The Glucose Song

Something silly for Sunday... (but who doesn't love The Archies?)



[via Dr. Isis]

In an Octopus's Garden, In the Shade

Octopuses (apparently not octopi) are smart and have been shown to be able to complete problem solving tasks. Recently they have even been shown to potentially use tools - with one species carrying coconut shells to use as a makeshift shelter should the need arise. Check out this cool video of the behaviour:

Read more about it here.

Brain, Thinly Sliced

This is a long day in the lab:

We are slicing the brain of the amnesic patient H.M. into giant histological sections. The whole brain specimen has been successfully frozen to -40C and will be sectioned during one continuous session that we expect will last approximately 30 hours (+ some breaks and some sleep in between). The procedure was designed for the safe collection of all tissue slices of the brain and for the acquisition of blockface images throughout the entire block.

Live video of the brain sectioning can be seen here. The brain in question is that of Henry Molaison who had parts of his brain removed to control epileptic seizures, and ended up not being able to form new memories.

The Safety Song

How our lab safety training should have be done:

Maybe singing and puppets would reduce the open-toed footwear in the lab.

From: The Sounds of Science

Swimming in the Sand

On a toasty summer day, we might head to the beach, stroll across the sand and go for a refreshing dip. For certain lizards in more arid regions they can still take a swim to escape the heat - only they'll be doing it in sand itself.

The latest issue of Science has a paper [subscription required] describing the movement of the sandfish lizard, a desert reptile that can swim through sand, to cool off or escape predators, by wiggling like an eel. Check out the cool vids from the supplementary material:

Video 1: The sandfish burying itself in the sand

Video 2: X-ray cinematography of the sandfish sub-surface locomotion.

Videos should be free to access, but may require Quicktime.

[h/t: Why Evolution is True, who also includes a neat paper about tiger moths who 'jam' the sonar of predatory bats]

Street Corner Science

I love this idea, We've been talking about doing something similar at the student pub for some time now for the bayblab podcast... But obviously this guy is in another league...

Retro Science Vid: The Path of A Red Blood Cell

Cgi has only been around for a few years and already I find it amazing that it was possible to make this video back in the day. Who would've thought you could do cool things without computers?