Kid Science: Making a Clock with Fruit

The boys had a family birthday party the other day and I find that I can get just as excited about some of the gifts as they do.  They received a science kit that involved powering an LCD clock with an orange and lemon.  The kit came with everything you need, but it would be fairly easy to get all the supplies you needed without the kit and make this from scratch.

The idea is you have two wires each with a copper end and a zinc end.  You have two acidic fruits (limes/lemons, oranges) that you put insert the wires into.   The first fruit will get the copper end from one wire and the zinc end from the other wire.  The other fruit will likewise finish the circuit with the zinc and copper end that are still left.

Electrons flow from the zinc/copper electrodes and the medium to carry those electrons is the acidic juice in the fruit.  A car battery is a much more powerful version of this natural battery with a much stronger acid.    A pretty cool way to make electricity!

GMO Public Perception

I'm going to be lazy on today, but only because this article in the New York Times tells a story much better than I can.  It is worth a read, but I will point out a few facts that stand out:

• An analysis of 197 studies of GM foods found 24 studies showing GMOs safer than ordinary foods, 11 showed less safe or healthy, and the rest found no difference.  

There are just so many safety studies out there and they all come to the same conclusion that there is no evidence GM foods are unsafe.

• A 2014 study calculated that GM technology has reduced pesticide use by 37 percent., increased crop yields by 22 percent, and increased farmer profits by 68 percent. 

 These numbers speak for themselves.  Less chemicals in the environment, better yields, and a more sustainable future for farmers.  What is there to argue?

• Among the American public, 37% of the judged GM foods safe and 57% judged foods unsafe.

Even when sound scientific facts are given, the public is still holding onto an irrational fear.  Let go of the fear and dig deeper into the science and the studies.  Not only will you find evidence of safety, you may just change you mind on how you feel about GM food.

NY Times GMO article

Science for Kids: Lava Lamp

Doing science projects with the kids is always fun.  Remember growing up with lava lamps?  Well here is a chance to so your kids what a lave lamp looked like without having to buy one.  This experiment is good to answer the questions:  What is ligher, oil or water?  What happens when oil and water mix?

There are only a few supplies you need for this project:

1. Vegtable oil
2.  A couple Alka-Seltzer tablets
3.  Food coloring
4.  Empty Soda or water bottle

Once you have all the supplies then you just need to fill the empty soda bottle about 1/4 full of water.  Then slowly add the vegtable oil to the bottle.  Add about 3-5 drops of food coloring which will go through the oil and settle into the water.  

Now you just have to add an Alka-Seltzer tablet to have your very own short lived lava lamp. Once the bubbling stops you can add another tablet to get it going again.  Just don't put the cap on the bottle while the Alka-Seltzer tablet is going so you won't have the gas build up and have a big mess to clean up.    Other things to try is to see how different temperature of the oil (cool vs warm) affect the bubbling.  Have fun!

Astrophotography: Prime Focus

I started out in astrophotography with a small 90mm refractor telescope, an aluminum tripod and a Nikon D90 DSLR.  It is not the most optimal set-up, but it can still be used to get moon shots, constellations,  or even some of the bright deep sky objects.

When a camera's lens is removed and camera body is hooked directly to a telescope it is called prime focus.  There are no eyepieces involved.  This is the method I use the most for photographing the the stars.  Your telescope becomes the camera's lens.  Have you ever been to a sporting event and seen those big long telephoto lens?  We basically have done the same thing except our lens is made to look at the stars.

For prime focus you need a few components.

1:  DSLR with the camera lens removed
2.  T-ring
3.  Camera to telescope adapter

Each brand of camera has its own T-ring.  So if you use Nikon cameras then you need to make sure you get the Nikon T-ring.  Likewise, a Canon camera needs a Canon T-ring.   Most place that sell astrophotography gear will have this T-rings and adapters.    After you have the items, the T-ring screws onto the adapter and the T-ring end will be able to be secured onto the Camera body and the adapter end will slide into the scope.

At this point you have have a perfect telephoto lens designed to take photos of the sky.

