April 2012
33 posts
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“Myth #8: Scientists are not sexy beasts.
Truth: Scientists are indeed sexy...”
– Adam Reuben, Experimental Error Dispels 8 Myths About Scientists (via snakewife)
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The Bad Kiss, or, "Nooo I wanted the opposite of...
We’ve all been there. They’re smart, funny, and pretty cute to boot. Here it comes, the big moment, that first kiss, and— Oh.
No, no, I’ll call you.
The University of Albany published research saying that over half of men and 2/3s of women have cut off a relationship because someone was a bad kisser. DST is one of these individuals, because DST demands kisses from people who...
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Kissing triggers a biochemical cascade.
Isn’t that amazing? We’ve evolved so that the simple act of pressing our lips to someone else’s lips causes this rush of chemicals through our system.
Kissing triggers a biochemical cascade in your body, resulting in neurotransmitters flooding your brain. Specifically, we have the big three:
Dopamine, which makes you want more kisses because they feel awesome.
Serotonin,...
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I declare today "science of kissing" day.
Who wants to know why we get our smooch on?
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Meet Évariste Galois.
Who is this dashing son of a bitch? He’s a budding mathematician, born in 1811 in France. Smart as hell, he greatly contributed to the branches of abstract algebra in what are now called Galois theory and group theory. All of this before age 20!
Galois was hard into politics. This was a period of heavily turmoil in France, as history buffs will tell you, and Galois was a firebrand since...
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Science is not your enemy; let us be friends.
snakewife:
First off, I hope that my post comes across as respectfully as I would like. If at any time it does not, then the error is in my phrasing, and not in my intent.
(cwnerd12, thank you for your thoughtful post. I don’t know if you will personally read my response here, but several people on my dash have been discussing this matter, and your well-written post brings up a few things I...
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Disco-bots of the future
The year was 1983. In Pasadena, CA, a pair of 4.5 foot tall robot waiters found employment in a local restaurant. They weren’t very good at it, though.
The pair […] tend to blur their words drunkenly when their 12-volt power cells run down, and they’ve been known to drop food and spin in circles when police radios operate nearby.
They’re programmed to be nice to customers — “Will...
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Carpal Skin
Neri Oxman’s prototype protective glove for the treatment of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, customized to each patient’s particular pain-profile.
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nice try, kid
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Giant anteaters!
Giant anteaters used to scare the heck out of me and actually still kind of freak me out a little bit oh fuck why’d I tell you that. But we can’t deny that they’re pretty interesting. They are a walking mullet: business in the front, party in the back. Look at this sassy motherfucker:
They can be 6 to 8 feet long. That’s taller than I am. Take a look at those forearms,...
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the big man... HASS the gun
JUST HOW HIGH ARE YOU THOUGHT TO BE WHEN YOU’RE HOLDING A WEAPON!!!!!
I’m sick, cut me some slack. I’m sitting in my cubicle with a fever and an intense desire to go home. Anyway, so today from PLoS ONE: a study demonstrated that individuals holding weapons were perceived as taller and ‘manlier’ by study participants.
Knowing that an individual possesses a...
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An actual random number generator. →
No,realrandom numbers, not just “an algorithm the user doesn’t know.” Researchers at the Australian National University have developed a random number generator that uses the noise made by sub-atomic particles disappearing and reappearing in a vacuum to choose truly random numbers.
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MicroRNAs and Depression.
From PLoS ONE: MicroRNA Expression Is Down-Regulated and Reorganized in Prefrontal Cortex of Depressed Suicide Subjects
No, no, don’t run away. Let me tell you about this paper.
MicroRNAs are tiny bits of genetic code that regulate how much of a certain gene is transcribed (think of this like running a program); we know they definitely can stop or slow down transcription, and research is...
BEES IN SPACE
subject-to-change:
dailysciencething:
In the 80s, NASA sent some bees up into space. They did pretty well…but there was this one thing.
No bee went to the restroom.
Bees are obsessive about keeping their hive clean. Since they couldn’t leave the hive to do what needed doing, they…well, they held it in.
