Category Archives: Sci/Tech

Pretty much says it all…

Make Our Fantasies Reality

Posted on December 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Girl gamers offer a manifesto to bring equality to gaming. Let’s bring it to real life, too.

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Posted in Culture, Sci/Tech

Yay for Science Geeks!

Posted on June 22, 2011 | 1 Comment

Miss California USA, Alyssa Campanella, was crowned Miss USA last night in Las Vegas.

The self-professed “science geek” seemed like an unlikely winner in a field of pageant queens who gave unclear, muddled, confused, and conservative answers to the interview question, “Should evolution be taught in schools?”.

In a sea of Sarah Palin-wannabes, Campanella’s strong affirmative interview answer stood out.  While most of the contestants hedged their bets by saying evolution should be taught as “one of many theories,” three were flat-out opposed: Miss Kentucky USA from the home state of the Creation Museum; Miss Alaska USA, who assures “each of us was individually created by God for a purpose,” and Miss Alabama USA who doesn’t believe in evolution.

The scariest thing is realizing that most of the pageant candidates don’t know that religion isn’t taught in public schools. Many said they believe evolution should be taught along with the biblical creation story. Others appeared to not understand what evolution is, and many of them clearly don’t understand the difference between a scientific theory, which is based in quantifiable and observable phenomena, and the more casual use of the word “theory”.

Listening to this montage of all 51 contestants’ answers makes me realize how much our schools need good, basic, science education. (If you can’t stand hearing all of them, Campanella speaks at 1:15.)

It’s worth pointing out that Campanella’s title going into the pageant wasn’t Miss California, but rather Miss California USA. (You can read about the distinction in this post.) The next title for which she competes will be Miss Universe, not Miss America. The Miss California USA title was briefly held by Carrie Prejean, whose stated belief in “opposite sex marriage” made her a darling of the political right until she fell from grace dressed as briefly as she held the title.

The Miss USA pageant is owned by Donald Trump, who is obviously working hard for this nation, grooming the next wave of embarrassing female candidates.

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Posted in News Items, Sci/Tech

Required Viewing: Democracy After Anatomy

Posted on June 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

One of the most-read posts on this blog is one titled “There Isn’t a Gender Test” that I wrote about South African runner Caster Semenya, whose biological sex was called into question during competition.

This “progressive” culture that we live in is slowly waking to the cojoined concepts that sex isn’t gender and gender isn’t sex and neither of these are destiny. Gender is complicated and non-binary and biological sex is also complicated and non-binary.

This TED talk by Alice Dreger, a professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University in Chicago, should be required viewing for everyone who thinks they have an opinion about sex or gender. It’s 19 minutes long. Watch the whole darn thing. In a short amount of time, Dr. Dreger manages to tie genetics, history, civil rights, and feminism together brilliantly.  (She’s now on the short list of people with whom I would most like to have dinner!)

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Posted in Body, Sci/Tech

Happy Darwin Day!

Posted on February 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

In this very cool little film, British animator Cyriak uses fingers to tell a quick version of the story of evolution:

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Posted in Sci/Tech

Science Valentines for Your Sweet Nerd

Posted on February 3, 2011 | Leave a comment

It’s probably not to late to order a set of these from Etsy seller Stephoodle:
(I’m all about Ada Lovelace, the “other” Lovelace sister.)

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Posted in Humor, Sci/Tech

Holy Blooming Belly Buttons, Batman!

Posted on February 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

The season of red roses is upon us, but these petri dishes are growing blooms of another kind – bacteria harvested from the belly buttons of scientists, journalists, and bloggers at the 2011 ScienceOnline Conference.

It’s all part of Belly Button Biodiversity, a project of researchers from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Their goal: Introduce humans to the wildlife that’s growing on us and in us.

If you’d like to see your own belly button bacteria, attend the February 12 event at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. There, in the musuem’s Darwin Day booth, you can sample your own belly button with a cotton swab. The museum will grow your microbes and you’ll get a photo of your belly button microflora by email.

(Thanks to Boing Boing for this!)

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Posted in Body, Sci/Tech

The Hottest High-Five

Posted on January 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

A few years ago, I used to make an effort to find “GeekPornGirl centerfolds” for the blog – women with qualities I felt exemplified the GPG essence (which I admit, is elusive). Some months it was really hard, and finally, I just let the project go.

However, Synthette on YouTube would have qualified. She’s hot, smart, and creative. While her most recent video features a high-five glove that makes an explosion sound on contact, previous videos have included a hank drum, and a flex resistor jacket. For reasons I don’t totally understand, she also posts videos of herself eating specific foods. For example, there’s one of her eating grilled pineapple called “Eating a Grilled Pineapple for 46 Seconds”. Check out more of her posts on her YouTube channel.

