Amazing Facts

The New York Times this week published  the results of a survey in which 511 epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists  were asked about “when they expect to resume 20 activities of daily life, assuming that the pandemic and the public health response to it unfold as they expect.” The Times noted that the answers are not guidelines for the public, but rather represent the respondents’ own circumstances, risk tolerance and expectations about when there will be widespread testing, contact tracing, treatment and vaccination for COVID-19.  The respondents “mostly agreed that outdoor activities and small groups were safer than being indoors or in a crowd,” and that masks would be necessary for a long time. “Fresh air, sun, socialization and a healthy activity will be just as important for my mental health as my physical well-being,” said Anala Gossai, a scientist at Flatiron Health, a health technology firm.  The outdoors holds a special appeal in a time of isola...

The trio of researchers have published their work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). They recreated viral videos which showed YouTubers cutting a grape in half, leaving only a sliver of skin connecting the two halves, and then microwaving the fruit. Within seconds of being microwaves the two halves of a grape would suddenly explode into a fireball, despite not containing any obviously flammable material. There were multiple hypotheses suggested at the time to explain the explosion, including that the grapes formed a kind of antenna directing microwaves across the skin bridge. However, the real reason is even simpler. As microwaves enter the grapes, hot spots form at the points where the fruit objects are closest to each other. As the microwaves continue to heat the grapes, the hot spots get even hotter and the electrolytes surrounding them become supercharged, forming plasma - an ionised or electrically charged gas - which bursts in a fireball. This method o...

This is one of the worst pieces of science journalism I've ever seen. The study has NOTHING to do with farts OR cancer OR people smelling things OR disease risk of any sort. I did a little digging around and finally figured out, it looks like what happened is a post-doc at Exeter University is doing some basic-science research on hydrogen sulfide's effect on mitochondria. (Not cancer. Not farts. Not people smelling things.) The postdoc just had a minor methods paper come out describing a compound he's developed that can release H2S specifically to mitochondria, rather than just releasing it willy-nilly everywhere. Exeter University's PR department (Exeter is where some of the researchers work) whipped up a very stupid little press release about that research, and the press release described hydrogen sulfide as a rotten egg smell also present in farts. That little blurb is now on Exeter's website and what the journalist likely did is just read the Exeter press relea...

Now it has come to light that British spies looked at an even more audacious way of derailing the man behind the German war machine - by giving him female sex hormones. Agents planned to smuggle doses of oestrogen into his food to make him less aggressive and more like his docile younger sister Paula, who worked as a secretary. Spies working for the British were close enough to Hitler to have access to his food, said Professor Brian Ford, who discovered the plot. He explained that oestrogen was chosen because it was tasteless and would have a slow and subtle effect, meaning it would pass Hitler's food testers unnoticed. اب یہ بات سامنے آچکی ہے کہ برطانوی جاسوسوں نے جرمن جنگی مشین کے پیچھے اس شخص کو پٹری سے اتارنے کے ایک اور بہیمانہ طریقے کی طرف دیکھا - اسے جنسی جنسی ہارمون دے کر۔ ایجنٹوں نے اپنے کھانے میں ایسٹروجن کی مقدار اسمگل کرنے کا ارادہ کیا تاکہ وہ اس سے کم جارحانہ ہو اور اس کی طرح اس کی چھوٹی بہن پاؤلا کی طرح ، جو سکریٹری کی حیثیت سے کام کرتا تھا۔ پروفیسر برائن فورڈ نے ، ج...

Good connections and social support can improve health and increase longevity. For many of us, the holidays mean family gatherings, getting together with friends, and participating in special religious, community, and workplace activities. Such occasions are an opportunity to check in with each other, exchange ideas, and perhaps lend some social support to each other. Social connections like these not only give us pleasure, they also influence our long-term health in ways every bit as powerful as adequate sleep, a good diet, and not smoking. Dozens of studies have shown that people who have social support from family, friends, and their community are happier, have fewer health problems, and live longer. Conversely, a relative lack of social ties is associated with depression and later-life cognitive decline, as well as with increased mortality. One study, which examined data from more than 309,000 people, found that lack of strong relationships increased the risk of premature death fro...

In an e-mail to director James Marsh about the portrayal by Eddie Redmayne, Stephen Hawking said there were certain points when he thought he was watching himself. In addition to his copyrighted voice, Stephen Hawking also lent the filmmakers his Companion of Honour medal and his signed thesis to use as genuine props in the film. ایڈی ریڈماین کے کردار کے بارے میں ڈائریکٹر جیمز مارش کو ای میل میں ، اسٹیفن ہاکنگ نے کہا کہ کچھ نکات تھے جب ان کا خیال تھا کہ وہ خود دیکھ رہے ہیں۔  اس کی کاپی رائٹ آواز کے علاوہ ، اسٹیفن ہاکنگ نے فلم بینوں کو بھی ان کے ساتھی کا اعزاز تمغہ اور اس پر دستخط شدہ مقالہ کو فلم میں حقیقی پروپس کے طور پر استعمال کرنے کے لئے بھی قرض دیا تھا۔

In the early 1930s, Great Britain found itself in a rather precarious position. Military theorists were predicting, quite correctly, that the next war would be dominated by air power, and the ominous threat of aerial bombardment. With Nazi Germany on the rise, the Brits suddenly felt very vulnerable. To address the problem, Britain launched a number of projects in hopes of mitigating the threat — including an effort to develop nothing less than a high-tech "death ray" that could shoot enemy planes out of the sky. But even though the project failed to develop such a weapon, it did result in something potentially far more useful — a technological breakthrough that would prove to play an integral role in the British victory over the Nazis during the Battle of Britain. 1930 کی دہائی کے اوائل میں ، برطانیہ نے خود کو ایک غیر یقینی صورتحال میں پایا۔  فوجی نظریے پیش گوئ کر رہے تھے ، بالکل درست ، کہ اگلی جنگ فضائی طاقت ، اور فضائی بمباری کے بدنما خطرے کے زیر اثر ہوگی۔  نازی جرمنی میں ...

Scientists have shown that the average person blinks 15-20 times per minute. That's up to 1,200 times per hour and a whopping 28,800 times in a day—much more often than we need to keep our eyeballs lubricated. In fact, we spend about 10 percent of our waking hours with our eyes closed. So why do we blink so much? New research from Japan's Osaka University found that blinking may serve as a form of momentary rest for the brain, giving the mind a chance to wander and "go offline." These brief breaks may last just a split second, or even a few seconds. When our brains aren't concentrated on a task, brain regions known as the "default mode network" come alive, allowing our mind to switch into an idle mode—a phenomenon researchers discovered decades ago. But how does blinking affect this idle state? According to the new research, blinking and the brain at rest go hand in hand. In order to understand this phenomenon, scientists monitored the brain activity of ...