CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-12 12:20:27 (64 comments, 97 reshares, 267 +1s)

Roses are Red, Blood Cells Blue

❤ The heart is a symbol of love, and on this Mother's Day, let's consider the cardiovascular changes in a pregnant mother. As the sole provider of nourishment to the baby, the mother's cardiac output (blood volume) increases by 50% during pregnancy...that's an extra liter and half. Her heart will enlarge and beat faster, by about 15 beats/min. The growing fetus pushes her heart upwards and to the left. She will need more red blood cells to carry extra oxygen, although the increased numbers do not keep up with the blood volume. The higher requirement for iron and the dilution of red cells in blood can make mama-to-be tired and anemic.

❤ A pregnant woman is hypercoagulable: more likely to form clots. This is thought to be an evolutionary precaution against hemorrhaging after delivery, but it puts the motherat ... more »

2013-05-07 22:33:52 (52 comments, 16 reshares, 111 +1s)

Hair-Raising Science

Need a lush mustache? Cosmetic surgeons in Turkey now offer mustache transplants so you can channel your inner Tom Selleck. Performed under local anesthetic, the surgery takes five hours and costs up to $5,000. A leading surgeon from Istanbul's Beverly Hills says, "The mustache is making a comeback. If a man's mustache doesn't grow, he wants to know he can have one as a mark of masculinity". For the full story ▶ http://goo.gl/3Q450

For the Follicly Challenged: Serendipitous science has stumbled on some solutions. For example, the hair loss drug Minoxidil was being used to treat high blood pressure  when it was discovered that patients were growing unusual amounts of hair. Similarly, UCLA researchers experimenting with stress-induced bald mice injected them with the compound Astressin B (a blocker ofco... more »

2013-05-01 10:41:34 (46 comments, 106 reshares, 157 +1s)

A Boy and His Atom

⚛ How do you make the world's smallest movie? By moving atoms, one at a time. Certified by the Guinness Book of World Records, this stop motion animation made by IBM nanophysicists only lasts 60 seconds and shows a tiny atomic "boy" jumping on an atomic trampoline and playing with his ball atom, magnified 100 million times. It took 242 frames, each made by a scanning tunneling microscope that weighs 2 tons and operates at -268 degrees Celsius (or 450.5 degrees below zero on the Fahrenheit scale). A needle comes within 1 nanometer of each atom (actually diatomic carbon monoxide), grabs and drags it across the surface of a tiny chip to a new location..you can hear the dragging sound in the "behind the scenes" movie.

⚛ Why was this movie made? According to Moore's Law, chip performance doubles every 18 months, as theind... more »

2013-04-27 21:33:57 (60 comments, 17 reshares, 149 +1s)

Test Driving a Tagine

• Tagine. The very word conjured up a magical mirage of Marrakesh and Casablanca, dashing Berbers and belly dancers, hookahs and saffron-laced spicy stews.  I gazed at the overpriced albeit charming hand painted glazed clay artifact in the Williams Sonoma store, and in a fit of self-indulgence, bought it. My children were less impressed. “It’s a pot”, explained the world weary, newly minted college graduate. The beatnik teenager sniffed the air hopefully, “Mom bought pot?”

• Online, opinions and advice flew in, fast and furious. You’ll need a heat diffuser for the stove top. Don’t place it in a preheated oven. You have to temper it first. Just use it as a serving dish. The clay will leach heavy metals. Never wash it until completely cooled. Intimidated, but determined, I applied the same (lack of) logic I use to call upon divine spiritsto bless our labor... more »

2013-04-21 10:53:03 (45 comments, 75 reshares, 183 +1s)

The Brain on Art

◑ Art and Science combine in the incipient field of Neuroaesthetics. In 1900, Alois Riegl argued that art is completed by the perceptual and emotional involvement of the viewer. This view aligned art history with psychology. It followed that a work of art is inherently ambiguous and each person who sees it has a different interpretation. Your brain is a creativity machine that obtains incomplete information from the outside world and completes it.

◓ Some of this creative process has a structural basis, driven by the way the brain develops. Thus, the ability to be aesthetically moved is universal and common brain areas are activated across all humans. Other areas light up differently, reflecting the wide variety of emotional states associated with viewing art.

◉ Assessing Aesthetics:  In one experiment, Oxford Universityresear... more »

2013-04-14 13:30:38 (129 comments, 136 reshares, 448 +1s)

Toxoplasma: Cats, Rats and Mind Hacks

Bizarre and Beautiful: More than a third of the world's population is infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. We pick it up from uncooked meat or from changing a cat's litter box. Although apparently harmless to healthy adults, "Toxo" is dangerous to the human fetus and to immuno-compromised people. This is why pregnant women and people with vulnerable immune systems are advised to avoid cats.

