TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| Of Telescopes and Ticks: How Mt. Wilson Observatory Became an Infectious Disease Study Site Larry Webster has been working at Mount Wilson Observatory outside Los Angeles for more than 30 years, doing everything from keeping toilets flushing and adjusting mirrors to mapping out sunspots. In September 2006, the 51-year-old solar observer came into work looking more like he was 90. He was dehydrated, jaundiced and had lost a lot of weight. Although he spent a month in and out of emergency rooms for symptoms of nausea and vomiting, doctors were uncertain what had caused his illness. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Moths Use Sonar-Jamming Defense to Fend Off Hunting Bats An insect with paper-thin wings may carry much the same defense technology as some of the military's heavy-duty warships. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Invert your thinking: Squeezing more power out of your solar panels Editor's Note: Scientific American 's George Musser will be chronicling his experiences installing solar panels and taking other steps to save energy in 60-Second Solar . Read his introduction here and see all posts here . When people talk about improving the efficiency of solar energy production, they usually talk about the panels themselves. What fraction of sunlight do they convert into electricity? Most solar cells today are made of crystalline silicon , but could cleverer designs or advanced materials such as thin films , organic polymers , layered semiconductors , and phosphorescent dyes do better? Probably, but that’s only half the story. The auxiliary equipment that connects the panels to your household wiring or the electrical grid is just as important. [More] rss.sciam.com |
How Noise Can Help Quantum Entanglement Wouldn’t it be nice to be an electron? Then you, too, could take advantage of the marvels of quantum mechanics, such as being in two places at once--very handy for juggling the competing demands of modern life. Alas, physicists have long spoiled the fantasy by saying that quantum mechanics applies only to microscopic things.Yet that is a myth. In the modern view that has gained traction in the past decade, you don’t see quantum effects in everyday life not because you are big, per se, but because those effects are camouflaged by their own sheer complexity. They are there if you know how to look, and physicists have been realizing that they show up in the macroscopic world more than they thought. “The standard arguments may be too pessimistic as to the survival of quantum effects,” says Nobel laureate physicist Anthony Leggett of the University of Illinois. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Study Finds Exposure to Chemical Pollutants Increases Fat Researchers have for the first time found a connection between exposure to certain chemicals and insulin resistance , according to a study published in the online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives .A group of European scientists examined whether exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) contributed to insulin resistance, which has been increasing around the world. More than 25 percent of U.S. adults suffer from metabolic conditions stemming from insulin resistance that include fatigue, obesity and difficulty regulating blood levels of fat and sugar. [More] rss.sciam.com |