Rock Star Scientist Update

Black hearted necromancer Brian Cox played keyboards with D:Ream. (What is it with these physic bods called Brian?)

That's a solid gold rock star scientist FACT!

Mexican Lemons prevent road death: that's a solid gold fact

Solid gold factarama: graphs never lie. Not ever.

Answers in Genesis... the journal!

http://www.answersingenesis.org/arj [via badscience.net]

The articles that are up at the moment do appear to be lacking in references to other (non-crazy talk) papers.

On the plus side, it does appear to be open access...

Evolution proved to be just plain wrong

The evidence is overwhelming. [via b3ta.com]

Paper space plane

I know this prime fodder for the achingly hip life-style geek blogs, but check this out: http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/01/origami-spaceplane-to-launch-from-space-station/

If anyone wants to do the maths in order to calculate how fast this thing is going to get as it enters the atmosphere, then feel free to add it to the comments. Though I'm not sure this will be possible, what without knowing the weight of the thing and all. Erm, terminal velocity, how does that work again? Blasted physics...

The usual "get a proper job, this is a waste of money" twunts are making themselves known in the comments of the above link. As if all the knowledge learnt by the development, design and manufactuing of the "paper" plane will then be instantly forgotten and never used in anything they, the self imposed auditors of worth, deem useful.

I make top ten

Improbably, some thing I wrote has made a top ten of 2007 list.
http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/science/strange-but-true/item/top_ten_null_articles_2007

I think it's singificant that it was the first thing I ever wrote for them: beginners luck and all that.

Science Singles: Back once again

Yep, it's back .



Let's see what sciencey pop songs I've missed while I was stuck in a hole writing up.


Kaiser Chiefs - "Love's Not A Competition (but I'm winning)"




Science?: If one takes the rather unromantic and reductionist view that the concept of romantic love is nothing but the complex manifestation of basic mating urges combined with a strong pair bonding instinct, then love is indeed a competition. Many animals compete to win a mate, or to win valuable access to favourable mating grounds. From stag beetles to elephant seals, they're all at it. Zoologists consider the successful males those that have their share of successful copulations with fecund females, resulting in the birth of progeny. Is Ricky Kaiser Chiefs winning? Wikipedia no mention of Ricky Wilson having successfully copulated with a fecund females resulting the birth of progeny. Therefore, this hard boiled Darwinian blog considers him not a winner, but a loser.

What's it like?: When I first heard this I was convinced it was a cover of some 80s tune by Duran Duran or some such (apparently it's not). That should act as all the review you need.

Pendulum - "Granite"

Science?: Pendulums are part of a bit of science known as "Physics". This type of science, considered by many to be a dark art practised by black hearted necromancers, is so obtuse and arcane that no mortal can understand its ways without first going mad. The diagram below showing the key components of a pendulum clearly demonstrates this, as each elements sounds as if it belongs in a piece of gritty social realism theatre about life in a 1960s prison rather than a weight swinging about on a piece of string.

What's it like?: Granite is a common type of igneous rock, and this tune most certainly does (rock that is, not igneous. This tune igneouses would make no sense). It manages to achieve sounding great, whilst simultaneously sounding like a late 1990s dance remix of a slightly gothic metal song. Quite how this is done without sounding shite is a mystery only bettered by that of physics. Also there are X-Files-esque aliens in the video, which earns extra geek points and make me slightly scared. Well done.

Not science but....

I know this isn't science, but xkcd is ace.

An excuse to pompous

This may just be the delirium setting in, but I'm really enjoying writing the discussion of my thesis. I get to write such wonderfully pompous wank as: "I would therefore suggest that initially the cartilage and the ossified process are a highly integrated, but separate pair of developmental units. As development proceeds though to the post natal period, this integration becomes so great that they effectively function as one unit. "

[in a Stephen Fry in Blackadder stylee] baaaaahhh!

I think my typo in the last post was a Freudian slip though. I doomed.

T minus 13 days and...

... and actually things are going scarcely well.

