Happy New Year

2009 - International Year of Astronomy

How many seconds in a minute?

It's not a trick question, unless you're talking about 11:59 PM tonight. The last minute of 2008 will be 61 seconds long.

Immediately before midnight a leap second -- the first for three years -- will be added to atomic clocks around the world by official timekeepers.

Why?

"The difference between atomic time and Earth time has now built up to the point where it needs to be corrected, so this New Year's Eve we will experience a rare 61 second minute at the very end of 2008 and revelers... will have an extra second to celebrate."

Enjoy that extra second folks!

Math Made Easy

Eh?

It appears that FOXNews considers these laws "wacky". Admittedly, some of them are stupid, but ...

4. In Michigan, it is legal to kill a dog for attacking chickens, livestock or people, but you can't snuff the pooch in a high altitude decompression chamber or by electrocution.

So preventing people from killing animals by two very painful methods is wacky?

... and ...

10. In Alabama it is against the law to exploit a bear by promoting, engaging in or being employed at a bear wrestling match, or by subjecting a bear to surgical alteration of any kind, including, but not limited to, declawing, tooth removal and severing tendons.

So animal cruelty is wacky? Hamstringing a bear is wacky?

Some people need to get a clue.

Surely ...

... I did NOT read this blog right. Herm Edwards as a potential candidate for the Jets coaching vacancy?!!?!! Is this guy on crack?

Yes, after starting 8-3, losing 4 of the last 5 was seriously disappointing. But the answer was not to get rid of Mangini. Jimminy Christmas. It's the Jets of old. The sucky, sucky Jets of old. *sob*

Acceptance!

Thank you, you love me, you really love me! - Jim Carrey in The Mask.

One paper accepted (the one from my graduate school days). Working on getting the other revised and sent back out for further review. Then, onto this years major project!

In the meantime, a white paper, and two presentations for customer workshops in early January. Which is only a couple of days away. How time flies!

Don't be like Caroline Kennedy ...

... you know?

In a 30-minute session with The News on Saturday, Kennedy punctuated her answers with "you know" more than 200 times. "Um" was fairly constant, too.

For scientists who must regularly present their science in a public setting, be it seminars, symposiums, or other invited presentations ... these verbal tics can definitely overshadow their work. That's definitely not a good thing. One piece of advice is to go slow. Allow a pause between your thoughts. When changing a slide, step back, collect your thoughts and then and only then, speak. Even a pause for a second can give you that precious time needed for your brain to catch up with your mouth and prevent you from a verbal tic. Saying things like "you know", "ah", "uh", or "umm" can definitely distract the audience. I imagine everyone who reads this blog and has attended seminars has sat in attendance and counted verbal tics for at least one presenter. It's awful!

So, before your next seminar, sit down with a co-worker and give your talk. Have them listen for those verbal tics and then work on eliminating them. Your talk will improve and it'll pay off in the long run as well.

Hopefully your slides don't suck either ... but that's a talk for another time.

Germ Warfare ...

... just took on a new meaning.

Scientists noticed that two neighboring colonies of P. dendritiformis never grew to touch each other on an agar plate.

Interesting, but what happened next ...

The research team, led by Avraham Be’er at the University of Texas at Austin, next wanted to know whether the bacteria were just inhibiting the growth of their sibling colony or were actually killing the other colony. Upon closer examination, the team found that dead bacteria littered the fringes of both warring bacterial colonies, showing researchers the smoking gun.

Cool! Look for the article in the Dec 29 issue of PNAS (article not currently available at the time of this blog post).

Astronomy Highlights of 2008

FOXNews' Top Five Amazing Astronomy Discoveries of 2008.

United States to Dissolve

So say the Russians.

So, where will you wind up? Me? I'll be a part of the European Union! w00t! I worry about those who will wind up being Chinese though. Beware of the melamine!

