Quarks to Cosmos

I knew I needed Botox, now I know why

2010-02-09T18:41:00.001-08:00

Who doesn't like a good batch of Botox every now and again. Going numb is fun and beautiful, right? Well, now you can add to that, it can make you happy.
If one numbs the muscles that cause frowning, preventing the sad face...happiness prevails! According to a University of Wisconsin Madison study, the link between emotion and physical gesture goes both ways: happiness can cause smiling AND smiling can cause happiness. Likewise, sadness can cause frowing AND frowning can cause sadness. So get some shots, make yourself pretty and make yourself happy. Vanity for mental health- alright! Dolly Parton, I know why you are sweet as pie!

wacky way to connect to aliens

2010-01-21T17:42:00.000-08:00

Poll please!!!

Do you agree with Joe Davis, of MIT, who transmitted the sounds of vaginal contractions towards neighboring star systems in the mid-1980s, because he became concerned that no image of humans had been sent into space representing the details of human genitals or reproduction?

Are vaginal contractions important information for aliens?(surveys)

2009-09-21T18:57:00.001-07:00

“To my mind,” Dr. Porco said, “most people go through life recoiling from its best parts. They miss the enrichment that just a basic knowledge of the physical world can bring to the most ordinary experiences. It’s like there’s a pulsating, hidden world, governed by ancient laws and principles, underlying everything around us — from the movements of electrical charges to the motions of the planets."

A romantic comedy, brought to you by the government and a scientist

2009-09-17T14:08:00.001-07:00

Oh, the power of science! All because of science, today I'm looking forward to the release of a romantic comedy movie AND wanting to pat the Pentagon on the back. Yep.

All of this time I was bitching about the decline of science in America and thinking that no one was doing anything about it. Turns out the Pentagon launched a program to make movies about science! Some scientists have been united with screenwriters and directors, but others have even been FUNDED to learn how to write screenplays. The idea is that they will represent real scientists and make them look cool.

Case in point:Valerie Weiss has spent the last five years, in addition to being a biophysicist, tweaking her movie script, "Losing Control." Now she's set to direct it.

It's about a woman who wants "scientific proof" that "the man she loves is the one."

"[It's] about the limitations of what we can actually know before doing something," says Weiss. "That's science, art . . . love. They're all the same. It's all about taking a big risk. It still ultimately requires a leap of faith."

Read the rest here.

The organic debate continues

2009-08-31T23:44:00.000-07:00

So did you hear about that big study that said there are no nutritional benefits to eating organic food?

Turns out they did a pretty shoddy job of research, according to Peter Melchett of the Soil Association.

He says there'll be another batch of research coming out next spring, this time by the EU. Watch out, Food Standards Agency.

I mean come on, how could eating organic not be healthier?

Science for the masses-- we need it!!!

2009-08-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

There is a great interview in the LA Times with science journalist Chris Mooney (pictured). This man is on our wavelength.

His new book talks about how both the conservative religious community AND the scientific community are out of touch with each other. It's not just the religious zealouts' fault-- scientists need to peep out of their intellectual bubbles and connect with the people.

Great quotes:

If I read ScienceBlogs, what I see are endless eloquent refutations of the creationists based on science. It's been done to death. Obviously, that doesn't convince anybody. And that's because people who don't believe in evolution are not driven by scientific considerations.

The media needs to get over the "I'm-a-pissed-off-middle-school-student-and-science-isn't-for-me" kind of mind set. Science coverage should be high-standard, it should be entertaining.

Read the rest here.

'The Empire' is 'lost in space.' Star Wars or politics?

2009-08-17T18:08:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, Hugo Chavez went into specifics about Obama, Latin America and astronomy. About the (alleged) U.S. role in the Honduran coup and unwillingness to close Guantanamo, Chavez spewed:

"We are asking that the empire get its hands off Honduras and get its claws out of Latin America ... President Obama is lost in the Andromeda Nebula ... he doesn't get it."

Thank you Mr. Chavez for your specifics, you have crafted a clear image. It involves Obama's claws reaching from the Andromeda galaxy back to Earth and grabbing at Latin American countries.

Hmm, that image isn't very clear at all! I couldn't make it in photoshop so that's my criteria, Hugo.

Also: I'm not an Obama defender, but I'm going to have to say that YOU don't get it either-- Andromeda is a galaxy, not a nebula.

I'll respond in the role of Obama and call this a "teachable moment." Unfortunately, me, Obama, Hugo, and the galaxy can't have a beer together. But let's all try to learn the difference between a nebula and a galaxy anyway.

GALAXY: What we live in! Ours is called the Milky Way, and Andromeda is our nearest neighbor. Our sun is one of about 200 billion stars in the spiral-shaped Milky Way galaxy.

Wikipedia: A massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and dark matter.

NEBULA: A big cloud of mess! The gas floating around in it can condense and form stars, and then solar systems can form around the stars. There is one in Orion's belt.

Wikipedia: An interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and plasma. Originally nebula was a general name for any extended astronomical object, including galaxies beyond the Milky Way (some examples of the older usage survive; for example, the Andromeda Galaxy was referred to as the Andromeda Nebula before galaxies were discovered by Hubble).

Another way to turn blue and cure illness

2009-08-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's post was about turning blue and reducing spinal trauma.

Today's blog is about something that has been seen as a panacea and as quakery but will also turn you blue: colloidal silver.

A colloid is particles that remain suspended without forming ions, or dissolved solution. It is made through an electrolysis process. Silver has been used medicinally for centuries and at the turn of the 20th century, its popularity flourished as a antimicrobial agent. But in the 1940's antibiotics became widely available and colloidal silver was pushed to the wayside. In the 1990's when there become talk of drug resistant infections, colloidal silver made a comeback. Through the past century, it was used to cure everything from epilepsy to gonorrhea to eye problems.
Nowadays one can buy colloidal silver legally over the interwebs or in health food stores in the US. Some claim it cures HIV, cancer and diabetes-- but these statements are scientifically unsupported.

The Russians and the WHO have used colloidal silver in water purification and it has uses in horticulture.

Now let's get to the blue.

Let me tell you about a little thing called Argyria. It is a permanent discoloring of the skin and eyes due to excessive intake of colloidal silver. It makes skin turn blue/grey. For eva-eva.

Stan Jones is a Libertarian politician who ran twice unsuccessfully for the US Senate (2002 and 2006) and twice unsuccessfully for the governorship of Montana (2000 and 2004). He developed Argyria and turned blue after consuming home-made colloidal silver because he feared that Y2K would make antibiotics unavailable. He still drinks home made colloidal silver as a home remedy. The pic is of him.

Now I ponder while I sip my colloidal silver and eat my blue M&Ms: Why don't we have any blue fruits,flowers or veggies that naturally occur? (blueberries are indigo, dammit)

I'm Blue

2009-08-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

It is understood that secondary inflammation following spinal chord trauma causes more lasting damage than the initial injury. Essentially, the swelling from the initial injury sparks mini strokes that suffocates the blood flow and then kills the surrounding tissue.
So, what can cure this secondary inflammation, you may ask yourself.
I have to words for you: get blue.

According to this National Geographic article, scientists injected a paralyzed mouse with Brilliant Blue G dye, a derivative of common Blue Number One dye (found in M&Ms, gatorade and essentially anything tasty and blue colored)... and within days of injection the mouse was able to stumble around.

so there you have it, common blue food coloring has magical powers: it can reduce inflammation of the spinal chord. (added bonus: you can turn blue without drinking silver). Plus compounds used to treat spinal chord injuries have insane toxins in them, while blue food coloring is awesome.... blue eyeballs!

Licking the Purple Frogs

2009-07-31T11:17:00.000-07:00

“Its head appears too small for its body and it looks more like a squat, grumpy blob than a living creature.”
- the BBC

It has been around since the time of the dinosaur, but was discovered only in 2003. It's discovery marked the first new finding of a new family of amphibians since 1926. Scientists believe that the family has been around for 130 million years and that the purple frog is the last representative... but you never really know.

Instead of hopping around like most frogs, it is a squirmy little bugger that runs really fast. It burrows underground and feasts on termites. It's thought only to go up to land during monsoon season to do it.

I love its lack of neck.

On the EDGE blog, you can see footage of the little bugger http://www.edgeofexistence.org/edgeblog/?p=760.html

Who is responsible for making crop circles?

2009-06-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

Do you give up?

I'll give you a hint. Aliens are not making the crop circles.

Still don't know. Ok, I'll give it to you.

Answer: stoned wallabies

According to the BBC, Australian wallabies are munching a ton of opium poppies, getting high as a kite and hopping around in eerie patterns.

Wallabies love opium. Australia produces about 50% of the worlds legal opium supply used to make morphine. The Australian poppy growers are having a hard time with the wallabies, who break into the fields...get high...and hop hop hop in circles.
Sheep have been seen also munching the poppies and wandering in circles.

How your cat could be making you neurotic

2009-06-10T17:24:00.000-07:00

From science fiction or real life, you may be familiar with the manipulative powers of parasites. Invasive fungus that provokes ants to climb atop plants before dying, where it can continue growing. Rabies causes dogs to salivate and become aggressive, increasing the chance that they'll bite and spread the disease.

And Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that actually draws rats to their predators -- cats. Manipulation is afoot here, too. Cats are the definitive hosts of this parasite, which can inhabit their brains after they kill a rat. From there, the parasite can spread to other mammals, including humans.

Researcher Kevin Lafferty proposed that T. gondii, discovered in 1908 and transmitted to roughly half of Earth's population, may be manipulating human behavior.

Characteristics of people carrying the parasite? In a Turkish study, drivers were two to four times as likely to get in car accidents if they tested positive for the bug. (Sound familiar, rats?) A study in the Czech Republic showed a sharp difference between male and female carriers. Males tended to have lower IQs, shorter attention spans, a greater likelihood of taking risks, and were more independent, antisocial and morose. Women, on the other hand, were more outgoing, friendly and promiscuous.

Overall, carriers were more likely to feel guilty (a characteristic of neurosis), and one study linked the parasite to schizophrenia.

