May 05, 2005

New materials provide insight into radioactivity in the environment, self-assembling nanostructures and genetic fingerprints yield insights into health of diverse ecosystems
posted by mcgraw 18 years ago
  • Those polyhedra remind me of bucky balls -- all the rave a few years ago -- don't know what became of them. I was expecting flying cars and teleporting.
  • Interesting articles. Cheers
  • peacay, bucky balls will be with us for some time. they provide a useful structure. it's up to us to design the flying cars and the teleportation devices.
  • mcgraw: the Yahoo link leads to a story with the headline "Absent husband returns home ... as a eunuch" right now. (heh)
  • Thanks, path. Actually, that was intentional but I can see how it would seem like a mistake.
  • This is not a criticism at all mcgraw because I generally like your linkies (irrespective of your nom-de-plume) but when, in my severe tiredness last night, I was trying to read about the environmental gene testing, I was struck by how little information was in the article. And yes, I realize I can search for myself. What I mean is, they are using a bunch of probes to find levels of genes in particular environments. But they don't say just what they measure. Do they like take a bucket of dirt from one part of the chosen environment or do they carefully collect a bucket that contains equal bits from the whole of the environment? And when water's involved, what do they put in their bucket? They say that this type of measuring will allow you to waltz into any environment and determine, by relative levels of specific genes, just how healthy that environment is. But they don't say what 'healthiness' is or how it will be established, nor do they say whether their definition of 'healthiness' will be able to be extrapolated to every environment or just similar ones. Maybe I'm being pendantic about this, but I've got a feeling that it's a great idea, it's just that it hasn't been sold (fault of the writer perhaps) to me very well.
  • Yes, I see what you mean, pecay--interesting and valid observations. The odd connection between these articles is the "healthy environment" string which I thought brought them all together well. Even right up to the Eunuch article in which the mother says something like 'I don't want to raise my kids in an environment like that'. I thought they all went together well for that reason but I see what you mean about the lack of certain specifics in that one.