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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / How does my oxygen-producing machine work?
« on: 04/10/2009 17:20:30 »
Thanks again, Craftsman & BC
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22
Just Chat! / Dictionary of conjoined words
« on: 04/10/2009 17:18:23 »
Computer monitor = comitor
Mobile phone - mobone
Spaghetti Bolognese - spaghinese
Mobile phone - mobone
Spaghetti Bolognese - spaghinese
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The Environment / Where is the sunniest place in England, if there is one?
« on: 04/10/2009 14:38:11 »
Residents of East Anglia claim that to be the sunniest & driest area of the UK. Whether that is actually true or not, I cannot say. However, when I lived there we often had dry, sunny weather when the rest of the country was overcast or had rain. There were many occasions when neighbouring counties had rain or snow yet we had none. I remember on 1 particular occasion Colchester had a few inches of snow while we, a mere 14 miles north in Suffolk, had none at all.
Certainly the north east of England gets far less rain that the north west (holiday makers take note - Scarborough is drier than Blackpool). I believe that is due to the west having hills & mountains in north Wales & the Lake District whereas the north east has none and is shielded from most rain-laden weather systems by The Penines. I do not, though, know how the north east compares to East Anglia.
However, I have also heard that The Scilly Isles is the sunniest place.
Certainly the north east of England gets far less rain that the north west (holiday makers take note - Scarborough is drier than Blackpool). I believe that is due to the west having hills & mountains in north Wales & the Lake District whereas the north east has none and is shielded from most rain-laden weather systems by The Penines. I do not, though, know how the north east compares to East Anglia.
However, I have also heard that The Scilly Isles is the sunniest place.
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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Are all mammal eyes basically the same?
« on: 04/10/2009 14:25:24 »
If you take an eye from a human, a mouse, and a cat they look different but, as far as I am aware, they work in basically the same way. Insects, on the other hand, have very different eyes. Are all mammal eyes basically the same or are there any mammals whose eyes differ in form or functionality? Also, are there any animals from different kingdoms (if that's the correct taxonomical word) whose eyes are similar? I.e., are there are types of, say, fish whose eyes are the same as that of an insect?
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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / How does my oxygen-producing machine work?
« on: 04/10/2009 03:26:30 »
Thank you, Craftsman. So what I'm getting is not pure oxygen. Rather, it's just air with the nitrogen taken out.
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Physiology & Medicine / Is this breathing problem a dream or actually happening?
« on: 04/10/2009 02:57:47 »I sometimes have a dream like that - it's almost as though I need to breathe but can't. It wakes me up in a panic because I think I'm asphyxiating. But once awake I can breathe normally so...
Lucky you. I genuinely cannot breathe properly and it takes a great effort of will to control my breathing and stop myself gulping small mouthfuls of air - which only serves to make matters worse. I have to really push hard with my diaphragm to expel enough air to be able to inhale better. Without oxygen to hand it usually takes 15-20 minutes to get back to breathing properly(ish) again. With oxygen that reduces to about 5-10 minutes.
My blood oxygen level is always fairly low (it read 83% on my stats with a BP of 85/? when I got taken into hospital last week) & I'm guessing it's the combination of the low O2 level & low BP that causes this; although in my case it's probably due to too-shallow breathing while asleep rather than hyper-ventilation.
Would you have any thoughts on that, Chris?
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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / How does my oxygen-producing machine work?
« on: 04/10/2009 02:38:46 »
Due to my medical condition I have had to have a machine installed in my home that produces oxygen. It's free-standing and uses ordinary air as the input. Oxygen is then pumped to the mask I wear. What does it do to the air to produce that lovely oxygen I breathe to get my lungs working again?
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Just Chat! / The who owns the fish riddle.
« on: 04/10/2009 02:33:50 »
Is that the left looking from the front or the rear? Your left or the houses'left?
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General Science / What is dark matter?
« on: 04/10/2009 02:22:21 »
The Higgs boson is a sub-atomic particle that is predicted by the Standard Model in physics, and is considered to be the mediator of gravity.
Are you sure of that? I thought the Higgs boson was postulated as the mechanism by which particles gain their mass and that it is the graviton that is hypothesised to mediate gravity.
