QuicK GeeK
Friday, March 26, 2004
Space and us
Check this out: one of the Microsoft co-founder - Paul Allen pledged to donate $17.99 million for research into extra-terrestrial life. Moreover, he donated $25 million for developing The Allen Telescope Array, ATA.
The Allen Telescope Array will consist of 350 antennas of 6.1 meter diameter each manufactured by the makers of satellite dishes, resulting in an instrument with a collecting area exceeding that of a 100 m telescope.
A new telescope will be constructed that will allow a targeted SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) search to proceed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Aliens - watch out! ;)
Check this out: one of the Microsoft co-founder - Paul Allen pledged to donate $17.99 million for research into extra-terrestrial life. Moreover, he donated $25 million for developing The Allen Telescope Array, ATA.
The Allen Telescope Array will consist of 350 antennas of 6.1 meter diameter each manufactured by the makers of satellite dishes, resulting in an instrument with a collecting area exceeding that of a 100 m telescope.
A new telescope will be constructed that will allow a targeted SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) search to proceed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Aliens - watch out! ;)
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Brian Stuff
How many times we have heard - the average person uses only 10-12% of their brain. We all get surprised with how low the figure is and move on with our 10-12% lives ;)
Well, apparently the "10% statement" is false! And yes, we use all of our brain, (that is the today’s scientific opinion, but it seems that it will stay this way for a while.) Here is one of many websites, which can give you many PhDs' opinions on this matter. Brain is an interesting; I would even say the most complex and unknown part of our body. It weighs less than 2.5% of our total bodyweight, but accounts for 20% of our energy consumption when we're at rest! It burns oxygen and glucose at ten times the rate of other body organs.
The early Greeks thought the brain was the home of your soul, rather than your intellect. They believed that thinking happened somewhere around the lungs! Not until the 17s and 18s centuries real brian was discovered.
Using new forms of technology, scientists have been able to look at how the brain performs when we undertake different tasks.
However, even though our brain sounds so complex and powerful we are not using it to its full capacity every minute. Just think about your PC – most of the time you working with it, PC uses no more than 15% of its capacity, for example working with “MSWord” or checking you email will probably use no more than 5% of the modern PC capacity, and when you are scanning your PC for virus and downloading 2 to 7 songs or movies from the internet and checking your email all at the same time you PC is under a BIG stress and it’s working at 100%.
Except for times of stress, no part of our body is working at 100% percent capacity. I don't believe that the brain is any different, although I do think that the 10% is very low for an everyday life.
However, if we were working at peak capacity all the time, how do we get better at anything?
And there are things about the two hemispheres and how they interact that we don't understand.
Sometimes damage to the left hemisphere can unleash surprising abilities in the right and, while these are typically seen in autistic children, they sometimes manifest in adults who have suffered cerebral trauma.
For us, average individuals it is not easy to reach states of mind that would allow us to perform at higher levels, but there are a lot of studies which can help to develop our abilities - an art teacher Betty Edwards has spent over two decades teaching supposedly untalented individuals to draw well by accessing "right-hemisphere mode".
And this is only one of the examples to improve your abilities. Website brain.com lists many simple ways of improving your memory and other functions of your brain.
Here are some websites on the “10% Myth”
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percnt.htm
How many times we have heard - the average person uses only 10-12% of their brain. We all get surprised with how low the figure is and move on with our 10-12% lives ;)
Well, apparently the "10% statement" is false! And yes, we use all of our brain, (that is the today’s scientific opinion, but it seems that it will stay this way for a while.) Here is one of many websites, which can give you many PhDs' opinions on this matter. Brain is an interesting; I would even say the most complex and unknown part of our body. It weighs less than 2.5% of our total bodyweight, but accounts for 20% of our energy consumption when we're at rest! It burns oxygen and glucose at ten times the rate of other body organs.
The early Greeks thought the brain was the home of your soul, rather than your intellect. They believed that thinking happened somewhere around the lungs! Not until the 17s and 18s centuries real brian was discovered.
Using new forms of technology, scientists have been able to look at how the brain performs when we undertake different tasks.
However, even though our brain sounds so complex and powerful we are not using it to its full capacity every minute. Just think about your PC – most of the time you working with it, PC uses no more than 15% of its capacity, for example working with “MSWord” or checking you email will probably use no more than 5% of the modern PC capacity, and when you are scanning your PC for virus and downloading 2 to 7 songs or movies from the internet and checking your email all at the same time you PC is under a BIG stress and it’s working at 100%.
Except for times of stress, no part of our body is working at 100% percent capacity. I don't believe that the brain is any different, although I do think that the 10% is very low for an everyday life.
However, if we were working at peak capacity all the time, how do we get better at anything?
And there are things about the two hemispheres and how they interact that we don't understand.
Sometimes damage to the left hemisphere can unleash surprising abilities in the right and, while these are typically seen in autistic children, they sometimes manifest in adults who have suffered cerebral trauma.
For us, average individuals it is not easy to reach states of mind that would allow us to perform at higher levels, but there are a lot of studies which can help to develop our abilities - an art teacher Betty Edwards has spent over two decades teaching supposedly untalented individuals to draw well by accessing "right-hemisphere mode".
And this is only one of the examples to improve your abilities. Website brain.com lists many simple ways of improving your memory and other functions of your brain.
Here are some websites on the “10% Myth”
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percnt.htm
Friday, March 05, 2004
Environment
Quite an interesting short story on BBC News about a three-headed frog, height="152">which kids spotted out in the garden. “The creature - which has six legs - has stunned BBC wildlife experts who warned it could be an early warning of environmental
problems.”
Quite an interesting short story on BBC News about a three-headed frog, height="152">which kids spotted out in the garden. “The creature - which has six legs - has stunned BBC wildlife experts who warned it could be an early warning of environmental
problems.”
Monday, March 01, 2004
Nature’s tricks
It is quite remarkable that any mother can find out gender of her future baby, while been only three month pregnant – our ancestors could only dream of such possibilities... but not insects, birds, fish and now some mammals :)
UK biologists claim they have conclusive proof that zebras, bison and certain other mammals actively adjust the sex of their offspring, reports New Scientist.
Apparently, many insects, birds and fish are capable of influencing the sex of their offspring, and now mammals have a fair reason to join this category.
Again, we have something to learn from the Animal Kingdom …
UK biologists claim they have conclusive proof that zebras, bison and certain other mammals actively adjust the sex of their offspring, reports New Scientist.
Apparently, many insects, birds and fish are capable of influencing the sex of their offspring, and now mammals have a fair reason to join this category.
Again, we have something to learn from the Animal Kingdom …
