Work is really eating my time right now, so I have a short and sweet post for you today, which is really just a graphic. A really graphic graphic. Here it is: Source: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/polio.pdf (it’s their graphic which I redrew to improve clarity)
Another way to cook eggs We’ve discussed one well-known way to cook eggs before. (Repeatedly!, In scientific detail!) As a quick guest post, I thought I’d mention a somewhat more exotic way to cook eggs – meringue. What’s a meringue? In its simplest form, a meringue is simply egg-whites with sugar, whipped into a foam and baked gently until it hardens. The end result can take a range of forms. It can be a squishy, wet foam like the top…
I’ve had the nasty flu that’s been going around so today’s post will be short. Today’s post is about beryllium-7, which is a proxy for measuring radioactive fallout. BERYLLIUM-7 AFTER THE FUKUSHIMA MELTDOWN One day, I started playing with data for airborne radioisotopes before and after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant meltdowns. Why? Because I was sick and tired of looking at faked Fukushima data on the internet. It was and still is fake data that’s designed to scare and…
This is Part II of a two-part series on medical marijuana. In Part I last week, we surveyed just what the term medical marijuana means. We also looked at why there is a gap between scientific research results and physiological effects of products actually sold as medical marijuana. This week, we will look at the results of actual scientific studies into the drug and health effects of marijuana. I’m not pulling any punches today. I will warn you now that…
WHAT IS MEDICAL MARIJUANA? That might be a moot question in a place like California, but I don’t live in a blue state. I live in a red state without laws that legalize medical marijuana. Because some of my regular audience lives where I do, we’ll first define some terms and explain some concepts. I find that a lot of conservative-state folks are not familiar with what the medical marijuana thing is really about. This is part one of a…
COLOR AFFECTS YOUR MIND It’s been known for quite a while that colors affect your mind and emotional state at the subconscious level. Reds, yellow and oranges have a cheering effect on you; on the other hand, blues, greens and purples have a calming effect but they can also make you feel sad. There’s a lot of research that’s been done on this subject. If you’re interested in knowing more, The Teaching Company has a cool lecture series on this…
This is the last post of the Merry Blogmas 2017 campaign. We hope you have enjoyed our 25 days of quicky science articles. | There have been several different theories proposed to explain the Star of Bethlehem. Today’s post looks at why we can drop comets from the running. To start, we need to look at the original description of the Star of Bethlehem. THREE MAGI FROM THE EAST The story of the Christmas star and the three magi from…
It happens to everyone: some stimulus triggers the trigeminal nerve bundle, which in turn signals the sneeze center of the lateral medulla of the brain stem. The nervous functions of the brain stem are the most basic and powerful in the body so once the sneeze center has been stimulated, the rest of the sneeze reflex is unavoidable. Instructions are sent from the brain stem to the lungs to suck in air. The glotis – the opening at the top…
It’ll be a short one tonight, but since I’ve been discussing zombies and things that can go wrong with brains, how about a quick blogmas post on a fungal infection that turns ants into zombies? Trying to come up with a topic, it was suggested that I just do a short write-up about a “strange disease”. The strangest disease that came to mind is not one that infects humans, though. Fungal Infection of Carpenter Ants The disease that came to…
Kuru: The Rarest Infectious Disease in the World! Here’s another blogmas guest post for you all, with another reason to avoid eating brains if you’re not a zombie: a prion disease called “kuru“. Kuru was once listed in the “Guinness Book of World Records” as the rarest (transmissible) disease in the world. It was a type of brain disease. Another name for it is “laughing sickness” because one of its symptoms is sudden bursts of laughter from its victims. It…