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Science
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There is such a wonderful cornucopia
of subjects under the heading of "Science". In this page, I will attempt to cover a few of them. I love
reading about science and scientific experiments. If my current job title did not include "The Mighty Mitchman: Defender
of the Faith, Guardian of Virtue, Seeker of Truth and Hero of the Known Universe", I would love to have been a scientist.
I know I would have discovered a cure for something . . . . . probably a broken heart. It is believed that 90
percent of all scientists who have ever lived are alive now, and that as many scientific papers have been published in the
years since 1950, as were published in all the centuries before 1950.
Handy guide to modern science:
If it's green or wriggles, it's biology. If it stinks, it's chemistry. If it doesn't work, it's
physics.
PAGE CONTENTS:
Insulin Discovered in 1922
Excerpts From Student Science Exam Papers
Science Factoids
Insulin Discovered in 1922
by Jennifer Rosenberg
Medical researcher Frederick Banting and research assistant Charles
Best studied the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas of dogs at the University of Toronto. Banting believed that he could
find a cure for the "sugar disease" (diabetes) in the pancreas. In 1921, they isolated insulin and successfully tested in
on diabetic dogs, lowering the dogs' blood sugar level. Researcher John Macleod and chemist James Collip then began to help
prepare insulin for human use. On January 11, 1922, Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy who was dying of diabetes, was given
the first human experimental dose of insulin. The insulin saved his life. In 1923, Banting and Macleod were awarded the Nobel
Prize for their work on discovering insulin. What was once a death sentence, people now diagnosed with diabetes can live long
lives thanks to the work of these men.
© 2008 IAC Search & Media. All rights reserved.
THESE ARE ACTUAL EXCERPTS FROM
STUDENT SCIENCE EXAM PAPERS: -
Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the organ of the species. - Benjamin Franklin produced electricity by rubbing
cats backwards. - The theory of evolution was greatly objected to because it made man think. - Three kinds of blood
vessels are arteries, vanes and caterpillars. - The process of turning steam back into water again is called conversation.
- The Earth makes one resolution every 24 hours. - To collect fumes of sulfur, hold a deacon over a flame in a test
tube. - Algebraical symbols are used when you do not know what you are talking about. - The pistol of a flower is
its only protection against insects. - Dew is formed on leaves when the sun shines down on them and makes them perspire.
- A super-saturated solution is one that holds more than it can hold. - A triangle which has an angle of 135 degrees
is called an obscene triangle. - When you haven't got enough iodine in your blood you get a glacier. - For fractures:
to see if the limb is broken, wiggle it gently back and forth. - To remove dust from the eye, pull the eye down over the
nose. - For asphyxiation: apply artificial respiration until the patient is dead. - When you smell an odorless gas,
it is probably carbon monoxide.
SCIENCE FACTOIDS 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 WHAT
DOES E=mc2 STAND FOR? In 1905, the deep connection Albert Einstein discovered between energy and mass is expressed
in the equation E=mc². Here E represents energy, m represents mass, and c² is a very large number, the
square of the velocity of light. This equation became a cornerstone in the development of nuclear energy.
The speed of light is constant…
or so Einstein would have us believe. But he was wrong (well – he was right in a way – in a vacuum yes, the speed
of light is constant). In 2006 scientists fired a laser into a tube laced with the rare element erbium – before the
entire pulse entered the tube, part of it appeared at the other end and raced backward faster than the speed of light. In
1999, Harvard scientists slowed light to a mere 38 mph by shooting it through supercooled matter.
