雖然科學界研究了很久, 如今還是沒有找到醫這種病的方法.
連研究了二十多年的科學家也宣布可能真的找不到 solution…..

最新新聞說一種 nanoemulsion 有可能可以防禦HIV.
如果成功的話, 可以說是醫療界的大突破呢!

Nanoemulsion vaccines effective against HIV?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=848

p.s. 今天加班到六點多才離開公司. 怎麼這幾天突然這麼忙碌?? ~”~

(from ABC Science Online)
Einstein was right about time (link)
Monday, 12 November 2007

Albert Einstein’s treatise on the relativity of time turns out to be spot on, according to most accurate experiment yet into so-called time dilation.

About 100 years after Einstein wrote that time speeds up or slows down according to how fast an object is moving in relation to another, an international team of researchers used a particle accelerator to show just that.

According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, a clock that is in motion ticks more slowly than an identical clock at rest.

And this is indeed what happens, say researchers who whizzed two beams of atoms around a doughnut-shaped course to represent Einstein’s moving clocks.

The researchers then timed the beams using high-precision laser spectroscopy and found that, compared with the outside world, time for these atomic travellers did indeed slow down.

They published their results online today in the journal Nature Physics.

“We were able to determine the effect more precisely than ever before,” says lead researcher Associate Professor Gerald Gwinner from Canada’s University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

“We found the observed effect to be in complete agreement.”

The experiments, says Gwinner, confirm the technology aboard US military satellites that provide the signals for the Global Positioning System (GPS), the ‘satnav’ network that is used as a navigational aid around the world.

GPS satellites have precise atomic clocks on board to send out synchronised signals that are then transcribed by trigonometry to give a position.

“GPS uses satellites to measure the position of objects on the ground, but it needs to take into account the fact that the satellites themselves are in motion at high speeds as they orbit the earth,” says Gwinner.

“Our test validates the theory used by the devices to compensate for the satellites’ motion.”

The first measurement of Einstein’s time dilation took place in 1938, when US scientists used the Doppler effect – the change in pitch when a sound and the person hearing it are moving apart or closer together – as the measuring tool.

Einstein’s theory of special relativity has become the basis for innumerable science fiction tales, for it opens up the prospect of bending and distorting time.

According to the theory, if one of two identical twins were launched into space at very high speed, when he returned home, he would be younger than the earthbound twin.

那為什麼參加 Frienster & Hi5? 主要是因為前幾年收到很多朋友的 invite, 就想說玩玩看. 到現在我還是很 hesitant 去放太多的資料上去. 總覺得不知道怎麼樣的. 所以呢, 我的 account 到目前為止還是很少東西….. 不過還是有放幾張照片 :o 前幾個月, 很不願意的參加了 MySpace. 因為 Jon 在日本的照片都放在那, 要申請才能進去 -.-

至於最近很多人在瘋狂的 Facebook…. 收到一堆 invite, 不過我到現在還沒有申請喔 XD 盡量不想申請. 太多 registration email 了. 要的話也只會用垃圾信箱…… =o=

這幾天還出了一些關於 Facebook 的新聞呢~ Saying that employees using facebook may cost employers up to $6000 per year or $5 billion per year in Australia, in terms of productivity that is. 所以, 最好別在上班時間做私人的事情囉 :o 很貴ㄝ.

(news.com.au)
Facebook time-wasters could cost $5 billion a year
By Dina Rosendorff
August 20, 2007 07:00am

FACEBOOK, the latest global social networking craze, could cost employers up to $5 billion a year in productivity.

The rise of the “underground intranet” in workplaces has resulted in more time-wasting by employees.

It could also open businesses to cyber criminals and legal liability, analysis by internet security firm SurfControl Technology says.

The data found if one employee spent an hour a day of company time on Facebook, it could cost their employer more than $6200 a year.

Projected across the 800,000 businesses with one or more employees in Australia, this one wasted hour a day equalled productivity losses of more than $5 billion a year.

100 joining per hour

There are more than 230,000 Facebook users across the country, with reportedly more than 100 Australians joining the phenomenon each hour.

With many users logging on during work hours, productivity loss was not the only drawback, SurfControl chairman Richard Cullen said.

“Hackers will no doubt be targeting Facebook as an attack mechanism because of (its) popularity and power as a platform,” Dr Cullen said.