I've done the bulk of the writing, having done an rubbish introduction, and four ok results chapters. My figures were pretty much done as I went along, there's no stats to do thanks to my mickey mouse subject (whoop whoop!), and my supervisor is being super helpful in reading what I've done.
All I have to do is write the general discussion, add a few sections to the intro, collate it all in to one document (which doesn't look all that painful), do the references, format the bugger, bind and submit. Hmm, doesn't sound like a small amount now I've put it like that.

It's all been going too well. I'm sure some disaster is about to befall me. Not least from the examinations office, who I have to convince to let me submit before I said I would on all the stupid forms.

How not to go about writing you PhD thesis

I've done what is perhaps a very silly thing. I've accepted a post-doc position which starts on the the 12th of November. It is today the 22nd of October. I have yet to finish my thesis. In truth, I had yet to start writing my thesis in earnest before last Tuesday. It is a condition of my starting the post-doc that I have submitted my thesis.

Fucknuts.

I've managed to wrangle them to let me start if I've finished the writing, allowing a couple of weeks for proof reading and binding. Over the next three weeks there will be no poorly wirtten things about science, and there won' t be any Science Singles, but there may well be the incomprehensible twitterings of an inceasingly more desparate writing up student.

I'll see you on the other side.

Big Up Pinball Number Count

Science singles will wait this week, too much writing of thesis to do.
In the mean time I want to big up this to the nth degree.



You need to be able to count to do science. I pretty much learnt to count from this. And it's so funky, it almost funks itself to death.

Science Singles

I've just realised that the name for this sounds a bit like a dating service for lab workers... oh well, let's get on with it.

CSS with Alcohol


Science? "Hey hey hey hey hey, do you want to drink some alcohol?" Well, it's 11:30 on a Monday morning, so it's probably not the best time to be getting drunk, but in the name of science and rock'n'roll I will. Ethanol (the alcohol you'd hope to have in your beverages) acts on the brain as a depressant. It decreases the activity of the nervous system by inhibiting (amongst others) the NDMA class of glutamate receptors and GABA receptors. These receptors are important in cognition, memory and motor skills, which is why you become a malcoordinated, forgetful fool after several pints. Mine's a brown ale.
Is it any good? Its a great pop tune with drunk bunnies in the video. I like good pop tunes. More good pop tunes please. And more drunkbunnies.

Facebook and science

Like all the best London based media outlets (ha!), I'm going to go on and on and on about Facebook for a bit (but about a year too late, I really am cutting edge).

Facebook (*sigh*): I think I hate it, but amazingly I find myself a regular user; a fact that makes me sad on the inside. And yet some in the scientific community have taken to it like geeky ducks to nerdtastic water, no doubt a large part due to Facebook's origins as a university/workplace social network tool. There are over 500 science groups on Facebook, and I'm sure some are actually about science, such as the "American Association for the Advancement of Science" groups, and more frivolous ones such as the"I listen to the Guardian Science Podcast" and "Null Hypothesis - the journal of unlikely science" groups.

Now Biomedcentral have the option to post articles published by them on to Facebook (along side social bookmarking sites like digg and cool specialist scientific bookmarking sites like citeulike). I cannot quite work out if I'm angered or amazed by this. I think I'm amazed, it's really great to see social networking and all that web2.0 stuff creeping into biomedical science. The only think that makes me slightly scared is that Facebook is just a passing fad, and in a years time we'll all be like "hey remember Facebook? No one uses Facebook now, all the cool kids use Kidney Network". That said, BMC have nothing to lose in adding Facebook functionality. Who knows, maybe these social networking sites might revolutionise the scientific publication system in ways we are yet to imagine.


This reminds me, I really should add digg, del.icio.us, etc.. this blog.

Science Singles

will.i.am (seriously, "will.i.am"...) with I got it from my momma (Genetics)


Science? Here's a brief synopsis of the entire lyrical content of this song: "I say my dear, how is it that you have such a pleasingly proportioned body?" "Why, my dear old mother is similarly blessed with a fine figure" "Oh I see. It must an inherited trait. Let's have sex"
The thing is, whilst attractiveness has a genetic element, environment plays a very big role. The lady will.i.am is chatting to no doubt works out, has a good diet, and (on the strength of the video) has had plastic surgery (maybe her mother paid for it?). And anyway, if it was genetic you've got to take in the father into account too.

