Webcomics are Science too *

It's been a busy few weeks at work, so as I am trying to catch up on the +1000 unread links I had on google reader, I'm bound to stumble upon some fun ridiculousness (thus the goldfish in the last post and the slew of xkcd webcomics I'm sure will end up here eventually). I was perusing Jen McCreight's blog, I came across this gem. Enjoy.

(Original Image)

*Webcomics aren't real science. lol

Because it's Wednesday

To help us all get through hump-day I present this:

(Original Image: Here)

Goldfish: The snack that smiles back because it's got a functioning oral cavity.

Arizona Bans Human/Animal Hybrids

The seemingly mild-mannered southwestern state of Arizona has been in the news a lot lately, primarily for the drastic and somewhat surprising immigration law that recently passed, but the state is making waves in the scientific community now too.

(Image from: www.cftech.com)

The Arizona State Senate approved State Bill 1307, a bill that prohibits anyone in Arizona from “creating or attempting to create an in vitro human embryo by any means other than fertilization of a human egg by a human sperm.”

Scientists in Arizona are also prohibited from “transferring or attempting to transfer a human embryo into a nonhuman womb,” “transferring or attempting to transfer a nonhuman embryo into a human womb,” and “transporting or receiving for any purpose a human-animal hybrid.”

I, for one, find it a bit amusing that Arizona is outlawing the ability to create such organisms, but is also telling you that you can’t sell the ones you already have. Citizen, put down the creature from Next, it is illegal to buy or sell…(though it is also illegal for most people to buy or sell peyote in Arizona and that law hasn’t done a whole lot to stop them).

The official sci-fi term for pairing together DNA of two or more different species to create a hybrid organism is called splicing.

How are we going to find a girlfriend for Aquaman now?!

I think that a group of Arizona law makers happened to see the preview for Adrien Brody’s new movie “Splice” and just thought, “Oh shit, that can happen?! We best make a law against this AND QUICK!”

GeekOSystem.com also noted that “the wording of this law would also include human-alien couples trying to have children.” Don’t worry, Arizona is handling its alien problem through other legistlation. ZING!

You can find the text of the bill here, if you’re interested.

Also: Here’s the preview for that movie I was talking about.

Timeline of Evolution (to scale!)

I'll update for real either later tonight or tomorrow, but I saw this and thought you should too.

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Steve Rose has created a to-scale timeline of evolution of life on earth. It's pretty amazing to look at. Once you click on the link, scroll to the right. Each inch on the chart represents about 2 million years.


Click the button on the bottom right to see a "zoomed in" evolution from our first walking ancestors to modern humans.

On his website Rose says "One of the things that I am most amazed about is how long the dinosaurs endured on earth, and how briefly humans have lasted, so far." I completely agree with him.

Happy Earth Day!

I want to wish you all a Happy Earth Day!

(and I also want to wish Earth Day a happy 40th Birthday.)




For the last 40 years, environmentally conscious people have been joining together on April 22nd to help instill change.

Since the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, smog levels have decreased by a quarter, and lead levels in the air are down more than 90% (according to an article by Discovery News). Rivers and streams that used to burn due to pollution are now open to swimmers. The Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act helped change the way businesses could treat the environment.

Environmental progress isn't only about laws. The environmental problems that face us today aren't nearly as visible as they were forty years ago; people tend to pay more attention when a river is burning than they do when someone shows them a chart about greenhouse gas levels.

Nancy Sutley, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said "The Cuyahoga River is not on fire anymore, and air quality in Los Angeles is not as bad as it was 40 years ago. I think people get those connections. People get that something is changing about our climate."

No matter how you feel about climate change, do your part to help the planet this Earth day.

Recycle that can of Diet Coke.
Turn off the lights when you leave the house.
Use reusable shopping bags.
Drink tap water instead of bottled (it's fine, I promise.)
Walk to the store instead of drive.

All the little things add up, so put down that can of Aquanet and do your part this Earth Day!

Sushi is Good For You... Except When It's Not

If you, as sushi lovers, are anything like me, you tend to look down your nose at the questionable looking Stop & Shop tuna rolls that sit in a sad display next to the fish counter. You prefer, instead, a more credible sushi restaurant. Unfortunately, a new study show that mercury levels in restaurant tuna sushi are higher than the tuna rolls at the supermarket.


Excess mercury levels in our fish is nothing new, Swordfish and Herring are known offenders. Mercury concentrations tend to be higher in species at the top of the food chain and those species at the top of the food chain tend to be bigger. This is a problem for sushi lovers since bluefin tuna can weigh over 500 kg.

