We Promise We Did Not Use Mad-Libs To Write This Headline.

Woman who loves science over here

Science Side of Tumblr, I need your help!  Ladies of the Science Side of Tumblr, I especially need your help!

I had a conversation at my non-science day job that went like this:

A friend who shall be called Diane (not her real name) comes to my desk to chat.  Just one of the many topics we discuss is that her boyfriend is  taking a class in wildlife biology.  She has decided that she has grown tired of hearing about local wildlife and hearing him recite a plethora of scientific names. 

I responded positively to this subject, and told her that I too found the subject interesting.  A third person had heard our conversation.  We shall call her Claire (again, not her real name).  Claire immediately responded, “Girls don’t like that kind of thing.”

“Are you saying that girls don’t like science?” I asked.

“No, not normally they don’t,” she responded.

Before you all screech with anguish, bear with me for a moment.  We all know that this is not true.  As a man, I find this idea upsetting for countless reasons that have all been validly discussed before.  To try to debate the issue is rather moot.  Instead, I’d like a show of hands.

Ladies of the Science Side of Tumblr!  I call you to arms!  Will you rally around me in saying that women can and do indeed love science, of any variety?  Gentleman of the Science Side of Tumblr who know someone who is a girl who also happens to love science, will you stand with me too?  We all like and reblog the pro-women-in-science posts we see so often, let’s all stand and be counted in one place this time.

Reblog this if you are a woman who loves science.  Reblog this if you are a man who knows a woman who loves science.  Let us disprove her beyond all doubt!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Chlorosulfonation of an imidazole derivative with chlorosulfonic acid.

Why is this a special thing? Chlorosulfonic acid reacts with water explosively forming sulfuric acid and hydrogen chloride. So when I added 200 g of a compound to 500 cm3 of chlorosulfonic acid, a highly exothermic reaction happened and immediately and a highly acidic fog formed in the flask as the reactants contacted each other.

Important note when working with chlorosulfonic acid: NEVER WASH ANYTHING WITH WATER WHAT CONTAINS A RANDOM LIQUID, since if its chlorosulfonic acid, it could blow a highly acidic solution on your labcoat/hands/face. And always pour chlorosulfonic acid and reaction mixtures that contain this chemical on large excess of cracked ice to avoid serious problems.

P.S.: always wear proper PPE.

De-automation is a thing | Robohub

We tend to assume that automation is a process that continues – that once some human activity has been automated there’s no going back. That automation sticks. But, as Paul Mason pointed out in a recent column that assumption is wrong.

Mason gives a startling example of the decline of car-wash robots, to be replaced by, as he puts it “five guys with rags”. Here’s the paragraph that really made me think:

“There are now 20,000 hand car washes in Britain, only a thousand of them regulated. By contrast, in the space of 10 years, the number of rollover car-wash machines has halved –from 9,000 to 4,200.”

The reasons, of course, are political and economic and you may or may not agree with Mason’s diagnosis and prescription (as it happens I do). But de-automation – and the ethical, societal and legal implications – is something that we, as roboticists, need to think about just as much as automation.

Several questions come to mind:

are there other examples of de-automation? is the car-wash robot example atypical, or part of a trend? is de-automation necessarily a sign of something going wrong? (would Mason be so concerned about the guys with rags if the hand car wash industry were a well-regulated industry paying decent wages to its workers, and generating tax revenues back to the economy?)

Pipette. Run. Cry. Repeat. Comic by www.facebook.com/sketchingscience.atgc/

The victors write history

"Lost Cities" Discovered In Libya

The Garamantes were an ancient civilization, in what is today Libya, on the African northern coast.  Unfortunately for their legacy, most of what we knew about them comes from their enemies, the Romans. Unsurprisingly, the Roman accounts described the Garamantes as “barbaric nomads and troublemakers on the edge of the Roman Empire.” This view of the Garamantes as a minor, annoying tribe is being overturned by recent digs. In 2011, a team of researchers led by archaeologist David Mattingly from the University of Leicester discovered more than 100 fortified farms, towns, and villages with castle-like structures in Libya that date from 1 CE to 500 CE. The Garamantes operated a trans-Saharan trade, and were even pioneers at building oases! Hardly the “barbaric nomads” the Romans unfairly called them.

Space Station Science: Biological Research

Each month, we highlight a different research topic on the International Space Station. In August, our focus is biological research. Learning how spaceflight affects living organisms will help us understand potential health risks related to humans on long duration missions, including our journey to Mars.

Cells, microbes, animals and plants are affected by microgravity, and studying the processes involved in adaptation to spaceflight increases our fundamental understanding of biological processes on Earth. Results on Earth from biological research in space include the development of new medications, improved agriculture, advancements in tissue engineering and regeneration, and more. 

Take a look at a few of the biological research experiments performed on space station:

Biomolecule Sequencer

Living organisms contain DNA, and sequencing DNA is a powerful way to understand how they respond to changing environments. The Biomolecule Sequencer experiment hopes to demonstrate (for the first time) that DNA sequencing is feasible in an orbiting spacecraft. Why? A space-based DNA sequencer could identify microbes, diagnose diseases and understand crew member health, and potentially help detect DNA- based life elsewhere in the solar system.

Ant-stronauts

Yes, ant-stronauts…as in ants in space. These types of studies provide insights into how ants answer collective search problems. Watching how the colony adapts as a unit in the quest for resources in extreme environments, like space, provides data that can be used to build algorithms with varied applications. Understanding how ants search in different conditions could have applications for robotics.

TAGES

The TAGES experiment (Transgenic Arabidopsis Gene Expression System) looks to see how microgravity impacts the growth of plant roots. Fluorescent markers placed on the plant’s genes allow scientists to study root development of Arabidopsis (a cress plant) grown on the space station. Evidence shows that directional light in microgravity skews root growth to the right, rather than straight down from the light source. Root growth patters on station mimic that of plants grown at at 45% degree angle on Earth. Space flight appears to slow the rate of the plant’s early growth as well.

Heart Cells

Spaceflight can cause a suite of negative health effects, which become more problematic as crew members stay in orbit for long periods of time. Effects of Microgravity on Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomycytes (Heart Cells) studies the human heart, specifically how heart muscle tissue contracts, grows and changes in microgravity. Understanding how heart muscle cells change in space improves efforts for studying disease, screening drugs and conducting cell replacement therapy for future space missions.

Medaka Fish

Chew on these results…Jaw bones of Japanese Medaka fish in microgravity show decreased mineral density and increased volume of osteoclasts, cells that break down bone tissue. Results from this study improve our understanding of the mechanisms behind bone density and organ tissue changes in space.

These experiments, and many others, emphasize the importance of biological research on the space station. Understanding the potential health effects for crew members in microgravity will help us develop preventatives and countermeasures.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Samantha Payne’s startup Open Bionics allows anyone in the world to download and 3D print their own bionic limbs. 

Tilly was just 15 months old when she had to have her hand amputated after contracting meningitis septicaemia. Now, with a bionic arm from Open Bionics, Tilly can move all of her fingers and perform more complex movements. EMG sensors on her arm detect muscle movement, telling her bionic arm how quickly or firmly to squeeze its fingers.

Elytra Filament Pavilion / Achim Menges

Me thinks there's something under the Rockies

Temperatures at a depth of 10 km beneath the contiguous United States