Welcome to the Jewish Independent Online

Welcome to the Jewish Independent Online

This is a very sweet article from the Jewish Independent that ran this week. The journalist who interviewed me was terrific and asked me some questions that no one had ever asked before in an interview.

Social networking helps hermit crabs find homes

Social networking helps hermit crabs find homes

Fine. Crabs can't twitter, altho all those limbs might come in handy, but they do have a social network. No, it's not craigs list. To find out more about this click on the link to this article.

Capturing the world's oldest things on film - life - 13 April 2010 - New Scientist

Capturing the world's oldest things on film - life - 13 April 2010 - New Scientist

I was feeling a little old today, but that's nothing compared to these organisms. Imagine spending your life looking at and photographing really ancient things. I won't feel old until this woman comes knocking at my door.

Gene that allows worms to grow new head and brain discovered

Gene that allows worms to grow new head and brain discovered

Isn't this right out of a sci-fi movie? Wait- I think it was in a movie. I know there a whole whack of research that scientists will now pursue to see if this works on creatures that think or have opposible thumbs, but it's a start.

View All Demotivators®

View All Demotivators®

Every now and they someone sends you a motivational greeting. Now these are the posters I'd like to send back!

Dailymotion - Zoom into a human eye - a Tech & Science video

Dailymotion - Zoom into a human eye - a Tech & Science video

We also did this in our 3-d Book, but the video is so much better!

Dailymotion - Zoom into a Tooth - a Tech & Science video

Dailymotion - Zoom into a Tooth - a Tech & Science video

We have some 3-d images of a tooth, tooth decay and bacteria in our book- Extreme 3-d-Your Body

Dailymotion - Zoom into a Leaf - a Tech & Science video

Dailymotion - Zoom into a Leaf - a Tech & Science video

If you ever need to write an essay about leaves, this is what you need to know

Dailymotion - Zoom into Plastic - a Tech & Science video

Dailymotion - Zoom into Plastic - a Tech & Science video


As the author of 5 books on 3-D electron microscopy, these next few videos will blow your mind. Check them out as it will change the way you look at common objects.

More from Eyjafjallajokull - The Big Picture - Boston.com

More from Eyjafjallajokull - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Trust the media. Rather than learn to pronounce the name of the volcano that has brought air traffic to a standstill, the US TV networks have decided to call it the E 15 volcanot. WHY? well, it begins with the letter "E" and then is followed by 15 letters. Honestly. That's why you get paid the big bucks. Practice saying it phonetically. What would happen if a world leader had a hard name.... would you call him "Bob?"

Endangered quolls taught to turn their noses up at toxic toad

Endangered quolls taught to turn their noses up at toxic toad

A quoll. Have you ever heard of such a creature? No wonder it's endangered. Interesting article about training creatures.

contest

I'm starting a contest today that will run until the end of Nov. The person or school who drums up the most followers of my blog will have my next book dedicated to them AND will receive an autographed copy of that book. All you have to do is get everyone to make a comment (polite, please as this is read by children), and say what school you are from and/or who asked you to sign up. I will add up all the numbers and the winner will be announced in Dec. It's easy to see who won as all the numbers will be there on the blog. Because this is open to everyone, please indicate what city the school is in as I imagine there's a lot of schools with the same name. So go crazy out there. Or if you've always wanted a book dedicated to you, get all your twitter followers to enter your name on the blog, but YOU can't stuff the ballot box, please. People backing you must have valid emails.
Go crazy.

Doggy Genes -- Newly Sequenced Genome Could Shed Light on Human Diseases

Doggy Genes -- Newly Sequenced Genome Could Shed Light on Human Diseases

Watch the video, too. I have a publisher who sent in a swab of his mutt's cheek to find out what kind of dog he owned. He thought the results he got back were suspicious and so he was tempted to send in a swab of his own cells to see if they really were running the tests or if it was all faked. No word yet if he did this, but I think it would be fun to try this experiment.

Slobbery kisses from 'man's best friend' aid cancer research

Slobbery kisses from 'man's best friend' aid cancer research

For all you dog lovers out there..... see, dogs are so much better than cats. And for the cat lovers out there, "woof".

Hand-held projector images respond to the real world - tech - 14 April 2010 - New Scientist

Hand-held projector images respond to the real world - tech - 14 April 2010 - New Scientist

This is so cool! Check out the video and imagine what fun you could have with your art.

A lab rat -- created in the lab: Bioengineering tissues as an alternative to animal testing

A lab rat -- created in the lab: Bioengineering tissues as an alternative to animal testing

If the thought of using animals like rats, mice, rabbits and monkeys as live test subjects offends you because it is cruel, there may be a humane treatment around the corner. Scientists have created a way not to kill animals. I will refrain from telling a bad joke about lawyers and lab rats.

Flash: NASA's Cassini sees lightning on Saturn

Flash: NASA's Cassini sees lightning on Saturn

With NASA in the news today, it's at least comforting to read one positive story about the organization. Unmanned or robotic space flight is obviously safer, but there's nothing quite life a first-hand description to fire your imagination.

watch this one to the end

#

OK- it's a little long, but you really can't believe they did this. The man operating this machine has ice in his blood!

