Science Ain't So Bad

Cure For Colorblindess

No More Colorblind Monkeys

Ophthalmology: Colorblindness

MONOCHROME WORLD

You always wondered, didn’t you? What’s it like to be colorblind? That word – blind. Very dark and murky. But, if you’re colorblind, it’s colors you can’t see. It’s not like yer gonna wump into a wall or anything.

So is it such a bad thing?

The answer’s kinda yes and kinda no.

Some people are only a LITTLE color blind. They see a lot of colors. But not all of them. And some people (with monochromasy) are flat out colorless – like a “black and white” movie. Just black, white, and a bunch of grays.

Minochromasy isn’t common. But if you’ve got it, I wouldn’t plan a career around painting or photography or even police work (“Watch for a guy wearing a blue cardigan”). And try not to take stuff like “Those SOCKS! What’re you, colorblind?” to heart.

Whether it’s a disability or just a disadvantage, it is one a those imperfections that makes life richer (one might even say, more colorful) if, sometimes, a little tougher.

A CURE

So. Guess what Jay Neitz (University of Washingon) just cured?

You’re GOOD!

That’s right. Fixed it right up. In monkeys. (Which, at least in your case, isn’t SO far removed.) And he seems optimistic that homo sapiens isn’t too far down this path as well as other vision disorders.

Good one, Dr Neitz.

ScienceAintSoBadRating = 9

Toyota Owner Saved By MISTER ScienceAintSoBad

QUICK! Turn off the Ipod!

DRAGGING YOUR FEET WON’T WORK!

Dear MISTER ScienceAintSoBad: I gotta write fast because my car’s gone CRAZY! The things goin’- uh- 85 mph – well, faster, I think. An’ I can’t stop it cause it’s made by a fureign company so what do I do? I tried the brakes but I’m afraid I might ruin ‘em if I press TOO hard. PLEASE answer quick! - KnuckleHead31

Dear Knucklehead:

You don’t mention if you’ve already prayed, but I’m gonna assume you tried that and it didn’t work, OK?

Now here’s the interesting thing. In addition to the foot brake and the accelerator, many cars have several ADDITIONAL controls. If you look down and to the right you fill find a thing called a SHIFT LEVER and, a little up and to the left of that, an ignition switch (activated by either a key or, in some new cars, a big fat button). Hopefully, you are already aware of the purpose of that big decorative wheel that you rest your hands on.

Bob Byrnes, a nice highway patrol trooper from Missouri (thanks, Springfield, News-Leader) says to: Shift into neutral, step on the brake, steer to the side of the road, shut off the engine. Which seems to make a LOT of sense.

MISTER ScienceAintSoBad probably would have flipped off the ignition (if it’s a button, you gotta hold it down for a few seconds). That should turn off the engine, but there could be some control issues. Better to do what Trooper Byrnes says if you have a sudden acceleration. At least you’ll be mad at HIM if you bash up your new car.

ScienceAintSoBad t-shirts, mugs ‘n stuff

Migraine Science: Drugs, Devices, And Dark Rooms

She's got a MIGRAINE, you nitwit!

I had a rental car with a broken radio. You couldn’t lower the volume or turn it off and it only got one station which had Rush Limbaugh, ranting and raving. What could be worse? – BizWhiz59

MIGRAINES

My wife says migraine headaches are worse than a date with MISTER ScienceAintSoBad . But she’s probably exaggerating. A musician who gets migraines almost weekly says they’re “The worst thing that can happen to you that doesn’t kill you permanently”.

WHAT THEY ARE

About 30 million Americans get migraines ; they (the headaches) usually don’t hit till the teens or later.

The “classic” migraine’s a funny guy. You get visual or auditory “auras”. You’re thinking “wow! I bet there’s a spiritual relevation coming.” and, POW!, the top of your head blows off.

Mean!

