Note to self

[minoanmiss]

Some science topics to study up on and write about

1) the upcoming vaccines. I need to learn about them and it'll help me synthesize the knowledge to write it out.

2) Pluto is King and Ambassador of the Kuiper Belt. I admit one of my pet peeves is that people think Pluto was demoted -- Pluto was reclassified and is the first-discovered of a large number of fascinating Trans-Neptunian Objects. I should talk more about that to spread knowledge of the actually awesome position Pluto holds in our classifications and in the skies. (A cool discussion I stumbled upon reminded me of this.)

3) The development of organelles and maybe microscopic life in general. I really love the story of how certain organelles were gained (even if I can't at the moment recall the general name of that group, go me), such as chloroplasts and mitochondria. And I recently found a Youtube channel all about microscopic life.

4) Cities. For at least 10K years humans have chosen to live in dense settlements -- cities-- and then to fight with and complain about each other. I find this hilarious.

But for right now I should contemplate simplifying food science and get back to work.

Comments

I know this isn't on your list

[drglam]

But if you haven't seen it, enjoy this charming and quite accurate song about evolutionary development (EvoDevo). I love that the artist had clearly just read Sean Carroll's 'Endless Forms Most Beautiful'!

https://youtu.be/ydqReeTV_vk

[princessofgeeks]

All of that sounds fascinating.

[mekare]

Re 1), me too! I might at one point be required to take a vaccine due to my job in education. Schools staying open is a top priority here and I‘m hazarding a guess that vaccinating teachers might be part of that strategy. But we‘ll see.

2) I didn‘t know that about Pluto and would be glad to read a post about it.

[brooksmoses]

For reading about the vaccines, I'd highly recommend Derek Lowe's vaccine-related posts in his "In The Pipeline" blog. The blog is about medical chemistry and things more-or-less related to it written to be accessible to interested lay readers (you may have heard of his "things I won't work with" series of occasional posts about the various ways that chemical compounds can be dangerous and the people who work with those compounds), and he's been writing it for quite a few years (from well before it was picked up by Science magazine's website). That put him in an excellent place to start talking about potential treatments for COVID-19, and so he did, with probably two or three posts per week since early in the year. Some of the posts are about the day's big news and putting in into context, and some of them are broader discussions of topics like "what is an mRNA vaccine?" or "why do we expect COVID-19 vaccines to work better than yearly flu vaccines?"

[minoanmiss]

oh man I remember rotfl over "Things I won't work with". thank you so much for this rec!

[mekare]

Thank you, that sounds like an excellent resource!

[mific]

And mitochondrial DNA is from Eve and the other first mothers, so very fascinating!

[contrarywise]

Cool topics! I hope you'll share the eventual writing here. :)

Re: 3, if you're referring to Journey to the Microcosmos, it's a really good (and soothing to watch) YouTube channel.

Re: 4, you might be interested in the upcoming book Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz.

[acelightning]

I love Journey to the Microcosmos. And it's hard to tell, but the narrator is Hank Green, one of the sexiest English-speaking geeks ever hatched.

[minoanmiss]

Oooh, thank you for telling me about that book!

Far off, man!

[annonynous.livejournal.com]

Pluto, The Former Planet
By Palman Lapgan 9/3/2006
Ttto
Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer
By Robert L. May and Johnny Marks

You know Merc'ry 'n' Venus
'N' Earth home 'n' Mars 'n'
Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus 'n' Neptune.
But do you recall
The most far out* planet of all?

Pluto, the farthest planet,
Has an orbit somewhat weird.
And 'cause his size is lackin',
Some have for his status feared.

All of the other planets,
You would never doubt the same.
Now *They* won't let poor Pluto
Join in any planet games.

On one chilly August eve,
IAU came to say,
"Pluto, with your troubled flight,
You're just not a planet right."

But all the plain folk loved him,
As they shouted out with glee:

[spoken] "Merry very early made June some unusual nets...? Nah."

"Pluto, the former planet,
You'll come back in history!"


* Well, much of the time. :)

[amaebi]

#2 reminds me of two things that have me in increasing despair:
- Humans are bone-deep devoted to reification.
- Humans re passionately addicted to repeating slogans to each other, and license very few people to speak in non-slogans and be heard with respect.

[cellio]

Back in the before-times, Dani and I took a surprise trip to Chicago, where we visited their planetarium, where we attended a really well-done show about Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The show was on the dome above us in the dark and so I wasn't taking notes, so I don't have anything specific to share, except that I wanted to add "yay, cool stuff!" to your second item here. :-)