News from Geek_Nan
study spots
- By - Blueberry-789
TIL: du Coudray, a midwife that saw dangerous childbirth practices in the 1700s. She made a cloth model .. with a uterus, placenta, etc…and real pelvic bones. It mimicked contractions and fluid seen during childbirth. She made textbook drawings for midwives to follow even if they couldn’t read.
- By - Geek_Nan
TIL: Trees, signs, buildings near the Jack Daniel distillery look blowtorched because of the “angels share” of ethanol from the whiskey barrels (2% of the maturing whiskey that evaporates from the barrels) feeds a melanin-containing fungus called Baudoinia compniacensis (aka whiskey fungus)
- By - Geek_Nan
TIL: If you cut 2 different sponges up, disaggregate them (push them through a sieve), and mix the 2 cell-slurries together - the sponge cells reassociate with their own cells, but not cells of the other species. This is being studied to understand tissue repair and transplant rejection.
- By - Geek_Nan
TIL: In the 1950s, the Army to built a bunker close to Washington DC so that Congress could go there if there was a nuclear attack. Engineers built a facility 700 ft below a golf course - 2 stories and over 100,000 sq ft - kept secret until 1992, when the Washington Post revealed its existence.
- By - Geek_Nan
TIL: Biotech companies are using precision fermentation to turn plant material (e.g. potatoes) into chocolate in an effort to decrease the child-labor (2 million kids working in Western African cacao farms) and deforestation (-80% in Ivory Coast alone) caused by supplying the world with chocolate.
- By - Geek_Nan
TIL: Most (85%) of the vanilla used today is made from either lignin or its oxidation biproduct (guaiacol). While vanillin can be made with organic chemistry (starting with benzene), it can also be made with bacteria that convert sawdust to vanillin. The microbial process is labeled "all natural".
- By - Geek_Nan
TIL: The "shower effect" of having more creative ideas in the shower or doing moderately boring activities is a real thing. Physicists and authors reported 20% of their most creative ideas and solutions to problems came with a wandering mind. Later papers termed this "the shower effect"
- By - Geek_Nan
There is a “choice of” games website (
Murderbot… ? (Cozy-adjacent).
Tiers were always my go to at Parks, esp the top floors where nobody usually would be. Gets kinda creepy late at night tho. I pulled many all nighters in there lol
I did the same when in the first year of grad school. Seemed to work ..PhD in hand and 20+ years as faculty at ISU…
IIRC belladonna dilates the pupils somewhat.
The pupil dilation effect is linked to its name. Bella = pretty and Donna = lady in Italian. In Ancient Rome, women would take small doses of belladonna to dilate their pupils which was considered attractive at the time. Belladonna is also fairly toxic….
ISU wrestler
This makes me super happy... I have really moved away from the "death and mayhem"/torture porn (Outlander, Game of Thrones... I'm looking at you... )
Annoyingly, the article didn't include any examples, and I couldn't get decent results when searching.
I think Morse code in knits and purls is a pretty on-point example …. And the needlework on silk strips
I was gonna say "poor sponges!" but I think plants might actually feel more pain than sponges lol
Ok. Gotta comment on your username… nuclear fire (pyro) plant (phyte)… that is impressively badass.
missed godly/divine (theos = god)
Agreed. I was thinking The. And confused by the random o … divine makes way more sense
A bit different from the shack, but is deeply hopeful and thoughtful about finding your fit… Becky Chambers
Came here to flex my fern knowledge and everyone already knows. Damn!
Captured picture - gonna use it in class where we discuss fern reproduction (and other riveting stuff)...
Micro 265 - Pandemics (2 credits, online)
Yet he DID get shot!?!
3 Purple Hearts. So shot multiple times ?
Follow-up paper: