Nerdy Science Blog

When I was at China Airport, I saw this box of chocolate, “China Panda Chocolate”. This triggered my imagination, whether it’s made of the panda itself, or its poop.

Vanessa Hull, 25, a Ph.D. candidate, is in the snowy, remote mountains of the Sichuan Province of China — which also is the heart of panda habitat. She’s hoping to capture, collar and track up to four wild pandas using advanced global positioning systems.

Coincidently, I saw this piece of news.

By the way, that box of chocolate ain’t cheap. It costs at least RMB 100. Its taste is bad too.

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Our food preferences are likely to be programmed from the moment we’re fertilized.

For the first time, scientists have linked the all-too-human preference for a food — chocolate — to a specific, chemical signature that may be programmed into the metabolic system and is detectable by laboratory tests. The signature reads ‘chocolate lover’ in some people and indifference to the popular sweet in others, the researchers say.

—— ScienceDaily: People Are Programmed To Love Chocolate, Study Finds

Some people might envy those who can eat a lot (such as me) and will never get fat. Researchers suggested that this might be because of the link between metabolic system and food we like, such as chocolate, carbs, steaks, etc.

So stop using “fattening” restraining yourself from eating chocolate, you’re just not talented. So do durianphobic losers.

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Working in lab, apart from lab works, there’ll always be times where we are craving for snack or drink. Well, you know, most of biological labs are strictly prohibited from eating and drinking, it is killing for some of us especially after long hours staying in lab working hard on a work.

As a coffee addict, I usually have my coffee during lunch break. But most of the time, those “kopi tarik” or nescafe can be pretty s*ck by its less coffee powder and excessive condensed milk, though I had again and again asking for less sweet coffee, it will either turn out to be still the same or ‘coffee favor sky juice’ — tasteless!

To stop myself from walking back to the lab full with disappointment and stop spending monies (RM1.40/cup) on those unworth coffee, I finally bought myself some 3 in 1 nescafe which is much more cheaper, costing only about RM0.20~0.30/pack and giving me same aroma and taste. All I need is another mug of hot water, and it’s provided by water heater (not water bath) in another room.

I was surfing through internet one day searching for journals and protocols, I had a good laugh seeing this pics.

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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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When I saw this news from Yahoo! News saying that scientist develops caffeinated doughnuts, I was stunned.

I was stunned not because the product is so incredible, but it is so dumb. Imagine when the product is out of the market, and I’d order, “give me a cup of coffee and a doughnuts without caffein” or “give me the caffeinated doughnuts and a cup of coffee without caffein”.

How dumb it sounds. I have no idea what’s the better way he meant, but sure he loves baked food and want to be waken by them, A LOT!

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