Mayor4Unley

Here's a good read, all about taste and flavour, from the womb to old age and through sickness and medication. Explains a lot, especially about weird food desires. Read the story

What fantastic news. Research has shown that a small amount of dark chocolate (just 50g) puts you in a better mood and increases brain power and memory. The chocolate used was 70% cacao and 30% organic sugar cane, a product marketed as a health food. Just 30 minutes later, brain scans showed an increase of gamma waves in areas indicating: Improved neural connectivity, Reduced stress, Improved mood, and Boost of memory. So if you want to get in the mood and have less stress and more memory, then eat very dark chocolate.

Maybe it’s time to stop drinking bottled water and just drink tap water. Let’s face it, with average bottled water, it’s not much more than filtered tap water. Do yourself a favour and buy a good quality plastic (or metal) drink bottle and use tap water; preferably filtered. Why? To save money. To stop drinking high concentrations of plastic particles. A recent report from the World Health Organisation exposes that after analysis of water samples, more than 90% of the samples contained high concentrations of tiny plastic particles; aka. microplastics. One brand had concentrations as high as 10,000 plastic pieces per litre of water. This is absolutely appalling. Downstream this ends up in the oceans and rivers and in fish that we eat. Just so sad. All due to our buying bottled water. Make the change to tap water and a good quality drink bottle. The cheaper the drink bottle the more likely it is to contaminate. Read the story

For years I have been secretly breeding Agapanthus. Standard colours are normally blue and white and a mild pink; with a few other variations. This year I was over-joyed with my bright pink candy striped creation. Those hours spent late at night under a full moon with a fine horse hair brush cross-pollinating and doing the under the leaf tickle, yielded a truly wonderful flower. I have called it  Candy Striped Pink Agapanthus (aka. Aga-BS-729).

Slugs are a gardener's nightmare and efforts are made to eradicate the slugs. Damn things come out at night and munch on the greens in the garden. We squash them and poison them; or at least some people do. But, the humble slug has captivated the minds of medical researchers. The slime of the slug has been studied and now replicated with reasonable success. Its use as an adhesive is a medical break-through. The laboratory made slug slime is now emerging as an adhesive and is being used during surgery instead of staples and stitches. At least, it worked well during surgery on a pig. A great outcome by scientific study of the simple slug. Read the slug slime story ...

Its amazing the apps now available on smart phones and devices. Now there is one that gives reliability to the rhythm method of contraception. A new mobile app for monitoring body temperature to track a woman’s menstrual cycle has been extensively trialed and now has been certified as a medical device for contraception by a German regulator.  The Natural Cycles app records daily temperature and uses an algorithm to plot fertility on an in-app calendar. The app was part of a clinical study in 2016 of one million women and it is claimed that it could be as effective as the contraceptive pill. The German certification body TÜV SÜD has approved Natural Cycles as a Class IIb medical device. The app developer now claims that the software is the first of its kind to be certified as a contraception alongside condoms, the pill and intra-uterine devices (IUDs). It is stated that ... “Our high quality clinical studies, together with the required regulatory approva...

When Dr Karl makes a statement, we sit up and listen and accept it as the gospel. We accept it as fact. He explains the complexities in nature so simply and in an entertaining manner. Recently Dr Karl Kruszelnicki proposed that the magic of coffee and chocolate could prove the existence of God. He claimed that the very similar chemical properties of coffee and chocolate and the way they complement each other, is proof that God exists. “Caffeine is remarkably similar to the stuff that makes chocolate so wonderful,” he says. “It’s led to a deep and philosophical insight.” He explained that the chemical in caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, which closes your blood vessels; whereas the chemical in chocolate is a vasodilator that opens up the blood vessels. So if you're worried about the harm of drinking too much coffee, have a few pieces of chocolate. If you're a purist, then ensure it's an espresso and dark chocolate. Read more here ...

The debate has commenced on the proposal to store high level nuclear waste deep underground in the far north of South Australia. It will gain momentum over the next 12 months. The economic benefit to SA is huge. The risk seems to be contained. The people will decide in 1-2 years. It needs to be a well informed and educated decision. The recent issue of Resourcing SA has an excellent article on the subject by Ms Kyra Reznikov who has toured nuclear storage facilities across the globe. The bottom line will be if the people of SA fully understand the storage process and the associated risk; of the waste buried 500m. To put the risk into perspective, Reznikov examines a storage facility under construction in Finland. In the worst case scenario, if the steel/copper canister containing the nuclear waste rods is defective ... then if a person stood on the ground above the facility for one year then they would be exposed to the equivalent of one tenth of a banana! Yes, bananas (and s...

