Selection from "Solaris"

Every science engenders some pseudo-science, inspiring eccentrics to explore freakish by-ways; astronomy has its parodists in astrology, chemistry used to have them in alchemy.

Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor

this is fast so pay attention!



you got it? ok
lets get rid of coal now.

Rad documentary: cassowary dissection

Watch "Inside Nature's Giants Episode 12/15 The Dinosaur Bird (Channel 4)" on YouTube

Dissected a pigeon in vertebrate zoology lab on Monday and noticed some similar things. This documentary highlights some good points on the similarities between dinosaurs and birds.
I think it is so rad that this show exists to actually show a dissection of some amazing creatures. I look forward to watching more of this program.

the universe in us

Carl Zimmer Profiles Neil deGrasse Tyson

The voice is deep and loud--not loud from shouting, but from some strange acoustic property that gives it a conversational boom. It comes from a man who looms in the dark at the edge of the crowd.

awesome read done by Carl Zimmer on Neil deGrasse Tyson. It is inspiring to read such a well written piece on such an accomplished and recognized voice in science. Just as Carl Sagan inspired a generation so too has Neil.

Reincarnation

Life finds a way

Amazing! Clonal selection theory visualized

Watch "Immune System - Fighting Infection by Clonal Selection" on YouTube

This video highlights the main process involved in fighting an infections agent.
Look carefully and you will notice IgM antibody production!

Beauty

here is another great video of Richard Feynman. I think the editing done in this video is spot on and with the commentary given by Richard make this an inspiring video that I like.
stay tuned as parts 2 and 3 will be posted!

Feynman on Fire

Man, I love Richard Feynman! He has just such a passion for science, I love seeing how he seems to get such enjoyment in explaining the world. It would have been such an incredible experience to take a class from him because his love of science just rubs off on you and really inspires you to think and look at the world around you in new and interesting ways. This video is from a lecture and there are several clips I really enjoyed that you should check out

Flying over planet Earth

A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy.

Electronics 101

While procrastinating some important studying for school I found a youtube playlist (what can I say the internet is awesome!) that explains the basic properties of electronic components. I thought they were pretty well done so check em out!
I just wish the rest of my classes could be posted up on youtube! Back to sticking my nose in a text book...
Videos posted after the break

Ingenious Animalcules

Been putting off some Microbiology reading till tonight and I don't know why because let me tell you I am impressed with these little guys! Some of the reading included various adaptations of motile bacteria for sensing and responding to varying levels of environmental stimuli through a proccess called taxis. Examples of taxis in bacteria involve chemotaxis which is defined as the response to a chemical gradient of movement towards or away a stimulus. But there are many forms of taxis in bacteria some with peculiar attributes. For example take a look at this guy

Magnetospirillum magnetotacticum

take a look at the series of black spheres running through this bacteria, those are tiny magnetic particles and make up a structure called a Magnetosome which is to put it in simple terms a microbial compass! These magnetic particles actually strong enough to orient the bacteria along the magnetic fields of the Earth. This magnetosome helps the bacteria perform Magentotaxis, the movement in response to a magnetic field. 

The purpose of this structure is proposed to attract the bacteria downward into sediment where the oxygen levels are lower and more to its liking for growth. Its affinity for lower oxygen concentrations have been observed in the lab and fossil record which show what are called Magnetofossils which appear in formations deposited during the Proterozoic Era which saw a build up in atmospheric oxygen confirming the observation of its distaste for too much oxygen.

here are a few more pictures of our ingenious friend

Genetics and Gender

Today in my genetics class we talked about some peculiar genetic abnormalities and one of them I thought was pretty interesting but before we get to talk about it think about a few questions.
What makes you the gender you are?
Is it the hair on your chest? the fact that you like to play with dolls? Do you identify yourself with a particular gender only because that is the way you were raised? Or would you say you are who you are because of your genetics?
There is a particular genetic disorder that causes one to think about the source of our gender identities. Take a look at the picture below.

Does anything strike you about these ladies? Because in reality these Ladies (or should I say dudes) are in fact are genetically male. They were born with a particular genetic disorder called Androgen Insensitivity Disorder. This particular disorder is pretty interesting because as I stated before they are all genetically male meaning that they have an X chromosome and a Y chromosome just like any linebacker on a football team would. But the key difference here is a mutation in their genetic code which makes their cells unresponsive to testosterone the same hormone that causes all of the traits we normally associate with maleness.
So why are they female? To answer that question in very simple terms we would say that every human is "naturally" born a female, only through exposure during critical times during pregnancy (and later during puberty) to testosterone do male characteristics appear.

So what do you think makes you the gender you are? Is gender merely a social construct? I am not sure I would go that far but the moral of the story here is that the question of gender is more complicated than we think.

Oil Immersion

Yesterday in my Microbiology Lab we learned how to do Oil Immersion, which is a process that is used in microscopy to increase the resolution at much higher magnification. I though it was a pretty clever way to increase resolution. Here is a cool diagram that shows the process

Principle of immersion microscopy. Path of rays with immersion medium (yellow) (left half) and without (right half). Rays (black) coming from the object (red) at a certain angle and going through the coverslip (orange, as the slide at the bottom) can enter the objective (dark blue) only when immersion is used. Otherwise, the refraction at the coverslip - air interface causes the ray to miss the objective and its information is lost. 

Crazy Science

all of these videos show the necessity of how actually observing an experiment can really challenge your preconceptions

The Indelible Stamp of our Lowly Origin

We are apes. do not let any ideology tell you otherwise. we are not some exalted and perfected beings only momentarily exiled from a state of perfection. If one needs convincing one only needs a brief glimpse of history to confirm this fact
It is often all to easy to see that we still today carry the roots of our past but this knowledge should not scare us or make us feel uncomfortable. It should guide us and help us better understand our weaknesses, the old adage "know thyself" applies.
It may seem hard to understand (and it is hard to truly understand) but our past ancestry does not mean make us any less of who we are (nor more), it makes us human. We walked our of Africa to face new challenges, that more often than not seemed insurmountable. A select few had the courage to ford a raging river, cross a snow capped mountain pass, navigate an endless ocean, and break free of the limitations set forth. To deny our past would deny the understanding that yes, humanity has made plenty of mistakes but humanity has also overcome

Ferrofluid Magic

Compressed 02 from Kim Pimmel on Vimeo.
more on Ferrofluid here

Our Life History

The history of our lives are more than a collection brief genealogical trees, our lives are interconnected with the world around us. Deep patterns and connections confound our understanding, but the message is clear. Our progenitors were survivors. Survivors who depended on each other and still faced the challenges of the world big and small.
We are Life, just one of many forms

New York - Empire of Evolution - NYTimes.com

New York - Empire of Evolution - NYTimes.com: "To study evolution, Jason Munshi-South has tracked elephants in central Africa and proboscis monkeys in the wilds of Borneo. But for his most recent expedition, he took the A train."