Amusing News Aliquots
Silly samplings from this week’s science news, compiled by Bethany Halford and Jeff Huber.
A crocodile lures birds by balancing twigs on its head. Credit: Vladimir Dinets
As if they weren’t scary enough already, crocodiles are also smart enough to set traps to catch prey. [ScienceDaily]
Finally, a color palette to help you figure out what the color of your urine really says about you. [Cleveland Clinic]
“Studies show there might be a positive correlation between intelligence and alcohol consumption.” The Newscripts gang would be smug if we didn’t think this was bunk. [New Republic]
German scientists discover the best way to get a bartender’s attention. It’s easier than you think. [Seriously, Science?]
Feeling weighed down by all your self-esteem? Then use this online calculator to determine your “vitality age”—that is, the actual age of your body given your lifestyle choices—and feel the self-esteem melt away. [Daily Mail]
We suggest you check out this long read on insomnia drugs just before bedtime. [New Yorker]
In Print: #ButtScan And Bulletproof Suits
The Newscripts blog would like to be closer Internet buddies with our glossy print Newscripts column, so here we highlight what went on in last week’s issue of C&EN.
Bottoms up: #ButtScan challenge gives academic job applicants a chance to win $100. Credit: Shutterstock/C&EN
It’s not every day that academics get to take off their pants for a cause.
But in this week’s Newscripts, C&EN Senior Editor Michael Torrice writes about how one daring humanities job seeker dropped his or her pants and won $100 to boot.
Rebecca Schuman, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, challenged the readers of her blog to enclose a photograph of their (clothed) rear ends in an academic job application to prove a point. She advertised the challenge on Twitter using the hashtag #ButtScan and promised $100 to the first person to actually submit a #ButtScan application.
Schuman often writes about how absurdly involved applications for humanities positions are and seriously doubts that job committees go through the hundreds of 80-plus-page applications that are sent to them.
“What happens is you meticulously and lovingly craft these 85-page dossiers. And then you pay $14 to send them. And then you get a gaping chasm of silence—literally bupkis, nothing—until April when they send you a form rejection letter,” Schuman told Michael.
Much to her dismay, she crowned a winner just 48 hours after her call to action. She had posed the challenge as a joke but paid up when a reader sent her proof of the submitted application. #winning
Bruce Wayne suit: A lightweight armor protects dapper gents from bullets and knives. Credit: Mike Paul
The second Newscripts item is for a select crowd that has both a dangerous job and a deep pocket. A Toronto tailor is offering bulletproof men’s suits for a pretty $20,000 penny.
Amusing News Aliquots
Silly samplings from this week’s science news, compiled by Sophia Cai and Jeff Huber.
Know your bird: Meet Caramel, one of this year’s pardoned turkeys. Credit: White House
Some key facts about this year’s pardoned turkeys. Decide for yourself as to whether or not they really deserved to be pardoned. [White House]
The White House’s “We the Geeks” series takes on Thanksgiving cooking (video). [The White House]
More breakdown of the science of cooked turkeys: “As the turkey is cooked … the bonds within the molecules begin to break down, which causes proteins to unravel and the dense muscle meat to become more tender.” Mmmm… you had us at unraveling proteins. [RedOrbit]
Turns out that eating a bunch of food on Thanksgiving, and not just eating turkey, makes you sleepy. Weird, huh? [NBC News]
New Orleans institute has some ideas on how to incorporate insects into traditional Thanksgiving recipes. If only they had told you before you started cooking this year’s meal! [TreeHugger]
And now for non-Thanksgiving-themed news: Know what will make you think twice about drinking tons of Coke? The fact that Coke can also be used to remove rust from bolts, blood stains from clothes, dye from hair, and paint from metal furniture. [ThoughtPursuits]
One reason why your kindergartner is winning the argument to stay home from school: Turns out toddlers are smarter than 5-year-olds. [NPR]
… And likely smarter than nine-year-olds, given that one just got suspended for snorting Smarties. [Time]
2013 Holiday Gift Guide
The Newscripts gang prefers to digest our Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing before facing the inevitable onslaught of the holiday shopping season. But this year Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fall on the same day – a rare convergence that won’t occur again until the year 79,811. So to help out the last-minute shoppers among our Jewish readers (don’t forget you’ve got an eight-day grace period), we’re putting up our chemistry-themed gift ideas a week earlier than usual.
