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DNA

she blinded me with science

Biologist Proposes to Biologist Girlfriend in Fragments of Actual DNA

by Susana Polo | 2:41 pm, December 31st, 2012

The last science class I took was AP Biology in 2003. Well, that’s not true, the last science class I took was Astronomy 101, and before that Honors Physics, but I dropped out of the latter after a marking period. So, the last science class I took that offered a significant challenge to me was AP Biology. After nearly a decade, there isn’t much I remember about it other than my teacher explaining why we were using an online simulator for the fly genetics lab (because he did it with real flies once and they never left) and dissecting a fetal pig that we named Napoleon. Also, I was absent for the lab where we performed gel electrophoresis, a method of examining the length of DNA fragments.

So bear with me on this awesomely sciencey proposal.

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Things We Saw Today

Things We Saw Today: Blizzard Offers In Game Kittens in Hurricane Relief Promotion

by Susana Polo | 5:08 pm, November 8th, 2012

Shortly after Blizzard took the plunge and began offering exclusive in-game pets to World of Warcraft players for real money they started offering them to benefit charity. The Cinder Kitten above goes for $10, and all of those dollars will go to the Red Cross’ Sandy efforts. (Wow Insider)

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she blinded me with science

Rosalind Franklin, In Her Own Words and Letters

by Susana Polo | 3:07 pm, April 20th, 2012

Rosalind Franklin might be officially the first historical lady of the geek world who I talked about on The Mary Sue. Well, there were a bunch of posts we wrote in the two weeks before the site went live, but they don’t count… the site wasn’t live. I talked about Franklin as an example of a person who was denied her proper due because of unreasonable expectations of what women are “naturally” like.

Franklin’s research was directly responsible for giving Watson and Crick, the famed discoverers of the structure of DNA, the final pieces of the DNA puzzle, even by their own admission. Yet her research, collected based on techniques she’d invented independently, was shown to them without her permission or even awareness by a colleague who she worked with regularly, and she was left predominantly uncredited for her unwilling contributions. The reason why they, as rival scientists working on the same discovery, felt it was okay to inspect her work without her permission? Well, it boils down to… “she wasn’t very approachable.” Needless to say, this isn’t a good reason to leave somebody uncredited.

Jenifer Glynn, Franklin’s sister, offers insight into her sibling’s personality in here book of Rosalind’s correspondence, My Sister Rosalind Franklin: A Family Memoir.

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she blinded me with science

Lady Cheats At Living Long, Shows Us How

by Jill Pantozzi | 11:47 am, October 20th, 2011

Humanity has long searched for a way to cheat death and Dutch woman Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper did just that for 115 years until she passed away back in 2004. She thought it was all the fish she used to eat but scientists who have been studying her genes since have finally presented their findings and say that Andel-Schipper’s unique genetic blueprint was really the cause of her long life and that it could serve to help others live longer as well.

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Bear Time

All Polar Bears Can Trace Lineage Back to Ireland, Insert Whiskey-to-Stay-Warm Joke Here

by Jamie Frevele | 4:20 pm, July 27th, 2011

Geneticists studying the DNA of bears have come to a very festive conclusion about polar bears: they can all trace their lineage back to brown bears from Ireland. There are so many jokes to be made, none of them are polite. I’m not Irish, but Susana is part-Irish, and she’s given me permission. And some of my best friends are Irish. So let’s just get this out there: We’re going to make ethnic jokes about the Irish.

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We Can't Have Nice Things

The UK Will Not Allow Human-Animal Hybrids to Happen All Willy-Nilly

by Jamie Frevele | 3:55 pm, July 22nd, 2011

Those in charge of such things in the UK are calling for stricter regulations on scientific research into human-animal hybrids, saying that some of it is getting too weird to be morally acceptable. While it is actually not that uncommon to incorporate animal DNA into solving a human health problem — such as hemophilia — some scientific researchers think that there aren’t enough regulations to stop the more wily scientists from trying to do things that should only happen in science fiction. So, all of you Brits who were hoping to fuse your DNA with the super-healing powers of dolphins, start your Twitter campaigns now.

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Pretty Pretty Princess

Awesome Geek Jewelry Roundup

by Jamie Frevele | 3:28 pm, June 3rd, 2011

We came across some really wicked geek jewelry today and put them all in one handy post for you to browse! Above is the Dino Hug Claws ring by Verameat, if you’d like some dinosaur claws wrapped around your finger. Like dinosaur chic? Click through for shorts. Dinosaur shorts.

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Things We Saw Today

Things We Saw Today: Calvin and Hobbes Private Investigations

by Jamie Frevele | 5:29 pm, April 16th, 2011

A boy. His tiger. They’re cops. Splashy rendering by Franceso Francavilla. (Via Popped Culture)

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It's Aliiiiiiiiiiiive!

Someone Wants to Try Hatching a Dinosaur

by Jamie Frevele | 1:45 pm, March 4th, 2011

First off, Dr. Grant was right — dinosaurs did evolve into birds, birds are descended from dinosaurs. And now, there is a scientist who thinks he can “hatch” a dinosaur-like creature. Not by extracting prehistoric DNA from a mosquito, but by identifying a certain gene in a chicken that allows it to grow with a tail. Well, at least he didn’t pick something that could turn into a velociraptor.

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