CopiaPega

How to grow a hotter chilli

2011-09-29T15:04:00.003-05:00

An autralian farm has managed to grow the hottest chilli by using a special fertilizer. Apperently the insect pieces in the fertilizer triggers a defensive response on the plant's roots, which produce more capsaicin:

The Scorpion Butch T. is the world's hottest chilli. (Credit: The Chilli Factory)

"
Like all fertilisers, 'worm juice' is rich in nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen, but what makes it particularly effective for bringing out the heat are the bodies of insects that have decomposed in the worm farm.
"The insects in there are living and dying pretty rapidly, and bits of their shell will break down," says Mark. "When you apply the juice to the plants' roots, they think they're getting eaten by insects." In response, the chillies produce more of their defensive compounds like capsaicin. "It's like getting an injection to boost your immune system," he says.
"
Read the full article at www.australiangeographic.com.au

How Miracle Fruit makes food sweeter

2011-09-27T12:26:00.000-05:00

Copied from npr.org
"Japanese food chemists have found a way to explain how a chemical in miracle fruit makes sour flavors taste sweet. The fruit has inspired a small counterculture of flavor trippers as well as chefs who are experimenting with the chemical as a low-cal sweetener..." [by Eliza Barclay]

Read the full article on NPR.org

Courtesy of Keiko Abe

Elephant Makes a Stool. First Known Aha Moment for Species

2011-08-22T12:29:00.002-05:00

[Ker Than for National Geographic News]
"In an apparent flash of insight, a young Asian elephant in a zoo turned a plastic cube into a stool—and a tool—a new study says."
Read the full story and look at the video at the NatGEO site.

Photograph courtesy Foerder/Reiss, CUNY

blood types and diet?

2011-08-22T10:10:00.003-05:00

The following blog article and its comments sum up the problems of trying to associate blood type with diet as Dr. D'Adamo does with a book that has been getting popular lately. Read it here in scienceblogs.
Wikipedia also has a good summary on the issues with this diet.

'Junk DNA' Essential In Evolution

2011-08-19T20:43:00.001-05:00

by Joe Palca

"There's a revolution under way in biology. Scientists are coming to understand that genetics isn't just about genes. Just as important are smaller sequences of DNA that control genes.

These so-called regulatory elements tell genes when to turn on and off, and when to stop functioning altogether. A new study suggests that changes in these non-gene sequences of DNA may hold the key to explaining how all species evolved." ...
See the full article on npr.org

Helping Children to Understand Numbers

2011-08-01T13:44:00.004-05:00

This post is about the "number sense" in children and how it lays the foundations of later mathematical knowledge.

A research team from Stanford University has created a formal model for the cognitive basis of counting.

They have identified that a very important component of learning this "number sense" [wikipedia] comes from the way we speak to children about numbers, in particular where we place the number in the sentence. Saying "look at the bears, there are three!" for example, is much better than sayin "look, there are three bears", which they explain in the summary extract below.

[Copied from the abstract in sciencedaily:]
..."The development of number sense in early childhood is the best predictor educationalists have of later mathematical ability."...

"Numbers are never encountered alone in sets - we may see "three bears", but never a set of just "three" - so children must learn to distinguish which part of "three bears" is "three." Since learning is based on expectation - our brains learn by guessing which things lead to what - children are far better at learning to distinguish "three" if "bears" are mentioned first: "look at the bears, there are three!" If sets of "bears" come before numbers, everything the child sees will compete for relevance in her learning to expect numbers, and it soon becomes obvious that while "bear" parts are no use for discriminating between "two" and "three," two and three are. This competition is far less straightforward when "three" acts as the basis for expecting "bears." Indeed, training children using "look, there are three bears" had no effect on their number sense at all, whereas children trained with "look at the bears, there are three!" showed a 30% improvement on their ability to distinguish small sets after just one short training session.

These experimental findings provide the first evidence that the "number sense" can be improved by properly targeted training, while the computational modeling provides a formal account of why the training works, as well as offering the first formal model of how the number sense is learned, and how numerical capacity limits arise."

See the abstract on sciencedaily.com where I took the extracts above,
or download the full study on pdf [1.7 MB, plosone.org]

Universal Flu vaccine found

2011-07-28T22:09:00.000-05:00

An antibody that recognizes all strains of influenza A could be a universal vaccine blueprint.

July 28, 2011

"...Our FI6 antibody is the first one ever found that reacts to all 16 of the influenza A subtypes, says Lanzavecchia.

The finding, published today in Science, follows other reports of broadly reactive influenza antibodies, but these could only bind to either group 1 viruses, such as the H1N1 'swine flu' and the avian influenza H5N1, or group 2 viruses, which include the seasonal H3N2 strains.

