My last joke...

It's a little ummm.... it made me laugh.... well you'll see:

A man escapes from a prison where he had been kept for 15 years.As he runs away, he finds a house and breaks into it, looking for money and guns, but only finds a young couple in bed.He orders the guy out of bed and ties him up in a chair. While tying the girl up to the bed, he gets on top of her, kisses heron the neck, then gets up, and goes to the bathroom.While he's in there, the husband tells his wife, "Listen, this guy is an escaped prisoner, look at his clothes! He probably spent lots of time in jail, and hasn't seen a woman in years. I saw how he kissed your neck. If he wants sex, don't resist, don't complain, just do what he tells you, just give him satisfaction. This guy must be dangerous, if he gets angry, he'll kill us.Be strong, honey. I love you."To which the wife responds, "He was not kissing my neck. He was whispering in my ear. He told me he was gay, thought you were cute, and asked if we kept any Vaseline in the bathroom.Be strong, honey, I love you, too."

Will this be me one day?

An unemployed biologist was having considerable difficulty in finding a new job. He finally saw an add in a local newspaper for a position at a zoo. In the interview, the manager told him that their only gorilla, which had been a star attraction, had recently died, and it would be sometime before they could replace it. Meanwhile, they needed someone to dress up as a gorilla and pretend to be the animal. The biologist was quite embarrassed, but, being desperate for money, he accepted the job. The next day, the biologist put on a gorilla skin and headgear and entered a cage from a rear entrance. Visitors smiled at him and threw bread. After a while, the biologist really got into the act. He jumped up and down, beat his chest and roared as people cheered. The following day, the biologist entered the wrong cage by accident and found himself staring at a lion. The lion roared and rushed toward him. The scared biologist turned and ran, while screaming, "Help! Help!" The lion leaped onto the gorilla, knocked him to the ground and whispered in his ear, "Hey, it's me Leonard, your former co-worker. Shut up or we'll both lose our jobs!"

My last quote.....

"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."

-By Oscar Wilde

My Last try....

LOL

Okay now this one is funny!

R U Laughing?

Did you know....

Atomic clocks are quite complex, but the basic theory is simple: the transitions of a cesium atom as it moves back and forth between two energy levels are counted to keep time

The basenji, an African wolf dog, is the only dog that cannot bark.

The first film director to discover Hollywood was D.W. Griffith, who filmed In Old California there in 1910. California was ideal for early films partly because its reliable weather and bright sunlight - but also because it was as far as possible from Thomas Edison, who held most of the patents relating to motion pictures.

Dementia is not inevitable as you age. An American study of centenarians (those who reach the age of 100) found that 30 per cent of them worldwide reach the age of 100 cognitively intact. Unfortunately, that does mean that if you reach the age of 100 there is a 7 in 10 chance that you will suffer from dementia.

Skydivers reach a terminal velocity of about 120 miles per hour (190 km/hr) if they spread eagle themselves to maximise their air resistance, but a velocity of 150 mph (240 km/hr) if they assume a head-down position like a high-board diver about to enter the water.

Today's Quote of the Day

I've been studying faithfully for the past two days and tomorrow I will take my first final for the semester. Some of the information is really complicated and I'm getting really frustrated trying to memorize the information so today's quote represents my struggle.

"Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument. The memories which lie within us are not carved in stone; not only do they tend to become erased as the years go by, but often they change, or even increase by incorporating extraneous features."

By Primo Levi

Now do you think professors will give us a break? I guess not, huh :-(

More Fun Facts I Learned Today

The process of photosynthesis traps energy from the Sun and stores it in chemical bonds in carbohydrate molecules, most notably in the six-carbon sugar called glucose.

The most accurate clocks in the world are the new atomic fountain clocks, in which thousands of extremely cold atoms are tossed gently into a vacuum chamber, where they fall under gravity's pull. The vibrations of the atoms at the top of the fountain are measured, where they are practically motionless for a fraction of a second before they fall.

Duplication in the human genome is more extensive then it is in other primates. About 5% of the human genome consists of copies longer than 1,000 bases.

The earthquake that rocked South-central Alaska on March 27, 1964, was the second-largest ever recorded. The magnitude 9.2 earthquake trails only a 9.5 recorded in Chile in 1960.

The second according to atomic time is defined as exactly 9,192,631,770 oscillations or cycles of the cesium atom's frequency. This replaced the old second that was defined in terms of the earth's motions.

