News Alert: Water Found on the Moon!

Image Credit: NASA/LCROSS

It’s official.  The NASA LCROSS mission has concluded that there is indeed water on the moon!  The team of researchers who worked on the mission released their findings today, November 14, 2009:

The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water.

Secrets the moon has been holding, for perhaps billions of years, are now being revealed to the delight of scientists and space enthusiasts alike.

NASA today opened a new chapter in our understanding of the moon. Preliminary data from the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates that the mission successfully uncovered water during the Oct. 9, 2009 impacts into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus cater near the moon’s south pole.

This exciting news will forever change our understanding of the moon and the planets elsewhere in our solar system.

Kirk Cameron and Charles Darwin

Image Credit: maniacworld.com

Seeing the names side-by-side is at first shocking, and then one realizes a controversy is sure to follow.  A recent article in The Huffington Post tells of how Cameron wishes to spread awareness about the “undeniable connection” between Adolf Hitler’s holocaust and Charles Darwin’s work on Evolution.  He and others supporting his radical cause plan to distribute 50,000 copies or more of an altered version of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species to students in universities all across the United States on November 21, which is Darwin Day – the 150th anniversary of the first publication of his work.

What type of alteration will be made?  A wonderfully written introduction to the book, which Cameron describes as a passage that will “…highlight Darwin’s racism and his disdain for women.”  The introduction will also make a gigantic leap in scientific theory by exposing that all along Darwin’s work has been an elaborate hoax  and it’s actually Creationism that holds the key to knowledge!  Exciting, is it not?

Cameron also makes it clear that he will be presenting this wonderful information as a “balanced view of Creationism.”  I certainly can’t wait to get my hands on this, as Cameron describes, “very special” edition of On the Origin of Species.

Psychiatric Medication Linked to Weight Gain in Kids

Image Credit: umw.edu

“Drugs that alleviate severe mental disorders can also result in troubling metabolic changes,” says ScienceNews.org in an article released today.  According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, children who are on psychiatric medication often gain a substantial amount of weight and may have high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides.

It’s worth mentioning that this data is in the early stages of study, and it must be replicated over a larger area of study until results can be completely conclusive.  However, the information provided in this study has certainly raised some worrisome thoughts.

Junk Food Junkies

Image Credit: keetsa.com

A recent study has determined that junk food turns rats into addicts.  Junk food elicits addictive behavior in rats similar to the behaviors of rats addicted to heroin. 

Pleasure centers in the brains of rats addicted to high-fat, high-calorie diets became less responsive as the binging wore on, making the rats consume more and more food. The results, presented October 20 at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting, may help explain the changes in the brain that lead people to overeat.

How Neurons View the World

Image Credit: bcm.edu

By eavesdropping on the activity of single neurons in the human brain, scientists have figured out which brain cells go wild for superstars such as the popular actress Halle Berry, leading to the nickname “Halle Berry Neurons.” And the newest research shows that people can activate those cells selectively.

The results of the experiments were made public at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting by Moran Cerf of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena on October 19.  In summary of the study, researchers wrote, “This study is the first demonstration of humans’ ability to control the activity of single neurons.”  The results may aid researchers in understanding how each individual cell in the brain sees and responds to the world.

Cheating Death

Image Credit: Barnes and Noble

Popular M.D. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has recently released a book called Cheating Death.  In it, he explains how recent advances in medical technology can increase our survival rate in accidents and health issues tenfold.  The path this technology is on will eventually lead to the human race being able to effectively “cheat death” and die on their own terms–or not at all.

Of course this will create some philosophical issues, but for now, I’m simply examining the book itself.

New Richard Dawkins Book

Image Credit: RichardDawkins.net

Another well written book by Richard Dawkins is hitting stores this month.  The Greatest Show on Earth:  The Evidence for Evolution is the latest in the ever growing series of books by Professor Dawkins on evolutionary Biology and the public.  You can read the entire first chapter of this book now, before its release, courtesy of RichardDawkins.net.  I know I’ll be adding this book to my library when it becomes available.  You can preorder the book from sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and RichardDawkins.net.

Expect a review after I read the book.

Coincidentally, I am in the process of finishing one of the most beautifully written books on science, also by Richard Dawkins.  Unweaving the Rainbow:  Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder is a take from the view of a scientist on the poetic nature of science and the implications such beauty and poetry has on life, and poses this as an alternative to the delusional ideas of religion, astrology, psychic ability, etc.

While Dawkins (surprisingly modestly) claims he has little or no poetic

Image Credit: web.mit.edu

ability, the book is beautifully crafted and opens one’s eyes to the true magnificence of science.  Filled with beautiful imagery and loads of information, I recommend this book to anyone interested in science or curious how beautiful science makes our world.

Anyone who appreciates the beauty of science should add this book to their library.  It’s an exciting read.

Medical Care Threatened by Isotope Crisis

Image Credit: University of Missouri

In only two weeks time, the vast majority of radioactive medical treatment/scans could be severely delayed or rescheduled or replaced by less desirable and efficient procedures.  The reason: temporary shutdowns of Canadian and Dutch reactors that together normally provide some 70 percent of the world’s supplies of the isotope molybdenum-99 and at least 80 percent of North American supplies.

Salamanders and Regeneration

Image Credit: Dunja Knapp and Elly Tanaka

It is a well known fact among the scientific community, as well as the public, that many types of salamanders are capable of regrowing limbs after losing them.  For years (since the 18th century to be exact) this phenomenon has baffled scientists.  Now, new research into how exactly the salamander goes about this regeneration of limbs could provide information into helping human amputees.

It was once thought salamanders had the intriguing ability to simply spontaneously regrow limbs, and until recently, this idea remained unchanged.  Researchers were convinced they knew part of the science behind this process:  Cells at the wound site would lose their identities as they turned back their developmental clocks to become pluripotent stem cells — capable of developing into many cell types in the body — and then recreate the lost limb.

However, new studies have revealed something to the contrary.

Environment Conscientious Galaxies?

Image Credit: Cardamone, Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Almost all galaxies appear either red shifted or blue shifted when observed from Earth.  However, recently scientists have discovered a group of green shifted galaxies, which has intrigued them greatly.  Volunteers of the Galaxy Zoo project have found ~250 green shifted galaxies that they’ve so aptly dubbed ‘Green Pea’ Galaxies, or just Green Peas.

The image at left shows just a handful of these newly discovered galaxies.  Interestingly, scientists are now beginning to speculate that these galaxies could allow us to gain insight into the formation of stars.