I ran across a great article at ScienceNews wishing a happy 20th birthday to the Hubble Space Telescope. I highly recommend reading over the article, not only because it's well written and talks about the Hubble's interesting history, but also because it contains a link to a very nice slide show of Hubble's most iconic images. As it turns out, the article's author, Ron Cowen, has written some 940 articles on the 'astronomy,' 'planetary science,' and 'atoms and cosmos' beats for ScienceNews. The subjects of some of his more recent articles include the discovery and analysis of a planet outside of our solar system with a moderate temperature, the finding that a moon of Saturn may be capable of sustaining life, and updates on the Large Hadron Collider.
Unfortunately, I'm going to have to make this post a short one, as I've got a lot on my plate preparing for the SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing conference next week. Before I go, though, I thought I'd leave you with this little tidbit: NASA, partnering with General Motors, has developed a new generation of dexterous robots designed for human assistance. You can read more about them here. Really, I'm not so sure that I would be comfortable working with a robot designed to assist human astronauts. After all, I've seen a little film called 2001: A Space Odyssey. Unlike the omnipresent HAL, though, these robots are humanoid. If I had to describe the way they look, I'd call it a cross between a storm trooper and Boba Fett. And the Star Wars references don't have to stop there. The robot is the second iteration in the Robonaut line of development. This means that they call it Robonaut 2, or R2 for short. Perhaps they should add specialized models to the line. Say, for instance, a dancing Robonaut. I'm sure the first design would only be able to complete simple repetitive movements, but surely the second design would be capable of complex and fluid break-dancing. And what would we call this robot? It would only be reasonable to name it Robonaut 2 - Dance 2, of course.
Or R2D2 for short.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Yahoo!ology
Before I get down to science-y stuff, I thought I'd mention my big news of the week. To make a short story long, I follow a local cycling blog called CoMo CyCo (Columbia Missouri Cycling Cooperative). I'm very fond of this blog and read it every day. Yesterday I left a comment on one of the previous posts. And in response, the CoMo CyCo PooBah (author of said blog), gave me a shout out (sort of) on yesterday's post. So if anyone is reading this blog because they meandered over from the CyCo, I hope you find it...well...not boring?
It was also a big week for another reason. Again, to give more information than is really necessary, I use Yahoo! as my browser's homepage. I don't necessarily endorse using this site as your homepage, and I don't even necessarily endorse using its search engine capabilities. I'm just saying that I, for one, do. The primary reason that I have made Yahoo! my homepage is because I like to read through the headlines of featured stories. I find them informative at times, and it's a good way to force-feed myself the day's big news. Or at least what some schmuck in Silicon Valley thinks of as big news. The reason I'm saying all of this is because, in an unusual move by the popular search engine, two really, really science-y stories were featured on their homepage within only a couple of days of each other. I mean, it's not rare to see these types of stories featured on their page, but by 'not rare,' I mean, like, once a month. So to properly observe this fluke by the folks at Yahoo!, I thought I'd spend some time briefly describing these two stories; both of which are pretty cool.
The first story was titled 'NASA finds shrimp dinner on ice beneath Antarctica,' and basically the title sums it all up. NASA, despite that it was thought that no complex life existed below Antarctic ice sheets, dug a 600 ft hole in an Antarctic ice sheet, lowered a camera, and found...drum roll please...complex life. More specifically, they found a live shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish tentacle. The article doesn't suggest what they were actually looking for. If it was thought that no complex life existed in that environment, then why go through the trouble of digging a hole and dropping a camera? Seems odd to me. But regardless, the news is pretty groundbreaking and has opened up all sorts of new questions, not to mention new possibilities of finding life on planets where it was thought that life could not exist.
The second story was titled 'The world's only immortal animal,' and I thought this one was totally crazy. The animal that the blog is referring to is a species of jellyfish. The jellyfish uses a cellular process called transdifferentiation to revert from its adult phase back to its polyp phase, and then back again. It's somewhat comparable to an adult human with the ability to revert back to an infant, just so that they can grow up and do it all over again. And again. And again. And so on. The result is an animal that never has to die. Interestingly, because they never have to die, their populations are increasing rapidly as they are spreading around the world from their native Caribbean habitat.
