Comment

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on July 7, 2011 at 6:21pm

The Belly Button Biodiversity Project

 

Ever wondered what microorganisms live on you?
You are alive, but just how alive? We know that species live under our beds or in our backyards. But how many living organisms are on a square centimeter of your skin? What do they do, and how they differ from those of your neighbor? Very little is known about the life that breathes all over us. Each person’s microbial jungle is so rich, colorful, and dynamic that in all likelihood your body hosts species that no scientist has ever studied. Your navel may well be one of the last biological frontiers. It is time then, to explore.

Sampling the nation for Belly Button Bacteria
We are a group of biologists and science communicators from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and we want to know what lives on us. But this project is as much about teaching as it is about learning. We imagine germs as bad, and yet most are not. Most are either good or simply present, whether in between your toes or up your nose. The diversity on our bodies is, like any biological diversity, fascinating and full of awe and we want to share the joy of discovering it, one body part at a time. You give us a sample, we will grow and identify the bacteria, and you get the results. Meet your personal ecosystem, in color! With time we will not only grow the microbes off of your parts, we will sequence them, to know the easy to cultivate species but also all the rest. The life on us knows no celebrity, or rather it knows them as well as it knows the rest of us. Lady Gaga may live the wild life, but she also hosts it.

Why begin with the belly button?
Because no one volunteers when we ask for armpit samples. Because our belly buttons are relatively isolated, a place where microbes are safe. Because everybody has one, its what once connected us to our past. Yet, we barely notice it in our daily lives, to the point that few people actually wash theirs. Which is great for the bacteria! They are well protected, and provide a refuge of our wild nature. We can ask many questions about the microbes on our bodies (what controls which live where, whether the species on men and women are different, whether innies and outies sport different fancies, etc…) but a first step is to simply see who is there, the way the first explorers, upon arriving at new continents, simply wrote home to describe what they found.

So far, so bountiful
Your body’s life is beautiful. Browse through our collection of bodily life, or, if you have already been sampled, find your own sample here. Samples shown in our collection came from the first few sampling events: the ScienceOnline 2011 convention (see microbes that grow on our favorite science writers), the Darwin Day at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, and various others.

 

Comment by Jon van Rooyen on June 16, 2011 at 12:40pm

Currently reading "The Canon: The beautiful basics of Science" by Natalie Angier. Awesome book so far! Just wanted to share a quote I came across in it that I particularly like. Natalie is speaking of how a lot of people (including many scientists) dispute certain theories because they believe it is a matter of opinion or bias.

The quote:

"Those of us who are not overly philosophical believe that there is a reality to nature but that it can be very hard to see it and understand it, given all our biases" - Elliot Meyerowitz

It's a simple thing really, but I think if more people understood the difference between scientific fact (supported by evidence) and opinion, we may just break through to the next level in our understanding of the universe. I fear we as "intelligent" humans may be quite far off from that, however.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on May 17, 2011 at 8:37pm



Cancer in the 1800s: 23 rare photos (GRAPHIC)

America's war on cancer? With 600,000 Americans dying of the disease each year, we're still a long way from declaring victory. But doctors have come a very long way in their abilities to detect and treat cancer - as these 19th Century photos make abundantly clear. They appear courtesy of New York ophthalmologist Dr. Stanley B. Burns, whose collection of early medical photography is one of the world's largest.

Until the mid-1800s, there was no anesthesia. Patients endured horrific pain, and surgeons' reputations depended upon the speed with which they could perform operations. The best could amputate an arm in one minute, a leg in three. For the photograph shown here, taken in the winter of 1846, doctors gathered at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to demonstrate the first surgical procedure involving the anesthetic sulfuric ether.

Comment by Victor on May 12, 2011 at 8:52pm

Well, for atheists who love science and know some spanish, here is my blog: https://mtabok.wordpress.com/

Bye!

Comment by Pope OoO (Out of Order) on February 24, 2011 at 10:46pm

Wouldn't it be terribly ironic if Afro-Asian countries kept their oil and burned it for desalinization plants, food farms, and air conditioning while the rest of us just dried up and shriveled away.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on February 23, 2011 at 10:35am

Re: Doone's post on technology. Here's another link of interest: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/kelly07/kelly07_index.html

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on February 23, 2011 at 9:45am

Doone, can you provide a link to your technology post. I googled it but I'm not seeing it pop up. I want to pass it along.

Comment by Jaume on February 23, 2011 at 8:34am

I notice that people tend to live longer in countries where atheism is rampant (e.g., Japan, France, Sweden) than in countries where you're expected to be religious (e.g., Mali, Afghanistan, the USA)

Comment by Sydni Moser on February 18, 2011 at 11:40am

Creationism & Science

Comment by Hope on February 16, 2011 at 6:04pm

The Inner Life of Cell

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• …
• 32
• Next ›
• Page