Cuppa Coffee on the International Space Station

Wing-shaped coffee cup allows sipping hot brew, round cup doesn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk7LcugO3zg



Away from Earth's gravity, fluids become spherical due to surface tension (concentric gravity). This wing -shaped cup allows wicking, like candle wax seeps up a candle wick and like sap is sucked up a tree stem via evapotranspiration capillary action despite gravity.

Bird wings in flight produce the same result, the air flows out to the tips and then separate away (turbulence aka drag). Bird feathers have slight micro-ridges which produce this micro-turbulent boundary layer, fish scales also do; the faster the fish or bird, the smaller the ridges.

Here see how the dimpled surface of a golf ball produces a thin turbulent layer, reducing surface drag and thus allowing it to travel twice as far as a smooth ball:

http://www.livescience.com/common/media/video.php?videoRef=081119_GolfBallScience

The blood capillaries in our bodies follow the same rules in nature. While diving, the mammalian divers reflex engages with apnea, vasoconstricting outlying veins and arteries bringing the blood to the body core, then when backfloating with eupnea vasodilation pulls blood to the extremities allowing the blood to be warmed directly by solar radiation and indirectly by immersion at the warm water surface in the manner of a poikotherm. Chimps don't have this feature, since they are always fully "clothed" with their fur coats and are completely reliant on internal metabolic heating. Cool, eh? ;)

Masjid on the moon: 2012, American Islamarine Society, "FreeDome" constructed of origami-like folded hyper-paper, an insulated laminated hexa-pent spheric structure of super-lightweight impermeable materials, with moon stone/cement/foam matrix basefill, built inset within a lunar crater of proper proportion, with omni-orientable turntable floor, and attached to isotropic vector matrix octet truss space frame lunar base qasalam ramadan hotel. Somewhat similar in principle to the American Antarctic Dome residence and work station, but employing interwoven rings (arcs) and mylar etc. rather than bolted aluminum or plexiglas triangular or hexapent panels.
http://www.ecophotoexplorers.com/images/antarctica/Dome.jpg

hard core

Medical analysis: Bone deformity, mineral loss & joint pain due to hard floor praying

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article4412074.ece

Sema Yılmaz^{1, 3} , Hamide Kart-Köseoglu¹, Ozgen Guler² and Eftal Yucel¹

(1)	Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey

(2)	Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey

(3)	Vatan cad., Devrim sit., B/blok No:29/4, Selcuklu, 42040 Konya, Turkey

Received: 10 March 2007 Accepted: 24 September 2007 Published online: 10 October 2007

Abstract Prayer is one kind of worship that is composed of repetitive action during praying in Islam. The prayer is performed five times a day, every Friday, bairams and death ceremonies. The aim of this study is to search the role of this repetitive action on knee, hip osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. Forty-six patients who had been performing the prayer at least for 10 years, and 40 patients who had not performed the prayer, were included in this prospective study. Each patient was evaluated with standard questionnaire form, joint examination was done and various laboratory parameters were studied. Anterior–posterior radiography of the pelvis and weight-bearing knees of each patient were examined. Each film was evaluated by two investigators separately and first scored by using Kellgren and Lawrence (K&L) scale, then the width of the joint space of hips and knees were measured directly using a steel ruler and recorded to the nearest half millimeter. Bone mineral density (BMD) of lumbar spine and femur was measured. Patients having Heberden’s nodes, Bouchard’s nodes, and carpometacarpal disease were frequent in worshiper group. Joint space width measurements and assessment according to K&L scale did not differ between worshipers and non-worshipers. BMD of lumbar spine was decreased in worshipers and also decreased with patients having Heberden’s nodes, Bouchard’s nodes, female gender and age. Prayer has no effect on knee and hip osteoarthritis, and may be related with hand osteoarthritis. It seems to have negative effect on lumbar BMD, but further investigations are needed.

Keywords Prayer - Osteoarthritis - Osteoporosis

Perhaps tatami mats or a sandy beach in the shade of a coconut palm might be more healthy.

~peace~

Khalifah, Art & Science Shows in the galleries

Ecology in Islam: Protection of the Web of Life a Duty for Muslims By Dr. Hasan Zillur Rahim, physicist-engineer in Northern California, editor of IQRA, newsletter of the South Bay Islamic Association, in San Jose, CA.

"The earth's resources land, water, air, minerals, forests are available for our use, but these gifts come from God with certain ethical restraints imposed on them. We may use them to meet our needs, but only in a way that does not upset ecological balance and that does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Thus, not knowing about stewardship and accountability, we reduce Qur'anic teachings to narrow definitions of crime and punishment. This is reflected in unenlightened environmental leadership found in some Muslim countries today.

