Danger:

"What's New in Science?" part deux, Chemistry edition!

 From UK Arts & Sciences webpage

 UK College of Arts and Sciences has released the second video in their round table discussion series, Whats New in Science. If you missed my last post (link below),  Whats New in Science is a way for the University of Kentucky and local schools in Fayette and surrounding counties to create a two way dialogue about cool and interesting stuff in science with scientists, teachers and the general public. These are free and open to everyone, so if your in the area check them out. You can register here... or if you can't attend them, look on this site for continued coverage.

Part deux focuses on Chemistry with organic and materials chemistry researcher, John Anthony.   He put together a lighthearted discussion about the implications/ roles of chemistry in life (emphasis on organic chemistry)that made it interesting and digestible for the classroom. He also gives some funny historical accounts of chemistry in general. As I promised before in my last post, discussing the the Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy and the universe, the video is below. Props to the team involved, they put together a good looking video.  You can also view the video here on the Arts & Sciences site with the Q&A session transcribed.

video after the jump!

Get Your Geek On...in less than an hour from now!

Sorry for the last-minute shout out, but I just learned that the American Museum of Natural History is putting on an Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate at 7:30pm EST, and it's free to watch on USTREAM.  The topic will be the recently discovered neutrinos that may or may not travel faster than light.  Neil deGrasse Tyson will be hosting, so there's guaranteed entertainment.  We'll see if we can post some notes up in the aftermath.  Enjoy!

PODCAST EPISODE 20: Beer! ft. Country Boy Brewing's Evan Coppage

2012 is the year of the microbrew in Lexington, KY. We talked to Evan Coppage, one of the Country Boys behind us here at the Evolving Scientist's favorite place to drink, about the science of brewing beer, "moussey cling," and worts.

There's a long list of things I'm a nerd about, and I never set out to add beer to that list. The fellas and Country Boy Brewing have such a great product that they present with such a passion, and without pretense, you can't help but share their enthusiasm. The sound is a little clipped at our first satellite recording.

If you're in Lexington, be sure to check out the place on Chair Ave., or at least on Facebook, Twitter, or their site.

Pour one and listen to it on iTunes, our external site, download, or stream it below:

Science in the Social World

As I stated two days ago, The Genetics Society of America encouraged people in attendance at the 2012 Drosophila Research Conference to live tweet using the twitter hash tag #Dros2012. A few others and I have enjoyed this, and are using it has a way to connect and converse, even though we have yet to meet in person. Of course, I've used it mostly to make jokes about gene names and the over abundance of fly testis talks--you should expect no less from me.

The people who have been tweeting seem to also be bloggers as well and you should take the time to check out their sights, which all seem to be good, and likely more informative than ours. @amasianV blog can be found here and @jelena_Aleksic blog is here.(***update I should mention The Node and Eastern Blot as well)

Connections made over the social media are increasingly what the entire world is coming to, and there is no reason for science not to jump on that bandwagon--especially considering how socially awkward some of us are.

I commend the GSA for setting this up, and pushing people to use this. Well, enough blogging, Chitown awaits.

Planet of the Apes

Another primate's genome has been sequenced, and as I speak for humans, chimps, and orang-utans, welcome you to the club, Gorillas!  Human's closest living relative after the chimpanzee has finally had it's genome sequenced, and we have Kamilah to thank for it.  Kamilah is a 35 year old female Gorilla, currently residing in San Diego (I hear the weather is great).

In an article published in Nature this week, Dr. Alywyn Scally et al. provide the assembly and analysis of the genome sequence of the western lowland gorilla, as well as compare the genomes of the great ape genera.  The completion of another primate sequence provides crucial insight into our (humans, and I guess Rand Paul) evolutionary path, i.e., when we diverged from our primate cousins and what makes humans different from apes.


Hit the jump to find out more!

#Dros2012

The Genetics Society of America has given me a loaded gun in the form of a twitter hash tag. I'm attending the 2012 Drosophila Research Conference and now will be live tweeting the event on the blog account (@evolvescientist) along with the #dros2012 hash. Come see my poster (218) and keep me entertained with your replies. #flies

Drugs and Microchips

Clinical trials have begun testing a new implantable microchip drug-delivery device in humans.  Collaborators from Harvard, MIT and Case Western Reserve University, as well as two commercial drug companies created a chip that holds measured doses of teriparatide (Forteo), an injectable drug used to treat osteoporosis.  The cost of the drug delivered by the implant is ~10K to 12K a year.  That is half of my annual salary. :(

Hit the jump to hear more about microchip drug delivery.

Why I hate Scott Adams, pt. 243

Scott Adams, creator and current author of the cartoon Dilbert, is a dick. He pretends to be his own fan online and is a horrible boss on par with that which he depicts in his comic. Not to mention, last year he distorted behavior ecology in animals to justify sexual abuse towards women.

Now, see today's comic:

February 21, 2012

Scientist (since when has Dilbert been a scientist?) Dilbert discovers the Higgs Boson, dubbed by the media as "the God Particle," that is among the hypotheses hoping to be experimentally supported by the Large Hadron Collider. Dilbert discovers the Higgs Boson, and it proves to be evidence for the Abrahamic monotheistic god, which Scientist Dilbert chooses to ignore.

There's no way this comic is anything but malevolent towards science. My initial interpretation is that Adams is saying "scientists can easily find evidence for God, but choose to ignore it due to their Atheist Bias." Then I softened when I remembered the media calls the Higgs Boson "the God Particle" and decided it was just a lazy joke, absolutely perfect for the pages of syndicated daily newspaper comics. But that would have been Dilbert looking surprised in the last panel with explanation points over his head, not destroying evidence on a humongous advance in particle physics.

I don't even want to get into if there could even be "evidence for an omnipresent being" or if "atheist bias" is even possible.

Scott Adams is popularizing distrust towards science and I hate him. This isn't as bad as "male humans are inherently rape-y," however it is syndicated in "2000 newspapers," which I imagine are read more than his blog.

GREAT MOMENTS in answers that should have received full credit

I would have went with Judas Priest over Anthrax