March 2012
14 posts
Ptolemy the Second: Alhazen
Abu Ali Hasan Ibn al-Haitham (anglicized as Alhazen) was an Arabic scientist who, like al-Khwarizmi, proved to be prolific for the field of science at a time when European scientists were making few contributions. While many details of his life are lost to history, Alhazen’s work paints the picture of an incredible, scientific mind. Born in 965 in Basra, Iraq, Alhazen was on the path to becoming a...
Allergies: A Biological #FirstWorldProblem?
In the words of rap artist Kanye West, “That that don’t kill me, can only make me stronger.” Mr. West’s words are particularly appropriate for the immune system, where an episode of infection from a pathogen leads to the production of memory B-cells. These memory cells stay in the body even after the infection is gone, and are capable of producing a strong, sudden secondary response to minimize...
Influencing Public Sentiment on Artificial Meat
The advantages of artificial meat are enormous and incredibly appealing. According to a recent article in the Economist, current meat growth practices use around “30% of the world’s ice-free land,” but only about 15% of the nutrients fed to stock animals goes into meat production. While the benefits offered by more efficient and effective meat production are easy to see, Nikki Olson of the...
Flowing Water is the Key Ingredient to Mars
As beautiful as those glowing orbs of colors in the sky are, our solar system and the rest of what we can possibly observe in the universe are actually extreme, hazardous, wastelands full of floating debris. Outside the warm, nurturing shelter of Earth’s atmosphere, oxygen is a scarcity, while dangerous radiation and wandering junk fill the space at freezing temperatures. Altogether, these...
Should the Fat Foot the Bill for Social Costs?
When we think of “epidemics,” we think of diseases of poverty like HIV/AIDS, malaria, or tuberculosis. Increasingly, though, we are forced to accept that one of the most prominent emerging epidemics in contemporary Western society is obesity. The numbers are clear: 35.7% of Americans are obese, and the number is rising at an alarming rate, as illustrated by this animated CDC map.
The economic...
Nanoparticles in our food?
A few days ago, the newest iPad made its first showing at an Apple keynote event. Two weeks ago, Motorola released the schematics of their new smartphone, which features sleek dimensions with a screen large enough to view movies comfortably. In the current state of technology, it’s difficult to find electronics that do not utilize nanotechnology, whether it is for mechanical design or visual...
Cell phones tied to ADHD in babies?
Cell phones. These words have become inextricably tied to our everyday lives. We can’t live a day without them right? Imagine trying to live a week without any signal…oh how terrifying!
However, we sometimes forget that these very cell phones that have become the centers of our lives do cast potentially harmful radiation around themselves. A new study done on mice fetuses have shown that...
A Cumulative Culture: The Key to Human Success?
Note: for another examination of cumulative culture regarding the progress of humans versus chimpanzees, check out Mariam Junaid’s article from March 6.
In economics, an individual is postulated as “Homo economicus,” an individual driven by individualistic, self-interested behavior. This is the model that drives a large part of how we characterize human actions and cognitive processes....
The Second Father of Algebra: Muḥammad ibn Mūsā...
History of Science again examines an Eastern scientist; this week’s installment focuses on a Middle Eastern mathematician, al-Khwarizmi. The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown, but it is estimated that he lived from 780 to 850. He lived most of his life in Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid caliphate at the time. In 813, a new caliph by the name of al-Ma’mun came to power. Much like...
The Invisible Storm Sweeping our Planet
In the simpler times of the Ancient Greeks or Ancient Egyptians, all that could be observed was that the sun came up in the east and set in the west. Every ancient civilizations assigned deities to explain phenomena that simply could not be understood at the time in any other terms. Fast forward to today, and we are now able to measure and predict movements and events, even ones that cannot be...
Nano: the All-New Delivery Vehicle
Nanotechnology is one of the most coveted technologies of this new age with three primary branches: targeting, imaging and drug delivery. Discoveries in nanotechnology are closer than ever, including Rice University’s own Dr. John McDevitt’s work involving the “lab on a chip.” State-of-the-art nanochip technologies derive their functionality mostly from targeting and drug delivery. Thus, the...
Impacts of Current Meat Production Processes
In my last post, I spoke of Mark Post, a scientist out of Maastricht University with a goal to produce a hamburger made completely of artificial meat this year. His motivation for this project is that he finds current meat production to be inefficient, wasteful, and bad for the environment. In a recent interview, he stated that we need to make better use of “resources that are presently wasted,”...
Why Chimps Didn’t Invent Computers
Chimpanzees and humans have long been regarded as the “closest living relatives” of each other. Yet, why haven’t chimpanzees advanced as far as us? One might think that they would have had the ability to develop computers, cell phones, or modern medicine. However, studies show that a vital difference between the brains of humans and chimps has caused this separation over time.
That important...
Love Withdrawal
Note: This is our first blog post from a writer outside Rice University. We are thrilled to have guest submissions! If you’re interested in writing articles to be featured on Catalyst Discoveries, check out our submission guidelines.
“Romantic love is one of the most additive substances on earth,” says Dr. Helen Fischer, a biological anthropologist at Rutgers University.
Think of...