Mind Control: The parasite infects the limbic areas of the brain near the fear and sexual attraction regions. Because it carries a gene that codes for an enzyme crucial in dopamine production, it can alter levels of this neurotransmitter. Infected rats become oddly fearless of cats but not of anything else, making it likely that they end up in a cat's intestine, the only place where the parasite can reproduce!... more »

2013-04-11 21:55:39 (67 comments, 10 reshares, 182 +1s)

Spring

☼ Pictures from my spring garden (and bunny!), although we have leap-frogged into summer. The iris and azalea I shared last spring are not out yet ▶ http://goo.gl/sMmFU

"Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;
But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,
And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring
In triumph to the world the youthful spring.
The valleys, hills, and woods in rich array
Welcome the coming of the long'd-for May".

                                             - George GordonByron, Lord Byron (1788-1824)... more »

2013-04-06 16:06:48 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 42 +1s)

Added photos to African Food Cookalong.

2013-04-04 23:48:47 (39 comments, 40 reshares, 171 +1s)

Molecular Scissors: Restriction Enzymes

✄ Microbial Underworld: Imagine a cut throat, competitive underworld where intruders are efficiently decimated by a custom-made weapon that slashes right through their life lines. These ancient molecular scissors evolved in bacteria to defend against parasitic viruses, called 'phages. Better known as restriction endonucleases, these enzymes recognize a specific DNA sequence as their target. A short 6-8 letter sequence effectively marks the hapless victim for destruction. How does the host go unscathed? The same sequence is protected by a chemical modification (methylation) that makes it invisible to a veritable incarnation of Edward Scissorhands.

✄ Snip, Snip! The molecular scissors are named after the bacteria of origin. For example, Eco RI signifies that it was from the E. coli bacterium. Several thousand have beendis... more »

2013-04-03 23:00:41 (99 comments, 1 reshares, 194 +1s)

❤ Happy (birthday) HIRL ❤

A big thank you to all my friends, well-wishers and fellow incorrigibles for today's extravaganza. How awesome to have not one, but a double-superhero hashtag #Wolverine2WonderWomanHappyBD accompanied by a #punderstorm and trending of my favorite #ScienceEveryday .  

This began with a mysterious package. I came home to find it partly open.
Husband: The calendar you ordered has arrived
Me: I didn't order a calendar
Son: See, I told you it was from her G+ friends!

A few minutes later, my giggles over images of a moustachioed Freddie Mercury +Buddhini Samarasinghe trying to break free with a pipette,  Wonder Woman +Thomas Kang in drag, and variously exposed males ( Dan and Peter identities protected, you know who you are) force me to explain my (undeserved!) reputation as a connoisseur of men in kilts. Wasit my... more »

2013-04-01 13:38:47 (8 comments, 15 reshares, 71 +1s)

Decoding ENCODE

◑ Our HOA introduces you to the organization of our genome, from the structure of the gene to the relative abundance of coding vs non-coding DNA. Our panel of experts includes +Ian Bosdet and +Josh Witten along with the +ScienceSunday team of +Buddhini Samarasinghe, +Scott Lewis and myself (in a sari!) discussing the much publicized ENCODE project along with the controversy it has generated.

◑ Legoland: What do our genes have in common with Legos? Do we really have "junk" DNA? We try to avoid jargon and use simple diagrams to explain. If you have questions, I'm here to answer them. 

#ScienceEveryday  

2013-03-30 23:41:05 (31 comments, 45 reshares, 162 +1s)

Bio-Nanowires Conduct Electricity

▶ Imagine a conducting nanowire, only 3-5 nm wide but many thousand times longer, connecting a microbial community to form mini-power grids. Naturally occurring soil bacteria, such as Geobacter, use these conductive pili for long-range electron transport. How and why do they do this?

▶ All living organisms respire. Our cells break down sugars to obtain energy by extracting electrons that are handed down a relay chain to oxygen, which becomes water. The proteins (cytochromes) that conduct electrons are aided by special metallic centers, studded with iron, so they can cycle between Fe2+ (ferrous) and Fe3+ (ferric) states that differ by one electron. Geobacter uses these cytochromes too, just as our cells do. But oxygen only made its debut a mere 2.4 billion years ago. Before that, ancient bacteria shuttled the electrons tooth... more »

2013-03-30 18:03:14 (74 comments, 22 reshares, 161 +1s)

Biological Bullets

Viral Payload: A rhabdovirus may be 150,000 times smaller than a 9 mm bullet, but it is just as deadly. A single strand of RNA self-assembles with a helical array of proteins, viewed in this 3D animation set to Mozart's piano sonata in C-Major http://goo.gl/sRiwx. These viruses infect both plants and animals, and include the rabies causing virus that is transmitted to humans by bites. Watch a 3D model of a Rabies virus: http://goo.gl/z3Qx1

Silver Bullet? Researchers hope to exploit the cell-invading ability of viruses to destroy cancer cells. One favorite is the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) that infects horses and cattle, but causes only mild flu like symptoms in humans. Genetically crippled ("attenuated") forms of VSV are safer to use and preferentially infect cancer cells by exploiting their altered signaling pathways. These... more »

2013-03-21 23:17:39 (133 comments, 201 reshares, 677 +1s)

Down Syndrome Day

Today, 3/21, is World Down Syndrome Day. Also known as Trisomy 21, because it involves three copies of chromosome 21 instead of the usual two (see image), Down syndrome is the most complex of genetic disorders that is compatible with survival (other trisomies are more common, but are lethal). Even Down syndrome is associated with ~50% lethality of embryos. In the US, 1 in 691 babies is born with Down syndrome.