Amusing News Aliquots
Silly samplings from this week’s science news, compiled by Sophia Cai, Bethany Halford, and Jeff Huber.
One-click class: Now you can 3-D print your own 18th-century Italian side chair from teh Smithsonian’s vault. Credit: Courtesy of Smithsonian Digitization Program Office via Slate
Smithsonian releases 3-D printable files of some of its artifacts, including Amelia Earhart’s flight suit, a 1903 Wright Flyer, and an ornately carved late 18th-century Italian Pergolesi side chair. We’re holding out to print Archie Bunker’s arm chair though. [Slate]
Fourteen-year-old Yorkshire terrier just signed up for health insurance using a state exchange. Hopefully this doesn’t translate into higher premiums for younger Yorkshire terriers. [Opposing Views]
And how bad can health care in this country really be if a blind dog in Philadelphia can get its own seeing-eye dog? [Mother Nature Works]
GoldieBlox riffs off of Beastie Boys’ gender-stereotyped song “Girls” to advertise their new engineering toys for girls with a massive Rube Goldberg machine. [LA Times]
Gentrification is for the birds. Literally. Wild turkeys are flocking to cities where they are “fouling yards with droppings, devouring gardens, waking up residents with raucous predawn mating sessions, and utterly disregarding dogs and other supposed deterrents.” [AP]
The chemistry of cookie-making. Mmm, cookies. [Gizmodo]
Guys, are you feeling self-conscious about the size of your nose? It’s not your fault. It’s evolution’s! [ScienceDaily]
Buzzfeed’s not the only one with color-coded maps about geographical language differences. Chemistry blogger takes on question, “What do you call introductory organic chemistry?” [Chemjobber]
And last but not least, check out this year’s winner of the Dance Your Ph.D. contest. To the naysayers out there, this is more evidence that sex always wins. [Science]
In Print: Sriracha Sensation, Deceptive Dishware
The Newscripts blog would like to be closer Internet buddies with our glossy print Newscripts column, so here we highlight what’s going on this week’s issue of C&EN.
Cock of the walk: Rooster-emblazoned hot sauce garners devoted fan base. Credit: Ttony21 / Wikimedia Commons
Bam! The Newscripts column is kicking things up a notch this week with its profile of Sriracha, the spicy condiment that is turning heads and clearing sinuses all over the world.
As C&EN Associate Editor Andrea Widener explains in her column, Sriracha has a devoted fan base that loves to put the Sriracha rooster logo on everything from iPhone cases to T-shirts. Explaining the hot sauce’s popularity, Andrea says, “Sriracha is the perfect combination of sweet and spicy, but it’s not so hot that only hard-core spice lovers can enjoy it.” What’s more, Sriracha is “a little exotic, since it was first made to be eaten on Vietnamese pho soup, so that draws in the foodies.”
But it turns out not everyone is a fan of the hot sauce. Residents of Irwindale, Calif., are actually suing Sriracha manufacturer Huy Fong Foods for inducing headaches and burning eyes that they believe are caused by the company’s nearby Sriracha plant. It’s the kind of public relations nightmare that could really hurt a product’s popularity … if that product weren’t already so popular. Andrea, for one, has no plans of curbing her Sriracha consumption anytime soon. “I have a bottle at home right now, and it has made a lot of meals better,” she says. Andrea’s love of the condiment has led her to do everything from buying the snack food Sriracha peas, to making Sriracha mac and cheese, to eagerly awaiting the sale of Sriracha candy canes this holiday season. That last part might sound a little crazy, but it’s actually pretty tame compared with the lengths other Sriracha lovers will go to enjoy their favorite condiment. For instance, Andrea doesn’t plan to chug three consecutive bottles of Sriracha in the near future.
