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grrlscientist | July 21, 2007tags: Caturday, online quiz
My drinking pal and fellow SciBling, John, whom I still would like to see in a speedo, is being a bad boy by posting a silly and nonscientific Caturday survey that you might enjoy (my results are below the fold);
cmcclain | July 21, 2007The phylum Porifera (sponges; "pore bearing) is divided into three classes, Hexactinellida, Demospongiae, and Calcarea. Calcarea is the oddball of the group, building skeletal elements out of calcium carbonate (like corals and snails) instead of silica. The Hexactinellids (glass sponges) of which I will focus on, are predominately a deep sea group. They are the oldest of the groups originating about 585-720 million years ago during the Snowball Earth period. During this time, soluble calcium carbonate and silica were formed by reaction with atmospheric carbon dioxide. These reactions provided…
cmcclain | July 21, 2007I am proud to announce that DSN has its own theme song now via the generosity of Kevin Zelnio. As you may remember, Kevin Zelnio used to blog here and then spun off to create The Other 95%, a wonderful blog on everything invertebrate. Peter equated this to the Frazier/Cheers spin off. I see it more as Deep Space 9 and Next Generation. You can listen to the theme song here.
grrlscientist | July 21, 2007tags: pet, online quiz
I actually could be either of two pet types (the second pet type is below the fold);
You Would Be a Pet Bird
You're intelligent and witty, yet surprisingly low maintenance.
You charm people easily, and they usually love you a lot more than you love them.
You resent anyone who tries to own or control you. You refuse to be fenced in.
Why you would make a great pet: You're very smart and entertaining
Why you would make a bad pet: You're not interested in being anyone's pet!
What you would love about being a bird: Flying, obviously
What you would hate about being a…
moleculeoftheday | July 20, 2007When I first heard of sulfur hexafluoride I thought it had to be kind of nasty - it is a sulfur (VI) compound with a bunch of halogens attached (it looks if you added some water, you'd end up with dangerous HF and H2SO4!). However, like so many fluorous compounds, it is surprisingly lackadaisical; the stuff is a nontoxic, inert rock (the related SF5Cl, S2F10, and SF4 are all nasties and will totally throw some sulfrous-fluorous death your way).
What's more important, though, is that it's really dense. Plus - not only is it safe, it's safe enough to breathe! And if you breathe it you sound…
razib | July 20, 2007A reader points out that Fields Medalist Terrence Tao has a post on introgression in Darwin's Finches.
cmcclain | July 20, 2007There seems to be some inherent irony in an actress speaking against bottom trawling who stared in three movies killing aliens based on deep-sea isopods*. That stated, I welcome Sigourney Weaver's contribution to the effort to end bottom trawling. Joining forces with the Deep-Sea Conservation Coalition, a conservation consortium of several organizations, spoke at the UN this week in New York.
Said Weaver, "The oceans that millions of people around the world depend on for sustenance and livelihood are being plundered while the world sits by and watches. Some of the oldest ecosystems on Earth…
cmcclain | July 19, 2007
Well this makes my graduation not so special. Graduates of Taiwan's College of Marine Sciences received their waterproof degrees awarded by the university president in a diving suit underwater at an aquarium.
moleculeoftheday | July 19, 2007People did a lot of goofy stuff with regard to chemistry in the gee-whiz days of the 1940s and 1950s. In some ways it's great we've come past that, in a lot of ways it's terrible. The same generation that gave us thalidomide also gave us Chuck Yaeger. I am all for small cell phones and $10 digital cameras, but it's hard to beat the dizzying highs and lows of realizing mass-energy equivalence.
Forty years after its realization as theory by Einstein, it was realized in practice in the form of a bomb, which ended a global war, the end of which started a singularly unique era of tension.…
apalazzo | July 19, 2007OK, lots of people claim that they understand what it is like to be in science and why so few Americans are in science. What is interesting is that all those that turned down a career in science (see the comments after this post) point out the reason why - lack of job security. But no, that can't be it (say the rest who don't have a clue), apparently scientist do it for the love of discovery. Others claim that scientists have to embrace industry. While it is true that industry is frowned upon in some circles, it's not that bad. Others who are obviously not in a tight situation and are perhaps…
clock | July 19, 2007This is going to be a challenging post to write for several reasons. How do I explain that a paper that does not show too much new stuff is actually a seminal paper? How do I condense a 12-page Cell paper describing a gazillion experiments without spending too much time on details of each experiment (as much as I'd love to do exactly that)? How do I review it calmly and critically without gushing all over it and waxing poetically about its authors? How do I put it in proper theoretical and historical perspective without unnecessarily insulting someone? I'll give it a try and we'll see…
tqa | July 19, 2007It's rare that I think one of these test results really fits me, but I'm afraid this one does.
