• About the blog
  • About Sedeer
  • Series
    • Words of Science
    • Discussions
    • Foraging
    • Natural Selection
    • QM Workshop
  • Contact me
  • Accumulating Glitches
  • Collective Marvelling

Inspiring Science

~ Casting light on great ideas

Inspiring Science

Monthly Archives: January 2012

Gene expression: shape matters

31 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by sedeer in Bacteria, Form, Genetics

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

biology, DNA, Escherichia coli, Gene expression, genetic regulation, Mutation, Popular science, science, shape

Electron micrograph of Escherichia coli (Image via Wikipedia)A recent paper describes how the mutation of a single gene is sufficient to turn a harmless bacterium found in our gut into an invasive pathogen. Taken alone, this isn’t terribly surprising; many genes regulate the expression of other genes and some (“master” genes) act as switches that control a whole host of other genes.  The gene mutated in this study isn’t one of these “master” genes, though; it’s a structural gene and there’s a much more  intriguing reason for its broad impact on the bacterium.

Read the more intriguing story…

How we lie to ourselves: cognitive dissonance

27 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by sedeer in Humans, Mind

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Cognitive dissonance, doomsday, People, Popular science, pyschology, science, social science

In December 1954, a doomsday cult was awaiting the arrival of a UFO which would rescue the faithful.  Leon Festinger, a social psychologist, had infiltrated the cult to see how they would respond when the UFO failed to appear and the world didn’t end.  Remarkably, the cult emerged from their failed prediction with renewed strength, convinced that they had “spread so much light that God had saved the world from destruction.”. Cognitive dissonance is a phrase coined by Festinger in 1956 to explain this sort of response.  It refers to the discomfort we feel when trying to simultaneously hold two contradictory ideas in our mind; we reflexively try to resolve this discomfort, often pre-consciously.  It’s a striking and elegant idea which can explain aspects of a wide range of seemingly strange human behaviours, from doomsday cults and initiation ceremonies to post-purchase rationalizations.

Continue reading →

On the brink of extinction

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by sedeer in Conservation, Plants

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Australia, endangered, genetic diversity, Popular science, science, Wollemi

In 1994, David Noble was trekking through Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains, about 200km northwest of Sydney, Australia, when he came across a copse of unusual looking trees.  Unable to identify them, he took specimens back with him for further study.  Botanists were shocked to realize that the trees which Noble had found belonWollemia nobilisged to a lineage which they believed had been extinct for millions of years.  Designated Wollemia nobilis (in honour of the place and person of discovery), this “living fossil” made international headlines and has been dubbed the botanical find of the century.  Since then, two other groves of W. nobilis have been discovered near the original, but the  extremely low number of specimens found in the wild make the Wollemi pine one of the most endangered tree species on the planet.

Continue reading →

Hello, world!

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by sedeer in Blog

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Science communication, Science in Society

It’s taken a while, but I’m finally starting a science blog!  I’ve been talking about it for some time and thinking about it for even longer; now I’ve actually done it.  Hesitation, more than procrastination, has kept me from taking this step before — launching a blog represents a commitment, not only to write, but (hopefully!) to interact with readers and other bloggers and become part of a community, all of which takes time and effort.  I finally realized that there would never be enough time; I would simply have to leap into it and make the time.  So here I am!  Although writing about science is a reward in itself (since it combines two of my passions), I hope this blog will grow beyond that to also include lively conversations with (and questions from) readers.

Read more about why I decided to start a science blog

Search

Donate Button with Credit Cards
Follow @inspiringsci
Follow Inspiring Science on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,099 other followers

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

Ongoing discussions

  • Humans and Music | Idiomas RalFer on Book review: Constructing A Language
  • jaymes90 on Do ants really count their steps?
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California - Rhythm 86 on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California – SHINKISAURUS on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • "We Again, Child": Inside Day Journey, the First Submit-Pandemic Music Competition in Southern California - EDM.com | Real Raw News today on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California – Free Download Music on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California – Binary Star Radio on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • “We Back, Baby”: Inside Day Trip, the First Post-Pandemic Music Festival in Southern California – EDM.com – iDea HUNTR on No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound

What’s popular now?

  • No secrets by the lakeside: how water affects sound
  • The Ten-legged Spider
  • The bacteria that make it rain
  • Telling left from right: which side gets the heart?
  • Do ants really count their steps?

Blogs to check out

  • Accumulating Glitches
  • alternative viewpoints
  • AntyScience
  • Baldscientist
  • Eyes on the Environment
  • Language Log
  • Letters of Note
  • naked capitalism
  • Raising My Rainbow
  • The Scorpion and the Frog
  • The Smaller Majority

Copyright

Creative Commons License
All text and original images by Sedeer El-Showk. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Thanks to

  • Arkadia International Bookshop
  • The Book Hive
  • The Television and Movie Store
  • Rönnels Antikvariat
Inspiring Science is part of:
  • Collective Marvelling
  • SciComm Network

I'm on ScienceSeeker-DNA

Nature
Blog Network

Categories

Archives

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Inspiring Science
    • Join 2,099 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Inspiring Science
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.