There aren't many of these carrier studies, but there is a wealth of science on how people catch the parasite. Cat owners, do not fret: While some identify cat ownership as a slight risk, others do not. Eating undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables and handling soil are consistently more prominent factors. (Pregnant women, however, should ignore any cravings for raw meat or dirt, as the fetus can be especially at risk.)

But take another look at Garfield comics, and you may think again about whether a pet cat poses a risk. Garfield Minus Garfield cuts the cat out of the strip, exposing a strange Jon Arbuckle with schizophrenic tendencies.

-- Clare Abreu

WolframAlpha, funny name but useful invention

2009-05-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

This "computational knowledge engine" called WolframAlpha launched today. Built by a former child prodigy named Wolfram, it will tell you the answer to many things, without much effort required on your part.

I'm sure this thing has a lot of potential for a lot of areas, but right now it looks most relevant to math and science.

To me it raises the question--- why even take a math class? I'm not being blasphemous against science, I'm just extending the question-- why force students to do painful things like long division when calculators exist? (Something I've pondered recently while tutoring kids. I mean come on, I couldn't even remember how to write out decimal multiplication.)

I feel like the future of science is pure discovery, not bounded by inefficient busy work. Part of me was a little worried watching that presentation, that the technology is getting away from us. But I'm optimistic about these things, that progress in science is good, and that frivolous gadgets will be weeded out.

Atlantis lift-off

2009-05-11T12:40:00.000-07:00

Good luck tomorrow, Atlantis!

2009-05-10T17:30:00.001-07:00

You can do it!

Catepillar and wasp

2009-05-02T10:38:00.001-07:00

Watch out for parasites that first take over your body and then take over your mind!

Undersea volcano erupts near Tonga

2009-03-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

This eruption looks eerily slow... slow motion gray water that reminds me of something scary from The Never-Ending Story.

More HUGE photos

Video:

Stephen Hawking = wacky dad

2009-03-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

Check out this interview with Stephen Hawking and his daughter Lucy. She's helping him write books about the universe for kids. They deal with (scary) subjects like what happens inside a black hole, what happened during the big bang, and finally one that actually is ok for children-- a kid named George who flies into space with his supercomputer Cosmos to look for aliens.

Do you think it's ok to tell kids what happens inside a black hole? One time I told some kids I used to baby-sit that the sun would burn out one day. I instantly regretted it! But in the Hawking house, I get the feeling that would've been ok.

Best quote from Lucy Hawking about her father:

I have a lovely photograph of him as an alien, in a green felt suit. He had a special voice programmed into his speech machine and went around the party saying "Take me to your leader."

Read on to see whether she's ever heard her father's real voice and other facts (marital problems not addressed).

DIY Science that is inspiring

2009-03-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

Now, aint that majestic.

Four spanish students took this photo with their makeshift camera-operated balloon (made out of a cheapie camera and a balloon). They built electronic sensor components from scratch and got their latex balloon to the edge of space (20 miles up) and took readings and photos of the ascent.

I am so inspired and flabbergasted, I can barely type. For more on the story go here.

And other things to be happy about

2009-03-12T13:28:00.001-07:00

Turtle tries to do the nasty with a tenny

Hooray oh Happy Day

2009-03-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

Quark has not become a dentist. That is a bummer dude. But she has just been accepted to a program to be a science teacher. Those the can't, right.

To celebrate a future of getting paid to play with science, here are some pictures of symbiosis. They represent the affinity of Quarks and Cosmos.

La Chai'm

Melons I like to eat

2009-01-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

I like melons that serve a purpose. Echolocation definitely serves a purpose. And the melon, the fatty oily lump in the brain of whales and dolphins helps with just that. Also it helps with deep diving and buoyancy- good job brain fat!

You can find bigger, more delicious melons in the brains of larger and toothed whales (smaller in baleen whales I suppose).

Oh and here is a fun fact: candles used to be sometimes made with the melons of sperm whales. They have different fat in their melons that are super waxy, making them huntable.

My favorite melon, as depicted below, it that of a beluga whale- sing the Raffi song to yourself immediately- because like a level 8 scientologist it is a shape shifter. No one really knows why (not even mister l ron) but scientists believe it has something to do with its adaptation to living in icy environments

Where are all those rare dolphins and whales? Over there!

2009-01-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

Guess what I found in East Timor. A bunch of rare whales. I found them because I love brains with melons.

The sunspots will come with avengance in 2012, start building underground lair now!

2008-12-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

In an earlier blog, we wrote about how the sun has been spotless for most of the year- it has been majorly inactive.

Well, according to this National Geographic article, magnetic-sheild cracks have been found and huge solar storms will errupt in 2012!!!! The Mayans were right! Instead of defending out rights to demoracy or defending ourselves against terrorists, we need to be defending our planet's soalr defenses.

Here is the deal: A thick layer of solar particles inside our dear Earth's magentic field suggests that during our next period of high solar activity (2012!!!!) we will see some of the worst solar storms in a looooong time. For us earthlings, this can mean our satellites power sources can go haywire and our power grids can be knocked down.

Time to start weaning off the grid....

'the science babe' vs. loose change

2008-12-21T22:29:00.000-08:00

Meet Dr. Debbie Berebichez. She has a goal similar to Quarks and Cosmos' -- to make science fun and practical and accessible to everyone, particularly hard-workin women. But the difference between HER and US is that she has a PhD in physics from Stanford.

I don't think she needed to call herself "The Science Babe" to achieve this, but whatever, clearly Debbie is a force of nature. Meaning her mass times her acceleration. And boy is she accelerating, specially if she's going to become the "Oprah of science" as she wants.

In addition to her postdoctoral studies and a video you can check out on her site on the physics of high heels, Debbie has achieved something interesting -- shooting down those Loose Change guys who say that 9-11 was an inside job because the towers shouldn't have collapsed. Check out this article she wrote about it.

Loose change guys, you lose.

Hey brother, can you spare an acorn?

2008-12-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

It's a depression and not only is our economy hurting, but the economy of the forest is feeling the pinch too.

For zillions of years, acorns have been used as currency among different woodland creatures, especially the squirrel. The squirrel with the most acorns won and was the cutest and chubbiest by default. Now, very few squirrels in certain regions are cute and chubby. The reason: barren oak trees.

Oaks trees that usually have a plenty a bushel of acorns are this year completely barren. This is as scary as the loooong lull in sun spots.

So watch out dear science geeks for crazy and hungry squirrels, they will attack if provoked. And can someone please fertlize the oak tree so it starts producing acorns?

Such a Pevert! I mean, such a Pvrt

2008-11-20T07:50:00.000-08:00

This isn't magic. It hightlights the direct relationship between pressure and volume and temperature. And it also highlights the deliciousness of a nice cold brew.

CHICKEN

2008-11-18T21:54:00.000-08:00

I love this

Ice cream on the brain- I mean, global warming and the death of post modernism

2008-11-18T21:18:00.001-08:00

I just realized we are closer to December 16, 2012 than we are to Y2K. Remember Y2K? It seemed to happen not to long ago but it's almost 9 years. That got me thinking. And my housemate got me thinking a little more...

So, in a sentimental mood, I re-read the Viridian Design by Bruce Sterling written just post-y2k. I recommend it, if nothing more than to remember life prior to the Depression.

He talks of the fact that we can all be cheery in disposition despite harsh economic times and be ahem, hopeful, against all odds. But also, that we cannot survive without our natural resource base, which is depleting.
While he does not mention enough that clearly science is the future, he does say that saving electricity by turning off your lights or saving water by washing your car at night simply isn't enough, we need a new design and architecture that addresses the truths behind climate change (and no, a facebook lil green patch is simply not enough).

More bandwidth, more information sharing across language boundaries and the eradicating of the digital divide (all brought on my science) , more leisure time and nonmaterial industries, and sleek and sexy environmentally sound objects made from totally new materials are the way of the future. oh and less babies and healthy old people.

The essay concludes by sadly stating that in this new post-post modern viridian designed era scientists will no longer will have to "share imperiled, marginal conditions" .

Oh to live in a world where science is actually honored, respected and cultivated, sure would be great....

in the meantime, pass me the headon

Science has determined Quarks now loves cats

2008-11-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

Yep, thanks to these two scientists explanation, I now understand, respect and even loves the felines

stupids, smarts, who's counting?

2008-11-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

This is Susan Jacoby.

She wrote a book called "The Age of American Unreason" about how Americans are stoooooooooopid. But they didn't use to be when they sat around readin the classics.

LAT columnist Joel Stein challenged her to a stupidity quiz. Susan did good on the quiz, but she doesn't know how many degrees there are in a triangle, or what the number pi means. But she dissed the quiz-- this is her defense:

"This test is a product of the digital culture," she said. "I feel even more strongly now than when I wrote this book that the digital culture confuses information with knowledge."

Blah blah BLAH. This is what the columnist says in response:

The age of a finite set of information to master is long over. Instead, we know how to problem-solve and filter information better than our grandparents ever did. And that makes us better voters. If you don't believe me, just watch them try to navigate a voting machine.

Science is the future! Old people are bad with technology, even if they can recite passages from Shakespeare.

What do you think, am I just a hater?

Eco-science for ADD

2008-10-31T09:20:00.001-07:00

Stanford, why are you so smart?

How did you know I like to learn things but also have trouble keeping still.

Thank goodness there are these science quickies at www.stanford.edu/group/microdocs/index.html

It's called Short Attention Span Theatre and its GOOD (the only bad thing is i dont know how to embed it onto our site)

Depression Ice Cream

2008-10-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Tired of spending all your hard earned cash on ice cream?

Do you have a plastic bag?

Can you shake a plastic bag?

Then you are in luck my friend!

Make your own ice cream!

