Science & Technology

Every kindergartener knows that humans have two kinds of stomachs.

Nine men and nine women file into a room for a scientific study. A tubing system set up with a small pump continuously draws blood from all of the volunteers to test the chemicals that course through their veins. Simultaneous cardiovascular tests measure their blood pressures and heart rates through small finger cuffs.

Light Emitting Diodes, more commonly known as LEDs, are touted as the energy efficient alternative to conventional incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs. LEDs are used in nearly every electronic device from computer monitors to remote-control cars. However, a new study co-published by researchers from UC Davis and UC Irvine shows that the LED lights used in many electronic devices can contain harmful substances that affect human health.

Back in 2009, UC Davis scientists made an unexpected discovery in the rocky hills of Iceland. The team, which included geology professor Robert Zierenberg, spent months drilling for volcano-heated water when the drill hit magma just two kilometers beneath the surface. Though the find was an accident, studying the molten rock could lead to progress in the field of geothermal energy.

Organizing financials can be a tough task for anyone, but it doesn’t have to be. There’s a great website called Mint.com that can help you organize all of your financials in one place. This site might not be perfect for everyone, but I tried it out and was impressed.

I’ve got a riddle for you: Who’s got bulgy eyes, leathery skin and a libido on over-drive?

Three point five millimeters, or .138 inches, is approximately one-third the size of a pencil eraser. Now image packing 31,000 genes – 200 million base pairs – into that size. The water flea, Daphnia pulex, has managed just that, with a genome larger than any animal ever sequenced, including humans, which have only 23,000 genes.

Waiting rooms at the doctor’s office are stressful places; you wait nervously for your name to be called as you flip through the provided reading materials and compulsively check your watch, wishing you could be anywhere else except on the receiving end of a devilishly long needle. Now imagine that the waiting room you are in has 18,000 other patients in it, all of you have chronic liver failure and only a quarter of you get a transplant. That is the hell endured by everyone on the liver transplant list.

A recent research study by UC Davis scientists may help bomb-sniffing dogs and their handlers become more accurate in their searches.

The energy powerhouses of cells, called mitochondria, are much more dynamic than basic illustrations of cell organelles suggest. Mitochondria constantly split and fuse depending on the needs of the cell; they split when they need to move around the cell and fuse when they need to make energy that the cell can use.

I told someone recently that it’s a miracle not all my columns are about insects.

Dropbox is a website that allows you to store files and access them from any computer with an Internet connection. You can even create a folder on your computer desktop that will automatically sync to your Dropbox account so anything in that folder is always available to you.