I am super bad at the blogging right now, I'm so sorry. I keep getting ready to write, pulling up Twitter to view all the delicious Science of the day, and realizing that I can't access my feed on this computer (at least not politely). My own lappy, she is le broken.
When she is le fixed, I will be much more psyched about writing 24-7. In the meantime...call me majorly unreliable. I'm writing a book, though... does that count? :p
I CAN however, peruse the awesomely awesome major Sci news sites and pick out a few intermesting headliners for ya. Here ye be:
First is not news at all, but this really cool site I found while trying to figure out what the disappearing "star" in the sky was. By entering your coordinates in this site, you can find all kinds of nifty things going on when you look up (provided it isn't terribly cloudy).
Also on the topic of the world beyond our atmosphere, I'm really, really excited about this: a potentially habitable planet has been located circling the red dwarf Gliese 581 in the Libra constellation, 20 light years away. Actually, two new planets were found, but one in particular seems to be in the ideal position to sustain life. It's approximately 3 or 4 times as massive as Earth, orbits the star in about 37 days, and one side is perpetually facing the star (resulting in a wide range of more or less steady temperatures). It's called Gliese 581g, and before we found it (and another, which is apparently a less exciting planet) there were two others, c and d, that were on opposite sides of the habitable zone. One was too hot, one was too cold, and now we have baby bear's planet. One thing I'm not sure I agree with is the claim that the swiftness with which it was detected insinuates a higher rate of occurrence of nearby habitable planets, but I suppose I'm not very good with statistics. One way or another, isn't that neat?
Next, research at the University of Illinois has proven it possible to reattach teeth by buttering them with stem cells. Okay, it isn't quite that simple. Their experiment took stem cells from the mouths of mice, marked and grew them, applied them to rat molars, and attached those where they ought to go. While not the most delightful thing to think about, the results showed the stem cell treated teeth successfully integrated back into the mouth, whereas non-treated teeth had no such luck. The hope is to use the method to battle tooth loss from injuries, dental problems, or even replace missing teeth with false ones in a more true manner.
Mmkay, that's it for tonight. I've got work to do. :) See you soon!
-Miss Mouse
References and Links:
Leave stem cells under your pillow
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100929123630.htm
Baby Bear's Planet G
http://www.physorg.com/news204999128.html
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