Question of the Day: Liquid Mechanics Involving Protein Powder

WHY DOESN'T THIS EVER MIX WELL IN WATER?!?! Headache01 asks "Why doesn't powder mixed into drinks (like whey protein powders or cocoa) dissolve very well? It clumps into balls that are wet on the outside but remain dry on the inside. How can I make my whey mix better?" Well, given that proteins, and especially mixture of proteins, are amphiphilic (meaning the molecule...

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Flow Cytometry In A Nutshell

FACS was used in the trial treatments of leukemia last Saturday's post.Fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis, or FACS, uses a flow cytometer to separate individual cells in a heterogenous suspension based on epitope type. Fluorochrome-labeled antibodies are added to the cell sample. The antibodies bind to specific epitopes on or within the cell. The fluidics system...

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New Cure for Leukemia?

Leukemia is the cancer of white blood cells.The Penn scientists targeted chroniclymphocytic leukemia (CLL) by hacking a harmless version of the HIV virus to hack T cells in order to kill cancer cells. In previous studies, the cancer-killing cells died out quickly after infusion, but in this study, the genetically engineered cells multiplied a thousand-fold and were sustained...

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No Science Sunday: GMSoccerPicks

Best Soccer News and Write Ups. Ever.GMSoccerPicks is a must-read blog for you soccer fans out there. He's got some real insight as an avid soccer fan, and his commentaries should not be missed. The blog is updated daily, so if you're into soccer, bookmark it!You can also join the hundreds of people following @gmsoccerpicks on Twitter and get soccer news as it happens, or...

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Enumerating Bacteria In Lab

Serial dilutions allow us to do viable cell counts or total cell counts.Serial dilution and plating can determine the amount of viable cells in a culture. Serial dilutions allow a discrete number of colonies of bacteria to grow, whereas concentrated cultures may contain billions of bacteria per milliliter. In serial dilutions, smaller dilutions are repeated in succession,...

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Evolution and G6PD Deficiency

Evolution takes place over thousands of years, when I asked about evolution, I was looking for an answer that had the same scope. I wasn't not talking about the past few decades, but the past few thousand years. So while some made very valid comments on botox and the nebulous cultural standards of beauty, the answer I liked best looked at the bigger picture and had some specific examples to support his thoughts.M Fawlful made a good point about many genetic diseases becoming apparent later in life. These inherited diseases have no effect on the...

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Question of the Day

Why hasn't evolution gotten rid of the ugly and genetically dysfunctional individuals? It's survival of the fittest, right? For the past hundred thousands of years, wouldn't ugliness and genetic diseases be slowly weeded out?M Fawlful won the 8 GB SD card. Congratulations!...

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