Sticking with her culinary theme, Andrea uses the second part of her column to talk about a recent study that found that the color and weight of cutlery can significantly influence a person’s perception of the food they eat. For instance, Andrea says, the study found that people, for some reason, expect food served on blue plates to be salty: a fact that can lead to disappointment if the food is not actually salty. “It makes me think I should get rid of my blue dinner plates,” Andrea jokes.
The researchers also discovered that people perceive food served with metal-colored plastic silverware as tasting worse than food served with differently colored plastic silverware. The researchers posit that this is because eaters were initially fooled by the real-looking cutlery, and when their expectations weren’t met, they expressed similar disappointment in the food they were eating.
As to whether or not her own taste buds would be fooled by such tricks, Andrea doesn’t put on airs. “I like to think I’m special, but I’m sure I would be influenced by color as much as the next person.”
Amusing News Aliquots
Silly samplings from this week’s science news, compiled by Sophia Cai, Bethany Halford, and Jeff Huber.
Photo by Johanna Werminghausen
Who says romance is dead? Colorful hermaphrodite sea slugs make love by stabbing one another in the head. [Science News]
Cold and flu season has its benefits: Researchers find that giving a battery a cold actually improves its performance. [ScienceDaily]
To promote the 2014 Winter Olympics and to demote commuters’ waistlines, Russia is now accepting 30 squats as payment for a train ticket. (With video!) [Mashable]
Study finds that eating chocolate can lead to lower body fat. If that’s the case, why is the peanut M&M so chubby then? [News.com.au]
How to reach out and touch someone when you’re an ocean apart. [Social Reader]
Why does wine cry? Turns out it’s not because you’re also crying. (With video.) [NPR]
The Weather Channel is rebranding itself as the “ESPN for weather,” so expect to see spin-off channels such as Weather Channel 2 and Weather Channel Classic coming soon. [AP]
Good clean fun the Newscripts gang can get behind: Soap made from beer. [Tennessean]
Storied for hundreds of years in Chinese traditional medicine, black bear bile now shows promise in slowing development of type 1 diabetes. [National Geographic]
In Print: Racing Cells, Baby Dinos
The Newscripts blog would like to be closer Internet buddies with our glossy print Newscripts column, so here we highlight what’s going on this week’s issue of C&EN.
Microscopic organisms, start your engines! The second World Cell Race is upon us. Doping and steroids in the form of genetic modifications and unusual cell types are welcome in this competition to create the fastest and smartest cellular contestant.
Cell walls: Composite time-lapse photo shows the (relatively) fast progress of a cell through the maze. Credit: Daniel Irimia
As C&EN associate editor Nader Heidari writes in this week’s print column, this year’s World Cell Race will be held on Nov. 22 at the BioMEMS Resource Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston (watch the live broadcast here). The cited purpose of the race is to inspire discussion about how cell motility plays a role in health and disease. The Newscripts gang also wouldn’t be surprised if cell biologists were champing at the bit to enter a (relatively) high-speed racing contest.
Unlike the inaugural World Cell Race in 2011 that featured a linear track, this year’s race will force champion-hopefuls to navigate a maze-like course. Creating “smart” cells that don’t just Roomba their way into a dead end will add another dimension of design complexity. Nader says the organizers haven’t entirely revealed just how these souped-up cells are expected to make wise decisions on their paths to victory, but he’s putting his money on stem cells. “They’re pretty fast,” Nader says. “Some went up to 5ish µm a minute! This next contest will have molds, however, so we’ll see how they compare, even though they’ll need special tracks because of their size.”
The second part of Nader’s Newscripts discusses a keen-eyed teen who was first to spot a fossil on his high school’s trip to Utah’s Grand Staircaise-Escalante National Monument in 2009.
While traipsing through rock formations on an exploratory trip led by paleontologist Andrew A. Farke, high schooler Kevin Terris peeked under a stone and ended up discovering the smallest and most complete fossil of the dinosaur Parasaurolophus yet. Farke’s research group has been investigating the fossil and has recently published a paper about the baby dino, whom they’ve endearingly nicknamed “Joe.”
