Nerdy Science Blog

Microscopes have saved human from many microorganisms that cannot be seen by naked eyes.  However traditional microscopes are bulky, and it is unconvenient to carry them around.  Microscope has been integrated with handphone, and recently researchers fit a powerful microscope only a single image-sensing chip.  This newly developed microscope does not require lenses anymore.  Developers will build an iPod-sized device with an LCD display.  The portable device is also cheap.  The chip is only $10 and it is disposable.  This reduces the possibility of contamination between samples, and allows medics in the developing world to carry it around easily so that diseases like malaria can be diagnosed.

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GM crops are becoming important in dealing with world food crisis, but anti-GM campaigners have been vandalizing GM crop trials.  As current EU legislation requires GM trial locations to be disclosed, anti-GM protesters are able to get hold of this information and disrupt the experiments.  Senior researchers wished a change in legislation that can keep secret of the open-air trials of GM crops while the panel will at the risks.  The anti-GM protesters destroyed the GM crop trials without looking at its potential benefits.  Jim Dumwell said that there was only one application for GM crop trials in Britain in this year.

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Also Read: In food we trust by Greg Revell

For those who are fancy with human anatomy, perhaps you should consider wearing this Anatomica Red Heart Necklace.

The 6.2cm wide and 8cm long red heart pendant is made of printed and cut acrylic.  However the 18″ silver plated chain itself is not red (which I thought could make them into vessels).

Each necklace costs $25.00.

While I was searching informations for my assignments, I came across this patent (GB2437709) by Anderson David that makes me laughing non-stop.  The patent is the amazing penis enlarger condom!

My product is a condom that makes your penis size artificially larger and it Is designed to be a part of a new range of condoms to make wearing them more fun. My product is quite simply a plastic mould shaped to resemble the shape of a penis head. This mould Is glued to the Inside of a normal style condom during the manufacturing process. As the condom is rolled onto the penis the mould fits around the front of the penis then sticks out In front of the penis by a certain length artificially increasing Its size. This mould Is made out of see through plastic and is hollow with a hole / slot In the base end to allow the male to ejaculate. As the mould is attached to the condom during the manufacturing stage the user is able to roll the whole product on In an easy fashion similar to putting on a normal condom.

By using this condom, you can artificially increase your penis length by 2.54 centimetres.  However the size of the increase and shape were not specific.

Stumbled this animation graphic.  I was really amazed by the amount of cosmetic products they use.

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The Inoculated Mind just shared a new Malaysia Biotechnology Blog, namely Malaysia4Biotech.

I’m glad to see that there are more science related blogs in Malaysia blogosphere.  The blog is consisted of three authors, who are Mahaletchumy Arujanan, Joel William and KC Liew from Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre (MABIC).

Why Blog On Biotechnology?

However, we are lagging behind many nations which seriously points out that the current efforts put into this area are insufficient or ineffective. Many constraints and hurdles are faced by those involved in the biotechnology sector. Lack of funding, grants, expertise, pool of skilled workers, experience in commercialization, collaboration between scientists and the industry, and commitments from venture capital and bankers are some of the glaring constraints and hurdles faced. This is coupled with the anti-technology movement spearheaded by activists, environmentalists and consumer groups. Sentiments such as anti-technology, globalization, and monopolization by certain multinational companies have been planted into the minds of the general public.

Although there are not much posts have been published at that blog, I read all of the posts and I found it easy to read.  No jargons are used and the articles are good.

This is what happen if you haven’t had sex for a long time.

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This fish won’t turn into delicious sashimi on your table unless you are Bender from Futurama.  This robotic sea bream is named ‘Tai-robot-kun’ and approximately 7 kg.  It is developed by Professor Ikuo Yamamoto, University of Kitakyushu as an underwater survey robot.  I wonder if the Japanese will develope a robotic whale or not.

(news [via])

Business Facilities Magazine released a ‘2008 Business Facilities Rankings Report’.  The biotechnology strength rankings in U.S. are as below:

1. Pennsylvania
2. California
3. Massachusetts
4. Ohio
5. Texas
6. Illinois
7. New Jersey
8. New York
9. Florida
10. Kansas
11. Minnesota

For more rankings please visit their website.

Tired of finding out your card to get access to your department?  It is also pretty unconvenient when both your hands are full of things.  Perhaps you should consider this Grad Student Bar Code Flap Tag Bag.

It looks ugly and it costs only $13.99.