The Lighter Side of Science

Summer Friday Blog: Wizard World Comic Con in Chicago

Posted on by Kathryn Doers

wizardworldLet’s put a little fiction in our science this week and take a look at the upcoming Wizard World Comic Con in Chicago. It’s one of the biggest in the U.S., typically drawing an crowd of around 50,000 throughout the weekend. This year the Chicago event takes place August 20th through August 23rd at the Donald E. Stephenson Center in Rosemont, Illinois.

This will be my fourth year attending Wizard World Chicago, and it definitely won’t be my last. It’s more manageable than the famous Comic Con in San Diego, but still big enough to spend the whole weekend wandering aisles and aisles of geeky treasures. There’s no conceivable way to get bored with celebrity autographs, hundreds of booths for browsing, and dozens of panels about pop culture. The people watching’s pretty entertaining, too.

My favorite part of any fan convention is the costumes. Some people spend months making elaborate pieces of armor from foam or painting a perfect replica of Captain America’s shield. Those are the die-hard fans, but most people dress up in some way, even if it’s just a T-Shirt with their favorite super hero printed on it. I love scanning the crowd and catching a glimpse of a character from one of my favorite TV shows. The atmosphere is fun and welcoming for all types of people and all levels of geek. Even entry level.

As comic cons and super heroes become increasingly popular, the guest list for Wizard World Chicago gets longer and more impressive each year. It’s not just for nerds anymore! Some of television and film’s biggest stars make appearances at conventions, and this year Chicago gets Jeremy Renner from Marvel’s The Avengers. You can call him Hawkeye. His autograph line will probably be the longest, people waiting hours for their chance to meet and exchange a few words with him. I’m particularly excited to see Nathan Fillion (Castle, Firefly), Norman Reedus (Walking Dead), Billie Piper (Doctor Who), and Burt Reynolds (no references needed). Meanwhile, upstairs the legendary Bruce Campbell will host his first annual Horror Fest. This year’s show will be star-packed, that’s for sure.

 

Summer Friday Blog: La Brea Tar Pits in the Heart of Los Angeles

Posted on by Kathryn Doers

Hyrophilius sp. fossils from La Brea Tar Pits (photo credit: Archaedontosaurus Wikimedia commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hydrophilus_-_La_Brea_Tar_Pits.jpg
Hyrophilius sp. fossils from La Brea Tar Pits (photo credit: Archaedontosaurus Wikimedia commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hydrophilus_-_La_Brea_Tar_Pits.jpg
Urban Southern California is one of the last places I associate with archaeological digs. It’s better known for the Hollywood sign and expansive mansions. In reality, central Los Angeles is home to the La Brea Tar Pits, one of the most famous tar deposits in the North America. Situated just south of Beverly Hills and nestled between busy streets is a bubbling lake of black sludge that offers paleontologists important information about the past.

For tens of thousands of years, natural asphalt has oozed from the earth in this part of California. Crude oil seeps up along the 6th Street Fault from the Salt Lake Oil Field, forming pools topside in several locations in the park. The oil becomes sticky asphalt as lighter fractions of petroleum evaporate or biodegrade, though methane gas emerges in uneven bursts and makes the pools look like they’re boiling.

This California tar has preserved the bones of many prehistoric creatures and pieces of plant life, giant and tiny, mostly from the last glacial period. Paleontologists have excavated saber-tooth cats, dire wolves, giant ground sloths, and a nearly intact mammoth nicknamed Zed. When covered with leaves, dirt, and water, the land became a snare for any animal that wandered too close. Predators then approached the dying prey in hopes of an easy meal, only to become stuck themselves. It was a cruel cycle, so Los Angeles fenced it all in to save today’s wildlife from meeting the same fate. A 2006 dig unearthed six dire wolves, and archaeologists were then able to confidently infer that the creatures hunted in packs like their modern relatives. The on-site George C. Page Museum is dedicated to researching and displaying the animals that have died in the Los Angeles tar.

One lone human specimen has emerged from the La Brea Tar Pits, a partial female skeleton dubbed the La Brea Woman. The remains of the roughly 25-year-old female were first discovered in 1914, and date back around 10,000 years.

Sometimes black tar trickles onto the streets and flowerbeds, so at least one a week the city has to clean and drain the sewers beneath the roads. Playing host to a prehistoric landmark isn’t easy. When I lived out in Los Angeles I rode my bike past the tar pits every day, and I always caught a whiff of fresh asphalt or rotten eggs. It took me a while to realize it was the tar pits, not some nearby construction.

Check out this crash course in fossil excavation from the official La Brea Tar Pits & Museum website:

Summer Friday Blog: Journey into Outer Space for the Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower

Posted on by Kathryn Doers

11156716_lThis week we travel to outer space, the Final Frontier, to catch a glimpse of the Southern Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower. But don’t worry, you don’t have to leave your backyard. Just grab a blanket and find a place without too much light pollution, and you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of this worldwide phenomenon.

