If you ate way too much Thanksgiving food, like I did, and you feel like you’re still lying around in a coma, you might be interested to know that the tryptophan actually ISN’T to blame. Want to know more?
Monthly Archives: November 2008
This Week’s BioBites: Stuffed with Thanksgiving goodness!
Filed under Lucy Q.
Dancing Scientists
You read that right. It’s a little bit scary and a little bit awesome. Many scientists recently participated in a contest to describe their work through dance. The scientists posted their videos on youtube, and a winner was chosen by a panel of both scientists and professional dancers. Here’s our personal favorite, performed by a group of grad students:
Read more about the competition and see the other winners here!
Filed under Lucy K.
You are what you eat… and what your grandma ate?
There are a lot of crazy diet fads out there, and sometime in the future, when the technology is right, maybe there will be another: get in a time machine and tell your grandmothers to eat healthier food while they were pregnant with your parents. That is, if it turns out that the obesity in humans, like mice, can be affected by the diet of people two generations back.
I want more candy!
The organic stuff, please!
My brain hurts!
Filed under Lucy Q.
Jurassic Park, Designer Organs, and a Single-Celled Giant!
This week in science (as usual) is full of all kinds of cool stories and amazing discoveries! Scientists have managed to grow a new windpipe from stem cells, decode the genome of the mammoth, find the oldest family, and more!
Filed under Lucy K.
The secret life of cells
I’ll admit it, I’m biased. I think cells are pretty cool. But even if you don’t, you should really check out the video below. In spite of it’s scientific theme, it was produced by the kind of people who make things like Finding Nemo and Shrek, in addition to the ones in the labcoats. And remember, everything depicted in the video is happening in your cells at this very second.
And yes, the little guy walking with the ball is real!
Want to learn more? Check out the official BioVisions website!
Filed under Lucy Q.
Brain Power = Longer Life?
Study up! Smart people have been shown to live longer.
Filed under Lucy K.
This Week’s BioBites: Why do birds sing? (And other mysteries of life…)
One thing that fascinates many scientists is the question of behavior. Why do different species act the way that they do? And what about different individuals within species? Is it programmed in their genes? Is it programmed in their brains? Is it determined by their environment and social interactions? This week we report on some amazing behaviors from around the animal (and human) world… and more! Wonder what species can sleep with half their brain at a time? Want to know what species elects their leaders?
Read this week’s BioBites!
Photo provided by Gaetan Lee (cc)
Filed under Lucy Q.
Welcome to Wednesdays!
You read that right folks! Biobites will now be posting not once, not twice, but three times a week! And just to keep it interesting during the mid-week slump, we’ll be mixing it up and posting all kinds of stuff. Basically whatever we feel like, as long as it’s science related. So if you have any suggestions or questions just let us know and we’ll do our best to answer them! And to get us started…
Filed under Lucy K.
Genetically engineered tomatoes are purple, contain antioxidants, not babies
This week, scientists from the UK have published a study describing how they genetically engineered a purple tomato enriched with antioxidants that could provide potent health benefits (see the links for a picture). This reminded me instantly of a paper I wrote back in college for a Science and Politics class about the irresponsibility of the Greenpeace campaign against genetically modified food. In my research, I came across a picture from their campaign of a fetus growing in a tomato (hint: this is completely ignorant and inflammatory). Since that was some time ago, I was worried I might not be able to find it to share with you, but luckily, Google remembers all things. So genetically modified foods – friend or foe? Or perhaps we could start with a little game called genetically modified food… fact or fiction?
A Historic Week!
This week in science can’t quite compare to the excitement in politics this week, but we’ll try by telling you a bit about the science of politics!
Filed under Lucy K.
BioBites 