Leaving on a jet plane!
Nov. 5th, 2010 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cherryI have to be at the airport in five four and a half hours to catch a plane to the States for what will hopefully be a productive scientific conference. I am almost totally all packed and everything.
In the pre-absence cleaning, I am also cleaning out my browser tabs. (This is totally a valid alternative to doing my dishes, or reading about the multiple plane accidents this week.)
You see, I do this thing where I accumulate tabs upon tabs of scientific stories with the intention of sharing them. I mostly talk myself out of posting them, or put it off until the tab disappears for some reason or another, but here is mini-link dump.
Pulling a fast one on viral infections: Scientists may have found a metabolic pathway to exploit to help deal with viral infections.
Our galaxy's heart may be so totally dark, man, like, MySpace is the only one who understands its poetry of pain. Excess gamma rays may be indicators of dark matter in the heart of the Milky Way.
BPA is a sneaky little bugger. BPA (which was recently declared a toxic substance in Canada) readily crosses skin to enter the circulatory system. Unfortunately, most store receipts are covered with BPA, so this means handling them may be a significant route of uptake for increasing internal body burdens.
And, to end on a more joyful note: Dolphins are teaching each other to walk on water. The really interesting thing about this one is that this is a recreational behaviour that is being socially transmitted. There are records of cultural transmission of behaviours used to obtain food (sea otters and rocks, chimps using sticks to get ants, that sort of thing), but there are virtually no previous records of social/recreational behaviours being transmitted like this. This is WICKED SWEET.
I lied, I'm not done: Winning images from the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest 2010. Stunning images.
In the pre-absence cleaning, I am also cleaning out my browser tabs. (This is totally a valid alternative to doing my dishes, or reading about the multiple plane accidents this week.)
You see, I do this thing where I accumulate tabs upon tabs of scientific stories with the intention of sharing them. I mostly talk myself out of posting them, or put it off until the tab disappears for some reason or another, but here is mini-link dump.
Pulling a fast one on viral infections: Scientists may have found a metabolic pathway to exploit to help deal with viral infections.
Our galaxy's heart may be so totally dark, man, like, MySpace is the only one who understands its poetry of pain. Excess gamma rays may be indicators of dark matter in the heart of the Milky Way.
BPA is a sneaky little bugger. BPA (which was recently declared a toxic substance in Canada) readily crosses skin to enter the circulatory system. Unfortunately, most store receipts are covered with BPA, so this means handling them may be a significant route of uptake for increasing internal body burdens.
And, to end on a more joyful note: Dolphins are teaching each other to walk on water. The really interesting thing about this one is that this is a recreational behaviour that is being socially transmitted. There are records of cultural transmission of behaviours used to obtain food (sea otters and rocks, chimps using sticks to get ants, that sort of thing), but there are virtually no previous records of social/recreational behaviours being transmitted like this. This is WICKED SWEET.
I lied, I'm not done: Winning images from the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest 2010. Stunning images.