Father & Son Make Homemade Spacecraft, Record Video [tech]

This is pretty awesome. A father and son from New York built their own spacecraft in which they attached an iPhone and launched it into space, capturing an incredible video.

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Do Frequent Flyers Age at a Different Rate? [science]

Do frequent flyers age at a different rate?

Lungs Can Taste! [weird science]

Discovery of bitter receptors in lungs could lead to innovations in asthma treatments, scientists say.

via Discover Magazine:
Yes, taste. In a Nature Medicine study, Stephen B. Liggett and company found receptors on the smooth muscle in the lungs that respond to bitterness, similar to the bitter taste buds on the tongue. And, Liggett found, the receptors’ reaction to bitterness is to relax the muscles, and therefore to expand airways. That was totally unexpected, he says, and opens intriguing possibilities for pulmonary treatment—for example, asthmatic symptoms could be treated by exposing these receptors to bitter compounds.

chronic fatigue..virus? and early puberty for girls?

chronic fatigue syndrome has finally been linked to a specific pathogen, XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia-related virus). XMRV is only one of three known retroviruses.

read the full article here on discovery health.

on a completely different topic, the average age of girls' puberty is falling. this can be blamed on the synthetic estrogens that now run rampant in the environment.

read the full article here on discover health.

science meets social media

...and it's love at first app.

scientists are using google to perform a variety of tasks; from tracking epidemics to searching for new mountains.

science? there's an app for that!

read the full article here on discover magazine.

something alive in your skin!

the idea of insects being able to lay eggs (that can then hatch) into human skin repulses me, to say the least. i am not too squeamish when it comes to medical dealings, but this article certainly got me.

beware backpacking through the amazon! you could "carry young" without ever having to get pregnant! or even have sex!

read the original article here on the discovery health blog.

while we're on the subject of insects, DEET has been used for more than 60 years as an insect repellent, but is it safe?

scientists don't really know much about the substance, and it may cause damage to the nervous system, according to this article posted at the discovery health blog.