So now I'll leave you to ponder our world's many natural wonders. And by all means, if you're not already a regular reader, I highly recommend checking out the CoMo CyCo blog. Particularly for Columbia residents, it's as entertaining as it is informative. Sometimes.
It was also a big week for another reason. Again, to give more information than is really necessary, I use Yahoo! as my browser's homepage. I don't necessarily endorse using this site as your homepage, and I don't even necessarily endorse using its search engine capabilities. I'm just saying that I, for one, do. The primary reason that I have made Yahoo! my homepage is because I like to read through the headlines of featured stories. I find them informative at times, and it's a good way to force-feed myself the day's big news. Or at least what some schmuck in Silicon Valley thinks of as big news. The reason I'm saying all of this is because, in an unusual move by the popular search engine, two really, really science-y stories were featured on their homepage within only a couple of days of each other. I mean, it's not rare to see these types of stories featured on their page, but by 'not rare,' I mean, like, once a month. So to properly observe this fluke by the folks at Yahoo!, I thought I'd spend some time briefly describing these two stories; both of which are pretty cool.
The first story was titled 'NASA finds shrimp dinner on ice beneath Antarctica,' and basically the title sums it all up. NASA, despite that it was thought that no complex life existed below Antarctic ice sheets, dug a 600 ft hole in an Antarctic ice sheet, lowered a camera, and found...drum roll please...complex life. More specifically, they found a live shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish tentacle. The article doesn't suggest what they were actually looking for. If it was thought that no complex life existed in that environment, then why go through the trouble of digging a hole and dropping a camera? Seems odd to me. But regardless, the news is pretty groundbreaking and has opened up all sorts of new questions, not to mention new possibilities of finding life on planets where it was thought that life could not exist.
The second story was titled 'The world's only immortal animal,' and I thought this one was totally crazy. The animal that the blog is referring to is a species of jellyfish. The jellyfish uses a cellular process called transdifferentiation to revert from its adult phase back to its polyp phase, and then back again. It's somewhat comparable to an adult human with the ability to revert back to an infant, just so that they can grow up and do it all over again. And again. And again. And so on. The result is an animal that never has to die. Interestingly, because they never have to die, their populations are increasing rapidly as they are spreading around the world from their native Caribbean habitat.
So now I'll leave you to ponder our world's many natural wonders. And by all means, if you're not already a regular reader, I highly recommend checking out the CoMo CyCo blog. Particularly for Columbia residents, it's as entertaining as it is informative. Sometimes.
Friday, March 12, 2010
The Changing Shape of Life and Polymers
There are two-fold reasons to celebrate on this somewhat cool, dreary Friday. The first reason, which anyone reading this blog probably already knows since they know me personally, is that it's my birthday.
Exciting!
The second reason is that, according to the Facebook update I just received, today's NPR Science Friday is being broadcast just down the road at the St. Louis Science Center. And for those of you who don't think this is cause for revelry and celebration, find a new blog. You're not nerdy enough for this one.
Because it's my birthday, a day that makes it unquestionably clear that I'm getting older and there's nothing I can do about, I sometimes find myself thinking of bygone days and the many birthdays that have come before. Therefore, I thought I would stick with the theme of 'memory' for this afternoon's post. If you're a neuroscientist (I've got a particular one in mind, but won't mention him by name), then you're probably going to be disappointed. I'm not talking about the biology and function of the brain's capacity to store information. Instead, I'm referring to the shape memory of materials. For the engineers among us, the first word that comes to mind when I say 'shape memory' is most likely Nitinol. Nitinol is a shape memory alloy of nickel and titanium and is commonly used as the scaffold material in angioplasty stents. The stents are designed in such a way that, at room temperature, the Nitinol scaffold constricts and collapses into a small, dense shape. A catheter is then used to place the stent at the location of a blocked blood vessel. Once in place, the Nitinol warms to body temperature and the scaffold expands, opening the blockage and restoring blood flow.
