Diane's Blog - General Science

Spinach Kills!

nospam@example.com (Diane C.) — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:55:31 -0700

Hey Kids, the US government says don't eat your spinach.

It's bad for you....it's a killer.

My favorite science bloggers explain it all:

Carl Zimmer: The Loom

This post tells just what Escherichia coli O157:H7 does to the body.

Mike the Mad Biologist

Wants you to know, only some E. coli are biological terrorists....most are peaceful.

Tara Smith: Aetiology:

Tara says ignore the Dateline, CNN, Fox hype and EAT your vegetables. Just cook them or wash them really well.

Finally...A Science Post

nospam@example.com (Diane C.) — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 19:37:09 -0700

From The Loom:

For the next two months the online archives of the Royal Society will searchable for free. The archive goes all the way back to 1665.

Historical papers you can find in the archives include:

The Complementary Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid
F.H.C Crick and J.D Watson - 1954

On the Hoyle-Narlikar Theory of Gravitation
S. W. Hawking - 1965

Alexander Fleming (Paper describing early stages of penicillin discoveries) - 1922

Arthur Eddington's solar eclipse observations, confirming Einstein's general theory of relativity (Phil Trans 1919)

Mentioned in the post was Mr. Zimmer's book The Soul Made Flesh. I read it last December during vacation. It tells the story of Thomas Willis, an unknown scientist...yet he is considered the father of neuroscience.

An interesting point of this book is that Thomas Willis and his fellow students at Oxford were able to study science in the manner it is done today because the professors they were beholden to for grades and degrees had left Oxford. It seems there was a civil war going on and the cowardly professors exited and left their science students to their own devices. The Oxford students learned science through experiments instead of philosophy lectures. And history was made.

Anyway I recommend the book.

Science Sunday

nospam@example.com (Diane C.) — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 11:28:44 -0800

NPR has Science Friday. I have Science Sunday.

Science Musing has a post titled What does the other half want?
Very appropriate for Valentines Day. (Me...I want chocolate)

It's Happy Darwin Day over at Science Blogs.
Read this tribute to Darwin from Afarensis and then have a good laugh over at the Darwin Awards web page.

For fun try the Friday test over at Cognitive Daily. I flunked! After taking the test you can go to Akiyoshis Illusions Page and take a look at the other illusions. You can experience the sensation of being on a roller coaster without leaving your computer.

To see the results of the Friday test go to this Cognitive Daily post