Is it any good? It makes me sigh and feel slightly more empty inside.

Kate Nash with Mouthwash



Science? Good oral hygiene is obviously important to Kate "flavour of the month" Nash. She uses both mouthwash and dental floss, which our dentists tell us help prevent periodontal diseases and dental caries. Mouthwashes are often antiseptic and antibacterial, and so are claimed help to reduce the number of plaque-causing bacteria. Similarly, we are told by dentists that flossing is really important in reducing dental caries. However, one recent systematic review suggests that flossing at home is not all that effective.

Is it any good? Damn you Nash, damn you to hades. Despite my best efforts, I cannot help but find my self warming to Kate Nash's music. It's catchy dammit.

Big Up Science Singles

It's Monday. Let's see what we've got here then....

The big release for me this week is Chemical Brothers with The Salmon Dance


Science? They are called the Chemical Brothers, but that's not all. This song is jam packed with salmon facts, all presented in a handy hip-hop format by Sammy the Salmon:
Fact 1: "All my peeps spend part of their life in fresh water and part of their life in salt water... They change round a couple of days after spawning, then we die."
Indeed, at around 2 years of age, young salmon leave their river habitats and migrate to the sea. They then return to the river after a year or so to spawn. However, they don't then die, instead they go back to the sea and return to the river gain around every 18 months to spawn. I'm disappointed in that factual error Sammy the Salmon.
Fact 2: "Most of our friends find home waters by sense of smell, which is even more key than that of a dog or a bear."
Salmon which were imprinted to Morpholine (C₄H₉NO), a heterocyclic amine, could detect the chemical at concentrations below 5.7x 10-10 M.
Fact 3: "My family also rely on ocean currents, tides, the gravitational pull of the moon."
There is also a theory that some salmon species can detect the earth's magnetic field.
Fact 4" "Polluted water can kill both baby salmon that are developing and the adult salmon that are on their way to spawn."
Epigenetic factors, such a water pollution, can affect the development of salmon, or indeed any fish; not just killing the developing fish, but also leading to malformations. This of particular importance when you consider the economic value of farmed species such as salmon.

Is it any good? It like a novelty record, and I suppose it is. However, the Chemical Brothers arn't about to release any old rubbish. It's novelty in the Lemon Jelly style, rather than the Mr Blobby one, and unlike Mr Blobby the guest rapper, Fatlip who used to be in the Pharcyde, is ace. Not to mention that salmon are a type of fish. Fish are still cool right?


HIM and The kiss of dawn


Science? The HIM proteins , or "High Incidence of Males", are a group of 19 proteins found in the C. elegans. Interesting huh?

Is it any good? As much as I'm not into worm genetics, I'd rather would enjoy sitting though a 5 day conference on gene-protein interaction in C. elegans than waste another 3 minutes 55 seconds of my precious life listening to this again.

Science Singles, as seen on the famous internets

Here you go, have reviews of two of this weeks singles with a scientific meaning crowbarred in.

First it's the ever-lovely Magic Numbers with Undecided


Science? Bear with me here, it's going to get a bit nuclear physics. The nucleus of an atom is made up of two types of subatomic particle, protons and neutrons, known collectively as nucleons. According to the shell model of the nucleus, these particles are arranged according to energy levels in to "shells", much like the way we think about the arrangement of electrons orbiting the nucleus. When these shells are full, the nucleus is stable, and the number of nucleons needed to fill each shell is knows as a magic number (phew! we got there in the end). At the present time, science knows the following magic numbers: 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82 and 126. The band the Magic Numbers hail from west London, and are made up of two pairs of hippy brother and sisters . At the present time, science doesn't know if the Magic Numbers know anything about nuclear physics.

What does it sound like? It's oddly familiar. Like when you try on a new pair of jeans, and you instantly feel comfortable in them. It's only when you get home that you realise they are remarkably similar all you other jeans. It's one of those Magic Numbers songs: it has a fairly driven bit, a slower quite bit, an a cappella break bit, and a drum pick up bit back up the driven bit. Not original, but it works.

