Astrophotography: North American Nebula

The next target on the list is the North American Nebula.  This nebula is an emission nebula approximately 1600 light years away from Earth,  An emission nebula is basically just a big cloud of gas that is being excited by a nearby star and thus glowing.    The most prominent gas being ionized in this nebula is Hydrogen.  The nebula is huge, approximately four times the size of the moon, but its surface brightness is pretty low meaning you need binoculars or a low powered telescope to see a foggy patch in the sky.  That didn't stop William Herschel from discovering the nebula on Oct. 24, 1786.

The nebula is called the North American nebula because if you use your imagination you will see North America.  Canada is at the top with Florida jutting out as you follow the East coast.  Mexico rounds out the bottom of the nebula.  My photo is not the best out there and in the hands of more experience photographers the features of North America are even more prominent.

The location of the North American Nebula:

• 

The technical specs of the photo I took are:

A good story at the expense of GMOs

Its hard not to get frustrated with some of the journalism out in the world.  Here is one that I came across this weekend entitled "Genetically modified food: Worries outstrip science."   As a scientist this is the kind of article you read and can do nothing but just scratch your head.

This is a an emotional article and I don't want to take away from the worry and hardship these parents have gone through with an autistic son.  I have 3 kids and fully understand that you will do anything to protect them them even when it may not seem rationale to those looking on.  It is just what we as parents do.

However, I will not be as kind to journalism that uses a parents hardship to pursue an agenda of Anti-GMO sentiment.  The parents in this article as just much a victim as the public in that the story is just using them to further plant doubt and fear.  If you read this article you may easily link GMOs to causing autism.  Just like there are all kinds of articles that will link vaccines to autism even when science says the contrary.   How about this quote from the article:  "It’s just another change the Gioscias have accepted as they prioritize parental instincts and their children’s future over unclear science."  Really?  There is study after study showing the safety of GMOs and absolutely no evidence of GMOs as causing autism.  Even if you have gone to all organic, do you really think the crops you are eating have not gone through genetic modification?  Conventional breeding over years and years is rearranging genomes more than any GMO.  Just look at the pictures below.  Does corn look like that anymore?  The reason it or many other crops you eat on daily basis do no look this way anymore is because of a huge manipulation of the genome through genetic modification.   Yet he public is fine with the concept of conventional breeding even though in reality all our food is GMO whether from conventional breeding or using nature's on tools to insert genes into food quicker than conventional breeding can do.

Water on Mars!!

Lat week, NASA had an announcement and most of you probably heard it.  So even though this is not breaking news anymore, it is still an exciting discovery.   We have been studying Mars for years and it has seen like a desert planet.  There is evidence that there was water on Mars in the past and even that water could be hiding on Mars under the surface.  So who would have ever thought that a planet only 9 months away with current technology could harbor water.

The new evidence shows dark streaks on the planet's surface that come and go depending on the season.  The evidence suggests this is water on the surface.   Many of the headline may make you think water is flowing on Mars, but the truth is that there are probably still not any oceans or even ponds on the surface of Mars.  The water that is showing in these recent pictures is more of a seeping to surface and only when the temperature reaches a balmy negative 10 degrees Celsius.  The water is not flowing like you might imagine a stream, but just getting enough of the surface wet enough to darken it.  The water also appears to be a little salty.

Even though we are probably not going to go to Mars and drink water from a spring, I honestly never thought there was any liquid water near the surface of Mars.  The pictures we see looks like a barren desert of rocks.  Where there is water there could be life even if only microbial life.  The discoveries we are now seeing in space keep coming.   If we are just starting to uncover mysteries from one of the closest celestial objects to Earth, just imagine what else is out there!

Add captionhttps://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia19918/recurring-lineae-on-slopes-at-horowitz-crater

The GMO war

An article came out this summer that I had meant to post, but then I was rambling about other things and almost forgot about it.   I really think everyone should read this article no matter which side of the fence you are on about GMOs.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/07/are_gmos_safe_yes_the_case_against_them_is_full_of_fraud_lies_and_errors.html

The article covers a gamut of things I have blogged about, but it is a  deep dive into GMOs and written very eloquently.