“It’s only a matter of time before a security loophole is discovered and exploited.”

‘Blanket bans’

Many companies were placing blanket bans on the site, created by then 19-year-old Harvard College dropout Mark Zuckerberg in 2004.

But account director Tammy Tucker from marketing communications agency Haystac, whose employees were connected to Facebook, said the phenomena had reshaped the media landscape and was now regarded as a powerful business tool.

“It’s important for a marketing communications agency to be on the pulse with new and emerging social media platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Second Life,” Ms Tucker said.

“Social networking sites like Facebook enable us to connect with our clients, media representatives and our 40 plus staff in our Sydney and Melbourne offices.”

‘Boon for business’

Despite Facebook’s negative side, Dr Cullen said it could also be a boon for business.

“A lot of enlightened employers are encouraging socialising as part of the working experience because it makes people want to be at work longer,” he said.

“There needs to be awareness and education on the part of the employer as to what is the appropriate level of use.”

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22273758-2,00.html

(news.com.au)
Play cool, stop text messaging
By Julia Carlisle
March 09, 2007 09:02am

Image: Keep them keen … girls have been told to stop text messaging if they want to lure guys

GIRLS, if want your man to stay interested, stop sending text messages. SMS could be sabotaging your chance of finding love.

While world leaders talk about the perils of global warming, single women are bemoaning a drought of a different kind.

And it seems that the era of instant communication isn’t doing us any favours.

That’s the message to come out of a recent dating workshop held in Sydney to coincide with the publication of the latest book on finding and keeping a man.

Relationships advice columnist Dr Cindy Pan and radio personality Bianca Dye drew on their own experiences to write their guide to love and the modern girl in How to Play Hard to Get: How to Catch and Keep Mr Right, Not Mr Right Now.

Dye says the nature of instant communication has created a whole host of problems, one of them being chronic insecurity.

“I knew I didn’t have to text him straight away after a date, but what did I do? Text him,” says Dye.

“Then I would stress. Does he like me or not?

“He’d send me a text message and I wouldn’t hear from him in three days – he must be seeing someone else!”

As it turned out, he’d be busy at work, buying his groceries or innocently working out at the gym.

The immediacy of SMS and email can also make us look overly keen – a guaranteed turn-off for blokes.

For example, a guy sends you a text message suggesting a movie.

Within four seconds, you’ve replied “Yes, when?, where? what time?” and “when can I c u again?”

Worst of all, it can turn us into desperados.

Dye cites the case of a woman who texted her boyfriend, and didn’t receive a reply for a day.

“By the evening she had convinced herself he was having an affair, the relationship was over, and she was a single girl again,” she says.

When he called the next day he couldn’t understand the drama. His only problem was a flat battery.

Another woman checked her phone 300 times after messaging a love interest to see if he was free for a drink.

Four hours later, she receives a reply, but in the 240 minutes that have passed, she turned herself into a nervous wreck checking her phone, just in case she missed the call.

We also risk reading all sorts of things into a simple SMS or email, Dye says.

“I would ring my friends, asking for their help in ‘reading between the line’ of a text message or email that I’d received from a potential date,” says Dye.

So what’s the advice from the professionals?

Go back to the basics, rely on your natural instinct and charm, don’t give too much of yourself away, and in extreme cases, throw your mobile phone in the bin.

The old adage of “Keep ‘em keen, treat ‘em mean” has changed with the times, Pan says, but the principle remains.

“It’s not that old-fashioned idea … acting aloof, being an ice-princess or a diva, because that’s actually hard work,” says Dr Pan.

“It’s about being hard to get, having some self-respect, and not giving everything away at once.

“Women need to value themselves and command respect from others.

“Women need to back away. They need to trust themselves, trust their attractiveness, and maintain a certain amount of reserve. Don’t chase.”

Dye says her worst mistake was saying those three words, “I” “love” “You” – via a text message.

“I waited, and waited, and put myself under so much stress, it was ridiculous.

“I expected a response immediately. When he didn’t respond in the instant, I was sure that he didn’t care about me.”

Dr Pan says Dye would have been better saying it in person and saying it genuinely, and not expecting an answer.

In this hi-tech, gadget-obsessed world, where we have information at our fingertips, dating is one more area where we need to step back.

So turn off your mobile phone. Stop logging on to your computer at midnight and checking emails.