And Nader tells the Newscripts gang that the researchers think it’s unlikely they’ll discover anything quite like it again: “Joe’s find is a ridiculously rare glimpse into childhood development of these dinos. It’s crazy to find a relatively complete baby dino fossil, mostly because they tend to be bite-sized morsels for predators and have softer bones that wouldn’t fossilize as well.” Nader adds that the paleontology team “had a very tiny geological window to find and preserve the fossil as well. Farke doesn’t think he’ll ever find another such fossil in his lifetime.”
For now, dino enthusiasts can check out all the news about Joe at dinosaurjoe.org. But if Dr. Farke or any other paleontologists want some help finding more bones, there will always be more kiddos ready to go on a fossil hunt.
Amusing News Aliquots
Silly samplings from this week’s science news, compiled by Sophia Cai, Bethany Halford, and Jeff Huber.
Hamburger helper: Liberation Wrapper conceals shameful eating habits. Credit: Freshness Burger
Japan’s Liberation Wrapper now lets a woman feel—and more importantly, look—dainty and demur while stuffing her face with a burger. [Elite Daily]
You know what would round out your application for that tenure-track faculty job? A scan of your butt. [Pan kisses Kafka] via [In the Pipeline]
Giant rubber ducky explodes in Taiwan. Somewhere a giant Ernie sobs. [News.com.au]
Robot beats human in rock-paper-scissors every time. It cheats, but our eyes and brains are too slow to realize it. RoboWar is upon us, and they’re winning. [BBC]
Meanwhile, Cornell University is training robots to hold knives without stabbing humans. Why are we giving them knives?! Sealing our own fate right there. [NBC News]
Air pollution is making it difficult for China to spy on its citizens. Don’t worry, though, because China is fixing the problem: They’re making their surveillance cameras even stronger. [Quartz]
From Nobel-winning research to the novelty ice cream shelf: Entrepreneur uses green fluorescent protein to make ice cream that glows when you lick it. [CBS]
Looks like they made a film, called “Spinning Plates,” about dreamy chef Grant Achatz and his gastronomical science. [Fast Company]
Scientists posit that King Tut died in a chariot accident, but they remain mum (pun intended!) on the effect such an accident had on future pharaohs’ chariot insurance rates. [Jalopnik]
Amusing News Aliquots
Silly samplings from this week’s science news, compiled by Sophia Cai, Bethany Halford, and Jeff Huber.
This pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus) touches down on land to forage for insects, other small invertebrates, and small mammals./Photo courtesy J. Scott Altenbach via Slate
This Halloween, let’s take a moment to celebrate bats. They’re “merciless predators, loyal neighbors, tender mothers, and generous lovers with strange and intimidating tongues … at least one bat species possesses a penis of great and terrifying adaptation.” [Slate]
Some people have bug-searching a little easier. One entomologist (typical!) finds a new tick to research … up his nose. [LiveScience]
Not freaky enough? Here’s what happens when a tick bites you. [Not Exactly Rocket Science]
Babies can recognize lullabies they heard while in the womb. Good thing they can’t speak right after birth, otherwise they’d tell you how sick they are of hearing the same songs over and over again. [ScienceDaily]
Gadget lets your iPhone smell like coffee, flowers, or even steak and potatoes. Only a matter of time before you can smell candy while playing Candy Crush–not just on Halloween. [NPR]
Candy Master Eric Milliken makes “Black Cat” and other portraits using Halloween candy. Credit: Eric Millikin/Detroit Free Press
Man makes portraits of Halloween characters out of candy bags, inadvertently depriving us all of candy. [Detroit Free Press]
World’s largest chicken nugget was born this week, the proud child of a 500-gal deep fryer and 2.5 lb of breading. [Huffington Post]
Woman ticketed for driving while wearing Google Glass. Even the cool nerds can’t win. [SiliconBeat]
Here’s something to freak you out: Tarantula hairs in your eyes. [Seriously, Science?]
But perhaps the scariest of all: North Dakota woman threatens to not give fat trick-or-treating kids candy but instead a letter about obesity. What a witch. [LA Times]
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