The red/pink fleshy thing that hangs below a turkey's beak is called a wattle. Likewise, the red/pink fleshy thing that hangs over a turkey's beak is called a snood. Both the wattle and the snood change color from pink to brilliant red, depending on the turkey's mood. Both males (toms) and females (hens) have wattles and snoods, but the tom's are much bigger.

((Happy Thanksgiving to those reading this in the United States! If you're not in the United States, have a happy November 26th, regardless. :D))

((References: This, this, and this.))

So, um. You might have noticed that this week's scientific fact was a little late. That was for good reason... well, not a good reason, but a reason nonetheless.

Over the past few days, my computer has been freezing constantly whenever I've tried to use it for more than ten minutes. I took it in to a computer help-desk yesterday to look at, thinking that it might have been a virus of some kind... Well, long story short, my hard drive is borked.

Fortunately, my computer is still under warranty, so my computer's manufacturers are able to send me a new one for free, but I'm going to be very scarce online for the next few days while I sort things out. (I was really lucky; my warranty was running out in two days. XD) I need to back up all of my files and reinstall everything... If anyone who was roleplaying with me is reading this, do you mind if we pick up any threads later? I really can't spend any appreciable time online right now. ^^;

*goes back to work getting all her files in order*

The four nucleic acid residues found in DNA are adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Adenine always pairs with thymine, and cytosine always pairs with guanine. (You might have heard people say "A to T, G to C" before as a way to remember it.) The bases themselves don't hold any information; it's the sequence that they are in on the DNA strands that holds all the information.

Chitin, the main component of insect exoskeletons and the cell walls of fungi, is a carbohydrate. Specifically, a polysaccharide composed of many subunits of N-acetylglucosamine (a glucose derivative).

(If you're a gamer and you ever wondered what chitin was when you saw it as a type of armor available in any RPG, you're welcome. ^^)

So, I'm going to be reaching legal drinking age in a few days.

How am I planning to celebrate?

By donating blood, playing Pokémon for a few hours, and drinking a whole pot of loose-leaf green (or maybe oolong) tea.

Life is good. ^^

Yes, I'm a legal adult, playing Pokémon. You hush, I can play what I want to, it's my birthday. Well, in a few days. ;P

Aack! I almost forgot that today was Wednesday!

Well, here's the scientific fact of the week, at least. ^^;

The influenza viruses are RNA viruses. That is, they consist of a protein coat surrounding a bit of RNA. Viruses can contain single strands of DNA, single strands of RNA, or even double-stranded DNA or RNA.

Well, folks, I've finally gone and done it. I've become a true biology/medical geek.

I've bought an anatomy coloring book.

I'm not even taking Anatomy or Physiology yet.

And I'm enjoying working on it. XD

Not only that, but I come from a fairly medical family. I have relatives who are EMTs, nurses, pharmacists, physician's assistants... You name it. (I think I'm going to be the first one to try for a medical lab technician's license, though, so we're not in every part of the medical system. Yet.) I took the coloring book down to the living room to work on it, since I was sick of being cooped up in my room with the sinus infection I've been fighting all week.

As soon as I took it out and started working on it, my mother, a nurse, came over to look. We've been saying things like "Rostral rhymes with nostril!" and "Median, sagittal, coronal, transverse!" (complete with hand signs) to each other all afternoon.

I love my family. XD

And now for something completely different from the proteins and amino acids of the last two weeks -- explosions!

TNT stands for trinitrotoluene. Just in case you ever wanted to know.

(No references for this one, since I think I'm probably going to be put on some government watch list just because of my age group and the fact that I said the chemical name online. XD In lieu of that, though, I present to you a video that may be familiar to those of you who are familiar with the quote in my icon. Fire in the hole~~)

Just dropping off a few icons for froggytoes, of her character Rem (thegraywhatsit). I'll have the rest up sometime tonight in this post, hopefully!

As with the other sets of icons I've done for others, froggytoes, I'll give you a couple of different crops of the same image, so you can pick the ones that you think look best. ^^


(Larger image if you want to make your own crops)

(Larger image... I'm a little disappointed with this one, because the hair looks so much better in the bigger picture. ^^;)


(Larger image. He ended up looking kind of confused...)

Keratin is a fibrous structural protein that makes up the majority of animal hair, fur, nails, horns, and hooves. Its strength comes from its structure; alpha-keratin is composed of two helical chains of amino acids which turn the same way (to the right), which are twined together in the opposite direction of their turns (to the left) to yield a superhelix.

