Posted by Frenya
Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:05:00 GMT
I just got the link to see the trailer of a new documentary called “Nos enfants nous accuseront”(Our children will accuse us). It is a French documentary but the trailer is entirely subtitled in English. Apparently, it is not sure yet whether it will be released in theaters, but the authors hope that by having as many people as possible going to the trailer page, they will have enough weight to convince the distributors.
After watching the trailer, it looks like what they show about France can be applied anywhere in the world… industrial, mass production of food forces the farmers to use tons of chemicals that lead to more and more diseases in Humans. On speaker at UNESCO claimed that the new generation will be less healthy than our generation… looking at what’s going on, I can believe it.
Having good, nutritious, healthy food should be everybody’s priority and especially when you have to feed children.
Fortunately, more and more people know that organic food is better than “traditionally” grown food (even if few scientific reports show that for sure). Organic food is still a bit more expensive and not as available than “traditional” food, but hopefully with a growing demand, it will become more available… although we also need to pay attention as to how the organic food was produced. Producing organic food without using sustainable techniques and good treatment of the cattle is not worth it.
We need to take good care of the world in order to make sure that it takes good care of us.
Tags Science | no comments
Posted by Frenya
Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:58:00 GMT
Liquid crystals of duplex DNA have been known since the late 1940s and played an important role in the understanding of the DNA structure.
This paper published in Science studied series of self-complementary sDNA duplex-forming “palindromic” oligomers as well as noncomplementary and partially complementary oligomers of 6 to 20 base pairs. This study is original not really because of the techniques used but more because the researchers studied very small DNA sequences. So far, all studies done on liquid crystals DNA involved pieces of DNA from about 100bp to several thousands bp.
Anyhow, I noted this paper, not because I understand it… I mostly don’t! but because of the really cool pictures obtained using the Depolarized Light Microscope…
That reminded me of my second year of University in France when we studied geology and we had to be able to recognize various kinds of rocks visually by looking at them and also through the Depolarized light microscope (the coolest microscope on earth as long as you do not have to recognize 40 to 50 kinds of rocks!).
Les cristaux liquides d’ADN duplexe sont connus depuis les années 40 et ont joué un rôle important dans la résolution de la structure de l’ADN.
Cet article publié dans le magazine Science étudie des séries d’ADN oligomérique simple formant des duplexes auto-complémentaires palindromiques ainsi que des oligomères non-complémentaires ou partiellement complémentaires, de 6 à 20 paires de bases. Cette étude est originale non pas à cause des techniques utilisées mais parce que les chercheurs ont étudié des séquences d’ADN très courtes. Jusqu’à maintenant, les études sur les cristaux liquides d’ADN avaient été faites sur les morceaux d’ADN de 100pb à plusieurs milliers de bases.
Mais, j’ai remarqué cet article, non pas parce que je le comprend… grosso modo, je ne le comprend pas! mais à cause des photos très “cool” obtenues avec le microscope à lumière dépolarisée… elles m’ont rappelé ma deuxième année d’université en France où j’ai étudié la géologie et nous devions être capables de reconnaitre différent types de roches visuellement en les regardant à l’oeil nu, mais aussi à travers du microscope à lumière dépolarisée… le microscope le plus intéressant de tous à partir du moment où vous n’avez pas à mémoriser 40 ou 50 roches différentes!).
Tags Science | 2 comments
Posted by Frenya
Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:56:00 GMT
I just saw on ScienceDaily that divorces are bad for the environment… humm interesting!
Separated people create more small households using more energy and resources. Daahhh, it is quite obvious! So basically the conclusion of the study is… fall in love people!
But the beautiful thing is that the researchers got that published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS ).
I should take the time at some point to really look into the science of that paper… I am curious!
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Posted by Frenya
Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:06:00 GMT
Last year I was awarded the Harry Hirsch Leiter Award for best paper during the OMIG (Ocular Microbiology and Immunology Group) meeting. I physically received the award during this year’s meeting in New Orleans.
L’année dernière, j’ai obtenu la récompense Harry Hirsch Leiter Award pour le meilleur papier (présentation) pendant la réunion de l’OMIG (Groupe de Microbiologie et Immunologie Occulaire). J’ai reçu le trophée durant la réunion de cette année qui était à la Nouvelle-Orléans.
Here is a picture of the Natchez, one of the two Paddle boats that we can take to cruise on the Mississippi.
Voici une photo du Natchez, un des deux bateaux à roues que l’on prendre à la Nouvelle-Orléans pour se promener sur le Mississippi.
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Posted by Frenya
Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:52:00 GMT
I listened yesterday night to some podcasts from the “Naked Scientist” - probably my favorite science podcast - and heard a really cool news.
Researchers from MIT created the smallest scale able to measure the weight of a bacterium. According to what Pr Scott Manalis said, they are able to segregate bacteria in a small U tube allowing to have only one at the time. He gave the example of E.coli that weighs about 100 fg (femtograms) or 1e-13 grams.
One of their goal is eventually to be able to distinguish cells like cancer cells from regular, happy cells - of course using other methods in addition to the scale-.
Even if this project does not go where the researchers want it to go, I think it is still a pretty cool idea and piece of technology that they were able to develop.
J’ai écouté quelques podcasts du Scientifique Nu (“Naked Scientist”) hier soir - ce podcast est probablement mon favori pour avoir des nouvelles scientifiques- et ils ont présenté une nouvelle technologie. Des chercheurs du MIT on créé la plus petite balance capable de peser une bactérie. D’après ce que Pr Scott Manalis a dit, ils sont capables de ségréger des bactéries dans un petit tube en U qui permet de n’avoir qu’une bactérie à la fois. Il a donné l’exemple de la bactérie E.coli qui pèse apparemment 100 fg (femtograms) ou 1e-13 grams.
Une de leur buts est d’éventuellement être capable de distinguer les cellules cancéreuses des cellules saines - bien sûr en utilisant d’autres méthodes en complément de la balance -.
Même si ce projet n’aboutit pas là où les chercheurs veulent, je pense que c’est quand même une bonne idée et une technologie des plus intéressantes.
Tags Science | 1 comment
Posted by Frenya
Thu, 23 Feb 2006 11:52:00 GMT
This article shows how two scientists worked to improve Einstein’s theory of gravity in order to also fit the theory of the Dark Matter… and that by saying that gravity changes with space distances. I think this is really cool!
Tags Science | no comments
Posted by Frenya
Thu, 23 Feb 2006 11:45:00 GMT
I thought that this article would interest the geeks I know! Have a look at this quantum computer which can solve problems without running the algorithms!
Tags Science | 6 comments
