant water and steam, the nuclear reaction slowed down. They are now reintroducing sea water to cool the reaction as it stops.

If someone wants their own genome sequenced, and the USA is too restrictive, they can always get it done by a company outside the USA. I agree that many amateurs will be equally or better able to interpret their own genetic data than medical doctors, but again, it will only really affect the majority of people who aren't able to do it themselves. If you are resourceful enough to do your own analysis you are probably resourceful enough to send abroad for the sequencing.

You have to pay to go to the doctors? I sometimes forget how lucky we are here in the UK. Are there any visible signs of irritation (not caused by scratching)? Like swellings, lumps, a rash or anything? If so you should take photographs of them. How long have the symptoms been occurring? You could try keeping a daily log, noting what you eat each day, your activities that day (where you went, broad outline of the things you did) and who you met. Also keep a log of when you experience or notice your skin irritation. That will make it easier to possibly identify anything which correlates with the symptoms. You could also try posting on the medical forums on the net, there are quite a few. I believe Sabaroud is largely superceded by Dermatophyte test medium. If you can find somewhere to buy a small quantity, you could make it at home with glassware sterilised in a pressure cooker, then mix the powder with deionised water and microwave or pressure cook it to sterilise again. You can buy Petri dishes online and probably some glassware and the medium too. You can make a small makeshift laminar flow hood with your vacuum cleaner and a cardboard box lined with plastic, you just need to make it so a curtain of air is drawn upward across and into the front of the box by the vacuum, and you could pour your plates in there. Then when they set, use sterilised cotton swabs to take samples of the rash and innoculate the plates. Once the plates are innoculated you should seal them with cling film and store them inverted in the airing cupboard or another warm place. Make sure you don't open the plates once they've been innoculated - if anything grows on that medium it may cause skin disease, so the last thing you want to do is expose yourself to it again. Then take close up photographs of what grows and report back, and perhaps we can identify it. Regarding your description of the symptoms: "Feels like something is moving on my skin especially at night. After exercise/sweat the itching is bad. My skin always feels sticky even a few hours after shower. I believe this to be some kind of fungus. I am tired of going to docs and they have not been able to help me" Well, it's not unusual for skin to be sticky even a short time after a shower - I sweat quite easily and I am often sweaty within a short time of washing. My skin also itches intensely during exercise, but that's the prickly sensation of sweat glands producing sweat, not an infection. Similarly when your sweat dries it leaves crystallised salts on your skin which are mildly irritating and drying. I'm not saying there is definitely not a microorganism or something causing your symptoms, but they may also be within the normal range of healthy experience but accentuated because you think about it a lot. Something to consider.