Get Your Science (and STEM) On!

I believe that scientists and engineers are very creative people. There is logic involved in the scientific method, but that creative spark or "aha!" moment often sets someone down a path of amazing discovery and innovation. 

So, to honor my creative/science self and have a ton of fun too, I created an Amazon Merch account for STEM t-shirts. Amazon lets you search by  key words. Some of mine are: science, Semper Sci, engineering, Latin, Carpe ipsum, physics, nature, inventor, and earth. 

I also created a science t-shirt Pinterest board. If you are looking to celebrate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), as well as famous scientists, inventors, Earth Day, the Physics of Love, and more, check it out!

For March, I created a St. Patrick's Day t-shirt celebrating, Samuel O'Reilly, Irish Inventor who created the first electric tattoo machine. Who knew?!  In the future, I hope to highlight inventors from lots of different countries around the world. Go science!

New Antibiotic from Soil Bacteria

Just when parents are busy keeping toddlers out of the dirt, scientists find a previously unknown soil bacteria that makes a powerful Gram-positive bacteria-targeting antibiotic. It turns out that it kills bad players like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Wahoo! Staph was definitely getting out of hand so this is good news!

The new bacterium, called teixobactin, lives in the soil and can't be grown in the lab using common methods. However researchers, Lewis and Slava Epstein, came up with an innovative technique where a soil sample is diluted with agar and suspended in a chamber surrounded by a semi-permeable membrane. Their results were published on January 7th in Nature.

This unique growth method allows the bacterium to grown more like it does in nature and allows a level of biodiversity that is missing in current culture methods. The antibiotic has not yet been proven to kill bacterial infection in humans, but assuming it works after more testing, “a drug like this must be reserved for serious diseases and not given to general practitioners to spread around like aspirin." 

“The rate of evolution of large-scale resistance will depend on the dosage and frequency of [the antibiotic’s use],” added Princeton microbiologist Julia Bos.

So with quiet optimism things are looking up in the fight against infection...if we are careful. 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!) 

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.

Pinterest for Science

If you're like me, adding another social media program to an already full plate is daunting. But, I'm a visually oriented science geek and Pinterest feeds my need for the latest science images/links and allows me to SAVE them. So I justify the hours I spend on Pinterest as getting organized!

It's fun and something I've come to look forward to. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm way ahead of the curve in keeping up with science, photography, writing, humor, cooking, etc. Plus, I get to exchange favorite wow moments with the ease of a "pin". Here is a link to my science and nature board. http://pinterest.com/sciwhisperer/science/
Send me your favorites. I can hardly wait!

To Quote A Physicist

"An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature and a measurement is the recording of Nature's answer." Max Planck


Planck discovered quantum physics and earned the Nobel prize. One of his sons was executed for his part in the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in 1944. Interesting family!