The ABC Q&A session this week was riveting; good viewing with a science theme. Newly elected One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts provided amusement and embarrassment (at his expense) by his scepticism of climate change; and his dismissal of everything through a lack of 'empirical evidence'. The loveable Professor Brian Cox nearly wet himself at the encounter. He produced trend graphs for CO2 and temperature and talked about the scientific process for modelling and generating forecasts. All to no avail; Malcolm Roberts dismissed the Professor by citing corrupt and manipulated climate data and a lack of 'empirical evidence'. There seems to be a world wide manipulation of climate change data to benefit the big banks who want to trade in emission credits and make a huge profit ... according to Roberts. It was a real hoot. Oh, and by the way, when quizzed by Cox, Roberts did (to his credit) state that he did believe in the lunar landings. There are people out there (i...

Pets, especially dogs, are good for your health. They are very understanding and help to soothe the pain during troubled times. In general, in my opinion, people with pets are of better nature; more compatible members of society. I was interested in the results of a study by canine scientist and PhD student Mia Cobb and sports scientist Dr Craig Duncan. It showed that when a dog and its owner were in close proximity their heartbeats were significantly lower. Dogs and their owners were strapped with heart monitors and after initial separation, when reunited together on a couch both dog and the owner where found to have heartbeats that dipped or rose in synchronisation. An amazing discovery 🐕 I bet the same isn't true for cats. I'm sure that they would maintain a steady heartbeat; whatever 🐱

Bed bugs are not colour blind. They have their preferences of colour of bed linen in which to hide. Researchers have discovered that generally they try to avoid white, yellow and green; these colours are associated with sunlight and being exposed outdoors. Results did vary depending on the age and sex of the bed bugs tested, but in general they didn't like the colours white, yellow and green. They preferred stronger colours where they could better hide. Red and black colours were most likely to attract bed bugs. In fact: Female bed bugs prefer lilac and violet and Male bed bugs prefer red and violet. So if you select the romantic colours of red and black (and lilac and violet) to liven up the bedroom, you may get more than you anticipated; perhaps a bite on the bum! Link to research findings on bed bugs Recently The City of Unley Council endorsed its Animal Management Plan 2016-2020 . It's a good looking document and for completeness it includes a section on Other...

It is amazing how over time scientists and researchers discover or can explain things that we think we already know. I was intrigued to read that researchers have discovered that on our first day in a new and unfamiliar location (eg. a hotel room, camping, having a sleep over, ...) at night when asleep, one side of our brain remains alert to what is happening around us. It is always the left side of the brain. For humans it is called the first-night phenomenon . It had been known that dolphins and whales sleep with half of their brain alert and is known as unihemispheric sleep . The theory is that it is an ancient survival mechanism. It makes sense. I recall broken sleep (alerted by something) on that first night in an unfamiliar place. My only curiosity is that given the study of humans involved brain scans while people were asleep, how did they verify that dolphins and whales have unihemispheric sleep?

Why is the limit of an SMS 160 characters? It’s not a decimal number ie. not a multiple of 10 and has nothing to do with dozens (12), not  even  a butcher's dozen. So why is there a limit of 160? BTW if you often push the limit of 160 characters, then you really need to get a life. But, back to basics … why the limit of 160? There are 2 stories and reasons suggested. A man called Friedhelm Hillebrand, Chairman of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), had the task of setting the limit on the amount of characters a text message could contain. This would become the international standard. He did this by analysing  typical  sentences viz. questions and answers. He also reviewed messages written on postcards and received by Telex transmissions. (Telex was not so long ago the state of the art message transmission technology.) Friedhelm Hillebrand arrived at the answer of 160 characters. His recommendation became the standard. T...

