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.