"Finding antibodies to all strains of one group was exciting", says immunologist Patrick Wilson from the University of Chicago, Illinois, who was not involved with the study, "but getting one to both groups is stunning."

The antibody itself is not a vaccine, but it could be an instruction manual for making one..."
See the full article from Nature here.

phytic acid and mineral absortion in humans

2011-07-25T22:02:00.012-05:00

Phytic acid [acido pitico in spanish] is present in high proportions in many nuts and grains, like cashews, almonds, sesame, quinoa or amaranth. When eaten, it prevents mineral absortion by binding with minerals like iron and zinc.
There are several at-home ways to remove some of it, the easiest is to wash and soak the nuts/grains overnight and discard the water (give it to plants)

The best at-home method appears to be sprouting. this takes 2-5 days depending on the seed which makes it impractical. Sprouting, however, does have the advantage that it will potentiate nutrient digestibility as well as remove most of the phytic acid. This is because the seed has many mechanisms to lock-in its nutrients until the seed is ready to receive them. One of this mechanisms is phytic acid. Enzimes like phytase activate under the right conditions (i.e. soaking it) to remove the locks so its nutrients can be used by the sprouting seed. Some of these nutrients are complex (long chain) carbohydrates which, during the sprouting process are broken down into smaller, simpler carbohydrates.

All these is good for us because by eating the sprouting seeds we absorb much more of its minerals, carbs and other nutrients. While we can digest some long-chain carbs with the aid of bacteria and our enzymes , more energy is used by the digestive system to break down the nutrients.
The net effect is that eating a sprouting seed will give us more absorbable nutrients plus we spend less body resources to digest them. Studies like the ones below show that you can get five times of some minerals by removing the phytic acid from the seed. I assume that sprouting potentiates this even more.
Here are some of the links Ive been reading:

This paper claims that phytic acid content from quinoa was reduced by 30% by just scrubbing and washing it.

This study measured iron absortion in humans being fed with various amounts of phytic acid in their food. It showed that removal of phytic acid increased net iron absortion by up to five times.

This other study suggests that the phytic acid is bound to the protein of the seed, and that it affects protein digestibility by up to 10%.

This publication mentions that "Enzyme treatment, either directly with phytase or indirectly through the action of microorganisms, such as yeast during bread‐making, is quite effective, provided pH and other environmental conditions are favorable". So maybe its possible to combine seeds with high phytase content during soaking, and thus help reduce the phytic acid.

A little more detail on the enzyme phytase can be found here, where it states that "At optimal conditions for the enzyme phytase (55°C, pH 4.5-5.0) phytate could be effectively reduced after 12-16 hours of soaking."

I found seed sources for the enzyme phytase here, where it states that good sources are wheat, wheat bran, rye, barley, and bad sources are all oilseeds. Adding some lemon juice (pH 2.0) to the soaking process will take the pH of the water (pH 7) down but I dont know how much will lower it down to the 4.5-5.0 range.

These two sites have a lot of information about phythic acid and preparations to remove it from various foods:
Reducing Phytic Acid in Grains and Legumes
Living With Phytic Acid. This last one is very complete.

I will continue updating this article as I get more information. I am currently soaking 100gr of mixed seeds with 1/2 lime juice and see if I can make milk from the soaked, sprouting seeds. The mix has whole, sprout-able wheat in it (10%), which in theory could contribute with its high phytase enzime content. I hope that after 2 days of soaking, the milk wont have an acid taste and that the water wont be too acidic for the sprouting process...
Ok, so the milk wasnt bad, but most seeds didnt sprout which was strange (it had quinoa which should have sprouted in a few hours).
I think I made the water too acidic, I just realized the pH scale is in log10 so I guess I should have only used 1/1,000 lime juice per 1 water to get a pH of 5 or 6, and I probably got at most a pH of 4. At the store I went they didnt sell strips that measured below 6, I'll have to look for better strips when I get the time but next time I'll use less juice plus heated water with a thermostat I have somewhere.

Update 13-aug: I found an old aquarium water heater and used it to soak the same seed mix in warm water and a few drops of lemon (The heater only goes up to 32C though, I need to find something that keeps it arround 50C.) the resulting milk turned out pretty good, the heat and lemon didnt affect the final taste and hopefully it has better nutritional absortion.

Update 23-aug: I am also now using rye flour in the soaking mix, given that is has the highest phytase content. I am also using it to soak brown rice. I am looking for a way to keep water at 55C or so for the whole soaking time. acquarium heaters like the one ive been using dont go that high, only to 32C, and apparently the difference for phythase activation is huge once it reaches arround the recommended 55C.

Update 5-Sept: I now have pH strips, and tried soaking lentils plus rye flour. Apparently the pH goes up during soaking, I had to keep adding more lemon juice during soaking. Initally it only needed 1/4 of the lemon, and ended up adding a whole lemon (pH 3) to the 500gr of lentils, flour and water.

