Your cart is currently empty!
Category: science
-
Faces Turned to the Past
I have been listening to audiobooks and podcasts at work to pass the time, and have discovered that while I thought that audiobooks were far too slow, and narrator’s voices annoying, with further exploration I found some that work for me, by accelerating playback speed and choosing non-fiction. I do have one fiction I’m listening…
-
Spidersilk
I read a pair of articles this week about spiders, their genes, venom, and silk. It was a fascinating glimpse into the little creatures I already am fascinated with. I had no idea how complex the arachnid genome is, much more than a human’s. And untangling that genetic riddle could lead to advances in textiles,…
-
Bees, medicine, and corn printers
A quick round up of some links of interest to me, and perhaps you as well. 3D printing has fascinating potential, but is not taking off as quickly as was initially predicted, due in part to not being adopted by industry for multipurposes that proponents of the new tech suggested. However, it is slowly gaining…
-
A Profusion of Petals
Have you ever wondered why there is such a broad diversity of flower shapes? What dictates that this plant will have two petals, this one five, and that one over there 200 or more? The answer is in the genes, of course, but flowers themselves are an interesting genetic phenomenon. The cells that develop into…
-
Exploding Billiard Balls
Soon after the first billiard balls made with artificial materials went on the market, some unsuspecting fool (really, even ivory would have been damaged by this, so what was he thinking?) put a lit cigar end to a nitrocellulose ball whilst playing. The saloon keeper wrote to the manufacturer complaining that the ball had ‘gone…
-
Perpetual Motion Poo
Back to poo flinging. Or rather, not flinging poo, discarding it indiscriminately, or wasting it. Sorry. I can’t resist the jokes, wasting waste was just too… Anyway. I wrote earlier this week about capitalizing on human waste. The benefits of capitalism when it comes to dealing with human waste and providing incentives for removal of…
-
Capitalism for Crap
Wait, maybe that’s crap for capitalism. Or… capitalist crap! Yes, that’s it! There are a lot of names for it, but I’m reminded of the title of a children’s book: Everybody Poops. When you’re a parent, getting your kid to poop on the potty is a moment to celebrate. No more diapers! But… After you…
-
Experimentum Periculosum
Continuing with Hippocrates’ pithy philosophical statement, we find that experiment is dangerous. As I am working in a chemistry lab, I have to say that indeed, it is. Even tried and true methods will occasionally fail, and many use dangerous chemicals in the course of carrying out an assay. But yet, we continue. Safety is…
-
Anatomical Art
Some strange and wonderful artwork has been made in years gone by. Sadly, much of this has since been destroyed, as being ‘too morbid.’ We wipe out the past behind us, like a branch across our footprints in the dust. But it doesn’t change that we were there, or what we learned along our journey.…
-
Strange Days
I’m having a strange morning, due to a delayed getting-to-work time so I can deal with an appointment. The GinjaNinja is under the weather, so I’m sitting at my desk with the house all quiet around me. The First Reader headed off to work early, and we missed our usual morning coffee and chat time.…
-
The Healthy Skeptic
I’ve written here on the blog about food, diet, and health many times. It’s not just that I love to cook, or that I view the ‘organic’ movement with a somewhat cynical eye (having been in the midst of it), or that I’m a mother trying to raise healthy kids. The reality is far from…
-
A Code of Ethics
We seem to be lacking in ethics as a culture, I have noticed. Yesterday I encountered a jaw-dropping example of this, and today I am listening to a podcast covering the lack of ethics in alternative medicine. But those are just two examples of many out there – I’m sure each and every one of…