Music (coming soon) |
| Science Fact for the week of 4/14/08 |
Phage Therapy Bacteriophages or "phages" are viruses. These viruses target a specific host bacteria and infect, destroy and release more phages. The nice thing about these phages is that you can use them instead of antibiotics to treat illnesses. One advantage is that since it targets one or few hosts it won't wipe out other good bacteria in your body - like the good bacteria that lives in your intestine. Another advantage is that it can be quicker to fight the infection. Phage therapy has been in use in Russia for the past 90 years and is currently being investigated in the U.S. for use. I've read articles about people with chronic sinus infections that no antibiotics can help but get cured with phages. Pretty cool stuff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy http://academic.evergreen.edu/projects/phage/phagetherapy/phagetherapy.htm |
Science Fact for the week of 4/7/08
Thinking About Big Numbers I must have a latent gene that likes Math even though I was horrible at math in school. Although, I must confess to checking my Calculus by using Algebra in college and currently my footer/signature on a forum I am part of says, 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 Anyway, I was listening to the Science Friday podcast about How Much is a Trillion and the guest speaker had an interesting way of explaining it. 1 Million seconds = 11.5 days |
Science Fact for the week of 3/31/08
Swirling Junk in the Pacific Twice the size of Texas not far from Hawaii is a giant mass of garbage which 80% is from land that swirls in the Pacific Ocean. Apparently there's this atmosphereic effect in the Pacific that creates a toilet bowl like effect that traps things. The dangerous part is the amount of plastic that is in the water - dissolved plastic that is not biodegradable. Read more about it by clicking the link below. (Note. I'm not related to Charles Moore) http://www.satyamag.com/apr07/moore.html
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Science Fact for the week of 3/24/08
Envisioning Avogadro's Number Is the number of atoms in 1 mole, which is a unit of measure in the subatomic world. A mole is said to be the number atoms of carbon-12 in 12 grams of unbound carbon-12 atoms. That number is... 6.0221415 × 10^23 If each atom was an unpopped popcorn seed then the number of seeds equal to Avogadro's Number would cover the United States in a layer 9 miles thick. |