Really, nature doesn’t care. If you think that means that you shouldn’t, then I guess we know what you are.

As with any invention that sounds too good to be true, one keeps hoping for some public demonstrations. Still, it will be nifty if this clever looking engine design works out as claimed.

“When populations around the globe started turning to agriculture around 10,000 years ago, regardless of their locations and type of crops, a similar trend occurred: The height and health of the people declined.

“This broad and consistent pattern holds up when you look at standardized studies of whole skeletons in populations,”…early agriculturalists experienced nutritional deficiencies and had a harder time adapting to stress, probably because they became dependent on particular food crops, rather than having a more significantly diverse diet.”

She adds that growth in population density spurred by agriculture settlements led to an increase in infectious diseases, likely exacerbated by problems of sanitation and the proximity to domesticated animals and other novel disease vectors….” Full Slice

“…2008 saw the longest and weakest solar minimum since scientists have been monitoring the sun with space-based instruments.

Observations have shown, however, that magnetic effects on Earth due to the sun, effects that cause the aurora to appear, did not go down in synch with the cycle of low magnetism on the sun…these effects on Earth did in fact reach a minimum — indeed they attained their lowest levels of the century — but some eight months later. The scientists believe that factors in the speed of the solar wind, and the strength and direction of the magnetic fields embedded within it, helped produce this anomalous low….” Full Slice

“…researchers…describe how a single cell genetically engineered to express green fluorescent protein (GFP) can be used to amplify the light particles called photons into nanosecond-long pulses of laser light…the first report of a successful biological laser based on a single, living cell…we wondered whether there was a fundamental reason why laser light, as far as we know, does not occur in nature or if we could find a way to achieve lasing in biological substances or living organisms…Not only did the cell-based device produce pulses of laser light as in the GFP solution experiment, the researchers also found that the spherical shape of the cell itself acted as a lens, refocusing the light and inducing emission of laser light at lower energy levels than required for the solution-based device. The cells used in the device survived the lasing process and were able to continue producing hundreds of pulses of laser light…”One of our long-term goals will be finding ways to bring optical communications and computing, currently done with inanimate electronic devices, into the realm of biotechnology. That could be particularly useful in projects requiring the interfacing of electronics with biological organisms….” Full Slice

Here is my pleasant thought for the day:

The greenest thing you can do is walk to the nearest morgue and shoot yourself in the head with an iron bullet.

The following is for entertainment purposes only.  The graphic is based on assuming that 2011 will match 2010 melt rates through July, the projects a worst case scenario using the 2007 melt rate.    Graphics provided by the IJIS Sea Ice Extent project.

“Single-cell organisms have been known to live deep in the earth, more than 9,000 feet below the surface.

But until now, it was thought that the temperature, energy, oxygen and space constraints of the subsurface biosphere were too extreme for multicellular organisms….” Full Slice

“We report new functions of the cell-adhesion molecule E-cadherin in murine pluripotent cells. E-cadherin is highly expressed in mouse embryonic stem cells, and interference with E-cadherin causes differentiation. During cellular reprogramming of mouse fibroblasts by OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC, fully reprogrammed cells were exclusively observed in the E-cadherin-positive cell population and could not be obtained in the absence of E-cadherin. Moreover, reprogrammed cells could be established by viral E-cadherin in the absence of exogenous OCT4. Thus, reprogramming requires spatial cues that cross-talk with essential transcription factors. The cell-adhesion molecule E-cadherin has important functions in pluripotency and reprogramming.” Full Slice

“It may not be Atlantis, but evidence of a lost civilization probably lies beneath the waves all along the Washington coast — in fact, all along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.

A recently announced discovery of stone tools on California’s northern Channel Islands, just across the Santa Barbara Channel from the city of Santa Barbara, may tell us a good deal about what that civilization did….” Full Slice

“…An international collaboration of scientists…may have discovered humanity’s beneficiary – a tiny variation within a single gene that determines the formation of brain convolutions…”The demonstration of the fundamental role of this gene in human brain development affords us a step closer to solve the mystery of the crown jewel of creation, the cerebral cortex,”…The folding of the brain is seen only in mammals with larger brains, such as dolphins and apes, and is most pronounced in humans….” Full Slice

Has anyone made a connection between the recovery of a body from Air France Flight 447 two years after the plane crashed and the possibility of recovering Osama Bin Laden’s body.  I would suspect there is a clear trail to follow and a good estimate of where the body was dumped.  There must be a billionaire out there right now, using a personal submarine to search for the body…

I like to hit the random page link of the tree of life.

The inventor of the vanadium redox flow battery is interviewed.

This tour of the Rogue Brewery is rather hilarious as our tour guide slurs more and more of his words. Disclaimer: I was there almost exactly a month ago. I had their buckwheat brew (normally I’m a Reinheitsgebot drinker, but I wanted to sip soba, although not through a straw), and a pale ale before retiring to the Newport Belle for some sherry (with Barbara, in the solarium) and a little trip to Local Ocean for some wild king salmon.