Your Score
: Smartass
You are 85% Rational, 57% Extroverted, 57% Brutal, and 71% Arrogant.
You are the Smartass! You are rational, extroverted, brutal, and arrogant. In fact, you could very well be the anti-Christ, as you are almost the exact opposite of everything Jesus was supposed to be. While Jesus says love your enemy, you say love beating the crap out of your enemy. While Jesus raises the dead, you raise hell. While Jesus walks on water, you tend to sink. You probably consider…
cmcclain | July 19, 2007...to hold open the wound after I made the incision so I could remove his appendix. And that is the story of how I became the first person to perform major surgery on a submarine.
tqa | July 19, 2007
It's another day, and Casey "The Energizer Bunny" Luskin is at it again, claiming that ID successfully predicted that "junk DNA" would be found to have a function. He has yet to explain how and why he believes that "Darwinism" somehow stifled research into those areas of the genome, and ignores the fact that scientists routinely use our understanding of evolution, common descent, and natural selection to identify areas of the genome to identify non-coding regions that are likely to have function. He does, however, provide us with an explanation for why he thinks that Intelligent Design…
angrytoxicologist | July 19, 2007The NYTimes reports that some genetic links to restless leg syndrome have been found and this might reduce the ridicule that the drugs that treat the condiditon are getting.
Not from this quarter, though. Almost all of our traits have a gentic link. That doesn't mean they need to be cured. I have a wandering eye; my spouse says I need to stop it but I keep saying, "It's genetic, I can't do anything about it without drugs"
This isn't to say that some people with restless leg syndrome don't suffer, and will benefit from treatment. But the fact that there is a huge marketing campaign for a '…
grrlscientist | July 18, 2007First of all, I would like to thank my readers for participating in my little polls. I am collecting poll results from you because I am writing a book proposal right now, and would like to have a clearer idea of the demographics of my readers so I can include these data in my book proposal. Since this particular book will focus on the special physiological and behavioral qualities of animals and what they teach us humans about our own biology and behavior, I think that my blog readers represent a nice cross-section of who might be interested in reading my book.
The results from the last week'…
tqa | July 18, 2007
The answer: massive, monumental, unashamed, unadulterated hypocrisy. The question: name one reason that Congress has an approval rating that's rapidly heading for negative numbers. It's the flipping hypocrisy. It's huge, its taken over the joint, and its on both sides of the aisle.
I'm ranting, if you haven't guessed already, about last night's antics in the Senate. The "we're going to stay up all night to show how naughty the Republicans are being" stunt. It's not like we haven't seen it before - the Republicans did exactly the same thing in 2003 to show how bad the Democrats were for…
grrlscientist | July 18, 2007tags: blog carnival, science, medicine, Tangled Bank
For all you science and medicine fans, the 84th edition of Tangled Bank is now available for your reading pleasure. They even included one submission from me! Yippee!! Okay, go there are indulge yourself, cuz it's a good one (as always).
cmcclain | July 18, 2007 Peter's post on mercury generated some passionate responses. Things have quited down a bit around here so I thought I would throw a bit of gas on the fire.
Oceana released results of hair tests conducted at last year's Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, the oldes and largest saltwater fishing tournament in the US. The result...rodeo contestants had significantly higher levels of mercury in their bodies than would be found in the general population. This study mirrors that done a mere 6 years ago in which the Press-Register showed that anglers have higher mercury levels than non-anglers. Some…
petnoyer | July 18, 2007What is Frazier to Cheers? What is Laverne and Shirley to Happy Days? Like one situation comedy spins off another, DSN pinch hitter Kevin Zelnio spins up a new blog over at blogspot called The Other 95%.
Kevin's title refers to the invertebrate phyla, which make up 95% of the animal kingdom, but receive less than 10% of the attention they deserve. They're mini-monsters, for gosh sakes. How can anyone NOT be fascinated by the spineless? Type "other 95" into google and then press "I'm feeling lucky". You've arrived at the new Desk of Zelnio.
If that's not enough to drain your coffee mug, and…