A Sleeping Dog

In 1965 the French neurophysiologist Michel Jouvet operated on 35 cats, creating lesions in a part of their brainstem called the locus coeruleus. The operation caused no visible difference in their waking behavior, but their behavior while sleeping changed dramatically. They would stalk, leap, and pounce on imaginary prey -- while completely asleep. Jouvet concluded that the locus coeruleus is responsible for suppressing muscle activity during sleep. Damage it, and you act out your dreams.

That's the scientific explanation of the phenomenon, which is a long way of introducing this video of a dog "running" while asleep. Evidently the dog doesn't have a fully functioning locus coeruleus.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 05, 2008 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Science

Weird Horses

Judging from the video, this looks like it will be a killer book. Including a horse in a "gas mask"!

Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 02, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Photography and Photographers, Science, Books

Anger and Landscape Art

Do you feel angry and frustrated sitting in your windowless cubicle grinding away at a dead-end job? Recent research (published in the journal Environment and Behavior) indicates there may be an easy way to brighten your mood, at least if you're a man. Hang a few art posters.

Researchers at Texas A&M University conducted an experiment in a simulated office. Participants were told that the researchers were investigating performance on a variety of computer tasks. In reality, the computer tasks were designed to "provoke stress and anger." The question was whether the artwork hanging on the wall (abstract art, nature posters, abstract and nature posters, or no art) would modify people's moods. The conclusion:


It's not clear why men are calmed by wall art, but not women. Maybe men are just simpler creatures.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 29, 2008 - Comments (5)
Category: Art, Science, Experiments

Why Study Science?

Has science ever looked duller than in this video?

Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 19, 2008 - Comments (4)
Category: Boredom, Education, Family, Children, Parents, Futurism, Pop Culture, Science, Technology, Video, 1950s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows

The Man Shot By a Particle Beam

Given the recent startup of the Large Hadron Collider, it seems timely to remember the tale of Anatoli Bugorski.

On July 13, 1978 Bugorski leaned down to check a part in a U-70 synchrotron particle accelerator. He saw a brilliant flash of light. He had just become the first man to be shot through the head by a particle beam. Miraculously, he survived, although the left side of his face was paralyzed. The beam was highly radioactive, but also very focused, and therefore the radiation didn't disperse into his body. More details at Forgetomori.

What would happen if someone were hit by the LHC's particle beam? I doubt they'd fare as well as Bugorski. To put its power in perspective, Scientific American calculated that it could defrost a pizza in 30 nanoseconds (billionths of a second), assuming the beam energy could be spread across the entire surface of the pizza.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 18, 2008 - Comments (0)
Category: Science

Who’s coming to see the LHC?

The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva may not have caused the end of the world, but some believe it's attracting extraterrestrial visitors. The Louth Leader is on top of this important story:


To be fair to "Anthony from Wales," it's not clear to me whether he's suggesting that the collider is attracting ETs, or if it's releasing visible flashes of energy into the atmosphere. Not that one option would be any more logical than the other.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 17, 2008 - Comments (0)
Category: Paranormal, Science

Smoke on the Water

I was supposed to attend a family BBQ today, but it was canceled because of rain.

I should have known it would be. I had already read this news about how weekends attract bad weather.

WEEKEND WEATHER REALLY IS WORSE

The most comprehensive weather study ever has confirmed what we all suspected - the weather really is worse at weekends.

Meteorologists at the University of Karlsruhe evaluated 6.3 million pieces of climate data from across Europe between 1991 and 2005.

Their conclusion: On weekends the weather is worse than on weekdays.

But even if the weather had been good, we would have suffered from this campfire phenomenon. As we are told in The Complete Book of Fire by Buck Tilton:

Q: Why does the smoke from a campfire seem to blow into your face no matter where you sit or how many times you change position around the fire?

A: Your body blocks the flow of fresh air drawn to the flames. You are then creating a low air pressure area with your body and the warm smoke moves toward the lowest air pressure. With no wind, no matter where you sit in relation to the fire, the smoke will be drawn toward you.

Sometimes you just can't win....

Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 14, 2008 - Comments (3)
Category: Entertainment, Family, Food, Science, Weather

World D

Here's another strange book I purchased but have not yet read. The real author is Joseph K. Heydon, using the pen-name of Hal Trevarthen. Time has swallowed up all details related to Heydon and his book, leaving us only with the text itself.


Here's the description from the amazingly ugly dustjacket.


Here's the title page, followed by a sample of the actual bafflegab inside.


Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 11, 2008 - Comments (11)
Category: Aliens, Eccentrics, Government, Inventions, Literature, Books, Science Fiction, Writers, Nature, New Age, Paranormal, Pop Culture, Science, Psychology, Self-help Schemes, Foreign Customs, 1930s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows

The Mighty Powers of Hagfish Slime

My high-school pal Sherry Mowbray, who grew up to be a top-flight biologist, points me with glee to this video illustrating how powerful is the slime secreted by the awesome hagfish.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 10, 2008 - Comments (11)
Category: Animals, Science, Experiments, Body Fluids

Guess the Scientist!

What famous Victorian-era scientist does this passage describe? (Follow the "extended" link for the answer.)

He suffered from incessant retching or vomiting, usually brought on by fatigue; and from painful bouts of wind that churned around after meals and obliged him to sit quietly in a private room until his body behaved more politely. Reading between the lines, his guts were noisy and smelly. "I feel nearly sure that the air is generated somewhere lower down than stomach," he told one doctor plaintively in 1865, "and as soon as it regurgitates into the stomach the discomfort comes on." He was equally forthright with his cousin...: "all excitement & fatigue brings on such dreadful flatulence that in fact I can go nowhere." When he did go somewhere, he needed privacy after meals, "for, as you know, my odious stomach requires that."

He also had trouble with his bowels, frequently suffering from constipation and vulnerable to the obsession with regularity that stalked most Victorians. He developed crops of boils in what he called "perfectly devilish attacks" on his backside, making it impossible to sit upright, and occasional eczema. There were headaches and giddiness. He probably had piles as well.

More in extended >>

Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 07, 2008 - Comments (2)
Category: Medicine, Quizzes, Guess the Scientist, Science