Space has a new PA!

Posted by Hello

As most of you know that read this blog or know me in person, I love my science. Before I came to university, I used to buy the New Scientist magazine every week for its articles! Now that I cant really afford to be spending nearly £3 a week on that I use their website weekly! This week saw the introduction of a sister site called www.Newscientistspace.com This brand new site is for the sole use of all the space related news and articles. It has six different sections,

• News - http://www.newscientistspace.com/news.ns
• Solar System - http://www.newscientistspace.com/channel/solar-system
• Space Technology - http://www.newscientistspace.com/channel/space-tech
• Human spaceflight - http://www.newscientistspace.com/channel/human-spaceflight
• Astronomy - http://www.newscientistspace.com/channel/astronomy
• Special reports. - http://www.newscientistspace.com/specials.ns

Although its only opened this week there are already a multitude of stories to interests anyone. The only problem now is, sharing my time between the two sites!!!! Though I have some intrest in astronomy and space my field of choice is biology and technology so I will be more focused on the main site.

One story so far that has interested me is the following;

Posted by Hello

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn7412-nearearth-asteroids-buzz-the-us-government.html

After so many movies and films showing the likes of Bruce Willis saving the world from a Near Earth Asteroid it looks like the US government is finally stepping in to help. The US Congress has passed a $40 million bill to help NASA search for these NEO and map them. The money will be spent over 2006/7. Schweickart is also asking Congress to start thinking about what the government might do to a NEO if the need arose because there is no plan to date.

If this story interested you or you would like to look around this great new science resorce then use the links provided in this text.

What’s my name again?

Posted by Hello

I often find that sometimes my memory lets me down and sit there thinking about trying out the latest ‘cure your memory’ herbal pills that everyone swears by. But would you believe it science is stepping in to help.
A drug called Ampakines helps boost a neurotransmitter that helps in storing memories. The article I go this information from likens it to a computer; they think that by taking this drug it ups the voltage in your brain. When they tested different concentrations of the drug on a test group of humans and found that even a small concentration of the drug had remarkable results on the test subject. Even when they were sleep deprived and done tests they came out with outstanding results! In fact some rhesus monkeys that were tested had some even funnier conclusions, those that had little sleep did BETTER in reaction times and accuracy than those that had plenty of rest!

But now the sensible side of me has to say some things. Yes, this drug would be a great help to those people with illness like ADHD and Alzheimer’s and people that work late nights or need high concentration levels to work like doctors but where does the usage end. I mean would it be fair for one person to take this drug and sit a test and receive high results than another person that did not and receive a low grade. If this drug comes on the market in a few years, would it mean that students would be tested for the drug before sitting the exam? In fact this drug helps in the memory process so what if that student took the drug while studying to aid the creation of memories but stopped taken it before the exam. With no trace of the drug in their system at the time of the exam, it would not be known that they took the drug to aid their memory while revising. I think that there is a lot of benefits to this drug but also a lot of moral issues that people are going to have to think about.

Link to article:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624994.700