Self-assembly of 3D Structures

As another holiday season of boxing and wrapping comes to a close, it might be fun to take a look at boxes on the micro and nanometer scales for those specialized gift-wrapping occasions. 

At those sizes, 3D containers are too tiny to be assembled by a machine. They have to come together on their own. Seem like science fiction? Well, engineers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and mathematicians at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island have found a way for polyhedra (many-sided structures) to fold and assemble themselves. With support from the National Science Foundation, Brown University mathematician Govind Menon and Johns Hopkins University chemical and biomolecular engineer David Gracias are developing self-assembling 3-D micro and nanostructures for a number of applications, including medicine.

The personalized delivery of an anticancer drug to a tumor, for example, has virtually no global side effects unlike the whole body chemotherapy treatments of today. It's like pouring salt on a slug on the sidewalk to kill it instead of spreading salt over the entire yard. 

Check out this video to see how the addition of heat causes 2D polyhedral nanostructures assemble into hollow 3D structures. Go science!

Origami, Space and Solar Arrays

I love creativity in all its forms so when I came across this video on how engineers turned to origami to solve astronomical space problems (e.g., solar array design), I was hooked. 

Found in nature as fractals, math (specifically geometry) is complex and elegant. I love looking at the patterns of minerals, ferns, snowflakes, etc. The mirroring and pattern progression are beautiful and mesmerizing. Enter engineers looking for a way to compact a large solar array into a much smaller space (launch space is expensive). Voila! Art and engineering collide to create a functional, economic solution. 

Who knew the origami we all played with as kids could further space research? In my mind it just goes to show that art and science are intricately intertwined. Go science! (and art and engineering!) 

Holiday Chemistry

The subtleties of nature never cease to amaze me. Even the difference in placement of one molecule in a chemical structure can make a world of difference.  

For a fairly simple example of this, check out the National Science Foundation video describing the difference between clove and nutmeg. (Hint: It's only the placement of one double bond.) The chemical formula of their main ingredients (eugenol and isoeugenol) is the same (C10H12O2), yet extensive expeditions and even wars were started over the search and possession of these spices in the ancient world. 

Cinnamon (cinnamaldehyde) is quite a bit different since its chemical formula (C9H8O) and structure are more complex. But, I pair cinnamon with cloves and nutmeg regularly during my holiday chemistry experiments known as baking. And the taste buds sit up and take notice of this chemical combo. How about you? What are your favorite spices to combine? Go Science!

Earthquake Engineering

Invention, architecture, math, and science all came together in this Univ. of California at San Francisco campus building. The cantilevered Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building that climbs up a steep slope at UCSF's Parnassus campus has claimed national recognition as an amazing architectural/engineering feat incorporating new technology and ideas to thwart and counteract movement from seismic activity. The innovation and complexity of the stem cell research taking place in the building seems to be well paired with its unique exterior and structure. Go Science! 

ABC Catalyst S12E07 Bionic Eye

In 2013, a chip was implanted into the retina of someone without sight in order to substitute/augment image processing. While the initial chip provided somewhat low resolution images, a next generation chip will allow the viewer to read large print and recognize human faces. 

"We anticipate that this retinal implant will provide users with increased mobility and independence," said Anthony Burkitt, BVA's research director and an engineering professor at the University of Melbourne.
Check out how the ABC Catalyst S12E07 Bionic Eye works. 

It seems another Star Trek sci-fi technology is coming to real life. Remember Geordi LaForge's visor? The new bionic retina implant is even better and you can get it right here on Earth. Go science! 

Seeing and Not Seeing

Recent results published in the journal Psychological Science by University of Arizona doctoral degree candidate, Jay Sanguinetti shows that the brain processes and understands visual input that we may never consciously be aware of. In research with his advisor, Mary Peterson, Ph.D., black and white images were shown to subjects while their EEG patterns (brain waves) were observed. The work was specifically focused on seeing the images at the outer edges of the image.

Subjects' brainwaves showed that even if a person never consciously recognized the shapes on the outside of the image, their brains still worked on figuring out their meaning. "There's a brain signature for meaningful processing," Sanguinetti said. "A peak in the averaged brainwaves called N400 indicates that the brain has recognized an object and associated it with a particular meaning. It happens about 400 milliseconds after the image is shown, less than a half a second," said Peterson.