Home

Back at home. Went on a road trip to visit family. Took two of my dogs along for the "vacation". All in all, I should have stayed home. Weather didn't exactly cooperate either. Any good to come out of it? Of course! Here is a cute pic of Kode in the car. He's not the best traveler, but he toughed it out like a little trooper.

Guess this means I'm available to blog again.

Currently ...

Reading

Listening To

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Though I do intend on getting back to blogging* before 2009!


*Being able to set posting dates and times is a nice Blogger feature!

M

ycoplasma laboratorium. As much as it pains me to give props to Craig Venter (when I was in graduate school, he was "the enemy"), this is too cool to pass up. M. laboratorium is the name of the organism that has been planned to be "created" as part of the Minimal Genome Project. M. laboratorium is actually M. genitalium with bits and pieces removed. Essentially, if it was considered (and proven by transposon mutagenesis) to be a "non-essential gene", it was excluded from the final "blueprint". Once they have the base template/blueprint, they will synthesize the genome and then pop it into a cell so it can "take off" on its own. Venter has even filed a patent on this idea, and they've published on their efforts as far back as 2006 in PNAS (PDF, 6 pages). So, while this organism doesn't actually even exist (as far as I know), I'm going to put it at the top of my "Merry Christmas" list.

Hopefully everyone has enjoyed this little "series". It was definitely not intended to be a full-fledged repository for these organisms. Instead I hope that it exposes (excuse the pun) people to some organisms that they may not have heard of before. Even better if people have contributed additional information in the comment fields.

At any rate, I hope everyone has a great holiday season!

E

lizabethkingia meningoseptica (further referred to as Em). Em is a Gram negative bacillus from the phylum Bacteroidetes. It is ubiquitous in the environment, having been isolated from soil, as well as both fresh and salt water. The genus derives it's name from CDC bacteriologist Elizabeth O. King, who first identified this organism as having caused meningitis in infants. She originally named it Flavobacterium meningosepticum.

R

uminococcus albus. Three guesses as to where Ruminococcus can be frequently isolated. According to the MicrobeWiki (a neat little site hosted by Kenyon College), Ruminococcus can be isolated from ... yep, you guessed it ... the rumen of cattle, sheep, and goats. R. albus is a gram positive organisms, belonging to the phylum Firmicutes. It is anaerobic, does not produce spores, and is non-motile. They produce a number of cellulose degrading proteins, which is useful for the organisms they inhabit, as it allows them to obtain energy from cellulose which they cannot otherwise digest.

R

aphidiopsis curvata. This organism was first identified and classified in 1929, and it's been a problem ever since. R. curvata is a cyanobacteria and produces a number of toxins which can be lethal for certain animal species. Two identified toxins produced by R. curvata are cylindrospermopsin (CYN) and deoxy-cylindrospermopsin (deoxy-CYN), both are toxic to the liver and kidneys.

R. curvata

Y

ersinia enterocolitica. Y. enterocolitica (Ye for short) is one of the etiological agents of yersiniosis, and according to the CDC, Ye is the main cause here in the United States. The disease typically presents as fever, abdominal pain, and diarrhea and is often contracted by eating undercooked pork. It can often be confused as appendicitis. It's main target is children, though anyone is susceptible, especially those who suffer from hereditary hemochromatosis.

Yersinia enterocolitica

C

lostridium difficile. Lookie! A Gram positive organism! It's an anaerobe, which means it doesn't need oxygen. This is ideal for it's environment, which is your intestines. "C. diff" isn't the kind of organism you really want however. It is most closely associated with antibiotic-associated diarrhea. What happens is that, when you're given a dose of antibiotics to treat some other infection, it winds up killing a portion of your normal flora in your intestines. This normal flora typically keeps C. diff in check, however with it now gone, C. diff takes over. Given C. diff's arsenal of toxins, you can then wind up with some nasty diarrhea and severe complications.

There is a rather ... ummm... interesting treatment for people suffering recurrent infections with this organism. Fecal transplants. I only wish I was kidding.

Scanning Electron Micrograph of C. difficile