Wasted milk is a real drain on our resources, study shows

Bad milk! Bad!

The gut could reveal effect of climate change on fish

So if I rely on intuition, the effects of climate change on fish will become clear to me?

Real science in virtual school labs

Pretty cool and definitely better than doing fake science in a real lab.

Mixed bacterial communities evolve to share resources, not compete

See even bacteria can figure it out.  What the hell is wrong with us?

Most people brush their teeth in the wrong way

Maybe next time try using the bristle end of the brush.

Well after interviewing top industry and research leaders in this relatively new research field, I am beginning to think so.

You can check out my GEN | Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News article, Metabolomics Continues Auspicious Climb.

You’re beautiful, Vesta

Ahhhhh, what a cute planet!

New twist on ancient math problem could improve medicine, microelectronics

You mean 2+2 = 5?  I knew it!

Free-floating planets in the Milky Way outnumber stars by factors of thousands

Oliver Twist was an orphan and he was pretty cool.  So was Annie.

Neighboring chimp communities have their own nut-cracking styles

Ouch!

OHSU researchers develop new animal model for 1 of the least understood medical issues: ADHD

Lab rats are hyper enough?  I mean has anyone else tried to teach them the basics of molecular biology and actually have any of them pay attention, let alone recall what you said?  And now they purposely want to give them ADHD?  Wow!

Robots fighting wars could be blamed for mistakes on the battlefield

Yeah, but did they start the war in the first place?

Medical ‘lightsabers’: Laser scalpels get ultrafast, ultra-accurate, and ultra-compact makeover

Boom!  I knew the time was near, that us geeks would become Star Wars Bad Asses!

Understanding and treating bedwetting in older children

So you mean the old ways of incessant teasing and shame weren’t working?

Freeing loggerhead turtles comes at a price

Why?  Are they jerks?

Scientists find Achilles’ heel in life-threatening malaria parasites

Not sure if this is just cool that they may have found a weakness in these parasites, or freaky that these parasites have heels.

Study hints at why gums suffer with age

Hints?  Just tell us already! What a tease!

Using math to feed the world

Nothing fills the belly like imaginary numbers, fractions, and the quadratic equation.

Sunlight plus lime juice makes drinking water safer

Add a little tequila too, all the better

Survey finds majority of Wikipedia entries contain factual errors

I just hope the results of this survey weren’t posted on Wikipedia

Moderate alcohol consumption before and after heart attack associated with lower mortality

Just have a heart attack and survived?  Let’s go to the bar and celebrate!

Why are action stars more likely to be Republican?

Because they like to blow crap up and speak in cheesy quippy dialogue?

Loyola study debunks common myth that urine is sterile

So I guess hospitals need to stop washing all their scalpels in urine, huh?

Head and body lice appear to be the same species, genetic study finds

So does this decrease or worsen the grossness of crabs?

Researcher finds faster, cheaper way to cool electronic devices

As long as it beats the old-fashioned method of blowing on it

Can a standard vision test predict nighttime driving performance?

Honestly, does any vision test actually predict any driving ability?  If so, why do we need a driving test?

You can make your own decision.

But then again if you tell Simon, the tabby/Siamese cat who graces my family with his presence, that he is simply an external offshoot of my personality, he might just come and bite you.

Actually, I’m quite sure of it.

Anyway, it’s not just pets that show emotions and personality. Wild animals do too.

In the EurekAlert! press release I know you, bad guy!, a PhD student discovered that while studying Korean Magpie breeding success, that the mother bird was not just protective of its nest, but it also remembered the student.  It knew the student was a threat and by god, it was going to put up a fight to save its young!

Okay, so what?  What animal wouldn’t try to protect its young?  That is simply instinct.

True, but what made it interesting was that the bird seemed to hold a grudge and would only go after this particular  student.  It also did not matter if the student was wearing a hat or not.  The bird recognized him and he was a threat.

So what this research seems to suggest is that animals have the ability to discern between one human and another human, and it is not simply a reaction “to all humans as being bad”.

So, the moral of the story? Don’t mistreat a bird, unless you want to make them angry.  Trust me, you wouldn’t like them when they’re angry.

We all know the world is easy, right?  So, we can only be helping our students by dumbing everything down. It is completely logical (for those that either completely flunked logic or are not quite functioning with a full deck).  So when I came across the article, US students need new way of learning science, I couldn’t help but think, what now?

But to my surprise, this article did not suggest a way to make science easier for kids, but rather suggested a way to help kids understand the material easier.  This article actually suggested that to help kids learn, a new way of teaching is necessary.  Making the material easier, was not an option.

I was floored.

Presently science is taught as separate kernels (ie. physics, chemistry, and biology) of information, making students memorize science facts, while not clearly defining why these facts are important to the real world nor clearly defining how this new information integrates together. The new approach is to teach students with eight specific concepts “atoms, cells, radiation, systems change, forces, energy, conservation of mass and energy, and variation,” and from their illustrate how these concepts integrate in the natural world.

Or in other words, by teaching that everything is connected and by showing students that physics, chemistry and biology are one side of the same three-sided coin , a student might be able to grasp onto the theories of science more easily and realize that science is more important than a sum of useless facts.

Will it work?  Hard to say, but something needs to change.  All I know is that when I started seeing the whole scientific picture, integrated in all its glory, did I truly begin to understand science.