Bartholomew Says Hello June 22, 2010
Posted by Miss Weird Scientist in Animals, Brain Power, Deep Sea, Easy As Pie, Environment, Evolution, Ocean.Tags: blobfish, extinction, fish
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If this blobfish could talk, I think it would ask for us humans to give it some space. Maybe then it would have reason to smile. Credit: Greenpeace
Okay well, I made up the name Bartholomew and this interesting creature can’t really speak. But if it could, I imagine it might say something like “Please leave me alone!” So, just what is this odd, slimy thing and why would it want us to stay away?
Meet A Blobfish
With the formal name of Psychrolutes marcidus, the blobfish is definitely not the world’s prettiest fish. It is, however, on the verge of extinction according to researchers at the University of York in England. For blobfish, home is 800 meters into the ocean, just off the southeastern coast of Australia.
But unfortunately, excessive fishing with nets along the bottom of the ocean has jeopardized the well-being of the blobfish. It starts with overfishing at less deep and murky depths. After reducing populations up there, not much is left.
To compensate, we do something called bottom trawling, which takes us even deeper into the ocean. Here, we are fishing along the sea floor. It’s bad news for Bartholomew and all the other blobfish down there. No wonder poor Bartholomew looks so sad.
These blobfish may look like your grumpy Great Aunt Martha but they're probably unhappy for another reason. Overfishing is threatening their livelihood. Credit: NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
A Day In The Life Of Bartholomew
Just humour me here and let’s keep the name. So what’s life like for Bartholomew? You won’t see it for yourself because Bartholomew lives deep in the ocean, far away from our eyes.
That peculiar body serves a purpose, letting Bartholomew sort of float above the sea floor. Instead of using a bunch of energy to move, Bartholomew keeps movement easy and light.
How big is this body? A blobfish usually grows to approximately 12 inches (30 centimeters). In fact, I just picked up a comic book I will soon be reviewing here on the blog, and it’s about the same length as a blobfish.
A Floating Feeder
And boy oh boy, feeding is an interesting activity for the blobfish. While you or I take an active role in eating – we open our mouths and put food inside – the blobfish does it another way. When Bartholomew feeds, it means just drifting along, swallowing food particles that float in its mouth.
Ugliness Comes In Many Forms
Bartholomew is yet another example of the consequences from overfishing. Without adequate regulations around deep sea trawling, our ‘hello’ to Bartholomew may soon be a ‘goodbye’ instead. While his appearance may be ugly, some might say that the actions of humans are far uglier.
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Science Gets Pretty November 30, 2009
Posted by Miss Weird Scientist in Brain Power, Easy As Pie, Human Body.Tags: science and beauty, science contest, skin
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Science can be a lot of things – including being pretty as I found out in a recent contest here on the blog. I asked readers to tell me about the weird and wacky science things they had seen or learned about, whether that was at school or on their own.
While I was impressed with all of the entries, the winning one I liked because it was about everyday science. It really represents something simple but still very random and cool. And, as I mentioned, something pretty – a beauty aid, in fact! Maybe best of all, it’s about discovery, one of my favorite aspects of science.
The winning entry goes to Michelle of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her prize is the new Seeing is Believing book by Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Here’s part of what Michelle had to say:
You know the aspirin for headaches? My mum crushes it up with water and puts it on her face. It’s weird but she says it helps her spots. She said if I get spots it will get rid of them. She doesn’t know why it works but says her friends use it too and they told her about it.
The Science Of Aspirin
Hmmm – so what is it in aspirin that would potentially help skin? It’s possibly the ingredient acetylsalicylic acid. Many cosmetic face creams and products today use salicylic acid to exfoliate the face and improve skin tone and clarity. How this has become the trendy skin treatment is beyond me though!
Careful With Your Skin
I wouldn’t personally recommend you use aspirin on your face – mostly because it’s not meant for your skin and could be irritating to people, especially if your skin is sensitive. But it’s still a neat example of how science fits into daily life. Thanks Michelle and enjoy your book!