You will need

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 cup of cream

1/4 cup of sugar

1/2 tsp of vanilla (or fake vanilla since times are tough)

1 quart sized ziploc bag

1 gal sized ziploc bag

ice ice baby

rock salt (aka ice cream salt)

and if you are lucky, a thermometer

Here's all you do:

1- stir milk, cream sugar and vanilla/fake vanilla in a bowl and then pour into quart size ziploc

2- stick that bag in the gallon ziploc, half fill the gallon ziploc with ice (2cups) and rock salt (1/2 cup). [aside: salt lowers freezing pt of water, the lower freezing point provides the temperature difference needed to transfer heat between the freezing ice cream ingredients and melting ice)

3- shake shake shake so ingredients whip together-- like 10 min, its a great workout

4- take a break let bag sit [ what happens when you don't shake the bag? rock salt doesnt freezing pt of water as much as table salt, good ole NaCl-which results in smoother ice cream because it freezes more gradually)

5- shake until you like it and then eat it

word up: ice cream is a colloid- an emulsion where 2 substances are suspended within each other rather than being chemically bonded. Because of this, many ice creams also have an emulsifier to prevent the fat molecules from separating from the rest of the ice cream. Ice cream also uses a stabilizer to help hold air into the ice cream

Shake it till you make it

them damn ants

2008-10-16T21:54:00.000-07:00

Cosmos here!

Today's edition of question-n-answer was had between me and Quarks's brothers, via email. They know their chemistry well, folks, don't let their modesty fool ya. AND, they're enthusiastic to boot and replied to my email at almost the exact same

time. (Which makes me wonder... did you guys confer and synchronize it?)

QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ

from Clare Abreu

to Isaac Ribakoff , jacob ribakoff

date Thu, Oct 16 at 10:22 AM

subject boric acid?

Hi there,

I was wondering whether either of you knows about boric acid. Apparently it is the active ingredient in some peanut butter ant traps I'm using, but they don't seem to be working.

They are also years old, so I was wondering if you know whether boric acid loses its power?

Clarice

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

from jacob ribakoff

to Clare Abreu

date Thu, Oct 16 2008 at 2:22 PM

subject Re: boric acid?

Hi Claire,

It's good to hear

from you!

Honestly, I don't know much about boric acid.

According to wikipedia, boric acid is mixed with water and sugar. The ants take it back to the colony and they all get poisoned.

But, my guess is that since boric acid is a very simple, inorganic compound it wouldn't alter its molecular structure over the years. Large molecules found in food and pharaceudicals tend to lose their characteristic molecular structure (it's called denaturing). When the structure is lost the power is lost. Maybe though, the peanut butter is no longer tasty for the ants? I have no idea, i mean ants eat poo. I'm sorry, this wasn't much of an answer :(

from Isaac Ribakoff

to Clare Abreu

date Thu, Oct

16 2008 at 2:33 PM

subject Re: boric acid?

I have not previously heard of Boric acid. It seems to be a weak acid though; humans can consume boric acid with little consequence! Also, perhaps the Boric acid is not working because the water in which it ionizes into acid may have evaporated. In classical chemistry, acids are not "acids" unless dissolved in an aqueous solution.

-Isaac Ribakoff

Well, the ants are feasting, but not disappearing. We'll keep a feeler on this one and report any updates!

This is what happens when you let anyone into space

2008-10-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

If you were hoping to send your DNA sequence into space for safekeeping, sorry, but you missed the boat. Or more specifically, the rocket launch.

The Associated Press reports that Richard Garriott, a computer game designer, blasted into space today. Also on board: the digitized DNA sequences of an assortment of famous and not-so-famous specimen, from scientists to athletes to unknowns.

These now immortal digital souls include:

Physicist Stephen Hawking
Comedian Stephen Colbert
Playboy "Cyber Girl of the Year" Jo Garcia
American Gladiator Matt Morgan

Here's the weirdest part-- the genetic sequences will be stored at the international space station, in case a disaster on Planet Earth wipes out all human life!

"Operation Immortality" is the name of the project, and its fear-inducing website reminds you: "This is our best, last hope against extinction."

So I guess the hope is that someday aliens will reassemble versions of Stephen Colbert and Stephen Hawking to entertain themselves.

As for reproduction, that responsibility will fall on the few women included. Let's hope that Stephen Hawking's daughter Lucy, a couple of sci-fi television writers, and the Playboy model are ready for child-bearing!

(Posted this here too)

Gelato VS Ice Cream...who will win?????

2008-10-12T15:11:00.001-07:00

Something has been a bugging me for a mighty while.

What the hell is the difference between Ice Cream and Gelato?

I need to get to the bottom of this....

It's important you see because in the past 2 days I have purchased 2 containers of ice cream: chocolate brownie and chocolate chip cookie dough. I have also purchased 2 containers of gelato: butterscotch meringue and chocolate jasmine. I had the gelato for dessert yesterday and the ice cream for breakfast today- yep, just like a Cathy comic strip. This quandary deeply affects my life.

Different theories I have heard:

- one is made with butter, the other is not

- gelato has 10 times more calories than ice cream

- gelato is fresher and more healthy than ice cream

- the ingredients are the same, but the process of creaming is different

- gelato and icre cream have different air ratios making one denser than the other

It's time to disspell the myths and turn to the science...

Gelato is made sometimes using a hot process (includes pastorization) or a cold process (sans pastorization- --take that Louis P!). Both processes require a gelato freezer (a forced air freezer) which makes the end product by mixing ingredients and incorporating AIR. (Sorbet is gelato made with water but without dairy products.) Word on the street is North American ice cream uses more butterfat than gelato

Gelato has nothing to do with gelatin, so vegetarians, sigh relief. Though sometimes it is made with eggggggz. Gelato comes from the word to freeze (in what language I dont know, so I will say Mongolian).

Popular Indian legend has it an Italian presented Buddah with a cup of gelato way back in the day- and Buddah was so delighted that he passed on his goodness to the Italian trader that gave him the treat so he could bring Buddah's wisdom to Italy. Too bad legend also has it that the trader died en route back home- what a wuss.

Because gelato is so tender certain things may be added to reduce cost or stretch out the 'freshness' including powdered dairy products, colorants, stablizers and preservatives.

Ice cream is made with dairy products, sugars, etc.... and is made through stirring the mixture slowly slowly to prevent formations of ice crystals to produce smooth and creamy iced cream. American federal standards decree that ice cream must have 10% milk fat of fat per 1/2 cup serving and total 20% total milk solids by weight.

Did you know Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and Washington were all avid ice cream eaters?

And Buddah was a gelato eater?

East vs West --- what wins? You be the judge

Eat up!

Migraine? Go Trip!

2008-10-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

Quarks has had an unstoppable headache for the past week or so. It's hard for her to focus at work and it really hurts.

So what's a gal to do? RESEARCH, of course.

So I went to http://clusterbusters.com/ to find out how to treat this never ending cluster headache. And you know what they told me- to use hallucinogenic treatments. Apparently, in the 1960's LSD was used to treat migraines. Some guy named Flash learned about that and started tripping every 3 months and lo and behold, his headaches went away. Then another guy, named Wold started clusterbusters.com to further Flash's hypothesis.

Then, John Halpern of Harvard Medical School caught on to the tripping. He and a colleague interviewed dozens of people who used Hallucinogenic Therapy of headaches, and there was something to it. Their findings are published in the flash ship journal Neurology...and Halpern has submitted a protocol for Phase 1 clinical trials to Harvard's Institutional Review Board.

So, who wants to help me cure my headache? Desert Party anyone?

The Garden of Eden

2008-09-30T22:54:00.001-07:00

GUEST POST by
Johnny 2012

So I was driving, listening to Unwound and a theological debate. That got me thinking about the story of Genesis, and the Garden of Eden and all of that crap. I had also just attended a Rash Hashana celebration, where one person asked "so why did monotheism emerge so late in the game?"

Good question. My answer is that monotheism emerged hand in hand with agriculture and larger civilizations, and the transition between tribal cultures and monarchical city-states. I posit that the idea of religion is somewhat innate in people, for whatever reason, and when you live as a small tribe amongst many neighboring tribes and factions, you assume (possibly rightly so) that they have their own gods, or pantheons of gods.

But as the political structure of your tribe grows outwards and upwards and you are further removed from neighboring tribes, you also become removed from the gods of those people. This could result in a few feelings on your part:

1. You might assume that your god had vanquished the other gods
2. You might assume that these other gods, so far away, are just made up
3. You might assume that these other gods, so far away, must be evil

As more and more people convert or are born into your belief system (which is fostered by the presence of a political structure uniting those people) you believe more ardently in your god, no matter how many people outside your community believe in something else.

So much for separation between Church and State.

But what about the Garden of Eden?

Well for starters it's a creationist myth, but it is also the first chapter of the Bible, which is quite surreptitiously the written history of Judaic people. Tonight I was assuming that there must be a kernel of historical fact nestled in the story of the Garden, but what could it be? I came up with this rough interpretation:

So the world was created by an entity we assume is God, and he made everything, and it was around for a long time and it's all a big mystery that we try to explain with magic because we haven't invented science yet, and hey, it's oral tradition at this point, so anything goes.

So anyway, somewhere around 10000-7000 B.C. this guy is wandering around. Maybe he's lost his tribe, maybe he got kicked out, maybe they all got killed by something. It doesn't matter. The guy is all alone, all nomadic, when he comes to a place where there is just a metric ton of food growing. He thinks to himself "score!" and moves in and starts eating the food.

He eventually runs into this crazy old guy. The crazy old guy is all alone too, and maybe for the same reasons, but here's the thing. The crazy old guy has invented agriculture. He's planting seeds and growing food. He's good at it. He grows a bunch of food. The two hang out from time to time, trying not to kill each other, because the young guy needs the old guy to grow food, and the old guy needs the young guy for protection. It's pretty sweet. They probably don't speak the same language, so the old guy points at stuff, and the young guy says the name of that thing in his language. Have you ever seen Enemy Mine? It's a lot like that.

Eventually this lady shows up. She's lost and alone, but she's the only show in town, so she hooks up with the young guy. By this point, the old guy and the young guy can talk to each other a little bit. Mostly "yes" "no" "please" and "thank you" type stuff. Anyway, the lady moves in, and the old guy feels like he needs to take a vacation. So he packs a bunch of seeds and pods in a leather bag, and picks up a stick.