Gardening in the city update

It's been about a month and a half since I planted the tomatoes in straw bails so it is time for an update.  I will just let pictures tell the story.  They are growing pretty good.   The soil tomatoes are a good reference to see how the two locations compare.

Tomatoes in straw June 18th

Tomatoes on April 30th

Comparison of soil vs straw

The one thing you may see in the straw bails and the soil sometimes is end rot.  Some cultivars are more susceptible and I had it one of my plants.  It is usually from a calcium deficiency which I see happen more in the straw bails.  The fix is to spray some calcium on the plants which you can find at your gardening store.

Science Perception: Science is cool again

Sometimes the perception of science does swing towards to the good side.  Back in 2012 Ferdowsi was part of the NASA team who landed the Curiosity rover on Mars.  He became an overnight sensation as the "Mohawk Guy" who was bringing cool back to science.

Fersowsi didn't do anything special to get all this fame except to be himself.  He showed everyone that scientists are just normal people who love what they do.  We need more Ferdowsi's on our front lines showing the public who we really are.

Just one guy put science back in the news overnight.  People do get excited over science when they relate to it and this example shows that we can make a difference in how people see science. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185657/Nasas-Mohawk-Man-Bobak-Ferdowsi-reveals-girlfriend-finds-fame-hilarious.html

From CBS news

Women in Science

Just a quick note before I start my normal blogging.  I have been trying the blogging thing out for a month or so now and have really enjoyed it.  I think going forward I am going to try a Monday Wednesday, Friday schedule and see how that goes for a bit.

Alrighty, back to it......

I was reading an older article the other day from the The New York Times Magazine.  It was entitled:

And then there was the picture that went with the headline.

Times have changed a little from 1927, but the article does talk about a study done at Yale that says there is still a huge gap.

I have worked with many brilliant women scientists and it is sad that this gap still exists.  I do believe the culture is slowly changing for the better.  Seeing that slow change came from an unlikely place when I was browsing the internet.  It came from LEGO of all places.  Lego recently released a science set and the researchers were women.  Way to go LEGO!  The set was so popular that LEGO has since sold out and the reviews were mostly overwhelmingly positive.

One of the reviewers summed up this blog entry the best:

Science Perception: Scientists

I personally do not think scientists as a whole are doing a very good job connecting with the public.  And I really think we are failing at connecting with kids.  Our world's future rests with the youth coming up through our schools.  We need some of them to understand science.  Our world's climate is changing.  Food and water are becoming more scarce as the population grows.   The perception of science needs to be cool so those youth will be the ones to help solve the many problems our population will encounter.

Yet the perception of science is not always cool.  Fermilab, a Department  of Energy lab specializing in physics, brought seventh graders to their lab and had them draw a before and after picture of scientists.  Take just two drawings and it looks like the perception of scientist seem to be be a white male who is old and balding. Yet after the visit, the view of a scientist is much more real.  We are people.  The message continues to be the same. Get active and show how cool science really is.


Check out all the other before and after pictures:  http://ed.fnal.gov/projects/scientists/index.html

Science Perception: Non-GMO Advertisement

We talked about perceptions and the public does not always have a great perception of GMOs.  So can non-GMO really be a selling point?  Of course it is.  I got a taste of it at Lowe's just the other day.  I needed to buy some plants in a pinch to plant for a bunch of kids.  As I walked up to the selection the first thing I saw was a big ole sign.

We all have our beliefs and evidently Bonnie does not believe in GMOs.  That is fine but tell me why.  Why are they bad? I thought I would find more information on their website.   Bonnie advertises as having heirlooms and Hybrids, not GMOs.

I love heirlooms.  They usually are very susceptible to insects or disease, but they are fun to grow and have great taste.  If you garden, then some heirlooms are a great addition.  Hybrids are just pollinating one plant with pollen from another plant.   Both plants used in the hybridization can be non-GMO, but to clarify hybrids can be also done with two plants that are GMO.

