Ask A Science Blogger
thusspakezuska | May 24, 2010Technically speaking, I believe it's my ovaries that are the proper object of envy, but no matter. Prof-Like Substance has spoken.
I'm going to try something a little different this week and actually do something organized, rather than just toss out anything that happens to be on my mind. I often get comments, here or IRL, to the effect of "how do you have time to blog?" or "Do you feel like blogging is a waste of time when you have so many other things going on?" Obviously, my answer is no, I don't think it is a waste of time, but over the next few days I would like to articulate that a…
rallain | May 12, 2010ScienceBlogs.com is running "Ask a Science Blogger". The basic idea is that you, the reader, get a chance to ask questions to us, the bloggers. You can either post a comment in the link above or send an email to .
I would like to go ahead and answer one of the questions already posted. nemski asks:
How big does the world appear to an insect?
I like this question because it can be answered at different levels. First, what do you mean by world? If you mean "the Earth", then the answer would be that the Earth essentially appears the same to an insect as it does to us humans (from a size…
sporte | October 6, 2008Okay, watching some of the other movies makes me realize that I've been very negligent in not uploading ours.
Without further ado, here it is.
Can you guess the age of the person who made the movie? I'll give you a hint. It wasn't me.
sporte | September 25, 2008Dave, Maria, Grrl, and I will all be at Ozzie's in Lower Queen Anne on Saturday afternoon.
I've never met the other three bloggers but after checking out Maria's wedding pictures and the liquid nitrogen, I'm really looking forward to this. We'll be upstairs in the mezzanine and we'll have a ScienceBlogs poster.
Relevant details:
Saturday, Sept. 27th at 4 pm in the upstairs mezzanine at Ozzie's.
Address: 105 W. Mercer St., Seattle, WA 98119
grrlscientist | June 18, 2008tags: Ask a Science Blogger, why blog, blogs and science careers
The most recent "Ask a Science Blogger" question submitted by a reader is [ask a question of your own];
There are many, many academic bloggers out there feverishly blogging about their areas of interest. Still, there are many, many more academics who don't. So, why do you blog and how does blogging help with your research?
There are a lot of reasons that I write a blog. First and foremost, I love writing. Writing has been my voice in a world that refused to hear me, it has been my invisible companion that kept me from being…
grrlscientist | January 10, 2008tags: Ask a Science Blogger, male birth control pill, contraceptive
The human egg at the moment of fertilization.
Image: National Museum of Health and Medicine.
The newest "Ask a Science Blogger" question is; Why is there no birth control pill for men?
I know that many women say that male birth control pills do not exist solely due to sexual politics, namely, why would a pharmaceutical company devote precious research funding to developing a male birth control pill when they can make so much more money from developing drugs such as Viagra? Because I am limited to 500 words or so, I am not…
sporte | December 24, 2007This wasn't in the lab, but it was an accident, and it was funny later on.
Normally, I wouldn't think twice about storing bacterial cultures in a refrigerator. After all, bacteria on a petri plate, inside of a plastic bag, are kind of stuck. They can't get out of the plates, and even if they did, they certainly can't crawl out of a plastic bag.
I thought soil bacteria, on agar plates, were mostly harmless.
I was wrong.
When my husband was finishing graduate school, he brought home some agar plates that he had streaked, with different Streptomyces species, so that he could photograph them…
thusspakezuska | December 3, 2007
Ask a Scienceblogger asks: " What's the deal with "virgin birth" (parthenogenesis)?"
Many people, when they hear "virgin birth", think of the Virgin Mary. But all good Catholics know that Mary, Queen of Heaven, is not a true example of parthenogenesis. Really - do you imagine that the Catholic church would let a mere female lay sole claim to giving birth to the God-child? God had to send his "Holy Spirit" down to help Mary along and cuckold poor Joseph. Mary may be the Handmaid of the Lord and the Vessel of Selfless Service but no pope is going to give her sole credit for Jesus.
No,…
angrytoxicologist | November 2, 2007
Let's redo the lungs, shall we? They are toxicologist's nightmare. First, let's point out what's great about our airway systems: the filtration provided by our nose, nasopharynx, pharynx and larynx; the clearance of foreign substances by dual layer of mucous in the airways (a thin layer in underneath the thick so the cilia can beat in the thin and move the thick layer up and out); and the generally competent immune function of the lungs. Let's see how things go wrong.
Gravity isn't much help here, when you breathe particles that are around 5 ´m in diameter as it helps to keep them down in…
grrlscientist | November 1, 2007tags: Ask a Science Blogger, vertebrate eye, molluscan eye
Image: Wikipedia. [larger view].
The newest "Ask a Science Blogger" question is; Which parts of the human body could you design better?
Since I have only 500 words or so to explain, I will discuss only one anatomical feature: I would choose to redesign the vertebrate eye so the microscopic structure of the retina more closely resembles that of the molluscan eye.
On causal observation, the vertebrate eye appears to be similar to the cephalopod eye (cephalopods are often thought of as the "classical" mollusc), however, a more…
thusspakezuska | November 29, 2006What's the funniest lab accident you've ever had?...