To me, this seems to beg the question of intuition. Is intuition just the brain's unconscious recognition of a subtle visual cue? For example, sometimes you meet someone that just doesn't hit you right. You have no basis for your unease, but later find out he/she was caught stealing or cheating on a test. Perhaps the brain picked up on something and sounded the alarm subconsciously. Hmm... Go Science!

Speedy Bee Vision

The early bird gets the worm could be changed to the quick bee gets the pollen. Recent research has discovered that the photoreceptors in bees' eyes can detect black and white images about 4-5x faster than humans. They can see color 3-4x faster than humans. 

What good is visual speed? Scientists believe vision is important in bees' ability to find flowers and pollen. The high-speed vision might help bees keep track of color in flickering light (e.g., when flying quickly through bushes).

"The scene for the bee would be flickering with different amounts of light and shade, and the color view is potentially changing, from a flower reflecting more light to less light," said study author Peter Skorupski, a researcher at Queen Mary, University of London, in England. Fast color vision could help bees accurately perceive color during flight.

So the next time you bend to sniff a flower and encounter a bee, realize he probably saw you first. Relax and let him go about his pollen collecting business. Go science!

Optogenetics - Switching on Neurons with Light

Brain structure and learning research is on an steep progress curve these days as imaging and signal processing is better understood. It is particularly cool to me that an important leap ahead has been achieved via the light receptors of algae found in the pond scum, Chlamydomonas. This simple algae uses light sensitive proteins to move (phototaxis) and feed via photosynthesis. So how did basic research on pond scum in 2002 get applied to brain research in the fall of 2013? Scientific curiosity and collaboration. 

An NSF-funded team of brain researchers at Stanford University, Karl Deisseroth, Edward Boyden, and Feng Zhang were looking for a chemical "switch" to turn neurons on/off. They used light sensitive algal proteins to turn on the electrochemical signaling of the neurons. These results also drove the development of tools to:

• Turn off target neurons by manipulating light-sensing proteins
• Deliver light via laser to target neurons in the brain
• Insert light-sensitive proteins into different types of neurons to study their functions
• Study of how gene expression in the brain may influence neurochemical signaling and how changes in key neuronal genes may influence learning and memory

So the next time you feel like pond scum, realize that even it has its strengths! Go science!

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!

Kinematics - The Science of Football

I'll bet you never thought to see a post about football on a science blog. Actually, there is huge amount of math, physics, and materials science in most sports including football. There have even been books written about the subject.

Today I watched a National Science Foundation video on the Science of Football: Kinematics. 

Give it a look. The breakdown of speed, velocity, direction and how they all work together is explained simply and is easy to understand. A running back was videotaped so trainers and scientists could see how top velocity might be reached faster. Successful running backs study acceleration, velocity, size, and other parameters to compete more successfully and reach the end zone ahead of the competition.  

You might also like to check out Carla McClafferty's new book on football, head injuries, and all the research going into the health aspects of the sport for young athletes and adults.

There is a lot more to playing football than stadium dogs, snow cones and peanuts. Go science!

Mega Canyon

Just when we thought there is nothing left undiscovered on the earth, we're surprised with a new particle, theory, or previously unknown species. Then, a new imaging technology offers a whopper discovery and we are again amazed at this wonderful planet that nurtures and supports us.

How big a discovery? How about another Grand Canyon...in Greenland. Seriously. 

The newly discovered "mega canyon" is approximately 460 miles (750 kilometers) long, making it longer than the Grand Canyon. In some places, it is 2,600 ft (800 meters) deep, similar to segments of the Grand Canyon. 

[By comparison, the Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,000 ft or 1,800 m).]

This huge Greenland feature is thought to have existed before the current ice sheet covered it (i.e., millions of years).

By using thousands of miles of airborne radar information, collected by NASA and researchers from the United Kingdom and Germany over decades, scientists were able to determine the terrain beneath the ice sheet.

They used data collected by NASA's Operation IceBridge, an airborne science program that looks at polar ice. One of IceBridge's scientific instruments, the Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder, can image and measure the thickness and shape of bedrock beneath huge masses of ice. 

