Oh, excellent! A fellow TWIV’er. I’m working my way forward and backward through the podcast, and haven’t got to that one yet. Thx for the recommendation, I will listen to it now. It sure would be fun having Rhiju on.
I got episode #200 listened though. I got a good laugh, as it contained a line that reminded me very much of the science pick up lines I ran across when searching for science humor. There was a scientist searching for a stop codon in what turned out to be a huge gene more than 6000 bases long. One of the participants later offered: “I can be your stop codon”.
VIRUSES AS IMMUNEDEFENSE
I was reading in Carl ZImmer’s Microcosm today, when I found following fascinating section on viruses:
“Viruses are quickly loosing their reputation as insignificant parasites. They are the most abundant form of life on Earth, with a population now eatimated at (10 to the power of 30) - a billion billion trillion. Most of the diversity of life’s genetic information may reside in their genomes. Within the human gut alone there are about 1000 species of viruses. As viruses picu up host genes and insert them in other hosts, they create an evolutionary matrix through which DNA can shuttle from species to species. According to one estimate, viruses in the ocean transfer genes to new hosts 2 quardrillion times every second.”
This reminded me about an article I mentioned in chat but didn’t get up here. It is mindblowing.
GUINNESS BIOCHEMISTRY WORLD RECORDS - Giant virus jumps into the range of the living
Chatoutline 19 July 2013
I mentioned a fascinating science find in chat. Nando and Brourd pulled out the best quotes from the articles.
Eli Fisker: Yay, new giant virus is found and take the title of the biggest virus in the world
Eli Fisker: They are called pandora viruses
Eli Fisker: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341…
Nando: wow
Eli Fisker: 
Eli Fisker: http://www.rappler.com/science-nature…
Brourd: “proposed “Pandoravirus” genus, a term reflecting their lack of similarity with previously described microorganisms and the surprises expected from their future study.”
Eli Fisker: And I got lucky that Zimmer has written about it as well:
Brourd: I’m not too keen on suprises being named pandora…
Eli Fisker: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/sci…
Eli Fisker: hehe
Eli Fisker: fair enough
Brourd: oh well, we’ll see what is in the box before long
Nando: unfamiliar genes and proteins that “do unknown things”…
Eli Fisker: yep
Eli Fisker: Will be interesting if we end up with a 4th domain of life
Brourd: “Making the discovery all the more startling is the fact that, of all the genes that pandoraviruses carry, only six percent match any gene known to science.” [11:49 AM]
Brourd: Awesome
Brourd: nice articles Eli
Eli Fisker: thx
Nando: with a genome 10% the size of the human one, can’t pretend it’s not a life form
Eli Fisker:
Eli Fisker: Perhaps finally a place to count in viruses as a form of life
Eli Fisker: They are gene shufflers and creators of life anyway
Eli Fisker: Also destroyers of cause
Nando: it’s sometimes a little spooky, this resemblance between computerized software code and the genetic code…
Eli Fisker: lol
Eli Fisker: interesting observation
SIMULATE A VIRUS IN 3D
Mat shared this awesome video with me about a scientist who have exploited that viruses are build of identical units and has made 3D models of different viruses. These models are thought to be a help in our fight against the viruses that do harm to our health and make it safer to work vith viruses.
[3D VIRUS](http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3826214.htm
)
NUMBERS IN NATURE
Recently I found a real beautiful animation video about patterns in nature. I already shared it with some of you in chat. But for those who were not around, I don’t want to cheat you of it.
[NATURE BY NUMBERS](https://vimeo.com/9953368) from [Cristóbal Vila](https://vimeo.com/eterea) on [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com).A video that Cater posted in chat by Vihart on Pythagoras and math, also sparked my memory about some fun and fascinating videos Mat shared with me a long time back, by a math doodling girl. I really liked them. Then I stumbled on this fine video, that continues on the topic of numbers and patterns - Fibonacci numbers - in nature.
Hi all!
Just want to point the attention to that this course on nanotechnology has started. It is good stuff. Check it out.
