The next time you're in Japan and feel like stopping in a 7-Eleven for a little pick-me-up, pass up the energy drinks and try a can of oxygen inhalant instead. Last month, 7-Eleven stores began marketing O2 Supli, a can with 95% oxygen content, in two flavors, grapefruit and mint. The cans retail for approximately US$5. The high oxygen concentration is said to be good for curing signs of fatigue like yawning and sighing. A single can of O2 Supli can last up to a week when used six times per day. If they ever make it to the U.S., the little cans of fresh air might also be handy on a smoggy day in LA. (via Cool Hunting)

While some companies and governments are keeping their heads in the sand about global warming, other are placing bets on the prospect that it is happening now and are making huge gains. Investors such as T. Boone Pickens say that water is the commodity that will appreciate most in the coming decades, according to a Bloomberg News report. Dwindling fresh water supplies (not the salty stuff in the oceans) combined with rising populations, particularly in China, have led the value of water to rise faster than many other commodities including oil, gas, and basic materials such as steel, copper, and paper. Bloomberg News reports that the Bloomberg World Water index of utilities has returned 35 percent annually since 2003, compared with 29 percent for oil and gas stocks, 27 percent for basic materials such as copper, paper, and steel, and 10 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Global warming is expected to decrease the supply of fresh water as the water locked in mountain top glaciers is lost, such as in the Tibetan Plateau, from which an estimated 300 million Chinese receive their water.

The United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced last week that it has completed the installation of a network of seismometers, buoys, and deep-ocean pressure sensors to monitor earthquake and ocean wave activity in the Indian Ocean. The UNESCO effort is in response to the extensive loss of life following the December 26, 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, which killed over 100,000. The state-of-the-art system transmits data to tsunami warning centers in Japan and Hawaii, which are charged with communicating warnings to 24 countries around the Indian Ocean, with the exception of Yemen, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emerates. However, as reported by Nature, there is no clear plan in place for governments to warn inhabitants along the coastlines, a problem that will be discussed by an intergovernmental group late this summer. For more information, check out the IndoTsunami website on the development of UNESCO Indian Ocean regional tsunami warning and mitigation system.

Coming to theatres around the country in September, Flock of Dodos, by evolutionary ecologist Dr. Randy Olson, is a documentary film that covers the Intelligent Design/Evolution debates of 2005 in Olson's home state of Kansas. According to the official movie synopsis, "At first it seems the problem lies with intelligent design, a movement labeled recently as "breathtaking inanity," by a federal judge, but when a group of evolutionists convene for a night of poker and discussion they end up sounding themselves like... a flock of dodos." Review from Evolgen: "I think Flock of Dodos is a movie worth seeing (especially if you can swing a free screening). Olson's thesis is that the creationist movement is bad for the American education system, but biologists aren't doing a very good job dealing with it. He's really into catch phrases and framing, but it would be much nicer if we could educate the public to the point where it can move beyond advertising tactics." You can see the movie trailer here.

The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry is hosting an exhibit of 150 live frogs from now until January 7, 2007. The exhibit entitled Frogs! A Chorus of Colors features frogs in a rainbow of colors living in 'custom' habitats. The accompanying website features an online gallery with pictures of many of the frogs, such as the Blue Poison Frog at right; a frog facts section that describes various frog habitats around the world; and even a frog sounds page, where you can listen to frogs, such as the narrow mouth frog and the familiar American bullfrog. If this isn't enough, the frog resources page provides links to more websites about frogs. If you're in the Chicago area, you can go here to purchase tickets to the exhibit.

International Space Station astronaut Jeffrey Williams was first to report a recent eruption of the Cleveland Volcano on Tuesday, May 23 and provided the first photographs of the event. The Cleveland Volcano lies along the Aleutian Islands volcanic chain southwest of mainland Alaska. Williams' photograph from space shows the ash plume moving west-southwest from the summit of the volcano. The Cleveland Volcano is not seismically monitored by the Alaska Volcano Observatory, and so its eruption would not have been immediately detected without the ISS observation system. According to NASA, "This is the first early sighting of a new eruption in recent years. Williams edged out the nearest satellite by approximately seven minutes to capture the image."

