Science A la Mode

My last joke...

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:24:00 +0000

It's a little ummm.... it made me laugh.... well you'll see:

A man escapes from a prison where he had been kept for 15 years.As he runs away, he finds a house and breaks into it, looking for money and guns, but only finds a young couple in bed.He orders the guy out of bed and ties him up in a chair. While tying the girl up to the bed, he gets on top of her, kisses heron the neck, then gets up, and goes to the bathroom.While he's in there, the husband tells his wife, "Listen, this guy is an escaped prisoner, look at his clothes! He probably spent lots of time in jail, and hasn't seen a woman in years. I saw how he kissed your neck. If he wants sex, don't resist, don't complain, just do what he tells you, just give him satisfaction. This guy must be dangerous, if he gets angry, he'll kill us.Be strong, honey. I love you."To which the wife responds, "He was not kissing my neck. He was whispering in my ear. He told me he was gay, thought you were cute, and asked if we kept any Vaseline in the bathroom.Be strong, honey, I love you, too."

Will this be me one day?

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:22:00 +0000

An unemployed biologist was having considerable difficulty in finding a new job. He finally saw an add in a local newspaper for a position at a zoo. In the interview, the manager told him that their only gorilla, which had been a star attraction, had recently died, and it would be sometime before they could replace it. Meanwhile, they needed someone to dress up as a gorilla and pretend to be the animal. The biologist was quite embarrassed, but, being desperate for money, he accepted the job. The next day, the biologist put on a gorilla skin and headgear and entered a cage from a rear entrance. Visitors smiled at him and threw bread. After a while, the biologist really got into the act. He jumped up and down, beat his chest and roared as people cheered. The following day, the biologist entered the wrong cage by accident and found himself staring at a lion. The lion roared and rushed toward him. The scared biologist turned and ran, while screaming, "Help! Help!" The lion leaped onto the gorilla, knocked him to the ground and whispered in his ear, "Hey, it's me Leonard, your former co-worker. Shut up or we'll both lose our jobs!"

My last quote.....

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:13:00 +0000

"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."

-By Oscar Wilde

My Last try....

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:10:00 +0000

LOL

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:04:00 +0000

Okay now this one is funny!

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:01:00 +0000

R U Laughing?

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:00:00 +0000

Did you know....

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:56:00 +0000

Atomic clocks are quite complex, but the basic theory is simple: the transitions of a cesium atom as it moves back and forth between two energy levels are counted to keep time

The basenji, an African wolf dog, is the only dog that cannot bark.

The first film director to discover Hollywood was D.W. Griffith, who filmed In Old California there in 1910. California was ideal for early films partly because its reliable weather and bright sunlight - but also because it was as far as possible from Thomas Edison, who held most of the patents relating to motion pictures.

Dementia is not inevitable as you age. An American study of centenarians (those who reach the age of 100) found that 30 per cent of them worldwide reach the age of 100 cognitively intact. Unfortunately, that does mean that if you reach the age of 100 there is a 7 in 10 chance that you will suffer from dementia.

Skydivers reach a terminal velocity of about 120 miles per hour (190 km/hr) if they spread eagle themselves to maximise their air resistance, but a velocity of 150 mph (240 km/hr) if they assume a head-down position like a high-board diver about to enter the water.

Today's Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:08:00 +0000

I've been studying faithfully for the past two days and tomorrow I will take my first final for the semester. Some of the information is really complicated and I'm getting really frustrated trying to memorize the information so today's quote represents my struggle.

"Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument. The memories which lie within us are not carved in stone; not only do they tend to become erased as the years go by, but often they change, or even increase by incorporating extraneous features."

By Primo Levi

Now do you think professors will give us a break? I guess not, huh :-(

More Fun Facts I Learned Today

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:01:00 +0000

The process of photosynthesis traps energy from the Sun and stores it in chemical bonds in carbohydrate molecules, most notably in the six-carbon sugar called glucose.

The most accurate clocks in the world are the new atomic fountain clocks, in which thousands of extremely cold atoms are tossed gently into a vacuum chamber, where they fall under gravity's pull. The vibrations of the atoms at the top of the fountain are measured, where they are practically motionless for a fraction of a second before they fall.

Duplication in the human genome is more extensive then it is in other primates. About 5% of the human genome consists of copies longer than 1,000 bases.

The earthquake that rocked South-central Alaska on March 27, 1964, was the second-largest ever recorded. The magnitude 9.2 earthquake trails only a 9.5 recorded in Chile in 1960.

The second according to atomic time is defined as exactly 9,192,631,770 oscillations or cycles of the cesium atom's frequency. This replaced the old second that was defined in terms of the earth's motions.

Today's Scientific Quote

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:27:00 +0000

After a long day of completing assignments and reading I have chosen my quote for the day:

"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand." by Neil Armstrong

Now ain't that grand.....

5 Fun Science Fact You Probably Didn't Know

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:19:00 +0000

The smallest fish in the world is the Trimattum nanus of the Chagos Archipelago. It measures 0.33 inches.

Wahoo fish can travel at speeds of up to 80 km per hour.

