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Entries tagged with 'Science'
Posted Nov. 1, 2007,
Elephant on LSD is #1!
By David Hershkovits
The foibles of man knows no bounds. The figure of the mad scientist looms large in fact and fiction for a simple reason. They're for real! If you need further proof, New Scientist has put together a listing of the top ten wackiest experiments of all time. And the # 1 is Elephant on Acid:
When Warren Thomas, the director of Lincoln Park Zoo in Oklahoma City, approached Tusko the elephant with a syringe full of LSD in 1962, he thought that he was about to make a major contribution to science.Within a few moments of being injected, Tusko began trumpeting furiously, before keeling over as if he had been shot. An hour later, he was dead. “It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD,” Thomas and his colleagues concluded.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. via timesonline
Posted Apr. 17, 2007,
Red Square Nebula -- The Death of a Star
By Ann Magnuson
What you see here is a dying star. Called the "Red Square," this particular nebula displays a unique symmetry that is dazzling astronomers and layfolk alike! Thanks to infrared cameras at two different observatories, this composite image can now replace your old screen saver. And provide a rather effective mandala for meditation as well.
According to New Scientist Space, the reasons for this memorable exit are unclear. "Towards the end of their lives," the site reads, "many low-mass stars, like the Sun, slough off their outer layers to produce striking 'planetary' nebulae. But the hot star at the heart of the Red Square nebula, called MWC 922, appears to be relatively massive, suggesting another process formed its signature shape."
And according to National Geographic's website, "few other such nebula have been detected -- among them the Red Rectangle Nebula in the constellation Monoceros -- but what causes the phenomena has been poorly understood. Scientists say the new image shows the Red Square to be a bipolar nebula, with stellar winds blowing cone-shaped jets away from its hot central star. "
If only some of the bipolar central stars currently blowing hot stellar wind out here in Hollywood could burn out so spectacularly!