The journal Nature reports that on June 13, the House of Representatives amended a spending bill to require National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant recipients to submit their papers to PubMed Central within 12 months of publication. PubMed is a free online archive of papers covering biomedical and life sciences. Those who stand to lose if the bill passes are mainly publishers and scientific research societies who depend on exclusive publication rights of scientific articles to secure their subscription income. NIH grantees are currently requested to submit their published papers to PubMed, but they are not required to do so. According to Nature, "Some journals do not allow copyedited versions to be posted on PubMed Central. This means two versions of the same research paper can be published: a peer-reviewed manuscript version held in PubMed Central and a journal version complete with copyedits and other mostly cosmetic modifications. The PubMed Central version would also not necessarily link to the journal that published the paper." These efforts by Congress may soon cover not only NIH, but all federally funded programs, which would include the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA. "In May, for example, Joseph Lieberman and John Cornyn introduced a bill that would require that all federal US agency grantees with annual research budgets of more than $100 million make their research papers freely available within six months of publication." Ironically enough, the link to the Nature article requires a subscription - or you could buy access to the article (not the whole issue of the journal, just the one article) for only $30. Maybe Congress is onto something.

I have a friend who's always getting sick or injured when he really needs to be getting down to writing. I, on the other hand, am completely justified in deciding that the best time to clean my apartment is when I have a paper due. It turns out that there's now a name for this career-threatening phenomenon. Watson's Syndrome, according to Dr. Richard Gelles, is characterized by (A.) A continuing and persistent avoidance of engaging in the actual writing and completion of one's dissertation, peer reviewed publications, or grant proposals; or (B.) Engaging in what appear to be important activities that take the place of completing one's dissertation, peer reviewed publications, or grant proposals. Dr. Gelles, who is a dean of the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, writes about Watson's Syndrom in his article posted June 19 in Inside Higher Ed. While Gelles's article does not suggest a cure, one commenter suggests "proactive mentoring" by professors. Does that involve a cattle prod? Oh, well, if you can't actually write the thesis yourself, you can always blog about it.

If you're hanging out in the Long Island, New York area some Sunday this summer and have a hankering for a dose of science fun, stop by the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY for Summer Sundays, beginning July 9 and running through August 20. Run by the U.S. Department of Energy, BNL began as a nuclear-science facility in 1946 and is home to six Nobel Prize winning scientists and three nuclear reactors. Among BNL's 5,300 acre campus, adults and children can learn about invisible light rays, DNA sequencing, and weather forecasting, among other fun and interesting science topics. There are only seven Summer Sundays in all, and each Sunday focuses on a specific topic listed here. In addition, each Sunday, the "Whiz Bang Science Show" (pun intended??) will be performed three times from 10:30 am to 3 p.m. Click here to learn more about the history of Brookhaven National Lab.

The U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF) Beijing Office officially opened on May 24 in the Silver Tower high rise, which also houses the U.S. Embassy. The objective of the new office is to foster international collaborations between Chinese and American scientists. Representatives from the NSF, the U.S. State Department, the Chinese National Natural Sciences Foundation, and Chinese Academy of Sciences attended the opening. As of 2001, China ranked third behind the U.S. and Japan in research and development expenditures, according to the NSF Science and Engineering Indicators 2006 report that was published this past February. The new Beijing Office is the third foreign NSF office following Paris and Tokyo.

Dr. Robert 'Bob' Gagosian, Director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) since 1994, announced yesterday that he is stepping down as Director of WHOI in six weeks. Jim Luyten, WHOI Executive Vice President and Director of Research, will step in as Acting Director until a replacement is found. WHOI is the largest private, independent marine research facility in the United States and operates one of the world's top marine science graduate degree programs jointly with MIT. A tipster writes that Bob is not leaving directly for another job, but that he wants to do something 'for the community.' Could he be heading to Washington, D.C.? The science world waits with bated breath....

If you happen to be in Florida when hurricane season hits, whom should you look to in a major storm emergency? Not FEMA, silly - Mickey Mouse! That's right, NOAA's National Weather Service has declared Walt Disney World as a safe place to be in the event of a major storm. To achieve this recognition, Disney World had to "establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center; have more than one way to receive severe weather forecasts and warnings and to alert the public; create a system that monitors local weather conditions; promote the importance of public readiness through community seminars; and develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises." So don't let a little hurricane derail your summer vacation plans. Typhoon Lagoon is the place to be!