Mathletes & Science Geeks

ikenbot:

Science Query for the Presidential Candidates

I wonder when will the public start demanding scientific literacy among their governing officials, including presidential candidates. We were not a country founded on religious beliefs yet it floods our country’s interest for some odd reason. Would it be too much to ask these people have at least a basic, well-rounded sense of the scientific method, much like we require the same level of expertise from our doctors, scientists, teachers, etc.?.

Here’s a nice article via SciAm that reiterates a similar concern:

3 Science Questions to Ask U.S. Presidential Candidates

“As you may already be aware from my previous posts, The Guardian U.S. and NYU’s Studio 20 journalism lab have teamed up to push a project called The Citizens’ Agenda into the media discourse surrounding the U.S. presidential 2012 election. The idea: find out what you–the citizens–want the candidates to be discussing over the next four months – usually meaning questions of substance about policy rather than horserace and gotcha questions so pervasive in mainstream media.”

Continue to Full Article

bioguru:

Lovely SEM image of pseudostratified ciliated columnar epithelium. This tissue lines the trachea and upper respiratory tract, and is responsible for sweeping debris out of your lungs, up your wind pipe, and into the back of your throat where you’ll either a) cough it out or b) swallow it. People who are smokers are constantly killing off these cells, which is why smokers are so prone to lung infections; they lack the ciliated cells to keep crap out of their lungs.

holymoleculesbatman:

Chemical Weapons: VX  (C₁₁H₂₆NO₂PS)

It is an extremely toxic substance the only application of which is in chemical warfare as a nerve agent. As a chemical weapon, it is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations in UN Resolution 687. The production and stockpiling of VX was outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. 

VX was originally developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1950s. It is odorless and tasteless. The extent of poisoning caused by VX depends on the amount of VX to which a person was exposed, how the person was exposed, and the length of time of the exposure.

It is possible that VX or other nerve agents were used in chemical warfare during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

Read More

fyeahuniverse:

^{Psychedelic Neurons}

^{From a human autopsy; this brain slice has taken on a range of psychedelic colors thanks to a neuroscientist. Green is the infection by a lentivirus, red for neurons and blue for the nuclei of brain cells. Immunohistochemistry was used to introduce the red and blue to the brain slice.}

^{(Image credit: S. Hoyng)}

jilliantheedumbl0nde:

ahh chemistry

(Source: 4gifs)

(Source: nerdylinesfor-nerdypeople)

designtheuniverseandsocialism:

Who knew apples had veins?

Researcher Els Herremans at the KU Leuven puts fruit under an x-ray machine to study its internal transport of nutrients.

brilliantbotany:

Can we all just stare at how beautiful this is?

It’s an Osiria rose, a type of Hybrid Tea rose.