Too much of a good thing: Anywhere from 300 to 500 genes have altered levels and function, resulting 80 or 90 possible symptoms and an instantly recognizable phenotype (physical appearance). For example, patients have a 1 in 5 chance of developing a hole in the heart, compared to an incidence of 1:10,000 in the normal population. Down syndrome is extraordinarily complex, and my friend and colleague Roger Reeves has dedicated his career to... more »

2013-03-16 15:10:33 (67 comments, 50 reshares, 217 +1s)

Meet the Erythrocyte

◉ Red blood cells take up 45% of your blood volume and circulate about once in 20 seconds, carrying vital oxygen to every nook and cranny of your body. Did you know that ~2.4 million of these are produced each second? That's because they have a short life span of only about 120 days.

◉ Please squeeze me: The image shows a red blood cell squeezing through a tiny capillary: to accomplish this maneuver, the red cell sacrifices its nucleus and mitochondria to become a flexible, biconcave disk. In the inset, is a deformed red cell from a patient with sickle cell disease shown next to a normal cell. A single mutation in hemoglobin, the oxygen carrier of red blood cells, causes the proteins to clump giving the cells their characteristic sickle shape. The deformed cells block capillaries and burst more easily, surviving only 10-20day... more »

2013-03-15 23:11:22 (98 comments, 15 reshares, 283 +1s)

My Day on the Hill

This week, several hundred scientists - astronomers, chemists, biologists and engineers from across the nation, descended on Capitol Hill to lobby for science. We asked for sustained and predictable federal funds for scientific research. We voiced our worry that deep cuts in grants would destroy a generation of scientists: that research is not a faucet that can be turned on and off, because the well at the source dries up. We brought a personal face to the projects we were working on.

What did I learn? Our visit began with a briefing at the AAAS auditorium in Washington, DC. The Office of Science and Technology from the White House gave us the executive branch perspective by breaking down the budget into entitlements and discretionary spending, and showing us the thin slice of pie that went to Federal R&D. Then we got a Congressional perspective... more »

2013-03-11 13:31:38 (85 comments, 28 reshares, 182 +1s)

Evolution of a Species

▶ Assortive Mating: The diversity of lifeforms on our planet is central to evolution. But how do new species form? A key step is assortive mating, when individuals use physical or vocal cues to choose mates that resemble themselves. Perhaps natural selection favors offspring from similar matings. Eventually, the populations diverge genetically to the extent that the hybrids are unfit, and separate species emerge.

▶ Caught in the act? Take the curious case of the Australian Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae). There are black and red head color morphs (see image) that prefer to mate with like types. This preference is genetic, as chicks reared by foster parents of different type still prefer to mate with their own head color morph. In fact, the head color and mating preference are tightly linked on the sex chromosome Z (males are ZZand... more »

2013-03-10 13:25:13 (61 comments, 24 reshares, 154 +1s)

Fun with Furans: Making Flat Bread with Fenugreek

• The first reports of a strangely seductive aroma wafting over Manhattan and nearby New Jersey began in 2005. People smelled maple syrup, which got them fantasizing over pancakes and waffles. No doubt, the local Denny’s did brisk business. But there were enough calls to 311 to set the authorities sniffing. It was not until 2009, after the Department of Environmental Protection analyzed dozens of air samples and computed wind routes, that Mayor Bloomberg announced the mysterious source: a spice factory in New Jersey that processed fenugreek.

• Sotolon, or more precisely 4,5-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-2[5H]-furanone, is an extremely strong aroma compound. In low concentrations, it smells like maple syrup, caramel or burnt sugar, and at high concentrations it evokes the smell of curry and spices. It is the majoraroma... more »

2013-03-07 13:09:22 (88 comments, 65 reshares, 291 +1s)

Eye See You

• Fish eyes continue to grow larger throughout their lives because of stem cells that are concentrated at the ends of the red arcs (nerve tissue) seen in this zebrafish eye. This allows the visual cells of the retina to be repaired and regenerated continuously. The retina is seen wrapped around the lens (green circle with black center) in this cross-section.

• The eye is really an outgrowth of the brain formed during embryo development. Take a look at the orange cells in the eyefield (inset A; ef) pushed to form two lateral bulges by the advancing midline (A-B; blue).

• Humans (and other mammals) lack stem cells in the adult eye although research is focusing on Müller cells, a type of glial cell that may be able to regenerate neurons and photoreceptors lost to disease and injury.

Image source:http:/... more »

2013-03-06 14:47:38 (47 comments, 49 reshares, 146 +1s)

How to Build a Plant

• Did you know that a plant embryo has a heart stage?

• As in animals, a fully functional plant is built from a single cell. After the first set of divisions, the 8 cells (octant) are already distinguished into upper and lower halves that will become the shoot and root.