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Don’t Believe Everything You See September 15, 2009
Posted by Miss Weird Scientist in Brain Power, Easy As Pie, Environment, Human Body, Ocean, Psychology and Behavior, Technology.Tags: Ripley's, science books, Believe It or Not, Seeing is Believing
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Tiko looks like he's immersed in the new Ripley's book. But looks can be deceiving! We all know dogs can't read. Hmmm, perhaps Tiko is captivated by the cheddar cheese carving on page 130 of the book. Tiko loves cheese!
Should you believe everything you see? Well, in the case of the Ripley’s book that I was recently sent to review, you can believe most of it! The new Seeing is Believing book by Ripley’s Believe It or Not is a bright, colorful book with a rather creepy but intriguing eyeball on the cover.
Over the course of the last few weeks, my favorite magazines – BBC Focus, Scientific American and New Scientist – along with various other science books strewn around have been glanced at and quickly dismissed by friends and family who pop over (how cheeky!). Yet when they see the glossy Ripley’s cover, virtually all of them do what I might begin to now coin the Ripley’s Rxn, which involves a lingering look, followed by a gleeful exclamation of “Ooooh cool.”
What does this tell me?
No matter what age, people like weird stuff and they like simplicity. Ripley’s manages to do both and do it creatively in a way that speaks to young and old alike. My excited thirty-one-year-old friend enjoyed the book as did his nine-year-old son.
After all that pretending to read, Tiko awaits a liver treat for his hard work. I'll bet he's thinking that being an actor sure isn't easy!
Just how much of the new Ripley’s book is believable though? While the publishers do put a disclaimer that they aren’t responsible for the accuracy of the book, it’s still reasonably expected that the tidbits of information are true. Not so. I spotted a headline titled Glandular Fever. Of course, my UK readers will likely recognize this as the term for what we call infectious mononucleosis or mono here in North America. It’s caused by the Epstein Barr virus and because it can be transmitted through saliva, it’s often called the kissing disease as well.
Expecting to read about mono, I was surprised to read about a woman who had an imbalance of hormones that caused her to experience excessive hair growth all over her body. My sense is that Glandular Fever was meant to be a catchy title but nobody realized it was the term for another health condition.
Still, a minor inaccuracy or few doesn’t at all break the fantastic impact and enjoyment of this quirky book, but it’s perhaps a reminder to kids and adults that there is a lot more to science than meets the eye.
Find out more at the Ripley’s website.
A Weird Science Contest: Win The New Ripley’s Book!
I like contests. Do you? If so, I want to invite my readers to send an email telling me about the grossest or weirdest thing they’ve ever seen in science. It could be something from science class or maybe just a creepy picture of a bug. If you do send a picture, make sure you include a description of why you think it’s so weird! Anyone aged ten to sixteen can enter. The contest closes on the 15th of October, 2009.
Send your stories and pictures to mina@weirdscience.ca and I’ll share the winning entry in November on the blog here. Plus, I will also mail you the new Seeing is Believing book by Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Please include your:
- Name
- Age
Please also get permission from your parents before entering. Any entries from under 13s must be done through a parent’s email address and must also include a telephone contact number for the parent. If you’re a winner, either you or your parents will be contacted for a mailing address to receive your Ripley’s book.
Good luck!
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Science And Art Make A Delicious Cookie August 31, 2009
Posted by Miss Weird Scientist in Brain Power, Easy As Pie, Human Body.Tags: art, cookies, gingerbread, science cartoons
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At first glance, I was actually a bit creeped out to see a favorite cookie of mine dissected to show the innards of a human! But this super cool image is the creation of an artist, illustrator and self-proclaimed “crazy person” named Jason Freeny.
What I like most of all when I see this kind of stuff is that it comes from an imaginative place. While science is full of theories and information, it takes a vivid, explorative imagination to bring this to visual life in a way that makes us stop and say “wow.” When I asked Jason about his interest in the human body and science, he replied:
The intricacy fascinates me.