It's that Emma Pollock with Acid Test


Science? The term "acid test", meaning a decisive test, is used for all sorts of things these days. Back in the day it was only used to test if gold was gold. Due to it's complete outer shell of electrons, gold cannot easily give away or receive electrons, and as such it is inert. Put nitric acid on most metals and you will oxidise it, that is to say give away spare electrons. This results in the formation a metal nitrate salt, nitrogen dioxide and water. Since the salt is soluble, the treated metal will dissolve It will not, however, react with gold (or for that matter platinum, which is also inert).

What does it sound like? Meh, I never really was into the Delgados (she used to be their singer), and this leaves me unmoved. It's perfectly nice and everything, but it doesn't really have that something that other non-cutting edge people, such as the afore mentioned the Magic Numbers, have. In her favour, however, is the fact that she had a single called Adrenaline and the Delgados were signed to the Chemikal Underground label, both factoids being suitably almost sciencey for me. And pollocks are a type of fish. Fish are cool right?

Science Singles, what what.

I know this is late, but hey, it's been a bank holiday, and I've got a paper that needs writing.

This a top week for sciencey pop music. Behold:

Amylase by Cajun Dance Party


Science? This one is an absolute gift. Amylases are genuine enzymes (biological catalysts) with a genuinely important roles in physiology. No spurious links here, ho ho ho, no siree bob . The amylases (there are three different classes, alpha, beta and gamma) are enzymes that breakdown boring old starches into tasty, tasty glucose. You produce alpha amylase in your pancreas, to break down starches in your intestine, and in your saliva (see picture below) so you can start get the glucose form starch whilst you chew. Beta amylase is produced by plants, including ripening fruit, to break down their starches to sweet glucose. I'm not 100% sure what gamma amylase does. Something in the liver. Possibly to do with glycogen. Anybody?

Is is any good? La la la, jingle jangle, nice middle class boys and girls with messy hair, trendy jeans and guitars. So far so hip and down with the kids (gah, I'm getting old). "We need a catalyst" they sing. Ah, well, what catalyst would you like? Look, they are running through the country side. They must mean beta amylase, to ripen all that grain. "You're the catalyst that makes things faster, amylase will dry out the plaster". Huh? Amylase does what? How? Who? Where? Gah, I'm sure I'd know if this was balls if I'd just sat my GCSEs, as they have. Oh to be a teenager again. But not me when I was a teenager. Oh to be a popular, cool and attractive teenager.



Next are Múm and the improbably titles They Made Frogs Smoke Til The Exploded



Sceince? Obvioulsy Múm have been reading this research, "Adaptation of an amphibian mucociliary clearance model to evaluate early effects of tobacco smoke exposure" by Zyas et al, Respiratory Research 2004, 5:9, and then added they exploding bit to make it more exciting. Well done Múm for championing esoteric research articles that observe how bullfrog palates are affected by tobacco smoke.

Is is any good? Yes! Its like the happy dreams of a Texas Instruments Speak & Spell.

Big up the woo-busters. "out of body experience" induced

Woo! Woo! That's the sound of the police.
Woo! Woo! That's the sound of the beast.

Woo woo is also a rank cocktail.

"Woo woo" is also what ghosts say in the Beano.

Woo woo is also a on-line geek name for supernatural and irrational beliefs and explanations for stuff.

One such example of woo (as all the cool geeks say) is the out-of-body experience. This is when you can float above you body and see your self form above. All very spooky.
However, all over the papers like a rather annoying rash, is this story, where Henrik Ehrsson and his colleagues induced the phenomenon by the use of some sensory trickery.
But they didn't actually induce an OoBE (is that the acronym?), the patients' conciousness didn't actually fly above their bodies.
The brain is an odd thing. So odd, it's bonza.

A better place than this

Do you ever read a a science blog, or may be a medical science one, and think:

"Hey! This is pretty much what I wanted to do when I started my rubbish science blog. But their attempt is much better than mine. Curse them, curse their eyes."

I do. Curse. Their. Eyes.

http://agoodpoop.blogspot.com/