How Cool Are These Little Guys???

So it's a well established fact that while I'm all about words and punctuation at this stage in my life, I'll always be a science nerd at heart. So imagine my excitement when I stumbled across this crazy awesome picture that a friend of mine posted on Facebook!

a water bear, courtesy of a scanning electron micrograph and Nature

How incredibly adorable is that?? Is it weird that I really want to hang this picture on my wall? I'm smitten.

This guy is seriously tiny and has been deemed the hardiest animal on Earth, thanks to its ability to live in sub-zero temperatures, solar winds, and the vacuum of space! Cool. To learn more about them, check out this super interesting article from Nature.

Coolest Science Fair Project Idea Ever.

One of my friends posted this video/article combo from cnet on Facebook and I have to admit that it brings out the nerd in me... I'm basically obsessed.

This father/son team decided it would be neat to send an HD camera and an iPhone into space via a weather balloon spacecraft. Cool right? The camera made it to about 90,000 feet before the balloon burst and sent it tumbling back down to earth at speeds reaching 150mph, even with a parachute!

If I had been this technologically savvy (and they had made video cameras small enough and iPhones existed) when I was in middle school I totally would have been all over this idea for my science fair project... although getting daphnia drunk was pretty fun too...

The video is over six minutes long but soo worth watching because it's got fascinating views of the earth's atmosphere and clouds and stuff. Enjoy!

Science Is FUN!

About 90% of the following silly scientific things were either sent to me by my father or found on his facebook page. Oh the joys of having a biology teacher for a dad.

The first, "Hello Darwin, My Old Friend," a.k.a. the classic Simon and Garfunkel song "Sound of Silence" is a pretty fantastic tribute to Darwin.

These fabulous cookies, cakes, and cupcakes were featured on an awesome cooking blog called Not So Humble Pie, which belongs to a biologist turned baker. My old genetics professor probably would have died over the drosophila cookies, but the mouse cookies are my personal favorite.

Next up we have a sweet knitted DNA pattern from the website twosheep.com. The pattern is featured here in Dr. Montville's DNA Double Helix Fisherman Scarf.

Finally, we have a full on knitted dissection of a mouse, a frog, and a pig from Emily Stoneking of the Etsy shop Crafty Hedgehog. You can buy the patterns for the mouse and frog while the pig is made to order... I would totally have knit these for my favorite bio teacher in college! I think Yorty would have loved them!

Is it wrong that I find these adorable?

Ever Wonder What A Drop of Water Looks Like?

Thank you TimeWarp guys!

Because I'm Still A Bio Nerd at Heart

Best. Video. Ever.

via http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/ and youtube

Why? Well...
1. its awesome
2. it reminds me of college and all those times that we watched this... for fun
3. it reminds me that I'm still smart
4. it reminds me that I don't totally fail at life (science-wise) because I still understand most of what's going on in this video and could probably still whip out some of the pathways that surround it.
5. it has super fun music


Go on. Watch it. Be nerdy. I am.