Before he leaves, he approaches the young lovers. He points at a plant and says "no." What he wants to say, but can't, is "hey, don't eat the seeds of that plant. Seriously, I did it once and it was a crazy bad trip. Seriously, stay away from that plant. You won't be happy."

But like I said, he didn't know how to say that, so he just said "no."

Then he left.

So the lady, with her lady brain, went and ate the fruit from the forbidden plant. She got pretty messed up and told the guy to come try it. So he did. He got higher than anyone in the world had up to that point in history. He hallucinated a conversation with the Old Man, wherein the Old Man taught him the fundamentals of agriculture. The drugs gave the experience a religious importance.

God was born.

But the Old Man never came back. He was killed by a wandering tribe of Neanderthals. Poor guy.

THE END

What I am hypothesizing is that about 10,000 years ago, some guy in the Fertile Crescent got his hands on a powerful hallucinogenic. That drug made weird connections in his brain, connections he wouldn't have made on his own. Eventually (because he was an addict) he arrived at the conclusion that plants can be made to grow where you want them to grow.

He spread that knowledge to a couple of people, and they used it to build the first stable, non-nomadic population in the region. The descendants of that population are today known as Jews.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peganum_harmala

Hurray for them! They made it so far. Happy New Year!

Depression Sand

2008-09-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves to put colored sand in jars. Just look how fun it is!

Fun times, expect in the pocket book. Here is a tip for making your own colored "sand" that will be easy on the wallet:

Although sand is really hard to dye, salt is porous and can absorb color with ease. Consider buying a cylinder of salt (that is 15 cents at Superking) and using food dye to create fun colored "sand"(after Easter you can get good sales on food coloring). Use your old pasta sauce bottles and baby food bottles to store the beautiful "sand". Invent a color! Make psychedelic swirls, patterns and shapes. Give your wondrous creations to everyone you know over the holidays. And if you ever run out of salt for your eggs- you can eat your artwork.

Now that's smart thinking during these hard times.

Thanks science for being so fun and practical!

This one is for Thomas Dolby

2008-09-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Thomas,

Sorry that you were blinded. But I beg to differ, I don't think science blinded you. But perhaps starvation and disease were the cause. My other hypothesis is that you drank alcohol made with methanol instead of ethanol. Dude, the "M" is for morgue. Methanol breaks down into formaldehyde and formic acid which means death or blindness. You cheap prison alcoholic, stop blaming science and get some help. Science cannot cause blindness. However, you may strain your occipital nerves if you spend too much time in front of the microscope.

-Quarks

Our Dead Sisters

2008-09-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

RIP- You gals were, like, the only ones that understood me. I will miss you both so much. But now you are stardust in heaven. Rest in Peace.

Love,

Earth

(from Quarks and Cosmos-- Earth is talking about its homegirls, that lived in Aries- about 300 lightyears away [but longer by greyhound]. They smashed into each other smooshed any life that could have existed on them. Quarks thinks that that was where Tupac was hiding out.)

If you want to know more, go here.

Now that we know the foot patch doesn't work, what about Head On?

2008-09-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

I am an avid watcher of Jeopardy! Almost every day between the announcement of the topic of Final Jeopardy and the final question there is a commercial for Head On- apply directly to the forehead.

WTF does it do?

..OK you get my point. What the hell does Head On actually do?

Is Head On everything realized that the detox foot patch only promises.

NOPE, its a fraud too.

Apparently Head On is made up entirely of ...get this... WAX

The two ingredients lists as "active" are white bryony (a type of vine) and potassium dichromate (A CARCINOGEN!) that are diluted so damn much - 1partpertrillion and 1 partpermillion respectively that the amount of dilution is so great that the product has been described as a placebo.

Don't rub Head On on your forehead--- at best it won't work

At worst- you will get cancer - possibly forehead cancer, which is really scary!

It's won't cure your headache- it sadly will give you an incurable one for throwing away your money on such rubbish.

raining on the foot patch parade

2008-09-21T18:57:00.001-07:00

Apparently the detox foot patches aren't worth it. Dang!

Kinoki foot pads' detox claims don't stand up to science

the green leader is sorrily sober

2008-09-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

This is the leader of Canada's Green Party:

She is sorry, but she has to confess she has never smoked pot.

"I am not a fan of marijuana use. I have to confess this - I know all politicians are asked. I've never used marijuana. I apologize," Elizabeth May announced as she presented the election platform of the Green Party, which includes a proposal to legaliiiiiiize.

1. Why would homegirl stump for legal weed if she ain't smoked it? I bet she gets real annoyed at Green Party gatherings, when everyone turns into Cheech and Chong.

2. How is she "not a fan" of the drug if she's never used it? Don't knock it till you try it. I think she's lying.

Anyway, she should be sorry. It turns out cannabinoids are so IMPORTANT that our brains and even our SKIN produce them when we get stressed out.

Your skin secretes the chemical, just like a little marijuana plant's leaves, when it gets stress signals from the brain. Skin is dumber than a brain, and is in direct contact with the high-stress world we live in. So it has fundamental reactions, like "Chill out man."

Now for the brain...

The brain is more complex and developed. It has built-in cannabinoid producers and cannabinoid receptors, and the system responds in complex ways to stress, fear, and anxiety. When the brain produces cannabinoids, they attach to the cannabinoid receptors and block them off.

An experiment was conducted with mice, some with receptors and some whose brains lacked them. The mice were trained to fear a certain noise by being shocked when they heard that noise. Later, the noise continued but the shocking stopped. The mice with the receptors stopped being afraid, while the ones without the receptors remained afraid for a much longer time.

What does this mean? If you're high when a scary thing happens, your receptors may be blocked off already. So it may take you longer to get over it. This is in contrast to your brain's natural cannabinoids, which respond to shock or injury in due time.

So if you're interested, these findings open a can of worms. If cannabis is a de-stressor, why does it make some people paranoid? You could while away more time thinking about these things... but Elizabeth May will not, she is not a fan.

Maybe she should check out Quarks and Cosmos' joint post on drugzzzzzzz.

Blind and Crazy Spaced Out Ants!

2008-09-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

Exciting news my future scientists!

A pale ant with no eyes and mouth parts like forceps was just discovered in the mysterious yet charming Amazon rainforest. Scientists say it is the strangest ant ever found. In fact the lineage is so ancient and different, that rumor has it that IT CAN REWRITE THE HISTORY OF ANTS ON EARTH! (before stumbling upon this ant, it was assumed ants evolved from wasps, but now questions emerge like "who am I' and "where did I come from")

Jokingly, scientists say this little guy is the ant from mars- but that is no laughing matter. What if it is the ant from mars, here to destroy us all? I mean its mouthpart sticks out like tweezers and is way bigger than its lil head.

What a creep.

It is such a creep that it is getting its own species and subfamily, even though they found only one. No hoax, swear to god. And since its a subterranean homesick alien, it is pale and alone in that new subfamily, crying by itself in the corner.

RIP DFW

2008-09-13T22:38:00.000-07:00

sI found out today that the writer David Foster Wallace killed himself. He was also a professor at my college, although I never took a class with him (I was too intimidated). I was talking to a friend about the big earthquake and other catastrophes and I was just like, David Foster Wallace killed himself. The world is a bad place, but it's always been that way.

Later, I looked up a speech he gave in 2005 at Kenyon College's graduation. You can read it here.

In it, he talks about what a liberal arts college education means-- something I can relate to. I have talked trash about liberal arts in this blog, and said that science is actually "useful." But that isn't the truth. My liberal arts education (what DFW defines as "learning how to think") is really what enabled me to pursue science, after being intimidated by it in the past. Science is worthless without the humanities. If you see the world through only a scientific lens, there is nothing to stop you from concluding that life is meaningless, Earth is small and insignificant, emotions are petty, and other people's concerns are ridiculous. If you live that way, without thinking, you can hurt people.

Anyway, thanks to DFW for the humbling speech, and rest in peace.

The universe is a good cause

2008-09-11T02:26:00.000-07:00

More on that crazy super collider that was turned on yesterday...

Because the researchers will have to sift through 15 million GB (!!!) of data each year from this machine, you can help them a lot by donating your computer's downtime. (Unfortunately it doesn't work for Macs!)

http://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/join.php

Maybe you're thinking eh, whatever. But here's what hangs in the balance-- basic answers to the origin of the universe. There is so much data in fact, that what they do manage to process will give only a glimpse. We can only hope that a trace of a new, never before seen particle will appear in one of the billions of nanosecond-long snapshots.

Cosmos will stop nagging now.

The colliding has begun

2008-09-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to everyone! The Earth has obviously not been sucked into a black hole.

More importantly, the most expensive science experiment ever has finally begun. A 17-mile underground super-collider was switched on this morning in Switzerland. The data will take a while to process, and the machine is still just warming up, but particle physics and astrophysics are poised for some major breakthroughs.

And most importantly, Katherine McAlpine, a young science writer, has created a rap video to show us what it's all about. Be prepared, she goes into great detail.

What if you were a martian....

2008-09-07T23:31:00.001-07:00

Feynman rulez!

Like the Mom Cheetah said to the Child Cheetah---"Sun, Where are Your Spots"

2008-09-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

According to this article, August 2008 was the first time in the past century that the sun has gone spotless for a whole calendar month.

Is this a sign of the apocalypse?

Yes.

The sun is not acting like it's normal self. Usually is it wild tempered and flaring up, like one of those dudes who uses hair gel by the jarful, listens to Linkn Park, has flames tattooed around his calves, and starts drunken brawls. For the past few years the sun has been easing off the wild ways, and well, has become more like an angsty 14 year old girl with black hair who locks herself in her room writing "poetry".

But really, this is a sign for the apocalypse and is clear foreshadowing of 2012. Climatologists now believe that solar magnetic activity (which is what drives sun spot activity) influences the earth's climate. In a "normal" month, there can be easily upwards of 100 sunspots recorded, but every eleven months, there is a brief lull. Usually the lull is super brief, but this one has lasted thusfar for 42 days.

