In celebration of the 40th Anniversary of “our” trip to the moon, I present you with the making of Buzz Aldrin’s Rocket Experience w/ Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli.
(Hat tip to Discover Magazine.)
We’ll have a few related book reviews and other activities to follow.
18. All life is connected.
Ecosystem is a term that refers to all of the living things in a specific area, together with the material surroundings. Plants and animals within as ecosystem often depend on each other in complex ways, so that it is not usually possible to change one part of the system without changing other parts as well. Study of the records of past ecosystems shows that both the kinds of plants and animals associated with it and the kinds of relationships between them change over time, so we should not think of ecosystems as rigid and unchanging, nor assume that any change in an ecosystem must be for the worst.
Lesson #17 of 18 in the Brain Makeover collaboration with Professor James Trefil/George Mason University, the 76ers Cheerleaders and the Science Cheerleader. See Brain Makeover Series.
17. All forms of life evolved by natural selection.
Scientists divide the development of life on Earth into two segments: chemical evolution, which involves the development of life from inorganic materials, and evolution by natural selection, which describes the process by which that early life form produced the diversity of modern life. The latter is what people associate with Charles Darwin and usually mean by the term ‘evolution’.
Evolution by natural selection depends on two things: first, that there are variations within populations (so that, for example, some rabbits can run faster than others) and, second, competition between individuals (so that fast rabbits are more likely to survive and reproduce). Over time, this selection process produces new species.
Evidence for evolution by natural selection comes from the fossil record and from the examination of genes in the DNA of modern life forms.
Here’s Dr. John, with a new twist on the classic game of Frogger.
The Vancouver Aquarium has re-imagined the classic arcade game, Frogger, to better reflect the global decline in the amphibian population. The new version, Frogster, retains the spirit of the original game (e.g., horrendous controls and even more horrendous graphics) but now offers a myriad of new dangers, including loss of habitat, pesticides, pollution, and other human factors. The game also provides informative “Did you know?” facts about the amphibian population; for instance, did you know that air pollution is deadly because frogs breathe through their skin? Neither did I!
Frogster is advertised as “The Hardest Game You’ll Ever Play”, and they aren’t kidding. Navigating through car exhaust, polluted water, and human interference is a lot harder when you’re a helpless little frog. In fact, it was so frustrating to watch my frogs repeatedly drowned or flattened by oncoming traffic that I was compelled to help.
FrogWatch USA makes it easy! Since 1998, they’ve leveraged citizen scientists to monitor the health and behavior of various frog species around the country. In as little as 20 minutes a week, you can monitor frogs and toads in your own neighborhood wetlands and help scientists develop practical ways to help conserve these important animals. You can even learn to make your own frog calls — great fun at parties!
So play Frogster, get motivated, and let’s start monitoring some frogs!
Lesson #16 of 18 in the Brain Makeover collaboration with Professor James Trefil/George Mason University, the 76ers Cheerleaders and the Science Cheerleader. See Brain Makeover Series.
#16: All life is based on the same genetic code.
All of the millions of different life forms on Earth, from amoeba to humans, use the same DNA code to produce the proteins that run the chemical reactions essential to life. This is one piece of evidence that all living things descended from a common ancestor. The fact is also the basis for genetic engineering, a technique that already plays a major role in agriculture.
In genetic engineering a gene from one organism is inserted into the DNA for another. For example, insulin for the treatment of diabetes is obtained by inserting the gene for human insulin into the DNA of bacteria, which then produce the insulin. In the United States, the great majority of commercial crops such as corn, soybeans, and cotton, have been engineered to produce chemicals to kill insect pests. Genetically engineered animals are also used to improve breeding stock (but are too expensive to use for food).
All human somatic cells (cells that are not sperm or egg cells) contain the same DNA, but as an organism grows after conception, cells specialize by turning genes off. Typically, of the 30,000 or so genes in human DNA, less than a thousand will be operating in a given cell. For the first several cell divisions after conception, however, no genes are turned off. Such cells, which have the potential of turning into any tissue in the human body, are called embryonic stem cells. Recently, progress has been made in finding ways to turn genes back on in ordinary cells, possibly producing a different kind of stem cell.
Back by popular demand, here’s our skeptical cheerleader, Occam’s Razor (pictured left), with a twist on the TED conference. Take it away, Occam!
I think by now most readers here are familiar with TED (Talking Egos Droning), mostly because of the growing popularity of TED Talks.
TED is hard to describe, and the website is not much help, reading, “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world,” which is what you say when you don’t really do anything and is as comfortably vague as an ArcherDanielsMidland commercial. But if that doesn’t explain it, the site also notes that their annual conference works well because “all of knowledge is connected.” Clear as mud, right?
I first learned about TED when I was cornered at a conference by a dean of a prominent engineering school who clearly wanted me to know – actually I think he wanted anyone to know and I happened to be a captive audience – that he had recently been invited to be part. See, TED isn’t just for anyone – it’s for the best and the brightest, and membership is exclusive, by invite only. The “T” is actually for “technology” and it attracts a bunch of smarty pants who then talk to a bunch of other smarty pants (speakers have included Bill Gates, the Google guys, and James Watson, who fortunately kept his talk to DNA and did not veer off into some of his more interesting views on race). And lucky us! they have decided to condescend to help the citizen scientists of the world learn from them via their online talks. And it’s just not just pure sciencey stuff. No, you can go to the site and even waste time watching such fascinating presentations as a guy telling a story using emoticons, another guy who does math in his head really fast, and at least a couple old guys who will be dead soon discussing how it’s possible to live forever.