• Next, each cell divides tangential to the surface to separate into outer and inner layers (globular stage). The cells near the base elongate, while those near the top divide horizontally to form a triangle, and then a heart shape. The furrow in the heart deepens to form a torpedo, which eventually unfurls to form the first leaves (cotyledons) of the seedling.

• The evolution of multicellular organisms occurred many times and independently, in plants, animals, algae and fungi. The switch from a solitary existence to a communityof cell... more »

2013-03-16 17:22:26 (102 comments, 49 reshares, 169 +1s)

Fat Cell

Meet the adipocyte or fat cell, the first in an occasional series of #excyting cell types. Each cell, marked by the blue nucleus, is loaded with fat droplets stained in green. 

▶ Why we need fat: Adipocytes have three important jobs: they store energy in the form of fat, they secrete hormones and they respond to insulin to meet the immediate energy needs of our bodies. Obese people who carry out these three functions are metabolically healthy and actually have 38% lower mortality risk. If fat is stored elsewhere, it leads to metabolic disease.

▶ Good fat, bad fat, white fat, brown fat: Not all fat cells are equal. While white fat stores energy, brown fat burns energy to produce heat. Babies and hibernating animals use brown fat to keep warm. The brown color comes from being packed with iron-rich mitochondria. In brown fat,thes... more »

2013-02-23 18:24:34 (111 comments, 305 reshares, 278 +1s)

Chameleon Catapult

Chameleons are among the slowest moving reptiles. But their protruding eyes swivel independently for a 360 degree range, so they can look for prey in different directions at the same time. When a hapless insect victim is detected, both eyes focus on it to judge range and distance with superb accuracy. 

• Ballistic Brilliance! The chameleon then launches its tongue, which is 1.5 times its body length, at speeds of 26 body lengths per second. That works out to 13.4 miles per hour or 6 meters per second . The initial acceleration is enormous: 500 m s−2 or 51g. For comparison, the space shuttle launches at 3g and humans pass out at accelerations approaching 10g. It takes less than a tenth of a second for the chameleon to snag its prey!

• Corkscrew Collagen: This impressive performance exceeds the capability of any muscle in biologyby an ... more »

2013-02-15 04:33:18 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 53 +1s)

Join us for another Science HOA, brought to you by +ScienceSunday as we talk to Dr +Michael Habib about paleontology! Michael is a paleontologist and anatomist working in the fields of functional morphology and biomechanics. He is most well known for his work on extinct flying vertebrates, especially giant pterosaurs.  We will be discussing the evolution of animal motion and the use of animal morphology and behavior to inspire new technologies. He will also show us some fossil samples during the HOA! If you have any questions for Michael please leave them on the Event page as always.

+Buddhini Samarasinghe (+ScienceSunday) and +Scott Lewis (+CosmoQuest) will be hosting this event.

Image: John Conway, used with permission (http://johnconway.co/)

#SciSunHOA

2013-02-15 03:32:22 (94 comments, 10 reshares, 156 +1s)

Strawberry Scones and Civili-Tea: A Pragmatist’s Valentine

♡ A marriage made by matchmakers Ours is a pragmatic partnership. Social, economic and educational equity? Check. Common Genetic Pool? Yes, his grandmother and mine are cousins once removed. Horoscopes matched? Expeditiously ignored, unless the meeting does not go well in which case the alignment of stars will turn out to be sadly (but conveniently) out of synchrony.

♡ Tea's a Crowd It begins with an elaborately casual tea staged at my future in-law’s home: Eligible Bachelor #1 meets Nubile College Grad under four pairs of fondly hopeful parental eyes. Bachelor drops his teaspoon and is struck dumb. Bachelorette studiously ignores the handsome klutz and strikes up an animated discussion with groom-to-be’s father. Not an auspicious beginning. Considering that the chick will soon fly the coop(my ticket... more »

2013-02-10 15:23:18 (110 comments, 57 reshares, 184 +1s)

The Science of Sound
 
• Sounds of Laughter, Shades of Life The birds do it. The bees do it too and so do you. An amazing range of animals generate sound: pressure waves caused by displacing the medium in which they travel.
 
• Tiny Noisemaker You may think that's the screaming baby across the airplane aisle, but human speech is at a comfortable 60 dB. The decibel, named after Alexander Graham Bell, is logarithmic in scale: an increase of 10 dB is actually ten times as loud. Anything above 85 dB is dangerously painful and the loudest sound tolerated by the human ear is 120 dB.  The loudest animal is the sperm whale at an ear-splitting 236 dB! But the prize for the biggest bang for buck goes to the lesser water boatman: perhaps in protest of its diminutive size and name, it is the loudest animal for its body size (see graph; listen here:http:/... more »

2013-02-02 22:10:05 (208 comments, 264 reshares, 731 +1s)

The Cosmos: Macro versus Micro

☼ The images on the left are night views of brightly lit metropolitan cities taken from the International Space Station. On the right, are fluorescent images of neurons. Like a neuron, the city seems to have a cell body, branching dendrites and a main axon like highway extending out.

☼ The ancient Greeks of the Neo-Platonic school of philosophy saw  the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale (macrocosm or universe-level) all the way down to the smallest scale (microcosm or sub-sub-atomic or even metaphysical-level). In their philosophy, Man is in the middle.