The most common pear world-wide is the Bartlett. It is bell-shaped, sweet and soft with a light green colour.

Astronomers estimate that in the entire visible universe, all the stars of all the galaxies, there are altogether roughly 10 to the power of 80 fundamental particles - protons, neurons and electrons. So it would take 10 to the power of 35 universes like our own to provide one such particle to represent every possible unique human being.

The hummingbird's brain, 4.2 per cent of its body weight, is proportionately the largest in the bird kingdom.

-sciencefirst.com-

Which scientist would I meet

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:50:00 +0000

If I could meet any scientist who would it be? At first I thought Sylvia Earle, the former chief scientist for the U.S. NOAA and the woman who led the first team of all female "aquanauts." As amazing she really is for all her hard work and research I chose someone very different. This man had some crazy courage to do the unexpected but it won him a Noble Prize years later. Barry Marshall takes the cake for me and I would definitely be happy to meet this guy. His crazy courage was how out of frustration of trying to infect piglets and failing each time he decided to drink the petri dish of bacteria of which he developed H. pylori which was what he was trying to link to the development of gastritis and ulcers. He and his collaborator were convinced that H. pylori was the cause of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer but many researchers were very skeptical of their theory. I guess that is why I really want to meet this man, although everyone was against them and their ideas he kept going and believed in his own work. It took him many years but eventually they completed their work and earned the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. It's tough out in the big bad world of science and I would love to ask him for advice and hear stories of his struggle to the top.

Aquatic Osteoporosis

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:21:00 +0000

This phenomenon called "aquatic osteoporosis" has been discovered by researchers from Queen's and York universities. This is actually much more serious than it seems, apparently there has been a dramatic decline of Calcium Levels in several lakes of North America and with these declining levels comes the demise of aquatic species. They were able to determine the damage by its effect on the invertebrate Daphnia or common name the "water flea." Daphnia is an organism that starts at the very bottom of the food web and without them the higher taxa will also have an effect and eventually leading to endagered species so the discovery of this is important. How much damage has been done is still not accurate been they do know it has already taken a huge toll in some bodies of water. They have linked the problem to the long-term effects of acid rain on forest soils, as well as to logging and forest re-growth. Researchers also noted that, despite signs of chemical recovery from recent reductions in sulphur dioxide emissions, lower calcium levels may delay the biological recovery of lakes from acidification. Let's just hope this finding didn't come too late.

Right around the corner

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:54:00 +0000

It's been an interesting semester and right around the corner are finals. I admit I never really got myself organized but I worked with what I had and made it this far. Perhaps next semester I'll change things up a little since I'll be accompanied by my good friend and we are each others motivation. I'm sad to say that this semester I'm definitely not making Dean's List and it's a shame but on the bright side I expect to make it again for the spring semester. I wish all my colleagues much luck on finals and, if I don't get to say it later, happy holidays. Me for now, I'm hitting the books, oh did I mention I'm racking my brain with the whole assignment 13, it's TORTURE!!!

Right- or Left- Handed Snails

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:08:00 +0000

An undergraduate biology student from The University of Nottingham discovered that pond snails are pre-programmed by their mothers if they are to left handed or right handed. At first it was thought that only humans were able to use different parts of their brains to perform different tasks, but then it was broadened to vertebrates in general. Now, thanks to this little pond snail, they can add invertebrates to the list. Anyways, in this particular case they were able to see how left- and right-handedness affects them in reproductively. Snails that are right handed (dextral) to their shell turn counterclockwise and left handed (sinistral) snails turn clockwise to their shells. This kind of turning between the two different snails causes a 'mirror image', and these different directions affect them directly because they are unable to mate with each other. Of course this is just one discovery of the many things to come, but it's intriguing how an invertebrate as small as the snail can provide interesting information about brain function. Let's see what more useful information we can get from this little creature in the future.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081111203507.htm

Smaller Mosquitoes are more Dangerous

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:38:00 +0000

A study was conducted and concluded that smaller mosquitoes are more likely to carry a virus that causes diseases in humans. The disease used in the experiment was dengue virus but it is mostly the Asian tiger and yellow fever mosquitoes that transmit dengue virus. Both species are found throughout the U.S. and this research revealed that even the slightest difference in size can affect their potency to transmit diseases to humans. My take on this experiment - I don't care how big or small they are they must all die. Now, they must develop better pesticides to control the mosquitoes in both the larval and adult stages for all species. Mosquitoes are almost always the intermediate vectors of most diseases before reaching the primary host HUMANS, so it's now up to us to control this problem.

Fungus Fuel... Interesting

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:17:00 +0000

As always, some good reading put to use. Apparently, the scientist who discovered the fungus that contained the anti-cancerous drug taxol might have struck gold once again. This time around he - Dr. Strobel - discovered a fungus in the Patagonia forest that emitted a vaporous gas that is linked in the production of diesel fuel. This is the first species discovered to emit such gases thus leaving the question "Are there more out there that we can benefit from?" This new discovery has sparked the interest of scientists everywhere and further research is being conducted to convert the gas released by this microbe into a combustible fuel. If successful this would be an alternative fuel to consider even to ethanol-which has some controversial reviews. They've dubbed it's output "myco-diesel" and luckily this fungus can be easily grown on cellulose so soon we should hear more about this microbe and perhaps thank it someday too.

