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cmcclain | June 28, 2007
In the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique, I justed moved above PZ. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Sure PZ claims to be the unofficial royalty of all Cephalopod. He even claims to be waiting for the molluscan mothership to land. But when it comes right down to the wire, PZ will have to address some serious questions about zebrafish. Between you and me, when it comes to the "inordinately fond of invertebrates" badge I have PZ beat. First, where is PZ's tattoo? I have one! Second, as you can clearly see in the photo below, that is Steve O'…
grrlscientist | June 27, 2007tags: blog carnival, medicine
The June issue of All Things Medical blog carnival is now available for you to enjoy. They included several pieces that I wrote, so this is good. So be sure to go over there and give them some support!
jrosenhouse | June 27, 2007We now come to what one helpful museum employee described to me as “the climax of the museum.” The previous exhibits took us through the first four of the seven C's (Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion). Now, with one further fifteen minute movie, we would get the final three (Christ, Cross, Consummation). The film was entitled The Last Adam, which is a reference to 1 Corinthians 15:45:
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Short review: Where's Mel Gibson when you need him?
After the build-up of the previous…
purepedantry | June 27, 2007The NYTimes has a excellent summary of the progress in the study of evolution of development (evo-devo). Scientists have been surprised to discover over the years that a relatively small number of closely-related genes control the body plan of animal species, even when those species' body plans differ dramatically. Apparently these same genes are being applied in diverse ways to organize very different body plans.
An example of one of the genes that organizes development is BMP4:
What Dr. Tabin and colleagues found, when looking at the range of beak shapes and sizes across different finch…
cmcclain | June 27, 2007 I am gone for little over a week and come back to find out I have one of the Worst Jobs in Science. Popular Science wishes to "salute the men and women who do what no salary can adequately award." Salary...I am supposed to be receiving a salary? Number 2 on PopSci's list it Oceanographer because we get "nothing but bad news, day in and day out." No seafood by 2048, no coral reefs in decades, 200 deoxygenated "dead zones" and counting, a vortex of plastic the size of Texas residing in the Pacific, ocean acidification, etc. Of course, you can go here and read more about this. Luckily the…
moleculeoftheday | June 26, 2007Bisphenol A is one ingredient that makes polycarbonate and epoxies work the way they do. A lot of people have fretted and expressed some concern about bisphenol A bioaccumulating - I can just about guarantee you're toting some around in your fat. More persistent and toxic to aquatic life is a derivative of bisphenol A - tetrabromobisphenol A.
Hanging a lot of halogens off of a compound is a pretty good way of making a flame retardant - we used to make amazing fire extinguishers with stuff called Halon (that link's highly recommended). I am told they were so good you could set up flame…
grrlscientist | June 26, 2007tags: Scientific American, free magazine
The July issue of Scientific American is avilable for download as a PDF for free. They are introducing an appealingly bright, colorful design and open layout along with deeper changes in content that make the magazine an even more valuable resource for understanding the pivotal role of science and technology in the modern world. This offer only lasts until the 30th of the June, so be sure to get yours while you can.
stoat | June 26, 2007A weird one. Planktos is a for-profit company that appears to intend to sequestrate CO2 by causing algal blooms. Anyone with more info on this is invited to comment.
And they will sell you CO2 offsets. For example: The average international flight is 9-20 hours long and produces 2 tons of CO2 per passenger. 4 tons of CO2 equivalents will be retired on your behalf to negate 100% of your carbon footprint for this return flight is only $20. How can the average flight be 9-20 hours long and yet produce exactly 2 tons?
