madame scientist's not-so-mad musings

What are you missing as you rush through life? It was another cold Friday morning. Much like today. A fiddler played next to a bare wall during the commuting rush at a Washington DC Metro Station. For the next three-quarters of an hour, he played 6 Bach pieces while nearly 2,000 people walked past. Only six people stopped to listen and when he was done, there was silence. How much did he collect? $32.17.

Little did they know that this was Joshua Bell, world renowned musician, who had packed the halls of the Boston Symphony just days before (average cost, $100). He was playing some of the most intricate pieces written, on a $3.5 million instrument.

This story by the Washington Post won a Pulitzer prize: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

Shouldn’t you stop and hear the music?

Bug Eyes are Beautiful! If the eyes are a window to our souls, then these gorgeous compound eyes will surely win you over.

• Each tiny facet (ommatidium) has a lens leading into a crystalline cone with light sensitive cells arranged like the segments of an orange. Individual eyes are insulated from others by a lining of pigment. The final image is a mosaic of light and dark dots, like the halftone illustrations in a newspaper. More ommatidia give a finer pattern of dots and a better resolution. Even so, the resolution of insect eyes is nowhere near that of ours: images we can separate at 60 feet would have to be one foot away to be distinguished by a honey bee.

• The big advantage to compound eyes is that they pick up movements very well because ommatidia can quickly turn on and off to give a flicker effect. Ever tried to swat a fly? Insects can see ultraviolet too.

These images were taken by photographer Thomas Shahan . Checkout more insect macrophotography at: http://thomasshahan.com/photos

More on compound eyes: http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/CompoundEye.html

Emperor Penguins Utterly charming glimpse into the Antarctic world of these unique creatures. I hope they are going to be around for a long time!

“I have the impression that to penguins, man is a different kind of penguin, unpredictable, occasionally violent, but tolerable company when he sits still and admires Nature and leaves it as he found it”. ~AeTopus

Music composed by Mike Rowland: http://www.mikerowland.co.uk/

Film by Ruedi & Priska Abbühl: http://www.naturemovie.ch

via Michelle Mathas

Originally shared by Paul Scott Anderson

If you like penguins, you’ll like this…

Protozoa in the Pool. Paramecium swimming in fresh water have to deal with constant streaming-in of water by osmosis. If unchecked, this could make them swell and explode. Instead, water is captured by radiating canals into contractile vacuoles that pulse, expelling water with each beat.

Aquaporins (water channels) and Proton Pumps work together to drive water into the contractile vacuoles. Where ions go, water follows!