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!