EVOLUTION - GO HOME - YOU’RE DRUNK
I found a funny page with weird wonders of nature, that I shared it in chat yesterday:
Eli Fisker: http://likes.com/weird/go-home-evolut…
starryjess: heh
starryjess: and they actually called it Blobfish too xD
Eli Fisker: hehe
Eli Fisker: says something about humans
Eli Fisker: Reminds me of a lecture I heard recently
Eli Fisker: The teacher told that scientists were naming fruitfly genes for intelligence after vegetables
Eli Fisker: And when the class laughed, he added:
Eli Fisker: if you are laughing, you are part of the problem
Eli Fisker:
starryjess: haha
starryjess: I hope they didn’t name one kumquat
Eli Fisker: I know they named one tomato
starryjess: “So as you can see, we mutated this fruitfly’s tomato gene…”
starryjess: hm, could be confusing
Eli Fisker: and now it is stupid
starryjess: hehe
Eli Fisker: http://www.curioustaxonomy.net/gene/f…
starryjess: daughters against decapentaplegic?!?
starryjess: they probably call it the DAD gene for short
starryjess: lol “double parked”
Eli Fisker:
Eli Fisker: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st…
Eli Fisker: This one is more readable
starryjess: funny
Educational Highlight
I found an awesome place to start learning, if you are new to RNA, DNA and the workings of the cell. The Cartoon Guide to Genetics is both funny and very helpful. Enzymes are drawn as worm-like creatures. Long dead scientists are given a voice and coming to life. Gregor Mendel is the absolute hero of this tale. His work with peas and it’s role in understanding hereditary is explained in an unusually memorable way.
You can take a peek inside the comics HERE.
As an extra I added the video “Why RNA is just as cool as DNA” by Amoeba Sisters. Its an interestingly different cartoon animation of RNA versus DNA.
Edit by Starryjess
Eterna celebrating Pi day
The other day Machinelves coined a term for a recurring Eterna phenomenon:
machinelves: yay! eterna comedy hour! 
Thx to LFP6 for initiating celebrating Pi day today.
(Chatlog slightly edited down)
LFP6: HAPPY PI DAY!!!
Eli Fisker: Hehe
LFP6: Hey Eli
Eli Fisker: Hi LFP
Eli Fisker:
RedSpah: Hi LFP
machinelves: what is this pi day i keep hearing about
LFP6: Hehe Hey Red
LFP6: Hi Machinelves
firedrake969: pi day
LFP6: What is the date today Machine?
starryjess: I had a piece of oreo pie that was mostly whip cream
machinelves: hi LFP6!
firedrake969: next year’s pi day will be awesome
firedrake969: 3/14/15
machinelves: lol nice starry
LFP6: Hi Drake, Starry
LFP6: OMG Drake!
Eli Fisker: Nice one, Fire
firedrake969: ?
starryjess: it’s 2015 already? *sigh* time sure flies
firedrake969: *coughnextyearcough*
starryjess: oh, nevermind
Eli Fisker: Lol
machinelves: hahaha
starryjess: I thought you were answering the question “what is the date today?” 
machinelves: i always start my dates with the year, totally escaped me
Eli Fisker: http://prntscr.com/30t8zg
machinelves: roflol eli
starryjess: hehe
Eli Fisker:
Eli Fisker: http://prntscr.com/30t99w
machinelves: hehe you have the best joke collection
starryjess: haha
firedrake969: https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/im…
Eli Fisker: Fine one, Fire
LFP6: Lol Eli’ [9:58 PM]
Eli Fisker: http://prntscr.com/30t9sa
machinelves: nice fire!
machinelves: hey finally a bumper sticker i can get behind
Eli Fisker:
LFP6: Eli, Love all three.
LFP6: @Drake: Thanks to my math teacher, I’ve seen that.
Eli Fisker: Glad you enjoyed them, LFP
LFP6: Always love your shares.
firedrake969: sqrt(-1) 2^3 Σ π
Eli Fisker: http://www.theguardian.com/science/al…
machinelves: 0.o
LFP6: Wait… Wat
LFP6: Afk
machinelves: random walk automata very clever
Eli Fisker: I love the one with “just” 10.ooo digits
machinelves: these are all really beautiful!
Eli Fisker: Looks like artificial tree branches
firedrake969: qrt(-1) 2^3 Σ π
Eli Fisker: the leaves
firedrake969:
firedrake969: sqrt*
firedrake969: somebody tell me what it says
Eli Fisker: Fire, I might need that one explained
firedrake969: sqrt(-1) = i
firedrake969: 2^3 = 8
firedrake969: Σ means sum
firedrake969: π is pi
firedrake969: so it’s i 8 sum pi
firedrake969: or read out loud, “I ate some pie”
Eli Fisker: haha
Eli Fisker: thats a sneaky clever one
Eli Fisker: Thx for the explanation
machinelves: very cute
firedrake969: thanks
machinelves: wow 100 billion data points in one pic, so now a picture says 100 billion words
Eli Fisker: Lol
Eli Fisker: Fun conclusion
machinelves: talk about zooming out!
