Science Never Goes Out Of STYLE! And We Prove It With This Scientific A Capella Cover Song!

“i should drink more water” i remind myself, halfway through my fifth coffee

Maple syrup could help fight bacterial infections, Canadian scientists find

Maple syrup is once again making headlines for being the rockstar condiment that every Canadian knows it is, but it’s not the culinary world that’s buzzing this time — it’s the medical world. Newly released research from McGill University in Montreal suggests that concentrated maple syrup extract may actually help fight bacterial infections, potentially reducing the need for antibiotics around the world. “Combining maple syrup extract with common antibiotics could increase the microbes’ susceptibility, leading to lower antibiotic usage,” reads a press release issued by the university Friday. “Overuse of antibiotics fuels the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, which has become a major public-health concern worldwide.”

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I Recently read About these amazing glow in the dark creatures in the newspapers and thought it was worth sharing 1. Saprobe Panellus Stipticus, Fungi:

Found in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, the bio-luminescence emitted by the Saprobe fungi that grows on decaying wood...

20 THINGS YOU SHOULD DO EVERYDAY 1. Wake up earlier. Not only does this improve productivity but it also gives you more time to make a good, hearty breakfast. 2. Make your bed. Let’s be real, being welcomed to a tidy bed after a long day at work/school (or a long day in general) is probably the best feeling anyone will ever experience. 3. If you want, spend a little more time on your appearance. Take some time choosing an outfit, applying make up or whatever. Do what helps you boost your confidence and self-esteem. 4. Stay hydrated, folks. Keep a bottle of water with you wherever you go. 5. Stretch everyday or start yoga (or do both, why not?) 6. Create a playlist consisting of songs that make you happy and listen to it. Listen to songs for the mood you want to be in, instead of the mood you are in. 7. Compliment at least one person per day. This could be an acquaintance, co-worker, class mate, stranger, whoever! 8. Use your manners. If someone holds the door for you, lets you go first etc, they did it voluntarily and didn’t have to do it, so a “thank you” wouldn’t hurt. 9. Eat your fruit and vegetables and always choose the healthy version over the junk food. 10. Have a good laugh. Catch up with friends, watch some ‘Parks and Recreation’, go see some stand-up comedy, reminisce about funny moments that have happened to you. You don’t need to be a doctor to know that humour has many benefits. 11. Be optimistic. Always look at the positives. There’s no point on focusing on the negatives because that isn’t going to help anyones mood at all. 12. Exercise. It doesn’t have to be anything to intense. A run around the block, a walk with your dog or even a ‘Just Dance’ session will do the job.  13.Bring a book/magazine or collect the daily newspaper with you. Spend you spare time reading. 14. Try and learn something new everyday. This can either be an interesting fact you saw online or a new skill someone taught you. 15. Help others when you are able to. Help your classmates with school work or offer to help you struggling neighbour lift those heavy objects. 16. Stop procrastinating. No matter how unmotivated you are to, push yourself and complete what you need to complete. Do what you gotta do. You know you’ll love yourself for doing it. 17. Drink some tea, because that stuff is goooooood (and also beneficial). 18.Make time to do things that help you relax, whether that’s painting, having baths, doing you nails or going for a run. 19. Don’t dwell on your mistakes, but instead grow and learn from them. 20. And lastly, be kind to yourself. If you love who you are, everyone else will

Chloe for Native Moon Magazine (via nativemoonmag)

Straight Outta Answers

My favorite thing from this year: playing with the glowstick reaction using TCPO (bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate).

The glow stick contains two chemicals and a suitable dye. One of the chemicals is a diaryl oxalate (in this case TCPO, or bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate), the other one is an oxidizer, usually hydrogen peroxide. By mixing the peroxide with the oxalate ester, a chemical reaction takes place, releasing energy that excites the dye, which then relaxes by releasing a photon, emitting light. The color of the emitted light depends on the structure of the dye.

Using Nile Red:

Mixing it with Perylene:

During this reaction I used two type of dyes, on of them was Nile Red, what is a quite special, solvatofluorescent dye and Perylene what is a polyaromatic hydrocarbon. When used in pure form the perylene emits a bright blue light, but when its combined with Nile Red, it emits this nice pinkish-purple as seen on the gifs above and on the video.

Beautiful Winged Insects Made of Discarded Circuit Boards by Julie Alice Chappell

daniel stoupin, a doctoral candidate in marine biology at the university of queensland, has photographed a variety of coral species from the great barrier reef using full spectrum light to reveal fluorescent pigments that would otherwise be invisible to the naked eye.

coral growth rates in the great barrier reef have plummeted 40 percent in the last 40 years, a result, according to a recent study, of increased ocean acidification. 

since the beginning of the industrial revolution, about one third of the carbon dioxide that has been released into the atmosphere as a result of fossil fuels has been absorbed by the oceans, where it in turn prevents coral from using a mineral called aragonite to make their calcified skeletons. 

new modelling has also shown that if ocean waters continue to warm by even one degree, which most now see as unstoppable, the coverage of corals on the great barrier reef could decline to less than 10 percent, which is a level too low for the reef to mount a recovery. 

further complicating matters for the coral is the plastic detritus left by humans which now litter the oceans and which the coral now consume. unable to expel the plastic bits and thus take in nutrients, the coral slowly starve. a recent study found that each square kilometre of australia’s sea surface water is contaminated with approximately 4,000 pieces of tiny plastic.

Next week I’ll give a presentation on the Researchers Night at Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary with the title: “Chemistry of light and the light of chemistry”.

During this presentation one of my favorite dyes will be also presented: Nile Red. However, just as usual, the 1000 USD/gram price was a bit over our budget, so I had to make it.

The raw product was contaminated with a few impurities, but a fast purification, by simple filtering the mixture through a short column helped a lot and ended up with a +95% pure product.

At first I concentrated the product from a dilute solution on the column as seen on the first pics. It’s interesting to see, that it has a different fluorescence in solution (faint orange fluorescent)  and while it’s absorbed on the solid phase (pink, highly fluorescent).

After all the product was on the solid phase, I added another solvent and washed down the pure, HIGHLY FLUORESCENT product. Everything else, what was mainly products of side reactions, stuck at the top of the column as seen on the second pics and the gifs.

Also here is a video from the whole process in HD: https://youtu.be/W0Lk5jkd_B0

How Smells Trigger Memories By SciShow

SciShow explains how smells can bring back early memories – even memories that your brain didn’t know you had. 

Hosted by: Hank Green