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When a cycad is ready to reproduce, it grows a large colorful cone, rich with pollen or seed. It signals its readiness by radiating heat or sending out attractive odors to pollinators, who travel back and forth. Once fertilized, the seed-rich cone is ripped apart by hungry seed carriers (who've included over the years, not just birds and insects, but dinosaurs, pterosaurs, bats; these trees have been eaten by just about everybody). But what if you can't find a mate? The tree in London (and its clones that are now growing in botanical gardens all over the world) is a male. It can make pollen. But it can't make the seeds. That requires a female. Researchers have wandered the Ngoya forest and other woods of Africa, looking for an E. woodii that could pair with the one in London. They haven't found a single other specimen. They're still searching. Unless a female exists somewhere, E. woodii will never mate with one of its own. It can be cloned. It can have the occasional fling with a closely related species. Hybrid cycads are sold at plant stores, but those plants aren't the real deal. The tree that sits in London can't produce a true offspring. It sits there, the last in its long line, waiting for a companion that may no longer exist.

ScienceDaily (May 10, 2011) - Imagine an insect repellant that not only is thousands of times more effective than DEET -- the active ingredient in most commercial mosquito repellants -- but also works against all types of insects, including flies, moths and ants.

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/05/23/Marcus_Chown_in_Conversation_with_Fred_Watson Marcus Chown, author of Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You: A Guide to the Universe, discusses the mechanics behind quantum computers, explaining that they function by having atoms exist in multiple places at once. He predicts that quantum computers will be produced within 20 years. ----- The two towering achievements of modern physics are quantum theory and Einsteins general theory of relativity. Together, they explain virtually everything about the world in which we live. But almost a century after their advent, most people havent the slightest clue what either is about. Radio astronomer, award-winning writer and broadcaster Marcus Chown talks to fellow stargazer Fred Watson about his book Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You. - Australian Broadcasting Corporation Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, he is now cosmology consultant of the weekly science magazine New Scientist. The Magic Furnace, Marcus' second book, was chosen in Japan as one of the Books of the Year by Asahi Shimbun. In the UK, the Daily Mail called it "a dizzy page-turner with all the narrative devices you'd expect to find in Harry Potter". His latest book is called Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You.

All hail the powerful smile. The right smile, at the right time, wins friends and calms enemies. The smile held for too long, not long enough, flashed too intensively or too dimly, arouses suspicion, fear or anger. Far from being a straightforward show of joy, the language of smiles is filled with subtlety: a meld of our inner state, surroundings, social training, conscious and unconscious.

the peer-reviewed open-access encyclopedia written by scholars from all around the world. Scholarpedia feels and looks like Wikipedia -- the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Indeed, both are powered by the same program -- MediaWiki. Both allow visitors to review and modify articles simply by clicking on the edit this article link.

digitalculturebooks is an imprint of the University of Michigan Press. All of our books are available for free online and for sale in print.

"Child abuse has had a known association with increased risk for virtually all types of psychological and psychiatric problems - but a new evidence review suggests that it raises the risk of physical illness just as much."

It's now official that water has been found on the moon, and scientists have long seen it on Mars as well. In fact, water is all over the solar system and the rest of the galaxy - and since water is key to life as we know it, these discoveries raise the hope that we are not in fact alone.

ScienceDaily (June 28, 2011) - A recent study from scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies suggests that a strawberry a day (or more accurately, 37 of them) could keep not just one doctor away, but an entire fleet of them, including the neurologist, the endocrinologist, and maybe even the oncologist.

Scientists at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine and the Ontario Cancer Institute have isolated a human blood stem cell in its purest form: as a single stem cell capable of regenerating the entire blood system. "This discovery means we now have an increasingly detailed road map of the human blood development system, including the much sought after stem cell," says principal investigator John Dick, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology and is a Senior Scientist at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine and the Ontario Cancer Institute, University Health Network (UHN). "We have isolated a single cell that makes all arms of the blood system, which is key to maximizing the potential power of stem cells for use in more clinical applications. Stem cells are so rare that this is a little like finding a needle in a haystack," says Dr. Dick. Ref.: John E. Dick, Isolation of Single Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells Capable of Long-Term Multilineage Engraftment, Science, July 2011: Vol. 333 no. 6039 pp. 218-221 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1201219]

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a visualization environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope-bringing together imagery from the world's best ground- and space-based telescopes for the exploration of the universe. WWT blends terabytes of images, information, and stories from multiple sources into a seamless, immersive, rich media experience. Explorers of all ages will feel empowered to explore and understand the cosmos using WWT's simple and powerful user interface.

For all those who are very serious about in house plantations, one can get onto the Trivedi Science website for more information on how to improve plant growth.

The development and advances in material science research are going to change all these things. We will soon have light weight cars, transportation items, highly durable paper, nano gadgets and many more.

Difference between vapor and gas The term gas refers to a substance that is in its gaseous form or a substance that has a single defined thermodynamic state at room temperature whereas a vapor refers to a substance that is a equilibrium between two phases at room temperature, namely gaseous and liquid phase. All matter on earth exists in any of the three states: solid, liquid or gaseous. 'Gas' refers to a substance in the gaseous state. Gases do not have either shape or volume. However, the term 'vapor' or 'vapour' refers to a substance in equilibrium between two phases, usually liquid and gaseous. Vapor is not a state of matter but is a specific type of gas. Gases are in a gaseous state at room temperature. The molecules in a gas can expand to occupy any available volume as there is very little inter molecular attraction. On the other hand, the molecules of a vapor gain energy and vaporize from a substance which is either a solid or liquid at room temperature. For example, steam is a water vapor that turns into water at room temperature. Oxygen, which is a gas, will still be a gas at room temperature. Gas is a state of matter. Vapor is not, it is constantly in transition. An easy way to distinguish between vapor and gas is that vapor is something that can be seen or smelled or something that settles down on the ground, while one cannot see a gas but can only smell it. However, there are some exceptions to this classification, for example, water vapor. Water vapor cannot be smelt and it does not settle down on the ground.

The Trivedi Effect human wellness solutions are medical research for all. Mahendra Trivedi has improved the health of many cancer patients.