Now, I only wish my high school textbooks had pictures like this way back when I was in school. Well, not that way back. I wonder if this particular gingerbread man has a few gray hairs hiding under his sugary, baked crust.
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A Disappearing Fingerprint June 10, 2009
Posted by Miss Weird Scientist in Brain Power, Diseases, Drugs, Easy As Pie, Human Body.Tags: cancer, fingerprint, travel
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Most of us probably don’t give much thought to our fingerprints. Generally, you won’t need to be fingerprinted unless you’ve committed a crime (I hope none of my readers are in that group!) or you’re having it taken for data purposes when you travel into a country such as the United States.
Where Did My Fingerprint Go?
But what happens if you’re all packed up to travel, you get to the border and you simply don’t have a fingerprint. It’s…gone! For people who have certain kinds of cancer, a side effect of a drug they may be taking can mean that they suffer from severe inflammation on their fingers. This leads to peeling, blistering and bleeding. Ouch! The ultimate result is they don’t have fingerprints.
Let Me Enter – I’m Harmless!
If that isn’t troublesome enough, the lack of a fingerprint can make traveling across country borders a tough task when fingerprinting is a requirement. In fact, when one man recently tried to enter the US, he was delayed for four hours because officials were really confused about why he didn’t have any fingerprints. Fortunately, once they figured out that he didn’t pose a threat, he was allowed to pass through.
Prescription Drugs Are Powerful
The drug that triggers this unusual side effect is called capecitabine. It’s a common anti-cancer drug and is used to treat head and neck cancer as well as breast, colorectal and stomach cancers. So, what should these patients do if they need to travel? It’s usually advised that they bring a letter from their doctor, which explains their cancer treatment and the lack of fingerprints.
It just goes to show how powerful side effects can be when it comes to prescription drugs. And, how a medicine can have such an unexpected effect on something like travel. While the case of the missing fingerprint sounds like something out of a forensics novel, we at least know that the culprit here is the drug capecitabine!
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The Report Card Blues January 17, 2009
Posted by Miss Weird Scientist in Easy As Pie, Human Body, Psychology and Behavior.Tags: depression, report card, school, teen suicide
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It turns out that how you handle first grade doesn’t just affect your report card in future years, but it also affects how you feel about yourself. In turn, it could link up to feelings of depression way down the line in seventh grade.
Making The Grade
Researchers at the University of Missouri kept track of 474 girls and boys from first grade right up to seventh grade. For my UK readers who may not be familiar with the North American grade system, kids in grade 1 are usually six years old while kids in grade 7 tend to be around the age of twelve.
A lead researcher – Keith Herman, an associate professor at the university – found that the kids who had a hard time with the core subjects such as reading and math were more likely to show some of the risk factors for negative thinking and depression once they hit sixth or seventh grade. Herman thinks that differences in how kids learn will still be an issue, even if a child gets help with the difficult subjects at school.
What Can We Do About It?
So, if Herman’s theory proves true and kids are experiencing depressive thoughts due to their continued struggles with school learning, then what can we all do about it? One suggested solution is to acknowledge skills and positive growth in other areas, such as sports or singing. Herman shared his thoughts on the study and explained:
Children’s individual differences will always exist in basic academic skills, so it is necessary to explore and emphasize other assets in students, especially those with lower academic skill relative to their peers. Along with reading and math, teachers and parents should honor skills in other areas, such as interpersonal skills, non-core academic areas, athletics and music.
Researchers also found that girls responded differently to boys when it comes to self-perception. How a girl performed academically had a far more significant effect on how she viewed herself.
It meant that girls who didn’t really do as well academically saw themselves as not being in control of other parts of their lives. That feeling of not having control over important decisions in your life is considered a risk factor for depression symptoms.
A Little Backtrack
I posted about teen depression and suicide back in January of 2008 – a year ago. You can read the post here. I talked about ways in which teens can get support for depression. Afterwards, I received intense, emotional responses from a range of people – teens and adults.
