BYBS: Google Chrome Developer Tools

Developer tools displaying the JavaScript for Yahoo!

Since I have a complete lack of ideas for this week (note that I'm not talkin about good ideas, those waved bye-bye to me a long time ago) I decided to blog about something that I use every day.  In particular, the JavaScript debugger that Google created with their chrome browser.

I know, I know, you are now shouting at your monitor "But Firebug kicks Chrome's butt!"  To that I say everyone is entitled to their opinion, and besides, I need something to blog about next week!

This is a tool that I use every day.  It is the culmination of years of evolution in the whole area of JavaScript development.  And believe me, these things have come a long way since the early days of the web where debugging was putting pop-ups in your page.

I realize this wont make a whole lot of sense to someone who has the fortune to not be involved with software development; but trust me, this is a good thing.  Now that decent tools have been available for a number of years, it is the way of things that a new medium will come along for which there are no good tools.  Like I said, I need something to blog about next week...

BYBS: Geobacter

The Geobacter Project is about

• Using electricity to create fuels via bacteria
• Using fuels to create electricity via bacteria

This is a gross simplification of the details, but it is about how people used their cleverness for making the world a better place instead of blowing each other up or causing a financial collapse.

Geobacter is about using naturally existing bacteria (for example, one was taken from the mud in a river outside of Washington DC) that have the ability to convert certain chemicals directly into electrical energy.  What's more, they do this with very good (50%+) efficiency.  What is even more interesting is that you can also use bacteria to convert electrical power directly into fuel or other useful chemicals. 

A common problem with renewable energy is that if you have a surplus at one point in time (say during the day) you cannot easily and efficiently store it.  There are schemes for doing this, such as batteries or using the energy to pump water uphill for later power generation, these sorts of approaches tend to be inconvenient or wasteful.  Batteries require a lot of space, for example, and pumped storage really requires the power generation site to be located near the reservoir.

If, and this is a big if, something like the Geobacter Project turns out to be feasible on a large scale, then it countries like the USA could become more energy independent.  Furthermore, the process consumes as much carbon dioxide as it produces, so it is fairly environmentally friendly.

While the promise of something like this is good, the fact that people are capable of directing their ingenuity towards making the world a better place is the real blessing.

BYBS: This Week in Virology

I guess it says something about me that I listen to a podcast about viruses for fun.

You can find them on iTunes, by going to twiv.tv or by clicking on the image.

Some of the things that i find interesting about this podcast include:

• Insight into the world of virology.
• Interesting tibits of information about viruses.
• The friendly banter between the hosts.

Maybe listening to this show is equivalent of watching the weather channel for other people.  Perhaps the subject matter is interesting in and of itself.  Or could it be that I'm just trying to be one of the survivors of the next zombie producing plague?

I really don't know why I listen to this podcast, but I do.  For those who worry that it wont be interesting except to biologists and their ilk, I am not exactly well educated in that area, but I still manage to understand some of what they talk about.

So if you find yourself with a long commute, train ride, etc. here's another use for your time.

BYBS: Viral Gene Therapy

After viral gene therapy, a monkey born without the ability to see red and green can now detect them.
Science News, October 10, 2009

Now that we are heading into the flu season I thought it was appropriate to talk about how wonderful viruses are.

Maybe they're not, but I thought it would be nice to talk about how wonderful some viruses are.  Specifically, using the power of the little buggers to help monkeys and, one hopes, people with various problems. 

One area I find particularly fascinating is the area of viral gene therapy.  The idea is to use a virus as way of sending genes to cells of an animal after they are mature.  While some genes are only important for the structure and growth of an organisms, other genes affect the way that an organism functions after it is grown.  In the case described in the Science News article, the genes enable the eyes of a grown monkey to detect frequencies of light that they could not previously see. 

This particular study has all kinds of implications. The article is mostly about how neurologists were surprised that a full grown monkey's visual system could accommodate the new colors. The thing I find really cool is the almost offhand way that using a virus is being used in this experiment.

During my lifetime, I have seen the concept of using viruses for this sort of thing go from the realm of theory to the point where it barely raises an eyebrow. 

Then there is the whole meddling with the human genome business, but I think I can stretch that out into a whole other posting.

At any rate, I like this sort of news.  I find the ability of humanity to turn something that is often times an agent of destruction (think disease causing viruses) into an agent of help.

BYBS: Brain Science Podcast

Brain Science Podcast at http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast

So I was, as usual, trying to find a topic to blog about. It being Monday morning at 6am, and therefore just a wee bit past Sunday (though the whole BYBS thing is as much of an excuse to get me to do something as anything else, but that's another story) and I was debating whether to blog about a kick-butt Podcastle episode or a kick-butt episode of Brain Science Podcast.

