a little bit of science

I love science. This blog is about science and has themes of 'science in photos' and 'don't forget her name'. If you have a science quesiton ask me and I will answer! Enjoy 

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Part 3 of my gravitational wave video project. 

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Part one of three. What is the buzz about gravitational waves? My first experience in whiteboard animation style. I learnt a lot! 

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Barbara McClintock

An American geneticist born in 1902, Barbara McClintock is one of the scientists we have to thank for leading the way in the study of genetics. She spent her whole career studying corn (or maize). She invented a technique that allowed her to see chromosomes, which she described and analysed. This technique allowed her to discover jumping genes. Jumping genes are sequences of DNA that move between DNA. Many consider these jumping genes ‘junk DNA’, but McClintock was convinced that they were to do with the switching off and on of genes. It was not till 1983 when she was awarded a Nobel prize in the physiology of medicine, and science realised how significant jumping genes where.  

Barbara McClintock and her corn Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images

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Did you know?

Octopuses can change the colour and structure of their skin in a blink of an eye. These two abilities allow octopuses to hide in plain sight, either to jump out and catch prey or to avoid being eaten. This complete control over their skin is due to a number of specialised cells in their skin. Two different types of cells control their colour and one control the texture of their skin. The two types of cells each control different colour waves. Chromatophores control the orange and brown colours. Within these cells, there are many sacs of colour pigments. When the octopus wants to be brown, the brown sac us stretched out to the surface, making that colour visible.  Iridophores work differently. They have the ability to reflect back different waves of light. The colour that is reflected back depends on the angle of which the cells are observed.    

The texture of the skin is controlled by papillae, which are protrusions all over their skin. These protrusions can change size, how they do this is unknown! But it is thought to do with a hydrostatic system, this is basically changing in water pressure within the cell.  Evolution has truly allowed octopuses to a master of disguise! 

This is a Minick octopus, nicely demonstrating colour and size changing abilities! 

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Credit: NIAID This stunning pseudocoloured cell is a human T cell. The picture is taken using a scanning electron microscope. T cells a vital part of the human immune system and help to kill invading pathogens, such as bacteria! You have about 5 00,000,000,000 of them in your body (if you are about average size!). 

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Did you know?

Octopuses have as many brain cells as a cat! But instead of all being located in their brain, over a third of them are located in their arms. This means that octopuses arms have a mind of there own!

Octopuses have been recorded playing and using tools - traits associated with intelligent animals. Many divers report octopuses showing as much curiosity in them, as they have for the octopus. 

Humans and octopus diverged on the tree of evolution over 600 million years ago that is way before the eye evolved. Maybe this is the closest we will get to seeing alien intelligence! 

Image of Octopus tetricus by Sylke Rohrlach

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Its actually over 2/3rds of their neurons in their arms! The arms are crazy cool. They can taste with their suckers, and their suckers are so dexterous that they can undo surgical silk (v unpleasant how that was discovered) but they need that ability so they can tie up their egg sacks. Decapitated arms will catch prey and will pass it along the suckers to were the beak used to be! Also they can regrow arms! Gahh Octopuses are so cool and thats just their arms!

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Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran NASA’s probes Juno’s stunning picture of Jupiter. Juno’s main goal was to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Launched in 2011 and is currently orbiting Jupiter. Juno has measured Jupiter’s atmosphere composition, gravitational field and magnetic fields. Taking beautiful photos was just a hobby for the probe.  The mission coming to an end this summer and Juno will crash down into Jupiter sending information back to Earth until its last moments. 

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Did you know?

No one knows how many stars there are in the Milky Way! Estimates range from 100 billion to 400 billion. That is a big difference. This is because it is impossible to count each star individually (try if you want). So scientists come up with ways to guess the number of stars. For example, one estimate claims that the milky way has a mass 100 billion time the mass of our Sun, and therefore there must approximately be 100 billion stars! But how do we measure the mass of the galaxy? An estimate of the mass of a galaxy can be calculated by the rotation of the galaxy. Using the phenomenon known as redshift. Redshift happens to objects moving away from Earth have there light stretched, shifting the wavelength towards the red side of the visible light spectrum. The opposite happens when an object is moving towards Earth, light gets shifted to the blue side of visible light - known as blueshift. By measuring these changes in the light from different parts of the galaxy, we can work out the rotational speeds of the galaxy, and from this the mass!

