Recently a friend survived a heart attack. He didn’t smoke, kept his weight down, ate the right things, and got exercise. But his father had had a heart attack, and when my friend reached his mid-50s, so did he. When something like that happens to a person you know, it shakes you. You think about [...]
Archive for the ‘Science’ Category
The Genetic Snare
Posted in Family, Reflections, Science, tagged Cancer, DNA, Family, Genetics, Health, Heart Attack, Reflections, Science on June 1, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The Coming Big Bang
Posted in Science, tagged Andromeda, Astronomy, Big Bang, Milky Way, Science on May 31, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The universe began with the Big Bang billions of years ago, and now astronomers say we’ll be dealing with another big bang — in about four billion years or so. The coming big bang will occur when our galaxy, the Milky Way, collides with and merges into Andromeda, a neighboring galaxy. The two galaxies are [...]
Enter The Dragon
Posted in America, Science, Technology, tagged America, business, Dragon capsule, International Space Station, Science, Space, SpaceX, Technology on May 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has successfully rendevoused with the International Space Station and has been snagged by the space station’s robot arm. The Dragon capsule therefore becomes the first privately owned space vehicle to reach the ISS. This morning the astronauts on the space station opened the capsule and entered it, conducted a quick inspection and found no [...]
A Glimpse Of The Future Of Space
Posted in America, Science, Technology, tagged America, Dragon capsule, Falcon 9 rocket, NASA, Science, Space, space exploration, SpaceX, Technology on May 22, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Our governments are running out of money. Programs like space exploration — which don’t pander to particular interest groups and aren’t viewed as “essential” — are easy targets for budget cutters. That means that, if we are to advance in space, commercial entities motivated by profits will have to carry the ball forward. Today saw [...]
Guzzle Coffee, Live Longer
Posted in Food, Humor, Science, tagged Coffee, Coffee Drinkers, Food, Health, Humor, Longevity, National Cancer Institute, Science on May 18, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Here’s news that will warm the already rapidly beating hearts of coffee lovers — drinking a lot of that black brew apparently makes you live longer. A large study of more than 400,000 men and women by the National Cancer Institute found a correlation between significant coffee drinking and life span. Men and women who [...]
Dogs At The Dawn Of Mankind
Posted in Dogs, Humor, Kasey, Penny, Science, tagged Dogs, Early Humans, Humor, Kasey, Natural Selection, Neanderthals, Penny, Science on May 16, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Tens of thousands of years ago, both humans and Neanderthals walked the Earth. Humans, obviously, survived. Neanderthals — except to the extent they mated with humans and left their genes behind — didn’t. Why did one humanoid species thrive, and the other fail? New theories posit that the domestication of dogs was a significant part [...]
The Awesome Power Of Dinosaur Flatulence
Posted in Humor, Science, tagged dinosaurs, Farts, Humor, Mesozoic Era, methane gas, Science on May 7, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Any regular reader knows that the Webner House blog rigidly adheres to the highest standards of propriety and refinement. Occasionally, however, exceptions must be made when a rippingly good fart story surfaces. Consider the recent scholarly article in the academic journal Current Biology, in which the authors attempted to determine the magnitude and climatological effect [...]
Farmers On The Move
Posted in Science, World, tagged Civilization, Darwin, Farming, Hunter-Gatherers, Natural Selection, Science, Stone Age, World on April 29, 2012 | 1 Comment »
How did humans stop wandering and start farming? It’s a crucial question, because farming allowed our ancestors to move beyond itinerant lifestyles into more permanent cultures. When farming was adopted, and people saw the benefits of having food at the ready, early humans put down roots (pun intended), established long-term structures, and began to defend [...]
Mining The Asteroid Belt
Posted in Science, Technology, tagged Asteroid mining, Asteroids, Capitalism, Science, Science Fiction, Space, space exploration, Technology on April 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Any sci-fi buff has read stories about hardy souls who fly between the asteroids and mine the hurtling chunks of rock for minerals. Usually the heroic asteroid miner-pilot is a gruff, swashbuckling character with a taste for adventure and a heart of gold. Now the concept of mining the asteroid belt seems to have moved [...]
Another Benefit From Space Exploration
Posted in Humor, Science, Technology, tagged Ardbeg distillery, Humor, International Space Station, Liquor, Science, scotch, Space, space exploration, Technology on April 10, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Proponents of space exploration and development have always argued that there will be lots of benefits from being able to do things in zero gravity. Form perfect spheres. Create chemical and metallurgical compounds that wouldn’t be possible in Earth’s heavy gravity. Experiment with positions undreamed of by the authors of the Kama Sutra. Now there’s [...]
Discovering A Salt Water Moon
Posted in Science, Technology, tagged Cassini, Enceladus, Extraterrestrial Life, NASA, Saturn, Science, Space, space exploration, Technology on April 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
America’s unmanned space probes continue to do amazing things — including discovering that one of Saturn’s moon has salt water oceans like those on Earth. The discovery was made by the Cassini spacecraft, which has been flying around the huge gas giant and its famous rings. Cassini reached a point within 46 miles of the [...]
The Value Of A New Face
Posted in Science, Technology, tagged Face Transplants, Health, medicine, Science, Technology, Transplants on March 27, 2012 | 1 Comment »
When I was a kid, they performed the first human heart transplant. People were amazed, and it was a story and topic for discussion for days. Now, of course, heart transplants happen with boring regularity, and we cease to be astonished by the advances in the medical sciences. Whether it is non-invasive surgeries that allow [...]
Apocalypse (Not Quite) Now
Posted in Humor, Science, World, tagged Aliens, Apocalypse, Bugarach, Cults, France, Humor, Judgment Day, New Age, New Age Beliefs, religion, Science, World on March 27, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Weird things are happening in the French Pyrenees. New Agers have descended on the village of Bugarach because they’re convinced that aliens will emerge from a nearby mountain on December 21, the date that marks the end of the Mayan “long count” calendar. The helpful aliens will cart all humans in the vicinity off to, [...]
In A Saxon Grave
Posted in Science, tagged Archaeology, burial sites, burials, Christianity, Paganism, religion, Saxons, Science on March 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The BBC has a story about the discovery of a Saxon grave dating from the mid-seventh century A.D. The burial site was discovered near Cambridge. The interesting aspect of the find is that the individual who was buried, thought to be a 16-year-old girl, was found with an exquisite gold and garnet cross on her [...]
Hands Off Our Coke! (And Pepsi)
Posted in Food, Humor, Science, tagged California, Coke, Food, Government Regulation, Humor, Pepsi, Public Health, Science on March 9, 2012 | 1 Comment »
California is at it again. It has determined that because the caramel coloring used in Coke and Pepsi includes a substance that a study has found causes cancer in mice, the soft drinks need to include a cancer warning label. Not surprisingly, Coke and Pepsi have decided instead to change their recipes — and because [...]
