Science – Page 6

Smokable pain drugs promise better and faster pain relief

Scientific book defines pain as:
An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with either actual or potential tissue damage. It is a very personal and individual experience – defined as whatever the patient says it is, and it exists wherever he or she says it does.

Generally you need to take pills to kill pain. Many people don’t like to take pills. You may smoke pain drugs for better and faster result in coming days.

All self-respecting painkillers these days offer “fast-acting relief,” a promise we accept to mean anywhere from 15 minutes to more than an hour. For Alexza Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is developing drugs for migraine, pain, panic and agitation, “fast” has to mean “within seconds.”

The Palo Alto, California-based company is developing drugs that can be “smoked,” and, like nicotine in cigarettes, pass through the lungs and into the bloodstream almost instantly.

What lions eat

The lion (Panthera leo) is a mammal of the family Felidae and one of four “big cats” in the genus Panthera. The lion is the second largest feline species, after the tiger. The male lion, easily recognized by his mane, weighs between 150â€“250 kg (330â€“500 lb). Females range 120â€“150 kg (260â€“330 lb).[2] In the wild, lions live for around 10â€“14 years, while in captivity they can live over 20 years. Though they were once found throughout much of Africa, Asia and Europe, lions presently exist in the wild only in Africa and India. They enjoy hot climates, and hunt in groups.

Lion – Diet and hunting

Female lions usually hunt at night or dawn and in packs. Their prey consists mainly of large mammals, such as antelopes, gazelles, warthogs, wildebeest, buffalos and zebras, but smaller animals like hares and birds are also taken occasionally. Carrion is readily taken and often recovered from other predators like hyenas and wild dogs. In some areas, lions specialise on rather atypical prey-species; this is the case at the Savuti river, where they constantly prey on young elephants, and at the Linyanti, where they hunt hippos.

An adult female lion needs about 5 kg (11 lbs) of meat per day, a male about 7 kg (15 lbs).

=> This article includes information from wikipedia article Lion.

THOUSANDS of Wattlebirds have fallen from the skies in Australia

Yes, THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.

Wattlebirds are members of the Honeyeater family, and native to Australia. Species of wattlebird include the Little Wattlebird, the Red Wattlebird, the Western Wattlebird, and the Yellow Wattlebird.

According to wikipedia:
Wattlebirds are characterized by their wattles. These are bare fleshy appendages, usually wrinkled and often brightly coloured, hanging from the cheeks, neck or throat, and presumably serving for display. The exception is the Little Wattlebird, which lacks wattles.

Wildlife officers are baffled by the “catastrophic” event, which the Department of Environment and Conservation said began well before last week’s freak storm.

On Monday, Esperance, 725km southeast of Perth, was declared a natural disaster zone.

According to story
It was like a moonscape, just horrible. But the frightening thing for us, we didn’t find any more birds after that. We literally didn’t have any birds left to die.

(Picture Credit: Geoff McLachlan | Click image to get more information about wattlebirds)
Truly a sad story :(

Improved method of searching for intelligent extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is life that exists and originates outside our planet Earth, the only place in the universe currently known by humans to support life.

This is the artist’s rendering shows a hypothetical distant world inhabited by intelligent aliens. The Mileura Wide-Field Array will be able to “eavesdrop” for unintentional signals from any such worlds within 30 light-years of Earth. Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)

Now, astronomers have proposed an improved method of searching for intelligent extraterrestrial life using instruments like one now under construction in Australia. The Low Frequency Demonstrator (LFD) of the Mileura Wide-Field Array (MWA), a facility for radio astronomy, theoretically could detect Earth-like civilizations around any of the 1,000 nearest stars.

From the article:
The question of whether intelligent life exists elsewhere is one of the fundamental unknowns about our Universe. Over the past decade more than 200 extra-solar planets have been discovered, providing new urgency for addressing this question in these or other planetary systems. Independently of this perspective, new radio observatories for cosmology are currently being constructed with the goal of detecting 21cm emission from cosmic hydrogen in the redshift range 6http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0610377 and more info at Eavesdropping on the Universe

Environment & Nature – See live breathing earth

Breathing earth was created by David.

If earth had lungs, an x-ray of them would resemble that of a chronic smoker. Using data from the World Factbook and the United Nations, this site by designer David Bleja elegantly contrasts the globe’s real-time dioxide emission levels with each country’s birth and death rates. A deep red color lights up to show countries currently emitting 1,000 tones of C02.

All the usual industrial nations are there, such as the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, India, and much of Western Europe. Small golden suns highlight a recent birth, while brown circles note a death. In the left corner, you’ll see a tally of how many humans have come into the world and how many have left it since you’ve been watching, as well as how much C02 has escaped into the atmosphere. The data may not be pretty, but the presentation is stylish and smart. And it may make you think before you take another puff from that tailpipe

See live breathing earth (Source yahoo directory)

Good moods may prevent Common colds

According to new study positive mood guards against getting colds.

Common cold is a mild viral infectious disease of the nose and throat. Symptoms include sneezing, sniffling, runny nose, coughing; headache etc.

Now new study suggest that:
People with generally positive outlooks show greater resistance to developing colds than do individuals who rarely revel in upbeat feelings, a new investigation finds.

From the article:
‘We need to take more seriously the possibility that a positive emotional style is a major player in disease risk,’ Cohen says.
Although a positive emotional style bore no relation to whether participants became infected, it protected against the emergence of cold symptoms. For instance, among people infected by the influenza virus. 28 percent who often reported positive emotions developed coughs, congestion, and other cold symptoms, as compared with…. 41 percent who rarely reported positive emotions.

Diabetes breakthrough – cure for disease coming soon?

This is amazing news for diabetic patients. This is unique discovery for sure.

In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body’s nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of people worldwild.

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder, specifically affecting carbohydrate metabolism. It is a disease characterized by persistent hyperglycemia (high glucose blood sugar). It is a metabolic disease that requires medical diagnosis, treatment and lifestyle changes.

Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. “Mice with diabetes suddenly didn’t have diabetes any more.”

“It will no doubt cause a great deal of consternation,” said Dr. Salter about his paper.

The researchers are now setting out to confirm that the connection between sensory nerves and diabetes holds true in humans. If it does, they will see if their treatments have the same effects on people as they did on mice.

Nothing is for sure, but “there is a great deal of promise,” Dr. Salter said.

The 2006 Geminid Meteor Shower

Don’t miss out the best meteor shower of the year peaks this week on Thursday, Dec. 13th and 14th, 2006.

A meteor shower, also known as a “meteor storm,” is a celestial event where a large number of meteors are seen within a very short period of time. These meteors are small fragments of cosmic debris entering Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high speed, leaving a streak of light that very quickly disappears. Most of the small fragments of cosmic debris are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all fragments are burnt up and never hit the earth’s surface.

“It’s the Geminid meteor shower,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, Alabama. “Start watching on Wednesday evening, Dec. 13th, around 9 p.m. local time,” he advises. “The display will start small but grow in intensity as the night wears on. By Thursday morning, Dec. 14th, people in dark, rural areas could see one or two meteors every minute.”

More information about The 2006 Geminid Meteor Shower available at NASA’s website.

Category: Science