I often come across blind and uneducated opinions on GMOs.  That is fine.  I have some opinions that are founded on social trends or here say without truly knowing the true facts.  We are humans and assumptions are going to made.  However, when we can educate ourselves and find that facts it is a good thing for all of us.  This is a paper that does a nice job educating with facts and is a great one to share to people who just don't know the truth about GMOs and the fact they are safe.

The hardest battle is against those that have seen the facts, but still refuse to change their beliefs.  Hopefully those small groups will one day be outnumbered.  This quote from the paper summarizes my own view on those who have completely closed their minds.

"Some people, to this day, believe GE papayas are dangerous. They want more studies. They’ll always want more studies. They call themselves skeptics. But when you cling to an unsubstantiated belief, even after two decades of research and experience, that’s not skepticism. It’s dogma."

Pluto again!

In this case the pictures say everything.  Take a minute and go to NASA's website and see the new pictures coming in on Pluto.  The crazy part is that it will take a year to get all the data back on Pluto.  The New Horizons spacecraft is transmitting data back at almost old dial up modem speeds and then it takes 4 hours for the data to go 3 billion miles.  So it may be October of 2016 before we see everything, but that doesn't mean the new pictures that are here aren't dazzling.

Who would have ever though a "dwarf" planet could be so interesting. The pictures below show the beautiful dwarf planet and an even closer up picture shows 11,000 feet mountains beside flat plains.  I find it amazing that there is still so much we don't know about our own solar system.  And yet there are thousands if not millions of other solar systems out there.

We tend to think we are pretty smart, and as a race we are, but just think about the things we don't know.  Pluto puts it into perspective in a beautiful way!

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/perplexing-pluto-new-snakeskin-image-and-more-from-new-horizons

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-rich-color-variations-of-pluto

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/closer-look-majestic-mountains-and-frozen-plains

Moving Genes

Gene transfer is common place in our world.  When a baby is born there is DNA from both the mom and dad that made a unique human.  When the wind blows pollen from one plant to another there are new genes genes being incorporated with the outcome of a seed.  That seed and resulting plant will be different from its parent plants.  This is nothing new and we all know the basics of the birds and the bees.  Plant breeders do this for a living. By the simple means of  manually moving pollen from one plant to another they have turned the food crops into what they are today.

Most people are at ease with this process or at least take it for granted.  More unease comes when we take a gene from one organism and move it to another.  For example when we take a gene from bacteria (Bt) and move it into soybean.     I have talked in a past about agrobacterium which is a bacteria that transfers its DNA into another organism's genome (grapes, trees, shrubs, etc.) in order to form a crown gall or tumor.   There is  a study that shows that the sweet potatoes we eat today have genes from this bacteria.  So even in nature there is a mechanism by which genes are transferring from one organism to another and STAYING there from generation to generation.

The question really becomes how common is gene transfer from one organism to another in nature.  It may be more common than we though.  Another paper has come out that details the relationship of caterpillars and parasitic wasps.

In college I did a lot of research on tobacco and I remember seeing the tobacco hornworm for the first time.  What is that thing!   They get huge and will "click" at you when they get mad.  Then I remember seeing the the first horn worm with white things sticking all over it.  The guys in the field explained that a wasp comes, paralyzes the insect for a short amount of time,  and lays its eggs in the insect.   The larvae use the insect to feed and grow, usually killing it and then hatch out.  Wow. 
And kinda gross.  Just Google images of parasitic wasp and see what they can do insects. You might want to not have eaten yet though.

http://spalbert.wpengine.com/2012/06/parasitic-wasps-beneficial-insects/parasitic-wasp-eggs-on-hornworm/

The crazy thing is that when the wasp injects its eggs it also injects a virus called bracovirus.  Normally if you get a splinter in your finger your body knows something is not right and mounts an immune response to try to get it out or take care of it.  The caterpillars have mechanisms to mount their own immune response for something like an alien growing inside of them, but the bracovirus specializes in keeping the caterpillar from mounting that immune response so the wasp's eggs can grow and not be affected.  These wasps are pretty smart!