Bonnie has some great plants.  I have raised some of their plants and their quality has always been good.  I just wish I could get more explanation on why GMOs are so bad.   The sign is obviously there to get people with a certain perception to buy the plants, but no proof on why they are bad is given.   The business model may be that hierlooms and traditional non-GMO hybrids provide all the profit Bonnie needs.  So why even blast GMOs?  What is the purpose other than to try to get more sales as this type of propaganda preys on the fears of people who don't completely understand GMOs.

I have nothing against Bonnie, but signs like this just keep adding to the perception that GMOs are unsafe.  If they are not safe then show the proof instead of science-less signs.

Science Perceptions: Dihydrogen Monoxide

I just got back from a conference called Society of In Vitro Biology where the subject matter was primarily about plant and animal tissue culture, propagation, and transformation among a smattering of other topics.    But there was one session that I was very happy to see and I think we as scientists need to hear more of.  It was all about the importance of  the perception of science and the fact that scientists probably need to do a better job of making science accessible and cool.

The talk we heard was from Adam Ruben (http://adamruben.net/) who describes himself as a storyteller, writer, and scientist.  He is on some science TV shows and has made it a point to communicate science in a fun and meaningful way.

This week I wanted to write about perception and what it can mean for science.  So this week a lot of what I say is taken from Adam's talk, but the material he shared really drives home the importance of sharing who scientists are and the importance of connecting with our communities.

The perception of science comes from all kinds of places.  One place is from what we read and hear in the media.  In April 2013, a radio station went on the air and told their listeners that dihydrogen monoxide was coming out of the water taps.

If you google dihydrogen monoxide it looks pretty dangerous.

Taken from Google search of dihydrogen monoxide

If I heard about DHMO on the radio and read about it, I would be rather concerned as well especially after you do a google images search and see all kinds of info like above.  And in this case,  listeners did call into the local utility to inquire what was going on.  The punch line is that DHMO is a joke and it is another way to say water (H2O).  The utility company had to send out a release stating the water was safe.  There are many other instances you can read about about DHMO getting the public anxious:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax    In this case the radio station hosts were suspended for a couple of days.  Something as simple as this joke has confused and put fear into the public numerous times.

However this story just goes to show just how quickly public panic can spread over non-truths simply from what they hear.  For me this is exactly what I see in the biotech industry. The anti-GMOers communicate a message, the public believes it and emotion takes over.    Scientists have not been communicating the other side of the story as well.  Science and what we do comes down to communication and education.  The ultimate message is that if you are into science then communicate that other side and don't be afraid to be yourself.  Let's turn the perception into one of trust and admiration.

Sweet potatoes are naturally transgenic

I'm traveling this week, but I can get at least one blog in.  I hope this one is enlightening. 

We talked about Agrobacterium and how it is a very common tool scientists use  to transfer genes of interest into a target crop's genome.  In the wild Agrobacterium infects some species and causes the disease crown gall.  Infected plants in essence develop a tumor like growth.  Agrobacterium is a somewhat unique bacteria in that it infects its host by incorporating a special piece of DNA called T-DNA  into the hosts's genome.  Normally Agrobacterium is like any other disease in that it infects a plant or a certain number of plants in an area and that is the extent of it's influence.  However what if that T-DNA was incorporated and then the effects of the bacterial T-DNA were selected and carried on in future iterations of a plant species.  This is what researchers have found happened with sweet potatoes.

Sweet potato remains have been in Peru from 8000 - 10000 years ago.  It is one of the oldest domesticated crops.  During the times of domestication there is evidence that some Agrobacterium must have infected some sweet potato plants and those genes from the Agrobacterium T-DNA were incorporated into the genome.  Instead of that special plant dying, its line must have continued to be propagated so that those T-DNA genes stayed in the genome.  Scientists have found those genes still present today.

There is so much hype about how GMOs are bad and unnatural.  Yet Agrobacterium and nature introduced a foreign gene to sweet potatoes thousands of years ago.   If you eat sweet potatoes you may be eating a GMO that was engineered by nature and not scientists.   It is a transgenic world.

Full paper:  http://www.pnas.org/content/112/18/5844.full