SMF

Jalapeno86 and JorgeLobo. The species concept can be difficult and there are several definitions. One version involves the metrics of physical traits and is mostly important to paleontologists. Another definition is based on reproductive isolation. So, if there are groups of animals that cannot interbreed because they are on distant islands, they could be considered to be separate species even if they appear identical and can breed successfully in the laboratory. I think the least confusing definition is the biological one that says that species consist of groups of animals that are able to interbreed with complete interfertility (e.g. produce viable young) whether they do or not. This definition would say that horses and donkeys are separate species because mules are not naturally fertile. In actual practice, all three of these descriptions, along with the new genetic understanding, are blended into an operational definition for research purposes. Rktpro, it would take hundreds of millions of years for an elephant to evolve into a fish. I can't even think of the series of selection pressures that might have this result and all the ecological niches in this pathway are currently already occupied. As for comparing amoebas and you with your internal bones, it would be better to make the comparison between amoebas and your osteoblasts that make and maintain your bones. An osteoblast crawls about in the same manner as an amoeba and has a similar appearance, although smaller, and secretes the components of bone into the extracellular environment. Secretion is common to all single cell organisms. In fact, every cell in your body was a freely roaming cell during its development and you are just a colony of these cells, so you had better keep them happy because they might decide to all split at once and you will dissolve like the wicked witch of the west. Your confusion regarding evolutionary mechanisms is easily cured with a little study. SM

The explanation is not geological. Instead, the alignment has to do with complex dynamical interactions between Hawaiian slack string guitar music and methods of rendering whale blubber. It's a wonderment. SM

I would never tell anybody to do something that is illegal, and distilling alcohol you have produced yourself from fermentation is illegal. However, distilling is a fun hobby and if you pay your alcohol tax up front, by working with inexpensive jug wine and you don't sell the result, I believe there is no legal problem. You don't need to do any soldering to make a beginner still and it is quite inexpensive. SM

SamTheSkeptic: You appear to be a relatively strong adherent of the Tabula Rasa (http://en.wikipedia....iki/Tabula_rasa) side of the nature/nurture question. If you don't think that ones genetic background has any effect on the development of complex personality and other character traits, I presume you believe that, in a thought experiment, a group of children from diverse genetic backgrounds that were all raised in exactly the same environment would become a group of adults that would all be, essentially, the exact same person. Is this true? Also, what is the deal with your citing two studies that disagree with you contentions.? SM

A few days ago Bob Park's Whatsnew newsletter brought up hormesis as something that should be paid attention to relative to low dose ionizing radiation. Here is a Wikipedia link- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis. What about this? SM

Wajed, there are no magic bullets. First make yourself very electricity efficient and then do what Phi for All suggests and build a wood gas generator to run the gasoline motor. After you set up the infrastructure, and if you are clever and get free wood, aside from your effort the electricity is free until the engine wears out. You might have to start a small subsistence farm so you could use the wastes to make methane to run the generator. One of the favorites on my hobby wish list is a steam driven generator that would run on wood. There are some people in my area, with access to a live stream, who have set up a small hydro generator relatively inexpensively. Otherwise, do as I have done and go PV (photovoltaic) solar. SM EDIT- addition, the HHO and Meyer methods are perpetual motion machines and have been debunked by physicists.

For me, the gastroenteritis and H2S burps were separate incidents. In a very quick search I saw a post on a medical forum that linked the two. I suggest that you start refining a web search with all of the symptoms and also search Google Scholar for research and medical reports. SM

The Meyer method was also a hoax. Your second question depends upon how much electricity you want to produce and if you consider your own effort in the efficiency equation. SM

I have had pain, diarrhea, and vomiting similar to what you describe related to a gall bladder problem (sludge). I was told that these symptoms are typical. I have also had hydrogen sulfide burps as a separate problem when I was much younger and there is quite a bit about this on the web. I wonder what the effect of bile reflux into the stomach would be. SM

Marat, do you have an example of this? Also, how did the question turn out, that is, is it still unanswered? SM

Sacscale, fruit wines are highly undervalued. Even though grapes are a fruit, this is how wines not made from grapes are often referred to, usually as beneath consideration, by members of the enthusiastic wine culture. I once had a sparkling plum wine made by a professional wine maker, not an adherent of attitudes of popular wine culture, made at home from a tree in his back yard, that would knock your socks off. Early on, before I got my beer brewing perfected, I made a bunch of fruit wines. I had very good success on one batch of wild blackberry wine and one batch of pear wine. This was a long time ago before there was any accessible information available to home wine makers, only a terrible book from England, and most of my wines were mediocre. Now you can assemble a modest and inexpensive chem lab that will allow you to make sure that your yeast has all needed nutrients, make adjustments in acidity and other flavors, rack frequently without concern for oxidation, and so on. SM