Think of it like pieces of twine, woven together to give you rope. Twine by itself isn't that strong; you wouldn't try to hold up a heavy weight with twine. It would snap. When the twine is twisted in a certain way, though, it yields a rope that is stronger than either piece of twine by itself. Just think of all you can lift with rope that you can't with string! That's what the double-coiling of alpha-keratin's amino acid strands to give you a superhelix does for the strength of the protein. Nifty, huh?

Why do they call it chicken Parmesan when it's made with mozzarella cheese, anyway?

Just wondering.

The vast majority of the billions of proteins present in the world are made up of only 20 amino acids; alanine, glycine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, proline, cysteine, methionine, serine, threonine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, aspartate (aspartic acid), glutamate (glutamic acid), histidine, lysine, arginine, asparagine, and glutamine.

(I almost wrote the list from memory. I forgot cysteine. I had to look it up when I realized I only had 19 amino acids there. XD)

Owls can't turn their eyes. They can turn their heads an impressive 135 degrees in either direction, though.

(reference)

As a side note, the morning drive takes on a whole new quality when you're listening to Resident Evil music. I didn't think it would do much of anything to my mood, and I liked one of the tracks from Resident Evil Zero, so I put it on. I need to mention that this was at six in the morning, when it's just barely turning light on the edge of the sky, this is deer season, and it's cloudy, cold, and wet. I have never had a spookier morning commute. XD

Blaaaah, I've got to wake up at 5 AM tomorrow. Today. It's after midnight. What am I still doing up. XD Since I'm going to be a little bleary-eyed tomorrow... er, today... I might as well post this week's scientific fact while I'm aware and awake.

Benzaldehyde smells like almonds. It's one of the compounds that give almonds their flavor; that's why it's the primary ingredient in artificial almond extracts.

(How do I know this? Well, I've worked a little with benzaldehyde in lab. XD Warning to those of you who might be working with benzaldehyde in the future: work in a well-ventilated area. It smells really nice, but it can give you a headache.)

(I love MSDSs (Material Safety Data Sheets). They tell you a whole lot about a chemical at a glance. I like to look over the MSDS for any chemical we use in the laboratory before I go in; that way, I know if I need to watch out for any specific hazards, and I know what to do if something goes wrong. Plus, sometimes the information on the sheets is just cool to know. :D)

(For those who aren't science geeks like me, though, you're probably more interested in the culinary aspects of benzaldehyde solutions. Here's a page about almond extracts, both artificial and real. I might post a recipe that uses almond extract later this week... Stay tuned.)

Cheetahs can't fully retract their claws. Unlike most big cats, cheetahs don't use their claws as weapons primarily. Instead, their claws are used for traction while running, much like a dog's. They are thick and blunt, rather than thin and sharp.

(Want to know more about our friend Acinonyx jubatus? This is a page from the American Museum of Natural History that's a little bit old, but has good information. More up-to-date information and facts are available from the Cheetah Conservation Fund, here.)

Second set of icons, coming right up! Eli, getting a night of peaceful sleep... because heaven knows, knowing this young fellow's backstory, he deserves one.




I had to put a background on this one, since it seemed odd to draw someone sleeping without a pillow. ^^; I almost regretted it halfway through drawing it, when the pillowcase started giving me problems... Still, I think it turned out okay in the end.

(Also, as an aside, Eli's hair is a blast to draw. :D So many curly strands!)

Here's the link to the full picture. Two more to go!

Lithium compounds create a bright scarlet flame when they are burned. This is how they make the red color in fireworks.

(This is a good example of a periodic table of fireworks. If you click on an element, it will tell you what color it burns with. Lithium is element number 3, Li, for those who aren't chemistry geeks.)

(Of course, though, you can't have a talk about fireworks without explosions! Here you go! It's a little kiddie, but it's a great demonstration, and it has fiery balloon explosions! :D KCl makes a pretty flame.)

A little bit of art of her character, Elijah Kevin Swede! (elijah_kevin)

First off, four icons...



gottis_chan: I cropped the image a few different ways, so you could choose whichever one(s) you thought looked best. I can add a colored background, if you want, too; I just left them white for the sake of easy editing. Let me know if you want me to fix anything, too; I have the lineart saved.

Here's the full picture, if you'd like to see it. I'll keep plugging away on those other three expressions and get them to you ASAP!

Have you ever been driving somewhere on a foggy morning and thought "Man, the world has a horrible draw distance today"?

Clearly, it's time for me to step away from the computer for a bit. XD