☼ Did you know that the word cosmos (Greek, κόσμος) means "order" and is the conceptual opposite of "chaos"? In Mandarin Chinese, cosmos and universe are both translated as 宇宙 yǔzhòu, whichmeans "space-... more »

2013-01-31 13:34:22 (134 comments, 72 reshares, 212 +1s)

Soldier Gets a Rare Double Arm Transplant

Brendan Marrocco was on patrol in Iraq 3 years ago when an explosion claimed all four of his limbs. He was the first Army soldier to survive a quadruple amputation. Now, he is the first soldier to receive a very rare double arm transplant at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is 26 years old.

• Logistics: The surgeons practiced four times on cadavers before the real thing. There were 4 teams of 3 surgeons each: one for each arm from donor and recipient. The deceased donor and living recipient do not need to match in gender, but in size, skin color, tissue and blood type.

• How They Did it: First, the skin is peeled back and bones are sawed at an angle to dovetail into each other when attached  by metal plates- good carpentry, in essence. Next, the muscles and tendons are tagged with pieces of light blue sterileband... more »

2013-01-27 15:51:48 (77 comments, 301 reshares, 283 +1s)

Ode to Mitosis

Mitosis is a process
For One cell to become Two
There are Four distinct phases
Happening within You

First comes Prophase
The Chromatin strands condense
They now become visible
Through a microscope lens

Next comes Metaphase
The important Stage Two
Chromosomes attach to Spindle Fiber
Using Molecular Glue

Then comes Anaphase
It's really quite sad
Sister Chromatids separate
To opposite poles- too bad :(

Finally, it's Telophase
Nuclear membranes reform
Spindle fibers disperse
And Two new cells are born.

Poem: Playfully plagiarized, willfully altered and spell-checked from the original "reallygoodpoetry" at http://goo.gl/OVTvb

Images: Gifs from http://infinity-imagined.tumblr.com/page/4
Watch... more »

2013-01-25 23:21:53 (121 comments, 72 reshares, 158 +1s)

Scarecrows and Wreaths: Genetic Secrets of Efficient Food Crops
 
• Ancient plants, like rice, wheat and barley, originating in the Mesozoic and Paleozoic eras, still form 95% of the Earth’s plant biomass. They use an enzyme known as RuBisCo (the most abundant protein on the planet!) to fix atmospheric carbon dioxide on to a 5-carbon sugar (ribulose bis-phosphate) to make 2 molecules of a 3-carbon sugar that eventually becomes sucrose. This is the C3 pathway, but it's not too efficient: the enzyme RuBisCo also catalyzes a competing reaction called "photorespiration" that adds oxygen to the 5-carbon sugar making a byproduct that takes many tedious and expensive steps to convert back to the useful sugar. These plants can also lose 97% of the water absorbed by the roots through stomata or pores on the underside of the leaves. If they close their stomata, theylimi... more »

2013-01-19 00:55:21 (130 comments, 39 reshares, 151 +1s)

Cutest Protist: Love Actually..or Splitsville?

If you go down in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise. No, not the Teddy Bear's picnic. Giardiasis is a common and explosive form of diarrhea caused from drinking contaminated water from mountain streams and "clean water" sources, often during camping. Also known as Beaver Fever, wild animals and pets can get the runs too.  Giardia lamblia is wonderfully weird: 

• First described in 1681 by Antony van Leeuwenhoek who examined his own diarrhea under a microscope and wrote, "I have sometimes also seen animalcules a-moving very prettily; some of ‘em a bit bigger, others a bit less, than a blood globule... furnisht with sundry little paws, where with they made such a stir".

• Despite the heart-shape in the left image, Giardia lacks a love life and reproduces onlyasexuall... more »

2013-01-14 23:51:46 (198 comments, 117 reshares, 358 +1s)

Panspermia: Hoax or Hope?

☼ Fire in the Sky: On December 29, 2012 a fireball exploded in the skies above Sri Lanka, followed by a meteorite that fell near the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. A sample was sent to the Buckingham Institute of Astrobiology and Cardiff University. Researchers now report in the Journal of Cosmology of finding fossils of diatoms enmeshed within the meteorite. Because of the way the microfossils were distributed within the rock, they rule out surface contamination.

☼ Panspermia (from the Greek "all" and "sperm") is the idea that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by meteoroids, asteroids and planetoids. So, is this compelling evidence of Panspermia or life in outer space?

☼ Red Rain: The researchers claim that the mysterious red rain that fell in the area within days of themeteo... more »

2013-01-12 19:03:32 (150 comments, 162 reshares, 181 +1s)

Gluten Be Gone: Synthetic Biology Solution for Celiac Disease

What is Celiac Disease? Celiac disease or gluten allergy comes from eating wheat, rye or barley. Most common in people of N. European descent, the symptoms include diarrhea, weight loss and an increased risk of cancer. 

