Another rule broken!

Anyone who studies biology for long enough realizes that eventually an exception is discovered for almost every "rule".  We all learned that one of the things that separates animals from plants, protists and bacteria is that they are heterotrophs - no photosynthesis for bunnies and jellyfish.  Except recently researchers have discovered that aphids (those tiny green insects that crawl all over your tomato plants) might be able to do photosythesis. Aphids can synthesize carotenoids (orange pigments), and these aphids made more ATP when placed in light then when they were moved into the dark. Now they have to figure out how the process works.

SCVTS Art Show Invaded by Budding Scientists

For the first time some of our ABMS students have decided to enter artwork into the SCVTS art show on May 3.  The chemistry 102 students had completed a periodic table printmaking project, and hung it up for display.  Tiles from past classes will also be on display. 

We are not sure if there are any prizes awarded at this art show, but as far as I'm concerned these guys win the Au.  

Philadelphia Science Festival

The second annual Philadelphia Science Festival is taking place from April 20-April 29 in locations all over Philadelphia and its suburbs.  There will be various workshops, lectures, museum tours and movies all about science.

The biggest event is on April 21, the Science Carnival.  There will be demonstrations and interactive experiments all over Logan Circle in Philadelphia with real scientists, engineers and mathematicians guiding you along the way.

UPDATE: Speeding past the speed of light?

So, remember back in the fall when scientists at CERN announced that they may have seen motion faster than the speed of light?  Well, as always with new scientific discoveries, the experiment has been reviewed and it seems like there might be a non-Einstein-crushing reason for the measurements.  Apparently there may have been a loose cable between a gps unit and the clock used in the experiment...  Just goes to show, everyone makes mistakes, even physicists.

They are still going to redo the experiment in May, with all the cables plugged in correctly to see if they can replicate their results.  Don't count them out yet!

How Your Cat May be Making You Crazy

Those of you who have had my college biology class know that I have an interest in human parasitic diseases, especially ones that might alter human behavior.  The Atlantic just published an article summarizing some of the new research surrounding Toxoplasma gondii, the protist parasite that causes toxoplasmosis.  It is estimated that 50% of people in the world are infected with toxoplasmosis (rates in the USA are far lower, around 10-12%).
The conventional wisdom has been that toxoplasmosis infections don't really cause harm to healthy people, but it seems that those conclusions may have been misguided.  Toxoplasma infections are now strongly linked with some forms of mental illness such as schizophrenia, as well as to brain cancer.

NASA releases the first video of the dark side of the moon

On Thursday scientists at NASA announced that they had captured the first ever video of the dark side of the moon (the side we never see here from Earth).  This side of the moon is especially marred with craters from meteor and asteroid impacts.

The images were created by twin spacecraft called GRAIL.  In a few weeks eighth graders from all over the USA will be able to send requests to the GRAIL spacecraft to photograph particular areas of the moon that they deem interesting.