The Fundamental Role of Water

Several verses of the Qur'an deal with the hydrological cycle and the fundamental role water plays in sustaining life on earth. In referring to the fertility of the soil, to the unique properties of fresh and sea water, to the course of rivers and the presence underground of springs and aquifers, and most significantly to the aquatic origin of life, the Qur'an places water at the top of all the natural phenomena on earth. The miracle of water is emphasized in a particular verse where God, addressing those who may doubt the truth of resurrection, first gives the example of the growth of the fetus within the mother's womb, leading to the birth of a human being."

Among all known hominids/hominoids, humans have the flattest swim-fin-like or flipper-like hands and feet (compare H sapiens hand X-ray to Phocid and Sirenia forelimbs vs. Pongo/Pan), all other hominoids have more phallangeal/metatarsal bone curvature.
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Live play performance by the schoolkids, reptile show, bird show, Arts Alive exhibit (3D Fabrications) and Open Studios (all public invited to see artists work). Quite busy, I did some painting, washing up, carried in the snakes (huhu!); Naturalists and schoolteachers will be speaking.

June 7, 6 to 9 p.m. 411 Twelfth Street, Eureka. The Ink People Center for the Arts will host a show of fish prints, masks and interpretive wildlife posters made by students at the Transitional Opportunity Program School (TOPS) and Lincoln Elementary School. The featured artwork is produced through Ink People's O. G. Redwoods Are Alive! program. This monthlong science and art project is implemented with the help of many local and state agencies as well as community nonprofit organizations.

Enjoy the artwork of some very talented local youths at this community event, a part of Eureka’s monthly Arts Alive! program. Meet live reptiles, amphibians, and birds of the redwood forests. Talk with ecologists who study and care for our natural world. Learn how you are part of the web of life.

MORE INFORMATION: For information about ASK ME (Art & Science Kids interested in Media & Education), contact program director Barbara A. Domanchuk at (707) 442-8413 or (707) 768-1738. ASK ME is a DreamMaker program of The Ink People Center for the Arts.

This event is made possible in part by the League's Education Grants Program.

Education

"In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught."
- Baba Dioum, Senegalese conservationist and poet

http://www.savetheredwoods.org/education/coastredwood.shtml

Environmental Seminars in the Russian River Area

The public and aspiring docents are invited to the Russian River area of California for seminars on topics ranging from redwood ecology to environmental living. Sonoma Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods.



Russian Gulch State Park

HIGHLIGHTS: Along with majestic redwoods, Russian Gulch State Park is home to 7,630 feet of ocean frontage, a large, collapsed sea cave with churning water.

ACTIVITIES: Swimming, tide pool exploring, skin diving, rock fishing, a 36 foot waterfall, a paved three-mile bicycle trail, and miles of hiking trails through the redwood forest. Call the Visitor Center at (707) 937-5804 for details.

Happy Teachers Day to all cikgu's

Life is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, and the lesson aferward.

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(hard to draw a school of fish hehe)
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Girls are smart, yeh? This from Sciencewoman Blog:
http://scienceblogs.com/sciencewoman/2008/05/isef_2008_the_best_of_the_best_1.php


Three talented, hard working, and lucky students are the recipients of the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award, which includes a $50,000 college scholarship. This year's winners are:

* Efficient Hydrogen Production Using Cu-Zn-Al Catalysts Prepared by Homogeneous Precipitation Method by Yi-Han Su, 17 from Taipei Municipal First Girls' Senior High School in Taipei. (A girl! From Taiwan! And I happened to pick up her abstract and take a picture of her board! (I'll have the pic and highlights from the abstract later this afternoon)

* Development of Biosensors for Detecting Hazardous Chemicals by Natalie Saranga Omattage, 17, from The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science in Columbus. (Another girl!)

* Computation of the Alexander-Conway Polynomial on the Chord Diagrams of Singular Knots by Sana Raoof, 17 of Jericho High School in Jericho, New York. (Another girl! It's a sweep!)


And another one:

Three students were also awarded the Seaborg SIYSS Award, which consists of a trip to the Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm in December. These students, the three top high school seniors, will get a chance to hob-nob with the Nobel laureates, hear them give their lectures, see the medals get awarded, and attend a glamorous feast and ball at the Stockholm town hall. They'll also get to interact with other top young scientists from the European Union and around the world. Short of winning a Nobel prize itself, this is the closest you can come to being at the center of the events. These smart, dedicated, lucky soon-to-be world travelers are:

* Kaleigh Anne Eichel, 17, of Strongsville Senior High School, in Strongsville, Ohio for her project
The Ability to Learn: Learning and Communication between Comet Goldfish

( congrads to the champs! and to their gurus !)

Oh poo! Replication of chemostat E coli

Dirty diapers and the beginnings of life

[Random selections from Carl Zimmer's blog The Loom]

"If you type in "Escherichia coli" into PubMed, the search engine for the National Library of Medicine, you get 253,128 scientific papers. Today millions of diabetics get their insulin from E. coli that carry human insulin genes.