Announced yesterday, I'm sure we will be hearing lots more about the new find. Stay tuned.

All Science All the Time...

Many of you have probably heard me say "all science all the time..." fairly often.

Trained as a microbiologist, I was originally on the pre-med path when I took my first microbiology class. The instant I looked through a microscope at the unseen universe of microorganisms, I was hooked!

It's no wonder then that I changed my major and got an advanced degree in microbiology and immunology. I love it! Plus, I really enjoy sharing science info, images, videos, etc with children and adults. 

I do that via my books and Pinterest. Come check out all the fantastic animals, insects, element videos, science education handouts, and more at http://pinterest.com/sciwhisperer/. If you're on Pinterest, let's definitely connect. Go Science!!

Science Videos in School

When I was in school, having a film during class was a treat. Usually it was because the regular teacher was out, but sometimes films were used to augment curriculum. 

These days, videos are a staple in our culture. YouTube has experienced logarithmic growth. Teaching methods also use video more as science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts especially benefit from video. Videos are able to show an experiment that would take too long in one class period or are too dangerous to demonstrate. 

I love the University of Nottingham videos on each of the elements in the Periodic Table. They are fun and offer examples of each element, their uses, and often a reaction. I also enjoy the Symphony of Science videos like "We Are Star Dust" by Neil DeGrasse Tyson that I've pinned with many other educational videos to my Cool Science Videos Pinterest board. Check it out and share some of your favorites.

If you're a teacher, I have Pinterest boards for Science Education, Science and Nature, Space and NASA, Robots, and Architecture and Design, to name a few. I use Pinterest as an online, visual filing system for cool websites, articles, concepts, and images. Stop by if you are exploring Pinterest and say hello.
Go science!

Stalagmites - Time Capsules of Climate Change

As the Earth's climate continues to shift bringing drought to some areas and record snowfall to others, scientists are constantly searching for new ways to monitor and model the data.

So, you can imagine the excitement generated when cave stalagmites in Borneo (video) were sampled and found to mirror some large climatic events, but not others. Located just north of the equator in the Pacific, the region is a big climate player. By sampling the stalagmite's historical record, scientists can obtain previously unknown data that may offer hints to puzzling climate questions. 

“To my knowledge, this is the first record that so clearly shows sensitivity to one set of major abrupt climate change events and not another,” explains Kim Cobb, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

Rock strata (layers) like those seem in the Grand Canyon have been studied by geologists for a long time, but these new stalagmite records have the added benefit of limited or no erosion. They also provide information on the water minerals present during past climate shifts.

More Earth-like Planets Found

Recently, GJ667C, a low-luminosity “M-dwarf” star about 1/3 the mass of our Sun and part of a triple-sun system around 22 light-years from Earth (one light-year = ~5.9 trillion miles) was part of an ongoing international star study.

Scientists had previously found evidence of the existence of two "super Earths" (less than ten times larger than Earth) and the possibility of a third, when they discovered a total of 6-7 worlds circling the star at a distance that would allow life.

U.S. lead author, University of Washington astronomer Rory Barnes, describes emerging evidence of more M-dwarf stars that have more low-mass planets in habitable zones along with the rest of an international team. 

“These planets are good candidates to have a solid surface and maybe an atmosphere like the Earth’s, not something like Jupiter,” Barnes said.

Using doppler spectroscopy, astronomers are able to see farther and clearer. Who knows how many other potentially habitable planets are circling suns in our galactic neighborhood? I can wait to find out!

Reduce, Reuse & Recycle are known as the 3 Rs, but another important R has been part of my life for a long time: REPAIR. 

Growing up in the country, my family had a "fix-it" mind set that I've carried to my adult life. I almost always tinker with things that break, but many people don't. In fact, some people look at me funny when they learn I replaced a Krups  heating coil instead of tossing the entire coffee pot and buying the latest cool technology. (Actually, I was amazed how simple it was and only cost ~$3)

But the 4th R isn't just a matter of changing a mind set, many products are not built to be fixed by their owners. In fact, electronics' warranties are often invalidated if the products are opened. 

So what can a person who is green-minded do? Simple stuff. Watch for the availability of replacement parts, be willing to pay more for good quality products that are able to be repaired and avoid buying products with warranties that are voided if you attempt to fix them. 

