Protein Synthesis: An Epic on the Cellular Level
March 7, 2008 | Categories: Films / Science


Jeff just called me to tell me that he watched this insane video from 1971 called Protein Synthesis in his Biochemistry class this morning. The movie was directed by a guy named a Robert Alan Weiss and was made for the Department of Chemistry for Stanford University. The video clearly shows that protein synthesis in your body is actually done by a pack of dirty hippies tripping on god-knows-what. It’s impossible to say what the best part of this is, the T-Factor wearing a black cape and a giant beard, the near-narrative music, the poetic stoner narrating, or the fact that Jeff goes to MIT and they’re still showing this there.

Skip ahead to about 3:30 in and you’ll see what I’m talking about, the beginning is just some Nobel prize winner blabbing on and on…

UPDATE: Click this entry and DIGG it! For some reason I can’t get the DIGG button to work when looking at the main page… I don’t get it.

Bobby

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault
March 3, 2008 | Categories: Architecture / Science / Technology

I read about the Global Seed Vault last year in Wired, but it wasn’t until recently that I saw a real photo of the place and how amazing it is! To make a long story short, the Seed Vault is a giant store house with over 10,000 seeds and plant material. The reason for this bio-bank is to “provide a safety net against accidental loss o diversity in traditional genebanks”. Basically it’s a giant vault of plant life, so that plants that could be important to us in the future don’t die out or go extinct.

The Seed Vault is located on a Norewgian island called Spitsbergen, which is only 700 miles from the North Pole. The reason they built the vault in such a barren frosty location is three-fold. The first reason is that it has a relatively low amount of tectonic activity, so no earthquakes, which a lot of other genebanks could possibly be damaged by. The second is that the average temperature of the sandstone mountain that the vault was built in is 30º F. The seeds are cooled down to a temperature of -0 to -20º F, so even if the power went out, the seeds would be okay for at least weeks. The final reason is that the location is 430 feet above sea level, so even if global warming occurs, and the oceans begin to rise, the seeds will be safe.

But no matter how important and immense this project is, how effing cool is the building itself?! Could you imagine randomly coming across it in the middle of this island and thinking, “There are modern design loving aliens hanging out around here?!” I think it’s totally beautiful, and I love how narrow and simple it looks. I’m sure it’s a much prettier site than just some random concrete bunker.

Check out some cross-sections of the building under the cut.
Keep reading The Svalbard Global Seed Vault…

Lunar Eclipse Tonight
February 20, 2008 | Categories: Life / Science

If you happen to live in western Europe, northwest Africa, the eastern half of North America or anywhere in South America, you’re in luck. Tonight will be the only full lunar eclipse we’ll be experiencing until 2010, so it’s definitely something to check out. For those who aren’t sure, the lunar eclipse is when the Sun, Earth, and Moon all align, causing the Earth’s shadow to fall on the moon.

Where you are determines when you need to keep a watch, so here’s a list of some of the places you just might be, which I stole from the Facebook group I joined to remind myself:

Newfoundland / 11:30 p.m. - 12:21 a.m.
Atlantic / 11:00 - 11:51 p.m.
Eastern / 10:00 - 10:51 p.m.
Central / 9:00 - 9:51 p.m.
Mountain / 8:00 - 8:51 p.m.
Pacific / 7:00 - 7:51 p.m.

South American time zones range from UTC (GMT) -5 to -3, so the time will be from 10pm until 1am.

In Europe and Africa ~ 3:00 a.m. - 3:51 a.m. UTC (GMT) in the early morning of February 21.

Bobby

Titan Descent with Bells and Whistles
January 1, 2008 | Categories: Films / Science / Technology

Like the Radiohead video above, this is pretty abstract and weird, but totally captivating. The video shows data collected from a space probe that landed on Saturn’s moon Titan almost three years ago. What you’re seeing is the “descent imager and spectral radiometer” readings, but what I see is a bunch of pretty colors and sounds. What the cameras are doing are piecing together smaler images to create a whole image. As you watch you can see the moon coming into focus, until finally the probe crashes right into it. Pretty amazing stuff.

Check out the official NASA page to get the more scientific explanation of what you’re seeing exactly.

Found through Gorilla vs. Bear

Bobby

Spiral Galaxy M81
December 2, 2007 | Categories: Science

Spiral Galaxy M81

I don’t think there will be a time where I’m not amazed by pictures of other galaxies. The photo above is a new picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of galaxy M81, the sharpest image taken to date. In fact, it’s so sharp that you can see “open star clusters, globular star clusters, and even glowing regions of fluorescent gas.” This is pretty amazing considering that it’s 12 million light-years away, which is considered somewhat close to our own.

There’s something so serene about staring at photos like these. I would love to have my ceiling covered in an image like that, but it should move like it was straight out of Harry Potter. The site the image came from is going pretty slowly because a whole lot of people are looking at it from DIGG, but if you happen to be reading this Monday morning, you might have a better opportunity of seeing the full sized image.

Bobby

The Capuccino Coast
August 28, 2007 | Categories: Life / Science

How crazy is this?! The coastal beach north of Sydney, Australia is being turned into a giant, frothy mess! This foamy weirdness goes out 30 feet into the ocean!
Scientists say that the foam is caused by “impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed.” All of that shit is the stirred up by ocean currents, causing it to bubble. Then all of the bubbles start sticking together, eventually turning into foam.
Now I think it’s really cool, maybe even fun looking, but dead fish and seaweed excretions?
No thanks, I’m cool.

Click here for the official story and more pictures.

Bobby

Lightning Strike!
August 16, 2007 | Categories: Photography / Science

Holy geez! This guy on Flickr, aixcracker, took the amazing picture above of lightning striking the center of a tree! I don’t think he edited it in any way, everything looks how it should to me. It’s absolutely crazy that the lightning came out magenta like that!

Nature is fricking amazing.

Bobby

The Super-Kamiokande
July 25, 2007 | Categories: Photography / Science / Technology

Holy shit. The image you see above is from the Super-Kamiokande, or Super-K for short, which is a neutrino observatory in Tokyo. The Super-K is located 1,000 meters underground the Mozumi Mine, and is made up of 50,000 tons of pure water (not present in the picture above), and 11,200 photomultiplier tubes. And honestly, that about all I can understand about it,

What I do understand, is how amazing it looks, so check out even more super hi-res pictures here!

Link via Pruned

Bobby

OCTOSQUID!!
July 5, 2007 | Categories: Life / Science

A possible new species has been discovered off of the Big Island of Hawaii, a cephalopod that appears to be a mix between a squid and an octopus. It’s totally an octosquid! It looks soooo rad!

But my first reaction?
I wonder what it tastes like… hahahahaha…

Bobby

New Frogs Discovered!
June 6, 2007 | Categories: Science

This is the coolest looking frog I’ve seen in a long time. The little guy was just discovered in the highlands of Suriname in South America. Scientists actually found 24 new species, including frogs and fish.
I totally want a pair of purple loop on an aubergine background, atelopus frog inspired dunks… these would be so hot!

Bobby