FrankWit

Professor Set to Swim Through Syrup

The lean-muscled swimmer stands poised at the side of the pool, glances a bit apprehensively into its depths, and then dives quickly into the greenish, slimy liquid. A few gelatinous globules bob gently to the surface.

What has happened to the normally azure, chlorine-scented waters of the University Aquatic Center?

Much as the scene resembles the anxiety-fueled dream of an athlete the night before a big swim meet, the swimmer and pool actually were part of a real-world—though admittedly unconventional—foray into experimental fluid mechanics.

For a few hours last summer, a University pool was transformed into a body of water that looked more like a fully functioning swamp than a swimmer's arena. Members of the University swim team became field researchers in an effort to settle one of the questions that has intrigued scientists—and swimmers—for centuries:

What effect does the viscosity of a fluid medium have on the speed of a body traveling through it?

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Father of LSD nears the century mark

BURG, Switzerland -- Albert Hofmann, the father of LSD, walked slowly across the small corner office of his modernist home on a grassy Alpine hilltop here, hoping to show a visitor the vista that sweeps before him on clear days. But outside there was only a white blanket of fog. He picked up a photograph of the view on his desk instead, left there perhaps to convince visitors of what really lies beyond the window.

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Is Religion Rooted in the Biology of the Human Brain?

    To the great minds of the 19th century, religion was blatant superstition, which an increasingly enlightened society would soon discard. But today, in the most technologically and scientifically enlightened age the world has ever known, God’s numbers have never been better—church affiliation has never been higher, and more than seventy percent of the American population claims to believe in God.

Most secular thinkers believe that religion is an entirely psychological invention—born out of confusion and fear—to help us cope with the struggles of living and comforts us in the face of the terrible certainty that we will die. But researchers Andrew Newberg and Eugene d’Aquili offer a new explanation, at once profoundly simple and scientifically precise: the religious impulse is rooted in the biology of the human brain.  READ MORE

                                                                                                         Can you find GOD in this picture?

Pot not a major cancer risk: report

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Although both marijuana and tobacco smoke are packed with cancer-causing chemicals, other qualities of marijuana seem to keep it from promoting lung cancer, according to a new report. The difference rests in the often opposing actions of the nicotine in tobacco and the active ingredient, THC, in marijuana, says Dr. Robert Melamede of the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

He reviewed the scientific evidence supporting this contention in a recent issue of Harm Reduction Journal.

Whereas nicotine has several effects that promote lung and other types of cancer, THC acts in ways that counter the cancer-causing chemicals in marijuana smoke, Melamede explained in an interview with Reuters Health.

"THC turns down the carcinogenic potential," he said. Read More

Alarm clocks are bad. How to wake up and feel better.

This guy is a PhD canidate and he's written this fantastic article on waking up.

Waking up abruptly by the sound of an alarm clock is an inherently unnatural thing to do. Sometimes you can wake up after 8 hours and feel like crap. Other times, you can wake up after 6 hours and feel completely rested. The problem lies in what you're doing when you're suddenly woken up from your slumber.

I use a very simple and natural system that I think works quite well. I don't drink coffee. I don't drink soda/pop/cola (regularly). I don't need to use any sort of caffeine to stay awake. Disclaimer: I am not a doctor (yet) and while I'm an expert, it's not in sleep. What I can say is that this has worked for me for the past 7 years and throughout university.  READ MORE

Parallel universes more reality than science fiction?

Great article about parallel universes.  I love the idea!

As Woody Allen once put it, "There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is how far is it from midtown and how late is it open." Since the discoveries of the new physics, the question of the existence of parallel universes–worlds which exist side-by-side along with our own–has taken on renewed interest well beyond mere speculation.

Today, probably more than in any other day, we are facing a revolution in our thinking about the physical universe–the stuff that you and I are made of. This revolution, brought to a head by the discoveries of the new physics, including relativity and quantum mechanics, appears to reach well beyond our preconceived vision, based as it was on the concept of concrete solid reality. The new physics points in a new and more abstract direction- -a direction indicating the need to unify our picture of the world. READ MORE

Christian Science Text Book

Build the best paper airplane in the world.

Here are the step by step instructions.

How to fake fingerprints?

So you're looking to frame someone for a crime you would like to commit?  Look no further.

Put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goddbye!

We're all going to die.