So you might think there must have been some eminently rational plan to select E. coli to become the creature science knows best. But there wasn't. It was discovered by Theodor Escherich, a pediatrician. In 1885 he delivered a lecture announcing the discovery of a rod-shaped microbe in the diapers of healthy babies. He was struck by how fast it grew on all sorts of food--milk, potatoes, blood. Scientists in the early 1900s used it to study metabolism, but they also used a lot of other bacteria. It was one among many.

As the French E. coli biologist Jacques Monod declared, what is true for E. coli is true for the elephant (regarding reproduction)".

Larry Moran at Sandwalk blog: Carl Zimmer is among the very best—possibly the best—of the modern science writers. His new book Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life is going to be on sale May 6, 2008. I was mildly disappointed to see Carl repeat a common myth about DNA replication in E. coli on page 29.

http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2008/05/dna-replication-in-e-coli-problem.html
http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2008/04/buy-this-book.html

Larry: Here's the problem. How can E. coli divide faster than it can replicate it's chromosome?

Me: (Probably completely wrong, since it's purely guessing) light-dark cycle as a factor in replication timing, ability to speed up dependent on if light-dark cycle is speeded up? The thing is, of course the light-dark cycle (diurnal-nocturnal, day-night) can't directly affect the gut bacteria, since they are inside the body. But is there a clock which synchronizes the GI tract according to a) body temp = activity, b) glandular secretion / biochemical stimulation via the eyes, skin, transparent fingernails etc.? Well I just wanted to throw that in at his blog comments.

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080522/full/news.2008.848.html

Here's Larry's solution: http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2008/05/dna-replication-in-e-coli-solution.html?showComment=1210535040000

It seems to me to be a tidal phenomenon, waves of replication of DNA daughters, making new ones before the old ones have fully separated, in the same way waves at the seashore will overlap one another. Well, that's cool, tidal is cooler than temporal clocks, possibly being subjective to solunar effects hypothetically. I'd like to know the wavelength and frequency of these waves, and compare to heart rate and oceanic waves, might be a correlation there.

Carl's post-operative articles at his blog, the loom, scroll down to see his top 5 questions about E coli and his book Microcosm:
http://scienceblogs.com/loom/

and his honest admission of his booboo: "Meanwhile, Larry Moran is going over the book with a fine-tooth comb and catching at least one mistake. Ouch. I knew I should have been more careful about how fast chromosomes replicate. Something to fix in the next printing..."

coolness for any biofreaks, right? hehe. Nature rules people's stools! ahaks.

Traix, vehicle of the future?

http://www.gizmowatch.com/entry/the-man-the-machine-and-the-critical-power/
http://criticalmass.wikia.com/wiki/Budapest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Path_%28book%29



Electric or air supplementary power? See this air car:
http://paddyk.wordpress.com/2007/11/04/blades-air-and-automobiles/

See the 3rd paragraph at this link, about the electric "killacycle" & video. 0 to 60 mph (88km/h) in 1 second! 175 lbs of lithium ion batteries is much more than Traix would use.
http://www.adventuresofgreg.com/HPB/2007/09/nextfest-success.html


My Solution: Design concept vehicle Traix.

Traix: 1/2 pedal, 1/2 electric bike-car (2 wheeled) in which the harder you pedal, the more juice the battery provides, aerodynamic, links to others on the road via a push-button latch-hook, to form a "train" of say 20 - 100 vehicles on a highway, so everybody cruises aerodynamically with moderate leg power with optimal cardio-vascular aerobic action. At a desired exit, small "bus" of 10 vehicles splits off as a group and goes to neighborhood, then splits apart again into "solo" vehicles, solos park in tight space or carried inside the home. Very good for commutes, not for hauling big heavy stuff (but 2 linked side-by-side could pull a packed tent trailer easily).

Traix fights the poor health problem in the developed world: obesity-diabetes-hardened arteries from lack of aerobic exercise (due in part to oil addicted auto culture reliant on petroleum powered vehicles).

Traix fights the bad pollution problem in the developed and developing world: air pollution and various auto emissions, dirty waters, global warming, oily wars.

Traix avoids the dangers of riding bicycles in auto traffic in cities and highways, by keeping many riders in a unitary mass, in line, rather than all over the road, yet allows easy quick detachment at "bus stops".

Traix recharges via solar panels or home electric plug in, combines a motorcycle battery with a capacitor system for both slow and high speed.

Traix quickly adjusts for optimum aerodynamics as solo, duo or bus/train configuration, and provides both carbonfiber/bamboo shell with protective safety foam surrounding the hull, with umbrella-like top.

Traix really is the sensible option. Blue water, green forests, clean air, good healthy quick non-polluting transport.

Financial investment required for further development. Traix project cannot proceed without funding, contact me via email for more info.

[Traix Design by DDeden Designs]

Hari Cikgu review | Teacher Appreciation Day

While I am gone away, here's a video for student teachers. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX8FLop-6eE