Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Watts On Your Mind

If you get a charge from having a bright idea, consider the fact that your brain is constantly generating an average of 20 watts of electricity. That's because it operates on electrical nerve impulses, which is why brain activity can be detected magnetically. The deeper our thoughts, the more powerful the current.

Sometimes the current in the frontal lobe is so strong that it removes scalp hair through the process of electrolysis. Unlike genetic baldness, which affects the whole head, this phenomenon only affects the hair on the forehead and crown, leaving a fringe of hair around the sides. If you see someone with this peculiar pattern, you can be sure he's been thinking hard.

Especially deep thinking people may suffer from a condition called levitasaetism. In leviatasaestic patients, the current of the brain is so pronounced that it causes the hair to stand on end. Albert Einstein was the most famous sufferer of levitasaetism, but it afflicts about 1 in 500 people worldwide.

So when someone tells you about the power of ideas, ask them how many volts. Because the shock of realization may be metaphorical for some, but for others it's Factual Science!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

The Greenest Color

You probably know that "green" is a buzzword that stands for efficiency -- but did you know that green is actually the most efficient color?

In 1977, a study at the University of Northern West Virginia posed the question "Why are plants green?" Scientists used eight varieties of cellular dye on different colonies of bacteria and discovered the green-colored varieties converted sunlight up to 12% more efficiently. Further research showed the effect was not limited to plants, but extended to machines and electronics as well.

The United States, then in the midst of an energy crisis, responded enthusiastically. Industrialists and policy makers responded with green farm machinery, green school buildings, even an act of Congress mandating that appliances be painted green. But when the crisis subsided, so did green's popularity.

The 1980s heralded an age of conspicuous consumption. The Reagan administration repealed laws regulating the color of appliances, and green's complimentary color, red, became the standard color for inefficient muscle cars. By 1988, only one in ten survey respondents were aware that the color of an object could increase its efficiency.

But today, green is making a comeback. Greater interest in efficiency has revived awareness of the properties of the color green, and several governments are changing their policies accordingly. In early 2009, the Danish parliament introduced a bill that would require all factories in Denmark to be painted a rich green.

The United States has similar initiatives on the ballot, and so far they appear to have bipartisan support. After all, the value of red versus blue is a matter of opinion -- but the value of green is Factual Science!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Cloning Moves Beyond DNA

At first glance, nothing appears unusual about the coin displayed by scientists at the Steirscheiss Institute in Michigan. The edges are rough, the image of Jefferson a little faded, but it appears to be an ordinary nickel.

What makes this nickel remarkable is that it was cloned.

"Cloning inorganic material presents a different set of challenges than cloning a sheep or a dinosaur," says director Sandra Mayton. "The things we're trying to clone don't naturally make copies of themselves. We have to work around that by using the object's quantum signature as a kind of template, where one would normally use DNA."

"You can think of the replicator as a kind of Xerox machine," says researcher Kevin Falks. "The zero-point energy of the original is like toner, and the copy paper is actually a superheated, magnetically contained orb of plasma."

Does this breakthrough mean we'll soon be drinking Earl Grey tea produced by Star Trek-style replicators? Not likely, says Falks. "It takes an enormous amount of energy to produce just a little mass," he says. "The energy required to clone a five gram nickel is enough to power two-hundred average households for over a year."

While the energy cost of this technology renders it impractical for now, we may soon be able to use it to clone organs, silverware, pets, money, medicine, and compact discs. Sound like fantasy? It's Factual Science!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Greatest Place on Earth

Whether it's New York City with its bustling nightlife, Montana with its wide open skies, or Columbia with its mountain grown coffee, many places claim the title of Greatest Place on Earth -- but how scientific are these claims?

Earth has a lot of places, each of which could be the greatest place on Earth. How likely is it that New York City, for instance, is one of these places? Not very. You see, 70% of Earth's surface is covered with saltwater. Antarctica accounts for another 10%. So right away, anyone who claims they live in the greatest place on Earth has an 80% chance of being wrong -- no matter where they live.

Scientists at the Rotterdam Polytechnic University of Prague used this fact to begin their scientific search for the greatest place on Earth, and their results were surprising. They found that the greatest place on Earth is several hundred miles off the coast of Japan, slightly north of the Mariana Trench. This area, which encompasses about three square kilometers and is roughly trapezoidal in shape, is over three times greater than New York City, even before averaging in boroughs such as Queens.

So the next time someone tells you they live in the greatest place on Earth, set them straight with a little bit of Factual Science!