It's a good thing my 13 yr old doesn't read my blog. Why? Because I'm on to her. Being a biologist, well, acronyms are my life. And, for a long time, I've been able to interpret some of the lingo that she uses on AIM. Lately, we've certainly been having ...
Biologist 1: How many physicists does it take to write a research paper? Biologist 2 ( looks at the citation above): "all of them?" I wrote about the challenges that biologists and computer scientists have in deciding who's on first. But after finding some physics papers in PubMed by mistake ...
Then you need to head over to The Oyster's Garter and read Miriam Goldstein's incredibly funny post about the problems of male sea squirts. Apparently, if you're a sea squirt, the size of your sperm is related to your environment and mostly the number of other sea squirts in your ...
`When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, `I always pay it extra.' -Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll In biology, we often ask our words do a lot of work. In what other field would we write direction like this "Transfer ...
If you're still awake tomorrow after the feast and managing to withstand the sopoforic effects of the tryptophan from the turkey and the carbohydrates from the potatoes and pie, you might want to consider doing a little science at home. Fellow SciBlings Tara Smith ( here & here), Mike Dunford ...
On Tuesday night, we learned about a new animal. It's shy, elusive, endangered, and a bad choice for a sixth grader's animal report. It's the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. They have an FAQ page and photos, so it must be true.
In academic biology, scientific publications are a serious thing. People battle over positions in the author list and debate endlessly over who should be on the paper and who should not. The funny thing is that sometimes we think that our rules and standards apply to other fields of science ...
My dog has an interesting ( okay, disgusting!) habit of rolling in the smelliest stuff she can find when we go on walks. Everything that I've read about dogs - and this probably includes fiction - explains her behavior as "the dog is hiding her scent." I know it seems ...
Yikes, I've spilled some DHMO on my hands! What do I do now? Do you know the truth about DHMO? Look at this web site and tell me if you still want to go swimming.
I've written before about some of the explainable reasons why lab procedures don't work. I forgot to add that sometimes experiments don't work because of outside forces that have nothing to do with your technique, inability to do algebra, or poor experimental design. Sometimes, the whole thing is just doomed ...
Is it real or is it April Fools? The March 21st issue of Science has an interesting news article by Elizabeth Pennisi and a letter to the editor about a proposal to wikify GenBank. Currently, the NCBI holds the original authors responsible for editing or correcting entries and this does ...
ScienceOnline 2010 was one of the most amazing meetings I've attended in a long time and it's going to take some time to process it all, but in the mean time, it seems other bloggers ( phylogenomics, CogSci, and Ed) have started one of those meme things and so, here ...
If you're not cooking today, why not experiment? Here's something fun you can do with Mentos and Diet Coke - and for those of you who think these experiments are too messy, you can still watch the movie. Enjoy the music in the video, then go outside, and enjoy the ...
I know it's strange! I never thought I would actually go to web sites ( intentionally!) to watch computer ads. But the Mac guy is so cute! And the ads with Mac and PC are sooo funny! I think these little film clips rank right up there with Steven Colbert ...
Pet cloning is back! Pets are funny things. Some owners find their pets to be closer than some human friends, other owners never really bond with their pets at all. BioArts, a California biotech company, founded by ex-CEO of the now defunct Genetic Savings & Clone, is counting on the ...
White Trash Christmas. This is the perfect antidote to the Frosty, Rudolph, and The Little Drummer Boy overdose. From the Seattle animators, formerly known as ToonedIn, now Global Wonder Entertainment.
Every fall, we had to confront it. People would let their dogs run around on the field in the morning and by the time soccer practice started, the field would be full of deadly doo. There's nothing that hurts soccer practice more than a soccer ball or shoes that went ...
I read about this in Science and immediately had to check it out. Instant gratification on the internet is such a wonderful thing! The Ed Kravitz lab has made movies of fights and even put them on the web for your viewing pleasure. You can see the following fly fights ...
PZ tells us that the people in Kensington have strong opinions about who discovered North America, and you can learn about them at the Kensington Runestone Museum. But I can top that. I saw an authentic Viking ship replica in Duluth, MN. And if you're ever in Duluth - better ...
Lots of new and curious gift selections are available this year for those of you who had a dog or know a dog owner. All kinds of interesting doggie presents are showing up, like doggie DNA tests and special nutrigenomic doggy diets. And of course, nothing tops the gift of ...
I wrote earlier about videos of lab protocols and the benefit these could bring to people who are trying to learn new techniques or perhaps troubleshoot their own. Unfortunately, I suspect that the people who would benefit the most from movies of others doing lab procedures correctly are those who ...
I received a mysterious file last week, via e-mail from one of my students. According the e-mail, the file contained the answers to an assignment. I downloaded the file and double-clicked it. Nada. I did notice that the file had an unusual extension. Most Word documents have ".doc" at the ...
Not content with his recent exploits in human experimentation and cavorting with Plosites in San Francisco, Professor Steve Steve jetted across the country once again, last week, hitting both both Blacksburg, VA and Seattle, WA, and creating pandemonium wherever he went. And raising the question - how does he get ...
