I don’t know about you, but viruses have been on my mind a lot lately. One virus in particular, SARS-CoV-2 (a.k.a. COVID-19), continues to hold my attention way more than I would like it to. However, viruses are pretty amazing, and I learned to appreciate them when I read Carl Zimmer’s book, A Planet of Viruses. Like everything I have read by Carl Zimmer, who writes a weekly science column for The New York Times, this short book is a fun read, and it doesn’t require a background in biology, or any other science, to understand and enjoy. It explores the weird and wonderful diversity of viruses on Earth and how they influence the lives of humans — even when we don’t want them too.
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Science Corner: Don’t Look Up at The Matrix
The release of Don’t Look Up around Christmas and Epiphany seems like a gift to sermon writers. The film depicts celestial message of impending doom that too many refuse to look up and see. Well, you know who *did* look up? Some Magi, and what they saw heralded salvation, not doom, for the world. Of course, the film was topical for other reasons. When writer-director Adam McKay scripted the film pre-pandemic, he had no idea that reality was an a collision course with his comedy, forcing him to reportedly alter or cut sequences that were too close to how the pandemic played out. What interested me most, however, was the way it overlapped with another Christmas release, The Matrix Resurrections.
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Science Corner: Are We There Yet?
Driving along the Pennsylvania Turnpike this weekend, I experienced quite the assortment of billboards and DIY roadside messages. One that stood out “loudly” proclaimed that carbon dioxide is essential for life. By itself, that statement seems banally accurate. We could of course hypothesize that life elsewhere in the universe (or multiverse?) employs different sorts of chemistry; silicon is a popular first choice for a possible carbon substitute, although it is far from a direct replacement. But life as we know it, and certainly life as we personally experience it, depends on plants storing solar energy in molecules they assemble from atmospheric carbon dioxide–energy that we and other animals can access by eating plants and breaking those molecules back down again into carbon dioxide. So did someone really spend all that money just to promote awareness of a grade school science fact?
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Science Corner: More than Three Chromosomes in a Trench Coat Part 4
When I was a master’s student in the Entomology department at Penn State, there was one professor who, at the end of every research talk given by a seminar speaker or job candidate, would ask “So what? Why should I care?†He had a deep booming voice, and we all squirmed in our seats while we waited for the speaker to come up with an answer that would explain the broader significance of the research topic they had just finished talking about. I have to say, though, that Dr. Cameron’s question has stuck with me through my research career. I try to keep an answer in mind as I propose new research projects or present my latest results at scientific conferences. I don’t want to be caught squirming for an answer in the event that there is another Dr. Cameron in the audience. This question is one I’ve tried to keep in mind while I wrote the Three Chromosomes in a Trench Coat series, and in this last installment I will attempt to answer the question, “So what? Why should the reader care?â€
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Science Corner: Companion to Three Chromosomes in a Trench Coat
If you haven’t been following along with Julie Reynolds‘ delightful series on phenotypic plasticity, I recommend catching up on that first. Julie shared some great real world examples, but not everyone has the opportunity to study overwintering insects like she does. So I thought I’d give you a hands-on example, albeit a simulated one. I’ve introduced my Quandary Den before. Briefly, players have to ‘zap’ or ‘tag’ robots for points, but the players have to evolve their gameplay approach. The versions I’ve shared before do not have any capacity for phenotypic plasticity, but we can change that.
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