Some things seem to be too hard to figure out. When placebos were used in a test they always seem to work the same on some people as the drug being tested, because of this the medical profession assumed some people believe since they were getting the drug it helped them. This seems to be an intelligent conclusion, but unfortunately it was blown out of the water with a new test which was conducted. People were told they were given placebos and yet these placebos still helped a lot of people. This is just another one of those things that makes absolutely no sense. If I told someone gave me hey a sugar pill for my hay fever and it cured me I would have a hard time believing what happened and yet who can deny the results of these tests?

Did you ever crawl into bed and haul a couple of heavy blankets over you and get this feeling that all is right with the world? Apparently you are not alone. Science is now saying they have found out when you do this it reduces stress and anxiety. Sleep experts claim over 10% of people living in the United States have sleep disorders and 18% have anxiety. Personally I think the anxiety number is much higher, because of the stress people are under who are trying to support their families. Science even has a name for pulling those heavy blankets over you which make you feel better and it is called proprioceptive input and even more commonly known as deep touch pressure stimulation. Science tells us these heavy blankets activate pressure points which are on our body. This sounds like some sort of oriental therapy, so the next time you go to bed make sure those heavy blankets are there to soothe you.

I think most of us are familiar with Star Trek and how they use shields to protect their ship, the Enterprise. It has long been the dream of scientists to be able to create shields like this and that is why the news from NASA is so surprising. NASA is telling us we have already created a shield around the earth without even knowing it. They say it was created by radio communications. There is a sort of bubble which encloses our planet. Why is NASA so excited about this? It turns out this shield helps protect us from radiation coming from space. It actually repels some of the radiation. Turns out VLF frequency range communications effects the properties of radiation. The next step is to find out if we can use this technology to protect our astronauts. Perhaps we can use it to build a shield around a spaceship, or around settlements on the moon and Mars.

Troops who wear bulletproof armor can attest to the fact it is heavy and uncomfortable, but this may be coming to an end. An Air Force cadet working with a college professor has developed something which seems impossible. What is even more astounding is the science behind this new invention is nothing new and some scientists are saying it was right there in front of us all the time. Material was developed which is far lighter than the body armor in use today and yet it can stop a 44 Magnum bullet shot at a person at close range. What is really strange about this material is the fact the bigger the bullet the greater the stopping power. It is said the new material was developed from concepts from non-Newtonian physics. Sounds to me like they could be referring to quantum physics.

We have been finding a lot of new creatures on this planet lately. It is amazing to me the amount of creatures which we are still discovering. One very weird creature is an ant which resembles a miniature T Rex. One would think this type of ant would be the scourge of the ant world, but despite the way it looks, it is a lot more timid than many of the other ants. The ants were found in a colony in Singapore and needless to say the person who found them was very excited about his discovery. Researchers say the ants exhibit the timid behavior I spoke about and are more active at night. They also seem to be very finicky eaters. When they are threatened they do not become aggressive like many other ants, instead they curl up into a ball and just lay there. The researchers said he got a good laugh when he saw these ants do that, when threatened by much smaller ants and mites which he was trying to feed them.

We’ve seen it before, inventions created which were inspired by science fiction. There are just so many of them it is hard to pin one down, but I will give you an example and that is the flip phone which was inspired by Star Trek. It almost seems all one has to do is have a good idea and next thing you know there is a device being developed from that idea. A British inventor has just developed a suit which is similar to that of Iron Man. The suit is called Daedalus. The British military has shown an interest in the suit. While the suit is not as cool as the one worn by Iron Man, it is the closest thing to it and will only get better. The inventor says he can fly up to 200 mph and get up to a few thousand feet in the air, but the suit seems to be limited by the amount of fuel it can carry, which was the same problem that former rocket packs had. It is limited to ten minutes flying time, which is about the same amount of time rocket packs have been limited to for many years.

Are you worried about the Arctic ice melting? Many people are and some of these people are scientists and engineers. They believe they may have a solution to the problem and that solution is to refreeze the Arctic ice. How does one refreeze thousands of square miles of ice? The experts believe they can prove the worth of their plan by an experiment which is going to be conducted in Switzerland. A snow machine is going to be used to cover a small artificial glacier and it is believed this will preserve the glacier throughout the summer. The plan is for Arctic pumps which are wind powered and will shoot water on top of the ice. Experts seem to think getting the ice through the summer without it melting is the answer to the problem and will allow the ice to expand more in the winter. One thing puzzles me and it is the fact scientists are talking about covering all the glaciers in Switzerland using four thousand snow machines. How many machines pumps will it take to refreeze the Arctic and is it even doable? This seems like one of those ideas which is just not practical and yet it could spark someone else to think of a better solution.