friday finds - science chic

it's all things scientific this week ;)

1. vintage molecular model via Cathode Blue
wouldn't you just love to decorate with a bunch of these?

2. amoeba and paramecium felt magnets by What? No Mints
i love love these little magnets and might already have a few on the fridge... probably need a few more...

3. The Good Thing About Science print by Chris Piascik
the gospel as preached by the MAN.

4. dendrite stainless steel brooch by Nervous System
such a stunning statement piece

5. beaker air plant via Tortoise Loves Donkey
i should probably start pilfering glassware from work to start a little desktop garden...

TGIF.
if you need me, i'll be sleeping.

did you know that? this sh*t is BANANAS

ok, so i used to be obsessed with Bill Nye the Science Guy when i was young. i mean WHO WASN'T? (ok probably most normal children, but you don't grow up to become a molecular biologist without a few early warning signs).

but anyway, i used to love this little segment he would have on his show called "Did You Know That" where you would be told some awesome little fact and then informed that "Now You Know!" so i was thinking that in my quest to try and make this blog a little more true to who i am as a person (which is multifaceted layers of awesome a giant nerd) that i would start a new recurring post wherein i share some awesome little fact or tidbit that i have acquired in the last week. think of all the interesting cocktail party conversations you will have!

so i'll start off today with BANANAS. did you know that you have essentially eaten the same banana your whole life? unless you are lucky enough to live somewhere where there are lovely local banana varieties (apparently the best tasting ones are in the Philippines) you have been eating the exact same clone of the Cavendish banana your whole life (this means each banana is genetically identical). and this is a GLOBAL phenomenon. a person over in China is eating the same banana twin as a person in Brazil and its identical to what i threw in my smoothie this morning here in the US.

this in itself kind of blew my mind. then i went on to learn that our beloved banana is now threatened by killer unstoppable banana fungus. sadly this is not such a happy tale and actually could threaten the future of our bananas. crazy enough, this actually happened before about 50 years ago and wiped out the type of banana our grandparents used to love. so be nice to your bananas, appreciate them. and lets hope some cool scientists can come along and save them soon!

oh and i'm totally not a banana expert. to learn more go check out Dan Koeppel's book Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World and listen to his interview on Fresh Air

photo source (1 / 2 via 3)

brokenships

i heard this story on NPR this weekend about a touring museum displaying the artifacts from ended relationships. people have donated anything from letters and clothing to grand pianos and prosthetic limbs. for some reason i find the idea of this collection to be both overwhelmingly melancholy and extremely enthralling - i think i love the idea of looking at a simple household item that has such an emotional history.

it's also interesting to note that the two museum curators were once romantically involved.

the above images are all taken from the Museum of Broken Relationships.

so would you visit? is there something you would donate?

scientists!

as i have said before, amongst other things, i am a scientist. i'm in graduate school and i work in a malaria lab (sadly this sounds cooler than it actually is these days...)

so i thoroughly enjoyed this school project where 7th graders were asked to draw and write descriptions of scientists before and after actually visiting a lab. hilarious.

this is my favorite description and pretty much sums me up.

"When I think of a scientist I think of brainy and very weird people. I think of lots of bottles with chemicals in them. I think of explosions with chemicals. I think of tiny little disks with data information on them. I think of little gadgets that are used for things that I do not know what they are."

haha or not.

check out all the drawings here: Drawings of Scientists

oh and there was scientist identification test over at NY Times this week: Name That Scientist and i totally scored a seriously sweet 7/10 on this.

boooyah. nerd pride.

just because

gotta love that google is giving a shout out to Gregor Mendel today on the anniversary of his birth in 1822. he was one cool monk and the father of modern genetics ;) much of his work was done with breeding peas and observing the inheritance patterns of different traits.

man i loved those punnett squares in high school biology...

space!

allow me to nerd out for a little, but the final launch of NASA's 30 year space shuttle program is set to lift off in a little under two hours from now (weather permitting of course). i'm always happy to see a lot of excitement and interest over what is essentially a giant science experiment, so i'm a little sad to see the program end. at last year's annual department retreat held at the university i attend, our keynote speaker was the director of NASA's jet propulsion lab. even though as a biologist i have little understanding of what that actually means, she gave such an excellent talk and really conveyed the importance of the role of the work done in space (such as launching and maintaining the satellites that allow for tracking and predicting weather patterns as well as monitoring for climate change and other important geological changes).

so here's wishing all of the astronauts a safe trip and in their honor i've collected a few space-related finds for this friday ;)

1. galaxy dress
2. meteorite necklace by the angry weather
3. print by Ditty Drops
4. astronaut cat tote by Lucius Art

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UPDATE: lift off!


woo! watch video footage here and feel like a kid ;)