The Art Neuro Weblog

Mystery for the Ages
Aging is one of those drags in life. To paraphrase 'Sick Boy' in 'Train Spotting' it's the unifying theory of life itself. One minute you have *it*, then you don't have *it* anymore. Swedish Scientists have been doing some research and this article has this to say about it:

"It seems to be a universal phenomenon in mammals that you have this damage to mitochondrial DNA as you get older," said the study's senior author, Nils-Goran Larsson at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

"But I and many others thought this was just a secondary phenomenon," Larsson said. "I think the importance of our paper is that we actually show these mutations can indeed cause several changes associated with aging."

Other scientists say the Swedish experiments clearly show that a high rate of mutation in mitochondrial DNA has an effect on aging.

"But that does not mean all aging is caused by mutations in mitochondrial DNA," said David Finkelstein of the U.S. National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health.

And so it goes.

Burn Baby Burn, You Piece of Sh*t...
Burning biomass instead of coal to generate electricity in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been proposed in Brussels.

Using biomass, a type of fuel made of materials such as wood and manure, instead of coal to generate electricity could lower the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and create jobs, a report said Thursday.

The World Wide Fund for Nature, which wrote the report with the European Biomass Industry Association, said in a statement that production of biomass would create hundreds of thousands of jobs while helping to reduce CO2, which contributes to global warming.

"The report indicated that this could reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main global warming gas, by about 1,000 million tons each year -- a figure equivalent to the combined annual emissions of Canada and Italy," the statement said.

Well, that's great I can look forward to a job in the energy sector, literally shovelling sh*t. :)

The End of Collusion
Meanwhile, this report has come in from America where fuel prices have hit record highs. Free-market advocates always point out that as oil becomes a scarce commodity, its prices will rise, and therefore modify people's consumption patterns. While car manufacturers have finally gone for selling new technology that significantly reduces oil consumption in the guise of the Hybrid cars, oil companies are trying to use their expertise with oil to come up with a supply of Hydrogen fuels. They may find the challenges of this task more difficult than they think. However it should be noted that the consolidated position of using fossil fuels exclusively that was maintained by the collusion of the US oil and US automotive industry has been broken. Car manufacturers are chasing the consumer demand for lower fossil fuel consumption. Energy companies are having to look to supply consumer demand. There is hope now, however little it may be.
Now, to get rid of redundant SUVs and AWDs from urban roads...

The Russian Front
The Russians keep supporting the ISS with their space program using the Soyuz rockets and Progress unmanned crafts. While it's the case that it's no big deal, it is also true that no news is good news. Big news is usually bad.

- Art Neuro