Today's Scientific Quote

After a long day of completing assignments and reading I have chosen my quote for the day:

"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand." by Neil Armstrong

Now ain't that grand.....

5 Fun Science Fact You Probably Didn't Know

The smallest fish in the world is the Trimattum nanus of the Chagos Archipelago. It measures 0.33 inches.

Wahoo fish can travel at speeds of up to 80 km per hour.

The most common pear world-wide is the Bartlett. It is bell-shaped, sweet and soft with a light green colour.

Astronomers estimate that in the entire visible universe, all the stars of all the galaxies, there are altogether roughly 10 to the power of 80 fundamental particles - protons, neurons and electrons. So it would take 10 to the power of 35 universes like our own to provide one such particle to represent every possible unique human being.

The hummingbird's brain, 4.2 per cent of its body weight, is proportionately the largest in the bird kingdom.

-sciencefirst.com-

Which scientist would I meet

If I could meet any scientist who would it be? At first I thought Sylvia Earle, the former chief scientist for the U.S. NOAA and the woman who led the first team of all female "aquanauts." As amazing she really is for all her hard work and research I chose someone very different. This man had some crazy courage to do the unexpected but it won him a Noble Prize years later. Barry Marshall takes the cake for me and I would definitely be happy to meet this guy. His crazy courage was how out of frustration of trying to infect piglets and failing each time he decided to drink the petri dish of bacteria of which he developed H. pylori which was what he was trying to link to the development of gastritis and ulcers. He and his collaborator were convinced that H. pylori was the cause of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer but many researchers were very skeptical of their theory. I guess that is why I really want to meet this man, although everyone was against them and their ideas he kept going and believed in his own work. It took him many years but eventually they completed their work and earned the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. It's tough out in the big bad world of science and I would love to ask him for advice and hear stories of his struggle to the top.

Aquatic Osteoporosis

This phenomenon called "aquatic osteoporosis" has been discovered by researchers from Queen's and York universities. This is actually much more serious than it seems, apparently there has been a dramatic decline of Calcium Levels in several lakes of North America and with these declining levels comes the demise of aquatic species. They were able to determine the damage by its effect on the invertebrate Daphnia or common name the "water flea." Daphnia is an organism that starts at the very bottom of the food web and without them the higher taxa will also have an effect and eventually leading to endagered species so the discovery of this is important. How much damage has been done is still not accurate been they do know it has already taken a huge toll in some bodies of water. They have linked the problem to the long-term effects of acid rain on forest soils, as well as to logging and forest re-growth. Researchers also noted that, despite signs of chemical recovery from recent reductions in sulphur dioxide emissions, lower calcium levels may delay the biological recovery of lakes from acidification. Let's just hope this finding didn't come too late.

Right around the corner

It's been an interesting semester and right around the corner are finals. I admit I never really got myself organized but I worked with what I had and made it this far. Perhaps next semester I'll change things up a little since I'll be accompanied by my good friend and we are each others motivation. I'm sad to say that this semester I'm definitely not making Dean's List and it's a shame but on the bright side I expect to make it again for the spring semester. I wish all my colleagues much luck on finals and, if I don't get to say it later, happy holidays. Me for now, I'm hitting the books, oh did I mention I'm racking my brain with the whole assignment 13, it's TORTURE!!!

Right- or Left- Handed Snails

An undergraduate biology student from The University of Nottingham discovered that pond snails are pre-programmed by their mothers if they are to left handed or right handed. At first it was thought that only humans were able to use different parts of their brains to perform different tasks, but then it was broadened to vertebrates in general. Now, thanks to this little pond snail, they can add invertebrates to the list. Anyways, in this particular case they were able to see how left- and right-handedness affects them in reproductively. Snails that are right handed (dextral) to their shell turn counterclockwise and left handed (sinistral) snails turn clockwise to their shells. This kind of turning between the two different snails causes a 'mirror image', and these different directions affect them directly because they are unable to mate with each other. Of course this is just one discovery of the many things to come, but it's intriguing how an invertebrate as small as the snail can provide interesting information about brain function. Let's see what more useful information we can get from this little creature in the future.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081111203507.htm

Smaller Mosquitoes are more Dangerous

A study was conducted and concluded that smaller mosquitoes are more likely to carry a virus that causes diseases in humans. The disease used in the experiment was dengue virus but it is mostly the Asian tiger and yellow fever mosquitoes that transmit dengue virus. Both species are found throughout the U.S. and this research revealed that even the slightest difference in size can affect their potency to transmit diseases to humans. My take on this experiment - I don't care how big or small they are they must all die. Now, they must develop better pesticides to control the mosquitoes in both the larval and adult stages for all species. Mosquitoes are almost always the intermediate vectors of most diseases before reaching the primary host HUMANS, so it's now up to us to control this problem.

