Friday Find: Giroofasaurus Vexed

barbie

Giroofasaurus Vexed  is a cool new etsy shop filled with ceramic jewelry featuring scientific motifs. Always wanted a pink bacteriophage to wear around your neck? Voilà. If viruses aren’t your thing, you can choose from paramecia, DNA, test tubes and many others. For those we prefer their science a little less microscopic, there are insects, spiders, birds and even dinosaurs.

The creator of Giroofasaurus Vexed knows her scientific stuff – she’s a Toronto-based lab rat with years of experience at the bench. She won’t tell you her real name, but you can follow her on twitter, where she drops hints about the life she shares with 2 gray cats and a husband – all three of whom are more notable for their looks than their brains.

The Art of Science: A Peek at Particle Physics

b31_joseph_paul_boccio
Photo by Joseph Boccio

Ten of the world’s leading particle physics facilities invited hundreds of photographers, amateur and professional, for a behind-the-scenes look in September 2012.  The InterActions Physics Photowalk, an annual event, allowed photographers to visit top labs, including Brookhaven National Lab in New York, Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy, Chilbolton Observatory in the U.K., and TRIUMF in Canada.  An international panel selected this shot by Joseph Paul Boccio of the KLOE detector at Italy’s Frascati National Laboratory as the top prizewinner. Continue reading “The Art of Science: A Peek at Particle Physics”

The nicest of guys

Anton Zuiker, co-founder of ScienceOnline and communications director for the Duke Department of Medicine, is one of the nicest, kindest people you can meet. Annoyingly, while thanking people for being generous and kind, he manages to be more generous, kind, and thoughtful than the people he is thanking.

Crying

Human population structure is such that it would require either (or both) a strong selection pressure or a big increase in fitness for natural selection to dominate the evolutionary dynamics. I submit as evidence that humans were not subject to intense selection pressure from predation one word: crying, specifically the crying of small children.

The idea that a primitive band of reproductively successful humans could remain hidden from things like leopards boggles the mind of this father. And, I have thought this for a long time, before I had children. It is in no way related to the fundamental conflicts generated by bed time and potty training in the mind of a two year old child. Nothing at all.

I get mail

Form Letter from Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Form Letter from Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Yesterday, I was the unexpected recipient of a form letter from Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Like many others, I have sent Senator Graham missives via the internet regarding CISPA and CFAA. This would explain the first two sentences of the letter, the second of which conveys no actual information about Graham’s cyber security position.

Thank you for contacting me regarding cyber security. I believe that establishing a robust cyber security network that protect s our nation while adequately maintaining privacy is critically important to the United States.

In this time of tight budgets, you really did not need to waste the ink, letterhead, or postage on such inane correspondence. Continue reading “I get mail”