Nanotechnology, the tiniest stuff that human technology has been able to create, is becoming a bigger and bigger part of our everyday lives.

SRJC Chemistry professor Dr. Karen Frindell (left)  will deliver a presentation on the small science of Nanotechnology at the Science Buzz Café Dec. 10 at 7 pm in the Sebastopol Youth Annex on Morris Street. She explains that the date is one of historic significance for this branch of science.

Another new aspect of nanotechnology is the creation of tiny motors fabricated from molecules of iron. But the same powerful magnification that has enabled researchers to see what they are doing with those nano-motors has also revealed that nature has already accomplished some of those same functions, on the same micro-miniature scale.

Richard Feynman

New approaches and western ideas find many paths into modern China, even through niche magazines about medical specialties.

State of the art procedures, and the ways medicine is practiced and made available elsewhere is gradually forcing some incremental changes in the ways that individual Chinese doctors think about their work, something that Jeffrey Parker (left) says his Chinese publications are quietly helping to facilitate.

After he reported on India’s high-volume, low cost eye care treatments, Parker says the first wave of reaction from his readership of Chinese ophthalmologists was skepticism. But that was soon followed by a upwelling of interest in learning how the Indian system worked.

Jeffrey Parker will talk about his experiences as a journalist and publisher in China before the World Affairs Council of Sonoma County Dec. 10 at Spring Lake Village in Santa Rosa, at 7:30 pm. Details about the event can be found here.

He will also speak at Stanford University at noon on January 14, 2010 on the subject,  "Grassroots Empowerment: Can Models from India Spark a Revolution in Healthcare Delivery in China?"

A month after a blue whale was killed by the propellers of a survey ship off the coast near Fort Bragg, some big questions remain, among them, how did this happen, and could it have been prevented?

The crew of the Pacific Star only became aware of their ship’s deadly encounter with the blue whale when its propeller stopped, reports Shelia Semans, the sea floor mapping project manager for the Ocean Protection Council and the Coastal Conservancy. But that moment was quickly fatal for the whale, a conclusion that was confirmed by examinations of its beached body.

Steve Sullivan, an outspoken critic of the mapping project, contends the participating ships have failed to comply with applicable regulations governing sonar surveying, because their sponsoring organizations have disregarded those rules.

Sheila Semans counters that the type of sonar used by the navy and other large vessels in commercial shipping lanes is markedly different than the sonar technology used in sea floor mapping in shallow coastal waters.

This video shows the size of the whale carcass, soon after it washed ashore Oct. 20, a little south of Fort Bragg. The rectangular section of skin and blubber that is missing above the tail was removed by scientists studying the dead animal. The fatal wounds are on the underside, not visible to the camera.

Are ghosts real? The Sonoma County Paranormal Institute hasn’t been able to prove that…yet…but they have encounterd some strange things that defy explanation.

  While not a trained physicist, Craig Appel of the Sonoma County Paranormal Institute, takes a rigorous scientific approach to his ghostly investigations.

The goal of the SCPI’s investigations is not necessarily to find ghosts or other unnatural beings, but to seek out explanations for strange and mysterious phenomena. A successful investigation, says Appel, is one that ends with clear answers.

The Sonoma County Paranormal Institute is a non-profit investigative organization, whose inquiries are neither amatuer or expert. They do not change for their services, and invite anyone who suspects they have encountered something ghostly to fill out this form to request an investigation.