Scientific Gossip (39-4)
Contains 100% gossip from concentrate
Big Doc Booty
What do hospital presidents do when they convene for a spot of leisure? Many of them play kick-the-can. The ancient children’s game is seeing a revival at hospital conventions in Europe and North and South America.
Power Gum Song
Product engineers are licking their chops at the prospect of generating power by having people sing and chew gum at the same time. Seth J. Putterman of UCLA found that it is possible to briefly (50 trillionths of a second duration) attain temperatures exceeding 10,000 degrees C by directing sound pressure on an air bubble in a flsk of water. Through the process known as “sonoluminescence,” the sound is somehow concentrated by a factor of a million million (1012), producing flashes of blue light. No one is predicting when, if ever, a gum/singing application of this phenomenon will be commercially useful.
High Trash
NASA administrators, growing ever more creative as their budgets are slashed, have devised a new way to raise funds. NASA has a nearly complete catalog of the more than 20,000 pieces of man-made debris left in orbit. If a new proposal is enacted, for a fee of $150, NASA will allow an individual to name and own a piece of orbital debris. For an additional fee, NASA observation satellites will videotape the object’s eventual fiery entry into the atmosphere. For a further charge, surviving objects can be tracked, retrieved, and delivered to the owner’s home. A complete fee schedule will be announced next month.
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