Controls for animals' color designs revealed

Controls for animals' color designs revealed

Have you ever wondered why peacocks have colorful feathers, why butterflies have patterned wings and just what's behind a panda's black and white fur? Scientists are hoping they can tell curious minds once and for all the reasoning behind animal designs.

Zoologger: The mud creature that lives without oxygen - life - 07 April 2010 - New Scientist

Zoologger: The mud creature that lives without oxygen - life - 07 April 2010 - New Scientist

If this creature can live without oxgen, something that scientists didn't believe was possible for a multi-celled organism, then who knows.... there might be life on other planets!

Japanese gut bacteria gain special powers from sushi - life - 07 April 2010 - New Scientist

Japanese gut bacteria gain special powers from sushi - life - 07 April 2010 - New Scientist

Most kids don't eat sushi (call it a hunch), but adults will find this story fascinating. Food bacteria transferring genes to our own bacteria so that we get more energy from the food is a startling concept!

New Species Of Monitor Lizard Found In The Philippines - Science News - redOrbit

New Species Of Monitor Lizard Found In The Philippines - Science News - redOrbit

Well, it's not a dragon, but it is a very interesting monitor lizard. The only question is- where has it been hiding all these years?

Grrr… what's 'Step away from the bone' in dog? - life - 08 March 2010 - New Scientist

Grrr… what's 'Step away from the bone' in dog? - life - 08 March 2010 - New Scientist

If you are a dog owner, you probably think this is a pretty silly experiment. As the owner of two canines, I can tell the difference between the growls of my two pets. And they can really tell the difference. When one dog is angry at the other, he has a really low and scary growl and the second dog backs away. And the second dog will give out a high pitched bark as if to say, "chill out-I'm not going to take your food."

Make your own amber fossil

Want your own piece of amber but don't have the money to buy a sample? Here's a way to make your own fake amber

You Will Need

A dead insect (look on window ledges or on spider webs)
Plastic pop bottle cap
clear nail polish
food colouring
tweezers or needle-nose pliers
Newspapers

What To Do

1. Place the pop bottle cap, empty side up on the newspaper.
2. Use the tweezers to drop the dead insect into the empty cap
3. Place several drops of yellow food colouring into the clear nail polish. Close the polish and shake to mix the colour. If you wish you can also add a drop of red food colouring to the polish to make a more amber colour
4. Drip the polish over the dead bug and put in a safe, out of the way place to dry.

New insects, bacteria uncovered in dinosaur-era amber deposit

New insects, bacteria uncovered in dinosaur-era amber deposit

If you liked Jurassic Park -the book or the movie, then this is the article for you. Imagine looking into the past by examining things found stuck in amber. You can make your own "fake" amber at home. Check here tomorrow for the recipe.

Discovering A New Earth 430 Light Years Away -- Astronomers Spy Earth-like Planet Forming Around Distant Star

Discovering A New Earth 430 Light Years Away -- Astronomers Spy Earth-like Planet Forming Around Distant Star

We have neighbors but we won't be dropping over muffins and flowers any time soon. When I was in school I was taught that there weren't any other planets outside of our solar system. Yes, I'm THAT old. It's comforting to know that my teachers were wrong. Maybe they can give me extra marks retroactively as I was right and they were wrong.

Tweet: Scientists decode songbird's genome

Tweet: Scientists decode songbird's genome

Birds learn songs the way that children learn to speak.... or perhaps it was the other way around.
It's taken me a few days to get over April 1st, which was, for the record, pretty weird. Everything that could go wrong that day did and in a most spectacular fashion. My friend hand delivered an invitation to her daughter's wedding. I opened it with much delight, and found a major typo, which meant she had to re-print all the invitations. As I was telling her this, I noticed her glasses looked odd. Turns out her frames are magnetic and she had attracted a dime to the centre of her frames. She had been wearing the dime most of the day. Another friend's daughter was in the hospital with a minor thing (thank god) so she had to cancel an evening with us. My daughter was going to a concert and got there to discover the tickets that they had purchased on the internet were fake. There's a lesson there for you all- don't buy concert tickets on the net. Then my daughter got strep throat and had to get antibiotics. I spent the vast majority of the day trying to get my new article to print and it wouldn't because the web site was set up to prevent this. I also had a file to send and went to my husband's office to print it on the fancy photocopier, only to find an error which meant I had to put the package together again. Our new books arrived and we didn't get the number we needed and I had to pay 70 bucks for duty as they were classified incorrectly. It was one very strange day and I'm happy it won't happen for another year.

Flying Penguins : The Coolest One

Flying Penguins : The Coolest One

A terrific video, especially when you consider the date it was posted. That's right- it's an April Fool's joke. Good one, BBC

up! - April 2010 up!

up! - April 2010 up!

Check out page 26 of the new UP! Magazine, the award-winning publication from West Jet. My article on Steve Perlman is in this issue