Archive for June, 2007
Seeing as the recent post about a wooden calculator proved so popular, here’s a look at another carpentry creation: a pocket watch made from wood. Excellent timepiece blog The Watchismo times found this Russian creation, dating back to around the turn of the century (no, not the one just gone). Some sources claim that the watch is entirely made out of wood, but I doubt it - the power source in pocketwatches is a tightly coiled metal spring, and I just can’t see wood living up to that task. Still, a marvellous creation!
June 12th, 2007
Much ado was made about the recent reports in the press of a man who was discovered to have dark-green blood. The patient was undergoing emergency surgery at St Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver when the surprised doctors discovered the 42-year-old’s migraine medication had caused a condition known as sulfhaemoglobinaemia, where sulfur is taken up into the oxygen carrying compound in red blood cells.
This comes as no surprise to biology students, who are aware that a fabulous palette exists for blood varieties, dependent upon what molecule is used to carry oxygen through the body. In human beings, iron atoms at the centre of each haemoglobin molecule are responsible for binding to oxygen, giving our blood a bright red colour when oxygenated (i.e. in the arteries) and deep red when deoxygenated (in the veins).
Now, were you to remove that iron and replace it with copper, you would have the second most widely-used oxygen carrier: haemocyanin. This molecule is colourless when deoxygenated, but becomes a delightful pale blue when bound with oxygen. It is perhaps most famously found in that living fossil, the Horseshoe Crab, although it is also present in many molluscs and arthropods. Although inferior to haemoglobin as an oxygen transporter, haemocyanin is highly sensitive to impurities, a property that has many uses in medical science and lends it a hefty price tag of around $15,000 per litre.
Another crab, the Common Shore Crab, displays a whole myriad of colours in its blood. Typically colourless, the blood turns pink (especially in males) just before a period of moulting. In females, the onset of maturity of the ovaries is signalled by the blood taking on a yellow colour.
Another type of oxygen carrier is chlorocruorin, found in polycheate worms. Solutions of this pigment are green when dilute but vivd red at higher concentrations. And then there are the bottom dwelling worms that use a moelcule called hemerythrin. This is colourless in the veins but when oxygenated becomes bright pink or violet. Finally, small creatures known as sea squirts use a pigment called vandium chromagen, which gives them green coloured blood - although it can also appear blue or orange in the presence of other chemicals in the blood.
So as you can see, blood comes in a true rainow of hues, although in humans, red is still very much de rigueur. For more detailed information on blood varieties, including a discussion of theoretical blood colours that could be found in aliens, see here.
June 9th, 2007
The strange and beautiful machine shown above is a reconstruction of a mechanical calculator built by mathematician and inventor Thomas Fowler in the 1830s. The orignal machine has long since been lost, and precious few clues to its design and construction exist. Painstaking research by Pamela Vass and David Hogan eventually pieced together enough information to allow them to start building their own machine, aided by Mark Glusker. Together this team were able to construct the first working model of Fowler’s ternary calculating machine in over 150 years.
What I love about story is three-fold: here is a project spread over several years pursued by a small group of everyday people in their own time, fuelled purely by their own passion for the subject and desire to publicise this incredible device. Second, the machine uses an unusual counting system - ternary. The easiest way to describe it is like this: if binary uses two digits, 0 and 1, ternary uses three - 0, 1 and 2. So the numbers one to five would be written: 1, 2, 10, 11, 12. Remember that in Fowler’s day, the decimal currency system was still a long way off, and he had to deal with complicated and awkward calculations involving shillings, farthings and crowns. I imagine this had something to do with his decision to work with a base-3 system. Finally, the machine itself is beautiful and elegant in its construction, a true work of art.
As if that wasn’t enough, the website itself is beautifully laid out, illustrating the history, design and construction of Thomas Fowler’s calculator with a clarity and concision that makes me green with envy. Top marks all round, Science Punks! (link)
June 8th, 2007
Lest anyone think from the last post that I hold some kind of animosity toward physics, let me say: I do. It’s indecipherable, absurdly abstract, and I failed my A level in it. That last point is probably where I get hung up most. Anyway, even a bitter biology graduate like me can see the importance of physics and what it gave us: microwaves and nuclear bombs and gyroscopes (no cold fusion yet though - suck it up, physicists!). I’m not the only one who can see the importance of these cats. It seems physicists are a favourite amongst postage stamp illustrators, from Syria to Senegal. You can visit this site to see literally hundreds of different physicists immortalised on small pieces of gummed paper. Truly, there is no greater honour.
Kudos goes to whoever can find me the most valuable scientist. Bohr clocks in at a respectable $2, but they’re Dominican dollars, and I’m a little rusty on my 1975 exchange rates.