I finally settled on Brain Science Podcast, specifically episode number 59: Interview with Guy Caldwell. This is mostly because Dr. Caldwell brings a certain enthusiasm to what others might consider to be a boring topic: worms.

In particular, he talks about a worm called caenorhabditis elegans, or C. elegans as this critter goes by at cocktail parties. C. elegans has a number of distinctions which make it useful to scientists like the fact that the complete cell lineage for the critter has been determined.

Can you imagine the people who had to do that job?!

Cell number 2,643...check...2644...check...2645...check.

I would gasp with disbelief at the mind-numbing nature of that job if it were not for a) the unbelievably boring nature of many jobs that people do and b) I'm not sure that this critter actually has that many cells.

Anyhow, one of the cool things this guy managed to do with C. elegans is to paste some jellyfish genes that give off light into the neurons of the worm so that one could, for example, see if some combination of conditions was causing said neurons to die off. That, in turn, came in handy for helping to tease out some aspects of Parkinson's disease.

Put another way, you could take a look at a worm and ask a simple question like: "Hey is the thing glowing? No? Then all the dopamine producing neurons are dead." This is much simpler than getting a worm analyst to talk to the thing.

It's stuff like this that wins the "aint it cool?" category for extreme cleverness, but then there's the whole issue of Dr. Caldwell's enthusiasm for the subject. I mean it sounds like he actually enjoys this work.

As someone who at times feels like a burn-out, chewed up, dehydrated husk of a human being, listening to someone with that sort of vigor brings back fond memories. He speaks with admiration for the guys who sat there and catalog cell lineages. He talks about how his research could be used to create therapies for Parkinson's disease.

That's the kind of energy and optimism, the looking forward to tomorrow that I find inspiring.

BYBS: Microbe World

Last week (OK, it was actually the week before that, but still), I listened to a fascinating podcast called "Tiny Conspiracies" by Dr. Bonnie Bassler about how some microbes can talk to each other. I found this very cool because a) the little buggers aren't supposed to be able to do that and b) I could understand anything she said at all.

As a veteran of listening to people who are not coherent, it is always a pleasure to experience a presentation given by someone who does a good job. Many people have complained to me about my postings, saying that they go off on tangents and have no point. To these people I say: "I'm supposed to have a point?"

But back to small critters talking to each other. It was previously thought that microbes led sad, lonely lives concerned with things like growing, dividing, and causing plague. During the past 20 years or thereabouts, it has been discovered that bacteria and their ilk also do things like engage in vibrant conversations, write books and attend poetry readings...and then cause plague.

So perhaps I embellished that a bit. Perhaps a lot. But it appears that microbes do not live the isolated lives that we once imagined. In "Tiny Conspiracies" Dr. Bassler talks about how some microbes can do things like gauge the size of their population and then change their behavior accordingly.

For example, once a population has reached a critical limit, the colony can form a membrane around themselves for added protection. Another, rather more sinister example is that a colony of bacteria might wait to release a toxin until their population is large enough that it will have a better chance of overcoming their host.

This sort of info gets the "ain't it cool!" award from me partially because of the clever way Dr. Bassler describes some of their tests --- she used bits of DNA that would cause the microbes to light up when they were "talking" --- but also for the potential applications. If one were to interfere with this signaling mechanism, for example, it may be possible to cause some nasty pathogen to skip the whole "cause plague" bit.

So waltz on over to Microbe World and give Tiny Conspiracies a listen.

BYBS/W: Solar Power

Solar energy power generation systems. Image courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories.

One of the things that I really enjoy in life is when people come together to solve a problem. It demonstrates humanity's ability to cooperate, and when directed towards what I consider to be an intelligent and noble goal, it makes me feel good to be alive.

One problem that we face is the need for clean, cheap, renewable energy. Pictured here is a system that focuses sunlight to run a highly efficient electrical power generator.

Most of the technologies involved with a system like this are not new. The Stirling engine, for example, was invented in 1816. The notion of using mirrors to focus the energy of the sun has probably been around since there were mirrors. Using a computer to keep the dish pointed at the sun is probably the most recent creation.

This particular system may not be "the answer" or even a significant part of it. Some other approach could do the job better or cheaper or cleaner.

The thing that makes this remarkable to me is that it took a lot of thoughtful work to put all these elements together towards a common, relatively noble goal.

This link will take you to the full story on the system. It was created by the folks at Sandia Ntional Laboratories, Stirling Energy Systems and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

BYBS: Wikipedia

I don't know how many times I've turned to Wikipedia for information, but it's a lot. The site consistently has very high quality articles on an unbelievable range of topics. What's more, the whole thing is put together by the very people who browse the web.

In short, the site is a showcase for what I wish more of the web was like: people working together to help each other in an "ain't it cool?" sort of way.