Fungus Fuel... Interesting

As always, some good reading put to use. Apparently, the scientist who discovered the fungus that contained the anti-cancerous drug taxol might have struck gold once again. This time around he - Dr. Strobel - discovered a fungus in the Patagonia forest that emitted a vaporous gas that is linked in the production of diesel fuel. This is the first species discovered to emit such gases thus leaving the question "Are there more out there that we can benefit from?" This new discovery has sparked the interest of scientists everywhere and further research is being conducted to convert the gas released by this microbe into a combustible fuel. If successful this would be an alternative fuel to consider even to ethanol-which has some controversial reviews. They've dubbed it's output "myco-diesel" and luckily this fungus can be easily grown on cellulose so soon we should hear more about this microbe and perhaps thank it someday too.

Odorprints better than Fingerprints?

Like always, I'm reading up on some science news and strange stories tend to come up and I'm here writing about them. This one is a little crazier than most...it's about odorprints! Basically it stated how a team of scientists did some research on mice and concluded that one's diet does not change an individuals "unique" odor, it is a "special" permanent non altering print that each person possesses. They compared fingerprints to odorprints as in they can identify a person based on their odor, WHAT?! Okay, weird... they get our fingerprints when we get our license but how do they plan on getting our "odorprints" in the database? All these hilarious scenarios come to mind as to how exactly they would collect them but they're just plain disgusting (ewww). Anyways, while they have a couple of issues to work out there, some good research has come out of this discovery. Now they're checking to see if diseases alter these unique ordorprints and if so can they develop a device to detect early signs of it. We'd definitely benefit from something like that; much luck goes out to that team of researchers, they have a long odorful journey ahead of them.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Be Good n Be Safe!

Algeria Going Orange

I was looking through a science news website and read an interesting article on the use of orange peels. Waterways in Algeria are pretty grungy looking due to the high amount of chemicals and dye dumped in the water by industries. Normally they try to clean this up with expensive chemicals (cleaning chemicals using chemicals...hmmm) so they came up with an alternative way of soaking up these chemicals and dyes naturally, ORANGE PEELS! They did a small controlled study and it seemed to work great with four major chemicals/dyes so now they just have to do a little more research to replicate these results but in a bigger scale. If all goes well, we soon might see orange peels floating around in our waterways. Hopefully they look into how this might affect the aquatic ecosystem in the long run.

Wanna read up on it, check it out at : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081020093500.htm

ENJOY!

Presenting: Thalassia testudinum

Above is a photo of the seagrass I work with daily. It's also known as Turtle Grass and can be found locally ( Laguna Madre). The picture above is how the seagrass bed looks like in its natural habitat but I have several tanks filled with these species behind the science building. We've been conducting a number of experiments on this seagrass and have produced some nice results but the questions keep coming! Anyways, just wanted to my specimen its 'fifteen minutes of fame' and give whoever reads this a little background information of my work.

Kingdom: PLANTAE
Division: ANTHOPHYTA
Class: MONOCOTYLEDONEAE
Order: HELOBIAE
Family: HYDROCHARITACEAE
Genus: Thalassia
Species: testudinum

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
>Leaves are flat and linear (strap-like)
>Leaf blades are 10-12 mm long and 4. 5-10 mm wide
>Rhizomes are scaly

HABITAT
>Commonly occurs in subtidal waters from low tide to 10 m deep
>In clear water the species is found in water up to 30 m deep
>Prefers mud and/or mud substrates in relatively sheltered locations

A 'Virgin Birth'?

It's been a while since I've logged on here but I couldn't resist to share the article I recently read up on from ScienceDaily.com. Apparently there has been a second case of a 'virgin birth' by a shark. The first was discovered back in 2007 on a female hammerhead and the recent case was that of a female blacktip shark named Tidbit. In the case of Tidbit, she had only recently sexually matured but hadn't had any contact with male sharks in the eight years she was at the aquarium. Unfortunately this discovery came about when she died and was undergoing a necroscopy. There was no evidence of a genetic father in the pup and they were surprised she was even pregnant. The important discovery of this to scientists was not so much that they underwent parthenogenesis but the fact that with over fishing occurring and a decline in shark populations the females can possibly start increasing their numbers by undergoing this process. The downside though, when they undergo normal sexual reproduction they give birth to a litter of pups but when they undergo 'virgin birth' they only produce a single pup. This discovery does raise many more questions and studies are being conducted but one thing is sure, this 'virgin birth' has definitely shed a little light on the growing problem of sharks population downfall.