Source: Wiki Commons

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Source:  Anup Deodhar / Royal Photography Society International Images for Science / Via rps-science.org

This brilliant coloured lizard is known as the Fan-Throated lizard. This species native to India. They are highly territorial animals. This image was taken during mating season and this male is protecting his territory in hope of finding a mate!

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Did you know?

Scientists are working on creating green energy from a technique used by the Sun, fusion. Fusion is the opposite of nuclear fission which is what happens within nuclear power stations. Fusion is the combination of two hydrogen atoms to form an unstable form of helium that decays releasing energy. This is how the Sun makes its energy. 

There are many different approaches to creating reactors for nuclear fusion, but they all need incredibly high temperatures and pressures. Temperatures need to be at least 100 million kelvin, this is achieved using microwaves and lasers. The pressure is achieved using intense magnetic fields to squeeze atoms really close together.  One method of achieving fusion is to place a pellet of hydrogen within a highly pressurised container. Lasers are fired at the pellet converting it into a highly energetic state of matter known as plasma where the hydrogen combines to form helium and releases energy. This method is short lived but theoretically realises 50 to 100 times as much energy need to start the reaction., though this is yet to be accomplished.

Nuclear fusion is being experimentally studied all over the world due to its potential as a clean energy source. It realises no pollution or harmful by-product, just helium. The type of hydrogen need can be extracted from seawater and is incredibly common. It also has promise as use as rockets for deep space missions. 

With many different countries trying to create a power station that is able to produce power from this method, it is only a matter of time before it is a reality. 

Source: Pexels - free stock images

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Source: Michael B. Hardie/Smithsonian This extraordinary picture was taken off the coast of Hawaii. An octopus hitchhiking a ride of a turtle. Octopuses have become well known for there escapes from aquariums. This only goes to show how intelligent octopuses can be. Can conserving energy on the back of turtle count as intelligence or is it pure laziness? You tell me! The ocean is a weird and wonderful place! 

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Did you know?

You can inherit “experiences” from your parents, within the way your DNA is stored. DNA is the blueprint of you and is present in almost every single cell in your body (there a few exceptions, such as red blood cells). DNA tells your cells what to do and how to do it. It is a long chain of code, made up of four chemical bases and the order of these bases determines everything. 

In each cell, you have so much DNA that if stretched up it would be 2 meters long. That would not fit inside a cell, but it does because of how DNA is so tightly wound. This does, however, present a problem, it is hard to reach certain parts of the DNA. The body has used this to its advantage, it can turn off specific genes or traits by wrapping them up tightly, so the cell never uses them. This is known as epigenetics (above genetics) and is a newly emerging area of genetics. 

Epigenetics is affected by the choices and events that occur in your life. If you smoke or take other drugs, it changes your epigenetics and makes you more susceptible to become addicted. It has been suggested by studies that your epigenetics can be inherited from your parents.  An interesting case study is that traumatic events survivers, such as the Holocaust survivors, have caused mental health issues such as PTSD within their children and grandchildren.  

Source: Wiki Commons

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Check out this crazy humpback calf!

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“A humpback calf plays in a cloud of bubbles created by its mother below. I feel very fortunate to have captured this unique behavior and to have been in the water with these amazing creatures.” - Renee Capozzola

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Source: Wiki Commons

Amber is fossilized sap from trees. This unlucky spider got stuck and drowned, and got fossilized with this sap! 

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A, T, C, G… and more? Adding Letters to Life’s Genetic Code – Alex Marks

Scientists have created bacteria that carries two extra synthetic ‘letters’ of the genetic code. The genetic code is made from four bases, more commonly known as the ‘letters’, A, T, C and G. It is…

I wrote an article! It is about how scientists have added in extra letters to DNA to create semisynthetic organisms!