It was wet and cold in the city yesterday. I was walking in the rain. A woman in heels click clacked past me and then slipped and went down on her knees. I helped her up. It was more her dignity that was damaged. Most women run (or move quickly) in the rain. Maybe they don’t want their hair to go all frizzy. Then again, many blokes also move quickly through the rain. It’s an instinctive thing; run or move quicker in the rain. But it’s pointless! Why? Years ago when I was studying mathematics, physics and hydrology, we modelled rain with the intent of discovering how much drier people are if they run through the rain. The model’s assumptions were: The rain was vertical The rain had distinct drops (and not a bucket downpour like in the tropics) There was no wind The person was walking at a comfortable pace (and not dawdling) The finding was: If you run or move quickly through the rain you will get the same amount of wetness as if you were walking at a no...

Something I didn’t know … According to Google , it derived its name from the mathematical term googol which is defined as the digit 1 followed by 100 zeros. It looks like this: 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000. It would look even bigger with all the commas! Back in 1920 the term googol was coined by 9-year-old Milton Sirotta, the nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner. Kasner popularised the concept and term in 1940. Googol is a nice term. Other  names for the same number are: ten duotrigintillion , ten thousand sexdecillion and ten sexdecilliard . A googol is a simpler term. It doesn’t really have much everyday use in the non-scientific community, but it comes into play in complex mathematics, investigations into the mass of an electron or the universe. If you are starting to get excited, then follow  this link

'Squishy' batteries can be made from trees – this may be the future. Zero pollution. A new type of squishy battery has been designed. It’s made from tree pulp and is 'squishy' to touch, but is stress and shock resistant. Also, it is ideally wearable, embedded in our clothes to power own 'wearable' devices. Importantly, it is not harmful to the environment when disposed. The description gets a bit more technical so I’ll leave you to read the link below. It’s amazing how our (technology) environment is transforming as a result of technology research. Read more here

There used to be a bounty on the scalp of every dingo. Now, a recent study by the University of Adelaide has revealed that dingoes can actually deliver economic gain to cattle stations. The report demonstrates that in optimum conditions the cattle farmers could gain up to $0.83 per hectare each year; that’s $83,000 per 100,000-hectare station – simply by dingoes' natural control of kangaroos and goats. When there are too many herbivores on the land, the cattle will eat less pasture, grow more slowly and sell for a lower price at the market. Obviously you wouldn’t encourage dingoes in sheep farming country. For more information,  read this link

I have a passion for science and mathematics. Today I found an interesting story in a news feed from the indaily.com.au online news. Much has been said about the merit of facial recognition. Now, a local researcher (Teghan Lucas) has proven the worth of the cheaper and more accurate alternative of identifying people from their body movements (and clothes do not present an issue). So if you hide your face under a mask and wear a hoody and baggy trackie daks, you can easily be recognised from a database. Teghan is seeking men from the Adelaide metropolitan area to be involved in body measurements and photographs. I’m not sure why women are not being included in the latest study. Here are extracts from the news item. Using data from 4,000 United States armed services personnel, a South Australian forensic anatomist has found that people are more easily and accurately identified by their body measurements than their facial features – even through clothing. Teghan L...

The function and purpose of libraries is being challenged. Are books really out of fashion? I challenge that suggestion. Maybe they are becoming unfashionable and less read. Replaced by electronic media? Replaced by CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray? Curling up to book is a better feel than snuggling a CD. Whatever, the function of libraries is changing and whilst cracks of change might only appear on the surface now, there will be rapid shift in the near future. Libraries must recognise the need to change and embrace and experiment when the opportunity arises. It’s always better to be in control and driving the change rather than playing the hard game of catch-up. I found this interesting story about libraries in the USA that are establishing innovative and high tech facilities (aka. Workshops and Maker Labs) within the existing library. A practical example is the installation of 3D printers.  Residents can use the printers to make whatever they wish eg. a mobile phone case (yellow...

I have an enthusiasm for science and mathematics. I am intrigued by some science trivia and often surprised by the practical everyday outcomes. Fact: if you put a length of string or ear buds in your bag it will later emerge tangled and knotted. Every day I watch people struggled to de-knot their tangled iPod ear bud cables. Solution: simply join the ends of the string or cable to make a loop and place in your bag. Use a simple clip, maybe a hair clip. The string or cable will emerge untangled. Scientists have found that string spontaneously knots itself and the longer the string the more likely it is to happen. People have done serious study in this area. As the string gets longer, the probability of string knotting increases exponentially. The studies revealed that the longer the string, the more likely it is to form a knot. String that was 1.5 feet (46cm) or shorter never got tangled up. As the string gets longer, the probability of a knot forming increases expon...