1

Physiology & Medicine / How is traditional Chinese Medicine is getting recognition from the WHO?

« on: 04/10/2020 16:12:36 »

2020-09-24 How TCM is helping to fight covid-19
https://www.scmp.com/presented/news/hong-kong/health-environment/topics/worlds-lab/article/3100990/how-traditional

2

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Which forces are directable

« on: 20/08/2020 10:59:51 »

Which force fields are directable so that it is possible to affect an object from a distance?

3

Chemistry / What are the white rings that form during the Beirut ammonium nitrate explosion?

« on: 06/08/2020 10:00:28 »

Ammonium nitrate (NH₃ N0₄) Beirut explosion videos.
TV in  Hong Kong said it was caused by heat.
(1) what on earth are those white bands at the beginning of the BBC video? https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/1290720709623320583?s=19
(2) what is the explosion's chemistry?

4

COVID-19 / What are the latest Covid-19 medicines and vaccine news stories?

« on: 29/07/2020 14:44:04 »

This topic is for collecting covid-19 scientific news about developing medical treatments and vaccines.

5

Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / What are implications of accelerated evolution & applications

« on: 28/07/2020 04:08:56 »

The modern environment has lots of ways to kill microbes, including heating, boiling, UV-C, ozone, fungicides, antibiotics, anti-virals etc. So, we are basically accelerating evolution in a very fast way aren't we?

I have no doubt that there are many biologists getting very concerned.

As I remember, fungi in the ISS (Int. Space Station) evolved and populated the ISS as a result of space radiation.
So, not surprisingly, Chernobyl radiation also did the same on earth.

Chernobyl Fungi To Protect Astronoauts?
https://interestingengineering.com/fungi-from-chernobyl-reactor-could-save-astronauts-from-space-radiation

6

Technology / The Starlite fire resistant material

« on: 20/07/2020 15:37:36 »

The Starlite material secret has died with the inventor.
Amazing thing is that samples of it is still here!
How could the UK scientific/engineering community let this go?

https://www.bbc.com/reel/playlist/searching-for-starlite?vpid=p06llq7w

Intumescent paints - watch the videos.

7

Physiology & Medicine / Are stem cell therapies for arthritis safe and effective?

« on: 18/07/2020 07:20:18 »

I've just received a stem cell therapy advert on Facebook offering stem cell therapy in Thailand.
What interests me most at the moment is osteoarthritis.

Clearly cell therapy is of intense interests to researchers & patients, but the field needs patients monitoring and understanding.  How do we guard against the many rogue clinics which are bound to home in on offering patients fake therapies?

How do we check these clinics? Can we use this discussion to accumulate useful knowledge?

[note that Thailand & India governments have big ambitions in developing medical tourism, so we should expect to hear a lot more from them in the future. Having massive numbers of potential rich patients and low labour costs, they are in a gold mine for medical tourism]

8

Chemistry / What is that liquid in the video?

« on: 06/07/2020 05:10:57 »

This girl has appeared a lot on the internet for her eating antics, and this one must surely top the lot.
What on earth is the liquid she is using to cook her 'food'   <Puke> ?

9

Physiology & Medicine / What is the evidence for scar-healing treatments?

« on: 27/06/2020 09:16:08 »

After 7 years post-op of a major heart operation, I decided to do something about the big scar on my sternum. (The bone that the ribs are attached to on the front chest). To get at the heart, the sternum was sawn in half along the whole length of the sternum).

At the hospital, the nurse assured me that my scar will eventually heal although there are usually spots where a red swelling would occur and heals last. In my case, 2 spots. My GP did not examine my scar anymore after the skin had fully grown over, and the specialist heart consultants didn't even take a look nor listen to my heart.

In Hong Kong, there are numerous products which claim to heal scars, including silicone tape (£12 for 4 inches), and rose bud oil (£30 for a one month supply). {American level of pricing}. In UK, I bought an unspecified scar healing oil in a bottle for £1 in Poundland but never tried it.

Anecdotally, the silicone tape appears to have a quick result. Been using it for almost 48 hours.

One of my curiosity is how does the silicone tape work, and to what extent? And whether rose bud oil will work.

10

Technology / Using ions to electrify space debris to slow down in earth's magnetic field

« on: 03/06/2020 07:49:15 »

To tackle the problem of space debris above earth, does it look practical to use ion gun satellites to shoot ions into orbits  so as to electrify small sized space debris, so that they would be slowed down by the earth's magnetic field and eventually burn up above earth?

11

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Is this gyroscopic antigravity?

« on: 01/06/2020 03:07:20 »

Prof Braithwaite the inventor of the linear motor gave a lecture in Hatfield Polytechnic (1972-3 ish) which I attended made a deep impression on me. He was introduced as an experimental physicist at the time. He explained the linear motor, then presented his hypothesis about the mechanics of spinning bodies.