Pretty mundane, I know, which is a shame. TED used to be subversive, dark, and mysterious, with only captains of industry and masters of the universe as members and certainly no mamby-pamby poets or comedians. It used to be bacchanalian brotherhood best described as Bohemian Grove meets the Illuminati meets the Masons meets that trippy orgy scene from Eyes Wide Shut. The first rule about TED was not to talk about TED, and if a few hookers died at their meeting every year, well, that was just collateral damage. In the old days at the meetings a group president was elected – crowned the Grand Theodore – for a one-year term, an honor which gave him 1. control of the company owned by his vanquished electoral foe; 2. the right to send US armed forces into engagement in the country of his choosing for any consecutive two-month period; and 3. the pick of the choicest virgins every time he entered a TED-controlled city. Now? Well now they simply have “TED Prizes,” which give $100,000 to the recipient along with a “wish to change the world.” Yawn. Some notable recent recipients: Bono, who used the money for sunglasses and wished for more self-importance. Dave Eggers, who bought some fresh book ideas and who wished for more pomposity. And Bill Clinton, who had the same designs for both his wish and his $100,000 but was told that that was only appropriate in the “old TED,” and not in the new, Oprahtized one. In the old days the grizzled TEDders were only shocked at extraordinary things, like the time when Dwight Eisenhower, perpetually perplexed at his inability to beat fellow members at Risk, threw the purple, puffy head of Adolf Hitler, snuck secretly from Berlin and housed in Eisenhower’s freezer at TED, angrily into the lap of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in a fit of pique. Now the TED attendees get all atwitter at something as benign as Noam Chomsky’s recent talk titled, “The surprising choice you might make when trapped in a room with Garrison Keillor, Maya Angelou, and a gun with one bullet.”
But regardless of how things have changed, at least you know that all of knowledge is connected. Especially this bit of knowledge, which includes, among other things, in utero masterbation. Enjoy.
Check out Google’s near-future power meter gadget designed to help you monitor your household energy consumption. Useful tool but the Flintstone’s Kazoo is whispering in my ear “I see big fines in your future! Beware!”
Silly Kazoo…. :/
From Google’s website:
How much does it cost to leave your TV on all day? What about turning your air conditioning 1 degree cooler? Which uses more power every month — your dishwasher or your washing machine? Is your household more or less energy efficient than similar homes in your neighborhood?
Its nearly impossible to make informed choices about electricity. This is a problem but also a huge opportunity for us all to save money and help the environment by reducing our power usage. Studies show that access to your household’s personal energy information is likely to save you 5–15% on your monthly bill. Even greater savings are possible if you use this information to see the value of retiring your old refrigerator, installing a new air conditioner or insulating your home. The potential impact of large numbers of people achieving similar efficiencies is even more exciting. For every six households that save 10% on electricity, for instance, we reduce carbon emissions as much as taking one conventional car off the road (see sources and calculation).
At Google we’re helping enable a future where access to personal electricity information helps everyone make smarter energy choices. Google PowerMeter shows consumers their electricity consumption in a secure Google gadget. Today we are testing the product with utility partners in the US, India and Canada. We plan to expand the rollout of Google PowerMeter later this year.
We think Google PowerMeter offers more useful and actionable feedback than complicated monthly paper bills that provide little detail on consumption or how to save energy. But Google PowerMeter is just a start; it will take a lot of different groups working together to create what the world really needs: a path to smarter power.
Science Cheerleader in the news. Switzerland, Argentina, and now the U.K. (on DollyMix, where the Shiny Media girls “join forces to create the ultimate women’s superblog and magazine. Thought-candy for your ladybrains”.)
Amber, a subscriber, tipped us off to this free resource: “100 incredible lectures from the world’s top scientists.”
From the website:
Unless you’re enrolled at a top university or are an elite member of the science and engineering inner circle, you’re probably left out of most of the exciting research explored by the world’s greatest scientists. But thanks to the Internet, and our list of 100 incredible lectures, you’ve now got access to the cutting edge theories and projects that are changing the world.
(Thanks, Amber!)
Lesson #15 of 18 in the Brain Makeover collaboration with Professor James Trefil/George Mason University, the 76ers Cheerleaders and the Science Cheerleader. See Brain Makeover Series.
All living things are made from cells, the chemical factories of life.
One of the most important discoveries of nineteenth century science was that life is based on chemical reactions, and that these reactions take place in complex structures called cells. In the twentieth century we learned that the instructions for carrying that chemistry are carried in DNA.
The best analogy for a cell is a complex factory—think of a big refinery. There is a front office where instructions for carrying out the factory’s activities are kept. DNA in the nucleus of cells plays this role. In a factory there is a place where energy is generated. In cells, this happens when complex molecules are combined with oxygen in organelles called mitochondria. There is a wall that separates the factory from its surroundings, and in a cell there is a flexible cell membrane that carries out this function. There must also be a way for material to enter and leave the factory, a function that in the cell is the job of large protein molecules called receptors in the cell membrane. The shape of these membranes matches that of molecules outside the cell.
The chemical reactions in a cell are run by protein molecules that serve as enzymes, and the information for building those molecules is coded in stretches of DNA called genes. Understanding how genes operate remains a major area of research in the sciences.
(Image credit.)
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