Science Cheerleader

Say wha? Check out Fairytale Fashion where technology is used “to turn make-believe into reality”.  It’s a project former Project Runway participant Diana Eng is working on these days. It’s an “interactive, web-enabled effort to create a collection of magical clothing in real life, replete with blooming flowers, transforming shapes and changing colors”.

In this installment of MotherboardTV, the “fashion geek” demonstrates how easily technology can be incorporated into fashion and she shares a secret about Victoria’s Secret’s bust-enhancing, “smart fabric”. Check it out.

National Geographic Kids has a short and sweet slide show description of fireworks. Turns out my personal favorite, The Weeping Willow,  (pictured left) is made by adding an excess of charcoal to the firework. Photo by Ramon Gutierrez.

This week, The Scientist reports on a study suggesting the long-cherished mistletoe may be messing with the white spruce trees’ hormones. In a not-yet-published report, Barry Logan, an associate professor of biology at Bowdoin College, and his team discovered that, unlike traditional host-parasite relations where, in an attempt to stave off damage, the host tree directs water and nutrients to healthy limbs and branches at the expense of infected ones, the dwarf mistletoe triggers the white spruce to manufacture hormones that direct cherished resources towards infected branches. The parasitic effects of the dwarf mistletoe include tangled witches’ brooms , small needles and stunted tree growth.
Dwarf mistletoe isn’t always lethal, according to The Scientist.

“Forty-two species (including the eastern variety) exist, and they impart varying degrees of harm on their favorite host trees. In Washington and Oregon, western hemlocks show evidence of having weathered infections of hemlock dwarf mistletoe for 80 years or more, Logan says. White spruce, on the other hand, succumb to eastern dwarf mistletoe in 15 or 20 years.”

“There’s an interplay between [host and parasite] which I didn’t appreciate when I first tackled this project,” Logan adds. “It makes it more interesting, and more complicated.”

Happy Hanukkah. My three-year-old attends a Jewish preschool where he made this handprint-menorah. He handed it to me and said “I made these Tiger Claws for you!”  Those little claws were meant to be candles. Here are a few interesting science facts about candles (how and why they burn).

That’s right! These four Eagles cheerleaders are big fans of science (one’s even a math geek). This past week, I interviewed these brainy cheerleaders and we talked about what sparked their love of science…and much more.  Stay tuned for that video! (Thanks to the Eagles for making this possible.)

Now we know why our own Dr. John seems obsessed with Super Mario Kart. (Check out his world records.)

Found this (2008) first-of-its-kind study where researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine demonstrate how the part of the brain that generates rewarding feelings is more activated in men than women during video-game play.

After analyzing the imaging data for the entire group, the researchers found that the participants showed activation in the brain’s mesocorticolimbic center, the region typically associated with reward and addiction. Male brains, however, showed much greater activation, and the amount of activation was correlated with how much territory they gained. (This wasn’t the case with women.) Three structures within the reward circuit—the nucleus accumbens, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex—were also shown to influence each other much more in men than in women. And the better connected this circuit was, the better males performed in the game.

Boys will be boys   (I should admit I was the QUEEN of Ms. PacMan and just felt myself getting sucked back into the underground world while playing Ms Pacman online, for free.)

Pix from the Phils’ previous home game. (I know, I know, I’m a freaky geek.)
Thanks for your help Phillies Phans, especially Tania! “GOOO Phillies! and GOOO Science!”

Recently, I helped Discover Magazine put together a panel discussion sponsored by the Templeton Foundation at Yale. The topic: Does evolution explain human nature? This was part of the Templeton Foundation’s Big Questions Series.

Big shout out to Yale’s public affairs and broadcast media teams! Thanks for inviting me to sign the celebrity wall in the green room (sorry it’s much larger than Ted Kennedy, Jr’s autograph but, ya know).

Here are highlights from the discussion featuring Ken Miller, David Sloan-Wilson and Laurie Santos chatting with Discover’s Editor, Corey Powell. Check out this civil, thought-provoking discussion. So, does evolution explain human nature?

Occam gives dance class a whirl and discovers amusia. Here’s his take:

My wife and I recently started taking dance classes and it has been a very fun experience. The popularity of such shows as Dancing with the Stars has undoubtedly led to an increase in enrollment in such classes, and you may find your wife asking if you’ll accompany her. (Just a hint: this is a good way to score spousal bonus points! Face it – she’s long accepted that you’re never going to look like dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy. But women are not like men, fortunately, and are actually willing to find us attractive based on other qualities. Pretending to like dance will help you immeasurably in this.)

I don’t claim any particular Astairean abilities, but I have been more than pleased at my facility at making my way around the floor. We have picked up the steps quite easily, and I’ve been a bit nonplussed at the complete ineptitude of others in the class. The ability to keep time to music apparently escapes what I’m assuming to be a small portion of the population, and oddly, these people are disproportionately in my dance class. One can assume that they have listened to music at some point in their lives, have probably tapped their foot to music in the car or at a concert, and given that they’ve signed up for a dance class one may further assume that this is a self-selected group that has at least a basic comfort level in moving their bodies to music. But I can tell you, after many painful hours of watching them, that this is not the case.

Perhaps they have amusia, which despite sounding like a word one might make up to define a lack musical ability, is something I heard about on Musical Minds, the recent season premiere episode of NOVA, and based on the book Musicophilia by neurologist Oliver Sacks. (more…)

From Dr. John…Looking for a fun way to translate your love of pignut hickory (Carya glabra) into scientific data that can help the planet? Look no further than the National Phenology Network (NPN), an organization that calls on citizen scientists to monitor the influence of climate change on plants and animals in the US.

NPN defines phenology as the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events, such as the first flower on a plant, the appearance of a songbird species in spring, or the changing leaves in fall. Phenological events are particularly sensitive to climate variations (e.g., temperature), and shifts in timing can dramatically affect the planet’s ecological systems. That, in turn, can affect the way we live – allergies, recreation, farming, and our ability to respond to natural disasters are all impacted by phenology.

NPN harnesses the power of citizen scientists and the Internet to collect, share, and store information on patterns of phenology for 200 critical plant species across the nation. NPN will use your contributions to help scientists identify which species are changing, and ultimately, better predict the impact of changing phenologies on natural systems and people. Do this immediately:

1. Select your favorite plant.
2. Learn about site selection, plant marking, and phenological observations.
3. Join the network and become an official participant.
4. Start observing, collecting, and reporting.
5. Feel a sense of personal satisfaction and enrichment.

At this time, citizen scientists can only monitor plant species. However, in 2010, NPN will welcome observations for many species of animals, including yellow-bellied marmots, hummingbirds, wood frogs, bumblebees, and all of your favorite Disney characters.

PROJECT SNAPSHOT:

• Topics: Biology, Computers and Technology
• Location: at home, close to home
• Duration: any
• Cost: free
• Gear: no
• Level of Difficulty: easy