Last week Karen came in to teach us about DNA and size.Since DNA is so very itty-bitty, we were having a hard time understanding the magnitude of it and other tiny things we talk about daily but can’t see.It was really cool imagining the sizes of bacteria, viruses, DNA, and cells relative to each other in terms of objects whose sizes we have a feeling for…such as cabinets and tables and explOratoriums and hypothetical unibrows.
Then I randomly found this website, which starts with the same idea as our DNA Cheek Cell Extraction Demo but takes it to a whole new level:
You send your cheek cells in the mail to their company.They extract your DNA from your cells, then use PCR to amplify unique sections of DNA in your genome.This DNA is loaded into a gel and a current is run through the gel to separate the DNA based on size. UV dye is added to the whole thing to make your DNA strands visible, a photograph is taken, and voila!…a giant canvas print with the color scheme of your choice is ready to hang on your wall!
I think the image looks kind of like a cityscape, and if it didn’t start at $400, I would like one…albeit, I am a bit creeped out by the way their website encourages you to contact them if you think you might be into decorating with DNA from a dead person or pet (they will just need to obtain some mitochondrial DNA from your dead friend’s hair).
Ever since our emotional Mister Roger’s training two weeks ago, I’ve not only been feeling my feelings a little bit more acutely than usual, but I’ve also been reminiscing about how groovy the Children’s Television Network was back in the 70’s.
Then I read that The Electric Company is coming back. And now I am feeling a feeling I have never felt before: doubtfully hopeful. Without Rita and Morgan, how will the revival avoid becoming a kluge?
Maker Faire, once again, was really awesome. Above is a slideshow of the craziness that was the Exploratorium booth. Unfortunately, I have no photos of anything else that happened, because I pretty much stuck to the Explo space all the time. I know there was selective cupcake riding, some guy made a vacuum tube theremin, and swap-o-rama-rama enabled the birth of the pill-ho, but that’s about it.
A humongous thanks to all the Explainers that made it possible, easy, and fun: thanks to Ryan, Sarah, Aiona, Amisha, Antoine, Katie, and Nicole. Thanks also to special guest star Christina, who came out of explainer “retirement” for this ride. You guys are friggin’ awesome.
Check out Luigi and Kristen’s big modeling debut at last Friday’s second skin event. Paul D. is man enough to wear a dress! Dennis Bartels cant be contained by the normal bounds of a photo frame. Sylvia skirt watch!!! Nicole wears her constricting pully corset. And brain coral you shake it you move it around!
With many of the explainers (and the two leaders of the pack) ailing with flu-like symptoms, colds, sniffles, shakes, stuffiness, and sultry voice, I thought I would post a few links all about chicken soup including some of my favorite recipes.
Well it’s been about a month since the first post about the garden in my backyard. Things are going super awesome and its so fun to see how much growth can happen in just one month. A few weeks ago we saw white flowers on the pea plants. They seemed a little closed up but last saturday we noticed that there were about 5 pods scattered around the plants. They are super fast and seem to be really productive. Both the squash and tomatoes have been growing pretty well and have the beginnings of buds forming. Here are some pictures…
Sylvia warned me about the possibilities of lead poisoning, but a lot of the research that I did say that the chances of the lead reaching the fruits is negligible. We’ve been trying the technique of affixing aluminum foil to plastic boards and letting the sun hit both sides of the plants. The only plants that haven’t experienced dramatic growth are the two peppers. But I still have faith.
In related news the Members Class on soil happened yesterday and everything went really well. We dumped dirt all over the floor of TI, learned about worm pee, and planted lima beans and succulents. All in all - fun times.
What emotions do these photos conjure up? Does one connote a noble symbol of freedom and the other a urban nuisance? Where do these ideas come from?
Here’s a neat article that I read today in the NY Times science Tuesday by one of my favorite science writers, Natalie Angier, about the problems with “biobigotry” (hope that one doesn’t come up on a crossword puzzle). The phenomenon has to do with how certain animals are assigned emotional associations by humans good and bad.
It reminded me of how all the sections of the museum are intrinsically connected, with the biology and mind section able to intersect when considering the ways that human brains unconsciously view animals. I can imagine a version of the male/female - work/home game with animals and bad/good categories.
The other day, out of the blue, Carolyn said to me: “I know who Kristin reminds me of! The blond female Gelfling from The Dark Crystal!”. I was skeptical until I google-imaged (I sort of can’t believe I just used that as a verb…) Kira the Gelfling. You be the judge:
Kira the Gelfling on the left.
Kristin the Explainer.
I’m thinking, slap an orange jacket on Kira, and she’d be indistinguishable from Kristin. Yes? No? Anyone? Bueller?
I just checked out a book in the library called The Best American Science Writing 2006. Now I can be totally caught up with all the developments that happened in science two years ago. Woo-hoo! But funny enough in the first article called “Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore” Natalie Angier writes about the exhibit we looked at in training this morning.
“In one study, scientists started with the familiar Stroop test, in which subjects are flashed a series of words written in different colors and are asked to react by calling out the colors of the words rather than the words themselves.
The researchers then inserted a number of obscenities and vulgarities in the standard lineup. Charting participants’ immediate and delayed responses, the researchers found that, first of all, people needed significantly more time to trill out the colors of the curse words than they did for neutral terms like chair.”
What does everyone think of an explainer box with colored markers and paper so we can try this on the floor. Just kidding! But it is interesting to see some of the other things that you can do with this type of exhibit that may initially seem less open ended.
There are also tests that can be done about how many of the words that the participant can remember after the test. In this specific example people remembered the swear words and there colors but had trouble with the words next to them.
The unintentional comedy factor for this video is pretty high even though it’s produced by QUEST a PBS station in San Francisco. In the beginning they totally try to make it seem like their talking about aliens or something. It’s also funny when they talk about haw in the thirties people thought it was jolly good sport to go giant squid hunting. Field trip anyone?