This year marks Solar Cycle 24, which has been void and vapid. In the first 7 months, the sun averaged a meager 3 spots a month. And in August we had nill. Scientists are going bonkers! What is going on! We want our sun spots and we want them now!

If we don't get sun spots, we will face a mini-ice age thus prompting the apocalypse. You don't believe me, just look back to other times in the past 1000 years where this has happened : Dalton, Maunder, and Sporer Minimums --- all marked by rapid cooling.

Thats right, be must start canning our own beans and prepping for another ice age. The sun is losing its spunk and the world is ending

<3>

PS- Quarks and Cosmos start C++ today, we are hoping to earn a C+ or higher

Take it from Winnie the Pooh, Cure a Burn with Honey

2008-09-02T07:49:00.000-07:00

While Aloe Vera may soothe a burn, it cannot relieve and heal a burn. But Honey can!

Honey is hygroscopic, meaning it attracts and absorbs moisture- thus honey retains the plasma when placed on a burn. With the plasma retained, it re-assimilates into the broken skin and provides the skin the rich nutrients within the plasma. Honey is high in potassium, which is not liked by bad bacteria.

Be sure to first cool the burn completely using cold water. Then pour lots of honey on the burn. Next, cover in plastic wrap. Wrap with gauze and leave for 48 hours. Check, and repeat as needed.

Appalachian may be HOT but lung disease aint trendy no more

2008-08-22T01:40:00.001-07:00

Quarks and Cosmos can't get enough of this:

Yes, future scientists, Appalachian is Hot Hot Hot!

Appalachia is known for 3 things 1) great mountain music 2) HOT HOT HOT 3) coal mining-canaries-black lung

This post will focus on the third point. We have had worries about the coal mines since reading the Coalminer's Daughter, why daddy was so young when he died. The coal miner works long hours in the mines, digging out the coal in the darkness of the caves with their trusted canary (the animal version of an air quality test). As the coal is being mined, the coal dust enters the air, which in turn gets into the coal miners' lungs and can neither be destroyed nor removed by the body. The itty bitty coal particles are engulfed by resident alveolar or interstitial macrophages and remain in the lungs, residing in the connective tissue or pulmonary lymph nodes. Aggregations of carbon-laden macrophages can be visualised under a microscope as granular, black areas - hence the name of the game is black lung. Should the coal miners go to Appalachian State and take a few classes and switch careers?

Does carbonated water dehydrate the body?

2008-08-19T23:53:00.000-07:00

A dear reader asked Quarks and Cosmos what the deal was with carbonated water? Is it comparable to un-gassed waters? Does it dehydrate? According to some, excessive use of carbonated water will strip the body of phosphorous, a mineral that is vital to the integrity of bones and teeth, metabolism of nutrients, and the formation of genetic material, cell membranes, and many enzymes. So it is not that bubbly water is bad, it is just the depletion of phosphorous that is BAD.

Our scientist friend slash Bridge partner has a different response. Carbonated water does not dehydrate you, she says. Caffeine (found in many carbonated soda drinks) dehydrates, but not carbonated water. On the other hand, drinking carbonated water can make the body feel more full, because it contains carbonic acid, which the body must process. So you may not want to drink as much water if you're having a Perrier and feel full.

So go for the tap! Why not... we all know the water crisis of the West is coming, and selling water is not a good business. It will be deported to El Salvador. Bye bye pure water, hello recycled sewage!

how dolphins sleep and where

2008-08-18T22:44:00.000-07:00

Mondays in Claremont interesting conversations happen. I was told today about the first time I met a certain friend and their entire family. Apparently I barraged them with too much information on how many parking tickets I had racked up and how belligerently opposed to paying them I was. It was just a phase of getting tickets- I swear I have grown out of the phase.

Another conversation for the evening was how do dolphins sleep. They guy sitting next to me told me that dolphins- like long distance migratory birds- sleep with one leader leading and then the pack following with one eye on the road and the other on dream land.

This you-tube video strengthens his hypothesis:

Well guess what dear readers.... dolphins are totally rad!

So since dolphins are mammals, they need to breathe air. They need to be conscious to breathe- so they CAN NEVER go into full deep sleep or they would suffocate. (just think of the poor dolphins on your next, restless night). So dolphins are all about compromise and in order not to die, they are nimble enough to turn off one brain side at a time. They sleep about 8 hours a day, same of us, but with the switch off. Now, if only I could do the same....

confusing new site accepting comments about endangered species act

2008-08-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

This "portal" is accepting comments about the evil overhaul to the Endangered Species Act that we blogged about. The overhaul would probably put a lot of government scientists out of work and kill lots of polar bears.

If you can figure out how that thing works, you have 30 days to make a comment!

Bubble gum habit keeps my heart from getting heavy and crying

2008-08-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

bubbles!

Bubbles!

To understand the joyful plaything which is a bubble- we must understand surface tension. Surface tension allows the outer layer of the bubble to act like a plastic sheet of sorts. To understand how soap stabilizes water to enhance surface tension, dear readers, you must grasp the Marangoni effect. The Marangoni effect (sometimes also called the Gibbs-Marangoni effect) is the mass transfer on, or in, a liquid layer due to surface tension differences. The Marangoni effect stabilizes the soap film, making it awesome.

Soap acts as a helper bee, selectively strengthening the weakest parts of the bubble and preventing the weak spots from stretching further. In addition, the soap reduces evaporation so the bubbles last longer.
Their spherical shape is also caused by surface tension. The tension causes the bubble to form a sphere, as a sphere has the smallest possible surface area for a given volume. Surface tension! Marangoni effect!

The Marangoni effect was first named Tear of Wine as expressed by as a ring of clear liquid, near the top of a glass of wine, from which droplets form and flow back into the wine. It is most readily observed in a wine which has a high alcohol content. It is also referred to as wine legs, curtains, and church windows.

Get business drunk and think about the tear of wine, then the Marangoni effect, then surface tension of the soap bubble, then the creepy video. You won't regret it!

if you like thinking about the faraway future...

2008-08-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

this is worth reading. You don't have to buy it, but this scientist is thinking in terms of thousands and thousands of years away... pretty mind-blowing.

Human race will 'split into two different species'

we want a whooping crane in the white house

2008-08-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

There's a reason the Union of Concerned Scientists once likened Prez Bush to a nineteenth-century fur trader.

New changes to the Endangered Species Act proposed by the Bush administration would let federal agencies green-light construction projects without consulting scientists as to their environmental effects.

These government scientists conduct thousands of reviews each year. They have protected bald eagles, Florida panthers, and whooping cranes (pictured below).

Sad!

how to make your own goop!

2008-08-11T00:43:00.000-07:00

It is summertime!

And you know what that means... FUN SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

When Quarks was a wee laddie, she used to attend science summer school where she launched rockets, re-wrote the magna carte (age of reason totally fits with science), designed her own gas masks and of course....made slime.

Secret ingredient: BORAX

For all the readers at home, come along and join Cosmos and Quarks to make some good old fashion goop!

This Blog is dedicated to Mr. Wizard and his fun kitchen science experiments.

Here is what you'll need:

borax, glue, water, zipoc bag and spooky food coloring.

1. get a cup of water and add 1 tbs of borax and stir to completely dissolve

2. make a 50% h2o and 50% glue solution of 1/4 cups

3. add equal parts step 1 and step 1

4. add food coloring

5.knead mixture

6. be spooky

7. dont let it grow mold

8. have fun and say goodnight

CUZ I GOT HIGH AKA the science of stoner science

2008-08-10T23:23:00.000-07:00

Quarks is here to tell you that once when she was high she learned about the wonders of fractals. When she was stone cold sober she learned about how fractals explain the secrets of the universe- how it is shaped.

Quarks is not the only scientist whose mind was blown whilst on the druuuuuugs.

Cosmos will now elaborate:

I was wondering, really how much of a stoner was Carl Sagan? I've seen old videos of him, the classic one where he throws the sand and says "BILLIONS AND BILLIONS." But it turns out his marijuana use is well-documented.

Mr. Sagan didn't try pot until his mid-twenties. Unlike Quarks, he approached it as a new opportunity once he realized "there was more to life than science." In this essay, he explains how it enhanced his overall intellectual and learning experience. It allowed him to appreciate art for the first time.

So there we have an example of an accomplished scientist who endorsed weed as a tool for learning and appreciating both the arts and sciences.

On the other hand, another stoner icon, artsy poet Shel Silverstein seemed to have a different perspective. It's easy to see why he'd be appreciated by many pot-smokers. But while Mr. Sagan saw the chronic in a positive educational light, Mr. Silverstein rains on the wacky tobacky parade. From his poem "The Perfect High":

It isn't in a dealer's stash, or on a druggist's shelf . . .
Son, if you would find the perfect high, find it in yourself.

So, readers, will you pass the doobie to the lefthand side?? Or will you investigate the magical grass further?

e-mail me on my soapbox

2008-07-31T02:14:00.000-07:00

An article just came out on latimes.com today that makes email sound like an existential threat. No kidding. Check out this paragraph, it's killer:

Historically, dark ages have sometimes been periods of technical advancement, [author Maggie Jackson] explains, "but they're ultimately times of cultural decline. I think we're defining our own dark age by skimming along on the surface of life and relationships and thoughts. And it's certainly a dark age when we're faced with an ignorance born not out of a lack of information but out of an inability to create knowledge out of the information around us."

I told you! I'm tired of this doomsday talk. Things change, but it's never that simple. There is progress.

My reaction, and I think Quarks agrees, is that the real problem is over-intellectualizing. Sure email is causing "information overload" as the article says, which does lower productivity. But our generation is faced with a lot of problems: global warming, overpopulation, shifting world markets... and critical thought is dead and useless. Down with postmodernism! We need plain science, aka lots of available information, to progress.

