site map

news and comment
news lite

C O L O U R K E 'Y

“ "What we see as cosmic acceleration is an apparent effect, which begins when voids open up. When the universe was very young all the clocks were synchronised but because of the way voids have evolved, the clock rate is variable today," Wiltshire says.”
—
“ The universe is 14.7 billion years old, a billion years older than the currently accepted age, from our galactic observation point.

“But it is more than 18 billion years old from an average location in a void.”

advertising
disclaimer

advertising
disclaimer

advertising
disclaimer

when primitives attack those aliens from outer space - the auroran sunset

“LRAD is basically a focused beam of sound. Originally, it was designed to emit a very loud sound. Anyone whose head was touched by this beam, heard a painfully loud sound. Anyone standing next to them heard nothing. But those hit by the beam promptly fled, or fell to the ground in pain. Permanent hearing loss is possible if the beam is kept on a person for several seconds, but given the effect the sound usually has on people (they move, quickly), it is unlikely to happen. LRAD works. It was recently used off Somalia, by a cruise ship, to repel pirates. Some U.S. Navy ships also carry it, but not just to repel attacking suicide bombers, or whatever. No, the system was sold to the navy for a much gentler application. LRAD can also broadcast speech for up to 300 meters. The navy planned to use LRAD to warn ships to get out of the way. This was needed in places like the crowded coastal waters of the northern Persian Gulf, where the navy patrols. Many small fishing and cargo boats ply these waters, and it's often hard to get the attention of the crews. With LRAD, you just aim it at a member of the crew, and have an interpreter "speak" to the sailor. It was noted that the guy on the receiving end was sometimes terrified, even after he realized it was that large American destroyer that was talking to him. [...]”
—
“It appears that some of the troops in Iraq are using "spoken" (as opposed to "screeching") LRAD to mess with enemy fighters. Islamic terrorists tend to be superstitious and, of course, very religious. LRAD can put the "word of God" into their heads. If God, in the form of a voice that only you can hear, tells you to surrender, or run away, what are you gonna do?”

new class of antibiotics?

“To mimic these natural defences, the researchers, led by Samuel Gellman and Shannon Stahl were building polymers by stringing together certain sub-units, called beta-lactams, in a particular order.

“As a control for their experiments, they also assembled scrambled polymers with the sub-units in random order.

“But to their surprise, the random polymers were better at killing bacteria, Gellman says. And compared with both the ordered polymers and the natural host-defence peptides, the random polymers killed many fewer red blood cells - a crude measure of their potential toxicity to humans.

“Relatively low doses of the random polymers were able to kill drug-resistant bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, which is resistant to the powerful antibiotic vancomycin.

“The random polymers were effective against more bacteria, and less toxic to red blood cells, than three widely tested natural host-defence peptides, the study showed. "Our study is the first to show you can get polymers that match the selectivity of natural host-defence peptides," Gellman says.

“The polymers seem to be attracted to bacteria's negatively charged membranes, where the polymers reshape themselves and punch holes in the membrane. Animal cells, on the other hand, are generally neutrally charged, so the polymers are much less attracted to them. "I'm really excited about this work," Gellman says, because it could provide a cheap way of producing a new class of antibiotics.”

improved photosynthesis possible - claim in press release

“After determining the relative abundance of each of the proteins involved in photosynthesis, the researchers created a series of linked differential equations, each mimicking a single photosynthetic step. The team tested and adjusted the model until it successfully predicted the outcome of experiments conducted on real leaves, including their dynamic response to environmental variation.

“The researchers then programmed the model to randomly alter levels of individual enzymes in the photosynthetic process.

“Before a crop plant, like wheat, produces grain, most of the nitrogen it takes in goes into the photosynthetic proteins of its leaves. Knowing that it was undesirable to add more nitrogen to the plants, Long said, the researchers asked a simple question: "Can we do a better job than the plant in the way this fixed amount of nitrogen is invested in the different photosynthetic proteins?"

“Using "evolutionary algorithms," which mimic evolution by selecting for desirable traits, the model hunted for enzymes that - if increased - would enhance plant productivity. If higher concentrations of an enzyme relative to others improved photosynthetic efficiency, the model used the results of that experiment as a parent for the next generation of tests.

“This process identified several proteins that could, if present in higher concentrations relative to others, greatly enhance the productivity of the plant. The new findings are consistent with results from other researchers, who found that increases in one of these proteins in transgenic plants increased productivity.

“ "By rearranging the investment of nitrogen, we could almost double efficiency," Long said.

“An obvious question that stems from the research is why plant productivity can be increased so much, Long said. Why haven’t plants already evolved to be as efficient as possible?

“ "The answer may lie in the fact that evolution selects for survival and fecundity, while we were selecting for increased productivity," he said. The changes suggested in the model might undermine the survival of a plant living in the wild, he said, "but our analyses suggest they will be viable in the farmer’s field." ”

Post this item - click on this link,
then click on your preferred service/s in the list.
More about posting to social bookmarks

(add comment)

the web address for the article above is
http://www.abelard.org/news/lite0711.php#photosynthesis_141107

improved long-life lamps claim

LED lamp diagram. Credit: LLF Inc

“CEO Neal Hunter told the Raleigh News and Observer that his company is developing a lamp that uses less energy than its current LED fixtures but emits the same amount of light. He said a just-released federal study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology confirms that the product is the most efficient in the world. It uses 5.8 watts of power, compared with 60 watts for an equally bright incandescent bulb.

“According to the National Institute report, the new fixture uses less than 9 percent of the energy consumed by common bulbs and less than 30 percent of that consumed by fluorescent lights. LLF's best existing product consumes 15 percent of the energy used by an incandescent bulb and 50 percent of that used by fluorescents.” [Quoted from thedailygreen.com]

“Medium Screw Base Dimmable CCFL Bulbs Replace Incandescent

“Everyone is converting their incandescent lamps to fluorescent in an effort to reduce power and reduce global warming. The disadvantage of fluorescent lamps is that we cannot dim them. BetterBulb now introduces Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL) that are designed to perfectly replace warm white incandescent bulbs and be able to dim them with any off-the-shelf dimmer. Additionally, these CCFL bulbs have about 4X the lifetime of conventional hot cathode fluorescent bulbs and feature 30K hour lifetime. CCFL bulbs are also designed and tested to work in extreme climates of -20C to +85C (>150F).

“Features

• Reduce mercury by up to 90% over the life of the bulb
• Dimmable- allows user control of brightness level down to 10%.
  Operates on any standard incandescent wall dimmer
• Direct replacement for incandescent for 4 billion sockets controlled by standard incandescent dimmers, photo sensors, electronic timers, motion detectors or occupancy sensors.
• Energy Savings - Saves up to 80% in electricity cost compared to similar incandescent lamps
• Longest Lifetime technology - equivalent to lifetime of 15 incandescent lamps or 4 CFL lamps and equivalent lifetime to LED technology
• Lowest cost per watt system for high efficacy applications

Product code	Power	Base	Lumens	Color	Life	Price
A19-13W	13 watts	Screw	450	Wm Wh	25,000 hrs	$17.95

An 18 watt version of this bulb will be available soon. ” [Quoted from betterbulb.com]

These values are probably for lamps running at 110 volts.

Other related lighting products.

email abelard at abelard.org

© abelard, 2007, 13 november
all rights reserved

variable words
prints as increasing A4 pages (on my printer and set-up)