Help for your weekend…

Happy Friday!

Sorry I have not been posting. Things have been crazy busy and I’m taking a little blogger’s vaca. Don’t you worry your pretty little face, I’ll be posting again soon.

In the absence of my posts, I recommend you get a hobby (real housewives of NYC reference). Better yet, go out this weekend and find a nice, upstanding boy or girl (or in-between – I don’t judge. You do you) and have a wholesome weekend with them. Here are some pickup lines you can use:


Can I be your enzyme, because my active site is dying for a chemical reaction

If I were an enzyme, I’d be DNA helicase so I could unzip your genes

You’re so hot, you denature my proteins

Hey hottie! Will a little more alcohol help catalyze this reaction?

I want to work on your leucine zipper with my zinc fingers

If you were oxygen, I would totes be an alkali metal so I could get in you and explode!

Are you an alpha-carbon, because you look susceptible to backside attack

How would you like my endoplasmic reticulum: smooth or rough?

You remind me of telophase – I just can’t stop looking at your cleavage

I’d go down on your concentration gradient



Yup, its confirmed. I’m a nerd.

Have a great weekend, everyone! xoxo

Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head…

If you haven’t seen the new show on the Discovery channel (narrated by Oprah), “Life”, you need to fix that ASAP. It’s produced by the same people that made “Planet Earth”. The last episode I saw was on amphibians and reptiles, where I discovered a tiny lizard I now love.

The Brazilian pygmy gecko (Coleodactylus amazonicus) is one of the smallest lizards on earth, at only about half an inch long. Evolution probably made these geckos small to protect them from predators and competition, but in doing so it opened them up to a whole new dilemma of survival: drowning.

The pygmy gecko can be found in the tropical rainforests of South America – not exactly the driest places in the world. One minute the gecko could be sitting on a leaf, just enjoying the warmth of the sun and, without warning, a raindrop can slam into that leaf and send the gecko plummeting towards the ground. Before the gecko even knows what happened, it finds itself in the middle of a puddle trying to stay above water. Let’s not forget that when you are 2 cm long, a puddle seems like one of the Great Lakes.

Many geckos must have drowned before evolution stepped in and solved this survival problem with a simple solution: waterproof skin. This gecko can float.

The skin of a pygmy gecko is highly hydrophobic (the scientific word for waterproof). This skin paired with the gecko’s tiny size and weight allows it to float on top of water. They are even able to walk on water. They are much faster on land, so jumping into a puddle is not the ideal way to escape a predator, but hey, at least they won’t drown.

Happy Easter!

It’s impossible to think about Easter without thinking about Peeps. These chewy chicks and bunnies are some of the most iconic Easter figures. For the past decade, Peeps have been the number one (non-chocolate) Easter candy. I don’t like them, but I guess a lot of people do. They come in 6 colors (yellow, pink, lavender, blue, orange and green) and in 2008 yellow tulip Peeps joined the shelves next to their bunny and chick cousins (the first time a new design has been released since 1950).

There is something about these artificial masterpieces that has captivated the imaginations of scientists. It has been found that Peeps are a seasonal organism. They are hyper-sensitive to both hot and cold temperature extremes. Despite their sensitivity to temperature, they are highly adapted and will not dissolve or degrade when submerged (actually, they float) in water, acetone, sulfuric acid (strong acid) or sodium hydroxide (strong base). A Peep did, however, dissolve in phenol after sitting for almost an hour. No matter the substance or how long the exposure, scientists have yet to be able to dissolve the eyes of a Peep.

Check out this website to see images of the Peeps while they were being tested, as well as images of a surgery separating quadruplet Peep siblings that were attached at birth!

Like several other organisms in the wild, Peeps have evolved and acquired a defense mechanism to protect from being preyed upon by predators. Similar to a pufferfish, when a Peep is exposed to a high stress environment, it will grow in size. Appearing larger and more impressive can help ward off predators. And what is more stressful than a microwave? When you put a Peep in the microwave it will blow up in size and the mechanism for this exaggeration of physical proportion in response to stressful stimuli is well understood.

Well like all other living organisms, Peeps are comprised mostly of water. A microwave sends out its electromagnetic radiation at a wavelength (approximately 10^-6 meters) that is perfectly absorbed by water molecules. As the water absorbs the radiation it gains energy. More energy makes the molecules start to bounce around and heat up. In addition to water, Peeps contain high levels of marshmallow, which in turn contains lots and lots of air bubbles. As the water heats, the air will also start to heat up and heating air expands. The air will expand and before you know it, you have a giant peep in your microwave.

It’s a great defense mechanism that totes works – most people don’t eat the giant Peep.

Happy Easter, everyone!