Why is gluten allergenic? Gluten contains an unusual protein called alpha gliadin, which has many repeats of the amino acids Proline and Glutamine (PQ motifs) that are resistant to the digestive enzymes in our stomach. In some people, these PQ-rich fragments cause severe allergy and inflammation.  

Clinical trials: A natural bacterial enzyme from Sphingomonas capsulata that can break down PQ motifs is in clinical trials as an Oral Enzyme Therapeutic. But it works poorly in the acidic compartment of our stomach, and attempts to engineer it to become acidt... more »

2013-01-06 17:18:27 (154 comments, 188 reshares, 296 +1s)

The Genetics of Autism

Contrary to popular belief (and Jenny McCarthy), autism is the most genetic and inheritable of all neurodevelopmental disorders. Identical twins have >80% chance of shared diagnosis, versus a much lower ~10% chance in fraternal twins, a classic indication of underlying common genetic cause. 

What is autism? Classical autism is part of a broader group of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) characterized by (i) impaired social communication and interaction, (ii) absence or delay in language and (iii) restricted, repetitive behavior. These features vary hugely, from severe intellectual disability to mild personality traits. Intellectual delays occur in 30-60%, and 30% also suffer seizures. Current rates of diagnosis are 1 in 88 children. This is partly due to a broadening of the diagnosis but could also reflect impact of changing environment on genetic... more »

2013-01-04 17:40:25 (135 comments, 50 reshares, 168 +1s)

Shaken, Not Stirred: The Science behind Bond's Martini

Moderate alcohol consumption reduces risks of developing cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cataracts. As Mr Bond enjoys perennial robust health, scientists investigated whether the mode of preparing martinis has an influence on their antioxidant capacity.  Reporting in the British Medical Journal, they concluded that 007 was not only astute in matters of clandestine affairs both personal and international, he also had keen scientific and medical insights.

Anti-Aging Antioxidants: Wonder why 007 looks so young? Shaken martinis were more effective in deactivating hydrogen peroxide than the stirred variety, and both were more effective than gin or vermouth alone (0.072% of peroxide remaining for shaken martini, 0.157% for stirred vs. 58.3% for gin and 1.90% for vermouth). More data: http://goo.gl/N44xc
more »

2012-12-31 18:32:01 (122 comments, 78 reshares, 187 +1s)

The Physics of Champagne

Champagne is a multicomponent hydroalcoholic system supersaturated with dissolved CO2 gas molecules formed together with ethanol during the second fermentation process. 

Better Bubbles: Did you know that a bottle of champagne (0.75 L) holds about 10 g/L of dissolved CO2. When uncorked, this equals 9 L of gas (6 times the volume of the bottle!) which quickly escapes the supersaturated liquid to form a new thermodynamic equilibrium with air. The quality of champagne is determined by the fineness and abundance of effervescence: the bubbles tickle mechanoreceptors and taste buds in our mouth and carry volatile aromatics to our nose. 

Tradition vs. Science: In bars and restaurants, champagne is poured vertically to hit the bottom of the glass, providing a thick head of foam, which quickly extends up and then progressively collapsesd... more »

2012-12-27 00:34:27 (203 comments, 16 reshares, 188 +1s)

The Venial Vegetarian: Apologies to Asians

• I’ve never been able to get past the mental block of eating meat. I like to think that I’m logical enough that should I be stranded on a desert island with nothing to eat but cadavers, the will to live would rule supreme. I once proffered this opinion to an evangelistic vegetarian convert and she never spoke to me again. This pragmatism served me well on a recent trip to South Korea where the concept of vegetarianism is not exactly clear. “It’s just soybean”, +Thomas Kang assured me, as I spread the homogenized paste on a cabbage leaf and took a bite, “with only a bit of shrimp”. Oops, sorry! He was all apologies as he guided me to fried and battered zucchini rounds. I savored the humble vegetable with relief and reached for a second one. Too bad it was battered fish.

• What’s a vegetarian to do, but cook updecidedly unauthent... more »

2012-12-23 19:36:48 (87 comments, 66 reshares, 236 +1s)

Flowers that Fly: Science of the Butterfly Wing

Butterflies are beautiful: Their eggs rival Faberge’s for sheer art. The migration of the Monarch butterfly holds navigational secrets still beyond our ken. But the wings are truly remarkable for their mimicry, polymorphism (variation) and aposematism (warning coloration). Like tiny shingles on a roof, microscopic overlapping scales cover the wings with brilliant, iridescent colors.

Structural Coloration: Black and brown colors are from melanin, but the blues, greens and reds are created by the microstructure of the scales and not by pigments. Originally observed by Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton, the principle of wave interference was described by Thomas Young a century later. Surfaces scored with fine parallel lines or thin layers on the same scale as the wavelength of light reflect multiple sets of waves.T... more »

2012-12-18 14:23:12 (72 comments, 163 reshares, 223 +1s)

Give Me a Hand

☼ A quadriplegic woman, paralyzed from the neck down from a neurodegenerative disorder, was able to feed herself chocolate and give high-fives thanks to the most sophisticated prosthetic arm yet, with 7 degrees of freedom. Within the second day of training, she was able to perform basic tasks, with a 92% success rate of controlling the robotic arm. This study is the first to demonstrate feasibility of human brain implants to control an external device .

