Lance Lafontaine's Blog

"You see, money doesn’t exist in the 24th Century. The aquisition of wealth is no longer the..."

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:44:39 -0400

““You see, money doesn’t exist in the 24th Century. The aquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity. The challenge is to improve yourself, to enrich yourself.””

- Captain Picard (Star Trek)

Photo

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:39:39 -0400

Donkey from Shrek and NASA’s Curiosity… Just too...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:40:37 -0400

Donkey from Shrek and NASA’s Curiosity… Just too similar.

holymoleculesbatman: Titration

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 22:22:10 -0400

holymoleculesbatman:

Titration

Autotuned Morgan Freeman. Now I know what awesome is.

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:19:07 -0400

Autotuned Morgan Freeman. Now I know what awesome is.

Heart anatomy, 9th Century illustration.

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:16:05 -0400

Heart anatomy, 9th Century illustration.

brokenspokeadjacent: Primatology Lesson of the Day...

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:00:45 -0400

brokenspokeadjacent:

Primatology Lesson of the Day #12:

Gigantopithecus is an extinct genus of ape that lived in the jungles of China, India, and Vietnam until about 100 thousand years ago. Its closest relative is the orangutan and for that reason is thought to have had a red coat of hair. Gigantopithecus was the largest ape to ever live. The males measured in at almost 10 feet and 1200 pounds with armspans of over 12 feet. That’s over twice as large as a big silverback gorilla. Walking on all fours it’d be about the size of a Volkswagen Bug. Despite their intimidating size, remains of their teeth suggest they ate mostly fruit and bamboo. A full grown gigantopithecus had no predator to fear, but humans and other predators are thought to have hunted the young or weak.

braindr0ppings: Face Development in the WombMichael Mosley...

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:58:02 -0400

braindr0ppings:

Face Development in the Womb

Michael Mosley talks about face development with extraordinary CGI produced especially for episode one of Inside the Human Body in this vid.

prostheticknowledge: CentraSight An elderly woman is the first...

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 10:38:33 -0400

prostheticknowledge:

CentraSight

An elderly woman is the first to have a small telescopic pupil to aid her sight - via Denver Post:

Doris Ekblad-Olson is not too old to feel childish wonder at the idea of fixing her ailing eyes by letting someone suture in a tiny telescope.

But age does allow her to be blunt about her anxiety as the first Colorado patient to have the pea-size telescope placed in her right eyeball.

“I would rather I was his 100th patient,” chuckles Ekblad-Olson, 82, as she discusses the surgery with ophthalmologist Dr. Starck Johnson.

The former teacher was still game to be the Colorado guinea pig, though, and went under Johnson’s micro-knives at Sky Ridge Medical Center on Tuesday. Doctor and patient hope the successfully implanted telescope will bring vision back to eyes dimmed by a severe form of macular degeneration.

“There hasn’t been a lot we can do for these patients,” Johnson said. “We’ve been waiting a long time for this to come to fruition.”

More Here

Burning a candle in a sealed flask of oxygen on a balance shows...

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:53:16 -0400

Burning a candle in a sealed flask of oxygen on a balance shows that matter can not be destroyed, 1949.

Lactose Intolerance.

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:47:52 -0400

What is lactose intolerance?

Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest and absorb lactose (the sugar in milk) that results in gastrointestinal symptoms when milk or food products containing milk are consumed.

What causes lactose intolerance?

Lactose is a large sugar molecule that is made up of two smaller sugars, glucose and galactose. In order for lactose to be absorbed from the intestine and into the body, it must first be split into glucose and galactose. The glucose and galactose are then absorbed by the cells lining the small intestine. The enzyme that splits lactose into glucose and galactose is called lactase, and it is located on the surface of the cells lining the small intestine.

Lactose intolerance is caused by reduced or absent activity of lactase that prevents the splitting of lactose (lactase deficiency). Lactase deficiency may occur for one of three reasons, congenital, secondary or developmental.

Differentiating neuronal cells that have been triple stained for...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 10:38:25 -0400

Differentiating neuronal cells that have been triple stained for actin (purple), microtubules (green), and DNA (yellow).

Image by Dr. Torsten Wittmann, The Scripps Research Institute.

Farthest Untethered Spacewalk Mission Specialist Bruce...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 10:36:01 -0400

Farthest Untethered Spacewalk

Mission Specialist Bruce McCandless II, is seen further away from the confines and safety of his ship than any previous astronaut has ever been. This space first was made possible by the Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU, a nitrogen jet propelled backpack. After a series of test maneuvers inside and above Challenger’s payload bay, McCandless went “free-flying” to a distance of 320 feet away from the Orbiter. This stunning orbital panorama view shows McCandless out there amongst the black and blue of Earth and space.

Snippets of RNA Can Help Fight TumorsUsing a technique known as...

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 10:55:13 -0400

Snippets of RNA Can Help Fight Tumors

Using a technique known as “nucleic acid origami,” chemical engineers have built tiny particles made out of DNA and RNA that can deliver snippets of RNA directly to tumors, turning off genes expressed in cancer cells.