More meat = more environmental damage

2011-07-19T02:01:00.003-05:00

July 18, 2011,
By JOANNA M. FOSTER

"Eating a small cheeseburger for lunch is, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to driving an extra 10 miles. By contrast, eating a serving of lentils would barely get your car out of the driveway, according to a new report released on Monday by the Environmental Working Group, a research organization."

Note that this doesnt take into account the impact of losing land to grow the food for the animals. Some of that land used to be forests or could be used for better purposes.

See the full article at nytimes.com

Natural Nuclear Fission Confirmed as Source of More than Half of Earth's Heat

2011-07-19T01:49:00.000-05:00

By David Biello | Jul 18, 2011
"Nuclear fission powers the movement of Earth's continents and crust, a consortium of physicists and other scientists is now reporting, confirming long-standing thinking on this topic. Using neutrino detectors in Japan and Italy—the Kamioka Liquid-Scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND) and the Borexino Detector—the scientists arrived at their conclusion by measuring the flow of the antithesis of these neutral particles as they emanate from our planet..."
See the full article on scientificamerican

How Alum boosts vaccines effectiveness

2011-07-17T22:07:00.000-05:00

"It seems that when a vaccine containing alum is injected, contact with alum pushes certain cells of the body to release their own DNA.
The presence of this DNA outside the cells, a place where it is not to be found in normal conditions, thus acts as a stimulant of the immune system and strongly boosts the response to the vaccine...
Alum was developed in a relatively empirical manner; the way it helps the immune system to respond to vaccines had not been properly understood up until now."
See full article on sciencedaily here

Great recycling strategy for offices

2011-07-15T17:28:00.000-05:00

For the past year at Dartmouth College, office desk trash cans were replaced with tiny 6-inch trashcans and a huge no-sort recycle bin for the entire office. After one year, they produced 200 less tons of trash and increased their recyling by one third. See the full article at the NYtimes

The narrow mind of Greenpeace

2011-07-15T13:40:00.000-05:00

This guy has the same two reasons I dont support greenpeace:

1) greenpeace continues to oppose nuclear power even though its clear newer tech solves current issues, and
2) failure to support GM (Genetically Modified) foods.

Read the full article on scienceblogs here

All song hits use the same 4 chords :)

2011-07-15T01:06:00.002-05:00

copied from this blog (scientopia.org)

Wild fish uses tool

2011-07-14T13:49:00.000-05:00

Apparently, fish can also use tools.

Real time sub-centimeter positioning on smartphones

2011-07-14T13:30:00.000-05:00

Oooskar@slashdot writes:
"SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), a technique invented by NASA, defines the concept of building a 3D-map of the environment and simultaneously computing the position within it. Based on SLAM, Swedish startup 13th Lab has implemented real-time sub-centimeter local 3D-positioning by using only the sensors, most importantly the camera, already present in most mobile devices..."
Note that this does not use GPS. It maps your environment in real time.
Demo Video on youtube

An Ipad demo already exists:
BallInvasion game on 12thlab.com

potato genome cracked

2011-07-13T09:11:00.000-05:00

One of the easy varieties of the potato has been secuenced. Great news for improved varieties in the near future.
Article in Nature.com

'Pastafarian' wears pasta strainer in driving-licence photo

2011-07-13T08:58:00.000-05:00

13 July 2011
An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear".
Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons.
Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism.
Full article on BBC

Natural Nuclear Reactors: The Two Billion Year Old Natural Fission Reactors in Gabon, Western Africa

2011-07-13T08:54:00.000-05:00

By Evelyn Mervine | Jul 13, 2011
Two billion years ago— eons before humans developed the first commercial nuclear power plants in the 1950s— seventeen natural nuclear fission reactors operated in what is today known as Gabon in Western Africa [Figures 1 and 2]. The energy produced by these natural nuclear reactors was modest. The average power output of the Gabon reactors was about 100 kilowatts, which would power about 1,000 lightbulbs. As a comparison, commercial pressurized boiling water reactor nuclear power plants produce about 1,000 megawatts, which would power about one million lightbulbs.
Full article on scientificamerican.com

Trouble for natural gas?

2011-07-12T09:27:00.000-05:00

July 12, 2011
Fracking Water Killed Trees, Study Finds

By MIREYA NAVARRO
A study that argues for more research into the safe disposal of chemical-laced wastewater resulting from natural gas drilling found that a patch of national forest in West Virginia suffered quick and serious loss of vegetation after it was sprayed with hydraulic fracturing fluids.

Full article on nytimes

Time to end the war on salt?

