Friday Non-Lifeform Blogging: Fundamental Things
Chemistry is the bollocks: PZ Myers & commenters on exploding heavy elements, the etymology of English slang and exposing the real reason why people become chemists.
Woah. This is just astonishing – electron microscopy inside living cells. This crest was made with individual strands of fluorescing DNA :
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The crest is about 60 millionths of a metre across
It is highly accurate, but there is something unusual about this image of the Cambridge University crest.
The picture is about the width of a human hair, and is made up entirely of gently fluorescing DNA.
It is produced by a technique that lets scientists examine the body’s tiniest machinery while it is still working.
[…]
The new Cambridge method, called Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy, is described by Dr Klenerman as a major breakthrough.
“It’s like an electron micrograph with live cells,” he said. “It opens up the possibility of watching biology at the nanoscale.”
>Researchers could now examine the tiny proteins on a cell’s surface in detail, or watch a virus force its way inside, he explained. More…
Following the past few years’ severe regional tectonic activity Java’s volcanoes are bubbling away thteateningly. The latest to show signs of major eruption is Mount Bromo. I can’t resist a smile at that; Bromo if IIRC was a brand of hard shiny toilet paper of the type that used to be in the outside toilets when I was at primary school. Ahh, sweet nostalgia. Here is the geological carbuncle in question:
Smoking craters of Mount Bromo (front) and Mount Semeru (back) on the Indonesian island of Java. Scientists have issued a high-alert warning for Mount Bromo after it showed signs of increased activity. The volcano, a popular tourist destination, last erupted in 2004, killing one local resident.
From the elemental to the excremental – Anyhow the above led me to googling for Bromo, as one does ( did you know you can get vintage toilet paper on ebay?) when I came across this review page for moist toilet tissues. How very interesting, NOT. But I read on, because as the poet said, full many a flower is born to blush unseen and you never know, you might just find the next Dostoevsky or more likely, Helen Fielding. Bushing unseenly was this lyrical passage:
If you use solely dry toilet tissue, do you think that you manage to remove all the excrement? In order to try this little test you are going to have to purchase moist toilet tissue. So, after you have done your business, wipe yourself as thoroughly as you can with dry toilet tissue and then wipe your bottom a second time with a moist tissue. Take a look at the moist tissue you may be surprised to find you have removed even more residual faeces.
I am sure that if you use dry toilet tissue only it cannot be healthy or hygienic to leave little bits and pieces of excrement stuck to the skin around your bottom, let alone bits of toilet paper that come adrift. And another point, moist toilet tissues are stronger, so you won?t put your fingers through them like you do with ordinary dry tissue and come away with brown stains on your fingers. (Sorry, hope nobody is eating whilst reading this, I wouldn?t want to put you off your food!).
Thanks so much for sharing. So unlike the home life of our own dear queen, who as we all know has no anus.
Those’re the best two from a page of 22 paragraphs discussing arse wipes – my point being, look at all that interesting sciencey stuff that’s out there! You’ve got the whole internet and the means of instant communication at your fingertips and your immediate thought is what – to transmit your pearls of deathless prose on the mechanics of arse-wipes? Maybe there are some fragrances that were meant to be wasted on the desert air. (And that’s a kb I wouildn’t care to use after the writer.) On the other hand, it does prove that the spirit of scientific enquiry is alive and well on the interwebs, even if the subjects chosen are not necessarily very sexy.
Oh dear, now I’ve brought up Coprophilia.
I’ll get my coat.
Read more: Science, Non-Lifeform-Blogging, Volcanoes, Geology, Indonesia, Java, Mt Bromo, Toilet Paper, Bathroom Products, Electron Microscopy, Nanobiology, Chemistry, Explosions, Boom, Big- bada-boom, The Dogs Bollocks
