Bio-bizarre
jfiore | January 23, 2009From a recent ad spotted in Running Times magazine, we discover a way to get oxygen into the bloodstream of athletes without using the lungs. Yes, it's SportsOxy Shot from Scientific Solutions LLC. They're selling "super oxygenated" water that's supposed to drastically improve athletic performance. A "serving" is 10 milliliters and it contains 15 volumes percent O2. Hmmm, a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation reveals something interesting. Let's say we have a decent (though not elite) runner with a VO2max of 60 ml O2 per kg per minute. Further, let's say that they're running at an easy…
jfiore | July 8, 2008The raspberry cane borer, Oberea bimaculata, is a particularly nasty garden pest and for some reason there seems to be an unusually large infestation of them this year. Our property contains all manner of cane berries including a large patch of local wild black raspberries (my favorite), wild blackberries, wild raspberries (usually too small to bother with) and various cultivars of red raspberry, yellow raspberry, and blackberry. Cane borer damage occurs pretty much every year but it tends to be isolated and infrequent. Several days ago I noticed that one or two of the red cultivars had…
jfiore | June 23, 2008Two things that seem to be in the headlines of late: oil prices and overweight Americans. How do these things go together? Time for a fun "back of the envelope" calculation.
According to the CDC about two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese (a BMI over 25 tags you as overweight while a BMI over 30 defines obese). Currently, nearly a third of US adults are obese. If we ignore the obese children for a moment (and that's getting harder and harder to do), that means there's somewhere around 165 million Americans who are at least overweight. Let's be really generous (kind of like…
bushwells | June 3, 2008""The Great Wall of China's attractive, but he's too thick - my husband is sexier."
So says Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer, whose surname translates to English as "Berlin Wall."
The Telegraph resurrected Frau Berliner-Mauer's fascinating case of objectum-sexual in a news of the weird article: Woman "married" to Berlin Wall for 29 years. Overall, this is an article worthy of The Onion, but apparently the Wall's spouse widow occasionally makes the rounds discussing her fetish.
Having recently polished off Mary Roach's Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (I'll review this marvelous book…
bushwells | November 6, 2007Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
One of my favorite sites, Technovelgy: Where Science Meets Fiction, entertained in 2005 with Mouse With Human Brain May Live. (If you're not accustomed to seeing nude mice with xenografts, be cautioned when you open this link).
Excerpted from the article:
Now, Stanford University has given famed researcher Irving Weissman permission to create a mouse-human hybrid. The intent is to inject human brain cells into the brains of developing mice to see what happens. The National Academy of Sciences will unveil guidelines on chimera and stem cell research this…
bushwells | October 29, 2007This latest news item courtesy of New Scientist a.k.a. the London tabloid of science journalism (1), is worthy of Bora's (Blog Around the Clock) Friday Weird Sex Blogging but what the heck - there's nothing more uplifting that a four-headed phallus on a Monday afternoon.
As noted in the article, Exhibitionist spiny anteater reveals bizarre penis, spiny anteaters (Tachyglossus aculeatus) ejaculate through only one half of their penis. This mechanism is similar to that of reptiles. Zoologists have wondered if monotremes might ejaculate via the same technique. Since the fine details of spiny…
bushwells | September 4, 2007This deserves to be highlighted. Hat tip to Lorri Talley (see comments in Orb Weaver entry).
I give you...
The Mating Dance of the Jumping Spider!
"I have the best pedipalps of them all! The very best. With my little dance, I will hypnotize you into wanting them. Yes, my darling, wanting them!"
bushwells | July 12, 2007When one thinks of a house mouse, a meek cheese-nibbling furry little critter is most often visualized Don't be fooled. These are nasty beasts. Just ask the chicks of the stormy petrel, Tristan albatross and Atlantic petrel.
The vast majority of avian extinctions have occurred on islands. Rats, an invasive species on many islands, are often blamed for such extinctions. Mice were thought to pose no threats to seabirds' nests. However, once their ratty brethren were removed from the competitive scene, the mice moved in on delicious territory. The little fiends have been caught in the…
jfiore | July 11, 2007There is a darkly humorous thread at letsrun.com, a very popular site for runners, which may be of interest.
The upshot is that a surprising number of people are saying that they do not wash their hands after using restrooms and arguing that they are better off because of it. I don't think there is anything unique about the running population with regards to this topic except for the fact that runners seem willing to openly discuss anything that has to do with their bodies. All I can say is that it makes me happy that I seldom dine out.