Eli Fisker: hehe
Eli Fisker: On a more sad note: http://prntscr.com/30tdxh
machinelves: awwww
Eli Fisker: http://prntscr.com/30teql
machinelves: hehehe now i actually have carved a pumpkin pi
machinelves: nothing better than geek halloween parties
Eli Fisker: Sounds awesome
Eli Fisker: And the aliens struck. Pie circles:
Eli Fisker: http://prntscr.com/30tfsm
machinelves: lol have not seen this
machinelves: some pretty geometry in some crop circles
Eli Fisker: Yes. Some are extremely beautiful
machinelves: must be an art
Eli Fisker: I agree, art is what it is
Eli Fisker: http://prntscr.com/30tgok
Eli Fisker: For helping on memorizing pi
Eli Fisker: I read an article today about a dane memorizing 10.000 digits of pi
machinelves: that is so cool, wow, i have never seen an informational pencil.
Eli Fisker: And he wasn’t
Eli Fisker: even the world record holder
machinelves: that’s incredible!
starryjess: as you use the pencil, your pi will get less precise
machinelves: so when they get that flexible digital monitor tape we can have a scrolling marquis on the pencil with any info… hmm…
machinelves: lol starry
Eli Fisker: Starry, lol
Eli Fisker: Oh, fine idea, Machine
firedrake969: lol
Eli Fisker: Its not for nothing you are an elf of the machines
machinelves: hehe [10:18 PM]
Eli Fisker: Here is the world record holder of memorizing pi:
Eli Fisker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu_Chao
machinelves: wow!
machinelves: i will have to check out his memory techniques
machinelves: that is phenomenal
Eli Fisker: Agree
firedrake969: lol, it took 24 hours to recite the whole thing
Eli Fisker:
machinelves: someone told me about memory mansions, where you write your data point on the wall of a room or build physical and mapped representations / models of the data. then walk through the place to remember
machinelves: ya i was wondering if that was with sleep or not !
wateronthemoon: very cool, Eli
wateronthemoon: hi elf
machinelves: hi water!
RedSpah: Hi water
wateronthemoon: hi RedBlue
Eli Fisker: hi Moon
wateronthemoon: hi Eli
Eli Fisker: A little more pi
Eli Fisker: Here is some serious bragging:
Eli Fisker: http://prntscr.com/30tl2r
machinelves: lol
wateronthemoon: is there a last digit?
machinelves: i really liked the other one you had along those lines: ‘my PIN is the last 4 digits of pi’
Eli Fisker: Moon, exactly
wateronthemoon: haha, quite a PIN
Eli Fisker: It’s going on forever
Eli Fisker: haha, good one, Machine
machinelves: i bet one day it will resolve & end, and we’ll be like… but whyyyyyy??? and a new search for knowledge will begin
Eli Fisker: And I find this Pi watch rather charming:
Eli Fisker: http://prntscr.com/30tlhy
machinelves: hahaha cute
wateronthemoon: i like it too.
Eli Fisker: Hehe, that sure will cause frustrated and excited mathematicians [10:28 PM]
machinelves: hehe you got it exactly, that is science for you: both frustration and excitement.
Eli Fisker:
firedrake969: You forgot the slight insanity part
Eli Fisker: Lol, good one, FIre
machinelves: hey how else will we suspend disbelief of our own ignorance long enough to learn something new!
Eli Fisker: haha
wateronthemoon: suspending disbelief is a good thing
Eli Fisker: Especially when watching movies
machinelves: that magical fairyland in which anything is possible.
Eli Fisker: Called hypothesis
machinelves: nice
wateronthemoon: exactly–hypothesis
Eli Fisker:
RedSpah: wat
machinelves: imaginationland
Eli Fisker: And as the dot over the i:
Eli Fisker: http://prntscr.com/30tnz0
RedSpah: sounds like a dream of 5-year-old
machinelves: lol i love the pi-ku
machinelves: especially “and so on” hehe
Eli Fisker: hehe
Eli Fisker: I also love that they attempted fitting a number so big into the shortest form of poetry
machinelves: i doubt i’ll ever grow up
wateronthemoon: cute
machinelves: ya, very nice juxtaposition
wateronthemoon: pi-ku
machinelves: i think this is my fav so far
machinelves: except of course the art, wow, still enjoying that one
wateronthemoon: isn’t this year special because it’s 3-14-14?
firedrake969: next year is
firedrake969: From memory, 3.14159265358979
wateronthemoon: oh of course
Eli Fisker: But it still pretty good
wateronthemoon: wow, fire
machinelves: nice fire!
firedrake969: Thanks
Eli Fisker: Fire pointed out that next year would be perfect
wateronthemoon: so next year, the auspicious moment will be at 9:26?
machinelves: hehe good point water
firedrake969: 9:26:53
wateronthemoon: wow
wateronthemoon: remind us
LFP6: I’ll have to remember that…\
starryjess: am or pm?
firedrake969: doesn’t matter
wateronthemoon: what time zone?
firedrake969: but
firedrake969: AM for military time
machinelves: all of the above!
firedrake969: Doesn’t matter time zone, either, I guess
wateronthemoon: each in his/her own now
Eli Fisker: Here is my all time favorite Pi joke:
Eli Fisker: http://prntscr.com/30tra0
firedrake969: oh yes
machinelves: super cute, never seen that one lol
High end microscope and a crowdsourced one
Machinelves sent me two awesome articles on microscopy. One was about a whole new way of watching cells in 3D.