A
CLONE IS NOT A TWIN AFTER ALL Two new studies have shown that cloned pigs act and look different from the animal
whose original DNA they carry. In fact, clones can vary in physical appearance and behavior as much as animals bred conventionally
do. The findings debunk the popular myth clones are carbon copies of their "parents." Researchers said the public
has been fed the notion cloning technology can create cookie-cutter animals -? pets, for example. "The implication is
that your cloned pet is going to behave and look like the one you already have and that will not be the case," said Jorge
Piedrahita, researcher at North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Some characteristics might
not be the same as parent traits because genetic errors can be introduced during the cloning process -? a good reason, Piedrahita
said, for cloning researchers to proceed carefully. He added some clones will be very healthy while others will not be able
to survive. FEMALE LIZARDS CHOOSY ABOUT HOME, MATES In many species females are very picky about where they call home and who they bring home as a mate. University
of California-Los Angeles researchers, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, say they are studying
the fitness choices female blotched lizards make and note while the ladies prefer improved territories in which to live, they
still select high-quality sires for their offspring. They say having better digs is associated with earlier egg-laying dates,
larger eggs and an enhanced competitive ability -- meaning youngsters are more likely to directly benefit from living in a
better neighborhood. The females also show a preference for large males and are very dominant in the mating system. They are
selective, however, using sperm from large sires to produce sons and sperm from smaller sires to produce daughters.
Why isn't
a bubble square? A bubble is round because the
air within it presses equally against all its parts, thus causing all surfaces to be equidistant from its center.
EARLY MAN DIDN'T
THROW SPEAR Early man knew how to make
a spear -- he just didn't know how to throw it and therefore had a limited hunting strategy of stabbing trapped animals.
The first direct evidence of thrown spears dates back 19,000 years but an analysis of arm bones of Neanderthals, who lived
between 230,000 and 30,000 years ago, finds they were much stronger in one arm than the other -- suggesting they threw spears.
Duke University researchers writing in New Scientist disagree, noting a two-handed spear thrust puts far more stress on the
dominant arm holding the back end of the spear than the front arm. The researchers measured Neanderthal humerus bones, showing
they were thicker front to back than side to side -- indicative of a thrusting motion. Later humans who used spears had rounder
humeri, suggesting throwing a spear distributes force relatively evenly. In thrusting vs. throwing experiments, volunteers
generated 70 percent more force thrusting with the dominant back arm than with the front arm. In extreme cases, the force
on one arm was six times that on the other.
MALE WASPS USE CHEMICALS TO FIND MATES Male wasps have a unique buddy system, using
changes in plant chemicals to leave messages to their successors telling them where potential mates are located. Researchers
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign say each spring, amid the decaying rubble of dead prairie plants, emerging
male gall wasps find mates by looking for these chemistry clues left behind. As adult male wasps feed in warm weather, they
change the ratio of plant chemicals. The researchers say it is very interesting because the females are inside the plant stems
and not producing pheromones, so it is a plant's volatile chemicals that attract the males. Once a male finds a site with
a mate he will defend it -- head-butting other males away from his turf. SAN ANDREAS QUAKE SOONER NOT LATER People living along the San Andreas fault are likely to have a major earthquake
sooner than scientists had been expecting. At the Wrightwood paleoseismic site near the eastern end of the San Gabriel Mountains,
research by U.S. Geological Survey geologist Thomas Fumal and colleagues from the University of Oregon suggests the area may
experience a major earthquake within the next 30 years. Fumal says the time between earthquakes averages about 105 years with
the most recent in 1857. "This suggests to me that at least the southernmost 120 miles of the fault may rupture in a
large earthquake of 7.6 to 7.8 magnitude within the next few decades," Funnel says. "Such an earthquake would be
especially hazardous to the San Bernardino-Riverside (California) urban area, which is developed right up to the fault."
Similar research at Thousand Palms Oasis near Palm Springs indicates it also is primed for an earthquake. The most recent
large earthquake to rupture this section of the fault occurred about 320 years ago and evidence suggests the average time
between quakes is 215 years. EARTHQUAKE IN A LAB British
researchers have created the first earthquakes in the laboratory, giving them a better understanding of how the largest and
most violent quakes evolve. Intermediate and deep earthquakes occur between 45 and 400 miles down, triggered by various chemical
reactions that occur in down-going material below subduction zones -- like most of the Pacific coastline. The University College
London team says the odd thing is they shouldn't happen -- earthquakes should require brittle failure and frictional slipping.
The team used a multianvil press to compress rocks similar to those found deep in the Earth to extreme pressures and temperatures.
They then looked at dehydration reactions and found they cause a phenomenon known as "dehydration embrittlement"
which produces these deep earthquakes where they shouldn't occur.
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