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views:6961
00:06:00
11/01/2011
What is Graphene?
Graphite’s atomic structure looks like a lot of hexagon sheets one on top of the other. If you remove one of those sheets, you get a single layer of g
raphite, which is called grapheme. In principle, it is hexagons surrounded by hexagons. However, there is an edge where the bonding isn’t satisfied. So if you take one hexagon ring, and put hydrogen on the end of each of the atoms, you end up with C6H6, which is benzene. As these sheets get bigger, you will have proportionately less hydrocarbon.
If you put three million sheets of grapheme, one on top of the other, it would make a graphite crystal only one millimeter thick. Graphene is the best electrical conductor in the world, because it is a two-dimensional, rather than a three-dimensional, material.
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Keywords:Graphene, NanoTP, COST, Vega, Dr. Jonathan Hare, graphite, anti-particles, particles
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views:6647
00:01:23
21/12/2010
Survival Advantage of Human Expressions
Why is it that you wrinkle your nose and squint when you see a dead rat on the road, but open your eyes, nose and mouth wide when you see a live one i
n your bedroom?
New research suggests common facial expressions like disgust and fear not only convey how you are feeling, but also alter your sensory relationship to the world around you. If eyes and mouth are open, when we experience fear, are we able to see any better? After a range of tests, researchers found that the open-mouthed expression allowed more of the world in.
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Keywords:University of Toronto, facial expressions, emotions, five senses, fear, disgust, Josh Susskind, NewScientist
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views:6993
00:07:18
19/12/2010
Aging Genes in Round Worms
Roundworms – C. elegans, not the kind that infest dogs or cats – was the first multi-celled creature to have all its genes, it’s genome, deciphered. I
t’s a laboratory favorite, because it has complete nervous, muscle, reproductive and feeding systems, much like higher creatures such as mankind.
The directions for a human being are written in code, 3 billion letters long. These instructions tell our bodies how to live, how to grow, how to die. Researcher Cynthia Kenyon has figured out how to double the lifespan of roundworms. She has discovered two genes that regulate the aging process. DAF 16 and DAF 2. Together, these two genes work to define the aging process of the worm. Remove DAF 2, and the worm will stay younger longer. These two genes also exist in human beings.
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Keywords:roundworms, genes, genome, Cynthia Kenyon, DNA, the sequence, University of California in San Francisco, aging process, sweet 16, grim reaper, DAF 2, DAF 16
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views:11901
00:09:12
18/12/2010
Silk From Genetically Modified Goats
Genetically modified goats have been custom-designed by scientists to provide spider web silk in their milk. On the outside, the goats look perfectly
normal. They run, they play and they munch on hay. But on the inside, the goats harbor an unusual secret – they have been genetically modified with a spider’s gene. The result is an animal that is almost all goat, and an eentsy-weentsy bit spider.
Nexia Technologies did this in order to produce large quantities of spider silk without bothering with spiders. Throughout their normal evolution, spiders have evolved to create a protein that has the very impressive mechanical properties that spider silk has. A single protein gives you strength and elasticity. Dr. Lewis has sequenced 4 out of 6 of the protein genes of the orb-weaver, known for its strong elastic webs, each responsible for a different kind of thread.
Dragline silk is the best type of silk. It is too difficult to do this with real spiders, so this type of silk is spliced into the goat’s genes. The silk is produced in the goat’s milk. This protein is distilled from the milk, purified, and spinned into fibers.
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Keywords:bio-mimicry, Nexia, genetic research, Spiderman, Professor Randy Lewis, Spider Goat ranch
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views:7254
00:05:28
29/08/2010
Doll Study: Kids and Race
In order to study the perceptions that very young children have on race, studies have been held in which little children have been shown dolls of diff
erent races, and asked questions, such as “Which is the dumb child,” and “Which is the smart child,” and so on. The first doll study took place in the 1940s, when psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted pioneering studies in segregated schools. In this first test, it was found that black children overwhelmingly preferred white over black dolls. These results were at the center of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court State Brown vs the Board of Education which resulted in the desegregation of schools. A new study was recently held. The results might shock you.