I don't mean science at elite liberal arts schools either, where you feel guilty if you're not "gifted" and a "natural" at it. I mean, like, there are bridges falling down and cities crumbling and people are going to need to be able to take care of themselves more. If you can take some online classes toward a science degree, more power to you. Or if you can learn a few things from Quarks and Cosmos (wink!), maybe they will come in handy sometime... science is always useful.

SO anyway, don't fret, we are not in a dark age and we are not entering one. You don't need to "create knowledge" out of all the accessible information around you, whatever that means! It's like my gramma says (about her homeland), Cuba will never be the same and there's no returning to the past. Email (and Fidel) will never die.

zinc oxide and titanium oxide don't bloviate

2008-07-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

why is this man's back smiling?

Answer: because he is using a sunscreen that won't give him cancer.

Wait, isn't sunscreen supposed to prevent cancer, you may wonder. Well, guess what... lots of sunscreens are carcinogenic.

The secret to sunscreen is that it has to be able to break down and be absorbed by the skin. Sunscreens have expiration dates and actually do go bad and become ineffective. Because sunscreen is filled with chemicals and penetrates the skin, its important we know what is good and what is evil.

Sunscreen with any of these three ingredients are common place and totally evil: octocrylene, octylmethoxycinnamete, or bezonphenone-3. As they break down they increase the number of free radicals in your body which in turn can alter your DNA; if you're pregnant it can give you a teeny tinny baby, and it is linked to cancer.

Quarks offers this advice: wear lots of clothing and hats. wear hats on hats. protect yourself from the sun's harmful rays by covering up. But if you want to show off your new butt and breast implants, then go with a zinc oxide or titanium oxide based sunscreen.

why?

because oxides are stable shit

they are like rust. zinc rust and titanium rust. and we all know how amazing rust is

better to block sun by something as stable and least reactive. so slap on some sunscreen but look for the -oxide in the labels first.

NASA astronaut: Aliens exist

2008-07-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

Astronauts are wacky!! They get drunk during their missions and wear diapers when they return to Earth. They are also very gullible… or maybe correct?? You decide:

Edgar Mitchell was the sixth man to walk on the moon, and now he spends his days talking about aliens. He was a guest on a British radio show this week, claiming that aliens have visited the earth, and that it’s been covered up by the government. Also he says they look like you would imagine—little people with big heads and eyes. Funny, my grandmother learned the same thing from talk radio shows in Texas.

According to this NYT blog post (which has a lot of links), Mitchell spouts out this stuff a lot. He learned it from people who came to conferences at his scientific institution. So this old retired astronaut believes anything you tell him. Go ask him for money!

Does laying an egg hurt

2008-07-23T00:36:00.000-07:00

... from our scientific opinion laying an egg is somewhere between taking a really big poo and birthing a horse.... see for yourself... more details to follow

out, damned spot!

2008-07-22T01:09:00.000-07:00

Here in SoCal, we live it up New Age-style like there's no tomorrow (literally... the Apocalypse is coming in 2012, ok?)

My latest obsession: something that's probably just a snake oil product: the Cleanse Patch.

It claims to pull toxins from your body, via the bottom of your FOOT, while you sleep. And it's supposed to look like THAT!

Apparently these toxins include

"Nicotine, Fluoride, Aluminum, Smog, Lead, Asbestos, Parasites, Chlorine, Formaldehyde, Arsenic, Mercury, Copper, Barium, Nickel, Gold, Cobalt, Steel, Titanium"

There's a lot of reflexology talk about stimulating nerve endings and acupressure points (Quarks will appreciate that). But the more (Western) scientific part of the explanation mentions extracting lymphatic fluid, which supposedly builds up in your body in the presence of these toxins and heavy metals.

And why put it on your foot? Well, they explain, gravity, duh! And apparently your body moves all the gross toxins toward your extremities.

I was hoping for a wikipedia page for some more insight, but no luck. But according to this guy's site, the patch is comparable to other detox methods like fasting and colon cleansing. Hmmm, I'm up for it!

Too bad it's $50 for one box... it's supposedly popular in Asia, let's try for another, cheaper route...

Ready for another gross picture?

scrape scrape scrape

2008-07-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

about two years ago, a women far gone with Alzheimer's told me that the way to prepare a Thanksgiving turkey was to "scrape! scrape! scrape!"

she was totally right about scraping. tongue scraping is a really great way to reduce plaque and tartar in the mouth. brush the tongue makes me gag. the best purchase this quark has made all year was a tongue scraper- i believe every human should have and use one in the proper manner. in fact these contraptions have been used for centuries in india and china.

don't let volatile sulphur compounds continue to be produced in the back on your tongue- this is your only solution (besides killing yourself or removing your tongue all together). avoid mouth fungus- use before brushing!

good oral health can help you reduce the risk of premature babies, pneumonia, osteoporosis, diabetes, and cardiovascular illness...

thats why my acupuncturist always checks out my tongue....

SCRAPE SCRAPE SCRAPE

Questions?

2008-07-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

Keep the science questions coming....

Without the questions we cannot find the answers that unlock the secrets of the universe.

Together, we can fire up those neurons!

Is the narwhal a mammal, fish, or unicorn?

2008-07-13T22:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Reader,

Unfortunately the Narwhal is not much more that a glorified hillbilly whale. But the Vikings called it the corpse whale because of how dead white it is in color...dead white with a 10 ft horn....a 10 ft horn with feelings and nerves.

What we thought was a mythical unicorn like crown is really just a nasty dangling incisor tooth.(well, it's kind of like a tooth meets a tail because it has specials abilities unlike any teeth that I have). Only the bro narwhal's have these single monster tusks. Bro's engage in "tusking", rubbing their tusks together- the tusks are full of nerves and there is a unique sensation that comes along with that action (oh baby! narwhals have needs too). Actually marine biologists say the narwhals tusks hold more than 10 million nerves and also plaque-y things grow on the tusks, so tusking is analogous to brushing the teeth- they want their horns to feel squeaky clean.

The monster tusks may help the Bros test the water for salinity hence it helps them find food stuffs- or they may help with determining temperature, pressure or water make up.

Don't try to pull off a narwhal's tusk, for it does not regenerate. If you want to off a narwhal, you can hire orcas or polar bears to do the job... or an Inuit. Apparently Queen Elizabeth received a narwal cup and it cost as much as a castle! The narwal tusks are more valuable than their weight in gold. But the economist in Quarks urges you to invest in GOLD and not narwhal.

No question is a bad question

2008-07-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

Don't let any cool cats dupe you: science is the future, and it is cooler than liberal arts. If Quarks and Cosmos haven't convinced you yet, then all you gots to do is raise your eyes to the heavens in wonderment. A question will emerge. Ask us!

Send us your Q's. We will give you A's. quarkstocosmos@gmail.com

Get your food drunk, it's the only way to avoid typhoid fever

2008-07-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

Salmonella can cause typhoid fever. Uh oh. BUT, alcohol once again is the solution!

Salmonella is a a food borne illness that is getting a lot of media attention, but its like a baby ghost. Does the ghost haunt tomatoes? Maybe. Peppers? Spookily possible. Cilantro? Ghoulishly perhaps. Salsa? Booo! FDA, I give up, can you exorcise the baby ghost salmonella outta my taco?

Oh, FDA can't find the baby ghost. But my dear friend alcohol can make sure that the baby ghost won't hurt. For alcohol is an effective way to get drunk AND an effective sanitizer of food- good job multitasking!

The weirdest thing is that salmonella is from poop (feces), so how do some veggies contract the bacteria, you ask? Somehow the salmonella gets onto the plants. Could be from manure fertilizer, contaminated water supplies, or packs of roving wild boars who transmit diseases with their hooves!

But beware, at pickin time, the produce can get punctured and the salmonella can breach the surface and stay a while. Aint no amount of washin gonna rid you of that disease party. Best to cook, cook, and cook. Maybe add some beer for good measure.

Worried readers, here are more things you can do to avoid the S to the ella: Don't touch a turtle and then touch your mouth (many turtles carry it), no putting raw eggs into your mouth, no iguanas, no poultry, and watch out: with all that junk put into meat (hormones and antibiotics) there is now salmonella resistant to antibodies. no pet rodents, no fun salsa materials

Here is how to cure the S to the ella: Adopt a child from Malawi (this year, children in Malawi were found to carry antibodies) and then be the first to invent a vaccine (this is also your chance to make zilions).

eat at local farers markets to avoid the s to the ella (unless the farmer poops and then touches the food items and has a turtle)- we can be found every tuesday at the highland park one, near all the use books. we science fans have no time for the runs or typhoid fever so we eat mostly local.

the last word in the english language

2008-07-07T22:55:00.000-07:00

can you guess it?

the clues:
starts with a Z and ends with a X.

Its 50% composed of Z's

its a location in socal

it was supposed to be an old folks spa

____ do you give up?____ well, its zzyzx!

What's so wonderful about Zzyzx you may ask? Let me tell you about the founder, Curtis Howe Springer...radio evangelist, doctor/healer and minister and all around awesome nutty dude psuedo-scientist. the best part it he befuddled the bureau of land management into giving him zzyzx but then like 20 years later they realized that they were duped and took it back. (thats the best part other than he came up with the best name of a town ever)

(seriously bureau of land management, you could have kept the cool Zyport/ Springer's sci-fi airport)

Like all great questions, "what to do with Zzyzx" was a difficult one to resolve- for like a second. It's now part of a Cal State University consortium on Desert Research. And you know what that means... FUN SCIENCE RESEARCH!

The Desert Research Center allows students from a ton of Cal State's the opportunity to study the Mojave and its neat-o species- like that chub bird. Oh and there is a 10,000 watt solar panel that will totally come in handy on 2012.

taxi, follow that tooth!

