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8. januar 2003
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From the tiny to the sexy: 2002 in science
If any major scientific revelations happened in the past year, we will probably not know about it for some years yet. Truly revolutionary ideas take a lot of time to digest, check, double-check and finally confirm and accept.
The journal Science chose the discovery of the purpose of micro-RNA (or small RNAs) as the scientific breakthrough of the year: "Small RNAs Make Big Splash". Earlier, scholars were baffled about what exactly the tiny RNA molucules were doing. They do not code any proteins, like normal RNA does. During 2002, however, a number of discoveries showed that microRNA is the very control mechanism of the DNA, our genetic code.
 Another interesting series of breakthroughs also made science take some small steps forward. Neutrinos were finally confirmed to have mass, and explained a few paffling paradoxes with these mysterious particles. Perhaps of greater significance for human wellbeing, DNA research made many interesting steps forward. Both the parasite and the mosquito responsible for spreading malaria had its genome mapped, which hopefully leads to breakthroughs in the struggle against the disease that has killed the most humans in history.
Cloning took the big splashes in the media, and after Dolly a number of other mammals were cloned. One of them was the first cat. Interesting to note that the cloned cat was the end-result of a process that had given 200 failures! So it is no surprise that cloning experts gives no credibiluty whatsoever to the Raelian's claims of having give birth to the first human clone just before the new year. One can imagine a massive, secret delivery room with hundreds of pregnant and aborting UFO crazies, and an unknown number of horrible monstrosities.
Alas, 2002 was also the year when a number of scientific frauds were discovered. Jan Hendrik Schön, Bell Lab's new young scientific superstar, convinced many that staggering breakthroughs in nano-technology was within reach. Under closer scrutiny, however, it proved he had been less than honest in his results. It is sad that this happens, but perhaps a good thing that fraudsters are caught. At any rate, a brilliant scientific carreer is probably over.
It was also the year of some very good scientific news for our sex lives. Italian scientists finally confirmed that the g-spot indeed does exist, to which one could hear a unison "d'oh" from millions of women. Men, on their part, were very happy to hear that scientists discovered that skin contact with semen both helped women's immune system during pregnancies and is a potent (!) anti-depressant for women.
(From a Norwegian article on Forskning.no)
11:57:59 PM 
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Several terror groups known to have tested ricin
Several Islamic terrorist groups are known to have tested the highly dangerous posion ricin, which was found in London earlier this week. Large stores were found at Al-Qaeda sites in Afghanistan, and Mullah Krekar, the kurdish militant leader of Ansar al-Islam who managed to get a refugee status in Norway, is also known to have tested the poison on animals and at least one person.
Anti-terror police in London has arrested one more person, and are looking for one more suspect.
8:03:39 PM
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Why the rush? 
Anyone can tell me where this is, and what they really meant, assuming, of course, it is not what it sounds like...?
4:39:09 PM
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Alleged clone 'parents' bar gene test
 According to Brigitte Boisselier (picture), chief researcher of Raelian-owned Clonaid, the alleged parents of the alleged first human clone, 'Eve' have refused to allow the child to be DNA tested for fears of losing the child.
Of course, if 'Eve' was a clone, she would be the first human in history to only have one parent.
That this is just a scheme and that no human clones exist is getting more obvious every day. The scientists who created the clone 'Dolly' and other mammals, while having vastly more resources than the secretive Clonaid, did only succeed after creating hundreds of failures, and the clones actually born had a very high probability of later defects even when the newborn clones looked healthy.
This is almost certainly nothing but a massive publicity stunt for an unscrupulous sect that has taken the world on a ride. I am sure their membership is soaring these days.
Again: does the would-be clone parents in the sect pay for it in advance?
2:36:49 PM
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US backs down on North Korea
South Korea has succeeded in making the US back down from its no-negotiating stance on the nuclear standoff with North Korea. Of course, the US administration can still claim it stands by its words, since they insist that they will talk, but offer no concessions.
Time will tell. North Korea is ruthless, and certainly fits any definition of 'rogue state.' And it has nukes, and would doublessly be able to inflict serious damage to South Korea and possibly Japan no matter what the US did militarily. It's hard to see how the US could launch a war against NK in the present climate.
1:40:05 PM
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Medical marijuana vs what
I picked up this funny flash cartoon at a stoned age (where else?). It is asking some very good questions why certain drugs are legal, while medicial marijuana isn't.
10:56:47 AM
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Gravity moves at speed of light
 One of the first fascinating experimental confirmations of Einstein's theory of general relativity was that light would be bent gravitaionally around planets and stars as it passed through space.
Also, while Newton had assumed that gravity was instantanious, Einstein postulated that gravity moved at the speed of light. The latter has been much harder to confirm, but a team of researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia claims to have done it. Exploiting a rare alignment of Jupiter against a group of very distant, but brilliant quasars, and employing the Very Long Baseline Array of radio telescopes, they measured that light propagates at 1.06 times the speed of light with a margin of error at 20%. That translates into a very good confirmation that the speed of gravity is the same as the speed of light, and if confirmed, it rules out that gravity moves with infinite speed.
It is another powerful confirmation that Einstein was correct.
10:48:23 AM
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Oil prices tumbling
Prospects of war with Iraq and the Venezuelan crisis sent oil prices surging earlier, but this week it started tumbling again amid rumours of an OPEC production quota increase. The price of crude oil has fallen $2/barrel this week alone.
10:20:39 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.02.03; 00:36:35.
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