...asks "Ask A Science Blogger".
Definitely not funny at the time. But funny in retrospect.
As a grad student and a postdoc, I worked with cultured mammalian cells (animal and human). I used magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study their metabolism and functional behavior. This involved packing a lot of cells into a very small volume in order to get good signal to noise ratio. Tissue culture experts know that lots of cells in a small volume means problems with nutrient delivery and waste removal - necessitating continuous perfusion…
thusspakezuska | November 10, 2006What are the best pickup lines for scientists and science-savvy folk?...
I think I can best answer this Ask A Science Blogger question by quoting myself.
So:
Suzanne Franks, in her fabulous essay Suzy the Computer vs. Dr. Sexy: What's A Geek Girl To Do When She Wants To Get Laid? which you can now read in the available for purchase She's Such a Geek! Women Write About Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff, writes:
When I got to college, I found frat parties dominated the social life, and I suspected that smarts might not be a high-value attribute in that scene. Nevertheless, I trotted…
thusspakezuska | November 3, 2006What's the most important local political race to you this year (as a citizen, as a scientist)?...
Dear god, please save me from Rick Santorum...oh wait. Is that a bit strange, to be praying for relief from Mr. RightWingChristianFundamentalist? Mr. EvolutionIsEvilNaziPropaganda? Mr. WomenShouldBeInTheHomeAndPregnant? Mr. ILiveInVirginiaButIWantPennsylvaniaToPayForMyKidsEducation?
Last year I moved from Kansas and thought with great relief, "No more Sam Brownback as my senator!!!" Of course, coming to Pennsylvania, I just exchanged him for Rick Santorum.
However, there is the very real…
thusspakezuska | November 2, 2006Ask a Science Blogger asks:
UPDATE:
THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE OCT. 27TH ASK A SCIENCE BLOGGER ANSWER
What's the most underfunded scientific field that shouldn't be underfunded?...
I can't presume to know the definitive answer. But I can give you one answer: a field that's not even on the radar screen for nearly everyone. We all know women routinely go to see their gynecologist, and women's reproductive health is an important issue. What's the equivalent for men? Do you hear of men routinely going to see their andrologist? The closest thing they have is a urologist, and that's just not…
thusspakezuska | October 21, 2006So, you ask us bloggers this week...
...What's the best science TV show of all time?...
For real-life science shows, I guess I would have to pick NOVA. This is because Mr. Zuska, who is not a scientist or an engineer, will actually sit and watch Nova and become absorbed in the program and occasionally ask me questions about what they are talking about. He once watched an entire program on string theory called The Elegant Universe. He even watched part of it a second time. I watched it with him but I had to cover my eyes when the little vibrating string graphics were on the screen because…
mixingmemory | October 21, 2006Everyone else who's answered this question has been very decisive, but I really can't choose an particular science TV series. I've always loved Nova, Nature, National Geographic, and I remember watching and loving Marty Stouffer's Wild America on Sunday mornings when I was a kid. But I think my favorite science show episode of all time was the 1991 National Geographic special, "Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas". It was amazing to watch those two powerful species go at it. Here's a part of the special:
thusspakezuska | October 15, 2006It's Ask a Science Blogger time again....
...A reader asks: Is severely regulating your diet for a month each year, as Muslims do during Ramadan, good for you?
Here's hoping my doctor and pharmacist SiBlings will take on this question and give us a medical perspective. I'm going to approach "is it good for you?" from some other directions.
In this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, ten women share memories of Ramadan, traditions from their home countries, and offer up a few family recipes. Ramadan and fasting sounds like it is very good for them.
In Istanbul, women embroider handkerchiefs…
sporte | September 12, 2006The Ask a Science Blogger question of the week asks if organic foods are really worth the hype. I'm afraid my answer can't fit into one blog post.
Let me start by telling you about my garden.
This year my garden has been a home to local wildlife, but during the years that I do garden, I have a semi-organic garden.
I don't use any pesticides but I do occasionally break down and use Miracle Grow and, sometimes Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate). Overall, though I don't see any justification for using chemicals that might be harmful to fish or other animals in my garden, so I don't.
Even in the…
sporte | August 23, 2006We heard quite a bit about rainforest destruction in the 80's and 90's. Even the Grateful Dead joined the efforts to raise awareness and gather support for rain forest preservation. In the past, the Dead stayed away from political activism because (quoting Jerry Garcia):
Power is a scary thing. When you feel that you are close to it, you want to
make sure that it isn't used for misleading. So all this time we've avoided
making any statements about politics, about alignments of any sort.
But the Dead decided deforestation was too big of an issue to ignore and held a press conference at the…
sporte | August 14, 2006But that hasn't always been true.
When I was in college, I had part-time jobs drawing blood from patients in the university hospital and as a phlebotomist at local plasma center. Plus, I was a volunteer EMT on an ambulance crew. Needless to say, I saw plenty of blood.
And those were the days when no one wore gloves. We used to be tested every few months for hepatitis, since it was pretty common for the hospital lab techs to get that, so I did worry about hepatitis.
When I went to graduate school, and realized that the hospital where I had worked, had been treating some of the first…