Sunday, March 13, 2011

5 fascinating factoids

Quoted by William Lehr, MIT in DISCOVER, March 2011
"I might have an insulin pump that's controlled over the internet, and some guy halfway around
the world can hack into it and change my drug dosage."

Rebecca Coffey, in DISCOVER, March 2011
"...the A. aperta male (spider) can disable the female from 4.5 centimeters... suggesting he may
be deploying a gas to knock out the femme fatale."

I cannot help wondering if his gas is silent and deadly. But, that's just me.

Also, there's a Brazilian wandering spider, Phoneutria nigriventer, whose venom causes
painful penile erections that may last for many hours.

Reported by Kirstin Weir in DISCOVER, April 2011
"Scientists at Osaka University recently developed mice that are especially susceptible to DNA
copying errors, seeking to increase the rate of mutations and see what new traits appear.

Medical researchers in Japan report that a trained dog sniffing human stool samples can detect
colorectal cancer about as well as a colonoscopy.

Good dog! Imagine how much we could save if Obamacare sent a dog like that to every nursing home,
and every factory, and every office building... and every airport.

Or maybe, it would be more efficient if we submitted a sample with our tax returns.

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