The Southern Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower is an annual summer occurrence that spans July and August, but this weekend marks its nominal peak in activity. From July 26th through August 1st, give or take a couple of days because nature is lovably fickle, we can expect a maximum hourly rate of 15-20 meteors. That might not sound like much, but a special angle of atmospheric entry gives Delta Aquarid meteors long, lingering trails that seriously set this shower apart.

Most meteor showers are created by comets. As a comet circles our Sun, it sheds a rocky dust stream along its orbit. When Earth travels through this space litter, the result is a meteor shower. Astronomers believe that the Southern Delta Aquarids originated from the breakup of two sungrazing comets, Marsden and Kracht.

Shooting stars, as they’re lovingly called, can appear anywhere in the sky, but if you trace the tails it becomes clear that each shower has a definite epicenter. The showers are named after these radiant points, taking the name of the constellation dominating that particular region of the sky. The Delta Aquarids, as you can probably guess, pay homage to the constellation Aquarius. Look for the star Skat within the “water bearer” constellation, the point where Delta Aquari meteors are born.

For every time zone and all continents, the hours between midnight and dawn will be the best time to glimpse these brief celestial bodies. Those of you in the southern hemisphere and southerly latitudes in the northern hemisphere will get a better show, as is typical with this particular shower, though all observers are bound to see activity. Unfortunately, this year the waning crescent moon rises around midnight and will drown out dimmer meteors. But we’ll still see the big ones, and those are arguably the most thrilling.

Meteors are really just bits of interplanetary debris traveling tens of thousands of miles per hour, igniting as they vaporize in Earth’s upper atmosphere, but they sure are pretty. For a preview, take a look at this video of last year’s meteor shower, filmed August 2 by Canadian Geographic.

Friday Cartoon Post: Do You See the Assays Glowing?

Posted on by Sara Klink

As a tribute to the fireflies lighting up the night during July evenings in Wisconsin and the reporter gene assays they inspire, I wanted to share a special Ed Himelblau cartoon:

Cartoon Copyright by Ed Himelblau
Cartoon Copyright by Ed Himelblau

Wellness at Work: Pedal to Petal Summer Bike Event and Other Initiatives

Posted on by Roberta Braga

Corporate wellness programs have been discussed in the media over the past few years, and as I read more about them this week, I discovered that the tangible benefits of such programs are vast, ranging from blood pressure and cholesterol management, to stress reduction and mental wellness. I also came across articles claiming wellness initiatives don’t encourage healthy behavior beyond the requirements, or can be an invasion of privacy when employees are required to submit to comprehensive health screenings. Do corporate wellness programs really work? In my experience, they are indispensable. Wellness programs can serve as motivational starting points for employees interested in leading healthier lifestyles and are thus a very positive component of a company’s culture. In my case, the programs offered at Promega greatly facilitated my personal efforts to become more active and mindful.

Bike PicAs many Wisconsinites can attest, staying active in Wisconsin during the winter months can be incredibly challenging. Even walking from your car to the gym might cause your eyes to water and fingers to go numb from the cold. It is no wonder that when given the chance to snuggle up on a warm couch or to go for a run in the brisk weather this winter, I chose the former. Continue reading “Wellness at Work: Pedal to Petal Summer Bike Event and Other Initiatives”

A Warm Body in the Mesopelagic: The Endothermic Moonfish

Posted on by Kelly Grooms

If you think back to biology class, you most likely learned that endothermy, or the ability to maintain a body favorable body temperature (i.e., different than the ambient temperature), was a unique characteristic of mammals and birds. This ability sets “warm blooded” animals apart from “cold blooded” ectotherms such as reptiles and fish.

The warm blooded opah
The warm blooded opah. Image from:USA NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center. https://swfsc.noaa.gov/ImageGallery/Default.aspx?moid=4724

For fish, one of the biggest challenges to maintaining an elevated body temperature is convective heat loss in the gill lamellae.  There are a few fish species that are able to retain some of the heat generated internally, but these “regional endotherms” are only able to increase the temperature of specific areas or tissues.  Regional endotherms limit the heat loss with retia mirabilia, which are a complex network of blood vessels that act as counter-current heat exchangers that warm the cold arterial blood as it returns from the gills. However, these retia have only been found associated with specific muscle groups and organs, and as a result the rest of the fish’s body remains at ambient temperature.

A silver and crimson-colored, tire-sized, fish called the opah (Lampris guttatus), or moonfish, is changing what scientist thought they knew about endothermy in fish (1).  The opah lives in the cold, dim waters of the ocean’s mesopelagic zone hundreds of feet below the surface. Unlike other fish at these depths, the opah is a fast swimming, agile predator.  Its secret is retia located inside the gills. The location of the retia means that the opah can maintain an elevated body temperature throughout its body, and a warmer body temperature means it can swim faster and react more quickly than both its prey and other predators.

I don’t think that we should throw out all our biology text books and start rewriting descriptions of what defines a fish, but the discovery of the warm blooded opah should remind us that what we know is just a small drop compared to what remains to be discovered.

