Vengeful birds, an anti-cancer vitamin, new species, and more!

Say good-bye to Blu-ray. The CD of the future is coming soon.

Cancer protection in people with Down syndrome could someday lead to an anti-cancer vitamin.

That bird that keeps pooping on your head? It DOES have a grudge against you!

The top 10 new species of 2008, including a tiny seahorse and bacteria that live in hairspray (eww).

Eek! Time to switch from polycarbonate bottles to stainless steel. BPA really is as bad as they say.

What do owning an iPhone and going to Harvard have in common? According to this article, the desire to impress the opposite sex.

Photo by Adam Foster

Tea, sharks, baboons, Chernobyl and more in this week’s BioBites!

A tea traditionally used in Africa may help control type-2 diabetes.

Network, network, network. It’s one of the best ways to be successful. Even if you’re a baboon.

How can plants manage to survive fallout from Chernobyl? Find out here!

You wouldn’t think a five-ton shark would be hard to find.

Nice guys don’t always finish last.

Intended to go running but didn’t quite make it? It doesn’t matter to your brain.

Photo by Tambako the Jaguar

Can you pay attention long enough for this week’s biobites?

Have trouble paying attention? Help may be on the way.

A genius’ epic failure is worth keeping.

Yeast are going to space.

Happy kids grow up to be healthy adults.

It may not be a space station, but Stephen Colbert gets something named after him.

Stoplights lead to healthier food choices

It turns out that babies are pretty smart.

10 billion times stronger than steel: it’s not a bird, it’s not a plane, it’s star crust.

We aren’t the only ones to change the climate. Early microbes brought on the first ice age by producing oxygen, (which also allowed the evolution of eukaryotes… and millions of years later, humans).

Photo by Spigoo

Coolest Science Website Ever (well, almost ever!)

This website www.molecularmovies.com pulls together many of the amazing science animations available on the web. These are great resources for learning, understanding, or even just some good old procrastination. Even when we Lucies don’t understand the videos, we still like watching them! In most cases if you want to know more the website can provide some basic information. And if you’re a scientist looking to create some of these amazing videos this website also has tons of free resources.

Check out one of the videos here and then visit the website for many more!

Baseball and Science

It’s baseball season again! Although, really, the Northeast, it’s always baseball season. And what goes together with baseball better than science? Well, maybe beer, but here’s some science anyway, all from the ever wonderful New York Times.

In honor of opening day, computer-simulated baseball. (No, not fantasy baseball.)

This doctor has a unique empathy for her patients.

Babies are the glue that holds our society together, literally.

Database google searches, coming soon to a computer near you.

Ignorance really IS bliss.

Fat that burns calories!?

Why pride can be good, even if there’s not much to be proud about.

Photo by Shutter Daddy

Grad School Strikes

As you all know, we Lucies are hard-working grad students. Recently we’ve been a little more hard-working than usual so we haven’t had time for our favorite procrastination past-time, posting to BioBites. Alas, the situation will probably not improve for a few more weeks so bear with us as we try to get some work done in lab! We’ll post when we can.

Here’s a few science stories to keep you tided over till we return to our regular schedule:

Wash your mouth out with soap! It’s teeming with bacteria.

Another great reason to drink wine (as if you needed one!)

The modern human foots turns out to be a lot like the ancient human foot.

Photo by Move The Clouds

An upside to hyena dung

Happy President’s Day, to those of you who got a day off! Our boss scheduled a meeting today, in spite of the holiday, so Lucy K. and I were busy slaving in the lab. In celebration of the holiday, some light science fare today.

Did you know…

…that hyena dung can preserve human hair for 200,000 years?

…that a famous actor is going to restart the Large Hadron Collider?

…that supersized calories are in our kitchens, not just at McDonald’s?

…that a green comet is passing by next week?

Photo courtesy of dean.franklin

Happy (almost) Darwin Day!

Tomorrow, February 12th, is a big day in the world of biology – it’s Darwin’s 200th birthday! Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution was born on February 12, 1809, and published his famous book “On the Origin of Species” about 50 years later. Scientists around the globe are planning events to celebrate Darwin’s discovery, as well as scientific innovation generally. There are a variety of talks and events aimed at the public.

To find out about Darwin Day and events near you, check out http://www.darwinday.org

Photo courtesy of lofaesofa

What does the stimulus mean for Science?

Like the rest of the US, scientists are looking to see what piece of the stimulus package we’ll get. Under recent administration policies science funding has stagnated. When Obama mentioned science in his inaugural address scientists across the US cheered. Now that the new HUGE stimulus package is appearing, what does it really mean for science? Until a bill passes not much, but here’s what may be coming.
Two of the major sources of grant funding for academia, the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) could each be receiving around $3 billion. The Department of Energy and the Department of Defense (Biodefense) may receive $40 billion and $900 million, respectively. Other science related agencies may also receive additional funding.
So what does it all mean? Well, first the bill will have to be passed. After that happens, hopefully we’ll begin to see the funding distributed. Additional funding means more scientists and more discoveries. This will benefit the general public in a number of ways. Some of the effects will be immediate, like more jobs generated, both for scientists, and for those people that build equipment and consumables that scientists use. Some discoveries will have an effect over the next few years, like those associated with green technology. Other benefits will not be felt for years to come, since the drug discovery process takes years. Other effects will be less tangible but no less important. More money will hopefully encourage more Americans to become scientists, which will help America maintain her place as a world leader in science and innovation.
No matter what happens with the stimulus, more money for science benefits everyone.

Want to know more? Check out the policy blog from
Science magazine.

Photo provided by Steve Wampler.

More Evidence that Google is AWESOME!

More reasons to love Google, some great news about your energy bill, and more. Check it out in
this week’s BioBites!