The Dangers of Phase Contrast Microscopy

“Every time that the person before me left the scope in phase 3, and I forgot to check.”

This honestly happens to me far too frequently, you’d think I would learn to avoid it or something. I’m just going to say that I get so excited to see my little bacteria under the scope, that I can’t help myself and shove my eyes into the eyepieces as fast as possible. I mean, some of these guys have week-long doubling times!

Long Filaments of Bacteria Acting as Living Electrical Cables!

Imagine this: bacteria that need a metal to put electrons onto in order to respire.  It’s not too strange, really; we need oxygen to put electrons onto when we respire so in that sense it’s a similar mechanism.  These bacteria just use iron or molybdenum et cetera whereas we would use oxygen when we breathe. Continue reading “Long Filaments of Bacteria Acting as Living Electrical Cables!”

Why evolutionary narratives make me mad

Darwin’s reaction in the last panel sums up how I feel about society’s perception of natural selection. This comic was made by the amazing Claude TC of Gronk Comics.

Those of you who know me would know that I’m always complaining about popular science writing and reporting, and how they gloss over key points or (and this is my biggest pet-peeve) how they tend to misrepresent natural selection (I believe this really does harm to our society as a whole).
Continue reading “Why evolutionary narratives make me mad”