That brings us to the climax of the story.  When scientists have looked at the genome of these caterpillars they found genes in the caterpillars from the bracovirus.   In some cases when the caterpillar did not die, some of the virus genome was incorporated into the caterpillar genome and has been passed down from generation to generation.  The more astounding fact is that sometimes the virus picked up wasp genes and then once the virus passed into the caterpillar, they picked up both wasp genes and virus genes. 

What does this even mean?  The scientists found that the genes from the bracoviurs that are active and have been incorporated in the caterpillar actually inhibit another virus called baculovirus.  So the caterpillar still can have a nasty death from parasitic wasps.   But the silver lining is that through the generations they have become Genetically Modified Organisms (without any human help) with genes from other species and these genes actually help them against another pathogen.  It truly is a transgenic world.


Sources:

http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/09/wasps-have-injected-new-genes-butterflies

Astrophotography: Pinwheel Galaxy

I had taken a trip to my parents in rural Virginia and had some darker skies than I was accustomed to North Carolina.  .  So it was a good opportunity to try for a new target.   This picture was taken on July 16, 2014.  

The main galaxy you see is called the Pinwheel Galaxy.  It is also know as Messier 101 (M101) and is located right beside the Big Dipper.  It is a spiral galaxy, but appears asymmetrical.  There are actually 5 total galaxies in this picture, but my scope did not resolve them very well.  The interactions of these other companion galaxies with M101 cause the the asymmetry.

My picture stats:

Other facts about the Pinwheel Galaxy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinwheel_Galaxy

Kid Science: Understanding DNA and RNA with Candy

One of the coolest things about my job is working with so many smart and innovative people.  And those people all have a passion for science they want to share.   Just recently a co-worker shared a cool way to teach kids about DNA and RNA.   And the kids get to eat the project at the end. :)

DNA is the building block of life and it is some pretty amazing stuff.

Here are some amazing facts (http://www.sciencecentres.org.uk/projects/handsondna/4.8%20-%20Amazing%20facts%20and%20quiz%20questions.pdf):

• Each cell contains roughly 2 meters of DNA.
• Humans have roughly 100,000,000,000,000 (100 trillion cells).
 • If you unraveled all of your DNA from all of your cells and laid out the DNA end to end, the strand would stretch from the Earth to the Sun hundreds of times (the sun is approximately 98 million miles away from Earth).
 • You could fit 25,000 strands of DNA side by side in the width of a single adult hair.
 • The DNA is tightly coiled up and structured into 46 chromosomes.
•  Our chromosomes are arranged in pairs. We inherit one copy of the pair from our Mum and one       from our Dad.
• There are approximately 3 billion (3,000,000,000) chemical letters (otherwise known as bases) in the DNA code in every cell in your body.
 • This is a massive amount of information. It would fill 200 yellow pages in small type font.
 • If you tried typing the whole genetic code out (typing at 200 letters per minute) it would take 29 years (without taking any breaks!).


The pictures below were put together by a colleague and it is very easy way to have fun with your kids visualizing what DNA and RNA look like.   Have fun!

Smart Drugs: Modafinil

It is late at night and I was reading random stuff on the internet when I stumbled across some news that is now letting me ramble instead of just getting in bed like I really should.

In some ways it seems like science fiction to take a drug that will improve brain function.  I think of the move, The Matrix:

You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." The term redpill refers to a human that is aware of the true nature of the Matrix.

Cognitive enhancement means increased creativity, better memory, better decision making, increased focus, etc.  The truth is that we already have a cheap drug that most of us use everyday that some would claim have limited cognitive inducing properties.  I know I consume way too much of through coffee and sodas.  Caffeine has become a staple drug for many of us to get through the morning.  It may also be a very weak cognitive enhancer, but your body becomes very tolerant of it in as little as 3 weeks.   then you are just maintaining or going through some simple withdraw that many of us have felt in headaches or drowsiness.

