Friday Coffee Break: Gamers Solve AIDS Enzyme, Texas Fights for Stem Cells, and Further Fantastic Feats of Science

Bits and pieces (largely but not always entirely related to life science) to muse over–or check out and save for later–while enjoying a well-deserved Friday coffee. Or tea. Enjoy!

	ONLINE GAMERS CRACK AIDS ENZYME PUZZLE
	Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.
	GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE THERMOMETER
	Watch the Golden Gate Bridge rise and fall as much as 16 feet based on the temperature.
	THE UNITED STATES OF AWESOME/SHAME
	They can’t all have the most organic farms or the lowest air pollution, but every U.S. state is No. 1 in some environmental or public health category … and No. 50 in another. These infographics show each state’s strengths and weaknesses.
	TEXAS FIGHTS FOR STEM CELLS
	Governor Rick Perry prepares to face off against the FDA over stem cell treatments.

Friday Coffee Break: Dance Moves for Men, Inventions from High Schoolers, and Other Intriguing Science

Bits and pieces (largely but not always entirely related to life science) to muse over–or check out and save for later–while enjoying a well-deserved Friday coffee. Or tea. Enjoy!

	ON MEN AND HOW THEY SHOULD DANCE
	A recent article in Biology Letters shows that certain dance moves are more likely to ignite the passions of a woman.
	ANCIENT CROCODILE BATTLED WORLD’S LARGEST SNAKE FOR FOOD
	Did an ancient crocodile relative give the world’s largest (42-foot-long) snake a run for its money?
	DEBATING HUMAN ENHANCEMENT
	Check out an ongoing feature on transhumanism, with conversations and debates over things like what transhumanism really is; how much control society has over advances in human enhancement; and how to determine whether or not a proposed enhancement is ethical.
	HIGH SCHOOL INVENTORS
	In between pep rallies and history tests, ten brainy students are refining cancer treatments, cleaning up car exhaust systems, and improving communication between humans and robots.

Could Your Mobile Phone Reveal Hidden Ingredients in Food and Drink?

The development of advanced mobile phone cameras are used by doctors and patients as an aid to diagnosis and self-diagnosis, but now Zafar Iqbal and Robert Bjorklund, from Linköping University in Sweden, consider how the same devices could reveal the hidden ingredients of your food and drink. The research1 focused on identifying the authenticity and chemical makeup of food using samples of onion and lamb. If developed the technology could allow shoppers to scan their food for additives, e-numbers and other chemicals before purchasing.

Read more about the research here.

Resources from Wiley on This Topic
	Functional Foods, Nutraceuticals and Degenerative Disease Prevention by Gopinadhan Paliyath, Ph.D., Marica Bakovic, Kalidas Shetty
	Food Additives Data Book, 2nd Edition Jim Smith and Lily Hong-Shum

Iqbal, Z., & Bjorklund, R. (2011). Assessment of a mobile phone for use as a spectroscopic analytical tool for foods and beverages International Journal of Food Science & Technology DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2621.2011.02766.x

Friday Coffee Break: Social Networks for Guts, Golf for Neuro-rehab, and Other Unusual Uses for Science

Bits and pieces (largely but not always entirely related to life science) to muse over–or check out and save for later–while enjoying a well-deserved Friday coffee. Or tea. Enjoy!

	SOCIAL NETWORK FOR GASTROINTESTINAL BACTERIA
	Get your bacteria’s genomes sequenced, and join an exclusive social network to talk with others about . . . your gut.
	THEORIES OF THE FEMALE ORGASM
	Is the female orgasm merely a byproduct of choosing the right partner? Or does it serve an evolutionary purpose? Answers remain elusive.
	SPACE JUNK ABOUNDS
	Experts advise NASA to clean up litter left in space, or face increased risk to future spacecraft.
	GOLF CHANGES THE BRAIN
	Practicing golf is shown to change brain structure, demonstrating that similar structured leisure activities could be used for neuro-rehabilitation.

Friday Coffee Break: Pig Guts, Diamond Planets, and Other Stunning Science Surprises

Bits and pieces (largely but not always entirely related to life science) to muse over–or check out and save for later–while enjoying a well-deserved Friday coffee. Or tea. Enjoy!

	PIG GUTS OFFER HOPE FOR REGENERATING HUMAN LIMBS
	A remarkable substance extracted from pigs enables the body to regenerate lost muscle tissue, including fingertips and big chunks of muscle.
	A PLANET MADE OF DIAMOND
	A large part of a spinning star called a pulsar may be similar to a diamond.
	HOW TO SEE A SUPERNOVA FROM YOUR BACK YARD
	In this video, Dr. Peter Nugent describes how to spot the closest supernova found in at least 25 years, set to reach peak brightness September 9th.
	NEUROIMAGING RESULTS REDUCE MURDER SENTENCE
	A judge in Milan, Italy reduced the sentence of a convicted murderer from life to 20 years, after ruling that neuroimaging and genetic tests proved the partial mental illness of the defendant.

