big314mp

I think you also need to narrow down what type of cancers are going to be looked for. All of them? Just the most common? I think it would work best if you look for the most common, given the demographic. Basically, those who are "at risk" of some cancers should be monitored carefully.

See, offering a tax break (or, possibly college scholarships) is like offering payment for work rendered. It's pretty fair in my book. It still makes me dubious as to the "civic responsibility" bit, as now it just sounds like a paying job, rather than charity work. But if getting youth out to work is the goal, then go for it.

@jackson33: I'm thinking we won't be agreeing much...but what of it? conviction: an unshakable belief in something without need for proof or evidence. (a google search of define: conviction) I'd say that represents close mindedness pretty well. The question then becomes, "Are convictions good or bad?" To which I would answer not always (in many cases they are good). Unless you are Ted Stevens. /bad jokes Getting back to Mrs. Palin, I'd like to bring up her suggestion to ban books from a library. Her unshakable belief that homosexuality is evil was so strong, that she felt the need to force it on other people. All of these moral issues that people should decide for themselves...she seemed to have this belief that she knew best. Which suggests she wasn't open to considering the alternative viewpoint (seeing as she was trying to ban them). That type of "I'm right, because of my beliefs and nothing else" has no place in politics. When reading the above, keep in mind that I'm talking about all moral issues, not just homosexuality, which I just used as an example.

Now we're back to the flyback transformer in a back pack Perhaps a tube, packed with a metal powder, and attached to a high pressure gas cylinder. Opening the cylinder blows the dust out with combustible gasses, over a piezo sparker, lighting both of them on fire. It's only a one shot device, but it would be pretty cool. And I just had this though...what about various pyrotechnic flash powders? Try not to lose too many fingers doing this...

Sometimes brain death refers to death of higher brain functions: i.e. not the brain stem. So if the brain stem is still alive, then the person can still breath, digest, etc. Usually this is called persistent vegetative state, though.

What sort of canister are you using? If you could find one, would a small acetylene or MAPP gas cylinder work?

Ignoring the fact that that specific comment was there for a chuckle: Forced military service is not fun. I also don't believe in the draft, so that point is mostly moot. However, someone here (I'm too lazy to look) posted that it gets kids out into the community, and they get to learn by performing...etc. That argument only works if it is voluntary. Charity work is great stuff, but it isn't charity if it is forced. Otherwise it just becomes another type of tax. Instead of doing labor and giving some of the money (which represents the labor) to the government, you are just giving the labor straight to the government. Nobody argues that taxes are a way to instill civic responsibility into adults. And why? Because they are forced to do it. I never enjoyed community service for the sake of getting hours done. I enjoyed it because I chose to help someone. There is a huge difference in motivation, and this cannot be ignored. You can't force someone to do charity and expect them to benefit from it.

Just to add to sisyphus's sample size: I was going to write in Ron Paul and vote for him. But after the vice presidential debate, I decided to vote for Obama. Not on the merits of Obama though. On the (shocking) deficiencies of Sarah Palin. Her blatant anti-intellectualism, especially. She may have been a brilliant political asset to McCain, but I can't imagine someone like that anywhere near Washington. I can't believe that the American public would choose someone that close minded to run this country. She represents everything that I hate in politics, so I voted for her to go back to Alaska. And if the Republicans want her to run in 2012, then I think the Republicans have lost their marbles. I'd like to think that this election was a demand to move away from radical evangelical/neocon politics, and back towards the middle. But Sarah Palin is farther out there than any president, ever (maybe Andrew Jackson was farther out, but that was a different time). I'd like to see the Republicans nominate someone who actually believes in small government, rather than just spouting off about how maverick they are. Please. Live up to your old ideas of government, and stop with this petty rubbish. /punditry

Lot's of freight already requires inspection, so that isn't a radical change. I think what flashman was objecting to, was that the little nuances of driving won't be picked up by a computer. Basically, human experience trumps raw computational power. And I'm inclined to agree with him. However: 1) If every car on the road is computerized, theoretically there shouldn't be any driving nuances to keep track of. One computer can just talk to another and be very explicit as to what exactly it's intentions are. npts already covered several aspects of this in his recent post. 2) The computers that beat Kasparov relied on...human experience. The programmers wrote code that allowed the computer to analyze human played chess games, and then decide what were the best moves. Basically, you program the machine to learn, and then you teach it. Instead of modeling road condition, you model a human mind, and then you get modeled human experience.