☼ Brain-Machine Interfaces convert brain signals into movement. The researchers first mapped the signals generated in the patient's brain when she thought of moving her arm and programmed the response of the prosthetic arm accordingly. Two small computer 4mm chips were implanted into the patient’s left motor cortex. The chips were 96 channel microchips designed to detect and recordsmall... more »

2012-12-16 17:50:51 (3 comments, 4 reshares, 25 +1s)

Ultimate Science Page Circle
Spice up your stream with this nice set of Science Pages!

Join the Science on Google+ Community: http://goo.gl/uhJCN
Applied and Mathematical Sciences: http://goo.gl/l0prd
Natural Sciences: http://goo.gl/t8ljm
Social Sciences and Communication: http://goo.gl/vqyNS

Add your Profile/Page to Science on Google+: A Public Database 
If you have a science related degree, you are a science journalist, you are a K-12 science teacher, or you curate a science page, then add your profile/page to the database by filling out this form (http://goo.gl/yEg7M). Please note that Profiles also have to circle +Science on Google+: A Public Database if you would like to be considered for shared circles .#scienceeveryday   #science   #publiccircles   #sharedcircles

2012-12-16 17:49:22 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 16 +1s)

Social Sciences and Communication
This circle will give you exposure to Anthropology, Economics, Linguistics, Philosophy, Psychology/Neuroscience, Sociology, and it also contains K- 12 Science Teachers and Science Writers.

Join the Science on Google+ Community: http://goo.gl/uhJCN
Applied and Mathematical Sciences: http://goo.gl/l0prd
Natural Sciences: http://goo.gl/t8ljm
Ultimate Science Page Circle: http://goo.gl/Gu1EX

Add your Profile/Page to Science on Google+: A Public Database 
If you have a science related degree, you are a science journalist, you are a K-12 science teacher, or you curate a science page, then add your profile/page to the database by filling out this form (http://goo.gl/yEg7M). Please note that Profiles also have to circle +Science on Google+: A Public Database if you would like to be considered for shared circles.... more »

2012-12-16 17:47:12 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 9 +1s)

Applied and Mathematical Sciences
This circle will give you exposure to Computer Science, Engineering, Maths, and Physics.

Join the Science on Google+ Community: http://goo.gl/uhJCN 
Natural Sciences: http://goo.gl/t8ljm
Social Sciences and Communication: http://goo.gl/vqyNS
Ultimate Science Page Circle: http://goo.gl/Gu1EX

Add your Profile/Page to Science on Google+: A Public Database 
If you have a science related degree, you are a science journalist, you are a K-12 science teacher, or you curate a science page, then add your profile/page to the database by filling out this form (http://goo.gl/yEg7M). Please note that Profiles also have to circle +Science on Google+: A Public Database if you would like to be considered for shared circles .#scienceeveryday   #science   #publiccircles   #sharedcircles

2012-12-16 17:45:56 (4 comments, 4 reshares, 17 +1s)

Natural Sciences
This circle will give you exposure to Astronomy, Biology, ​Chemistry, Ecology, ​​​​​Geography, Geology, and Neuroscience.

Join the Science on Google+ Community: http://goo.gl/uhJCN
Applied and Mathematical Sciences: http://goo.gl/l0prd
Social Sciences and Communication: http://goo.gl/vqyNS
Ultimate Science Page Circle: http://goo.gl/Gu1EX

Add your Profile/Page to Science on Google+: A Public Database 
If you have a science related degree, you are a science journalist, you are a K-12 science teacher, or you curate a science page, then add your profile/page to the database by filling out this form (http://goo.gl/yEg7M). Please note that Profiles also have to circle +Science on Google+: A Public Database if you would like to be considered for shared circles .#scienceeveryday   #science   #publiccircles   #sharedcircles... more »

2012-12-15 19:51:02 (158 comments, 26 reshares, 221 +1s)

From Protein Folding to Punjabi Pea Paneer

✿ Making fresh Indian cheese, or paneer, used to be a bit of a production in my home. My mother would start with not-so-fresh milk (why “waste” good milk, was her reasoning), bring it to a boil and then add lemon juice. In fascination, I watched the rapid separation of flocculant white curd from transparently greenish whey. That was my first encounter with the biochemistry of protein denaturation, although I would go on to ruin perfectly good batches of enzymes during my graduate career.

✿ Proteins must be folded properly – into elegant ribbons, twisted helices, graceful loops and tight turns – not only to function properly but also to stay in solution (image 2). Too much heat, salt, acid or any number of adverse conditions cause proteins to unfold just enough to get their sticky inside parts to glomtogether. I... more »

2012-12-13 18:32:22 (73 comments, 168 reshares, 227 +1s)

Precious Purses:  Who is the Artist?

☼ Caddisflies are common insects of the order Trichopterae resembling butterflies. The larvae build protective tubes held together with silk, often incorporating grains of sand, bits of shell and twigs from their aquatic environment. Artist Hubert Duprat wondered what would happen if he upgraded their raw material with gold shavings, pearls and turquoise. The larvae obliged by creating beautiful art!