For seven days.
That hive was, as one astronaut put it, “neat as a pin.”
JESUS...
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So concludes bee day!
What DST posted on bee day
Honey bees use resin to fight off fungal infections
Bees in space
Facts about honey
A recommendation for mead that’s not too sweet
Reblogged from dailyfossil: a bee fossil!
Bomb-sniffing bees
Why is honey bad for babies?
DST After Dark: Promiscuous queen bees
Not a bad bee day, was it? I hope you enjoyed it. And hello to the new followers! I’m not...
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DST After Dark: Slutty queens do it for the...
From PLoS ONE: highly promiscuous honey bee queens have healthier hives.
Colonies with genetically diverse populations of workers, a result of the highly promiscuous mating behavior of queens, benefited from greater microbial diversity, reduced pathogen loads, and increased abundance of putatively helpful bacteria, particularly species from the potentially probiotic genus Bifidobacterium.
...
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More about honey
lady-writesreblogged your post:Some facts about honey
Its also apparently deadly to newborns
Yep! Honey can cause infant botulism, which is why the bottles always say “do not feed to children younger than 2 years.”
Honey contains Clostridium botulinum spores, which won’t harm individuals who have a matured digestive system. In an infant digestive tract, however, the bacteria...
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Bomb Sniffing Bees
The Defense Advanced Research Laboratory (DARPA) has been training bees to sniff out explosives the same way dogs do. They can even be trained the same way dogs are – associating a stimulus with a reward. Bees learn that after exposure to the trace molecules coming off explosives, they’ll be treated with sugar water. Since they expect it, the next time they detect these molecules,...
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Some facts about honey
adisusedshed:
dailysciencething:
Honey mead is delicious. It’s also the origin of the phrase ‘honeymoon,’ where newlyweds drank mead every day their first month of marriage.
All but the last are true for me. Mead is cloying and pretty disgusting, and I have tried it like 10 times because I WANT to like it.
Poor soul! I am like that with wine; I want to and I should like it,...
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Some facts about honey
10 lbs of nectar = 1 lb of honey
2 million flowers = 1 lb of honey
Honey does not actually spoil
A single bee produces 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey her entire life.
Honey has an acidic pH, which means it can actually prevent the growth of several types of bacteria.
Listen to your abuela: a Penn State study actually demonstrated that 2 teaspoons of honey at bedtime can be as...
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BEES IN SPACE
In the 80s, NASA sent some bees up into space. They did pretty well…but there was this one thing.
No bee went to the restroom.
Bees are obsessive about keeping their hive clean. Since they couldn’t leave the hive to do what needed doing, they…well, they held it in.
For seven days.
That hive was, as one astronaut put it, “neat as a pin.”
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amischiefofmice replied to your post: HAPPY BEE DAY.
holyshit dailyfossil for today is going to be a bee! what are the odds?XD
Brilliant! That is the magic of bee day.
(Hey, followers - if you join in the festivities, how about tagging your posts “bee day”? Let’s make this a Thing. I’ll go back and edit my posts.)
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Honey bees use resin to ward off fungal infections
(From PLoS ONE) : After infection with a fungal parasite, bees use propolis (a sticky substance made of several resins) to self-medicate and to protect their hives against future infection. They also seek out the resin when their larvae are infected, demonstrating once more that bees are concerned with the health of their entire colony, not just with themselves.
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HAPPY BEE DAY.
DailyScienceThing declares today to be BEE DAY. Our posts will be BEE THEMED all day today, making for a nice apicultural exchange. :3
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Just how big can jellyfish get, anyway?
This big.
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And now, things that eat sea gooseberries.
(Starting with a few followers of this tumblog, apparently.)
Yes, DST can be cruel. First, I had you fall in love with sea gooseberries (the gooseberries of the sea). Now, I will make you watch as they are consumed.
First by a beroe, which is a type of comb jelly that has no tentacles.
Then by a Lion’s Mane Jellyfish.
Finally, by a plumose anemone.
Good night, sweet gooseberry.
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