Is The Earth Beautiful? Take a Look and See for Yourself: Images of the Earth from NASA Satellites

How do you define beauty? Which of your senses do you employ to determine whether an object is beautiful or not? Beauty they say is in the eye of the beholder. From that statement, we can imply that our eyes are needed to tell if a thing is beautiful or not.  

Many of us claim that the earth is beautiful but how many of us have in the true sense of the word 'seen' the earth? We may not all have the opportunity to travel into space and look gaze upon the earth to answer that question, but there is now opportunity to view the earth in pictures, thanks to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

NASA has released a 158-page free eBook called “Earth as Art” in which the agency presents images of our planet taken by various NASA satellites since 1960. It covers satellite pictures from around the world.

The book features images from the different continents. Take note however that the satellites can measure outside the visible range of light, so these images show more than what is visible to the naked eye.

Take a look at planet earth and see for yourself how beautiful she is. Download  “Earth as Art” free eBook version (pdf) 

 

 

Can You Eat 60 Day Old Bread?

It is said to be the best thing after sliced bread. It’s bread that can last for 60 days. An American company called Microzap says it has developed a technique that will keep bread mould free for two months. Under normal circumstances, bread will go mouldy around 10 days, but the Texas-based company, uses a special microwave that kills the mold spores in your bread in 10 seconds. Now that bread that goes bad in 10 days will last for about 60 mold-free days.

The bread is zapped in a sophisticated microwave array which kills the spores that cause the problem. The equipment was originally developed to kill organisms like multi-resistant staph bacteria and salmonella. But its developers realized it also kills bread mold in about a 10-second zap. It works much like a home microwave, but the waves are produced in various frequencies, which allows for uniform heating.
The company claims it could significantly reduce the amount of wasted bread and the technique can also be used with a wide range of foods including fresh turkey and many fruits and vegetables.
One of the biggest threats to bread is mould. As loaves are usually wrapped in plastic, any water in the bread that evaporates from within is trapped and makes the surface moist. This provides excellent growing conditions for Rhizopus stolonifer, the fungus that leads to mould.
The technology could also impact bread in other ways. Bread manufacturers add lots of preservatives to try and fight mould, but then add extra chemicals to mask the taste of the preservatives. If bakers were able to use the microwave technology, they would be able to avoid these additives.
The company's device has attracted plenty of interest from bread manufacturers - but it is worried that it could push up costs. And there is also a concern that consumers might not take to bread that lasts for so long.

Extended Sleep Increases Alertness and Reduces Pain Sensitivity

Lots of research has been carried out concerning sleep and more is still being done. The various results we’ve had always point to the fact that adequate sleep is essential for us to live a healthy life. We know of the importance of sleep when it comes to learning and memory: sleep helps the brain commit new information to memory. People who’d slept after learning a task did better on tests later. Sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates. We know that the troubles of not having adequate sleep can affect our safety, mood and increase our susceptibility to diseases.

A new study however, has brought a new dimension to the sleep and healthiness issue by observing for the first time the relationship between amount of night-time sleep to daytime alertness and pain sensitivity. The study suggests that extending nightly sleep in mildly sleepy, healthy adults increases daytime alertness and reduces pain sensitivity. The research suggests how important it is for people with chronic pain conditions and even those going for a surgical operation to have adequate sleep.

The study, appearing in the December issue of the journal SLEEP, involved 18 healthy, pain-free, sleepy volunteers. They were randomly assigned to four nights of either maintaining their habitual sleep time or extending their sleep time by spending 10 hours in bed per night. Objective daytime sleepiness was measured using the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), and pain sensitivity was assessed using a radiant heat stimulus.

Results show that the extended sleep group slept 1.8 hours more per night than the habitual sleep group. This nightly increase in sleep time during the four experimental nights was correlated with increased daytime alertness, which was associated with less pain sensitivity.
In the extended sleep group, the length of time before participants removed their finger from a radiant heat source increased by 25 percent, reflecting a reduction in pain sensitivity. The authors report that the magnitude of this increase in finger withdrawal latency is greater than the effect found in a previous study of 60 mg of codeine.

The results, combined with data from previous research, suggest that increased pain sensitivity in sleepy individuals is the result of their underlying sleepiness.