Gravity

As you can imagine, I like science movies, science fiction, and other assorted real and imagined technology (even Steampunk).

So when I heard from more than one person that the new movie, Gravity, with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, got a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, (has it ever happened before?) I made plans to see it this weekend.

Mark Uhran, a 28-year NASA veteran with the International Space Station, said it was extremely realistic. I worked at Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX for thirteen years and the movie trailer made my stomach lurch. I can hardly wait to see the movie. To avoid spoliers, let's comment next week when a lot of us have seen it. Go Science!

Scientists studying the songs of songbirds have found it to be mostly a learned behavior subject to environmental influences like rearing and food availability. In fact, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen compared song and brain structure of parents and offspring in zebra finches that were raised with genetic or foster parents. They also varied the amount of food during breeding. They found that song and underlying brain structure didn't appear to be as affected by genetics as by strong environmental factors.

These results related to a human behavioral biology question (i.e., which aspects of behavior are learned compared to those expressed by genetic predisposition). It's known that human personality and behavior are much less set by genetic background. Environmental factors shape brain and behavior by so-called epigenetic effects. In fact, hormones play an big role and can have long lasting effects. 

Research with zebra finch breeding pairs (where half of the hatchlings were raised by their genetic parents, and the other half were raised by their foster parents) showed this too. At 100 days when the male offspring were grown, the researchers recorded their songs. The results showed that genetic heritability was low for most song characteristics, except the number of song syllables and maximum frequency. The rearing environment and song of the foster father mainly predicted the unique syllables of the sons' songs and was dependent on food availability. 

So keep feeding the birds in your backyard and providing a healthy environment. Songbirds will be happy and singing. Go Science!

Seeking Out New Antibiotics

 We have all heard about how the body contains more microorganisms than it does cells. The vast majority of these are friendly bacteria that help our body in its processes. However, less than 1% are bad bacteria that cause illness. For these, we use antibiotics to stomp them into submission (i.e., kill them). But since bacteria replicate so quickly, they often develop a genetic change that helps them avoid or fight off an antibiotic's effects. 

So, microbiologists and immunologists have to constantly be on the look out for potential new drugs to fight off illness caused by bad microorganisms.

Check out this video where Professor Naowarat (Ann) Cheeptham, at Thompson Rivers University, talks about her research of exploring caves in the search for new species of "good" bacteria and fungi to produce new antibiotics. Who says scientists only stay in their labs? Go science! 

World's Thinnest Glass

For a long time scientists have modeled the structure of glass, but recently the two dimensional structure was seen clearly in an electron microscope. Eureka! It matched the projected model. (The image at left shows the model in yellow/red and the electron microscope actual image in gray.)

At just a molecule thick, the world’s thinnest sheet of glass, discovered by scientists at Cornell and Germany’s University of Ulm, was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records.

The “pane” of glass was made up of individual silicon and oxygen atoms seen via electron microscopy, and identified in the lab of David A. Muller, professor of applied and engineering physics and director of the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science.

At two atoms thick, the glass was an accidental discovery. Scientists had been making graphene (a two-dimensional sheet of carbon atoms) when they spotted some goop on the sample. Upon analysis, it was silicon and oxygen (i.e., glass).

I don't know about you, but I get a deep sense of gratification when theories are proved right. I'm not sure if it is a juvenile response like "Take that you doubters!" Or if I can feel more confident about seeing even more key theories explained and proven with solid data and new technology. Perhaps a bit of both. Go Science!