science

Using YouTube to Study Effects of Drugs

- Adam Clare

Researchers have noted that people like to get high and post video of themselves doing drugs. As a result some researchers are looking at YouTube videos to understand what salvia does to the brain and body. Strange, I know, but apparently these people sharing their drug trips can help us understand a little more about pharmacology.

They created a systematic coding scheme which researchers used when watching the videos. This allowed them both to categorise the effects and check that each viewer was agreeing on what they saw.

After watching 34 videos, each of which was selected to show an entire trip from the initial hit to when the effects wore off, the team categorised the effects into five main groups:

(1) hypo-movement (e.g. slumping into a slouched position, limp hands, facial muscles slack or relaxed and falling down), (2) hyper-movement (e.g. uncontrolled laughter, restlessness, touching or rubbing the face without apparent reason or thought), (3) emotional effects included being visibly excited or afraid, (4) speech effects (unable to make sense, problems with diction, problems with fluency, inability to speak, and having problems recalling words) and finally (5) heating effects related to being hot or heated (e.g. flushed, or user makes a statement about being hot or sweating).

Read the rest at Mind Hacks.

Thanks Trevor!

Footprint Science

- Adam Clare

There’s already a lot of websites out there that help you asses your carbon footprint and that’s good, but now there are sites taking the footprint science to the next level. The Global Footprint Network is looking into the details behind making and living with a small footprint.

How can we all live well and live within the means of one planet?

This is the research question of the 21st century. If we are serious about sustainable development, there is no way around this question. If we do not design ways to live within the means of one planet, sustainability will remain elusive.

Institutionalizing the Ecological Footprint at the national level requires that statistical offices, policy advisors, academia, and businesses trust the methodology and data underlying the Footprint, which is comprised of 150 National Footprint Accounts.

National Footprint Accounts measure the ecological resource use and resource capacity of nations over time. Based on approximately 5,400 data points per country per year, the Accounts calculate the Footprints of 150 nations from 1961 to the present. These accounts provide the core data that is needed for all Ecological Footprint analysis worldwide.

Politicians and Scientists Ought to Talk

- Adam Clare

SciDev.net has an article about how scientists and politicians can help developing nations develop in Africa by highlighting science. By creating policies that support research and development countries will benefit from increased keeping educated labour within their borders and perhaps attracting companies to setup shop in their country.

Bernard Aduda, professor of physics at the University of Nairobi said the move would take S&T to the heart of policy making and raise socioeconomic development to levels comparative with countries in Asia.

“We need the linkage to enable MPs and scientists to work together so that we can mainstream science, technology and innovation issues in the countries’ policy making processes for the socioeconomic benefits of the citizens,” he told SciDev.Net.

Uranium Chewers

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

radioactiveReaders of ThingsAreGood know that bacteria can make dangerous heavy metals a lot less dangerous. Now scientists have found out how the bacteria can eat away at uranium with no harm done to it.

“Assembling a battery of evidence, scientists have for the first time placed the bacterial enzymes responsible for converting uranium to uraninite at the scene of the slime, or “extracellular polymeric substance” (EPS), according to a study led by the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in today’s advance online edition of PLoS Biology.”
Even after reading the article I’m still confused about how this actually works.

New Way to See Dinosaurs

- Adam Clare

A new scanning technique has the potential to provide a much better look at dinosaurs. Paleontologists say that research into dinosaur eggs will allow them to look at the evolution of dinosaurs in an entirely new way.

“We are looking at the dawn of life,” said lead researcher Phil Donoghue, a paleontologist at Bristol University in England. “Because of their tiny size and precarious preservation, embryos are the rarest of all fossils. But these fossils are the most precious of all because they contain information about the evolutionary changes that have occurred in embryos over the past 500 million years.”

Next step: Jurassic Park!

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