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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / What happens to the wall of the ovum in embryogenesis?
« on: 04/10/2009 02:08:54 »
I've just been watching a BBC iPlayer program about cells http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m6nhq/The_Cell_The_Chemistry_of_Life/. They were talking about the work done by Theordor Boveri on sea urchins, but this questions applies to all ova. It has made me realise there is a gaping hole in my knowledge of cytology.
The program contained the requisite video sequence of cell division within the ovum and that got me wondering. If cell division takes place within the confines of the ovum, what happens to the ovum wall? Does the whole embryo develop within the ovum or does there come a point when it breaks free? I don't see that the wall can become skin as skin is made of cells & the ovum wall isn't.
As a supplemental question, I noticed that the 2 separating halves of the cell pulsated wildly as the chromosomes migrated to opposite ends of the cell and division began. What is going on there?
The program contained the requisite video sequence of cell division within the ovum and that got me wondering. If cell division takes place within the confines of the ovum, what happens to the ovum wall? Does the whole embryo develop within the ovum or does there come a point when it breaks free? I don't see that the wall can become skin as skin is made of cells & the ovum wall isn't.
As a supplemental question, I noticed that the 2 separating halves of the cell pulsated wildly as the chromosomes migrated to opposite ends of the cell and division began. What is going on there?
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General Science / Why is it dangerous to re-heat food?
« on: 03/10/2009 19:25:55 »
Thank you, dear peoples of sciency knowledge [
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General Science / Why is it dangerous to re-heat food?
« on: 03/10/2009 10:29:31 »
I had one of those ready-made curries from M&S the other day & in bold letters it stated "DO NOT REHEAT". Why not?
When I cook a curry, spag bol, casserole, etc I usually cook enough for 2 dinners so I re-heat the leftovers the next day. I've never had a problem with doing that. So why should some ready-made meals not be re-heated? Is it an advertising ploy to make us buy more or are there genuine health implications?
When I cook a curry, spag bol, casserole, etc I usually cook enough for 2 dinners so I re-heat the leftovers the next day. I've never had a problem with doing that. So why should some ready-made meals not be re-heated? Is it an advertising ploy to make us buy more or are there genuine health implications?
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Just Chat! / What has happened to Facebook
« on: 15/09/2009 00:38:22 »
In general what happens is that a person or persons send out a virus/trojan or whatever which then sits on people's hard drives until a signal activates it. That PC then continually tries to access a certain website. Sometimes there are tens of thousands of infected PCs all sending requests to the 1 site at the same time. That much traffic overloads the servers and they throw up their hands in submission.
The host site where I have my site was subjected to a different kind of DDOS attack, In that instance all the DNS addresses were set to null. To understand what that means you need to know a bit about how the internet works. Briefly, if you want to access the Naked Scientists site you type "http://www.thenakedscientists.com" into your address bar. But for the internals of the internet that needs to be translated into a IP number such as 127.10.34.81. and the mechanism for tying a name to an internet address is DNS (Domain Name System). This system allows a website's name to remain the same even if it is switched to a different host site. What happened with my host site was that all the addresses were set to 0.0.0.0. so no sites were accessible.
The host site where I have my site was subjected to a different kind of DDOS attack, In that instance all the DNS addresses were set to null. To understand what that means you need to know a bit about how the internet works. Briefly, if you want to access the Naked Scientists site you type "http://www.thenakedscientists.com" into your address bar. But for the internals of the internet that needs to be translated into a IP number such as 127.10.34.81. and the mechanism for tying a name to an internet address is DNS (Domain Name System). This system allows a website's name to remain the same even if it is switched to a different host site. What happened with my host site was that all the addresses were set to 0.0.0.0. so no sites were accessible.
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Just Chat! / What happened to all the money the banks lost?
« on: 15/09/2009 00:25:24 »
Economics has never been 1 of my strong subjects so this is probably a very silly question.
Billions (or was it trillions?) of pounds/dollars were lost by banks and the world was plunged into recession. But where did the money go?
Billions (or was it trillions?) of pounds/dollars were lost by banks and the world was plunged into recession. But where did the money go?
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Just Chat! / What has happened to Facebook
« on: 12/09/2009 23:38:31 »
Facebook, Twitter, and a few other social sites have been victims of DDOS attacks.
