Posted on 15. Jul, 2010 by in Educational Resources, Glossary, Human Biology, Popular Science
WHAT IS SCIENCE
Science presumes, through careful, systematic study, that things and events in the universe occur in consistent, comprehensible patterns. Scientists believe that through the use of the intellect, and with the aid of instruments that extend the sens es, people can discover patterns in all of nature. (more…)
Posted on 13. Feb, 2010 by in Educational Resources, Glossary
FAFSA, COA, EFC, FSEOP. . .??? Do you know what these terms mean? The world of financial aid requires an understanding of the terminology.the world of college funding is awash in an alphabet soup of acronyms and arcane terms. Don’t let it put you off from finding the dollars you need. Use this glossary of terms to get up to speed.This section provides a glossary of more than 70 financial aid terms. (more…)
Posted on 22. Jan, 2010 by in Communication & Consumer Technology, Glossary
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Almost a year ago posted this page with info on his “Golden Color Classic”, with the project stuck at an upgrade to an LC 630 motherboard, I thought my goal of creating a “poor man’s iPod” was dead. What I wanted to accomplish was an elegant mp3 server and Internet radio station that I could hook up to the stereo system in my front room without having to have an entire clunky computer system on a shelf.Success! After initial attmepts to add a PowerPC 5500 motherboard failed, I got ahold of a PowerPC 6500 motheboard, and everything fell into place! The Golden Color Classic now runs system 9.1 at 250 MHz!
This little beauty has been equipped and configured especially as a Internet music machine with the following features:
- Startech.com 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card.
- 10 GB ATA hard drive – for holding mp3s!
- Screen mod – 640×480 resolution.
- Specially wired to bypass keyboard startup – did not want a stinky keyboard on the shelf! Therefore flipping the switch at the back turns on the unit immediately. (Still works with a keyboard though).
- Beautiful golden finish, with a silver mouse to boot!
- Oh, and last but not least, a CD-ROM for playing traditional CDs! The case had to be altered a bit to accomodate the side-loading CD, but I think it looks pretty good:
Note that setting a machine up like this involves sacrifices – with a full sized hard drive and CD-ROM, there is no room for the floppy drive or an internal speaker. But in this case, both are unnecessary for the intended application. There is also no room for the double riser PCI card of the 6500, so I switched to the single riser from a 5500.The only improvement I’d like to add is to throw in a Yamaha SCSI CD burner I have lying around – that will be done shortly!
Why go through so much effort to upgrade an old Mac? No particular reason, other than the challenge and fun of tinkering! If you are interested in upgrading a Colour Classic, it has turned into quite a cult, especially in Japan. Some people have even turned Colour Classics into G4s! Here are (just a few!) links if you are interested:
Colour Classic – Low End Mac
Colour Classic Screen Upgrade
Colour Classic Screen Modification
World of the Power Colour Classic
Colour Classic Discussion Forum
Club for Creating the Stongest Colour Classic
More views of the original version (December 2001):
- Click on any of the images for a larger view!
Posted on 22. Jan, 2010 by in Engineering & Technology, Glossary, Popular Science
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A good idea for illustrating refraction is using a laser with some sort of reflective medium in an aquarium. If you’ve never tried it before, I highly recommend Kaleidoscopic fluid… you can find it in your Boreal science supply catalog;
I add about 75-100ml of the fluid to a small aquarium full of water, and then I add some green food coloring just for a “neat” effect…if you don’t have Kaleidoscopic fluid, a few pinches of flour, starch or chalk dust or some milk will do. The idea is to add particles that the laser light can reflect off of.
Notice the path of the beam compared to the orientation of the laser. The situation changes quite a bit when you raise the laser above the water line…
For the sake of the digital camera, these pictures were taken with the lights on, so I highly recommend doing it a darkened room – students really get a kick out of the glowing beam!
Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by admin in Glossary, Popular Science
Being the ultimate nerd, I carry a periodic table with me every wherever I go. What if a person accosts me on the subway, demanding to know the atomic molar mass of vanadium? You can never be too careful.I can understand however, why some of you would not want to be caught with a periodic table on your person, lest you be accused of some sort of “element fetish”. Besides, most periodic tables have so much information written so infinitesimally small, they require a good set of nerdy coke-bottle glasses to read. So what’s a dedicated chemist or physicist to do? Simple: enter the information for all the elements into a database! Wait, that’s way too much work. Thankfully, some scientifically minded shareware authors have (elegantly) done all the work for you.Three choices pop to mind when it comes to getting excellent element information. First there’s Sodium by Nat Tabris. Nat has put together all the basic element information you need with very clear, concise and beautifully constructed displays. Of all the element programs it’s the only one with a resizable window, a great advantage if you’re working on a small screen.