To achieve this type of gene shutdown, known as RNA interference, many researchers have tried — with some success — to deliver RNA with particles made from polymers or lipids. However, those materials can pose safety risks and are difficult to target, says Daniel Anderson, an associate professor of health sciences and technology and chemical engineering.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Snippets-of-RNA-Could-Fight-Tumors-060512.aspx

Milky Way Galaxy Doomed: Collision with Andromeda...

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 10:45:34 -0400

Milky Way Galaxy Doomed: Collision with Andromeda Pending

Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), and A. Mellinger

Will our Milky Way Galaxy collide one day with its larger neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy?

Most likely, yes. Careful plotting of slight displacements of M31’s stars relative to background galaxies on recent Hubble Space Telescope images indicate that the center of M31 could be on a direct collision course with the center of our home galaxy.

Still, the errors in sideways velocity appear sufficiently large to admit a good chance that the central parts of the two galaxies will miss, slightly, but will become close enough for their outer halos to become gravitationally entangled. Once that happens, the two galaxies will become bound, dance around, and eventually merge to become one large elliptical galaxy — over the next few billion years.

Pictured above is an artist’s illustration of the sky of a world in the distant future when the central parts of each galaxy begin to destroy each other. The exact future of our Milky Way and the entire surrounding Local Group of Galaxies is likely to remain an active topic of research for years to come.

M17 by Wolfgang Promper

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:12:42 -0400

M17

by Wolfgang Promper

Two More Elements Added to The Periodic Table You can now greet...

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 00:45:51 -0400

Two More Elements Added to The Periodic Table

You can now greet by name two new residents of the period table of elements: Flerovium and Livermorium.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry officially approved names for the elements — which sit at slot 114 and 116, respectively — on 31 May. They have until now gone by the temporary monikers ununquadium and ununhexium.

medicalstate: Unilateral Dermatoheliosis. This stunning image...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:13:39 -0400

medicalstate:

Unilateral Dermatoheliosis.

This stunning image of a 69 year old shows the effects of sun exposure on premature aging of skin. The man was a truck driver for 28 years during which the sun predominantly shined onto his face through his left window.

Chemistry: What's inside neutrons and protons?

Tue, 22 May 2012 10:52:36 -0400

Chemistry: What's inside neutrons and protons?:

The neutrons and protons consist of three elementary particles called quarks.

The types of quarks inside the neutron are called up and down quarks. The difference between them is in the mass and in the charge. The up quark has a charge +2/3 and the down quark (-1/3).

The neutron is electricly neutral (which is the reason for its name), so its total charge is 0. Threfore to only way for it to have a zero total charge is when it is build of one Up quark and two Dawn quarks.

Up + Down + Down = Neutron;
2/3 - 1/3 - 1/3 = 0

Protons have three quarks too. Protons have charge +1, therefore

Up + Up + Down = Proton

holymoleculesbatman: Fascinating and complicated:...

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:05:25 -0400

holymoleculesbatman:

Fascinating and complicated: Lignin

(C₉H₁₀O₂, C₁₀H₁₂O₃, C₁₁H₁₄O₄)

Lignin or lignen is a complex chemical compound most commonly derived from wood, and an integral part of the secondary cell walls of plants and some algae. It is one of the most abundant organic polymers on Earth, exceeded only by cellulose, employing 30% of non-fossil organic carbon, and constituting from a quarter to a third of the dry mass of wood.

Lance Lafontaine's Blog

"You see, money doesn’t exist in the 24th Century. The aquisition of wealth is no longer the..."

Photo

Donkey from Shrek and NASA’s Curiosity… Just too...

holymoleculesbatman: Titration

Autotuned Morgan Freeman. Now I know what awesome is.

Heart anatomy, 9th Century illustration.

brokenspokeadjacent: Primatology Lesson of the Day...

braindr0ppings: Face Development in the WombMichael Mosley...

Face Development in the WombMichael Mosley talks about face development with extraordinary CGI produced especially for episode one of Inside the Human Body in this vid.

prostheticknowledge: CentraSight An elderly woman is the first...

Burning a candle in a sealed flask of oxygen on a balance shows...

Lactose Intolerance.

Differentiating neuronal cells that have been triple stained for...

Farthest Untethered Spacewalk Mission Specialist Bruce...

Snippets of RNA Can Help Fight TumorsUsing a technique known as...

Milky Way Galaxy Doomed: Collision with Andromeda...

M17 by Wolfgang Promper

Two More Elements Added to The Periodic Table You can now greet...

medicalstate: Unilateral Dermatoheliosis. This stunning image...

Chemistry: What's inside neutrons and protons?

holymoleculesbatman: Fascinating and complicated:...

Face Development in the Womb

Michael Mosley talks about face development with extraordinary CGI produced especially for episode one of Inside the Human Body in this vid.