But there are other smart drugs that enhance cognitive functions to a larger degree than caffeine.  Conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson;'s, and ADHD affect cognitive ability in a negative way and we have developed drugs like Adderall and Ridelin to improve cognitive function of the brain that are hampered due to these conditions.  While these drugs are on the market and prescribed for very specific conditions, many healthy people want to the take the "blue pill" and in essence make their brain work more efficiently.

A quick Wipedia search on the topic quotes may sources including this one:  One survey found that 7% of students had used stimulants for a cognitive edge, and on some campuses use in the past year is as high as 25%.^{[dated info][7][10]} The use of prescription stimulants is especially prevalent among students attending academically competitive colleges.^[10] Surveys suggest that 3–11% of American students and 0.7–4.5% of German students have used cognitive enhancers in their lifetime

Students especially want an edge, but the problem is these drugs have some bad side effects.   That brings us to the recent news found in this article:  http://io9.com/sleep-drug-modafinil-affirmed-by-scientists-as-a-safe-a-1725355210

The drug the article talks about is Modafinil, a drug prescribed for people having trouble adjusting to shift work, or with sleep apnea among others condtions.  However it also appears to be a very good cognitive enhancer with very little side effects.

Only time will tell if this drug or any drug will ever be as common and accepted in society as caffeine, but with a much bigger cognitive enhancing impact.  You can think of all kinds of questions drugs like this raise.   Will only the rich have access to drugs like this and have even more of an edge in school just due to financial status?  Is is OK to take these drugs before sitting down for an SAT or GRE test?  How about in academic competitions?  Is it doping to make your brain work more efficiently?  Caffeine is accepted in society as a way to potentially be more alert during a test, but on the flip side its impacts are not as big as these other smart drugs may be.

As always it will be interesting to watch things that that seemed like science fiction just a few decades ago, have the potential to come true.  Will we all have the ability to take a drug and recall long buried memories in just an instance or pop a pill to quickly come up with the next new invention?  Or will the next Jeopardy champions have an asterisk beside their name because they were doping like baseball players but with mind stimulants instead of steroids.  It is an interesting world we live in and only time will tell if drugs like Modafinil are truly side effect free with cognitive enhancing properties and if so will society even accept them as ethical?

Kid Science: Silly Putty

Today is a holiday and what better way to spend it than doing science with the kids.   The fun science today is homemade silly putty.  It is easy and quick to make, but will provide entertainment for the kids and you while showing off some chemistry in the process.

Here is what you need:

1.  1 bottle of 118 mL Elmer's Glue-All (not the school glue)
2.  118 mL of water
3.  1/2 teaspoon of Borax
4.  1/4 cup of hot tap water
5.  Food coloring
6.  Bowl to mix everything up
7.  Zip-lock bags for storage

Now the fun part.  To make the silly putty just follow these steps.

1.  Pour the 118 mL of water into the mixing bowl along with the entire bottle of Glue-All.  Stir the mixture until you have a glue soup.

2.  Add some food coloring of your choice so your silly putty has some color.

3.  In a separate measuring cup, measure out 1/4 cup of hot tap water and add the 1/2 teaspoon of Borax.  Stir well until the Borax is mostly dissolved.

4.  Now pour the Borax solution into the Glue soup.

5.  Take a spoon (or your hands for some messy fun)  and mix everything up.

As you mix everything up, you will get a big blob of silly putty to play with.  Once your done playing with it, just store the putty in a zip-lock bag.

Step 1:  Mix the glue and water

Step 2:  Add the food coloring

Step 3:  Dissolve Borax into hot tap water

Step 4:  Pour the Borax solution into Glue soup

Step 5:  Mix everything up

Silly Putty!!

Store in a zip - lock bag

So what is the science behind this experiment.  The Borax is the key.  It hooks the glue molecules together to form the putty.  Glue is already a liquid polymer and with the borax we have made a more solid like polymer.  A polymer is just a long molecule that is mostly made up of repeating units.

For the chemists, the glue is made up of polyvinyl acetate.  Since it is a polymer each repeating unit contains an acetate group.  Borax is mode up of sodium tetraborate and reacts with the acetate molecules of the glue.  One molecule of borax bonds between to acetate molecules and as more and more of these bonds are formed the glue becomes more solid like.