Category: Science

Uber Delivering Flu Shots

November 18, 2015 / / 0 Comments

As if I didn’t love this company already for its shattering of taxi cartels, they are now going to be delivering flu shots on November 19.

Customers who normally use the Uber smartphone app to call for a ride will be able to request a flu shot — and a nurse in an Uber car will show up at their home or office in about three dozen cities across the country.

The charge is $10, but the nurse can give up to 10 flu shots at each location for no additional charge. So work colleagues can split the cost among themselves.

Unfortunately, it’s only one day, but I hope this is an annual program by Uber.

There’s Gold in Them There…Sewage?

March 30, 2015 / / 0 Comments

According to this article in the Guardian, scientists are looking at extracting valuable metals from human waste.

Sewage sludge contains traces of gold, silver and platinum at levels that would be seen as commercially viable by traditional prospectors. “The gold we found was at the level of a minimal mineral deposit,” said Kathleen Smith, of the US Geological Survey.
Smith and her colleagues argue that extracting metals from waste could also help limit the release of harmful metals, such as lead, into the environment in fertilisers and reduce the amount of toxic sewage that has to be buried or burnt.

Bad jokes aside, this is actually an interesting concept. It also reinforces the concept that as the price for a commodity rises, human ingenuity will come up with new ways to access those commodities. 

In this case, the commode. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself).

Friday Quote – Margaret Thatcher

February 27, 2015 / / 0 Comments

From my experience let me say this: in today’s world it is no bad thing for a politician to have had the benefit of a scientific background. And not only politicians. Those who work in industry, in commerce, in investment. Indeed, so important has it become that I believe we are right to make science a compulsory subject for all schoolchildren.

Margaret Thatcher

Physics Gives Lazy People Another Reason To Be Late

November 10, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Scientists over at Boulder, Colorado, have developed the what looks like the most advanced and accurate clock. Plus, it will keep precise time for five billion years (5,000,000,000 yrs). That’s amazing engineering.

Unintended side effect:

But this new clock has run into a big problem: This thing we call time doesn’t tick at the same rate everywhere in the universe. Or even on our planet.

If you took two of these clocks and put one higher even a few inches, the two clocks would start reading time differently. Not much, but that difference would build up.

Why? Gravity. In fact, one of the proposed uses of this kind of device is to measure gravity to help get a better picture of the make-up of the planet.

Science is cool.