Personality Trumps Appearance . . . at Least for Female Birds

For an adventurous female zebra finch a similar personality is more important than a male’s appearance or the condition of their beak, reveals research led by the University of Exeter and published in Ethology.1 This is the first study to show that personalities influence partner choice in non-humans.

The study focused on a population of more than 150 zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, as the research team used a series of behavioural tests to assess male and female birds for personality traits.

In one series of tests the team measured levels of adventurous behaviour by assessing a bird’s willingness to explore new environments and reactions to new objects. Each female watched as a pair of brothers explored strange new cages.

Unbeknown to the female one of the brothers was made to look less exploratory than the other as it was restrained within an invisible box. The team then put the female together with the brothers and observed which male she spent the most time with.

Friday Coffee Break: Peecycling, Star Swallowing, and Other Marvelous Feats of Science

Bits and pieces (largely but not always entirely related to life science) to muse over–or check out and save for later–while enjoying a well-deserved Friday coffee. Or tea. Enjoy!

	WORLD’S FIRST FINGERNAILS
	The world’s oldest and smallest known fingernails belonged to a primate that lived about 55.8 million years ago.
	PEECYCLING: HOW TO MAKE PHOSPHORUS FROM YOUR OWN PEE
	Grab a few disposable jars, fill your bladder, and make your own home-grown glow-in-the-dark phosphorus!
	CHARGE YOUR PHONE WITH YOUR FEET
	Scientists are developing a device that might eventually use human footfalls to power small electronics.
	WATCH A BLACK HOLE SWALLOW A STAR
	For the first time, a black hole has been caught in the act of tearing apart and swallowing a star that got too close.

Friday Coffee Break: 2,000 Year-Old Skull Operations, Toys Become Medical Devices, and More Medical Marvels

Bits and pieces (largely but not always entirely related to life science) to muse over–or check out and save for later–while enjoying a well-deserved Friday coffee. Or tea. Enjoy!

	ANCIENT SAHARAN SKULL OPERATIONS
	Desert-society healers appear to have operated on skulls 2,000 years ago.
	MIRRORS AND THE BRAIN
	Experiments with a simple mirror setup reveal intricacies of the brain and self-representation.
	NIH RANTS WANTED
	Do you think PhDs take too long? Feel trapped in a postdoc with no job opportunities in sight? Worried about the state of biomedical research funding? The NIH wants to know now!
	SECOND (MEDICAL) LIFE FOR OLD TOYS
	Old toys become medical devices to help developing nations while recycling used materials.

Lions, Reforestation, and Satire: Strategies in Environmental Conservation

As the Greek economy maintains its slide towards default and the global climate continues to change for the worse, one organisation, writing in Biotropica, has come up with some novel answers to both problems. Reforest the country to offset historic deforestation and reintroduce long extinct animals such as lions, boosting the economy through eco-tourism.

The Coalition of Financially Challenged Countries With Lots of Trees (CoFCCLoT) also count the introduction of wild gorillas to Spain and the return of forests in G8 nations back to pre-industrial levels, among its suggestions for global sustainability.

CoFCCLoT of course does not exist. However, argue Erik Meijaard and Douglas Sheil, from the University of Queensland and the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation respectively, this fictitious organisation’s demands are an example of the effective use of satire to bridge seemingly impassable gaps in the understanding of politically contentious issues.

“Mockery is seldom part of the scientific approach, but it is effective when it comes to sustainability and the environment,” said Meijaard. “Scientists tend to approach problems using objective logic and data, ignoring the emotional content and subjective values. Conservation science is especially vulnerable as it is about values as much as facts.”

Friday Coffee Break: Towing Icebergs, Filming Chemistry, and Other Fantastic Feats of Science

Bits and pieces (largely but not always entirely related to life science) to muse over–or check out and save for later–while enjoying a well-deserved Friday coffee. Or tea. Enjoy!

	WATER FLOWED (FLOWS?) ON MARS
	Water probably flowed across ancient Mars, but whether it ever exists as a liquid on the surface today remains debatable.
	HOW TO TOW A BUILDING-SIZED ICEBERG
	A French engineer dreams of towing a six-million-ton iceberg from Antarctica to Africa using a rope and a tugboat.
	TURNING TRASH INTO BIOFUEL
	Turning garbage into fuel is potentially an answer to two pressing problems—diminishing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels and an alternative to burying trash in landfills. Edmonton, Canada’s chief oil city, will lead the way in 2012.
	VIDEO COMPETITION: FIND CHEMISTRY IN EVERYDAY LIFE
	Submit a 3-minute video to ChemistryViews sharing where chemistry appears in your everyday life. Contest is open now through September 30, 2011.