Kalbzayn's Writing World - Science

Should you breathe through your nose or mouth?

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 22:24:19 -0700

Futurismic pointed me to a very timely article considering the potty practice we've been doing around the house.

Apparently astronauts and sailors on non-nuclear submarines have been using similar systems for years, but the one they are taking up now will have improved capacity and efficiency.

For those of you who don't have time to read the links, they are taking a machine up to the space station that will convert pee into oxygen for the astronauts to breathe.

No word on whether Budweiser or Miller was going to be the official sponsor to help increase output.

Technorati tags: NASA, science, gross

Infertility News and Too Much Information About Me

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 07:01:12 -0700

This will definitely fit under the TMI about me. If that bothers you, don't read the rest of this article.

My kids are IVF babies. While we were trying to get pregnant, I was tested and learned that I do not produce sperm. We considered adoption, but decided to go with donor sperm. I will forever be grateful to our donor.

When I was diagnosed, it was a fairly big let down. Some about the male macho mentality makes it hard to deal with not being able to be the genetic father. I got over it pretty quickly, but I did think about it quite a bit for a couple weeks after we found out.

Scientists are working on developing sperm from stem cells. They have managed to make mice sperm from stem cells that was used to fertilize an egg and produce baby mice. There is a ton of work left to do to improve the quality of the sperm to greatly reduce defects in the offspring but this is still exciting news.

This could give infertile men a chance to be the genetic father of their children. They are also hoping to be able to do the same thing with eggs some day. I wonder what the Vatican would have to say about that.

There's some really bizarre possibilities they also mention in the article. Gay couples could have children that have the genes of both parents. One person could provide both the sperm and the egg for a child. Maybe I'm too conventional but that just seems weird to me.

Infant mortality rate - are your apples the same as my apples

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Wed, 10 May 2006 09:19:08 -0700

I read this article about the U.S. having the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world.

I thought it sounded odd at the time. I know we like to complain about our medical care in the U.S., but is it really that bad?
Continue reading "Infant mortality rate - are your apples the same as my apples"

Big Bang and the Cosmological Constant

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Wed, 10 May 2006 06:25:53 -0700

I know the Big Bang happened. You know the Big Bang happened. To think otherwise is foolish nonsense. The Big Bang has been THE model of the universe for quite some time now. It is the best model we've ever had to explain the universe we live in.

But just how accurate is it?
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Avian Flu - A dramatization

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Tue, 09 May 2006 12:47:31 -0700

ABC is bringing the Avian flu virus to your TV in a made for TV movie called "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America."

If you've read this blog for a while, you know that I am pretty amazed at the amount of attention being given to a flu virus that has infected and/or killed very few people and won't be able to do much more than that UNLESS it mutates.

But, I'm a crackpot.
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AIDS in Africa

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Tue, 09 May 2006 08:33:29 -0700

Up until a few years ago, I never believed anything that anybody told me. Maybe I wasn't that bad, but I was a pretty sceptical person. Somewhere along the way, I started to believe in things without ever really learning why I believed in them.

Evolution, big bang, global cooling and/or warming, avian flu. The list goes on about things that we hear in the news and scientists convince us they are right.

Anything contrary to the common opinion must just be the whining of the crackpots.
Continue reading "AIDS in Africa"