other interesting things
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
THE bright light at the end of the tunnel which some people close to death describe may result from a flood of serotonin in the brain. Near-death experiences (NDEs) are reported by around 1 in 5 critically ill people , and their cause is a mystery. Alexander Wutzler's team at the Charité University of Medicine in Berlin, Germany, wondered if serotonin - a neurotransmitter involved in mood regulation and processing vision and sound - plays a role. They gave six rats an overdose of anaesthetic and found that serotonin levels in their brains had tripled by the time they died ( Neuroscience Letters , DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2011.04.051 ).
Near-death experiences may be triggered by serotonin - health - 08 September 2011 - New Scientist
Lightweight Cable Made of Braided Nanotubes Could Replace Copper Wires
Nanocable A power cable made entirely of iodine-doped double-walled carbon nanotubes is just as efficient as traditional power cables at a sixth the weight of copper and silver. Yao Zhao/Rice University Cables made out of nanowires could be just as efficient as the copper cables we’ve been using for more than a century, but at a fraction of the weight, according to a new paper. Braiding billions of carbon nanotubes into a nanowire cable can efficiently replace copper in a light bulb circuit. Traditional cables are made by braiding or twisting together two or more wires or optical fibers, usually metal or silicon, to carry a current or signal. In a new study, Rice University researchers instead used double-walled carbon nanotubes, made of concentric rolled-up sheets of graphene.
BBC News - Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011
9 September 2011 Last updated at 08:44 GMT From giant oval storms on the surface of Jupiter to colourful wispy remnants from a supernova explosion and the dazzling green curtain of the Northern Lights - nearly 800 images were submitted for the latest Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Take a look at some of the winning photos with two of the judges from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, public astronomer Marek Kukula and astronomy programmes manager Olivia Johnson.
APOD: 2011 September 7 - J102815: A Star That Should Not Exist
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Explanation: Why does this star have so few heavy elements? Stars born in the generation of our Sun have an expected abundance of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium mixed into their atmospheres.Israel, Malaysia leapfrog NZ for global competitiveness :: Idealog :: the magazine and website of New Zealand creative business, ideas and innovation
By Esther Goh, New Zealand has been named the 25th most competitive economy out of 142 countries, conceding two places from last year's ranking after being leapfrogged by Israel and Malaysia. Switzerland placed first for the third year in a row in the Global Competitiveness Report – produced annually by the World Economic Forum – followed by Singapore which overtook Sweden to claim second position.
Watch cosmic plasma jet slowly expand in 14-year time-lapse video
Most cosmic phenomena are so far away that we can't see their movement or evolution over the course of a human lifetime. Every once in awhile, when conditions are just right, we get lucky. This is one of those times. This time-lapse video shows the evolution of a supersonic jet in the nebula-like structure HH 47. Because HH 47 is, astronomically speaking, very close to Earth - only 1,500 light-years away - and because these jets are moving about as fast as any visible object can, we can actually detect their movement. The brief video you see up top is built from images taken by the Hubble Telescope taken between 1994 and 2008.