sleep — 2013 — The 21st Century Matriarch

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Patent Overlay Mapping: Visualizing Technological Distance - Powerpoint of graphics depicting how patents cite each other in the 2000-2006 time period. The first series is by companies (Samsung, DuPont, IBM, and Philips) and the second is by research topic: nano biosensors, dye-sensitized solar cells, and graphene). The whole paper is available here.

Is being overweight OK after all? - A look at the analysis of weight and mortality (not quality of life). The studies were adjusted for age, gender and smoking but not for fitness or chronic disease indicators.

Massive Stick Sculptures Resemble Castles, Nests and Cocoons - I like the size and shapes of these structures. It looks like the artist is creating about one per month (upcoming installations listed on his web site here). I’d like to see one. The closest to me would be the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA) in October… or maybe I should plan a return trip to Cheekwood Botanical Garden (Nashville, TN) next March.

Our Cultural Addiction to Phones, In One Disconcerting Video - How often have you seen scenes similar to this video? The impact this cultural addiction is having on relationships is still developing. I am glad that the people I am around most of the time are more focused on the people they are with than their phones.

Half of the U.S. lives in these 146 counties - is yours one of them? - The answer for me is ‘no’ but several of the counties that boarder where I live are on the list.

NASA Moonshot Will Test Laser Communications - A precursor to commercial internet satellite services using optical connections instead of today’s radio links.

Going Solar: Options For Homeowners Infograph - Solar panels are not the only option

New Effective Treatment for High Blood Pressure? Removing Tiny Organ - Interesting finding…but is there a side effect of removing the carotid body connection to the brain? Isn’t it still potentially treating the symptom rather than the cause…and whatever is causing the high blood pressure may still be shortening life?

Out of Sync - Your body has multiple clocks…what happens when they are out of sync? Why eating when you normally are sleeping is a bad idea.

2013 International Bedroom Poll - Comparing sleep times, attitudes, habits, and bedtime routines of 25-55 year old people from around the world. (PDF)

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Giant Maya Carvings Found in Guatemala - There are traces of red, blue, green and yellow paint; at some point they should be able to create an image of what it looked like before it became part of the buried foundations of a rectangular pyramid.

Women in Space: A Gallery of Firsts - Historical perspective. The first was way back in 1963….and from the Soviet Union.

Length of Human Pregnancies Can Vary Naturally by as Much as Five Weeks - Previously everyone assumed the variability was from not knowing exactly when ovulation and then implantation of the fertilized embryo occurred …. But this study revealed that even using technology to determine precisely when these events occur, there is still significant variability.

Hot Lava Hits Seawater and Forms Black Sand Beach - Images from Hawaii

Healthy Cooking Oils: 8 New Picks To Try - I’m going to try avocado oil at some point….once I come to terms with how much it costs!

Top 10 College Towns 2013 - These places have appeal to more than just students! Also take a look at the Cost of Living calculator provided by nerdwallet.

Cactus-inspired material cleans oily water - Deep understanding of how nature works can be quite useful - in this case, a potentially new type of filter. It turns out that it may work for aerosolized oil as well.

Baby Owls Sleep like Baby Humans: Owlets Spend More Time in REM Sleep Than Adult Owls - This study confirmed that the generally held notion that birds, like mammal, spend a lot of their sleep time in REM sleep when they are first born and that it declines over time. The correlation of sleep pattern with other aspects of the owls ‘growing up’ was also studied. I particularly liked that the observations in this study were made with sensors on wild owlets that were not harmed at all by the study and the potential the findings have for understanding the impact of sleep patterns in our own species.

Top US States For Solar Energy - The top 5 are: California, Hawaii, Arizona, Maryland, and Delaware. The article provides the criteria used to assess the states.

The Science of Mummies - Technologies applied to studying mummies….many of them non-invasive and non-destructive.