2008-07-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

if your tooth ever gets cleanly punched out, here's what you need to do to save that poor little bugger

you have to put the tooth in a glass of whole milk immediately, it will keep the tooth and nerves alive and in tact for an hour

use that hour to go to the hospital, for its an emergency if a tooth goes a missing! no dilly dallying

be sure to grab the tooth from the crown, don't put your dirty fingers near those precious nerves.

see whole milk IS good for something

Under Pressure

2008-07-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

So Quarks is totally and utterly obsessed with acupuncture. Finally, something that works on soft tissue damage and nerve damage (thought to be permanent by Western doctors!). She is going to town with the acupuncture. Headache?, gimme needles. Cramps- put them on my belly. Depression, more needles on my face. Insominia, more needles, especially the one on the right eyebrow. You get the point. It's gotten to the point that she is contemplating just hugging a adorable porcupine (it may have the same affect, right?). it's gotten to the point that all there is is point.

While at South Bayo University last weekend, a cool acuptuncture school in downtown, it became evident: Quark has low blood pressure. Really low blood pressure. Sure, I knew that when I passed out and had seziures after surgeries, but I thought I was over it. Who knew my body didnt like to give itself the blooood.

One temporary cure is to eat lots of SALT. Though typically a chocolate and sweets person, I'm delighted by the prospect of licking a salt lick like a giant grown up bunny-rabbit.
In Chinese medicine, you eat lots of red stuff to promote healthy blood flow. I ate 3 lbs of carne asade yesterday- it was fun at first, but then just got out of hand. Today I've eaten about a pound of red cherries. I love eating only the color red- but who knows if it works. It may just give me blood stained vampire teeth. In any event, if you want a buddy to lick salt and eat meat and red stuff with, but you want that buddy to be human, not bear- consider Quarks.

Hella Helium

2008-06-30T22:53:00.001-07:00

Helium is a bi-product of the big bang. and a zany super light element indeed.

priests do weird things when given this element....and i mean beyond squawking like a chipmunk

a lesson learned: helium is small and mighty and religion aint got nothing on it

priest vs helium balloon

who will win?

rip mister priest....your popped balloons will hurt the underwater creatures, so i hope you are happy

acid in the mouth

2008-06-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

according to my hot stiletto wearing dentist- DONT EVER CHEW GUM OR INDULGE IN BREATHMINTS

no, not ever

according to her--- who filled MY FRONT TOOTH today (who actually gets cavities in their front tooth?)--- our mouths fill with acid whenever we put anything in them. The mouth thinks that it is eating whilst masticating. The acid eats away at our teeth and we get cavities in our tooth faces.

don't believe the sugar free ads, that stuff will rot yo teeth.

here are some helpful tips:

acidic food and drinks can cause decay. Listed below are the ‘pH values’ of some food and drinks. The lower the pH number; the more acidic the product. Anything with a pH value lower than 5.5 may cause tooth decay. ‘Alkalies’ have a high pH number and neutralise the acid effects of sugars. PH 7 is the middle figure between acid and alkali.

- mineral water (still) pH 7.6
- milk pH 6.9
- cheddar cheese pH 5.9
- lager pH 4.4
- orange juice pH 3.8
- grapefruit pH 3.3
- pickles pH 3.2
- cola pH 2.5
- red wine pH 2.5
- vinegar pH 2.0

who will fill my rotted mouth with gold and porcelin? diy?

the science of the porno

2008-06-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

it almost seems like every good domain name and myspace address are triple x. Quarks thought that a great feminist-breaking-the-glass-ceiling alternative email domain could be created called shemail.com (like gmail, duh, tehe). But ho, porno site. The Quarks and Cosmos are joining forces to make music under the guise of Motherman. You've guessed right, it's also porno.... porno i highly recommend- we will cover the song for sure.

Like the saying "the good die young", "the dope web addresses are all porno sites".

If you have a lot of time, Quarks recommends you use the wayback machine at www.archive.org and study the evolution of the good under-discovered funny site name and the transition od it to the silly doing-the-nasty site.

on a postive note: OLD BOOB is not yet taken. Let's all embrace the fact and bless that old boob

something i have in common with courtney love

2008-06-11T22:56:00.001-07:00

I saw this interview on MTV when I was little. Madonna is having a very boring conversation with the interviewer, when Courtney Love walks up and starts throwing her make-up at them. It's amusing because Madonna gets uncomfortable. Courtney isn't apologetic until the end, when she's like "Was I bumming you out, were you guys talking astrophysics?" Then she says something about quitting music to pursue astrophysics. Anyway, see for yourself:

Aliens prevented me from using nails

2008-03-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

Quarks and Cosmos wanted to know what is was like to be a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. We also grew tired of bathing in peasant water, and felt it necesarry to be bathed in sound. We ventured to the beautiful corner of the world called Landers, CA. About 20 miles from 29 Palms or Joshua Tree. There was the Integraton.

Landers is best know from having areally big rock- called Big Rock. It was like 7 stories tall. It has intergalatic pasts. Its a big rock. This man lived under it, and the aliens told him how to build the Integraton. When the great Landers quake happens, Big Rock was cracked, but the integration- in all is glory and nail-lessness withstood the earthquake. So the story goes.

I could go on about the specifics of the events, but I am to fixated on Nan to do anything else. Who nicknames nancy into nan? ! ?!? NAN?!?!?!!?

The Integraton was created- with Van Tessle and his dutiful aliens- to promote cellular rejuenvation and healing- but when I sat down, I got a big painful splinter and no healing .

awesome!

2008-02-13T00:13:00.000-08:00

I didn't know about NASA tv until about a week ago, but unfortunately you have to have a satellite to receive it. But there is lots of stuff to watch on nasa.gov, which I don't really know how to navigate.

But! Right now at the link below, you can watch round-the-clock live footage of the space shuttle, with narration of what's happening... hurry go look, astronauts floating!

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

mars attack

2007-12-22T14:22:00.000-08:00

First there was news about a week ago from JPL's Mars rover of possible life there a long time ago.

Now there's news from JPL's "Solar System Defense Team" that a 160-foot asteroid may strike Mars on January 30th. I hope it does!

Has anyone else noticed how fun the new Google search function is, the one that completes your phrases according to what other people have looked up? I started to type in "asteroid hit...." and the top searches were

asteroid hitting earth
asteroid hitting earth 2007
asteroid hitting earth 2012
asteroid hitting earth 2029
asteroid hitting earth 2036

I figured that these are all conspiracy theorists, especially since 2012 is the year that the Mayan calendar predicts the next leap of consciousness (and when Quarks predicts that a massive underground earthquake will destroy the country). But the 2029 one is apparently being taken seriously by this science site. (Apparently the 2036 one is less probable.) 2012, on the other hand, leads you to Mayan calendar theories... covered up by the government...\

If you are still interested, watch this simulation of an asteroid hitting the earth from a History Channel special:

the science of smoothies

2007-12-11T23:33:00.000-08:00

News flash! Smoothie recipes are flexible, and come from endless combinations of (frozen) fruit, juice, yogurt, and/or milk.

Apparently some people think that one of the following is required for good body in the smoothie: milk, frozen banana, or yogurt. However, my favorite recipe is just frozen raspberries and pineapple with Kern's nectar. I don't know about this "coconut milk" nonsense.

Why are we posting about smoothies?? Well, because next semester Quarks and Cosmos will be taking a cooking class. Glendale Community College, I am addicted to your endless options and low prices!

surfer dude solves the mystery of the universe

2007-12-02T12:48:00.000-08:00

Garrett Lisi, a physicist who spends most of his time surfing in Hawaii and snowboarding in Nevada has come up with a new unified field theory ("theory of everything.")

We're a little late posting this, but it's worth reading if you haven't yet.

The headline is a little misleading, since the "surfer dude" didn't "stun physicists"- he IS a physicist - and the article overemphasizes his class. He is only "impoverished" because he spends all of his time surfing, and it looks like he won't be poor anymore.

Lisi's theory breaks with the Standard Model, which for decades has united electromagnetic, strong and weak forces, without accounting for gravity. Lisi managed to include gravity, without any far-fetched string theories that go beyond 3 dimensions of space and 1 of time.

Nothing has been proven, but it'll be interesting to see what happens when they turn on CERN next summer - a huge underground supercollider on the border of France and Switzerland which could prove parts of Lisi's theory, or parts of string theory.

It's kind of disappointing to think that there may not be more than 4 dimensions, and that all of string theory is bogus. But as someone called Kneeboarder comments beneath the article, "Garret is the real deal! I spent two weeks in Tahiti surfing with him. He can make great sandwiches too!"Also, what's up with this "E8 pattern" master model? It looks like someone made it with a spirograph to me.

"GIANT microbes"

2007-11-25T23:04:00.000-08:00

Holiday presents for scientific kids... and mature ones... as my friend Francisco said, "The venereals? Whoa."

http://www.giantmicrobes.com/

Chlamydia looks like a pretty wild dude.

senseless destruction of pretty, innocent flowers

2007-11-20T21:26:00.000-08:00

You may have only positive memories of watching Bill Nye the Science Guy. But don't be fooled-- he doesn't love you, he would trick you into a false marriage, kick you out of the house (of which you are the co-owner), and write to a friend that you aren't "beautiful enough, athletic enough, or a good enough dancer. Now she has fallen for me (as they always do)."

And then what would you do with yourself? You're an intelligent, articulate woman, a former professor at Stanford, and even a Grammy-nominated oboist, but how are you to pick up the pieces?? When you have to explain to your eight-year-old nephew that no, Bill Nye the Science Guy is not his uncle? When your father has passed away and you must help your ailing mother settle his estate?

The answer is that you would have to turn Rick Warren, fellow churchgoer and author of "The Purpose-Driven Life." You may cringe at the thought, but only his self-help expertise could turn you into a new person with a life plan. You will need it. After a year of no more than one hour of sleep per night, and one emotional evening when, during a dreadful moment of poor judgment, you performed the senseless destruction of pretty, innocent flowers.

Anyway, you get the drift. Science, religion, and the Purpose-Driven Life are not good bedfellows. See the 15-page deposition from Bill Nye's estranged (faux) wife in response to a restraining order he placed against her, for the full details, and to shatter your fond memory of him as a wacky scientist with no personal life.

MOLE DAY

2007-10-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

Happy mole day!

Eat some avocado for Avegadro... for with out his constant, it would be mighty difficult to do stoichiometry! Hug a mole, its mole day. Hooray!!!