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opULrjQv0Kg
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m-xhE2MAY8
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REZ9NDrpSqE
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m-SF24eS1A
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lENJzjpWznU
Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_X-cm6Iqxg
Part 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANoNZBe5J4s
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Keywords:race bias, diversity, colorblind, kids and race, doll study
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views:6695
00:06:11
15/08/2010
Martin Cooper: Inventor of cell phone
Every time you text, tweet or speak on your cell phone, you are using the brainchild of Martin Cooper.
On April 3, 1973, on the streets of New
York, Martin Cooper made the world’s first mobile phone call. 1973 was the year mobile phones went on sale. Even in 1983, a portable hand-held cellular telephone cost $4,000.
The team that put the parts together had to squeeze many thousands of parts into the phone. The phone weighed over 2 pounds, and the battery lifetime was 20 minutes. The challenge was to create a network. The first network was set up in Chicago, and covered the city with only 10 or 12 cell sites. Since that time, cell phones have improved dramatically.
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Keywords:Motorola, Martin Cooper, ArrayCom, DynaTac
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views:6264
00:09:00
30/06/2010
Atom - Illusion of Reality
In 1912, Victor Hess made one of the most astonishing discoveries in science – what would come to be known as cosmic rays. At the same time, scientist
s were studying radioactivity – rays coming out of atoms.
Almost a hundred years later, scientists have come to realize that the world we think we know, the solid, reassuring world of our senses, turns out to be just a tiny sliver of an infinitely weirder, more wonderful universe. Our reality is just an illusion.
In 1905, Albert Einstein conclusively proved the existence and size of an atom. Scientist Rutherford, a few years later, performed an experiment that revealed the shape of the interior of an atom. It is almost entirely empty space. How then could this empty atom make the solid world around us?
Danish theoretical physicists postulated that the world of the atom ran on principles that were completely different from everything we’d known before.
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6_7_EY8_78
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4pkc3MoxE4
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjK3Z_xIuMQ
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JTAyErIFB4
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Keywords:Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel, Alan Turing, String Theory, bran Theory, Loop theory, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, theoretical physics, quantum theory
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views:5414
00:49:00
13/06/2010
Total Isolation
Can a human being spend 48 hours in a room, in the dark, with no sensory stimulation whatsoever? Six people undergo a test to find out what happens to
their brains when they are kept in solitary confinement. Sensory deprivation has been used as a weapon and an aid in interrogation. The test is to discover whether their brains will still be able to process information when no stimulation reaches the brain – no touch or feel, no sight or sound.
Scientists, and interrogators, have long known of the impact of sensory deprivation on their subjects, but this is the first study to codify that impact.
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Keywords:total isolation, total solitude, sensory deprivation, human mind, walls in the mind
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views:5982
00:04:16
08/06/2010
Seeing the World as Never Before
Thanks to Swedish photographer Lennart Nielson, it is now possible to take photographs, and film, of the beginning of life in a creature – from the fe
rtilization of the ovum by the sperm. Nielson helped to develop an endoscopic camera in the early 1960s, which could show the journey of the blood through veins and arteries. After 12 years perfecting his photographic technique, Nielson went inside a fetus to take still photos of the first weeks of life. Today, it is possible to see the whole reproductive process in real time, from intercourse to conception to development to birth.
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7OAg432oiE
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DbP2Q2jLSA
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjUKiHkFoWQ
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Keywords:conception, foetus, creation, human cells, Lennart Nielson, endoscope, inside the body, unborn baby video
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views:6652
00:06:55
25/04/2010
Archimedes
In 213 BC in the city state of Syracuse, a genius named Archimedes lived. When the Romans tried to invade Syracuse, Archimedes’ inventions were used t
o defeat the Romans…for a time at least.
When the Roman fleet approached Syracuse, legend says that Archimedes was able to set fire to the fleet using large mirrors (bronze shields) to direct concentrated light towards the ships.
This two-part documentary demonstrates some of Archimedes’ inventions, and shows that they could have worked (as for example the mirrors destroying the Roman fleet.) The pressure of war forced the Greeks to be inventive. They were at the cutting edge of military technology. And Archimedes led the entire crop with his inventions.
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvdUq4tLAO8
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Keywords:Archimedes, Scientist, Greece, mathematics, Syracuse
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