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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / What language did human ape-ancestors speak?
« on: 12/09/2009 23:23:50 »
If you want to know what really primitive language sounds like, go to Glasgow on a Saturday night. [
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Dave - that's a very interesting diagram. I find it intriguing that a language such as Albanian is so close to the PIE.
]Dave - that's a very interesting diagram. I find it intriguing that a language such as Albanian is so close to the PIE.
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Physiology & Medicine / Are cramps caused by lack of salt?
« on: 12/09/2009 23:22:25 »
When I was young I used to suffer from bad night cramps in my thigh muscles. The doctor said it was due to a lack of salt. My salt intake was duly increased and the cramps stopped. Obviously then, for me, it was lack of salt that was the cause of the cramps.
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General Science / Why Do We Live In A Left-to-Right World ?
« on: 12/09/2009 23:10:19 »
You have asked a question on which the beaver can shed some light, and the light that is shed may surprise you.
In occult & Pagan thinking clockwise & anti-clockwise have always had a major significance. If one wanted to invoke good spirits, one danced clockwise (deosil) around a fire. To invoke bad spirits, one danced anti-clockwise (widdershins). Over the centuries, as Paganism largely died out, this developed into a belief that dancing anti-clockwise would bring bad luck (there are, in fact, many superstitions that have their root in Pagan beliefs). While this train of thought has long since disappeared, apart from in occult or Pagan circles, walking around something like that salad bar in a clockwise direction is the result of many generations of learned behaviour. If that's the way your parents always did it, you probably will too without even giving it a conscious thought. Your parents learned it from their parents, etc., right back to medieval times or beyond.
In occult & Pagan thinking clockwise & anti-clockwise have always had a major significance. If one wanted to invoke good spirits, one danced clockwise (deosil) around a fire. To invoke bad spirits, one danced anti-clockwise (widdershins). Over the centuries, as Paganism largely died out, this developed into a belief that dancing anti-clockwise would bring bad luck (there are, in fact, many superstitions that have their root in Pagan beliefs). While this train of thought has long since disappeared, apart from in occult or Pagan circles, walking around something like that salad bar in a clockwise direction is the result of many generations of learned behaviour. If that's the way your parents always did it, you probably will too without even giving it a conscious thought. Your parents learned it from their parents, etc., right back to medieval times or beyond.
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Technology / How efficient is binary?
« on: 12/09/2009 22:36:05 »
I like the ancient Babylonian method of counting on one's fingers. Forgetting the thumb, there are 3 segments to each finger. That means you can count to twelve on 1 hand. When you reach 12 you mark 1 on your other hand. Starting with the tip of the left index finger you check all 3 segments on that finger, then move to the middle finger & so on.
Thumbs were used to touch the relevant finger segments so touching the 2nd segment of the middle finger, left hand and 3rd segment index finger of the right hand you are indicating 3*12+5=41. The max number you can count to is 144 (assuming you have 4 fingers on each hand).
12 is a more efficient base than 10 as 12 is divisible by 2, 3, 4 & 6. 10 is only divisible by 2 & 5. Common fractions are readliy calculable in base 12 too. You have use decimal places for any fractions other than 1/2 or 1/5. Base 12 allows 1/4, 3/4, 2/3 etc. I sometimes wish the Babylonian system had come to the fore rather than the base 10 system we now use.
Thumbs were used to touch the relevant finger segments so touching the 2nd segment of the middle finger, left hand and 3rd segment index finger of the right hand you are indicating 3*12+5=41. The max number you can count to is 144 (assuming you have 4 fingers on each hand).
12 is a more efficient base than 10 as 12 is divisible by 2, 3, 4 & 6. 10 is only divisible by 2 & 5. Common fractions are readliy calculable in base 12 too. You have use decimal places for any fractions other than 1/2 or 1/5. Base 12 allows 1/4, 3/4, 2/3 etc. I sometimes wish the Babylonian system had come to the fore rather than the base 10 system we now use.
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Just Chat! / John Chapman are you related or named after the" Johnny Appleseed John Chapman?"
« on: 04/09/2009 15:00:07 »
Well, as we're all telling the truth now - I'm actually a giant geranium.