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Posted in Etcetera, Sci/Tech

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She Forgot Octopussies

Posted on January 4, 2011 | 1 Comment

Even with that omission, I may be in love, just a little.

Thanks to Boing Boing for the tip. I’ll be checking in on the Merriam-Webster “Ask the Editor” videos regularly.

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Posted in Culture, Sci/Tech

Is She Science’s Most Influential Woman?

Posted on December 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

I first heard about Rebecca Skloot’s book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, in an episode of RadioLab, a science program that is broadcast on public radio stations, and is also available in podcast form. (If you’ve never heard RadioLab, I highly recommend it.)

Henrietta Lacks was a very poor, uneducated African-American woman who lived in the south. She was raised in a family of tobacco farmers, and for much of her childhood lived in the same “home-house” that her family had lived in as slaves. She was, quite literally, born on the dirt floor of that home. Continue reading →

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Posted in Body, Culture, Sci/Tech

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Are Menstrual Cups the Holy Grail?

Posted on December 18, 2010 | 20 Comments

Damn near every article and blog post I’ve read about menstrual cups apologizes in advance for the “ick factor”.

I’m not going to apologize.

In this regard, both men and women need to get the fuck over themselves. Menstrual blood is the stuff of our lives, quite literally. It’s the medium of our conception and the scarlet downbeat of one of nature’s great rhythms.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Body, Sci/Tech

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Soundtrack for My iPhone Love

Posted on October 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

Yep. My love affair with my iPhone continues.

Even my hard-convert PC-using sweetheart drank the Kool-Aid last weekend. She’s had an iPhone 3GS for more than a year, but its functioning has been spotty. It kept turning itself off with ever-increasing frequency. She was frustrated and making android noises. I finally convinced her to tell her story to the folks at the Apple Store and guess what? Apple replaced her phone even though it was 120 days past warranty.

They were friendly and sweet and quick about it, too. In fact, they were so nice, I actually got choked up for both of us and cried real tears. But then, I’ve had a love affair with Apple products since 1984, when Steve Jobs stood by the first Mac. (Admittedly, this video makes me tear up, too.):

Now, let’s all celebrate how far we’ve come with some music:

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Posted in Opinion, Sci/Tech

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Happy Pi Day – A Geek Crush

Posted on March 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

Honestly, if Bo Burnham was a girl, I think I would propose marriage, or commitment, or domestic partnership, or at very least a co-joined household. He’s smart, funny, and completely shameless:

Do you need more Pi? Or a sexy short story about Pi?

Happy Pi Day! Have a slice for me, I’m gluten-intolerant.

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Posted in Etcetera, Sci/Tech

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Daddy’s Girl

Posted on March 11, 2010 | 1 Comment

Are you a daddy’s girl?

According to a new Psychology Today blog post*, you can blame your genes.

The science behind it goes like this: As a woman, you get one X chromosome from your mother and another from your father. But you don’t relate to them the same way…

Continue reading →

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Posted in Body, Sci/Tech

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There Isn’t a Gender Test

Posted on September 16, 2009 | 6 Comments

Caster_Semenya_croppedThere is no gender test. There is not one known to man, woman, or anyone on the spectrum in between.

The media circus and travesty surrounding the recent “gender testing” of South African runner Caster Semenya has led to South Africa’s Minister for Women and Children filing a complaint with the United Nations over how her case was handled.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Body, Sci/Tech

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When in Doubt, Punnett

Posted on September 16, 2009 | Leave a comment

Thanks to xkcd: a webcomic for this:

Punnett

Read about Punnett squares here.

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Posted in Humor, Sci/Tech

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Two Female Monkeys Make Babies

Posted on August 28, 2009 | Leave a comment

070824-monkey-babytalk_bigScientists in Oregon have produced four monkeys using the genetic material of two females. This breakthrough could lead to the same technique being performed using human genetic material.

Researchers from the Oregon Health & Science University replaced most of the genes of one rhesus macaque monkey with genes from another, according to The Washington Post. They then implanted embryos (fertilized with sperm), into the uterus of another monkey, who gave birth to four healthy offspring.

The experiment is a step toward helping humans prevent genetic deformities in their offspring. Defects in mitochondrial DNA can produce disorders including seizures, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases. Mitochondrial DNA is inherited from the female parent. Swapping out mitochondrial DNA, allows the defective genes to be replaced.

The end result is offspring with two genetic mothers and a genetic father, which raises social and ethical concerns.

(Although probably more in the scientific and straight communities than in the LGBT world, where we’re already used to complicated families.)

More worrisome, according to the article, the procedure could tamper with the “germline,” permanently altering genes for future generations.

If you’ve followed any of the science reporting in recent years about mitochondrial genetic tracing, you’ll understand this concern. Research has revealed one woman “Mitochondrial Eve,” to be the most recent common ancestor for all currently living human beings. The business about the snake and the apple is still unclear, however.

