Day 6 – Space travel, disease, evolution and.. Sand

We’re now in the second and final week, the week of evictions and winners! Have you VOTED? Remember, you’re voting for your favourite scientist, the scientists who you feel answers your questions and inspires you. Have a look at what they’re planning to spend their money on, it might affect you?

Artists impression of Pluto by C m handler on WikiMedia

Here are some highlights from the day..

elly : Why is there an extra day every four years?
arleneoneill : @elly Great que! There is not an extra day every 4 years, there is actually an extra quater day every year, so to account for this every 4 years we add the four quaters together to get a full day

kmhoran : Have you heard about the dog they were talking about on the radio this morning who was paralysed and they fixed him? Do you think they’ll be able to do this for humans soon?
timdowning : they used a particular type of olfactory cell that regulates neural connections and when these cells were injected between vertebrae they help restore the connections

myepicname136 : what is the quickest way to get to space without a spaceship ???
colinjohnston : @myepicname136 Stand on a very thick steel plate,30 m over a nuclear bomb then detonate the bomb.

kmhoran : Do you think we are still evolving?
timdowning : Evolving – yes! Our population is dramatically increasing in population size, which has two effects. 1) more advantageous mutations become available. and 2) the chances of dis-advantageous mutations spreading is lower.
jeanbourke : We are still evolving. A species will continue to evolve as long as its environment is changing and ours is. We evolve to deal with those changes. It is believed that we are evolving to be smarter!
endaoconnell : We are absolutely evolving all the time. But perhaps slightly differently than other species as some mutations that might have died out in the wild are being maintained because we have medicine and technology to keep people alive and reproducing

anthony123 : whats the fastest spaceship
colinjohnston : @anthony123 New Horizons, which launched for Pluto in 2006, gets there in 2015.

And here are a couple of gems from the answered question pages:

 

There are loads more live chats booked for next  week, all of which you can watch live, if you’re not already taking part!

Posted on November 19, 2012 by modemily in News. Leave a comment

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