I look upon successful repairs as a fun way to save our dwindling global resources. Try it and share your successes! 

Oysters and Ocean Acidification

As the world's oceans become increasingly out-of-balance, more and more ecosystems and species are being impacted.

Today, the species of the day is the oyster. A recent National Science Foundation sponsored study looked at ocean acidification on the formation of oyster shells.

"The failure of oyster seed production in Northwest Pacific coastal waters is one of the most graphic examples of ocean acidification effects on important commercial shellfish," said Dave Garrison, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences.

It turns out that oyster larvae shell formation is in direct competition with the development of the feeding organs. The young oysters must use the energy from the egg to develop both. Since high carbon dioxide levels slow shell formation, there is a survival sprint for the shell to form (in the first 2 days of life) before the larvae runs out of stored energy in the egg. This becomes a losing race as ocean carbon dioxide levels get higher and higher.

Fortunately, ocean hatcheries such as the Whiskey Creek Hatchery and Taylor Shellfish Farms in Washington state have started "buffering" the water for larvae in order to balance acidity. This allows oyster larvae a more natural start. 

So the next time you talk oysters with friends, you'll have the latest scoop. Balanced is better.

Go science!

The Tiny World of Sand

The world at the nanoscale is so interesting. It never ceases to amaze me. I recently came across several TED videos on nano and other small members of our planet. Check out the variety of life in our unseen world. The biological and geological record of life on this planet is all there. It will change the way you think of materials, physics, and even environmentalism. This video shows many components within sand (even sand on the moon). Amazing.

There are more ways than ever to communicate science discoveries. For people who soak up the latest discoveries and gadgets, it's an exciting time. A few months ago, I attended a National Science Foundation conference on using social media to spread science news. The leaders emphasized Twitter as a real time way to spread science cheer. As part of the two day event, we all practiced and promised to tweet "all science, all the time." I have gotten better about Twitter, but still have room for improvement. 

Recently, I spotted Ph.D. Comics' fun list of tweets that could have been written by scientists from the past. Enjoy and share some of your own!  Historical Science Tweets 

Ever wonder what happens to water wrung out in space? Two Nova Scotia high school students, Kendra Lemke and Meredith Faulkner, sent an experiment to the Canadian Space Agency asking this question. Astronaut Chris Hadfield tested it out on the International Space Station. The results are weird and amazing. Surface tension makes the water behave very strangely. Check it out! 

Drug Discovery and Development

Finding new ways to treat illness is big business. It takes thousands of tests and millions of $ to figure out if a compound is effective. 

Then, researchers must discover whether there are any side effects. If there are, how bad are they? Will a person get back aches, grow hair in their ears, or experience life threatening side effects (i.e., the treatment is worse than the illness/disease)?

In April, I will be looking at clinical trials and drug discovery. there is a lot of information about this critical tool in the health improvement arsenal. To get started, check out the Nature articles dealing with this subject.

Can You Hear Me Now?

 Hearing is an amazing biological and physical process. The average human can hear in the range of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz (kHz). Normal adult hearing usually cuts off between 10-12 kHz, while children and teenagers can hear into the "mosquito" range of 14-18 kHz. 

How do we compare to other creatures? A dog's hearing depends on its breed and age, but dogs can generally hear in the range of 40 Hz to 60 kHz, while bottlenose dolphins hear tones within the frequency range of 1 to 150 kHz. Wow!

Most bats need super sensitive hearing to make up for their poor eyesight particularly when hunting insects. Their hearing range is between 20 Hz and 120,000 Hz. A bat makes a very loud, short sound and assesses the echo when it bounces back. They use this echolocation to navigate and find food.

So next time you're surprised when something swoops down near you (e.g., mosquito, bat, etc.) remember, it was probably making sounds long before it arrived, you just couldn't hear them.

I haven't posted in a while because I was thinking the blog would soon be incorporated into my author website, but there is still tweaking to be done. 

It isn't easy to find just the right combination of resources, ideas, formatting and aesthetics for a website focused on science and writing. 

Let me know what parts of a website best meet your needs. This is all new territory for me even though I've been reading a ton of online articles about social media, websites, and blogs. 