Professor Steve Steve, recently accused of consorting with a certain Washington madam came clean today with an alibi that he claims, proves the allegations are nothing more than malicious lies. Dr. Steve insists that he was at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center doing experiments with teachers! And he has ...
Can you tell the difference between the sort of person who would write a programming language and a serial killer? It's getting close to Halloween so this is a good time to test your powers of detection. Malevole has a lovely survey that asks if you can tell whether a ...
I want my genome sequenced, too! Apparently, it's become a popular thing to get your genome sequenced. Craig Venter was the first. Jim Watson's genome (of Project Jim) was ceremonially released this morning (courtesy of 454), and now George Chuch, Larry King, cosmologist Stephen Hawking, Google co-founder Larry Page, Microsoft ...
It was a quiet day at the Seattle FolkLife Festival. But there were signs that PZ might be lurking about. At least a few people seemed to think so. Did they think this guy was PZ in disguise?
Judging from their groans and moans, I think sometimes that it's hard for kids to grow up with two scientists as parents. Still, over the years our kids have come to accept (and ignore) that we seem to babble in some kind of strange code peppered with discussions of DNA ...
Okay, watching some of the other movies makes me realize that I've been very negligent in not uploading ours. Without further ado, here it is. Can you guess the age of the person who made the movie? I'll give you a hint. It wasn't me.
A few weeks ago, I asked if you, dear readers would be able to tell the difference between a computer scientist and a serial killer. Now, I've seen the crowds at the UW computational biology seminars and I've also seen pictures of serial killers in the newspaper. I don't think ...
Thanks to Steven Colbert you can hear about DNA directly from Dr. Spencer Wells from the National Genographic Project. I read about this video in the GenomeWeb Daily Scan and had to check it out. Who would have thought scientists could be so funny? Watch it quick! There was a ...
Microbiologist develop some strange habits when it comes to food. Some take a fatalistic approach. They reason that microbes are everywhere, we're going to die anyway, we might as well eat dirt and make antibodies. You know these people. They quote things like the " 10 second rule" when food ...
Yesterday, I posted a memorial for Ron Mardigian, an enthusiastic champion of science education at Bio-Rad. Today, I scanned RPM's blog and what do I see? A choir! Bio-Rad has produced a really funny music video. It reminds me of the music video from "We are the World," except some ...
Leave it to those wacky Korean cloners. In December 2008, scientists from Gyeongsang National University gave us fluorescent kitties. Now, we have cute little puppies! These aren't the first cloned pets on the market, we have stores that sell glowing fish. But these clones have a bit higher price tag ...
Reposted from Halloween 2006. Since Ben shared his family's taxonomy of candy types, and it's Friday, after all, I thought I'd share some of things that we do with candy around our house and describe some fun things that you can do with candy at home. Materials and methods. First ...
David Ng from The World's Fair has made this wonderful video on public speaking. Or shall we say the funnier side of public speaking? I really enjoyed it! I'd say Dave's video ranks right up there with one of my other favories, the classic: " Chicken chicken chicken"
At the Seattle Art Museum's new sculpture garden, we can read all the signs. The artworks are easily offended. The unsanctioned baby eaglets have disappeared. The grass won't grow without your help. We pay attention to the grass.
You're not likely to see the Twisted Chipmunk Christmas Song on the big screen this weekend. But, if you liked White Trash Christmas, you'll enjoy this irreverent holiday video. From the Seattle animators, formerly known as ToonedIn, now Global Wonder Entertainment.
Chad Orzel posted a cute bit about True Lab Stories: The Party Game. I like these things because, yes, they make it clear that those of us who do science put coffee cups on top of our cars and drive off, just like everyone else. For those of who are ...
I found that one of the most challenging things in moving from an academic institution to a software company was getting used to the difference between software engineers and biologists. Now at last, we biologists can start to understand the mysterious ways of software engineers with this helpful reference from ...
I probably shouldn't find this amusing, but... Back a few years ago, a friend of mine worked at a biotech company in Seattle that had large windows looking out onto Puget Sound. They always cheered when the Navy ships came in, 'cause they knew it meant they'd have more work ...
It justs gets weirder and weirder. moar funny pictures You can find more of the story and more puppy pictures here. H/T to Jennifer - one of erv's commeters.
Long ago, I worked in a large lab that was divided into several small rooms. For part of that time, I shared one of the small rooms with a graduate student from Taiwan. She was a wonderful person who taught me that many cultural norms are not normal in other ...
What happens when a biologist tries to talk with the IT group? Needless to say, they don't speak the same language. Reposted from the archives. Imagine this. You've been sequencing DNA for a few years now, perhaps ESTs, or something else, and storing files on your local network. Your system ...
This wasn't in the lab, but it was an accident, and it was funny later on. Normally, I wouldn't think twice about storing bacterial cultures in a refrigerator. After all, bacteria on a petri plate, inside of a plastic bag, are kind of stuck. They can't get out of the ...
