Double X Science - It's In Your Genes

Search Results for: label/end of the world

  • The World Will Not End Tomorrow

    217;ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. –Robert Frost Science tells us the world won’t end tomorrow. It also tells us the Mayan cosmology is wrong: time doesn’t go in cycles forever. Earth began 4.5 billion years ago, and will end in about 5 billion years more—at least as a livable world, which is what counts for us. In between its beginning and end, it is defined by cycles: the length of rotation (days) and the tim…

    Authored by on December 20, 2012

  • Double Xpression: Debbie Berebichez, PhD Physicist

    …m.  My femininity allows me to be a voice in a field that has tended to isolate themselves from the public, which is bad. Some of my colleagues have become a little snobbish.  The fact that I have serious credentials (PhD and 2 postdocs) shows that I had to work like crazy – looks and personality can only go so far.  It s hard work that gets you there! Serious science communication has a lot of math and problem solving in order to explain things…

    Authored by on June 2, 2012

  • I’m suicidal. Not just at the moment

    …the trough has an end–is not uncommon. For anyone who feels their grip on those rationalities slipping too far, the following resources might, quite literally, be a lifesaver: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (US): 1-800-273-TALK (8255) For the deaf or hearing impaired: TTY by dialing 800-799-4889 or click here to chat with a counselor Materials and resources, including hotlines, state by state Coping with suicidal thoughts Developing…

    Authored by on March 22, 2013

  • An obituary fail of the Finkbeiner test

    …ystem that keeps satellites in orbit where they belong. You know, really important stuff. For example, in addition to her great achievement, she received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama in 2011 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2010. Coolest of all? She even worked for a couple of years at NASA in the 1980s on the rocket motor for the space shuttle. She was, quite literally, a freaki…

    Authored by on April 1, 2013

  • Biology Explainer: The big 4 building blocks of life–carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and nucleic acids

    …ll selection of different materials: bricks, mortar, iron, glass, and wood. Arranged in different ways, these few materials can yield a huge variety of structures. We encountered functional groups and the SPHONC in Chapter 3. These components form the four categories of molecules of life. These Big Four biological molecules are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. They can have many roles, from giving an organism structure to be…

    Authored by on June 8, 2012

  • Childbirth and C-sections in pre-modern times

    …ure, there are direct maternal deaths (complications of pregnancy, delivery, or recovery) and indirect maternal deaths (pregnancy-related death of a woman with preexisting or newly arisen health problems) recorded up to about 42 days postpartum.  An infection related to delivery or severe postpartum hemorraging could easily have killed a woman in antiquity, leaving a viable newborn.  Similarly, newborns can develop infections and other conditions…

    Authored by on July 2, 2012

  • The sperm don’t care how they got there, Rep. Akin

    lantation into the wall of the uterus happens. Again, if a fertilized egg shows up, the uterine wall doesn’t care how it got fertilized in the first place. Now to the human male. With ejaculation, a man releases between 40 and 150 million sperm. If ejaculated into the vagina, these sperm immediately begin their short lifetime journey toward the fallopian tube. Some can arrive there in as little as 30 minutes. A woman who has been raped coul…

    Authored by on August 20, 2012

  • Double Xpression: Liz Neeley, Science Communicator Extraordinaire

    …s of turning skeptics into something other than skeptics – I might not change them into believers, but they will at least be surprised and interested onlookers.  Liz Neeley’s Favorite Focaccia INGREDIENTS: Scant 4 cups white bread flour 1 tablespoon salt Scant 1/2 cup olive oil 1 packet of active dry yeast 1 1/4 cups warm water Favorite olives, roughly chopped if you prefer Handful of fresh basil TIME: Start this m…

    Authored by on June 11, 2012

  • LEGO those gender stereotypes

    an: But you’re a girl.  Girls get butterflies. Daughter (giving me a desperate look): But I really want a jetpack! Realizing that my daughter was becoming unnecessarily upset, especially given the fact that there were 3 boys already engaging in play with their totally awesome jetpacks, myself and the hostess mother intervened.  We kindly reiterated my daughter’s requests for a jetpack.  And, so she was given a jetpack. Later that eve…

    Authored by on August 29, 2012

  • DXS Op-Ed: How birth control can save the world

    …than their partners but unable to express their inclinations in male-dominated systems. Such views received international endorsement in the Program of Action resulting from the UN conference on population in 1994. Paragraph 4.1 states that “improving the status of women is essential for the long-term success of population programs”. We currently live in a nation where 99% of women who are of reproductive age have used some form of birth cont…

    Authored by on May 2, 2012

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