Odorprints better than Fingerprints?

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:56:00 +0000

Like always, I'm reading up on some science news and strange stories tend to come up and I'm here writing about them. This one is a little crazier than most...it's about odorprints! Basically it stated how a team of scientists did some research on mice and concluded that one's diet does not change an individuals "unique" odor, it is a "special" permanent non altering print that each person possesses. They compared fingerprints to odorprints as in they can identify a person based on their odor, WHAT?! Okay, weird... they get our fingerprints when we get our license but how do they plan on getting our "odorprints" in the database? All these hilarious scenarios come to mind as to how exactly they would collect them but they're just plain disgusting (ewww). Anyways, while they have a couple of issues to work out there, some good research has come out of this discovery. Now they're checking to see if diseases alter these unique ordorprints and if so can they develop a device to detect early signs of it. We'd definitely benefit from something like that; much luck goes out to that team of researchers, they have a long odorful journey ahead of them.

Happy Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:23:00 +0000

Happy Halloween! Be Good n Be Safe!

Algeria Going Orange

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:48:00 +0000

I was looking through a science news website and read an interesting article on the use of orange peels. Waterways in Algeria are pretty grungy looking due to the high amount of chemicals and dye dumped in the water by industries. Normally they try to clean this up with expensive chemicals (cleaning chemicals using chemicals...hmmm) so they came up with an alternative way of soaking up these chemicals and dyes naturally, ORANGE PEELS! They did a small controlled study and it seemed to work great with four major chemicals/dyes so now they just have to do a little more research to replicate these results but in a bigger scale. If all goes well, we soon might see orange peels floating around in our waterways. Hopefully they look into how this might affect the aquatic ecosystem in the long run.

Wanna read up on it, check it out at : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081020093500.htm

ENJOY!

Presenting: Thalassia testudinum

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:27:00 +0000

Above is a photo of the seagrass I work with daily. It's also known as Turtle Grass and can be found locally ( Laguna Madre). The picture above is how the seagrass bed looks like in its natural habitat but I have several tanks filled with these species behind the science building. We've been conducting a number of experiments on this seagrass and have produced some nice results but the questions keep coming! Anyways, just wanted to my specimen its 'fifteen minutes of fame' and give whoever reads this a little background information of my work.

Kingdom: PLANTAE
Division: ANTHOPHYTA
Class: MONOCOTYLEDONEAE
Order: HELOBIAE
Family: HYDROCHARITACEAE
Genus: Thalassia
Species: testudinum

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
>Leaves are flat and linear (strap-like)
>Leaf blades are 10-12 mm long and 4. 5-10 mm wide
>Rhizomes are scaly

HABITAT
>Commonly occurs in subtidal waters from low tide to 10 m deep
>In clear water the species is found in water up to 30 m deep
>Prefers mud and/or mud substrates in relatively sheltered locations

A 'Virgin Birth'?

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:55:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've logged on here but I couldn't resist to share the article I recently read up on from ScienceDaily.com. Apparently there has been a second case of a 'virgin birth' by a shark. The first was discovered back in 2007 on a female hammerhead and the recent case was that of a female blacktip shark named Tidbit. In the case of Tidbit, she had only recently sexually matured but hadn't had any contact with male sharks in the eight years she was at the aquarium. Unfortunately this discovery came about when she died and was undergoing a necroscopy. There was no evidence of a genetic father in the pup and they were surprised she was even pregnant. The important discovery of this to scientists was not so much that they underwent parthenogenesis but the fact that with over fishing occurring and a decline in shark populations the females can possibly start increasing their numbers by undergoing this process. The downside though, when they undergo normal sexual reproduction they give birth to a litter of pups but when they undergo 'virgin birth' they only produce a single pup. This discovery does raise many more questions and studies are being conducted but one thing is sure, this 'virgin birth' has definitely shed a little light on the growing problem of sharks population downfall.

I wanted to do that!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:55:00 +0000

It's official, what I was seriously considering for my graduate work has been taken. I wanted to be able to predict a way to prevent HABs from occurring which is something I'm sort of working on (predicting to prevent) with my undergrad research. I'm so bummed right now! That brainstorming and research took me a good while to think up, all that for nothing! GRRRR...... read up it's interesting stuff.

<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080930144214.htm>

HESTEC Science Display

noreply@blogger.com (Ammie Ortiz) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:23:00 +0000

I admit this was my first time being involved in HESTEC festivities. I displayed a poster in the Science Symposium, met the NSF director, helped out at a booth, and set up a display of our different works in our lab at the science building. The entire experience was fun but what impressed me the most was the turnout of the science display that all labs participated in. I honestly didn't think there would be people excited to see science. The room was so jam-packed that many of us who were standing guard and answering questions had to leave to give visitors room to walk around. That kind of response from the outside public really made me proud to be part of the biology department.