Surprise: Good Looking People are Candy for the Eyes
November 13th, 2007. By Dave Oei. 257 views.
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Let’s do a little thought experiment – I hear it worked for Einstein. Say you’re a heterosexual guy in a committed relationship and you see this gal on the left walk by (who happens to be French anchor Melissa Theuriau). What are you gonna do? Keep on walking? Glance? Stare? Dare I say, ogle?
Well guys, that compulsion you had to stare, one you fight to suppress at times, is actually hardwired into your brain. And it applies to women too. Researchers have discovered a measurable yet uncontrollable need for people to stare at an attractive person for longer periods of time than a “normal” one.
HH 46/47, an altogether unsexy and unimaginative name for a star, reveals a nonetheless amazing display as viewed by NASA’s JPL’s Spitzer telescope. With the ability to see into the infrared, cutting through cosmic dust is a breeze for the Spitzer. Which makes interpreting this seemingly violent picture a breeze. The bright white spot in the center is HH 46/47, a very young star in the midst of spewing out jets of gas at extraordinary speeds. As these jets ram into the stellar dust, hydrogen is warmed (the parts in blue), and iron gets superheated (the bright red spots at the end of both “bubbles”). 
What’s this scaly cute mammal hanging here on the left? It’s a pangolin. I didn’t learn about these critters until I saw them in one of my kid’s favorite books: “
It’s hard to be surprised. For thousands of years the Chinese have used/eaten just about anything in the name of herbal remedies. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. That is, unless you ask Tiger what they do to his bones. Or worse, his penis. Then there’s Rhino whose horn of fingernail-cartilage is driving it to extinction. Supposedly those practices are on the decline, which is great, but considering we’re still receiving news of this type, who really knows?
It’s a shame, really, that the 20th century hasn’t delivered on the promise of providing a solid science background and a healthy dose of skepticism to the next generation in an effort to help eradicate mysticism and unsubstantiated health claims. It’s not just the minds of tomorrow that are suffering – don’t be surprised if your kids’ only exposure to these creatures is some backwater blog.
Ugh. First the Bay Area, now the Black Sea. Late last week a container ship rammed the Bay Bridge under heavy fog and in the process released over 50,000 gallons of oil into the surrounding waters. It’s a disaster of such size and scope that hasn’t been witnessed in nearly 20 years, with hundreds, probably thousands of birds and other creatures adversely affected. What’s worse is the fact that the Coast Guard is telling volunteers to stay away from affected birds and creatures, for fear of getting exposed to toxic substances.
Then came the news about the oil tanker which busted open in high seas off the Black Sea. It was supposed to have released over a half million gallons of oil. No word yet on the scope of the damage, but don’t hold your breath for good news.
Crazy smart guys at Berkeley have created the world’s smallest radio. How small? Tiny. Hey, actually this website is appropriately named to give this story the coverage it deserves. The radio is invisible to the naked eye, being composed of carbon nanotubes only 10 nanometers in diameter and a few hundred long. Because of the unique qualities of these tubes, namely their strength, electrical conductivity, and ability to vibrate really fast, the folks at Berkeley were able to train one to act as an antenna, tuner, & amplifier. Plus, it demodulates AM and FM. Though switching channels isn’t as easy as turning the dial, it doesn’t sound like making it so is far away.
Now yet another reason to breastfeed: help make your kids less stupid. Though, it works only if they’re lucky enough to have a particular variant of the FADS2 gene. Actually, this variant is in about 90% of the human population. And those lucky 90% would have experienced a measurable and significant improvement in IQ if they were also breastfed as babies. While the improvement is only by about 7 IQ points, it’s probably enough to make the difference between going to UCLA or USC (I’ll let you decide which one is better). The researchers theorize that the FADS2 variant allows the people who have it to metabolize particular fatty acids present in abundance in breast milk, all to the benefit of the developing brain.
It’s bad enough that the United States uses coal-burning power plants that, as of 2000, were releasing 
If you’re from New Jersey you’ve probably known about this for a while and have long since been able to breathe very longs signs of relief. Otherwise, this is news to you as it was to me. It turns out that the EPA had been doing routine testing of squirrels which lived near a dump to see if they were…er…fit for human consumption. The EPA said no because of elevated levels of lead found in their systems. But today, hurray-hurray, it turns out the EPA made a mistake with their testing and found that these squirrels were fine for eatin’ after all.