1

Just Chat! / Re: science and love

« on: 24/11/2005 12:53:42 »

What's that old saying...


"Love is chemistry, sex is physics"



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

2

Just Chat! / Re: Happy Thanksgiving

« on: 24/11/2005 12:52:07 »

ThanksTAKING is more like it.  Let's celebrate our betrayal and conquering of the indiginous Americans!  yay!  This one's almost as great as Columbus Day.  (Though I do love me some turkey)



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

3

Chemistry / Re: Old Wives Tales....

« on: 24/11/2005 12:50:41 »

Hmm...off the top of my head...

if you get stung by a jellyfish, pee on it to reduce the pain and swelling  (not true)

rub butter on a burn (also not true)

water is very bad for you  (just messing with Ian33)



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

4

Just Chat! / Re: What are your (want to be) Professions?

« on: 18/11/2005 11:56:05 »

Up until last week, an analytical research chemist for a national laboratory.  After DOE budget cuts (thanks neo-cons!) I'm unemployed and looking for just about anything.  

Planning to start graduate school next year for a PhD or MD/PhD program in some sort of biomedical science, possibly neuroscience or immunology or something.  I'm interested in so many things it's hard to narrow it down.  



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

5

General Science / Re: degree choice

« on: 17/11/2005 01:07:01 »

Without a solid background in mathematics and good understanding of programming, your hopes of inventing anything useful are practically nil.  Just so you know.  

I'm curious why you say you want something that requires "brain power" but are hesitant to study math or programming.  



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

6

Just Chat! / Re: ITS NOT PC

« on: 17/11/2005 01:02:53 »

We went through this in the US in the 90s.  It's annoying but it will go away, I promise.  



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

7

Chemistry / Re: Thermite

« on: 17/11/2005 01:01:03 »

I've seen a thermite paste used before, it basically adheres the thermite to a surface that will be burned through, like a steel plate.   (the place I saw it used was cutting through the hull of a boat)  I'm curious what medium was used for the paste.  It would have to be something organic that would not diminish the burning properties of the thermite.  



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

8

Chemistry / Re: synthesis of nitric acid

« on: 17/11/2005 00:56:54 »

Don't hurt yourself.

This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

9

General Science / Re: degree choice

« on: 16/11/2005 19:03:23 »

Dual degree in electrical and mehcanical engineering with a minor in computer science.  There will be very little you cannot build if your aim is to get rich on an invention.  I'd follow this up with a MBA for a graduate degree as all the booksmarts in the world will not keep you from getting ripped off or floundering trying to market your product.  



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

10

Complementary Medicine / Re: Validity of biofeedback

« on: 16/11/2005 11:52:29 »

I'm asking for Wild Divine for Xmas this year.  I'll report back on how well it works.  I also found a listserv for a group trying to build a low-cost EEG for neurofeedback.  I've done some microcontroller programming, so I might help them out.  Paging Neilp to this thread so he can chip in  =)  



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

11

Cells, Microbes & Viruses / Re: restriction enzyme viruses?

« on: 16/11/2005 11:30:04 »

There are two problems with what you've asked:

First, Phages don't really work like that.  They transfer DNA, not proteins (i.e. enzymes), when bacterial DNA is integrated into the phage genome.

Second, phages only attack prokaryotic cells, which do not have a nucleus.  

If you wanted to transfer a gene that codes for a restriction enzyme to a bacteria, that could probably be accomplished as long the viral DNA didn't have the sequence targetting by the host restriction enzyme.  





This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

12

Cells, Microbes & Viruses / Re: the use of enzymes in medicine

« on: 16/11/2005 11:23:06 »

You might get more detail with a more specific question.  Here's one that Chris can answer for you as I'd like to know myself.  =)  

Are medicinal enzyme mostly used to replace enzyme deficiencies or are there a significant amount used for other purposes?  (such as competitive inhibition of a different mutated enzyme that is causing problems)



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

13

Physiology & Medicine / Re: Why do I ' stand to attention ' in the mornings ?

« on: 16/11/2005 11:17:44 »

Men frequently get erections during REM sleep.  When you wake in the morning, you're very often waking from REM sleep and the morning wood is left over from that.  Having a full bladder also applies pressure and keeps the erectile tissue from draining quickly, which is why it seems to hang around so long.



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

14

Chemistry / Re: Dry Ice

« on: 14/11/2005 20:52:07 »

It's sold in the supermarket here, not sure about across the pond.  



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

15

Just Chat! / Re: They're made out of meat!

« on: 12/11/2005 12:00:08 »

This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

16

Just Chat! / Re: They're made out of meat!

« on: 12/11/2005 11:57:45 »

This is a very old story.  I first read this online before the internet had pictures...ones that weren't uuencoded and posted on newsgroups anyway...circa 1992





This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

17

Physiology & Medicine / Re: has anybody lost a significant amount of weight?

« on: 12/11/2005 11:34:51 »

What kind of job do you have where you need to be 36 lbs lighter for a promotion?

This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

18

Just Chat! / They're made out of meat!

« on: 11/11/2005 12:32:11 »

Anyone who has never read this really should:

http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

19

Just Chat! / Re: Do you believe in heaven and hell?

« on: 11/11/2005 12:31:18 »

A compassionate creator would never allow his creations to burn for all eternity.  Would you subject your own children to eternal torture because they didn't grow up the way you wanted them to?  

Divine creation of the universe aside, the concept of eternal painful damnation is something created to fighten people into believing in manmade bull****.

As for sickness and death arising as a result of the fall of Adam and Eve.... biblical God is omniscient by all accounts.  He would have known that Adam and Eve would disobey him.  Why punish them for doing what you knew they would do?  That's like locking a puppy in a room for a day then beating the crap out of him for pissing on the floor.   You KNEW it was going to happen, don't try and act all outraged and surprised.  It doesn't make sense to anyone with a shred of logical thought in their mind.  

The downside to being an atheist is that instead of being afraid of hell, I'm afraid of oblivion.  I know I won't care once I'm there but the ego portion of my psyche freaks the hell out when I think about no longer existing.  





This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People

20

General Science / Re: can the speed of light go twice as fast?

« on: 11/11/2005 12:16:11 »

Does anyone have a link to the experiments dont a year or two ago where a doped medium was produced in which the light traversed the pathway through the medium at a value of c whose velocity was greater than that of c in a vaccum.  

Random FTL factoid:  Speeds greater than c can be measured in media where the refractive index slows c to a value less than a fast-moving particle.  Google the Cherenkov Effect.



This message brought to you by The Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People