Do You Still Have Snow? Those Beautiful Snowflakes Once Started As A Cold Water Droplet That Froze On

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." - #STEMist, Albert Einstein https://www.instagram.com/p/BzlTFPAhcIB/?igshid=srqhoj0pljub

Wear your chromosomes on Valentine's Day - Jewelry Collection Made from 3D Prints of Microscopy Data The X and Y-chromosomes found in humans are now wearable. Electron microscopist, Louise Hughes, has created a jewelry collection designed to mirror the look and shape of human chromosomes. Hughes designs every piece from microscopy data and produces it using 3D printing technology. Having already used the structures of organisms to create other jewelry pieces, Hughes felt she could not leave out the essential DNA and chromosomes. The 46 chromosomes found in our cells have never before been so beautifully displayed and worn. As humans the genes in our DNA, as well as our environment, come to define us. When cells divide, chromosomes compress and form distinct shapes. Those shapes are what inspire the jewelry pieces made by Hughes. Male chromosomes, X and Y, female chromosomes, X and X and the triplet 21st chromosome that causes Down’s syndrome are all replicated in the human chromosome jewelry line. From rings and pendants, to earrings and cufflinks, the stainless steel, bronze, and silver pieces are available in both, karyotpye 1 or 2 structural designs. It has been said that art imitates life and with the human chromosome jewelry designs by Louise Hughes, art is literally replicates life. Explore the Human Chromosome Jewelry Collection by Louise Hudges, Miniature Horizons #Jewelry #STEMFashion #chromosome #DNA #chromosomes

"Time travel used to be thought of as just science fiction, but Einstein's general theory of relativity allows for the possibility that we could warp space-time so much that you could go off in a rocket and return before you set out." - Stephan Hawking Einstein in a Box: "Lunar Launch" box coming October 1st, 2013 www.EinsteinInABox.com

Science is not only a discipline of reason, but, also, one of romance and passion. - Stephen Hawking #StephenHawking #STEMist

Count down to launch!  

3...2...1...Einstein in a Box will launch its website October 1st, 2013! Introducing our "Lunar Launch Box!"  Children 8+ will be assigned very important missions as "Rocket Engineers."  Experience all the wonders, beauty, and adventure as Einstein in a Box launches to the Moon, the International Space Station, and beyond.  The universe is waiting for YOU so lets start discovering! www.EinsteinInABox.com

Many Hearts, One Beat The connection is known as "respiratory sinus arrhythmia", and is thought to be induced by the "vagus nerve" becoming activated by exhaling.   To prounounce the word "arrhythmia" click here:  http://bit.ly/15RwMEi Definition of vargus nerve:  http://bit.ly/19omtO0 Picture of a vagus nerve:  http://bit.ly/15Rx2Dd Via Science Is Awesome More info: http://bit.ly/18mkPfV Photo: Pomona College

Beautiful, Intimate Portraits of Bees -- National Geographic

Researchers take advantage of photography technology developed by the U.S. Army to capture beautiful portraits of bees native to North America.

Presented in partnership with @PopularMechanics magazine, this month's groovy box "What's The Matter?" is all about ice and the #StatesOfMatter. Sign up for May's monthly subscription to ensure you get this groovy box for the #STEMist in your life. Pull a wire through a block of ice? This trick works thanks to a groovy phenomenon called 'regelation', in which ice melts from the pressure applied by a wire and freezes again when the pressure is reduced. #regelation What's Happening? The balloon ice weights pull the copper wire through the block of ice. The pressure applied by the weights forms a liquid directly under the copper wire. As the wire travels downward the liquid refreezes above the wire and forms back into a solid.  This is similar to ice skating where the blades of a skater melt the ice directly underneath, allowing the skater to move smoothly on a thin layer of water. #STEMists do the "E" in STEM! Engineering Design Challenge in every groovy box! #NationOfMakers #STEMforKids #STEMEducation #STEMEd #ProjectBasedLearning #PBLChat #PBL #scichat #engineeringeducation #STEMtastic #PopularMechanics #ElemEd #STEMChat #homeschoolscience #instascience #PopMech #STEMChallenge #NGSS #MakerEd #MakerSpace #EngineeringDesignProcess #PopMech #GroovyLabInABox #GroovyLab #futureengineer #futurescientist

What are the Phases of the Moon? http://bit.ly/19lpzT3

A hypothesized mechanism for the origin of life, an event called abiogenesis.  In this version, called RNA world, small molecules called nucleotides formed in the waters of the early Earth during the Hadean Eon, and polymerized on the surface of clay minerals.  These simple chains of RNA could replicate themselves in solution, but only slowly and inaccurately.  An RNA molecule developed which would fold into a structure that catalyzed RNA polymerization; a ribozyme.  The first ribozymes would replicate their sister strands, and produce copies of themselves and other RNA molecules. 

     In the same environment, long chains of carbon molecules called phospholipids were formed.  These molecules have two parts, the tail, which is hydrophobic, and the head, which is hydrophillic.  Because of these properties phospholipids will stick together and form micelles and vesicles in water.  Vesicles can absorb RNA nucleotides, concentrating them and creating a space where they can replicate, mutate and evolve.  At some point a ribozyme became enclosed within a vesicle, starting a chain reaction that evolved into the multitude of biological forms that we see today.

   Because this event occurred more than 3.8 billion years ago, theories about how and where it happened are highly speculative.  Possible environments for abiogensis include hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, hyper saline bubbles of water trapped in ice, radioactive lakes or lagoons on earths surface, and even in space or on another planet, brought to earth through a panspermia event.  We have very little molecular evidence of the first cells, but ribozymes and catalytic RNA molecules are embedded in the DNA replication machinery of all life.  Because evidence of this event has almost certainly been lost to time, the true mechanisms of the origin of life may remain a mystery to science.