He showed that a spinning top on a table jumps and told us that science cannot explain that. Hmmm I thought at the time.  Then he showed us how the equations of Maxwell on electrodynamics, Newton's equations on gravity, . . . share a common form as integral equations. And he speculated that spinning bodies might have an equation of a similar form.

The implication was that if the equation works, then spinning bodies can move sideways in space.

Years later, an experiment for his hypothesis was performed on the ISS, but I never heard anything about it since.

Can someone shed light on that?
And surely, the equation should be derivable from String Theory if true?

12

Technology / Altering orbits using earth's magnetic field or generated fields from earth?

« on: 27/05/2020 02:18:52 »

Is it possible to use the earth's magnetic field to move around in space, or even take off from earth?

What about using generated magnetic or electric fields to alter orbits ?  Is it already being done?

13

The Environment / Locust infestation 2020

« on: 16/05/2020 12:04:05 »

Disaster upon disaster. We had continental scale wild fires in Australia, covid-19 pandemic, and now huge locust swarms are advancing through the middle-east.

I read a news article about using ducks to fight the swarms last year, but I've heard no follow up news.

The locust infestationmap:- http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/common/ecg/75/en/200507globalE.jpg

FAO situation update 2020-05-13 http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/en/info/info/index.html

Isn't it amazing that the swarms can leap across the Persian Gulf!

And if ducks can be used to eat up the locusts, why not use chicks too?

14

COVID-19 / covid-19 treatment trials

« on: 03/05/2020 04:47:44 »

The WHO's drug trial is said to be the largest in the world including 4 drugs thought to be most promising.

Remdesivir of Gilead is showing good early results in shortening recovery time:-
BBC 2020-04-29
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52478783

15

COVID-19 / What accounts for the high degree of covid-19 gender bias?

« on: 03/05/2020 03:49:47 »

Sex/Gender bias is an interesting factor to follow about covid-19 as this BBC article summarises the situation:-

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200409-why-covid-19-is-different-for-men-and-women

16

COVID-19 / When to use an oxygen mask, ventilator or oxygenator for Covid-19?

« on: 07/04/2020 12:14:08 »

I understand that oxygen masks provides increased oxygen concentration.
A ventilator supplies oxgen through a cut in the throat.
But I remember reading about an early patient in China receiving oxgen through his blood ( an oxygenator?) and still died.

I decide to start this thread because our PM Boris Johnson has been transfered to an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) because of worsening condition with quick transfer to a ventilator should the need arise.

It puzzles me why use a ventilator, when covid-19 cause glassy knots to form in the fine air passages thus preventing the transfer of air into the avioli .So no amount of air from the outside is going to get there until the knots are removed.

So the sensible solution is to oxygenate the blood straight away!  Surely!

17

Cells, Microbes & Viruses / What are the best links for up to date COVID-19 statistics?

« on: 08/03/2020 02:22:08 »

This topic is for tracking and understanding the COVID-19 corona virus statistics.
Here are the best statistics sources I have found:-
[1] https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports
[2] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/                           (daily updated global statistics: WHO based)
[3] https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus                                    (stresses on statistical interpretation: US based)
[4] http://nrg.cs.ucl.ac.uk/mjh/covid19/                                         (lag time for each country graphs: WHO based)
[5] http://weekly.chinacdc.cn/news/TrackingtheEpidemic.htm     (statistics of every day in China: [overloading])

18

Technology / What chemicals are used to unblock drains, and how do they work?

« on: 07/01/2020 06:32:43 »

Drains are often blocked: bath drains, basin drains, kitchen sink drain, toilet drains etc.

Different drain tend to be blocked by different things. Bath drains tend to beblocked by sediments and hair.

What principles are used to clear drains, especially chemicals.  e.g. Alum Crystals, Sodium Hydrocide  are the ones I know about.   How do these chemicals work?

I am using one that is a dark blue liquid. I am meant to dispell as much water as practicable, then pour in the liquid and leave for 5 to 10 minutes. It states that it is suitable for all metals except aluminium.   When I pour the liquid, the water in the bath drain reacts immediately forming some steam.

To my surprise, it melts the usual plastic kitchen sponge & scrub combo within about 10 seconds without smell, and it turns cotton cloths into a black char with a strong burning smell within about a second. It also produce some violet coloured liquid rather like a per Managanese solution in school chemistry.

 I do wonder what it is.

19

The Environment / Anti-desertification: can we regenerate deserts?

« on: 18/12/2015 09:56:35 »

With humans dominating land eco-systems to such an extent that 98% of animal mass on land (humans, pets, farm animals) are human-related. (source: Population Trust)

It makes sense that humans should regenerate deserts with the help of cheap energy and sea water. A clear application for solar power I think. With more land, we can grow more food, grow more carbon sinks in the form of trees.

The Sahara and Australian deserts are obvious candidates as they are near the sea.

Let's do some calculations to see how practical this is.

20

Technology / Do solid state solar cells convert multi-directional light less efficiently?

« on: 18/12/2015 09:29:48 »

Question 1: Do solid state solar cells convert multi-directional light less efficiently than uni-directional light?