I wanted to do that!!

It's official, what I was seriously considering for my graduate work has been taken. I wanted to be able to predict a way to prevent HABs from occurring which is something I'm sort of working on (predicting to prevent) with my undergrad research. I'm so bummed right now! That brainstorming and research took me a good while to think up, all that for nothing! GRRRR...... read up it's interesting stuff.

<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080930144214.htm>

HESTEC Science Display

I admit this was my first time being involved in HESTEC festivities. I displayed a poster in the Science Symposium, met the NSF director, helped out at a booth, and set up a display of our different works in our lab at the science building. The entire experience was fun but what impressed me the most was the turnout of the science display that all labs participated in. I honestly didn't think there would be people excited to see science. The room was so jam-packed that many of us who were standing guard and answering questions had to leave to give visitors room to walk around. That kind of response from the outside public really made me proud to be part of the biology department.

Rough Start, Smooth Ending

I have to admit that today was a day that I was definitely not looking forward to. I needed to go out to the Science Symposium and stand next to my poster for others to see and ask questions. I've always been a nervous wreck and when I feel the slightest pressure I tend to go BLANK!! Anyways, so I was standing beside my poster when I was asked if the poster next to me was mine- two things immediately popped into my head DENY, DENY, DENY, or just say yes and look like a deer caught in headlights. So I said 'yes' and he proceeded to convince me to take a photo with my poster (WHEW!). When I thought that was the extend of our meeting he asked me the dreaded words, "Can you please explain your poster to me?" WHAT! Can he not read for himself? I think that was the point where it went splat! All my hard work just erased, I had nada, zippo, ni-fu ni-fa, my brain was literally MUSH! He just stared at me waiting for me to say something so I looked at the poster and read the title, DOH! I knew I had to say something else so I just pointed out that I had conducted several tests and it was ultimately inconclusive but we were working on trying to answer some of the questions that arose from the experiment. Then I admitted to being extremely nervous being that he was the first person that asked me a question but there was so much more to my experiment than what I said to him. He started laughing and said he was very happy with my short answer because he had previously asked another student the same question but he talked for almost twenty minutes. So we shared a laugh and we went our separate ways.
Later during the day, I showed Dr. Therrien, the Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology at Royal Tyrrell Museum, my poster and things went completely different. I was able to explain my entire poster, what steps were being taken, what my thoughts we on as to why my results weren't easily interpreted and what I thought should be done about - he asked questions I answered them without hesitation. Everything just "flowed" it was an awesome feeling to finally be able to represent my hard work and show just how it important it really was. It was great and he told me how impressed he was of both my poster and the work itself. So, yeah, my day started off all wrong but by the end of the day I totally made up for it! Yay me!
Next hurdle: Meeting the National Science Foundation (NSF) Director on Saturday...I guess there's more to come then, huh? HaHaHa Stay Tuned!

Indigenous Lifestyle

Today I was watching a marathon of documentaries of the indigenous people of the world. All I can say is 'WOW'. I saw one from a tribe in Africa where the girls of the tribe are set to marry men at a very young age. They interviewed one girl and she spoke of how she hates men, all they do is beat you, yell at you and hurt you. She hated all men and spoke of how most married men drive their women back to their father's home because of how badly they were treated by their husbands. How sad is that? From that similar tribe you heard men speaking amongst themselves about how they pay men for their daughters hand in marriage (like they were property and not humans) and how others steal wives while the men are away trying to find food for families. WOW WOW WOW! They had a funeral for one of the women that died because of the lack of health care. The nearest hospital being days away by foot there was no way she'd make it. When she passed away the entire tribe was mourning. Women and children cramped up into the small hut where she died all of them crying while the men outside dug her grave and sat around the hut taking turns blowing a horn that signified a loss in their tribe. It was just a completely different culture, I doubt I'd survive such conditions, the women were really put to work hard in the tribe; little girls were walking miles on end to reach a spring to fetch huge tubs of water and walked back to their home with the tubs on their heads, FULL!! Crazy!

