Now on ScienceBlogs: Surgical masks versus respirators for flu protection
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.
Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.
DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision-making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments I currently attend or attended in the past.
Category: Space
It is speculation time. My roommate and I were watching a story this morning on CNN by Sanjay Gupta about how astronauts lose bone mass while in space. One of the limitations with space travel is that because of the...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 6:16 PM • 24 Comments •
Category: Space
...literally: Scientists are priming two spacecraft to slam into the moon's South Pole to see if the lunar double whammy reveals hidden water ice. The Earth-on-moon violence may raise eyebrows, but NASA's history shows that such missions can yield extremely...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 1:23 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Space
Well, that's good. The military successfully shot down a satellite whose decaying orbit brought up concerns that it might crash into...you know...something besides water. It had about a half ton of a compound called hydrazine that is explosive and toxic....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 3:26 PM • 8 Comments •
Category: Space
The space shuttle Endeavor has landed safely at Kennedy Space Center: After two weeks of analyzing, worrying and ultimately taking no action to repair a small but deep gouge in the Endeavour's underside, NASA flight controllers cleared the shuttle to...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 1:39 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Space
Neat. One of the moons of Saturn, Enceladus, has cracks and eruptions that couldn't be explained by heat. (It is much too small to have volcanic actiivty.) They think that the cracks might be caused by tidal forces from Saturn's...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 9:07 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Space
In light of the Lisa Nowak love triangle/kidnapping/nutness NASA is re-evaluating how it...well...evaluates astronauts for psychological fitness for space flights. Part of the problem is one of sex frankly; astronauts are not allowed to have it while on duty. NASA...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:37 AM • 9 Comments •
Oh my God, best article ever: Having sex in the weightlessness of outer space is the stuff of urban legends and romantic fantasy -- but experts say that there would be definite downsides as well. Spacesickness, for instance. And the...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 4:54 PM • 2 Comments •
I love YouTube -- so many ways to waste time at work. Check out this video of a popped balloon in zero gravity....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:33 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Medicine
Have you ever seen a cyst fly? A team of French doctors planned to slice a cyst off a man's arm Wednesday in the world's first zero-gravity surgery, operating aboard an airplane soaring and diving in and out of weightlessness....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 1:19 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Space
Nifty: Astronauts travelling beyond the Earth's orbit would be at risk of cancer and other illnesses due to their long term exposure to cosmic rays. Some of these energetic particles are spewed forth during outbursts from the Sun. Others come...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:00 AM • 1 Comments •
