#scienctists

[booksbythesea27]

help! science!

do not ask why, but we need to know how quickly respiration occurs

as in in one cell, how much time does it take for all the stages of respiration to complete?

we (my sister and i) are theorising about how movement and exercise will be measured in 200 years when we have all gone slug mode (i.e. the humans from wall-e, or alternatively like the headless monks of doctor who).

also, side note, in how many years will the eye be the strongest muscle? measured in resps (respirations per second, duh).

[saradoesscience]

Science Crush Friday: Neil Shubin

Don't think I've forgotten Science Crush Friday. These last few weeks I've just been either exhausted at beamtime or cruising around the American Museum of Natural History (sadly, without a Neil deGrasse Tyson spotting...a girl can dream).

But now Science Crush Friday is back with a bang, a big one. Which is a terrible pun considering today's science crush isn't a cosmologist. Nope. Today's Science Crush is evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin.

In case you couldn't tell, in the above photo, Shubin is the foxy salt-and-pepper scienctist, not the fish fossil. And by fish fossil, I mean that Dr. Shubin is the discoverer of one of the most important finds in evolutionary biology: tiktaalik roseae! For those of you unfamiliar with tiktaalik, it's a major fossil find from a period where fish were transitioning from being what we traditionally think of as fish, to creatures capable of walking on four limbs. (Also, check out the beard. I am a sucker for a well kept yet not too immaculate beard.)

Dr. Shubin studies the evolutionary origin of anatomical features. This includes how what were once fish fins turned into limbs and how ear bones come from jellyfish genes through the magic (ok...what a terrible word for a science blog) of evolution!

In addition to doing science, Dr. Shubin also writes about it. He is the author of Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human Body. This book traces the evolutionary origins of the human body and explains that our parts once came from, well, fish parts, generally speaking of course. 

But Dr. Shubin isn't just brains and bearded hansomeness. Along with his boyish good looks, he has wit and charm that, let's be honest here, not all scientists possess. If you don't believe me, see how he holds up against Stephen Colbert:

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[saradoesscience]

Science Crush Friday: the sick and slightly unenthusiastic edition

When I drove to my lab this morning I spend my drive convinced it was Sunday. So I forgot for a while that it's Science Crush Friday. I blame this on the chest cold I seem to be coming down with. But I won't let that deprive you of some science hotness. So since I'm kind of out-of-it, I decided to just show some gratuitous pictures of Neil deGrasse Tyson being the world's sexiest astrophysicist. Seriously, People actually named him that once.

First, there's this classic:

I like to think he's sweaty because he was just out on a dance floor showing off some fantastic moves.

Next up is another young Neil picture, where he demonstrates the rarely seen sideburns-into-moustache.

And last, but not least...

Look at those eyes! Also, he's a funny and intelligent man.