SCIENCE NEWS - When to Catch a Lie via Text # 22

You’re texting with a friend. The back and forth is fast and furious. Until…there’s an awkwardly long pause. You might think, aw, they just got another call, or had to get back to their dinner, whatever. But maybe…they’re about to lie.
At least that was one conclusion from an experiment published in a journal called ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems.
Scientists had 100 participants converse via online text with a specially developed computer program. The computer asked each participant 30 questions. And the participants were instructed to lie in half the responses. The researchers found that the lies took 10 percent longer to write, were shorter and were edited more than the truthful messages. 
How can you tell if someone is heavily editing a text? Newer smartphones let you know when the other person is typing. A lot of starting and stopping could mean the texter is carefully constructing a response that might not hold up in a court of law.
Bottom line: dishonest texts take longer on average to write—but it’s also possible your friend may be making an honest attempt to fix those pesky incorrect auto-corrects.
—Christie Nicholson

CHEMISTRY - ELEMENT OF THE DAY - PHOSPHORUS

15

P

Phosphorus

30.973762

Atomic Number: 15

Atomic Weight: 30.973762

Phase at Room Temperature: Solid

Element Classification: Non-metal

Period Number: 3    Group Number: 15    

Group Name: Pnictogen

What's in a name? From the Greek word for light bearing, phosphoros.

Say what? Phosphorus is pronounced as FOS-fer-es.

History and Uses:

In what is perhaps the most disgusting method of discovering an element, phosphorus was first isolated in 1669 by Hennig Brand, a German physician and alchemist, by boiling, filtering and otherwise processing as many as 60 buckets of urine. Thankfully, phosphorus is now primarily obtained from phosphate rock (Ca₃(PO₄)₂).

Phosphorus has three main allotropes: white, red and black. White phosphorus is poisonous and can spontaneously ignite when it comes in contact with air. For this reason, white phosphorus must be stored under water and is usually used to produce phosphorus compounds. Red phosphorus is formed by heating white phosphorus to 250°C (482°F) or by exposing white phosphorus to sunlight. Red phosphorus is not poisonous and is not as dangerous as white phosphorus, although frictional heating is enough to change it back to white phosphorus. Red phosphorus is used in safety matches, fireworks, smoke bombs and pesticides. Black phosphorus is also formed by heating white phosphorus, but a mercury catalyst and a seed crystal of black phosphorus are required. Black phosphorus is the least reactive form of phosphorus and has no significant commercial uses.

Phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄) is used in soft drinks and to create many phosphate compounds, such as triple superphosphate fertilizer (Ca(H₂PO₄)₂·H₂O). Trisodium phosphate (Na₃PO₄) is used as a cleaning agent and as a water softener. Calcium phosphate (Ca₃(PO₄)₂) is used to make china and in the production of baking powder. Some phosphorus compounds glow in the dark or emit light in response to absorbing radiation and are used in fluorescent light bulbs and television sets.