Category: Science

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Are 2D:4D Finger-Length Ratios Related to Sexual Orientation or Sexual Inclination?

I had heard what I considered to be an urban legend that the ratio of a woman’s index to ring finger indicates whether women are likely to engage in casual sex and the sexual orientation of men. Turns out the research has been done and maybe it’s not an urban legend after all. Oh and for those of you wondering, my ring finger is about 10mm longer than my index finger — could possibly explains why I’m such a fast sprinter.

Further reading:

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Nano Techonology Update

I came across a story in Wired this evening about the World’s Best Preforming Microscope. “The SuperSTEM microscope at Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, England, is so sensitive that it requires a special building capable of protecting it from the vibrations caused by raindrops. Its resolution is so sharp that researchers can count atoms on its images.”

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Nano-transistor self-assembles using biology

In a major step towards developing nanoscale electronics, researchers have successfully coaxed DNA into acting as a self-assembling nanoscale transistors.

The key component in all modern electronics, transistors regulate current and act as switches or gates for electronic signals. The allure of DNA is that it can self-assemble into transistors far smaller than those used in conventional silicon-based chips.

Researcher Erez Braun and colleagues at Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa created the new nanotechnology:

Braun’s team began their manufacturing process by coating a central part of a long DNA molecule with proteins from an E. coli bacterium. Next, graphite nanotubes coated with antibodies were added, which bound onto the protein.

After this, a solution of silver ions was added. The ions chemically attach to the phosphate backbone of the DNA, but only where no protein has attached. Aldehyde then reduces the ions to silver metal, forming the foundation of a conducting wire.

To complete the device, gold was added. This nucleates on the silver and creates a fully conducting wire. The end result is a carbon nanotube device connected a both ends by a gold and silver wire.”

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When You Wish Upon a Star (or planet) . . .

Today is the big “Mars Day”. Yes, the day when Mars will come its closest to Earth for 60,000 years — a mere 35 million miles away. Who cares if it still looks like a marble through the telescope — just like always. Apparently we are supposed to be able to see Mars with the “naked eye”. I can’t even see the Sun here in Lethbridge because of all the clouds and nasty smoke from the forest fires. I guess I’ll just have to wait another 60,000 years for this opportunity to pass again — hopefully there won’t be any forest fires nearby.

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Happy Birthday Albert Einstein

It would have been more cool if Einstein’s birthday was on the 12th, like mine. You’re probably wondering just how smart was he?

There is a parlor game physics students play: Who was the greater genius? Galileo or Kepler? (Galileo.) Maxwell or Bohr? (Maxwell, but it’s closer than you might think.) Hawking or Heisenberg? (A no-brainer, whatever the best-seller lists might say. It’s Heisenberg.) But there are two figures who are simply off the charts. Isaac Newton is one. The other is Albert Einstein. If pressed, physicists give Newton pride of place, but it’s a photo finish—and no one else is in the race.

Newton’s claim is obvious. He created modern physics. His system described the behavior of the entire cosmos, and while others before him had invented grand schemes, Newton’s was different. His theories were mathematical, making specific predictions to be confirmed by experiments in the real world. Little wonder that those after Newton called him lucky—”for there is only one universe to discover, and he discovered it.”

But what of Einstein? Well, Einstein felt compelled to apologize to Newton. “Newton, forgive me,” Einstein wrote in his Autobiographical Notes. “You found the only way which, in your age, was just about possible for a man of highest thought and creative power.” Forgive him? For what? For replacing Newton’s system with his own—and, like Newton, for putting his mark on virtually every branch of physics.