There was another tribe in Brazil that really caught my attention. They didn't focus so much on their hardships but more on their traditions. This tribe had traditions during eclipses. They believed that during an eclipse bad spirits come out and bring bad omens to tribes, so they keep it from entering their tribe by having a long festivity involving the entire tribe young and old alike. I guess what shocked me the most was that these people weren't aware of their nudity. They lived without worries such a carefree life. I was telling my husband how cool it would be if we could live a life of no financial burdens, no worries of needing an education or a job, no outside influence from the bigger world out there. This tribe, everyone seemed so happy, as if they didn't have a care in the world. It made me wonder how that would be, to live like them, how different, how fun and interesting. I don't know, viewing these documentaries really made me think about things, I just thought I'd share this little bit of info with you.

Okay, so it's been three days and I have yet to get myself organized. I keep saying "tomorrow" but tomorrow never gets here therefore I've decided to put the whole thing behind me and not fret over it. Not accomplishing this one goal is really eating me up but whatever, right? Anyways, these next few days are pretty jam packed because I'm in the process of trying to complete the HESTEC poster for the Science Symposium. Posters have never been my strong point and with the deadline approaching much too quickly I don't think I'm going to do as well as expected. From what I heard today, there are several people who are going to turn in posters but those were posters that were already prepared! What the "HAY"! I'm working my rear off to complete a poster and others are going to use those that were already prepared, what, is that okay? Yeah, I guess. I'm wondering if they'll give us an extension because of Hurricane Ike, would be much appreciated.

My entire week has been chaotic! How chaotic you ask? Well, I'm finishing off research, attending all 4 classes, keeping up with one online class (weekly 100 question exercises, weekly 50 question quizzes and a bi-weekly case study), HESTEC preparations (abstract, poster, presentation), new research meetings (twice a week), homework, party planning and the list goes on! Obviously I have nothing better to do than to work, work, work.

Seriously, though, I need to make some time for "me" in my busy schedule. My mind has been working overtime and it seems to have interfered with my sleeping. I'm lucky if I get three hours of sleep and the entire day I feel light headed (well, more like vertigo-like symptoms)! I've been thinking a lot about my current situation and concluded that I need to make a schedule of things to do on a daily basis and STICK TO IT. It's going to be a really specific schedule, down to the very minute, and no side tracking from it. Normally, I try to do everything at once or I start one task get halfway done and start a new task. I tend to do this that way if I'm asked how much I've done on a particular task I can at least say "halfway done". Now, though, I'm going to try to start a project (in order by priority) and give myself ample time to complete it before I move on. I'll probably disappoint a few people, but hey, they're not in my shoes nor do they have the slightest idea of what a typical day is for me.

So, yeah, just a little update of me trying to get organized. Stay tuned to see how long that lasts, any bets?

A "Laborful" Day

Research is kicking up a notch in Dr.D's lab, so today was just the best time to get some of the experiments done. Met a past grad student of UTPA whose specialty is the seagrass I'm currently researching on and we're meeting later this week to learn how to take "integrative" measurements of Thalassia seagrass. Will definitely be an interesting week, lots to do! As for today, I'm halfway completed with my experiments and because of some problematic results I produced, I've created more experiments. DON'T YOU JUST LOVE SCIENCE?! Isn't it awesome when you're trying to answer one question you come up with 20 more questions, research rocks!

My work with the Walz Diving PAM is almost over :-( and soon will have to be returned to its rightful owner. I have some great memories with it and I feel honored to have even gotten the chance to master the machine, but soon we shall meet again! Check out my diving pam: http://www.walz.com/support/downloads/downloads/pdfs/divpam.pdf , ain't she a beauty? Yup, I'm one of the few who have been able to use this little machine and as an undergrad much less!! Wow, I just got the chills... I'm running my final tests on her so gotta go, ADIOS!

Science in Mind for Future President?

I definitely feel that it would benefit everyone if science was integrated into the Presidential Debate. It gives voters the opportunity to get an insight in the candidate's knowledge of science and their understanding of it's importance in the everyday life of Americans and its economy. Mostly, it would be interesting to hear what they plan to do for scientific and technological research when they are in office and how they plan to implement those changes to enable progress in research.

It's going to be a long semester

So much to do in so little time! Classes are okay, except for one class and I'm considering dropping but I'm letting the lines settle down at Academic Services. Anyway, REU research is going strong, lots of intresting things are happening in the lab but more on that later.

Lots of school and lots of research, what to do when you feel so overwhelmed?