But one thing that struck me is how responses seemed to bring up the aspect of a person not feeling valued or appreciated – not feeling like they have a special place in this world. There was a real sense of isolation for teens who felt depressed.
Feeling Good About Yourself
When I look at this new study, it seems as though the academic focus can maybe become so overwhelming, that we as adults forget about all the other amazing and cool abilities that teens have in life. The scary thing is that if we don’t acknowledge and share our enthusiasm, respect and admiration for these abilities, how can we expect teens to experience and acknowledge those same feelings?
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Particle Plushies June 30, 2008
Posted by Miss Weird Scientist in Easy As Pie, Physical and Chemical Reactions, Physics, Weird Gadgets.Tags: matter, novelty, particles, toys
4 comments
I’ve always been a fan of toys and I don’t think I’ll ever grow too old for this kind of neat novelty stuff. The toys in the picture above are called Particle Plushies and were created by Julie Peasley with the help of science consultant and physicist Derek van Westrum.
According to Julie:
I have had a lifelong interest in cosmology, the quantum world and theoretical physics. The Particle Plushies idea came about after attending a physics lecture at UCLA by Dr. Lawrence Krauss entitled ‘The Beginning and End of Time.’ A couple of difficult physics books later (including Lisa Randall’s Warped Passages), I realized that the individual particles seemed to have various ‘personalities’ that could be ‘felted out’ with relative ease.
The toys aren’t meant for really young children but they’re a fun item to have hanging around the house. Better still, these plushies combine art and science to provide education and understanding.
As for the weird science blog, these cute, smiling toys are hereby approved for coolness!
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Getting Tough With Sunbeds June 23, 2008
Posted by Miss Weird Scientist in Easy As Pie, Human Body.Tags: sun, sunbed, tan
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It’s summertime and as you get into your shorts and t-shirt, you might be thinking to yourself that your skin is whiter than Casper the friendly ghost. While some people seek their tan by sprawling under the hot sun at the beach, others head to the tanning salon. Tans are something that many people see as attractive but the path to getting that tan can not only be an ugly one, but it can get a lot uglier with time.
Setting Rules
New rules are now in place for sunbed use in Scotland. The rules are meant to highlight the dangers of sunbeds. In fact, one study found that 4 out of 5 tanning salons did not meet the current safety guidelines. The ultraviolet rays went beyond the maximum standards in Britain. The new regulations are thought to put Scotland ahead of the rest of the United Kingdom.
Getting Tough
So, what happens if salons don’t abide by these new rules? Well, they can say hello to fines. If a salon allows someone under the age of eighteen to use a sunbed, they will be charged £100 (approximately $200 Canadian). Salons are generally not happy about the new rules. Responses have included comments citing that children are more at risk of skin cancer from sun exposure during a foreign holiday or that there isn’t really any evidence to show that sunbeds are being abused.
A Better Tan
If you really do want that tanned look, however, the general consensus is that fake cream or spray tans – most using a chemical called dihydroxyacetone (DHA) – are non-toxic and safe for use on the skin. DHA is a colorless chemical, which undergoes a reaction with the amino acids in your dead skin cells. The result is a brown color – a tan. One safety aspect you should note, however, is that sunscreen is even more important if you are using a topical tanning product. So, be sure to slather your skin up with a quality sunscreen!
As for me, I used to find tans attractive during my own teen years. I disliked being naturally pale and felt that I needed to have that brown glow to look good. Ironically, most of the compliments I receive now are on my “porcelain skin,” which has taught me that we all have a pretty, natural color, whether that’s light or dark. I’d rather keep my sun exposure to a minimum by wearing sunscreen, avoiding tanning salons and letting any lines I develop be laughter ones – not wrinkles from sun exposure.
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A Lonely Set Of Teeth June 4, 2008
Posted by Miss Weird Scientist in Easy As Pie, Human Body.Tags: brushing, dentist, kids, teeth
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When it comes to teeth, being lonely is a bad thing! A new survey carried out by the British Dental Health Foundation (BDHF) has found that more than 1 in 5 under-fives in the United Kingdom (UK) were left to brush their teeth alone. Not only that, but a quarter of parents thought that children didn’t need to brush their teeth twice a day. Three quarters of parents also thought that brushing for one minute was enough. What? Don’t tell me you thought the same thing!
