fun
cagapakis | July 10, 2010Science is cooking done in a lab. Mixing carefully (or not so carefully) measured components, heating, cooling, observing phase transitions, exploring the behavior of animal and plant proteins, exploring the properties of different chemicals, slowly changing variables to optimizing procedures. Often, feeding bacteria has a lot in common with feeding people, and I have to admit that freshly autoclaved yeast media smells delicious.
Said another way, cooking is science where at least you can usually eat the failures. My fiancé and I have been failing at making soft-boiled eggs for quite some…
grrlscientist | July 6, 2010tags: Paul the Prognosticating Octopus Oracle Sez, soccer, football, World Cup 2010, fun, offbeat, weird, news
Paul the Prognosticating Octopus Oracle has disappointed his German fans by choosing Spain over Germany in tomorrow's World Cup Football match. Paul is a two-year-old English-born octopus of unknown species who has lived in the aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany since shortly after he was born.
Image: Mark Keppler / DAPD
This is a bummer for all those German fans who believe in tooth fairies and Santa Claus, because Paul the Prognosticating Octopus Oracle of Unknown Species (PPOOUS…
awild | July 5, 2010Ok, bug experts. Who is this charming little insect?
Points will be awarded for the first correct guess: five for family and five for genus.
The cumulative points winner for the month of July will win either 1) any 8x10 print from my insect photo gallery, or 2) a guest blog post on the (safe-for-work) topic of their choosing.
clock | July 5, 2010
I can see this as instructional material while dissecting a real frog, getting a feel for its texture, smell, seeing the individual differences between the way multiple frogs look on the inside, but not as a replacement of the real thing. What do you think?
awild | July 5, 2010Our garden bees, photographed yesterday evening:
As you may have noticed, in painting our hives we've eschewed the standard hive whitewash in favor of pleasing pastels.
But we've got nothing on the hive art produced by other beekeepers on the web. Below the fold is a selection of my favorites:
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grrlscientist | July 3, 2010tags: Fast Lane -- Shopping Carts, SuperMarkt Shopping Carts, Einkaufszentrum, Berlin, fun, silly, your inner child, entertainment, volkswagen commercial, television, streaming video
Just a quick shopping trip? Here's a great invention: Some shopping carts -- "trolleys" for you Brits -- are pimped with a skateboard in a shopping center in Berlin, Germany. Up for some extra shopping fun?
awild | July 1, 2010I woke up to the shocking discovery that I've been turned into some sort of Zombie:
The great thing is, I seem to attract more ants this way. With any luck I'll get silphids, too.
(artwork by Joseph Hewitt, creator of Gearhead)
clock | July 1, 2010Blame 'Night of the Living Dead' for this, but many people mistakenly think that zombies are nocturnal, going around their business of walking around town with stilted gaits, looking for people whose brains they can eat, only at night.
You think you are safe during the day? You are dangerously wrong!
Zombies are on the prowl at all times of day and night! They are not nocturnal, they are arrhythmic! And insomniac. They never sleep!
Remember how one becomes a zombie in the first place? Through death, or Intercision, or, since this is a science blog and we need to explain this scientifically,…
grrlscientist | June 25, 2010tags: Fast Lane -- The Rocket, shopping center elevator, Einkaufszentrum, Berlin, fun, silly, your inner child, entertainment, volkswagen commercial, television, streaming video
A sound system turns the ride into a rocket take-off. Welcome on-board! This is the fast lane for elevators ...
grrlscientist | June 24, 2010tags: Fast Lane -- The Slide, subway, Rutsche U-Bahn, Berlin, fun, silly, your inner child, entertainment, volkswagen commercial, television, streaming video
A long staircase. Next to it a slide. Which way would you go? This is an ad that was created in a subway station in Berlin. Makes me want to visit.
grrlscientist | June 24, 2010tags: Meet Paul, Germany's Prognosticating Octopus, soccer, football, World Cup 2010, fun, offbeat, weird
Paul -- an octopus at the Sea Life public aquarium in Oberhausen, western Germany -- has so far correctly predicted the outcome of each of Germany's World Cup matches. On Tuesday, Paul contemplates Wednesday's match between Germany and Ghana. [larger view]
The World Cup and all the fanfare that surrounds it is truly amazing to experience. But perhaps strangest thing of all is that several zoos and aquariums in Germany have been asking some of their animals to predict the winners to the…
awild | June 21, 2010Something took a bite out of this leaf:
What was it?
Three points for the taxonomic order of the culprit, five for family, and two for explaining the natural history. Points are awarded only for the first correct guess in each category. And maybe some extra ones if you get creative with the natural history.
The cumulative points winner for the month of June 2010 will get their choice of 1) any 8x10 print from my photo galleries; or 2) a guest post on the safe-for-work topic of their choice.
cagapakis | June 15, 2010The first (and sometimes 3rd, 12th, 25th, 134th...) step of any genetic engineering experiment is often extracting DNA from some organism or another. While novel gene synthesis technology will likely make this procedure obsolete, these days it's still most economical to do it by hand. Extracting DNA from fruits like strawberries has also seen a popular resurgence thanks to groups like DIYbio, with instructions for making DNA shots available online for a fun and nerdy party activity. Today my iGEM team extracted RNA from strawberries and oranges to isolate the genes responsible for strawberry…
awild | June 14, 2010[the following is a guest post from Rob Mitchell]
Hi folks - Rob Mitchell here, guest blogger extraordinaire and your temporary replacement for Alex while he celebrates a recent age-related milestone.
My job tonight is to provide you entomology sleuths with a mystery, so take a look here at exhibit A:
Who is this gangly gal? Let's say we give points for her order (1), family (2), genus (3), and species (4).
As always, the cumulative points winner for the month of June will win either 1) any 8x10 print from Alex's insect photo gallery, or 2) a guest blog post on the (safe-for-work) topic…
awild | June 7, 2010Tonight's challenge is this rather unusual insect.
What is it?
Points will be awarded to the first person to pick the order (3), family (3), and genus (3). Plus, a bonus point for explaining what is unusual about this insect's life cycle.
The cumulative winner for the month of June 2010 will get their choice of 1) any 8x10 print from my photo galleries; or 2) a guest post on the safe-for-work topic of their choice.