- 8 new species found in sealed cave (Yahoo!)
- Home drugs too easy to misuse (Guardian)
- The ecosystem in our gut (MSNBC)
- The somersaults of Saturn's moon (ABC)
- Chocolate is powerful stuff (New Sci)
« April 2006 | Main | June 2006 »
All about proportions and mental arithmetic and really big snacks
Our science brief should stop me posting things like this. I really did try to think of a science reason to post a link to this ace website called Pimp My Snack, and almost came up with one about proportions, and maths, and mental arithmetic etc. But it was spurious so I'm just going to link to the website anyway. It's funny.
It takes the style of MTV show Pimp My Ride, and features attempts to scale up well known everyday snacks. Creating, for example, the King Rolo, Juggernaut Yorkie, Biglet, and a Giant Babybel. My favourite though has to be Jaffazilla complete with smashing orangey bit... The picture above features one of the intermediate stages, analysis of components. They're all really funny but I confess they did leave me wondering why these people had so much time on their hands...
Science newsflash 31.5.2006
- Listen to Mona Lisa (MSNBC)
- When the arctic was tropical (BBC)
- The Noah's Ark of seeds (ABC)
- Ozone implicated in heart disease (Sci Am)
- Hobbits were skilled with tools (Reuters)
Good week / bad week
Good week for ... Canadians. They're healthier than Americans (says Yahoo!). Well done my Canadian friends. Keep up the good work.
Bad week for ... Britons. We are downloading porn in record numbers (says The Sun). Oh dear. How embarassing.
Pushing up the fungi
Kicked the bucket, given up the ghost, shuffled off this mortal coil, pushing up the daisies. All ghoulish euphemisms for death. But scientists have found that the last one might be inaccurate as well as a bit grim. When bodies decompose, they push up fungi, not daisies.
Ever heard of Eurotium chevalieri, Eurotium repens or Gliocladium? Me neither till now. They're all types of fungi that typically grow on decomposing corpses. Studying the 'behaviour' of dead bodies isn't that new. They've been doing it at the Body Farm in Knoxville, Tennessee for a good few years. At this facility bodies are placed in various conditions and left to rot and then studied. This is all meant to help crime scene investigators (the farm has actually featured in CSI and inspired a Patricia Cornwell book), and is more about identification of bodies and modes of death than science. This new piece of research, to be published in the journal Legal Medicine, represents "the first to describe in detail species of fungi obtained from human corpses." Clearly, it's useful work, but I'm glad someone else is doing it, not me!
By the way, if you want to donate your body to the Body Farm, here's an FAQ from the University of Knoxville. Word of warning, if you don't already live in Knoxville you'll have to cover the costs of transportation yourself...
Via ABC Australia. (PHOTO: LEGLEY)
Grr! Arg!
I'M HOPING THEY'LL BE A BIT MORE REALISTIC THAN THESE GUYS... (PHOTO: PAT SWAN)
At the end of June, a new exhibition is going to open at the Natural History Museum and I just can't wait. Animatronic dinosaurs, people. It's called Dino Jaws and it promises to be a bit of alright. From the NHM's website...
Feast on a world of devouring dinosaurs and come face to face with ten of the most incredibly lifelike moving dinosaurs ever created, in our spectacular new family blockbuster, opening this summer.
From the flesh-eating T. rex to the plant-munching Iguanodon experience at first hand what these awesome creatures ate for dinner. Get to grips with jaws, claws, guts and even poo using exciting hands-on activities to unearth the sometimes gruesome, often disgusting, subject of dinosaurs and their food.
Yes please. Apart from the poo. Not so sure about that bit. And to keep you occupied til it opens on June 30th, find out what sort of dinosaur you are. I am a Cryolophosaurus. It is a medium sized, social, carnivorous creature. Sounds about right.
Science newsflash 29.5.2006
- How to make an invisibility cloak (MSNBC)
- Bacteria in your gut makes you fat (Nature)
- Poison ivy likes a warmer globe (ABC)
- Mice flout laws of genetics (BBC)
- Volcano lake changes colour (Yahoo!)
Celebrating the pest in us all
The First International Arts Pestival, "celebrating insects in art, and the art of being an insect" (genius!), is underway over at the London Wetland Centre until June 4th. Festivities include talks, art, installations, music, beats, and film. Hottie behind The Ecologist, Zac Goldsmith is the event's patron.
You learn all sorts of stuff simply by perusing the website so just imagine what you'll get from going in person. For example, did you know that Saul Bass, the uber hip artist who did Hitchcock's best title sequences also put together an eco science fiction film called Phase IV? Yeah. And there's loads more. Like: The Insect Circus (methinks they are our pesty twin separated at birth). There will be maggot races (!), pestival yoga (!! I'm imagining preying mantis poses and caterpillar slo-mo crawls), and a rainforest yurt (!!!).
If you're in London go go go go. If not, get your vicarious thrills from the pestival flickr streams by salimfadhley and Mark Pilkington.
OUR LONG LOST COUSINS: THE INSECT CIRCUS & MUSEUM (PHOTO: SALIM FADHLEY)
Glory be to Bridget Nicholls & Mark Pilkington, the tech savvy creative and passionate geniuses behind this gig. You guys simply rock.
Electric Vacuum Marinator
It kind of, um, speaks for itself, doesn't it? Electric. Vacuum. Marinator. Supposedly the vacuum, like, opens up fibers (??) and allows the infusion of, like, LOADS of flavour in just 10 minutes. The barrel even rotates automatically for thorough coating. Similar quality marinating WITHOUT vacuum would take like DAYS. And then there's that thing about leaving your meat around for days. It's a new modern essential. And only like $199.95 from Williams-Sonoma. Happy barbeque season.
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