The Wrong Idea
The results get even more worrying. Twenty-three percent of parents thought that fizzy pop and similar drinks were fine for kids to consume, even though these drinks have been associated with dental decay. Overall, the results aren’t good but fortunately, they at least give us some clarity about why over half of all kids in the UK experience tooth decay.
Grab Your Toothbrush And Get Foamy
So, how do we sort out all of this tooth decay and poor brushing habits? According to Nigel Carter – chief executive of the BDHF – good hygiene and preventative habits need to start at a young age. The hope is that if a kid forms excellent dental habits early on, these habits will continue into adulthood. That being said, somebody needs to teach a child how to brush properly and for the recommended two minutes. This means that in the case of teeth, company is a good thing! Parents need to supervise their young kids when they brush their teeth each morning and evening. In fact, if you’re already a master brusher, maybe you can help supervise a younger brother or sister brushing their teeth? Perhaps even show them a few silly tricks. I personally enjoy making goofy faces when I have foam dripping over my lips. It’s a good way to scare people while also showing off my pearly white teeth!
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Good Hearing Is Always In Fashion March 5, 2008
Posted by Miss Weird Scientist in Easy As Pie, Human Body, Psychology and Behavior.Tags: damage, ears, hearing, sound
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Good hearing is fashionable. Or at least, it should be. Unfortunately, ear plugs aren’t generally considered an attractive and stylish accessory. The ugly reputation of ear plugs, however, will hopefully change. In fact, that change better come soon because hearing damage can happen more easily than you may think!
According to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), just a single night out listening to loud, booming music is enough to experience the initial signs of hearing loss. Generally, if a person is repeatedly exposed to 85 decibels or more of noise, they can sustain hearing damage. Given that loads of music concerts and other places have noise well above this amount, you can see how easy it is to harm your hearing.
Listen Up!
So perhaps you have been exposed to some loud noise already and you’re wondering what kinds of symptoms you might experience? Check out the list below to read about some of the symptoms of hearing damage:
- Ringing or buzzing in your ears
- Muted, dull or muffled sound
- Straining to hear someone speaking
Sometimes, you might experience the first signs of hearing damage immediately after exposure but the symptoms eventually resolve. If you keep getting exposed to the loud noise, however, symptoms can become a lot more uncomfortable and damage is likely to result.
Looking Cool
The RNID conducted a survey of young folk aged 16 to 30 and the results showed that a large proportion of the respondents were not into wearing ear plugs. Why not? A third of them thought ear plugs looked silly, which meant they were not down with wearing them. Did anybody wear them regularly? Unfortunately, a mere 3 percent said they consistently wear ear plugs.
Changing An Image
While knowing that ear plugs are important to prevent hearing damage is one thing, wearing them and not caring how they look (or pretending that you don’t care!) is quite another. I remember when I was in school and I had to get braces for my teeth. I had them in my final year of high-school and I thought they were absolutely hideous. For our class photos, I kept my mouth closed while smiling. Although avoiding braces (crooked teeth) versus not wearing ear plugs (hearing damage) can obviously have hugely different consequences, the idea of image and looking cool still has a major influence on both.
Today, for instance, I see kids choosing funky, bright colors for their braces and the entire image has changed quite a lot since I wore them. Snazzy, neon ear plugs? Well actually, it’s not a bad idea at all. In fact, if you have any fabulous ideas for an ear plug design, why not consider entering the contest created by RNID? After acknowledging that young people just don’t like the look of ear plugs, they decided to start a competition that challenges design students to create a fashionable and appealing alternative to the traditional ear plug. The students who show the most engaging and innovative ideas will receive work placements with some of the nation’s top design agencies. Since pink is my favorite color, I’m hoping someone makes a fashionable, pink ear plug!
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