Cells get ready for their close-up
The other one is pretty cool too. It is a crowdsourcing project where one makes one own microscope by cutting and folding and then go out and participate in different projects with it. Sounds fun!
Tourist on a microscopic level
Mat shared an amazing video with me. Its like being tourist, but on a microscopic level. Its a travel through Britain with a microscope camera.
Learn about living beings, that are neither plants nor animals. Watch earth worms - now with hooks. And much, much more.
The strange world of science papers 4
Here are a few more introductions to the weird world of writing science papers.
What it says - and what it really means
Khan Academy and programming
I realized while playing with Khan academy yesterday, that they actually have a whole section on learning programming - something I already knew - but this time there was Javascript among.
Hereby the tip is passed on:
Bacteria can eat electrons!
Thats what Machinelves said when she sent me this great continuation on the story of the cabel and electrical bacteria. These special bacteria are very well explained and put in perspective to how life normally functions. We actually have things in common. Even better, there is a video of the bacteria in action.
Discovery Of ‘Electric Bacteria’ Hints At The Potential For Alien Life
Plants communicating via mRNA
Nascarnut shared an amazing article with me today.
Plants may use newly discovered language to communicate
Here is my favorite quote from the article, though it is all pretty mindblowing:
“His new work expands this scope of this exchange and examines the mRNA, or messenger RNA, which sends messages within cells telling them which actions to take, such as which proteins to code. It was thought that mRNA was very fragile and short-lived, so transferring it between species was unimaginable.”
And the plant internet just got even weirder.
Plants talk
I have earlier read fascinating stories about plants ability to communicate with each other.
Fungal threads are the internet of the plant world
And a last one of the more creepy ones.
Beautiful Chemistry
Machinelves shared an amazing site with me today. Its chemistry visualized in all its beauty - caught in the act of reaction.
Here is a small taste.
[Beautiful Reactions: Precipitation](https://vimeo.com/106810691) from [L2 Molecule](https://vimeo.com/l2molecule) on [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com).She added:
This one is cool for EteRNA especially, the description included, talking about Harvard’s lego bricks approach to DNA nano assembly:
1 Like
Monster Microscope
Earlier this week jandersonlee shared the happy news on the Nobel Price in chemistry given for High-Resolution Microscopy with me.
I have earlier posted material on awesome microscope breakthroughs, but this one is special. When watching cells, electron microscopes can give great detail. However if the preparation process for watching the cell doesn’t kill it, surely the beam of electrons will.
What makes this new microscope something special, is that it makes it possible to observe cells on a nano scale - while they are alive. So now it is possible to watch living cells in living organisms to a far greater detail than ever before. (Poor mouse…)
Easy introduction by Periodic Table of videos
Here is the video jandersonlee sent me, which goes into great detail on why and how the microscope technique works.
Its an educational video from iBiology. They have many other great ones on different kind of microscopes and a huge range of science topics.
2 Likes
This story got an even more fascinating continuation. Machinelves sent me an article about a new and groundbreaking further development of this microscopy technique.
Now videos of cells moving can be shown to a whole new level of detail. I just saw a T-cell in action and it is halloween in the science world - I saw a cancer cell moving around. Creepy…!
1 Like
Happy Halloween!
Time for some science stories in the Halloween department.
Mat and Machinelves have been sharing this story with me on an algae virus thought to be capable of making the brain of the human it infect process visual information 10% slower.
A Virus Found In Lakes May Be Literally Changing The Way People Think
This reminds me of the cat parasite Toxo which Jaroslav Flegr has long been studying and writing about. He has been making the case for that this parasite being in the mind bending department, with control over the brain of its human host to a degree where it induces behavioral changes.
How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy
He by the way won the Ig Nobel prize this year for his fine work.
Iroppy shared a great article on viruses among them Ebola, which is a fascinating read.
Ebola and the Vast Viral Universe
Here are two small excerpts:
“Viruses are not just these threatening or annoying parasitic agents,” he added. “They’re the creative front of biology, where things get figured out, and they always have been.”
“Viruses have managed to infiltrate the cells of every life form known to science. They infect animals, plants, bacteria, slime mold, even larger viruses.”
Last some Halloween fun - the science way:
1 Like