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Posted in News Items, Sci/Tech

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She’s An Orgasm Geek

Posted on May 26, 2009 | Leave a comment
MaryRoach

Author Mary Roach

I’m a serious body geek. I like all sorts of things that have to do with the human body.

A couple of summers ago, after taking a spring anatomy class at a nearby college, I volunteered to work in the cadaver lab for a couple of extra units. It was solitary work and since I really enjoy dissection, I was enthusiastic about my project.

My friends, however, weren’t as enthusiastic. I remember clearly a moment when we were all sitting around a fire pit in a friend’s yard. She lives on a beautiful country property, with a rolling lawn surrounded by tall trees.

There was lots of laughing and chattering going on. Probably a little wine going down, too.

Someone asked me what I was doing now that the semester had ended.

“I’m doing an extra project in the anatomy lab,” I said.

“What kind of project?” she asked.

You know how sometimes there’s a weird, spontaneous silence? Well, there was one just as I said:

“I’m harvesting femurs from cadavers and preparing them to be used as teaching specimens.”

The silence lingered.

No one said a word.

I was acutely aware of the crackling of the fire.

Then finally, someone said, “Wow. We had no idea.”

And, just like that, someone else changed the subject.

Later that evening, another woman leaned over to me and said, “You’ve got to read Stiff. I’ve only heard about it but I think you’ll love it.”

And that is how, as a reader, I met Mary Roach.

Stiff: The Secret Life of Cadavers was science writer Mary Roach’s first book. Since then, she’s written about what happens after death (Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife), and now sex. Her latest book is Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.

Recently, she shared “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasm” in a TEDTalk.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out 25 years ago as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

Here are Mary Roach’s 18 minutes:

(Thanks to Boing Boing for the tip-off on this talk!)

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Posted in Body, Culture, Sci/Tech

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Sperm May Carry Potential Product Liability

Posted on April 12, 2009 | 1 Comment

New Scientist magazine is reporting that sperm should be subject to the same product liability laws as car brakes, according to a U.S. judge who has given a teenager with severe learning disabilities the go-ahead to sue the sperm bank that provided her with a biological father.

The 13-year-old girl was born with fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder causing mental impairment and carried on the X chromosome. She is now suing the sperm bank, Idant Laboratories of New York, under a product liability law more commonly associated with manufacturing defects, such as faulty car brakes.

The plaintiff does not have to show that Idant was negligent, only that the sperm it provided was unsafe and caused her injury. Genetic tests have revealed that she inherited the disorder from her biological father.

The girl was conceived in Pennsylvania, where a “blood shield law” protects sellers of human bodily material from product liability suits. In New York state, however, sellers are not protected by any such law. On March 31, a federal judge ruled the case should be tried in New York.

It made me wonder how far we are from being able to sue the actual human who produced the gamete. This may be just the tip of the flagellum.

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Posted in Body, Parenting, Sci/Tech

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I’m Loving Woz, But…

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Leave a comment

I can’t help but wonder if this means Steve Jobs is in serious trouble.

Steve Wozniak has always been the geeky background brain at Apple . Why on God’s earth would he tackle something like Dancing With The Stars? As a genuine geek girl, I’m loving it, but the PR part of my brain wonders if this is a media stunt to build Woz’s image and perceived accessibility (something big brains aren’t always known for) in an attempt to establish him with the public and distract from an ailing Steve Jobs, who has long figure-headed Apple but is out on medical leave.

Call me jaded but…

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Posted in Opinion, Sci/Tech

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Going Green “Down There”

Posted on March 16, 2009 | 1 Comment

cukeAre you thinking about the phthalates in your dildo?

There was a uptight time when strap-ons and other toys weren’t considered politically correct among hard-core feminist lesbians… now that’s thankfully cooled off, but we’ve got the long-term effects of plastics to worry about.

In her post “How to Have an Ecogasm” on SF Sex, the Guardian’s sex blog, writer Juliette Tang says

There’s a big, hard, and urgent reason to use eco-friendly sex toys, and it’s not just to get off. If you haven’t ever thought about what’s harboring in the industrial-grade plastic of that favorite vibrator, now is probably a good time to start doing some research.

The majority of vibrators, dildos, sex beads, and blow-up dolls contain plastic, and most of that plastic is treated with one or more phthalates, a family of chemical compounds that is added to plastics in order to make them more flexible. If you use a bendable dildo that feels soft of pliable to the touch, it most likely contains a giant load, if you will, of phthalates. Because the presence of phthalates have been known to induce birth defects, change hormone levels, and cause liver and testicular damage in people and animals, phthalates used in childrens’ toys and animal toys are subjected to federal government regulations.

Yikes! Read the rest of her post here.

And for more information on unsafe sex toys, check out this post on Violet Blue’s Open Source Sex Blog.

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Posted in Body, Sci/Tech

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