☼ In this collaborative project between the insects and the artist, the lines between the craftsman and the creator are blurred. Is the insect the true artist, or merely the executer of Duprat's creative expression? 

#ScienceEveryday   
Watch: Caddis Fly Larva Art More: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/25/duprat.php

2012-12-07 01:59:26 (49 comments, 12 reshares, 52 +1s)

Community of Science

Join the Community for #ScienceSunday and #ScienceEveryday .

Brought to you by the curators of +ScienceSunday (+Allison Sekuler , +Robby Bowles , +Buddhini Samarasinghe , +Chad Haney , and +Rajini Rao ).

2012-12-04 11:44:20 (44 comments, 21 reshares, 87 +1s)

Krypton Located Orbiting Rao

What can be more awesome than Science superhero Neil deGrasse Tyson teaming up with Superman to find Krypton, just in time to watch it explode, while it orbits around a red dwarf star named...Rao? That's the plot of the new DC Comics Action Comic #14. Turns out that Superman has been hanging around the Hayden Planetarium in NYC, hoping to catch the dying throes of his home planet Krypton. The light from the planet is only just reaching earth, as it is 27 light years away. The baby Superman, of course, made use of a handy worm hole and got here instantly.

DeGrasse Tyson, who cameos in the comic, finds just the right star to fit the bill: LHS 2520 is located in the constellation Corvus — 27.1 light-years from Earth. With a highly turbulent surface, it is but a dim bulb, much cooler and smaller than the sun. Our hero Tysonc... more »

2012-12-01 20:16:34 (93 comments, 8 reshares, 106 +1s)

The Guilty Baker: Orange-Cranberry Mini Muffins

✿ Procrastination inspires industrious bouts of housecleaning, and guilt brings out the baker in me.  I had been flying solo all week, while my husband basked in Florida on some pretext of simulating NASA satellite software (why couldn’t the tests be run in good old Maryland?). By Thursday, I had run ragged with the stress of haranguing my 14 year old out the door and into the school bus by 6:22 am. Dinner degenerated into nachos and guacamole.

✿ Sharp pangs of guilt (or was it hunger?) gnawed at my maternal conscience as I dawdled over my morning coffee.  When I came across  +claudia lamascolo 's recipe for orange muffins, I decided to face that burden head on. By 8:30 am, a dozen of these little delights were bagged and bound for the lab, while the house smelled of sugar and spice and all things nice. Welcomeback, ho... more »

2012-11-29 02:49:31 (154 comments, 318 reshares, 242 +1s)

Chemis-Tea

• The Science of Tea: For 4,700 years, this infusion from the tender leaves of Camellia sinensis has been delivering a cupful of healthy antioxidants and good cheer. Did you know that tea is the most widely consumed beverage, after water? To celebrate the birthday of +Siromi Samarasinghe , who has a PhD in tea chemistry, here is some chemis-tea.

•  Caffeine : Did you know that weight for weight, dry tea has more caffeine than coffee? But because more coffee is used per cup than tea, brewed tea has significantly less caffeine (~90 mg/250 ml).

• L-Theanine: A rare amino acid (γ-glutamylethylamide), found almost exclusively in tea, it has a calming effect on the brain. Theanine suppresses the stimulation by caffeine of brain excitability, reduces blood pressure and protects against neuronal cell death.  It is a structural analogof gluta... more »

2012-11-28 15:47:32 (92 comments, 4 reshares, 65 +1s)

An Evolutionary Marvel

• Although birthday girl +Kimberly Chapman will think of +Hugh Jackman,  I must reluctantly clarify that the title refers to the Y chromosome. Yes, that stump of chromosomal appendage endowed with the SRY gene (http://goo.gl/829he). So why the change of heart?

• Alpha Male: Because the Y chromosome carries much less variation than any other chromosome, it was theorized that only a few alpha males (one male for every four females) passed on their genes. This would mean that men have fewer ancestors than women. How does one test this theory?

• Not so skewed: Scientists looked at genetic variations in eight African and eight European men. Then they ran computer simulations with various models of skewed ratios of reproducing males to females over hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. The best fit of data was fourfemale... more »

2012-11-27 12:12:32 (87 comments, 34 reshares, 107 +1s)

Beauty is Skin Deep

◐ What is the largest organ in your body? Not your brain, heart or ..would you have guessed skin? Weighing in at ~3.5 kg, with an area of 2 square meters, your skin accounts for 16% of body weight. About 11 miles of blood vessels and 45 miles of nerves travel through the dermis! 

◐ Love the Skin You're In: Of your 300 million skin cells, roughly 40,000 are shed every minute. This adds up to ~4 kg/year. The good news is that if you don't like the skin you're in, you'll have a new one in 4 weeks. 

◐ Don't be Squamish: Skin is layered on as polygonal cells tightly connected into a sheet, known as squamous epithelium. The left image shows the typical cobblestone pattern, with nuclei in blue. 

◐ Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Mammals have a lot of hair, up to 100,000  follicles onour head. T... more »