Before & After & Inbetween

In case anybody wondered about the appalling lack of progress updates on the editing of Family Matters (and other things here):

I got the chance to apply for research funds with a deadline of today. I was told in the first week of April.
Normally you have three months to come up with a project script, get the cooperation partners on board, write a sparkling "that will be the coolest research of world with amazing results almost guaranteed!" proposal, and get the required signatures across the board for it.
I got three weeks.
I succeeded in meeting the deadline.

And now I'm crawling back out of scientific writing mode in overdrive to blink into the world of story and fandom, trying to find my bearings. I'm going to spend this weekend mostly reading "Conspiracy", the fourth book of Lindsay Buroker's amazing steampunk series The Emperor's Edge (which was published while I was just starting on the proposal (and had me seriously whine for 30 minutes I didn't have, because there was no chance of reading it THERE AND THEN)). Afterwards, it's back to TBX and Family Matters and Subaru's adventures in Imonoyama-san's bathroom...
...stay tuned!

WOOOOT!

My 2nd reviewed paper was accepted for publication by Applied Spectroscopy!

Yes!!

If you want to see what I write for a living, here's my latest research article (free abstract). You'll need a subscription (or access through a library or university network) for the full text. However, be warned: there's a distinct lack of talkative trees and explicit scenes in it! ;-)

Eyjafjallajökull (BBC: How to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull)
I'm waiting for today's sunset to see if it's far enough south to cause the spectacular colors, though I'm not sure if my little camera is up to sky shots. In case of "blood rain", photos galore will be a must, though!

Plastics in the Atlantic, too
The first was found in the Pacific, and another one is suspected in the Indian ocean, iirc. Our contaminants are truly ubiquitous! Researchers have found that the sand of westward beaches in the UK contains a noticeable amount of plastic granules in the dimension of sand corns or smaller. Other beaches have yet to be tested, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn of similar results there. It's especially worrisome when remembering that the toxicity and reactivity of substances typically increase drastically when the particle size drops in the micro- or nanoscale range. In the latter cases, even inert stuff can become highly reactive (and nanoparticles often pass the blood-brain-barrier). But I digress...

I love watching catastrophe movies. I really do. They're great entertainment.
Mostly because I always lmao about how much scientifically impossible rubbish can be squeezed into an average of two hours. (Few exceptions exist, most notably "Dante's Peak", which went to lengths displaying what was then state of the knowledge about a Plinian eruption. I specifially name it, because that was *such* a positive surprise in the cinema back then.)
It looks as if Emmerich's 2012 will not be such an exception.
I'll better do more midriff exercises before watching that one...

This is not the official trailer. This is a "documentary" about the improbabilities already found in the trailer.

I happened to stumble across this article about rice genetically modified to fight diarrhea.
(nice idea; though eating cooked rice (non modified variant) was my grandmother's recipe against common diarrhea since I know her. Anyway, diarrhea - esp. in poor areas - is a lifethreatening condition esp. for children and elderly that kills by dehydration (afaik); hence: nice idea).

Scientist's musings about ethics in a coffee break - Start

What caused me to stop and read carefully, though, is this:

"with a human gene"

I don't believe than gentech is all bad, though we need to do way more to understand the risks and connections before we actually spread GM organisms in the wild (as is amptly done in a lot of places. *EEK*!).

However, I seriously wonder if we shouldn't begin to define a line between what is "human" and what is "not human". How much of human DNA, how many genes, does qualify a product for being considered human?
If we say all, it virtually excludes humanity itself because we do have variants (even if in small numbers).
If we say none, it prevents help for millions suffering and poses the questions what about the genes we - to some extend - share with other creatures such as chimps (for example; no prez pun intended)?

And where is the line where Genetically Modified rice becomes Soylent Green rice?

Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story "Food of the Gods" in which all food is artificially designed from harvested proteins, and the taste most appealing that finally brought the authorities onto the plan was "human meat" (of course it was sold under a different name).

I can't help but wonder if we're going in the same direction, starting with a gene, ending with eating clones...

...or will yet again a debate arise out of it between two, both virtually undefinable, undefendable positions, such as happened with abortions?

Scientist's musings in a coffee break - End

speechless and p*ssed off.
as in:

oh, it's deadly, lets dump it in the mail!

*snort*