The “common” migraines don’t have explicit auras although you might feel kinda “weird” or sluggish before the pain, itself, hits. The head pain varies but it can get pretty bad. It’s normally one-sided and, in case you’re not miserable enough with just pain, there’s often nausea/vomiting too.

Far as is known, migraines are probably kicked off by some signal in the brain stem which causes arteries (including those in the dura which encase the brain) to contract and then dilate abnormally while local levels of dopamine and serotonin (neurotransmitters) go off script too. This is all sustained by a runaway condition in the temporal artery (a blood vessel near the temple).

WHAT THEY’RE NOT

Other kinds of headaches.

But it can be kinda hard to tell the difference. The Headache Center (Springfield, MO) says that 97% of people who thought they had sinus headaches had migraines.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

WHAT YOU CAN DO

I think, somewhere in here, I’m supposed to tell you to check with your Doc first and (seriously) you should because a bad headache may be a manifestation of a tumor or an intra-cranial bleed or God-Knows-What. It’s hard ENOUGH to get readers, in the first place, I don’t wanna lose one over a missed doctor visit.

However, as a matter of general information, you might like to know the best way to minimize the discomfort and to move on with your life:

1. Take the pain meds your Doc prescribed.

2. ice packs, cold water, etc to your head/face.

3. Don’t be a hero. Don’t read. Don’t do anything. Lie down in a dark room. Meditate, listen to music, think about ScienceAintSoBad.. restful stuff.

An article on Health Square has more detail and goes on to describe common triggers and ways to, maybe, dodge some headaches. Worth reading if you’re cursed with this syndrome.

THE NEW STUFF

From a scientific standpoint, there’s still plenty of work to be done here. I won’t bog you down, overly, with long, long shots.

Some of the newest stuff that’s currently on the market: zolmitriptan, Amerge, and a nasal spray version of Migranol . (Ask your Doc).

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Uses a dynamic electromagnetic field to knock down the “cortical spreading” waves at the onset of the headaches. It seemed to work about 50% of the time. It’s still very much an experiment.

Wanna go under the knife? If you do, surgical removal of certain trigger sites seems surprisingly good and may even be a surgical “cure” for many. This is from a joint study led by Bahaman Guyuron, Chairman of Plastic Surgery at Case Medical Center.

Archives of Dermatology offers a small study with a particularly tough form of the headache which got decent results using botulinum toxin injections. MISTER ScienceAintSoBad wishes there were more data.

A fair sized study done in Philadelphia with a “snorter” (an inhaled drug) called Levadex sounds interesting. According to the (only slightly puffy) description, patients had “significant” relief from symptoms. This was just the study that proves “safety”. Good one to keep an eye on though. Levadex.

Naturally, there are homeopathic “cures” for migraine. Make what you will of my quotation marks.

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(If you want the above cartoon on a t-shirt go here. )

The Happiness Pill

Take Your D

A Home Kit For Cancer Detection?

And The Cut-It-Out-Of-Myself Kit?

BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH: Do-It-Yourself Medicine

TEST YOURSELF FOR CANCER?

My dad was SO proud that he was one of the first to drive an automobile. But, you know what? He got to drive a car his entire adult life. The cars got better and better. But he never had to learn how to drive a rocket ship.

It never even came up.

Now we have ALL this new STUFF comin’ at us. More and more every day. And that stuff engenders even more stuff. Digital devices make it easier to design even more digital devices and nano systems.. well, that’s THIS story.

What do you know about micro/nanoelectromechanical systems?

Me neither.

But a professor at the University of Missouri has an NSF grant to develop an “Instant” cancer detector, taking advantage of the special properties of exquisitely sensitive “M/NEMS” based sensors (which MISTER ScienceAintSoBad hopes to tell you ALL about. As soon as he figures it out, himself.)

Dr. Jae Kwon believes this technology will lead to home based test kits that people can use to figure out whether they have certain diseases like breast or prostate cancer.