I'm a soph in college as well, so I'll just share what some of my (crazy, IMO) friends are doing. One of my friends is a pre-med, with engineering and music as her majors. She wants to go into biomedical engineering, but she really enjoys music. So, basically she is studying it to get better, but she isn't planning on making a job out of it. On of my other pre-med friends is really good at singing. She does just about every singing club on campus, and she takes one music class every quarter. Just as a hobby though. One of my other pre-med friends, really enjoys cooking. She actually was on the verge of dropping out of college to join chef school. What she decided, though, was that a doctor can cook whenever she wants to, but a chef can't doctor ever. There are a bunch of other stories that I could tell, but they all have the same moral. Keep your hobby as your hobby, and keep your job as your job. The one that is harder to get into should be your job, because then you get the opportunity to do both, rather than just one. As to the average student bit: I graduated high school with a 3.51 (unweighted) GPA. My current cumulative college GPA is, oddly enough, 3.51. There are ways around not having the greatest GPA. You've already got one of them: take hard classes. It's not the numerical value (of your GPA) itself that matters, but rather how much effort you put forth in high school/college. The second is that you should network with your professors. A lot. Strong letters of recommendation will weigh in more than your GPA itself (especially of you take hard classes). As to the field work, try and get a position as an undergrad researcher, as that looks excellent on any resume. You may get field work also. Basically, find a faculty member that you like, and get a handle on what exactly he is researching. Then email him/go and meet him, and ask for a research position. Basically what I'm saying is that your interest in your program, and the effort you put into achieving your degree, are far more important than some equation that generates a number between 0 and 4. Put in the effort and show the interest. You will have no problems finding the career that you want. I should also put in that you are at a science forum, so the answers will necessarily be biased

There's a big difference between just having the government take a cut of your paycheck, and the government ordering you to do actual community service. Even if the difference is only in how people perceive it. In any case, there's no fun in forced community service. It's most worthwhile as a charity thing, or as a punishment. So...perhaps we can trade prison terms for community service. You know, kill two birds with one stone

Well I deny the logic of that one also. Basically what I am getting at is that if you apply community service to college students, you should apply it to non-college attending 18-22 year olds as well. In any case, I think the support for mandated service for adults will meet with significant resistance, and will be shot down. Mandating acts of charity seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

I have to question (and this is a question) the legality of making college students do community service. College students are adults, so unless all adults had to do community service, how do you get away with only making this one specific demographic do community service?

I'm thinking the effect can be attributed to the action of the acid on the calcium deposit, rather than it being a specific effect of a specific acid. Both HCl and CH3COOH will dissolve limestone, as will formic acid. However, too much acid, and you will go into acidosis and then have real problems. In any case, HK has a pretty nifty science project at the moment.

Whatever the circumstances, it really isn't our place to say what he should be. If he wants to be a chem major, help him be a chem major. He'll figure out in college whether he wants to be a chem major or not.

It's basically (ignoring coupling issues) the ratio of the turns. Think of it as a gear box for electricity. So if you have 10 turns on the primary, and 100 on the secondary, your current will decrease 10x and your voltage will increase 10x.

It depends on the salt concentration. If the water has a higher concentration of solute than the fluids in the carrot, then water will diffuse out of the carrot in an attempt to balance the concentration. Salt will also diffuse into the carrot as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic_Pressure

I suppose I was expecting something that I had heard of on the news this year. Oh well.

Maybe copper + concentrated nitric acid over a rubber plug of some sort, and then you light the rubber in the NO2 stream...It's painfully complicated, but theoretically possible. I think we need to know your requirements better before we can offer proper advice.

If you don't feel like spending, the library should have a copy. You can also go to the AP webpage and find the materials that the course covers. Look for what you remember and what you don't. You can probably save some time by doing that.

Nice. But how exactly was that a pathogen that was well known in 2008?

Rocket motors are dirt cheap. You can find them in most hobbyist stores. They're no more than a few bucks for a pack of them. Finding the appropriate size of motor will depend on the vehicle design. Perhaps you could post a picture? The CO2 cartridge would work the same way as the rocket motor, just using compressed CO2 as power rather than a chemical reaction. Safer, but less fun. I'm not sure if Mg+acid will produce enough gas to drive you 60m. I think the weight of the fuel will be a limiting factor there. Talk to your teacher and see what you can get away with.

I'm guessing he wants a small, pinewood derby -esque type car. If so, a compressed CO2 cartridge would do very nicely. If you want to use chemical power, then get a small model rocket engine. In both cases, you need to ensure that your design has sufficient down force to actually stay on the track and not become airborne.

Well, density is mass per unit volume. You are given a volume, and you need to find the mass. To find the mass you will need to find the moles of each gas present, and then convert that into a mass.

There is something known as the "flash point" which is the lowest temperature that a fuel will support combustion in air. Gasoline has a flash point of -40C, so dry ice would be cold enough to stop combustion. The CO2 from the dry ice would also extinguish your match http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_point What Cap'n said works (sometimes) because the fire is able to heat the area around it sufficiently to raise the temperature above the flash point.