Sorry kitties, that’s not quite how it happened. Luckily, we’ll get a refresher on the origins of the universe when the reboot of Carl Sagan’s classic Cosmos series kicks off on March 9, with new host Neil DeGrasse Tyson. In the meantime, you can read this terrific article by Joel Achenbach in Smithsonian Magazine about Sagan’s impact and legacy.
lolcat via cheezburger.com
Thousands of science kitties have gathered in Chicago this week for the AAAS Annual Meeting, where they get together to discuss the latest research on catnip addiction and hold panels on the causes of dogs’ inability to read. You can follow along on twitter with hashtag #AAASmtg or see some sessions live-streamed online.
Yayyy, training is ober, LOLympics is here for realz. Stay with the Finch and Pea as we bring you all the kitteh action from Sochi.
Over the last several years, scientists have made huge strides in understanding the microbiome – that is, the community of microorganisms populating our air, water and soil, as well as our bodies. In a blogpost this week, UC Davis biologist Jonathan Eisen draws attention to two new studies of the microbiome of the built environment – one on the microbial profile of a hospital NICU and one on the relationship between architectural design and the biogeography of buildings.
Eisen points out that a thorough understanding of microbial environments is crucial to changing the widespread fear of microbes, most of which are not only not harmful, but possibly crucial to maintaining healthy living spaces. He points out, “Just as we would not argue for killing all mammals simply because one might be annoying us, we need to stop trying to kill all germs just because some do us harm.”
Since it’s Caturday, we should point out that, besides being a very smart guy, Jonathan Eisen is a friend of kitties (evidence). He has served as a senior advisor on the not-terribly-serious Kitten Microbiome Project and also compiled a handy list of more rigorous scholarship on kitty gut bug microbiology on Mendeley. And he provided us with a great excuse to re-use these lolcats.
Twitter was abuzz ( well, at least a-twitter) this week with the news that an abandoned ship, possibly filled with rats, which were possibly eating each other, was possibly going to run aground in the near future. The ship, the Lyubov Orlova, was seized by Canadian authorities in 2010 and broke free of its mooring in a storm last year. The so-called “Rat Ghost Ship” has not been spotted in many months, and the speculation that storms may have driven it in the direction of Ireland or the UK seems … speculative. Nevertheless, imagining a ghost ship full of cannibalistic rats is ghoulish fun, so we’ll extend it one more day with our first-ever Science Raturday.
The Finch and Pea 