Which brings me back to my original point about runaway technology and the way it shapes our daily lives: I’m gonna test myself for cancer? What do I do then? Go to the Doc and explain that I have Glioma and what are “we” gonna do about it? It’s taken a while, but I’ve gotten used to pumping my own gas. Will I mind diagnosing my own cancer?

At least we should have time to get used to this one. It doesn’t sound imminent.

ScienceAin’tSoBadRating = 5 .

A Phone App That Steals Your Soul?

The End Of Anonymity?

Phone Apps: A Scary App That Matches Your ID To Your Photo

SCUSE ME. DON’T I KNOW YOU FROM FACEBOOK?

ShyGuy1 writes:

Mister ScienceAintSoBad: I am smart and I am nice. I bet I would be a great boyfriend.

If I had a girlfriend.

But I’ll probably die a male old maid because when I see a girl who has the “right look”, I freeze.

Instead of telling her how much I love her slobbering Doberman or giving her my “Get lucky with me” calling card (I still have every single one of them after 14 months), I respectfully lower my eyes and try not to be obvious. Which, apparently, works pretty well.

So, Mister SASB, my question is this. Is there some kind of technology that lets guys who just aren’t suave, bridge the introduction gap? Maybe a small robot that he could pull out of his valise which would stride confidently toward his future fiance and make the introductions?

Please answer because this is important to my future kids.

Funny you should ask, ShyGuy1, I’m just finishing up my Intro1 Robot which does exactly what you want. I can offer it to you for $19.95. PLUS you will get this roof trimming attachment ABSOLUTELY free. BOTH products, a combined value of $39.95 for ONLY $19.95.

Except the shipping and handling charge is $43,000,012.85 .

if you’re looking for a more cost effective solution (no WONDER you never meet anyone you lousy CHEAPSKATE!), you may be interested in TAT’s new Recognizr app for Android phones.

With Recognizr loaded, you snap a picture of your future bride and then you let the app go figure out who she is from her online presence on sites such as Facebook, Linkedin, and GetLostNerdyOne.

Recognizr’s intriguing integration of existing technologies to achieve a new result is a nice example of the “unexpected consequences” phenom .

It’s also a little troubling.

Is it really OK to snap someone’s photo and find his.her identity that way? Is it an invasion of privacy to use photo based matching?

TAT’s approach was to make sure the info can only get assembled for other users of Recognizr. Which seems fair enough to MISTER ScienceAintSoBad since, I guess, there’s a kinda “OK With Me” built into joining the club.

But it also limits the usefulness of the product unless Recognizr takes off. And, why does Mister ScienceAintSoBad think the women ShyGuy1′ll REALLY want to meet’ll be the last to join Recognizr?

Maybe we’ll be lucky though and terrorists will register with Recognizr.

ScienceAintSoBadRating = 6 (which is an average of 10 for a technological tour-de-force and 2 for software that won’t change any lives)

Smokers Are Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!

Smarter Folks Doesn't Smokes

SUBSTANCE ABUSE: Smoker Brain.

What’s science GOOD for, you may ask?

I dunno, I may answer.

But maybe it could serve to humiliate people who are already miserable and make them feel worse.

A (smug and self satisfied?) study led by Dr. Mark Weiser (Sheba Medical Center) concludes that the higher your IQ, the less likely you are to smoke.

MISTER ScienceAintSoBad appreciates the underlying reality here. This is a painful piece of science but – yeah – indulging in self destructive behavior probably ISN’T gonna correlate with the biggest, bestest brains. But should research dollars be used to rub it in?

To be fair, a better understanding of the factors that lead a person to smoke may help researchers understand how to effectively combat it. So we’ll give the benefit of the doubt to Weiser and assume his motives were pure.

ScienceAintSoBadRating = 6 for a well intentioned study that we would like to see replicated somewhere else before conceding the point.

And, no, MISTER ScienceAintSoBad isn’t and never did smoke cigarettes or the like and is not being defensive.

Just nice.

For a change.

