Showing posts tagged science

So much to learn about…. bedbugs?

The ancient Greeks ate w/ meat and beans to treat fevers, w/ beans for snake bites and w/ with wine/vinegar to get rid of leeches (@brookeborel)

Who’d have ever thunk?!

I’ve been following Brooke on Twitter for awhile, and she’s always tweeting fun facts about bedbugs.

The scientific name for the common is Cimex lectularius, which translates to bug of the bed/couch.  (@brookeborel)

A few months ago, when I did this fun little bedbug project, I became even more interested in these fascinating creatures. Sure, they’re the object of our nightmares and worst apartment experiences, but they have such a rich history and biology! Her tweets are a well-curated learning experience, and I recommend it highly if you can get over bedbugs being things that eat your blood at night. (Gross!) She’s compiling her research into a book all about bedbugs, which is totally weird and neat.

Here’s one more to make you want to learn more:

Female have their own antimicrobial protection, which they ramp up pre-feeding ( mating usually happens post-mealtime) (@brookeborel)

Every time I remember that there are people who live in space, my mind is blown. This time lapse is really neat to watch, and it’s amazing to think that it literally represents some people’s worldview. Wow.

(Original article from TIME, even though I’m still feeling weird about their advertisement.)

Wind Map = Art + Science Data Visualization

This map, which is zoomable and changes periodically as new data is received, is the most sincerely gorgeous map of wind I have ever seen. It was built to be a personal art project, but is also fairly accurate. What an amazing power our country has to use wind for energy; it’s such a rich resource!

The self-described technologists also have done other projects employing visualizations to reshape data into accessible forms.

One more LEGO post for today, because when you build them into robots, they open incredible doors for science. Watch.

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I was on a Canadian radio show because of a neat segment on bedbug reproduction that I did with Matt Long-Middleton. The sex positive show, Audio Smut, airs on CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal once a month. The audio clip here is just my science-informed, comedy-enhanced segment, but if you have time, listen to the full episode because it’s super interesting and it gives context!

[Editor’s note: The faint of heart and mind should be aware of potential danger in this clip.]

SCIENCE! Body systems out of whack.

You’re running late for work and you can’t find your keys. What’s really annoying is that in your frantic search, you pick up and move them without realizing. This may be because the brain systems involved in the task are working at different speeds, with the system responsible for perception unable to keep pace.

Your brain’s out of sync.

(via wecreatenyc and New Scientist)

(Reblogged from wecreatenyc)

Did You Know? Groundhogs do more than just predict weather

This morning, Punxsutawney Phil predicted more winter (not so bad, considering the insanely mild winter we’ve had so far). Even though Phil should keep his job, other groundhogs have been contributing to science. New Scientist reports that because of a disease common in groundhogs that resembles the human hepatitis B, they are able to lend insight into possible liver cancer treatment and vaccines.

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My buddy samuelhansen shared this neat new episode of his brand new podcast today and it’s well worth a listen whether you consider yourself a math/science person or not. His note:

I have just started a new podcast over at ACMEScience.com about the great rivalries behind science called Science Sparring Society. The first episode is Newton Vs. Leibniz, in other words the story of the Calculus War.

I find it really easy to follow, interesting, and jam-packed with cool information that I probably wouldn’t find anywhere else. There’s clearly a ton of thought that went into this.

Sam’s also been keeping me appraised of his progress on this and other projects regularly through our accountability partnership, and it’s been quite fun to hear how hard he’s working on everything!