There are other materials that have this same shape memory based on temperature, and there are also other means of restoring some materials to their original shape - such as with magnetic fields or electrical current. Most of these materials have been specifically engineered for this purpose. However, a polymer produced by DuPont with the proprietary name Nafion that has been widely used in fuel cells has recently been added to the list of shape memory materials. According to an article in ScienceNews, Nafion is capable of 'remembering' three previously held shapes through cycles of heating and cooling. Even though materials with such properties are not overtly rare, it is unusual to just stumble upon one, as is the case with Nafion. It just goes to show that there's always more totally rad stuff out there to study, examine, and poke and prod.
And with that, I'm off to celebrate my birthday...and to celebrate being in the same state as Ira Flatow.
Exciting!
The second reason is that, according to the Facebook update I just received, today's NPR Science Friday is being broadcast just down the road at the St. Louis Science Center. And for those of you who don't think this is cause for revelry and celebration, find a new blog. You're not nerdy enough for this one.
Because it's my birthday, a day that makes it unquestionably clear that I'm getting older and there's nothing I can do about, I sometimes find myself thinking of bygone days and the many birthdays that have come before. Therefore, I thought I would stick with the theme of 'memory' for this afternoon's post. If you're a neuroscientist (I've got a particular one in mind, but won't mention him by name), then you're probably going to be disappointed. I'm not talking about the biology and function of the brain's capacity to store information. Instead, I'm referring to the shape memory of materials. For the engineers among us, the first word that comes to mind when I say 'shape memory' is most likely Nitinol. Nitinol is a shape memory alloy of nickel and titanium and is commonly used as the scaffold material in angioplasty stents. The stents are designed in such a way that, at room temperature, the Nitinol scaffold constricts and collapses into a small, dense shape. A catheter is then used to place the stent at the location of a blocked blood vessel. Once in place, the Nitinol warms to body temperature and the scaffold expands, opening the blockage and restoring blood flow.
There are other materials that have this same shape memory based on temperature, and there are also other means of restoring some materials to their original shape - such as with magnetic fields or electrical current. Most of these materials have been specifically engineered for this purpose. However, a polymer produced by DuPont with the proprietary name Nafion that has been widely used in fuel cells has recently been added to the list of shape memory materials. According to an article in ScienceNews, Nafion is capable of 'remembering' three previously held shapes through cycles of heating and cooling. Even though materials with such properties are not overtly rare, it is unusual to just stumble upon one, as is the case with Nafion. It just goes to show that there's always more totally rad stuff out there to study, examine, and poke and prod.
And with that, I'm off to celebrate my birthday...and to celebrate being in the same state as Ira Flatow.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Grit Your Teeth, Wipe Your Brow, and Earn That Degree
While cruising through the usual suspects of science news websites this afternoon, I came across this gem at Sciencenews.org: 'Rise of female weaponry driven by poop fights.' That's the title of an article about lady dung beetles with larger, nastier horns having a greater chance of producing viable offspring because they are more likely to win in a fight over the best poo in which to lay their eggs. All I have to say is, wow. Just...wow.
Speaking of cool headlines, I heard a pretty good one while listening to the local community radio station today. The headline said something about Michael J. Fox receiving an honorary doctorate for his work on Parkinson's Disease awareness. So I came back to the office and did a quick internet search. Sure enough, it's true. As it turns out, Fox was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He'll be receiving the award today during a ceremony in New York. Also, you might recognize the name of the institute that is giving the honorary doctorate to Fox, as it's the organization that awards the Nobel Prize in medicine.
As someone who has worked for several years now towards a PhD degree, I have mixed feelings about the 'honorary doctorate.' I must say that sometimes it really feels like one's celebrity is enough to warrant an honorary degree, despite that person never having done anything to earn it. This sort of award system, in which you give someone something for doing absolutely nothing, really flies in the face of what the doctorate degree is all about. We're talking about the highest level of formal study here, not a hand-out. Not to say that my experience during my doctorate career has been all that grueling, but it hasn't been a cake-walk either. I've had my fair share of late nights, packed days, drastic failures, and breaking points in which I wanted to pull all my hair out and call it quits. But hey, no one said it would be easy. So why should it be easy for someone else who hasn't put in the work? That's all I'm really asking here.
But Michael J. Fox is a different story. He really has put the work in. And he's been doing it a lot longer than I have. I'm willing to go so far as to say that if anyone deserves an honorary doctorate, it's him. I don't necessarily think he's the only one who deserves it, but he's way up there on the list. So I think what I'm saying is that we should all have a drink on this beautiful Friday afternoon and toast to Michael J. Fox's success. He's earned our hearty congratulations, as well as an advanced degree.
