Foldit: Biology for gamers

One for those of you who like to tackle 3D models and spatial puzzles – protein modelling conundrums introduced to the internet gaming community. I think it’s a great use of crowd-sourcing, there must be plenty of gamers who like a challenging puzzle and are a bit of a perfectionist – precisely what you need from a protein modeller. After slotting a part of the protein into place, the gamers get not only the satisfaction of having solved a piece of the puzzle, but also the satisfaction that their work will help further scientific research!

It definitely sounds like a better use of crowd-sourcing than some of those put forward by the government.

(Image from the original Nature paper)

B-boy robot(s)

For all you engineers out there...

(Image taken from the ITN website)

More public science events

I still haven't got round to blogging about the Rothamsted Research open weekend, and I have another event tomorrow. This time it's Cereals UK, which is more a business-orientated event. Farmers, agrochemical companies and agricultural research institutes will be there, so it should be fairly different from the RRes open weekend, as the public at this event have more of a vested interest in the work. There's a strong presence from our institute at the event, as a lot of our work focuses on cereals.

The ideal weather for Cereals UK would be rain for a couple of weeks beforehand, so that field diseases have a chance to develop and show strong symptoms in our demonstration plants (we take infected plants with us and they are 'planted' there, as the whole event is spread over several fields). Then some sun and dry weather for the actual event would be nice, given that we will have to stand there! Typically, it's been the other way round this year, with dry weather for the last few weeks, and rain scheduled for the next two days. I've dug some wellies out ready for tramping across the fields.

I also have a slot talking to the public about plant science and soil organisms at the Royal Society 350th anniversity Summer Exhibition at the Southbank Centre in early July. It runs for about 10 days, but I'm only helping for one day (11am to 8.30pm, it'll be a long day, although others have even longer days, from 9.30am to 11.30pm for several days). I have several papers to review too. How am I supposed to get any actual work done?!

It'll have to be an early night tonight, as we're supposed to reach Royston for Cereals UK by 7.30am tomorrow. I doubt that will happen, but it'll be a 6am start at the latest.

Looking forward to be up to my shins in mud!!

Rothamsted Research open days

It's the Rothamsted Research open weekend coming up, and there's been a distinct holiday mood permeating the centre this week. There's been days of cleaning labs and making sure dangerous chemicals and glassware are out of the public's reach (our lab is being used for exhibits so it's open). A lot of yesterday was spent setting up displays and posters, and some fantastic interactive displays have been put up, especially by Bioimaging.

I've been drafted in to help out both days on the weekend, just generally manning stands and explaining (or trying to) the science to the public. Luckily, I've been mostly let off today, which is when there are groups of school 'children' (14-15 year olds, oh dear) being shown around. I'll spend the afternoon going round and looking at the exhibits whilst I have the chance. So stay tuned for more photos and more details!

'still life of rotting fruit'

People still trying to work

The weird and the more-weird

Indonesia's veined octopus 'stilt walks' to collect coconut shells

Scientists grow pork meat in a laboratory

Nightclub research

In case you don't read either the Daily Mail or The Great Beyond, the Nature journal blog, a 'scientific' paper on 'Evidence to suggest that nightclubs function as human sexual display grounds' has recently been published. I kid you not. Their findings suggest that males are supposed to approach females in nightclubs, rather than vice versa, while females dress provocatively to attract said males. And here I was thinking that girls dress (and I use the term loosely here) in skimpy miniskirts and boobtubes for the good of their health. For example, to increase blood circulation, in a 'kill or cure' manner.

Although I dress rather conservatively, i.e. normal-fitting t-shirt and jeans, on the few occasions that I go to a nightclub, I always seem to get dodgy-looking men trying to dance with me. Thus I normally go with (rather less dodgy-looking) male friends who can be relied on to rescue me from these unwanted attentions. I guess the dodgy ones are the ones who have been rejected by the better, or more 'sexually-suggestive',-looking women.

Anyway, if you want to follow the discussion on the Nature blog page, which promises to be extremely entertaining, here's the link.

Ladybird attack

I've always thought of ladybirds as being rather pretty and on the whole, quite friendly looking. Although I realised that they were a) poisonous and b) predatory (and are therefore good for your rose bushes), I haven't ever considered how they might look if you were a few centimetres high. However, I found this image of a ladybird munching on an aphid quite disturbing.

And the larvae are just as scary, in a sort of Zen Buddist/praying mantis/alien invader sort of way.There's currently quite a bit of interest in ladybirds, as they are important for natural biocontrol of pests, which affects not only roses, but also the whole ecosystem of insects, pollinators and disease vectors. The images above were taken from the website for Rothamsted Research, where there's a project looking into the threat to native ladybirds posed by invading species. Humans aren't the only ones to kill their own kind.