Image from: Sealionsushi.com

The levels of mercury present in Tuna can cause severe neurological problems in humans. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommend that pregnant women and young children limit they amount they consume. This advice is for general fish consumption, not just for sushi.

Also, studies show that there are different levels of mercury in different tuna species. Michael Gochfeld, a scientist from Rutgers University, did a study to find out which types of tuna hold the greatest amount of mercury. The team identified 100 sushi samples from 54 restaurants and 15 supermarkets using specific genetic markers to determine which species of tuna was in the roll.

The tuna sushi sold in restaurants had higher mercury concentrations than the sushi sold in supermarkets. Bigeye and bluefin tuna were more prevalent in restaurants and had mercury concentrations that approached or surpassed the FDA mercury limit of 1.0ppm. Yellowfin tuna is cheaper and is therefore more prevalent in supermarket sushi. It contains much less mercury than the bluefin tuna, but almost all of Gochfeld’s samples surpassed the EPA mercury limit (which is more conservative than the FDA limit). The mercury found in the samples of the bigeye and yellowfin tuna actually surpassed the FDA’s estimates of the amount of mercury contained in this fish.

Gochfeld warns sushi eaters that “If you’re going to eat sushi frequently, you should certainly stay away from tuna sushi, it should only be an occasional treat.”


Note to self: swap tonight’s tuna roll for a Philly roll instead.

Scientists Create Human Embryo with 3 Parents

Debates in bioethics range from stem cell research to genetically altered foods and everything in between. British scientists may have given us something new to debate.

Scientists from Newcastle University in the UK have created human embryos with three parents. The “test-tube” embryos, made from in vitro fertilization (IVF) were created using DNA from one man and two women.

During fertilization, the mitochondria in the sperm are destroyed, leaving only the mitochondria from the female to be passed on to the offspring. Mitochondria are, essentially, the power plants that provide energy in the cell. Faulty genetics in the mitochondria can result in a build up of poisons responsible for more than forty different diseases. Somewhere around one in 4,000 children develops a mitochondrial disease by age 10. Such diseases include fatal liver, heart, and brain disorders, deafness, muscular problems, and epilepsy. These diseases are often debilitating or even fatal, and until now, there was no cure in sight.

The idea of this research was to prevent women with errors in their mitochondrial DNA from passing diseases onto their children. The UK scientists believe that these diseases could be avoided all together if at-risk embryos were given an effective mitochondrial transplant.


Scientists use IVF to create a zygote and then remove the nucleus from said fertilized egg. The nucleus is then placed in a donor egg whose DNA has been removed. The resulting fetus inherits its genes (from the nuclear DNA) from the original sperm/egg pairing, but its mitochondrial DNA would come from a third party.

Image: from Nature

Patrick Chinnery, a member of the Newcastle team is quoted as saying, “The idea is to swap the bad diseased mitochondria – give a transplant, if you like – for good healthy ones from a donor.”

Presently, this technique has only been used in a laboratory, using abnormal embryos left over from regular IVF therapy. The eight three-parent embryos that were successfully created were destroyed within six days, after reaching a blastocyst stage of about 100 cells.

Although these six day old blastocysts are the only examples of human embryos with 3 parents, scientists first used this technique on mice and then later on rhesus monkeys. The mice grown from these 3 parent embryos have successfully reached adulthood and reproduced themselves. The monkeys, however, are only one year old.

Even though the effects of this research aren’t yet known, strict opposition is already appearing.

The US’s Family Research Council says “This technology…is a further step toward tampering with the very essence of humanity, and demonstrates not just a contempt for life itself – all the embryos in this experiment were destroyed for science – but a profoundly dangerous and arrogant belief that we can tamper with the genetic makeup of our fellow human beings.” Members of the team, and the scientific community at large, is somewhat exasperated by such claims, saying “We’re trying to prevent kids being born with fatal diseases.”

The more common objection is that of “designer children” created from altering heritable traits. The general public opinion is that altering DNA is perfectly fine when its changes aren’t inherited, such as gene therapy to repair eyes, but altering heritable DNA is extremely troubling. Countries like France and Germany have banned germline genetic engineering due to fears of designer babies and unknown health problems. Although the US has not banned germline genetic engineering, it does not currently provide any support for IFV research.

Doug Wallace, mitochondrial geneticist from the University of California looks at the ethical dilemmas in a different way. “Is it fair for society to make it impossible for a woman who has a high percentage of mutant mitochondrial issues to have a healthy baby?”

From fear of designer children, critics to the UK techniques could be preventing mitochondrial troubled parents from having children at all. The British scientists report that if the program moves ahead as planned, they may be able to offer this medical technique within the next three to five years.