Laughter Through Tears

"Although misuse is voluntary, intoxication is invariably accidental."

So I've been looking up poisons again. Bad writer habits.

Medical history can be fascinating, depressing and hilarious in more or less equal measure. A few of my smarter teachers have touched on it here and there, and it always helps to contextualize the material. It also puts things in perspective, when you’re learning about historical beliefs that represented the best medical thought of the time, alongside the best modern understanding of certain scientific mysteries. Makes you feel like maybe we know as little about the human brain as our antecedents did about germ theory. Someday, future podcasters will laugh at us.

( Read more... )

"Sawbones" is a Maximum Fun podcast hosted by Dr. Sydnee McElroy and Justin McElroy.

Crossposted to hazelgold.net.

I have Thoughts on Game of Thrones 1x1-2.

( Read more... )

Whoops I got paleontology on your epic fantasy.

There was a quote on metaquotes about AO3 kudos and I'm not going to try to liken kudos to renal clearance. Instead I will go back to studying and hope my brain doesn't turn to mush before I've achieved enough studying to clear 80 on my test tomorrow. If I break my brain on a textbook and hardly improve my grade, I may cry.

Need to post: less school angst, more shenanigans?

I'm in an oddly good mood, despite waking up too early for the weekend and not being able to fall back asleep.

First, have the Muppet Show theme:



Happy Jade! This alone makes me so glad I started reading Homestuck. Sadly it would seem most of the people who like Jade don't like Rose, and vice versa. Also, having new updates almost every day. *Scuttles off to read*

Mitochondrial calcium signaling and energy metabolism. I don't totally get it yet, but I'm working on it. Apparently it's high time I'm able to read and analyze articles like this, because I got a fairly aggressive e-mail from one of the program heads about presentations for next semester. This is the point in time where I have to send harassing e-mails to random strangers and ask them to sponsor me. Meep. :(

I have also applied for a bio-med internship and sent in a resume, which I'm not sure is up to scratch. I sort of signed up impulsively and then had to update it on the fly while also getting my assignments done on time. It's been a weird week.

I have a clementine. :D

Anyhow, it's Follow Friday so go ahead and follow: build_a_world for all your worldbuilding needs, writerstorm for general writerly brainstorming, the_studio for other writerly matters, pose_as_a_comm for when you finally start reading Homestuck OMG, and last but not least capslock_dreamwidth for general madcap shenanigans.

Apparently there's a gene called Luciferase that encodes an enzyme that, when it disassembles a certain substrate, the product is a bioluminescent protein that's responsible for fireflies and certain kinds of fish. The enzyme is used in sensitive tagging methods for determining regulatory elements in DNA, but, come on. It's called Luciferase.

Oh, science. Never change.

It's follow Friday! How much do I suck at this game? A lot, that's how much.

Here, have a occasionalmanatee_feed. Also, have a video of a manatee yawning.

( Manatee and dugong facts )

I desperately want to make pomegranate muffins. I'm not sure what else should go in them, though.

My DW paid account is about to expire, so I'm marking the occasion with a last-minute poll.

This linkspamming is becoming a habit.

I am very looking forward to this movie, because how often do you get films about pagan astronomer ladies? Even though it will likely be less fascinating than her actual life, and much more dramatized, and the trailed is just ~lolarious~.

Another lady scientist they should make a movie about: Saint Hildegard von Bingen. I first heard of her when I was reading up on the early history of geology (my dad is a geologist) and she was one of the first people in Medieval Europe to collect and catalog minerals and the like. She was also remarkable on many other levels, and it appears she had her fingers in just about every science and art that was available to her.

Out of all possible X meets Y premises, X-Men meets Little House on the Prairie wins. Especially when it looks like this.

I haven't read this review of Persuasion all the way through yet, but so far I've found it fascinating and insightful.

When you describe a book that "opens with a dispute over how much of a father's body should be eaten by each family member", it makes me want to read it.

shiegra wrote about vampires, heroines and sex in a way that compelled me to subscribe to her. I was compelled.

I swear I will finish that meta post sometime soon. No, I don't know why I'm suddenly fascinated by vampires, I just am.

"(a) During conjugation, the pilus pulls two bacteria together. (b) Next, a bridge (essentially a pore) forms between the two cells. A single-stranded copy of plasmid DNA is produced in the donor cell and then passes into the recipient bacterium, where the single strand, serving as a template, is converted to the double-stranded helix."

How E-coli bacteria transmit DNA from one cell to another. I wonder if they enjoy it.

(From Introduction to Genetic Analysis 9th edition, Griffiths et al.)