Freeway Air Pollution May Cause Brain Damage

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Brains are affected by air pollution.

The air pollution that results from the millions of cars and trucks that crowd our highways is ugly stuff — there’s no doubt that the particulate matter it’s laced with causes respiratory illness, heart disease, cancer, and other devastating health effects. As bad as that is, we still might not be properly grasping the extent of the danger air pollution presents — researchers at USC have now linked freeway air pollution to increased brain damage in mice. And they’re concerned humans might suffer similarly.

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Thru: The Lucent Mobile Phone Concept

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Translucent phones could be all the rage very soon.

Imagine the possibilites a translucent phone would bring. The wiping of endless fingerprints would be a nightmare but the concept is too cool and too futuristic to ignore.
Freelance designer, Mac Funamizu is at it again, mocking up translucent devices that let the imagination run wild with the clean simplicity. He’s designing the future we’ve always read about and seen in science fiction. Hopefully these designs will someday soon be a reality…

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Sir Richard Branson’s Deep-Sea Submarine to Explore Ocean’s Unknown Depths

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Exploring the unknowns of the ocean.

Our ocean, particularly deep ocean, is one of the least explored places on earth. We know just a fraction of what plants and animals live under the waves, and barely understand the complexity of ocean ecosystems. One part of this is because we haven’t spent as much time designing and building the sophisticated tools required for diving into the deepest parts of the sea as we have building space ships. That needs to change, and Sir Richard Branson wants to be a leading figure in that change. He has unveiled the Virgin Oceanic submarine, capable of diving into even the Mariana Trench. But this will be just one of five incredible trenches the submarine is set to explore…

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Chemical Discovered Which ‘Makes Bone Marrow Repair Skin’

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Skin grafts trigger repair by bone marrow cells.

The chemical which summons stem cells from bone marrow to the site of a wound has been discovered by scientists in the UK and Japan.

The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, identified the distress signal – HMGB1.

The authors believe it can be used to put “a megaphone in the system” to improve the treatment of injuries such as burns and leg ulcers…

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Jellyfish Lake – Daily Migration Of Millions

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Quite a curious collection of jellyfish

Every day, millions of golden jellyfish migrate – no big surprise there. However, you might not expect them to migrate horizontally across a lake. Still, a visit to Jellyfish Lake on Eil Malk, an island in Palau, in the Pacific Ocean, will confirm just that. Yet just how on Earth did these jellyfish get to the lake in the first place?

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The Harshest, Most Volatile Corner Of Earth

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Hell on earth?

To most of us, going on vacation means finding an idyllic location where one can indulge in favorite activities. Whether you like swimming, sunbathing, skiing, hiking or even spotting man-eating animals, there is a vacation out there for you.

But there is one holiday destination that is unlike any other…

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Self-cooling Effect Observed in Graphene Electronics

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AMF measures self-cooling in graphene.

Graphene is a substance that scientists have been highly interested in as an alternative material for faster-charging batteries. We’ve been hearing for several years about its potential to replace silicone in computer chips, but for the first time, we’re hearing that graphene might also be self-cooling, a feature that might be a huge boon for more efficient and energy-saving devices.

Is Your Meat Made With Meat Glue?

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If you see “composite meat product” on the label, it might be fish slurry slapped together with an enzyme from cow’s blood.

Almost every country in the EU last week approved the use of Meat Glue in food. Technically called thrombian, or transglutaminase (TG), it is an enzyme that food processors use to hold different kinds of meat together.

Imitation crab meat is one of the more common applications: it’s made from surimi, a “fish-based food product” made by pulverizing white fish like pollock or hake into a paste, which is then mixed with meat glue so that the shreds stick together and hold the shape wanted for it by its creator…

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Unusual Uses for Baby Oil

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Oh baby oil. What you do for me!

Instructables has a very informative and interesting post on more uses for baby oil.

Have you heard that joke about baby oil? The one that goes something like:

If corn oil is made with corn and peanut oil is made with peanuts, then what is baby oil made with?

The answer: Baby oil is made with mineral oil and fragrance by industrial professionals; babies don’t have the fine motor skills or chemistry knowledge to create baby oil, duh.

Baby oil is useful for a lot of things beyond baby bottoms. It’ll smooth, soften, lubricate, refinish, clean, and so much more. It also has some usual uses for which it really oughtn’t be used. Read on for some tips and tricks that’ll help you step your baby oil game up.

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Google Map of the World’s Nuclear Power Plants

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Where are all the nuclear power plants?

At Nature blogs, Declan Butler has put together a really info-dense mapping of the world’s nuclear power plants, using Google Earth. Nifty stuff for anybody whose interest in nuclear power has gone up significantly in recent weeks…

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Discover the Hidden Patterns of Tomorrow with Futurist Thomas Frey
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Learn More about this exciting program.