June 7th, 2007
This is what I was always thinking when I had to work through physics problems at school. I didn’t realise that copy editors felt the same way…
June 6th, 2007
Over at the Transform blogspot, Steve R has written an account of the recent shocking revelation that a study of air quality in Rome found traceable amounts of cocaine floating around in the air. Rather than point out the benefit of free charlie, or make the sensible point that this proves having cocaine detected on your clothing shouldn’t necessarily be incriminating, Dr. Ivo Allegrini decided to indulge in a bit of fear mongering by warning of the supposed risks. Steve counters:
Assuming that one active dose of cocaine is about 100mg (consumed in one go), then at 0.1ng per cubic metre that means one dose in 10^12 cubic metres, i.e. a cube of air 10km each side. So, that’s roughly the amount of air you’d breathe in 2 billion, billion, billion, billion, billion (2×10^15) breaths*. Or, put another way, normal breathing for somewhere in the region of two hundred million years (+ or - a few million years, depending on age/body weight/lung capacity etc).
Link
June 5th, 2007
One of the advantages of being a bottom-rung data monkey in a large corporate office is that I have enough spare time and energy to create awesome things like SciencePunk.com. One of the disadvantages is that I am unceremoniously jettisoned like unwanted trash whenever they need to save a few pennies. This is actually the second time I’ve been disposed of in this manner by this company, even after two years of promising me full time employment - such is life for us shiny graduates.
So posts may become more or less frequent, probably the latter as I’ll have to put in a concerted effort to find gainful employment, and that’s hard work.
It could be worse: it’s the summer, the Liverpool World Museum is free-entry, and it’s warm enough to doze in the park, drunk on cheap cider with all the other dole scum.
I’ve added a neat-o link at the top of the site which will clock up my time as a benefits waster. You see, even in unemployment, I am awesomely creative.
PS - please give me a job.
June 4th, 2007
I don’t usually take a swing at fundamentalist Christians on this site, even when they try to undermine science, because there are already plenty of excellent sites defending reason. However, I couldn’t resist posting this, because even though it’s obviously the product of some humourous atheist, it kind of really is what those crazy fundies believe.
June 4th, 2007
The BBC came down with a nasty bout of reefer madness yesterday when it published this article, subtly titled: “My lungs are damaged beyond repair”. It tells the story of Samantha, a serious stoner who, at 37, has been diagnosed with emphysema. Not a nice condition, her lungs look like Swiss cheese and there’s no cure.
Now when I say serious stoner, I mean this girl was, as the kids say, “chronic”. Samantha admitted to smoking 10 spliffs a day for the last TWENTY years. That’s a lot of weed. And a lot of tobacco.
The BBC then decides to take the Independent / Daily Mail philosophy of: “If it’s not been proved it safe, assume it’s dangerous”, and we’re treated to a delightful blend of doomsaying and speculation. Playing the role of ‘concerned expert’ is Dr Onn Min Kon, who has some vague anecdotes and a plan to perform a study comparing the lungs of cannabis smokers with regular tobacco junkies. Plan, as in, he hasn’t done it yet, and there aren’t any hard facts on this line of thought. Now, I’m not saying cannabis is harmless. But there’s a lot more evidence that tobacco isn’t.
It’s a confusing world we live in, where news comes before results and opinions suffice in the absence of facts.
June 3rd, 2007
It seems every man and his dog is barking on about DNA these days, from beauty products that claim to repair broken DNA to wolf criers who claim soda pop damages it. But what is DNA? What does it even look like? Well, over at the very excellent Science and Progress, kitchen-sink scientist Coracle has posted a DIY guide to extracting DNA from a humble lettuce. “But wait”, I hear you cry, “DNA is so small, I couldn’t possibly see it without a microscope”. Don’t be so sure - in under 15 minutes, with nothing but a few common household items, you too can extract a stringy mass of gooey white DNA! All that remains is to splice it with pig and tomato DNA and grow a one-stop sandwich filler plant!
For this reason, Coracle is the latest addition to the esteemed ranks of our Science Punks.
June 2nd, 2007
Something special happened in May - SciencePunk.com clocked up over 10,000 individual visitors in just one month. Wow! I’d like to say a huge thanks to everyone who’s been here, and especially those who’ve left comments - many of which have made me think harder about whatever issue I was writing about and also enriched everyone’s reading experience.
For new readers, updates are fairly regular, you might like to try the RSS feed. Don’t be scared if you’ve never used these before! Think of it as a bookmark that shows you when I’ve posted some fantastic, witty new article. Try it: click the link on the main page under the “feeds” heading.
The next milestone will be the one million hits mark - and we’re already halfway there! Thanks again everyone and keep reading - there’s plenty more bad science to be punked yet.
June 1st, 2007
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