(Reblogged from samuelhansen)

Twins

The idea of having a twin will forever fascinate me, and National Geographic did a terrific article on them. An excerpt:

The story began with the much publicized case of two brothers, both named Jim. Born in Piqua, Ohio, in 1939, Jim Springer and Jim Lewis were put up for adoption as babies and raised by different couples, who happened to give them the same first name. When Jim Springer reconnected with his brother at age 39 in 1979, they uncovered a string of other similarities and coincidences. Both men were six feet tall and weighed 180 pounds. Growing up, they’d both had dogs named Toy and taken family vacations in St. Pete Beach in Florida. As young men, they’d both married women named Linda, and then divorced them. Their second wives were both named Betty. They named their sons James Alan and James Allan. They’d both served as part-time sheriffs, enjoyed home carpentry projects, suffered severe headaches, smoked Salem cigarettes, and drank Miller Lite beer. Although they wore their hair differently—Jim Springer had bangs, while Jim Lewis combed his hair straight back—they had the same crooked smile, their voices were indistinguishable, and they both admitted to leaving love notes around the house for their wives.

Whoa.

(thanks for sharing, infinitezest!)

Believe it or not, these are old images in which Guillaume Duchenne was attempting to find the perfect smile through electrodes targeted at specific muscles. He articulated this quest: The “Duchenne smile” is a genuine one, one that seems happy and friendly. It’s the result of two different groups of muscles working together. Cheek muscles turn the lips up in a voluntary maneuver that can be faked. But the muscles under your eyes that crinkle the skin to the outer side of each eye are involuntary, and they don’t necessarily start working just because you need to make a good impression at a job interview. Only the two combined really look genuine. When you smile with just your lips, you look like you’re either faking or in pain. Recently however, more people can fake a ‘perfect smile’. Are we as a society becoming more fake? Or less aware of the nuances of expression? Or (worst of all) less joyous? View high resolution

Believe it or not, these are old images in which Guillaume Duchenne was attempting to find the perfect smile through electrodes targeted at specific muscles. He articulated this quest:

The “Duchenne smile” is a genuine one, one that seems happy and friendly. It’s the result of two different groups of muscles working together. Cheek muscles turn the lips up in a voluntary maneuver that can be faked. But the muscles under your eyes that crinkle the skin to the outer side of each eye are involuntary, and they don’t necessarily start working just because you need to make a good impression at a job interview. Only the two combined really look genuine. When you smile with just your lips, you look like you’re either faking or in pain.

Recently however, more people can fake a ‘perfect smile’. Are we as a society becoming more fake? Or less aware of the nuances of expression? Or (worst of all) less joyous?

This will blow your mind. Does this mean I can float if I’m covered in liquid nitrogen?! Is that dangerous?! Oh the possibilities of SCIENCE!

Also, a question for my science-y readers: what does it all REALLY mean?

Giggle-worthy. And that’s not all.

Giggle-worthy. And that’s not all.

Cows: what you never knew. Check out that stomach!  All this and more unnecessarily wonderful knowledge at the website that knows everything (or that I at least assume to be generally correct). Wikipedia gives different sorts of info; I’m pretty sure you never actually have to meet a cow if you consume both fact-laden webpages. But that would be the saddest thing, so go meet a cow. View high resolution

Cows: what you never knew. Check out that stomach! 

All this and more unnecessarily wonderful knowledge at the website that knows everything (or that I at least assume to be generally correct). Wikipedia gives different sorts of info; I’m pretty sure you never actually have to meet a cow if you consume both fact-laden webpages. But that would be the saddest thing, so go meet a cow.

Sperm bank catalyzing redhead extinction

Cyros International, the world’s biggest sperm bank, doesn’t want redheaded donors anymore. The demand is too low, they stated. I suppose there’s still a chance that the ever-popular brown hair brown eyed donor is a carrier of the recessive mutated MC1R gene, but my completely scientific theory is that even less redheaded babies are going to enter this twisted world.

What a shame.

Is there a limit to the amount of mucus that can be produced by a person and expelled through their nose? Where IS it all? And what determines how thick it is?

Do you know? I was going to research these incredibly intriguing questions and answer them right here(!) but then was too overwhelmed by the overly-scientific explanations that I found on Google. Anyone want to take a stab at the answer or part of it? Because that’d be cool. Do it in honor of Allergy Season!