Go for a walk, write a love letter, and keep smiling.

It may pay to take a lesson from Jane Austen’s era, when sweet love letters were the way of communication and relationships took time to develop – while waiting for the postman to arrive.

Gizmo
16 September 2006
(From New Scientist Print Edition)

Fancy a shirt that displays a video message to match your mood, a sofa that glows in the dark or even curtains that flash “Happy Christmas”? You’re in luck – from next year, photonic textiles from Philips will make that possible. Waterproof LEDs and wires are woven into the cloth and pre-programmed graphics will flash and appear to move over the surface. For early e-garments check out http://tinyurl.com/lsuwo

JVC’s Near Speaker Surround system will let people living in thin-walled apartments feel as if they are playing their DVDs really loud, except they won’t upset the neighbours. DVD video is fed soundlessly to the TV, while surround sound audio feeds a twin speaker box placed in front of the sofa. Clever phase and volume shifting fools the listener into thinking the music is twice as loud as it really is.

From issue 2569 of New Scientist magazine, 16 September 2006, page 27 _M#]

相關連接: Philips Research – Lumalive light emitting textiles

自從古代, 人類一直希望可以於長生不老. 不過到現在還沒有”研究”出這種妙藥. 其實有很多關於長生不老的故事….. 話說以前有個瘋狂女人, 把很多年輕少女殺了之後, 用她們的血洗澡, 想要長生不老, 那是多麼的殘忍啊! 也有一個說法是當吸血鬼的話就可以永生. 唉…. 全部聽起來都 unethical :S 然後有道教的; 以長生不老為仙人的標誌. 秦朝時, 有方士徐福為秦始皇求長生不老藥, 攜童男童女童各500, 出海尋找蓬萊, 瀛洲諸仙山上的仙人. 結果不知所踪. 後道教中又有專門煉丹服藥的流派, 也是為了長生不老 (道教資料自Wikipedia).

搞不懂為什麼人會想要長生不老. 不會很累嗎? 經過那麼久的時間, 人類才慢慢開始接受不可能長生不老這個 fact.

可是, 現代科學發達, 人類又開始對長生不老感到興趣. 有些研究 stem cells 的科學家又開始找長生不老的方法. 真悲哀啊… ~”~ 我覺得, 要永生是不能單靠物質科學的.

(from ninemsn.com.au)
Geneticists slams anti-ageing movement
Wednesday Aug 9 15:38 AEST

Humans will never live forever so they should really stop trying.

That’s the warning from outspoken Australian geneticist Robin Holliday, who has told an international medical conference that the anti-ageing medicine movement is ridiculous.

Dr Holliday, from the Australian Academy of Science, has called on scientists from the movement to stop their “extravagant” claims that people can one day live for hundreds of years, with biotechnology curing all age-related disease.

“This is complete nonsense, breathtakingly arrogant and breathtakingly ignorant,” the scientist told the International Congress of Human Genetics in Brisbane on Wednesday.

“To extend human lifespan you would need to completely re-engineer the body, which took evolution millions of years to create, and that would result in a completely different being.”

He said mammals have a limited natural life span that is unlikely to change.

The best chance of extending life is by tackling age-related disease and understanding more about body maintenance, not biotechnology.

“The question is not why we age but why do we last as long as we do?”

Dr Holliday said human hearts and bones can only stand up to so much wear and tear because they contain cells that can not divide and repair themselves.

To live forever, people would need two vascular systems so one could be shut off while the other is repaired.

Dr Holliday explained that the body uses it energy in three areas – essential metabolic functions, reproduction and maintenance – and lifespan depends on a delicate balance between the need to reproduce and the need to maintain.

Mammals that reproduce quickly, like rodents, tend to put less energy into the maintenance of their bodies.

On the other hand, organisms that reproduce slowly with fewer offspring, like humans, put more resources into maintenance and therefore live longer.

“Ageing, in my opinion, is due to a failure of maintenance mechanisms, of which there are 15 to 20, that include repairing damaged DNA, defence against free radical damage and removal of proteins,” he said.

Dr Holliday said there are some strategies that can extend life, like restricting calorie intake, but this has the side effect of causing sterility.

A lower metabolic rate and body temperature or increased sleep can also contribute to longer life spans, but only slightly.

The only way to significantly extend a lifetime is through gene mutations over millions of years that help the species adapt to a changing environment.