Sacscale. Home brewing and making cheese are not rocket science. With a little study and planning ones first batch can be as good or better than anything that you can purchase ready made. With wine making it may require some more work, especially in finding quality grapes. SM

This is always a fun topic and I would like to learn more from you all who are expressing your opinions. So, as this is a science forum, now is the time to provide some research citations to support your positions. There is quite a bit of research out there. SM

I don't have the expertise to speculate on this topic. I am reading in Physics to learn. I have, however, been in many speculative discussions in my own area of scientific expertise and they were often boisterous and fun, but they always, always, involved experimental evidence, citations, and arguments regarding which explanation best explained the most phenomenon with the most economy. Scientific speculation without verifiable evidence is just story telling. SM

Lemur, you said- I responded that there is a whole lot of research. Also attraction works both ways, and you used the term yourself. Why don't you do a search using your preferred terms? SM

Marat, it is not that simple. Women do have less testosterone than men, but they have more testosterone receptors which could cancel the difference. Also, men tend to respond more to hormonal influences, while women respond more to particular social and cultural factors. Here is one reference- http://people.fmarion.edu/tbarbeau/Erotic%20Plasticity2000.pdf SM

Kikis, what you are looking for is phenology research- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenology. If you use this word in a search you will get a whole lot of information. SM

Rktpro: http://homesteadharvest.com/ps50.html SM

Lemur, why do you think there are taboos against studying sexual attraction? I put "sexual attraction" into Google Scholar and got 190,000 hits on research. I didn't refine my search, but on about page 5 was this- http://stevereads.co...drive_final.pdf that has some information, science not opinion, related to the question here. SM

Lemur. This would work fine if the yeast can be activated, but quality bulk bread yeast is inexpensive and will work fine if all you want to do is make alcohol. If you want a little more efficiency for a higher starting gravity get an inexpensive champagne yeast. I am adding that for alcohol production from plain starch there are some nutrients that should be added to the ferment. There are several mixtures at your local or an online brewing store. SM

Fanghur, I am not sure about this specific example, but antibiotics have to be kept at a certain concentration over some amount of time to kill a bloom of a species of bacteria. If the bacteria ducks and hides in a biofilm, in a dormant state, until the antibiotic agent goes away it is like a hibernating bear escaping winter starvation. Antibiotics sneak into cells, via a variety of routes, and they have mechanisms for removing them (e.g. the ATPase multi drug resistance, or MDR, pump). This can result in an antibiotic concentration war against time and the biofilm persisters can bypass the period of high concentration. Stated another way, the accumulated intracellular concentration of antibiotic when a bacterium hides in a biofilm can be easily pumped out when it reawakens, but only if the extracellular concentration is reduced. SM

Xittenn, I have not made mead, but I know several folks who are expert. I have tasted plain, or show, mead that could convince someone that it was a flawless, but difficult to identify, white wine. There are a great many variations (e.g. braggot, melomel, cyser) that are a lot of fun. Some equipment is required, but less than for beer brewing, and honey can be relatively inexpensive when bought in bulk and sometimes when it is local. I would highly recommend that you get a good book because there are some important tricks and chemical adjustments that need to be done to get a good product. Get more than one book. Ecoli, I don't make flavored beers, but feel free to pick away regarding technique. In regard to distilling, I know some moonshine hobbyist. Several are very technical and scientific, but two are Appalachian traditionalists from the region. SM

I made my first batch of home brewed beer in 1968 and have no Idea how many hundreds of gallons, in five and ten gallon batches, that I have made. I have a homemade semi-automated mash mixer mash tun and only make all grain ales, mostly California versions of English ales. My family has been involved in brewing. My father was a national prizewinner, my brother owned a home brewing and wine making store, and my son is a Master Brewer (he passed the exam and ran a brewery) and has a degree in enology (he now has a high level position in a winery). I have dabbled in wine and cheesmaking and, if you think about it, making yeast bread also involves fermentation. Lemur, yeast is one of the most important components of a good beer and you will be very disappointed if you don't use only a pure high quality yeast made just for brewing beer, and use it correctly. SM

Here is an article I quickly picked from a Google Scholar search- http://www.plantphys.../41/10/1657.pdf Check the references for more research. Here is the original Scholar search with pages of related research- http://scholar.googl...s_ylo=&as_vis=0 There is a lot on this because of the effects of sugar on processing of food products. In this case potato chips. SM

Just a thought. Perhaps those persons who have not actually read the study under question should refrain from commenting about it. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=0&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&cluster=12247241756468139397 SM