Henna Heals

This isn't strictly science, but it deals with women's baldness from either alopecia or cancer treatments.  Sometimes it's good for scientists to take a step back and see the more human side of the diseases they study.

Henna Heals is an organization started by Frances Darwin.  Artists use the bald scalp as a canvas for intricate and gorgeous Henna designs, then photographers capture the beauty of the woman.  These henna crowns bring life back to an area of the body where effects of the disease are most apparent and hopefully restores some confidence in its victims. 

Here is the Henna Heals website with more information: http://hennaheals.ca/about-us/

Here is an article that provides an overview and some stunning photographs: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2149916/The-stunning-henna-crowns-helping-cancer-victims-come-terms-hair-loss.html

Here is a slideshow of their work:  http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2012/05/henna-crowns-cancer

A freakishly scary Amazon parasite

I'm reading "The Lost City of Z" by David Grann.  While buying gear for his trip to the Amazon, Grann chats with a store worker about the candiru.  I had never heard of this thing, but just reading the little bit that was offered just proved it was frightening.

Here's a picture of the thing:

Note how small it is.  Now, let's talk about what it eats: blood.  It lives on a diet solely of blood.  It usually feeds by embedding in the gills of fish, but when an unsuspecting human wanders into the river, well, it can enter orifices.  They're all bad, but the worst seems to be the male urethra.  Without immediate removal, some men from remote Amazon tribes have had their penises cut off in an effort to save them from what would be an inevitable death.

Many myths exist about these creatures so more lurid stories should be read with caution.  However, these parasitic freshwater catfish, which are indigenous to the Amazon river, are to be respected and feared.  Some would say even more so than the piranhas.

  

Alien Hand Syndrome

When I first read the title of this problem, I wasn't sure if it was referring to a physical human ailment or was a fancy colloquialism.  Apparently, it is the former.  It is when one's hand moves of its own volition; it is a movement completely independent of the sufferer's thoughts or controls.  They often say it feels like their hand is a foreign body.  Specific problems in the brain give rise to this phenomenon, such as a lesion on the corpus callosum or other brain tumors or following a traumatic brain injury.  The movement can be as simple as grasping for objects or more frightening as thrashing at clothes.

You can read more about this syndrome here:

Medicinenet: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=12655

HowStuffWorks: http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/unexplained-phenomena/alien-hand.htm


Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove suffered from Alien Hand Syndrome.  Who knew?

Bacteria!

My sister once told me that itches on my skin were all the bacteria moving around.

"They need a new position so they make you itch." 

"There's bacteria on my skin?"

"Yup.  You're covered all these moving, slimy bacteria!"

I wasn't so much horrified as intrigued.

Turns out, my ten year old sister wasn't totally incorrect.  I ran across a picture today from Scientific American that outlines where and what kinds of bacteria live on the human body.  I had never seen it laid out this way and was totally fascinated!  Some highlights were the well known H. pylori and E. coli of our digestive tracts, but I wasn't aware of S. salivarius (in your mouth!) or S. epidermidis (on the skin!).  It's a fascinating little picture - check it out here!

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=microbiome-graphic-explore-human-microbiome

Good Night, Endeavour.

Today marks the last day that the space shuttle Endeavour will ever be turned on.  As she is the last of the shuttles to make her way home, she is the last to have power running to her cockpit.  After today, she will fly from the Kennedy Space Center to a Los Angeles Science Center.

I'm so sad to see the end of the shuttle program.  It was always my dream to work in Mission Control (but never be an astronaut myself).  I settled with watching a shuttle launch in Florida, but alas, even that was not in the cards for me.  With my biochemistry background and current cancer research experience, chances are slim that I'll ever work for my dream organization of NASA, but I do thank them for inspiring me to become the scientist I am today.


Article link: http://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=FE86140A-C7EE-7869-3CFFE8C6AF2B7E91

Here's a picture of Endeavour's cockpit.  It's simply beautiful.

#Whatshouldwecallgradschool

A few of my friends were posting links from this tumblr site on Facebook today.  I thought, "Oh okay.  I'll take a look!"  I've spent the past forty five minutes reading each and every one.  Whether you are in science or not, most of these are incredibly accurate at describing what someone who works in lab truly feels in different situations.

My personal favorite is this one:  http://whatshouldwecallgradschool.tumblr.com/post/22242243775/when-everything-fails-and-i-have-to-go-back-to-reading

Why?  It pretty much describes where my project is currently and what I'll be doing today and tomorrow in lab (reading.  I've already done the cursing part.)

(If I could find the .gif where Robert Pattison comes in and dances with this Prince video, I would totally put it up here.)