Here's an ode to the less complicated uses of mole:

Fire it Up

2007-10-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

Guess what? More students are "taking science degrees" in Britain, according to recent stats. On this blog, I mentioned an article from the Guardian months ago about science departments closing in the UK from lack of interest. Maybe Brits are getting more plugged in, and hopefully Americans too.

This does not include my marathon coach, however. He is a hardass former military man, and he starts our Saturday mornings at 7am by chanting "Fire it up!" as we stretch. He told us that we would have an edge over our fellow runners if we run with our bodies tilted forward, because gravity would do some work for us. If you tilt your torso forward, he said, your body starts to stumble forward, so that must mean that running is less work that way.

Didn't sound right to me, so I asked my physics professor. WRONG! Work equals force times distance, and the distance has to be in the same direction as the force. Unfortunately gravity points downward, and we don't run downward into the earth, so gravity is not going to do any of the work of running for you.

But it turns out there are physicists who study the biomechanics of running. Factors include air friction and the right way to to position one's body to avoid it, stride length, and the age-old question: does swinging your arms help? Another marathon coach, a small man who yells "it's almost menudo time" and "swing those arms" was arguing a few Saturdays ago with a pace-leader who is adamantly anti-arm-swinging. "You'll never hear that from me!" she told us.

Who is a runner to believe? Well, Aristotle once said, “runners run faster if they swing their arms,” so Dan Hughes of TexasTrack.com trusts him.

Chemistry VS HR

2007-09-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

Chemistry wins!

Classes start tomorrow... we will be burning our bunsens.

More to come about our scientific minds.... if Quarks passes the chem test....

Avoid Boring People

2007-09-04T23:20:00.000-07:00

James Watson is a scientist who studied DNA and discovered the double helix. After writing a serious book about that, he wrote "Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science." It's a "self-help" book for people on their way up into a science career, and also for senior scientists who don't want to.. bore people. But also who don't want to be discouraged by people who are boring. Including other scientists...

"He refers to his opponents at Harvard who resisted his push into molecular biology as so many prima donnas whose meager accomplishments scarcely justified even the status of has-been."

He also advises to "never be the brightest person in the room."

This man clearly needed a way to deal with downers who tried to get in his way. He doesn't seem like a negative person, but in order to accomplish something like uncovering the structure of DNA, you need a way to block out the naysayers and fools and ridiculous people.

Disclaimer: I am bitter because I was fired today. (My boss is a frantic idiot... she told me that she "isn't my friend" and hung up on me, then told the HR dept. that I called her and picked a fight and hung up on her!) But Quarks and I have realized that the only thing that will save us from a life in absurd, namby-pamby jobs with awkward bitchy miserable bosses is science. There is no room to be miserable and conniving when you focus on problem-solving.... not making your assistant buy you sandwiches. So I'll make myself make time for the classes and labs.. and in the meantime work for the city of Glendale as an juvenile arson part-time prevention coordinator.

Be Dumb Already!

2007-08-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

Urgh. In our non-scientific dreary, awkward work lives, the way to succeed (or at least not get fired) is to underachieve. Bosses feel threatened by our flexiblity and youth. We get tangeled in notions of GEN Y workers, and the way to relate is to BE DUMB ALREADY. It's basically "Yes, Boss 2.0" or like being a drone bee. Knowledge work my foot.

So, why is the scientific career put on the backburning? Surely one hopes, its not to be part of the mindless non-profit machine. (aside: I havent gotten head lice yet!). Its because of the pre-requisitive testing! From a liberal arts background, community college placement testing is freaky-deaky. And utterly un-scientific to boot. But I will follow my advice and geting dumb already, and head to the community college and take that lame-o exam. I need to be a scientist so bad it hurts. Cosmos would agree...

Scientist Siblings

2007-06-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

My older sister was so eager to make sure I read the news last week that firstborns have higher IQs that she sent me a text message about it. So I went to the NYT article and found a couple of things:
1) oldest siblings are more often the "studious" and "responsible" ones

2) younger siblings, particularly those second in line, have to find alternative ways of distinguishing themselves from their older sibling(s):

They are more likely to participate in dangerous sports than eldest children, and more likely to travel to exotic places, studies find. They tend to be less conventional than firstborns, and some of the most provocative and influential figures in science spent their childhoods in the shadow of an older brother or sister(or two or three or four).

Firstborns have been responsible for scientific advances, but late-blooming younger sibling scientists more often overturn the paradigm.

Here are some examples given in the article:

Charles Darwin: fifth of six children.

Nicolaus Copernicus: youngest of four.

René Descartes: the youngest of three.

And here are some that I researched myself. Make your own judgments:

Richard Feynman: older of two. (but still, a weirdo.)

Albert Einstein: only child.

Marie Curie: second daughter. (in a poor family)

Carl Sagan: first of two.

Rachel Carson: youngest of three. (and a loner!)

Galileo Galilei: first of several.

Florence Nightingale: second daughter. (in a wealthy family who were aghast at her career choice)

Stephen Hawking: oldest child.

The mystery of birth order and scientists is still perplexing me. More to come... I will definitely be updating this entry.

pictures.....

2007-06-12T22:23:00.001-07:00

Klingon Worf, dressed to impress.

Orion Nebula/Ursula the Sea Witch

A prion protein attacking a cell/ Mrs. Twit

Stephen Hawking experiences weightlessness/ Stephen Hawking with his first wife

this is my brane

2007-06-03T17:28:00.001-07:00

A brane is a section of the universe that divides two other sections (or "bulks"), like a wall. The rules are that

1) the brane has fewer dimensions than the two bulks bordering it (like a 2-dimensional wall dividing 3-dimensional bedrooms), and

2) particles within one brane are stuck there and cannot leave it.

As this book explains it, drops on your shower curtain run down the curtain to the floor in 2-dimensional lines. The water physically can't escape its 2-dimensional "brane" and fly around the 3-dimensional shower "bulk."

Although gravity exists everywhere and could technically pull matter between sections of the universe, there's mostly no mixing between branes and bulks and other branes. You are stuck in your brane or bulk forever. You cannot leave your bedroom and become a part of the painting on the wall, like that girl in "The Witches." You can't reach your sister's bedroom on the other side of the wall either.. or even outdoors or the sky or underground or outer space or the world inside the book you're reading..

Branes are interesting, but they haven't been proven. They are also depressing. The earth could be stuck in one, trapped in a 3-dimensional world and unable to see higher dimensions, even though they exist...

Sometimes I feel stuck in a brane, watching other people live their lives differently but unable to join them. Why, for example, is the math/science brane so restrictive? I used to get prizes at math competitions, and that felt like part of my fun childish summer reading club/positive academic reinforcement/all A's end of 6 weeks exclusive pizza party table in the cafeteria reward system. But then sometime in high school I realized math and physics were for squares, white boys who took Ridlin and made weird comments in class.

Also for example, have you noticed that you have to be a white celebrity to be a part of this new Al Gore green science movement?
But moving on.. once you make it a liberal arts college, you have basically lost all chances of breaching the science brane anew. Even the pre-med kids get weeded out by the arrogant science departments, and they love to talk about this and scare off anyone who may possibly be rethinking their options a little late. And others are driven into the humanities, lackluster classes, lazy professsors, and jobless futures. (Read this angry article on science departments closing in the UK for a rebellious take this.)

Of course, fields in the humanities are legitimate places to spend one's life. But after sitting through a lot of frustrating classes, I can't help but think that some areas of study have become so divorced from science that they have become absolutely solutionless. I took a class on prison literature because I thought it would help me understand why prisons are becoming so horrifyingly overpopulated, and how someone might reverse this. Instead we sat around listening to each other complain about injustice, discrimination and the self-perpetuating "prison industrial complex." No one could even imagine a solution to those problems, or that one could ever be crafted. It was as if the purpose of reading and writing about that topic was to reinforce its futility.

Another example: "Fat studies." It's grown out of media/cultural studies, women's/gender studies, etc. At a very small number of schools around the country, you can major in (or at least take classes on) body image in popular culture, and prejudiced attitudes against fat people. I think this would be productive if it meant you had to combine it with science.. health, biology, nutrition, different populations' access to different foods, dietary changes for immigrants, etc. But some people in these new courses have written papers arguing that doctors and fitness campaigns distort the scientific facts of weight gain to blame the victims... In other words, pseudoscience.

I liked college, but I'd rather have grown up into system that integrates cultural ideas with problem-solving. I don't like it when the humanities are dismissed as useless by nerds, while the kids I more often made friends with shrugged off careers in engineering as someone else's domain. Both branes are too 1-dimensional. Says France Cordova, who followed up an English degree with a career in astrophysics:

Science is so open ended and there are so many interesting careers with it. Backgrounds in policy can be directed towards the environment, social science interests lend themselves to teaching, careers in writing can be had in science. Look at the influence of Sally Ride, a famous astronaut, who is now writing for junior high students. Science is a rich base that allows you to go into many areas; you have a variety of options.

-Cosmos

Scientific Experiment Number 1: The Big BANG

2007-05-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

Observation: Most jobs are dumb. Science is the way forward.

Goal: Leaving our jobs as a copy editor and a computer teacher to become an astrophysicist and a dentist. We will encounter nerdy 18-year-olds but will endure them with help from role models like Jerri Blank and the Campus Ladies and Madame Curie and Professor Feynman.

Hypothesis: We will make our way through long hours of classes and labs and log about them and our thoughts on scientists, lab coats, nerds, test tubes, homework, Carl Sagan, science stoners, geniuses, false teeth, dentistry cruises, vectors, NASA, the defense industry, pi-to-1 gender ratios, Asians, organic chemistry, science departments closing and pressure to major in the humanities. We like post-modernism, but aren't you getting tired of it? Parasites are sluts too, and household plants get STDs.

Materials: $$$$$, tutors, TI-87's, weed

Procedure: 1. enroll in school in the fall
2. study study study
3. 2018: the chemical reaction will morph us from BAs and MSs to DDSs and PhDs

Stay tuned.......