Sci-Files

Brandon Lorenzetti
Editorial Intern

Don’t energy drink and drive
If you’ve ever downed a Jägerbomb because you figured it won’t get you so drunk – the energy drink balances it out, right? – think again. A new study done at Boston University School of Public Health and the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University says energy drinks increase neither alertness nor stamina once those qualities have been impaired by alcohol. They added caffeine to various alcoholic drinks, such as vodka, and had subjects drink them, then take a driving test. The study concluded alcoholic caffeinated beverages should have warning labels about this non-effect.
With files from ScienceDaily.com

Unbreakable chickens
With all the news about birds dying out of nowhere, shouldn’t we be worrying about our chickens? Luckily, scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh have created a genetically modified bird immune to the bird flu, in case the bird epidemic isn’t simply a sign the coming of the apocalypse. The modified chickens are unable to give the flu to other chickens, protecting both chicken and person alike. The new chickens will be bred to have a “decoy” molecule that acts as a controller of the virus, tricking it.
With files from ScienceDaily.com

What is ‘destroyer of man’?
Jeopardy! superstars Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter may have met their match in a new trivia-solving computer developed by IBM over the last four years. The machine, named Watson, has 15 terabytes of RAM, 10 racks of IBM Power 750 servers and 2,880 processors operating at 80 teraflops (80 trillion operations a second). He’s up against two human minds that haven’t seen a real challenger on the show in over five years. At a practice tournament Jan. 13, Watson answered just about every question before his opponents – correctly – beating them with $4,400 Trebekbucks. The official matches will air on Jeopardy! this February. The winner rules the world.
With files from Engadget