Nerdy Science Blog

Went to Batu Caves this morning for photo shooting, found a lots of playful long-tailed macaques. I tried to get closer to them to get a better shoot, found that they are quite approachable, not afraid of humans.

Caught this funny scene accidentally, lol!

but thanks god, the pity cat got to ran away.
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Human anatomy doesn’t stop at the legs part, so I try to search clothes that are anatomical.

I googled this “Anatomical T-Shirt” and guess what, it’s about the same price as the socks.

(link)

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Another laboratory model organism had been breed, which is the translucent frog created by Hiroshima University’s Institute for Amphibian Biology research team, lead by professor Masayuki Sumida.

The skin of this mutated frog allows researchers to see the internal organs without dissecting. The development of the frog reminds me of the creation of nude mouse by Rosalyn Yalow. Unlike the frog, nude mouse are immunologically dysfunction and more expensive.

(link [via][pic])

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Recently many China bloggers had told me that they’ll slow down their blog publishing progress, some even stop writing. Some of them shut down their commentary system preventing anyone posting any sensitive keywords in their blog posts. Although some of them experienced difficulties after posting certain keywords on their blog (it became normal after they remove the post or remove the sensitive words), the legend of GFW (Great FireWall) might be a fraud.

The “Great Firewall of China,” used by the government of the People’s Republic of China to block users from reaching content it finds objectionable, is actually a “panopticon” that encourages self-censorship through the perception that users are being watched, rather than a true firewall, according to researchers at UC Davis and the University of New Mexico.

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I saw an interesting post at John Hawks Anthropology Weblog writing who he thinks are the top five scientists who made the modern world asked by James Randerson. In stead of giving the same old Newton and guys, he listed the following people:

1. R. A. Fisher
2. Louis Pasteur
3. Leo Szilárd
4. John von Neumann
5. ME!

I am going to list my own top five scientists here that makes my modern world, I gonna leave out the classical ones as well:

1. Thomas Alva Edison - without him, there will be no light. some say he’s just an inventor, not a scientist. There are also a lot of things he invented which are important in our modern world.
2. Julius Richard Petri - he created petri dish, and later his wife came up with the idea using agar to culture microorganisms. If there was no petri dish created, we might still be streaking our culture on some meats.
3. Rosalind Franklin - the woman always being forgotten in the structure of double helix. Without her X-ray diffraction images of DNA, Francis Crick and James D. Watson could not came up with the theory of double helical structure of DNA.
4. Louis Pasteur - a great man.
5. Clarence Cook Little - funny name, but he is the breeder of today’s modern laboratory mouse.

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Some people said they won’t tattoo themselves an anatomy tattoo, so I came across this “Anatomically Correct Bone Socks“, which you will not hurt yourself.

Besides cheating in the leg bones anatomy exam, this pair of socks also helps you not wearing the wrong socks with the wrong legs (many people still doing that, even sometimes after I wear wrong and found it quite annoying).

(link)

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I don’t like potatoes for no reason, this get me away from the harm of french fries (they are really bad to your health). Though I don’t like potatoes, that does not make me hate potatoes lovers. So I am going to tell you that green potatoes are poisonous.

You should not eat green potatoes because they contain a chemical called solanine (glycoalkaloid poison). Solanine is very toxic even in small amount. It is created by nightshade plants as a defense mechanism against diseases, insects and predators. Solanine produced by potatoes when they are exposed to sunlight, even the fluorescent lights in supermarket can stimulate the potatoes to turn green and produce glycoalkaloid. You can’t ‘kill’ solanine by cooking the potato as they are heat stable toxic and it is bitter.

I found an interesting review here about the chemical. Guess no one can poison me by serving me potato as I don’t eat them at all.

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I was told that the higher degree you have, the better pay you will have, but there is this thing always troubles me, does all the companies are willing to pay that high for a PhD dude while they can use that money to hire bundles of bachelor fellas.

[link]

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Malaysia announced its 2008 budget today, and I copy the budget that I concerns from the 2008 budget speech.

Biotechnology Sector
41. In the context of supporting private sector initiatives in the biotechnology industry, the Government will continue to provide infrastructure and technological facilities. For this purpose, a sum of RM236 million is provided in the 2008 Budget. Among the projects are the acquisition of technology, development of biodiversity research centre and biotechnology commercialisation centre as well as anti-cancer compound research. To encourage cooperation between biotechnology companies and local universities, Bionexus status companies will be allowed to use the laboratories and research facilities at local universities, thereby optimising the capacity of research laboratories and facilities at local universities.

Although Malaysia aims to be a strong and advanced biotechnology centre, but it’s still far more behind from other countries, especially its regional competitor, Singapore. RM236 million is equivalent to USD 67 million.

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One of our author, youzi, went to the International Fireworks Competition 2007 held in Malaysia. She pointed out that one of the photo she took look like Gram stained negative E. coli.

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