Truthfully, I'd rather focus on science and let the other take care of itself. That's probably what the users of the first telephones and computers said. It's a good thing forward thinking inventors, scientists, and engineers kept digging deeper. Materials science and communications are progressing at an amazing clip. Go science!

New Website in the Works

A heads up. My author website has changed. the plan is to incorporate this blog into it. There is still a lot to be done, but take a look at the layout and give me your thoughts. I know it needs pictures and we are getting there, but the connectivity should be improved. 

I look forward to sharing a whole lot more science with you! See you at Science cafe!

Tell Me When It's Over

I'm finally recovering from the flu after 2 weeks of supporting the tissue companies single handedly. Did the flu shot miss the mark this year? According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) they did and they didn't. Clear? 

Flu viruses are always changing so it's not unusual for new flu viruses to show up. Read how flu viruses change.

So when will flu season be over? The CDC says flu activity can start as early as October and continue into May. The 2011-2012 season started late and ended early. 

Not the case for flu 2012-2013. To quote CDC experts, "It is not possible to predict when the season will peak or how severe the 2012-2013 season will be, but based on past experience, it’s likely that flu activity will continue for some time."

In other words, they have no idea. I suggest stocking up on tissues, resting, and keeping the honey and lemon handy.

Good luck and if you already have the flu, feel better!

Cooking Increases Brain Size

A new study reported in the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers new thoughts that cooking food made it possible for early humans to develop larger brains. The cooked food was easier to digest and made it possible for more nutrients to be available to brain cells.

Scientists have long believed there is a trade off between body size and brain cells since the brain needs about 20% of the body's total resting metabolic energy (although it's only about 2% of the body's weight.) So there just wasn't enough time in a day to gather and take in enough raw nutrients for early humans.

Hmm...food for thought when you're sitting and watching the Super Bowl game with all the cooked and snack food at your fingertips. Will bigger brains win out?

Glowing Jello

Sometimes science is just fun and silly. I recently saw a video of blue glowing jello and had to check it out. It turns out, one of the added ingredients fluoresces under a black light and is perfectly safe to eat. This would really be fun for birthday parties or Halloween. It's simple. The video shows how to do it. Go Science!

Neolithic Dentistry

Guess what?! Even very early humans had to visit the dentist. But instead of silver amalgam or ceramic fillings, they took a more organic approach. They used beeswax to fill cracks or cavities in the enamel (see tooth at right).


The Neolithic jawbone, first found in a cave in Slovenia in 1911, was recently tested with radiocarbon analysis. Italian researchers found that both the tooth and the beeswax were 6,500 years old. For more information on this find, check out the research article. I wonder if Neolithic celebrities whitened their teeth...

The Fingerprint of Stars

Did you know PhD Comics now does educational videos in a comic book format? They are simple to understand and boil the science down to the essentials. 

The latest PhD video is the Fingerprint of Stars. It describes the makeup, temperature, and light spectrum profile of stars. A little over eight minutes, it is well worth a viewing. Enjoy!

Oceans on Mars

Mars with oceans

Writing fiction always stirs my imagination to come up with "what if" scenarios. To develop characters with depth, you have to challenge them. It's what makes a story interesting. 

What about alien geography and fictional locations? What if Mars had oceans? What would it look like? Would it be a sister planet to Earth or vastly different? 

Here is an artist's idea of what Mars would look like with global oceans. 

The bottom image shows water ice on the Martian surface.  It has been seen by scientists on Earth to change with the seasons. 

You don't have to imagine it. It's fact! They also know that oceans used to exist on the surface a long time ago. They were much more acidic than oceans on our planet. 

What kinds of life might have existed on Mars then? Can you imagine Martian tadpoles? Cockroaches? Sea horses? 

Sometimes science and science fiction are not that far apart. Fun to think about. 

Science Reality from 2012

In 2012, a lot of imagined (previously science fiction) science became reality. Everything from robots and stronger-than-steel silk was announced. Even a better invisibility cloak made an appearance. Learn more about these and over 25 other science advancements at http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/27-science-fictions-that-became-science-facts-in-2. 
I don't know about you, but this exciting news makes me look forward to 2013 with even more enthusiasm. Here's to great science! Happy New Year!