Nat offers Sodium for the incredible price of only $5, so you can get a very capable atomic reference for the price of a Happy Meal.But what if you’re hungry for more information? What if you absolutely must know the crustal abundance of osmium? You may just want to sink your teeth into the Big Mac of atomic references, Periodic Table from Synergy Creations. This program is jam-packed with well-organized features. Almost every possible tidbit of element information is displayed on the splash screen that greets you.
Changing units for most of the information is a breeze with convenient pop-ups embedded in the element windows. The element displays also have a set of arrows that let you browse your way through the periodic table, a pastime every self-respecting nerd does in their spare time.
Periodic Table includes a molecular weight calculator that allows you to either click on elements or type them, with only the slight annoyance of not understanding parentheses such as in the formula (NH4)2SO4. On the whole though, I highly recommend this amazing reference tool; it’s a bargain at $15.Now it’s time for the “20 pack of McNuggets” main course! The mother-of-all atomic references is The Atomic Mac. Chris Smolinski, the creator, has put together the ultimate atomic reference tool. It blows the competition out of the water, providing every bit of data you can think of from linear expansion coefficients to solar abundance! One outstanding feature is the beautiful spectrum window, which displays the emission spectrum for any chosen element. I also like the “state” window with its temperature slider – watch the phases of the elements change as you move the slider!
The molecular weight calculator works like a charm, allowing you to enter brackets or even hydrated compounds.
The Atomic Mac lives up to its name (and will really please the nerd in you) by providing isotope decay equations, half-lives for isotopes and the ability to draw the decay pathway for any isotope. So The Atomic Mac wins the war of the atomic reference programs but getting the best is going to cost you. The price tag for The Atomic Mac is $25 but is worth every penny.Still need more information? Wow, you really are a nerd after , You can read in-depth reviews by clicking on the following – Sodium, Periodic Table, and The Atomic Mac. Have fun!
Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by admin in Glossary, Popular Science
Yesterday promised an idea for the sometimes annoying osmosis lab involving a dialysis baggie and glass tubing;index
  Instead of waiting for 20 minutes or longer just to see a small amount of solution movement up the tube, I decided to hook up a low pressure sensor (see above) to the top of the glass tube – this is accomplished with some simple plastic tubing. When you’ve got the whole thing set up, it should look like this;
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The black cable you see in the picture above leads to the science interface, which is connected to the computer (see above). So what is the advantage of this setup? The really big advantage is time. Instead of waiting long periods of time to see a pathetic amount of solution movement in the tube, the low pressure sensor yields readable results in just seconds – if you look at the time scale in the graph below, you’ll see the pressure change is stretched out over only 200 seconds. Looking at the graph, you can see even that time interval was unnecessarily long in order to see a pressure change;
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Having this kind of sensitivity makes all sorts of other things possible! What I did is let the experiment run for a while, then I changed the surrounding liquid from distilled water to highly concentrated salt solution. Then for the heck of it, I changed it back again a little while later. Here’s the result;
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Pretty cool, eh? Give it a try and let know how it works out!
Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by admin in Glossary, Health & Medicine, Life
Investments in production are down in the field and pharmaceutical industries are turning to relationships with research or public institutions (hospitals, clinics …). A growing number of clinical trials should emerge in 2010.
Soo Kee Chee, director of the National Cancer Center Singapore (NCCS) said that academic institutions are beginning to conduct clinical trials for the private sector. For example, the center is currently assisting a pharmaceutical company to arrange a trial taking place in 22 institutions in 12 countries. The NCCS is also engaged in a clinical phase III with a large Danish group, and hopes to see lead this major project.
Many collaborations between Asian and foreign companies should also appear. The director of the healthcare division in Asia Pacific by Frost & Sullivan, Simranjit Singh, said that international companies should take account of Asia in their strategic vision, not as a market or plant relocation, but as a key element of discovery new molecules. The trend has already started in Singapore, for example, the establishment by Schering-Plow Corp a unit translational medical research of several million euros. In January 2009, Abbott has also opened a research and development of 3.5 million euros, its first laboratory on Singaporean soil.
Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by admin in Experiments & Research, Glossary
Faced with attacks by global warming, corals will arrive may not recover and may disappear. That is the fatal predictions of scientists. A study by the University of Exeter brings some hope to these organizations. (more…)
Posted on 13. Jan, 2010 by admin in Communication & Consumer Technology, Experiments & Research, Glossary
The close views of the asteroid (2867) Steins, obtained with the OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System) on Rosetta, have provided extensive new measurements of physical properties of the asteroid main belt. (more…)
Posted on 29. Dec, 2009 by admin in Glossary, Life, Zoology
More known as the sleep hormone, melatonin, a neurohormone, is produced from the neurotransmitter serotonin. His role in the body is multiple aspects are still under exploration. One of its main functions is the regulation of circadian sleep-wake. Its secretion in the pineal gland, or epiphysis, is favored by the absence of light. It is thus a biological signal, allowing the body to synchronize with the alternation of day and night. (more…)