So here's to you, Mike. Cheers!
Speaking of cool headlines, I heard a pretty good one while listening to the local community radio station today. The headline said something about Michael J. Fox receiving an honorary doctorate for his work on Parkinson's Disease awareness. So I came back to the office and did a quick internet search. Sure enough, it's true. As it turns out, Fox was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He'll be receiving the award today during a ceremony in New York. Also, you might recognize the name of the institute that is giving the honorary doctorate to Fox, as it's the organization that awards the Nobel Prize in medicine.
As someone who has worked for several years now towards a PhD degree, I have mixed feelings about the 'honorary doctorate.' I must say that sometimes it really feels like one's celebrity is enough to warrant an honorary degree, despite that person never having done anything to earn it. This sort of award system, in which you give someone something for doing absolutely nothing, really flies in the face of what the doctorate degree is all about. We're talking about the highest level of formal study here, not a hand-out. Not to say that my experience during my doctorate career has been all that grueling, but it hasn't been a cake-walk either. I've had my fair share of late nights, packed days, drastic failures, and breaking points in which I wanted to pull all my hair out and call it quits. But hey, no one said it would be easy. So why should it be easy for someone else who hasn't put in the work? That's all I'm really asking here.
But Michael J. Fox is a different story. He really has put the work in. And he's been doing it a lot longer than I have. I'm willing to go so far as to say that if anyone deserves an honorary doctorate, it's him. I don't necessarily think he's the only one who deserves it, but he's way up there on the list. So I think what I'm saying is that we should all have a drink on this beautiful Friday afternoon and toast to Michael J. Fox's success. He's earned our hearty congratulations, as well as an advanced degree.
So here's to you, Mike. Cheers!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Procrastination and Dereliction
As some may have noticed, I have been consistently neglecting this blog for the past couple of weeks. First of all, I would like to apologize for doing so, as I had promised myself that I would update with a new post at least once a week. I've fallen short of this goal as of late. Second, I would like to go ahead and provide lame excuses for why I have not been tending to my affairs.
My primary excuse is that my current research project has faltered slightly - although it has really been a one-step-forward-two-steps-back sort of dance from the beginning. This would not normally be a problem, but I have a proceedings manuscript that must be submitted early next week so that I can attend an upcoming conference. As of right now, the amount of data that I have available for this manuscript is approximately zero...zip...nada. So not only am I putting up a data-gathering blitz, but I'm also preparing to write a full-length manuscript. In addition, I just received reviewer comments back from a major peer-reviewed journal to which I had submitted a paper. The reviewer requests are lengthy, and include significant editing of the paper, as well as fresh new experiments to be tacked on.
In all, I'm basically just saying that I'm very busy. But it's very important that I submit my proceedings manuscript on time. This manuscript will ensure my position as a presenter at the SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing conference in April. And I'm looking forward to taking some good notes and reporting back on some of the totally wicked stuff that is showcased at this event. In the meantime, I'll try to be more attentive to my blog. With any luck, I'll have time to add a real, live worthwhile post at the end of this week.
My primary excuse is that my current research project has faltered slightly - although it has really been a one-step-forward-two-steps-back sort of dance from the beginning. This would not normally be a problem, but I have a proceedings manuscript that must be submitted early next week so that I can attend an upcoming conference. As of right now, the amount of data that I have available for this manuscript is approximately zero...zip...nada. So not only am I putting up a data-gathering blitz, but I'm also preparing to write a full-length manuscript. In addition, I just received reviewer comments back from a major peer-reviewed journal to which I had submitted a paper. The reviewer requests are lengthy, and include significant editing of the paper, as well as fresh new experiments to be tacked on.
In all, I'm basically just saying that I'm very busy. But it's very important that I submit my proceedings manuscript on time. This manuscript will ensure my position as a presenter at the SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing conference in April. And I'm looking forward to taking some good notes and reporting back on some of the totally wicked stuff that is showcased at this event. In the meantime, I'll try to be more attentive to my blog. With any luck, I'll have time to add a real, live worthwhile post at the end of this week.
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