Cations and Anions

Cations and Anions are concepts in chemistry. They are ions with a positive or negative charge. You can tell which is which in a few easy ways.

Cations - the t looks a little like a cross, or a plus sign! + cations are positive.

Anions - the common prefix "a" often stands for "without" or "against". Think of it as against a charge. -

Plural Octopus

I learned recently that I have been saying the plural of octopus incorrectly for many years. Apparently the word octopus originated from the Greek oktṓpous. The correct plural of this is octopodes; many incorrectly assume that the word is Latin, which would result in a plural of octopi. Currently most people accept octopi or octopuses as reasonable, especially as octopodes are rarely encountered, as the octopus is a mostly solitary creature. 

Image from: XKCD

Blood Letting

Blood letting has been a commonplace practice for thousands of years (all the way back to the Ancient Romans). It is estimated to have been the cause of at least hundreds of deaths (including, some say, that of America's first president, George Washington). But did you ever wonder where the idea came from?

First, a little background in genetics. Men have an X chromosome and a Y chromosome. Women have two X's. The fact that men only have one X makes them more susceptible to certain genetic diseases.

This fact was not unnoticed in Ancient Greek and Rome. Some physicians looked at the fact that women were not so susceptible to particular diseases (such as epilepsy). They then looked at what women had that men did not. What caught their attention was the menstrual cycle. They connected the loss of blood to the immunity to certain diseases.

Galen, a very influential Roman doctor, loved to write about the wonders of bloodletting as a treatment to disease. Already a common practice, his book renewed popularity of the treatment, and bloodletting was then continued for hundreds of years.

Methyl Ioxide

On December 1st the exiting governor of California approved the use of a chemical, methyl ioxide, as a pesticide in this state. There has been an almost unprecedented amount of controversy about this decision, and here is a great article about both sides.


http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20101204/OPINION02/12040332/Point-counterpoint-use-of-methyl-iodide


Most information online is inflammatory and unabashedly biased towards their respective side.

Gemini

Tonight is the peak night for the gemini meteor shower! This shower is unique in that it isn't caused by a comet, but an asteroid, that seems to come in the December of every year, very reliably. The best times to see this are tonight late at night or in the early morning of tomorrow.


On another note, today I discovered that another word for hazelnut is filbert.

New Life Forms

NASA came out today with a much awaited statement on life forms. NASA's astrobiology scientists have discovered a new form of life, (on Earth, sadly). This life form uses arsenic instead of phosphorus, which all other known life forms use. This discovery supports the theory that life outisde of this planet could exist in a variety of truly alien forms.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/nasa-finds-new-life/

Reverse Aging

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101128/full/news.2010.635.html

According to a new study on mice, aging (ageing for my Austalian and British friends) is reversible! If you want cancer that is. However, this is still a huge breakthrough in aging research, and may lead to a future race of immortal people...or mice.



On another note, the aging in the test mice was premature, not natural.