Reference

  1. Wenger, N. et al. (2015) Whole-body endothermy in a mesopelagic fish, the opah, Lampris guttatus. Science 348, 786–9.

Thawing Out to Sing: The Story of the Wood Frog

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

Wood Frog_Northern WisconsinOne of the hallmarks of the arrival of Spring in Wisconsin is the cacophony of evening croaks and calls from the Spring Peepers and Chorus frogs. Indeed frogs and toads are ubiquitous around the globe, and many of us who have become life scientists (even those of us who have relegated ourselves to the world of macromolecules, cell signaling networks, and nucleic acids) probably spent some time in our childhood chasing and catching frogs.

But what happens to those frogs and toads over the harsh winter months in places like Wisconsin? Well, their strategies are species-dependent, but at least some of them overwinter by freezing, and the story of one species, the Wood Frog, is quite amazing. Think about it. It freezes from the inside out. No heart beat, no circulation, completely dormant. Then in response to some unknown signal (day length? temperature? angle of the sun?), bodily functions slowly resume. What kind of cell signaling cascade controls that response?

Here is a video from NOVA about the Wood Frog and its amazing deicing event. The next time you are out on a Spring or Summer evening and you hear a chorus of frogs calling, you can think about the incredible molecular story behind the event and be even more impressed!

A NOVA Video about the Wood Frog:

 

Animal or Plant? FISH Labeling Reveals Horizontal Transfer of Algae Gene into Sea Slug Chromosome

Posted on by Kelly Grooms

There are times when I ask myself why I chose a career in science. This happens on what I call “grass is greener” days. On these days I dream of other careers—like National Geographic reporter or Caribbean tour guide–which all sound way more exciting than scientist. Admittedly these alternative careers are not ones that many people have the privilege of attaining, but sometimes reality gets to take a vacation. Fortunately, science is a fast-moving, always-changing field. As much as I might occasionally dream of exotic jobs in far away locations, science always pulls me back in with something new and unexpected. Because as much as we’d like to think we know, the truth is there is so much more that we don’t.

Image from: Pelletreau KN, Weber APM, Weber KL, Rumpho ME (2014) Lipid Accumulation during the Establishment of Kleptoplasty in Elysia chlorotica. PLoS ONE 9(5): e97477. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0097477
The sea slug Elysia chlorotica. Image from: Pelletreau K.N., et al. (2014)  PLoS ONE 9: e97477.

A case in point—sea slugs. These unfortunately named, exotic looking creatures have some surprising secrets.

Continue reading “Animal or Plant? FISH Labeling Reveals Horizontal Transfer of Algae Gene into Sea Slug Chromosome”

Promega Art Showcases Explore Creativity, Science and the Unknown

Posted on by Roberta Braga

A visitor studies a piece at the current Promega Art Showcase.
A visitor studies a piece at the current Promega Art Showcase.

Albert Einstein once wrote: “to raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.” The marriage of science and creativity, it seems, is indispensable for exploration and the discovery of new ideas.

As a life sciences company, Promega supports the work of scientists who are tasked with unraveling mysteries and who ask questions in an effort to get answers that improve the lives of others. Because creative thinking plays a key role in the scientific discovery process, Promega supports artistic exploration in many forms. As an organization, we appreciate that creativity reinforces the type of imagination that inspires scientific progress and innovation.

Since 1996, Promega Corporation has sponsored quarterly art showcases at the Promega BioPharmaceutical Technology Center on East Cheryl Parkway in Fitchburg, WI. This artistic initiative came about in an effort to explore the depths of creativity and science, and to demystify biotechnology and the work of Promega for our community. Promega Art Showcases, which occur four times per year and are open to the public, have featured the work of local, national and international artists, as well as the art of Promega employees. Continue reading “Promega Art Showcases Explore Creativity, Science and the Unknown”

Spring Break Staycation

Posted on by Sarah Dewbre

A picnic and play in a local park can be part of your staycation
A picnic and play in a local park can be part of your staycation
Spring Fever! It seems everyone has it around here. Last week, people were the happiest I have seen in a while, and I’m certain the nicer weather had a lot to do with that. With school-age children, it seems that Spring Break is a hot topic of conversation, but an exotic vacation is not always possible for families. So, what can you do if you aren’t taking a Spring Break trip but still want to do something fun with the family? We’ve done staycations a couple times in the past. An overnight in a motel is like a vacation to my children, so that’s popular, but we are looking for new ideas. Here are a few that have been suggested:

  • Camping out! The weather isn’t quite there yet in Wisconsin, but getting out the sleeping bags and having flashlights in the family room is super fun. No electronics, so you get to spend some time together without movies, cell phones or video games.
  • Movie Marathon! We’ve picked a certain type of movie (robots, monsters, etc.), and made popcorn with sweet treats. Pajamas all day on the couch.
  • Scavenger Hunt! Who doesn’t love one? Take the time to create a really fun one that will take a while to get through. This will keep your family entertained for a couple hours if you do it right.
  • Spend the day like a tourist in your own town! There are so many places that get overlooked in our own communities because we are too busy living our lives to explore. I’ve never been to a local museum here! Do some things that people travel to your city to do and see.
  • Family Board Game Tournament! You will be surprised how much fun you can have playing board games. Mix it up so you have a variety. Prizes and snacks too!

What are your staycation ideas?