What if we could stop burning fossil fuels and still have all the energy we need at less cost? Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist at NASA Langley, reveals that NASA has been studying low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) as a propulsion source for airplanes and spacecraft for several years (http://tinyurl.com/BushnellOnLENR) "…we now have over two ( Read more... )

I blogged in February about two Italian inventors, who had demonstrated a device that produces very low-cost energy from hydrogen and nickel, apparently producing copper and iron. Although everyone is (and certainly should be) highly skeptical, the device had already survived close examination by outside experts at that time. Since then, two more ( Read more... )

Joyous_Janie has posted on our trip today, but I wanted to share a photo of us having dinner next to the Charles bridge, which was constructed starting in 1357 and is second in age to the stone bridge in Regensburg (built in 1135) that we visited a few days ago. Each bridge was crucial to the development of trade between east and west Europe ( Read more... )

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Got up at 2:45 AM (which I keep telling myself is almost 6 AM in Ann Arbor) and am now sitting at the airport waiting for our flight to Denver. We were the first of the day to use the gate. Nice that SFO offers free WiFi. I just realized we will be seeing Beth on Mother's day, which is cool. I visited my mom yesterday and did my best to make her ( Read more... )

www.youtube.com/watch

A computer sculpting a block of aluminum into something beautiful. I, for one, bow to our new robot masters (NB: April 21, 2011 is the day Skynet is slated to become self-aware and take over the world according to the Terminator storyline).

The new science of epigenetics (heritable changes in gene expression that are not due to changes in DNA sequence) has exploded on the field in the past 10 years. It has been called "the most important advance in heredity since the discovery of the gene". I gave a 1 hour talk to the GI faculty on this topic one year ago because I wanted an excuse to ( Read more... )

A fascinating drama will be playing out over the next few months as the latest claims of a new inexpensive energy source are tested in the marketplace.

You may recall that the original claims of "cold-fusion" by Pons and Fleishman in 1989 were roundly discounted and condemned to the same trash heap as perpetual motion machines. Condemnation was ( Read more... )

I share an interest in orchid growing with Karen Bagatellos, a nurse practitioner in my office at UCSF. She gave me this Laeliocattleya orchid 4 years ago because if wouldn't bloom on her cool back porch in San Francisco. For four years it grew in my greenhouse with only an occasional flower until suddenly it produced seven flower spikes. Wish I ( Read more... )

My grandson Stephen was 3 months old Monday. He seems to have a particular affinity for bright lights. This comic may help explain why.
xkcd.com/876/