But more importantly, why should you believe that they ar doing anything to…
grrlscientist | June 25, 2007tags: blog carnival, books
The 4th edition of the Festival of Good Books is now available. They were so kind as to include a piece that I wrote in their round-up.
grrlscientist | June 25, 2007tags: blog carnival, life
The most recent installment of the Observations on Life blog carnival has been published. They were so kind as to include one of my pieces along with their other links that you will enjoy.
mikethemadbiologist | June 25, 2007Following Cheney's claim that he is not part of the executive branch, the Washington Post ran a story detailing Cheney's reach throughout the executive branch. Laura Rozen relates a fascinating letter from a veteran editor:
A careful reading of the story of Cheney's coup against a feeble executive reveals that paragraphs 7 through 10 were written and inserted in haste by a powerful editorial hand. The banging of colliding metaphors in an otherwise carefully written piece is evidence of last-minute interpolations by a bad editor whom no one has the power to rewrite.....
That in turn suggests…
petnoyer | June 25, 2007Score one for Oceana and the New England Fisheries Management Council. Actually, score them fifteen. The two groups recently announced they have laid the foundations for designating 15 deep-sea canyons off the coast of New England as Habitat Areas of Particular Concern in an effort to build a more sustainable groundfish fishery.
Press release follows below from BYM Environment News.
The New England Fishery Management Council had laid the foundation to protect unique marine habitat by designating a series of canyons and seamounts from Maine to the Chesapeake Bay as Habitats of Particular…
cmcclain | June 24, 2007Weather, O' Weather...you are my fair and fickle lover. On day 4, we sailed on from
Davidson to Patton Escarpment, but a 25+ knot wind kept the ROV out of the water. We
steamed further south with the intent of diving off the Channel Islands on the sheltered
leeward side. However, naval exercises in the area (i.e. if you come near us we will
torpedo you out of the water) and a further degradation of the sea state (from Moderate
Nausea to I Think I Just Puked Up My Spleen) prevented us again from diving. We steamed
back north to take shelter in Monterey Bay, taking a full 2 days as we made…
cmcclain | June 24, 2007
The Alvin submersible dives on the New England Seamount chain found plentiful coral colonys of whip coral, parasol coral, and beautiful spiraling Iridogorgia. These coral collections are made up of hundreds of tiny polyps, arranged in precise geometric patterns. Video courtesy of Les Watling, Mountains in the Sea Exploration, NOAA-OE.
cmcclain | June 23, 2007
The Crevices at 708 meters (2,323 feet) of a hydrothermal vent site are occupied by thriving aggregations of cutthroat (synaphobranchid) eels. These eels, which have now been identified as Dysommina rugosa, are known from trawl samples in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but have never before been studied in their natural habitat. The only common metazoan (multicellular) animals occupying these low-temperature hydrothermal vents, preliminary work indicates that they use the vent only as a place to live. They seem to feed not on chemosynthetic bacteria, but on crustaceans that pass by…
grrlscientist | June 22, 2007Some days, we learn too much about everything that we prostitute so we can have a wee bit of belonging and meaning in our lives. Today has been one of those days for me;
Fast Car
by Tracy Chapman
You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere
Anyplace is better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we'll make something
But me myself I got nothing to prove
You got a fast car
And I got a plan to get us out of here
I been working at the convenience store
Managed to save just a little bit of money
We won't have to drive too far…
grrlscientist | June 22, 2007tags: online quiz
How about you?
You Should Learn French
C'est super! You appreciate the finer things in life... wine, art, cheese, love affairs.
You are definitely a Parisian at heart. You just need your tongue to catch up...
What Language Should You Learn?
cmcclain | June 22, 2007
This map depicts a hypothetical Mars with oceans. The view could represent a stage of terraforming (not an early Mars, since the ocean areas do not correspond to such hypotheses). The base map is from the USGS Flagstaff web site, with oceans added based on elevation data from a USGS map at Solar Views and a cloud map modified from one at Visible Earth. Map centered on 180° longitude.
The good ol' red planet may have been blue. New research in Nature suggests that massive oceans once covered a third of its surface. What is the evidence? Ragged, km high features on the planet's…
cmcclain | June 21, 2007
I am out to sea this week exploring deep-sea life on seamounts. A cruise in 2004 to the San Juan yielded this photo. Brisingid and basket stars, white trumpet and frilled sponges, and a bamboo coral (in the background) are living attached to a lava flow. Copyright MBARI