ADAPTIVE RADIATION

I can't believe i have a new car! Im so excited. Anyone who knows me can attest--this is a big deal! I have essentially driven the same car since i was 16. That's right, for ten years, i have been driving the same machine around Knoxville, Chicago, across the country, and since circling this fantastically strange city of LA. No one thought id ever get rid of it. Now, abruptly, im wandering around under a completely different shell. Its like having an out of body experience. Kind of. Or like small scale adaptive radiation. I have moved. And now I drive this new car and it's silver instead of black and it works a whole lot better. I doubt ill keep this one as long as i did the first (or pass it down to my offspring), but my life seems so much easier.

BLAIR WITCH AND POISON OAK

This Sunday, Wayne and I went hiking in the Palisades, had a short Blair-Witch moment as the sun was going down and we were having a hard time making our way out of the woods. At one point, we were standing in a dried-up river bed, having retraced our steps a few times, looking each way at four paths, and still having no idea which one to take. Then, out of one path casually walks a couple--they showed us the way. I don't know if it was my doubt that poison-oak could grow in California or my abandon as we tried to run out of the thicket that struck the final blow, but, wouldn't you know it--2 days later i have poison-oak all over my legs. This silly urishoil (whose name comes from the Japanese word for laquer) that comes from a silly doily-leaved vine. It won't come off. From HOWSTUFFWORKS: Urushiol makes its way down through the skin, where it is metabolized, or broken down. Immune cells called T lymphocytes (or T-cells) recognize the urushiol derivatives as a foreign substance, or antigen. They send out inflammatory signals called cytokines, which bring in white blood cells. Under orders from the cytokines, these white blood cells turn into macrophages. The macrophages eat foreign substances, but in doing so they also damage normal tissue, resulting in the skin inflammation that occurs with poison-oak. ­ Beware! It will trick your immune system, too, if you're not careful! Anyone know how this antagonistic relationship with plants evolved?

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BIRDS AND TUNES

The European Sylvia warbler may take a longer flight when they migrate around Europe in coming years, due to climate change. But, what really amazes me is what these birds to to prepare for the journey. The pack on the fat before their flight, gorging themselves on high-fat bird delicacies AND their organs shrink so the fat (their to-go food) can be processed more efficiently. Birds are amazing. When i was at the Natural History Museum last week for their first Friday talk and mingling music event, i snuck upstairs (along with throngs of other people) to visit the dinosaur bone work room and gaze at the bird exhibit behind glass. Birds were given awards: one pelican won 'largest bill' and a hummingbird won 'fastest flap' or something. Then, there was a bird that won 'longest time in the air' with nine years, or something crazy like that. Anyone know what bird that is? I didn't stay at the Natural History Museum for very long, but i was there long enough to realize it was a success--i've never seen a Museum event so well attended. My favorite part was the DJ in the African Mammals wing or maybe the tweens waiting for the slowcore band in the North American mammals wing.

EARTHQUAKE DOWNTOWN LA

Earthquakes are evidence that tectonic plates that are scraping against each other, sending energy rippling out though the earth's crust and rumbling the ground we walk on. They happen often in Los Angeles, i've learned, at least five big ones in the two years ive lived here. It always feels like a semi-truck is barelling down my driveway. Any one else feel it? Im still not used to them.

THE PROBABILITY OF HAVING A BAD MORNING

Geez. Sometimes everything seems to go wrong in a cascade, one thing after another, at just the moment you need life to run smoothly. Yesterday, i went to a non-profit job fair at UCLA. I woke up with exactly enough time to update my resume, print several copies, and get going. Instead, i dropped makeup on my dress, messed up the entire design of my resume, the printer quit working, and i twisted my ankle in the parking garage. Im not usually so ungraceful--it seemed like the world was working against me. I sometimes get frustrated and think--what are the odds that all these pesky things would come together at a crucial moment. But, then i think--there are almost an infinite number of mornings, lunches, afternoons at school, daytime meetings, dinner parties, dance nights, lazy evenings, and midnight movies over the course of the year that are not plagued with such coincidence. For every moment that we seem to have such terrible luck, there are millions of other moments over the course of the week that those moments are not happening. It's sure a comforting thought, when your about to present yourself in front of 50 possible future employers, that the world is not working against you--that instead you have just witnessed a really rare event! (print by artist Jay Howell)

JPL and the DRY HOT CLIMATE OF SCIENCE MEDIA

Yesterday, i visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena. It was a hot day, and i didn't realize that over 5000 people work there and that it would take 30 minutes in my unairconditioned car to find a parking spot. When i got out of the car, a deer was grazing the lot about two rows over.

When i finally made it to the press office, i was sweating not from nervousness 

that i was going to be questioning 6 press officers about the dangers of their press releases serving as the only source of science in mass media, but sheerly because it was hot. That's California for ya.

But, i did expect a somewhat charged discussion. Science journalism is in such a weird time right now. Layoffs at CNN, LaTimes, and virtually every other mass media news outlet imaginable means that science is not getting covered like it used to--science coverage is considered a luxury that, in these tough economic times, cannot be afforded. But, you can find plenty of science elsewhere. Discover, Nat Geo, Science Channel, JPL, etc are using blogs, mobile technology, wildly cool graphics, and backpack journalists to cover and explain science in new and really exciting ways. 

So, what's the problem? As came up in our conversation at JPL,  if you are a science geek or tech nerd already, then woo whoo, you're excited. If not, then you are asking--science, are people still doing that? You can't serendipitously happen upon science anymore.

I believe people will always be interested in science, so how long will the drought of science in pop media last? Will the oasis of cool graphics, photos, videos and writing being crafted in enormous quantity finally be discovered based on merit of the image or entertainment value in-itself, or will it stay an obscure pleasure of us science people forever?