2011-07-10T09:31:00.001-05:00

a meta-analysis of seven studies involving a total of 6,250 subjects in the American Journal of Hypertension found no strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduces the risk for heart attacks, strokes or death in people with normal or high blood pressure.
Full article on scientificamerican.com

Zig note: appears that the ratio of potassium vs. sodium is the problem, not the actual total salt intake:
High Salt + Low Potassium = death risk
Full article on UPI

The Birth of Optogenetics

2011-07-08T13:18:00.000-05:00

An account of the path to realizing tools for controlling brain circuits with light.
By Edward S. Boyden | July 1, 2011
Full Article on the-scientist.com

Mushroom Lights Up the Night in Brazil: Researcher Finds Bioluminescent Fungus Not Seen Since 1840

2011-07-06T20:01:00.000-05:00

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2011) — In 1840, renowned English botanist George Gardner reported a strange sight from the streets of Vila de Natividade in Brazil: A group of boys playing with a glowing object that turned out to be a luminescent mushroom. They called it "flor-de-coco," and showed Gardner where it grew on decaying fronds at the base of a dwarf palm. Gardner sent the mushroom to the Kew Herbarium in England where it was described and named Agaricus gardneri in honor of its discoverer. The species was not seen again until 2009... Full Article on sciencedaily.com

Bareheaded motorcyclist dies in helmet protest

2011-07-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

By Nina Raja, CNN
July 5, 2011

A bareheaded motorcyclist participating in a ride to protest mandatory helmet laws was killed when he was thrown over the handlebars in Onondaga, New York.

Philip A. Contos, 55, of Parish, New York, was on a ride organized by the Onondaga chapter of American Bikers Aimed Towards Education (ABATE), state police said Sunday.

Contos hit his brakes, began fishtailing and lost control of his 1983 Harley Davidson. He shot over the handlebars, hit his head on the pavement and was taken to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, New York, where he was pronounced dead.

State police say evidence at the scene plus information from the attending medical expert indicated Contos would have survived had he been wearing a helmet as required by state law.

Full story

Experts debunk baby food myths

2011-06-30T15:21:00.000-05:00

Article on MSNBC from 2005

Why is there only one human species?

2011-06-23T11:35:00.001-05:00

23-jun-2011
"Not so very long ago, we shared this planet with several other species of human, all of them clever, resourceful and excellent hunters, so why did only Homo sapiens survive?"
100,000 years ago there were several known human variants.
12,000 years ago there were still at least 2 human variants, one of them isolated on the island of Flores.
Full article on BBC

slashdot: simple explanation of the "Higgs Boson" particle.

2011-06-10T13:30:00.002-05:00

Re:Please explain to this non-physics-type geek (Score:5, Informative)
by Mr_Huber (160160)on Fri June 10, 11:56 AM (#36402634)

Currently, things weigh more than they should. The mass of a particle is a function of the kinetic energy of the particle and it's component parts, if any. If we run the numbers, we get good masses for some particles, not good masses for others. A proposed solution to this problem is the Higgs field, a nonzero field that permeates space. Anything coupling with this field gains additional mass through interaction with the field.

Picture a person at a party. Normally, they are free to move through the party fairly easily. Now make that person famous. Admirers flock around, and the celebrity has trouble moving. Nonfamous people are particles that do not couple with the HIggs field. Celebrities are particles that do couple with the field, surrounded by a paparazzi of virtual Higgs particles.

Nice theory. It fills a gap in the standard model and now the math all works. So now we have to find the particle. You need the mass of a particle to find it in an accelerator. Roughly (very roughly), you need to create collisions where the sum energy of the little explosion is about that of the particle in question, then watch a statistically large number of those to see if something matching your particle appears. If it does, it's off to Stockholm for dinner with the king. If not, it's back to the drawing boards.

The problem is, the theory doesn't predict the mass of the particle. It doesn't even say if it is one particle, a family of similar particles or a family of different particles. So there's a wide spread of masses to examine. And all the masses are really high, far higher than any other existing accelerator could reach. So we have the new CERN experiment, slowly scanning the possible masses, looking for the particle.

If we don't find that particle, then we're back to square one, why are some particles heavier than predicted? For decades, we've assumed it was some sort of variant of the Higgs boson. But if that's not the case, it's back to the blackboard for more theories.

In general, this is a problem for particle physics. Finding or not finding the particle will affect chemistry, biology and general astronomy not at all. It might or might not have an affect on cosmology, but that's hard to say without a particle to talk about. More interesting for cosmology is that while searching for the Higgs, the experiment might come across more esoteric things, such as evidence for supersymmetry. Evidence for supersymmetry would automatically generate the prime number one candidate for dark matter. And nailing down the properties of dark matter would give us another probe of the Big Bang.

More information than you wanted probably, but I hope it helps.