Underwater Communications: A 21st Century Upgrade

A Cable Of Light For Undersea Exploration

HIGH SPEED UNDERWATER WIRELESS “INTERNET”

Texting while driving a submarine? The captain should be so lucky.

Submarine communication is slow and dorky. If it works at all. Electromagnetic waves get kinda sulky in the ocean; they dissipate too fast to be useful for underwater communications so subs rely on beeps and boops – audio signals – to keep in touch. Which is HOPELESSLY slow. You can’t do ANY of the things we surface dwellers are used to. Like voice or video.

And, obviously, the cloud computing metaphor’s a little off down there with fish swimming by the porthole.

That’s why robot submersibles (remotely operated vehicles) tend to have an umbilicus – a stiff, heavy cable – which carries transmissions to and from the surface for data and for control of the submersible, itself.

"Squid" submersible (See all the cables?)

But a big cable isn’t exactly an invitation to live wild and free. It grossly limits how far the submersible can go and the kinds of missions it can undertake.

Norman E Farr, a senior engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has, with his team, worked out a solution – an optical/acoustic network. It is high speed, wireless, and, apparently, reliable. Farr and team expect to get started in July with the first large scale deployment of this VERY cool “underwater Internet”.

While “breakthrough” is an overused term, this project may just be one – a breakthrough in underwater communications.

ScienceAintSoBadRating = 10

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Credits for photo of submersible: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gladius/ / CC BY 2.0

Lasers: Leaving Light Behind

One NOISY Laser

Optics: The Phonon Laser

LASERS: AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET

I guess you’re not impressed by lasers.

You’ve got an $8.95 laser pointer from Job Lot. You had some hair removed by a laser. There’s one in your CD player. And they’re inside of things that’re all over your house. You even use one to drive the cat WACKY. And I wish you wouldn’t.

SAME PAGE-INESS

I’ll take a minute here to explain the difference between a laser and, say, an electric light.

Until 1958, when the laser was invented at Bell Labs, all forms of artificial light were “incoherent”. Incoherent light consists of light waves that don’t “line up” particularly well. The crests and the valleys of the waves are “all over the place” as opposed to coherent light where all the crests and valleys DO line up with each other.

What’s the difference? When light is coherent, it behaves itself. Instead of spreading (converging), it remains packed into a tight beam.

Not much of a difference, I admit. But it makes the light kinda “pure” and “monochromatic” (one and only one frequency) as opposed to a flashlight which is a great big MESS of frequencies. And a laser light doesn’t spread out the way we’re used to a light beam behaving; instead it just stays in a tight beam. The science behind it is NICELY described in an article in HOW STUFF WORKS. Which I appreciate because MISTER ScienceAintSoBad is in NO mood to go through all the details, this morning.

The fact that monochromatic laser light DOESN’T dissipate its energy by spreading out like its more ordinary cousins means it can transmit great power over a long distance or offer real accuracy for measuring stuff. Its nice tight beam is even useful for communications since it can illuminate light fibers or bounce off of distant targets and still hold onto its properties.

Who would a thought that a laser, which is, after all, just a humble beam of light, would turn out to be so important?

WHY USE SOUND?

The length of a light wave is short. It’s measured in billionths of a meter. Wanna see how the wavelength varies with color? (Probably not, but just in case, this is fun. )

Frequency, for frequency, the wavelengths of sound are even shorter. Much, much shorter. So sound could be used for WAY more accurate measurements in medicine and other applications. And a sound-based laser (phonon laser) would, no doubt, have other startling tricks it could do besides measurement, if we really had one.

THE PHONON LASER

Phonon lasers still aren’t available at Job Lot but the work’s movin’ along VERY nicely. It’s described in Physical Review Letters (who NAMES these publications?) and in Physics.

Mister ScienceAintSoBad thinks the emergence of the phonon laser is now likely. Whole new industries will follow.

ScienceAintSoBad Rating= 10