Lemonade

mothernaturenetwork: 999Bottles: A canteen with a conscienceIn...

Thu, 03 May 2012 00:59:52 -0400

999Bottles: A canteen with a conscience
In an effort to make the positive impact of avoiding single-use water bottles less abstract, a Seattle-based firm creates a reusable water bottle prototype with an integrated number dial and corresponding iPhone app.

mothernaturenetwork: Here’s the skinny on trash trends: Of the...

Tue, 01 May 2012 23:04:55 -0400

mothernaturenetwork:

Here’s the skinny on trash trends: Of the roughly 13 million tons of textiles tossed each year, only about 15% are recovered for reuse or recycling.

Notions & Notations of a Novice Cook: Making Baked Avocado Fries

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:37:38 -0500

Notions & Notations of a Novice Cook: Making Baked Avocado Fries:

peegaw:

Yeah…I don’t really have much to say about this recipe since I think it pretty much speaks for itself. You usually have to deep fry, or at least shallow fry these fries, but because I have an engagement party to get to this weekend (why is everyone getting married?!), calorie consumption…

addelburgh: hi Omg its so fluffy I’m gonna die x.x

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:37:13 -0500

addelburgh:

hi

Omg its so fluffy I’m gonna die x.x

fat-birds: Breakin’ the law by Billtacular on Flickr.

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:35:38 -0500

fat-birds:

Breakin’ the law by Billtacular on Flickr.

mothernaturenetwork: Artist creates beautiful indoor...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:34:50 -0500

mothernaturenetwork:

Artist creates beautiful indoor clouds
Cloud gazing is no longer an activity reserved for the outdoors, thanks to these life-like but surreal indoor clouds created by artist Berndnaut Smilde.

mothernaturenetwork: Exercise changes genes within minutesThese...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:33:28 -0500

mothernaturenetwork:

Exercise changes genes within minutes
These changes appear to happen soon after exercise, which ultimately reprograms our cells for stronger muscles and greater endurance.

progressivefriends: Great life tip.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:07:44 -0500

progressivefriends:

Great life tip.

totalfilm: 50 Greatest Comic-Book Movie Moments

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:01:42 -0500

totalfilm:

50 Greatest Comic-Book Movie Moments

mothernaturenetwork: Sometimes just one change, like taking out...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:55:20 -0500

mothernaturenetwork:

Sometimes just one change, like taking out refined sugar, can change your life.

expose-the-light: Ten Things Bacteria Can Do That You Can’t We...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:34:36 -0500

expose-the-light:

Ten Things Bacteria Can Do That You Can’t

We humans like to think we’re pretty great. We have things like the Mona Lisa, and the Large Hadron Collider, and The Kind of Chocolate Sauce That Turns Solid When You Put It On Ice Cream. Still, it turns out that if aliens were to visit planet Earth and kidnap the dominant species, they’d go for bacteria over us any day. There are more of them, they’re more diverse, they’ve been around a lot longer, and between the lot of them, they’ve achieved a lot more. Have a look at ten things that bacteria do with their bare flagella that we could never manage to duplicate.

10. Live for 34,000 years.

In Death Valley, researchers found salt crystals that had tiny, fluid-filled pockets in them. In those pockets were 34,000-year-old bacteria. Not a species of bacteria that was 34,000 years old; an actual 34,000-year-old organism that had put itself in suspended animation for tens of thousands of years. And they didn’t look a day over thirty.

9. Be their own ecosystem.

In a goldmine in South Africa, there isn’t much room for life. There’s no sun, and no complex plants or animals providing nutrients to feed on. There is, however, a kind of bacteria. One kind of bacteria. It takes the heat of the mine and the water that fills the bottom and harvests everything it needs from the elements - literally. There is no life in the mine besides Desulforudis audaxviator, the world’s most self-sufficient organism.

8. Make gold nanoparticles.

Gold sprinkles the land, but in only a few places does it come in solid enough form that it’s worth collecting. And the main reason it does that is bacteria. Certain bacteria dissolve gold into nanoparticles, and those nanoparticles move freely through the soil until they collect in certain areas. Whenever a prospector strikes it rich, he or she should thank the humble bacteria. I’m guessing they don’t, though.

7. Glow in the dark.

Bacteria are the source of most bioluminescence in sea life. Some squid carry bacteria in their bodies that allow them to glow, and many bioluminescent fish have pouches of bacteria which manufacture the enzyme luciferase, which glows in the dark. And not just under black light. That’s cheating.

6. Be the world’s tiniest ninja.

Nanobacteria occupy only 20 nanometers. They’re somewhat controversial, since some scientists believe that such a small space can’t possibly hold the components necessary for life. And maybe that’s true. For these bacteria are not life - they are death! In the lab they tend to occupy dying mammalian cells. In real life, they’ve been linked to numerous health problems - but the link has never been certain. They are silent. They are untraceable. And they are deadly.

5. Live on Mars.

Oh, I’m not saying they do. I’m saying they could. Discoveries of colonies of live bacteria in liquid pockets in the dry valleys of Antarctica, they could definitely live somewhere below the surface of Mars.

4. Survive in boiling water.

Most of us are only comfortable in that tiny fraction of an inch that our shower knob that allows us to get the right temperature of water. If we so much as nudge the knob, or if someone in the room flushes the toilet, we jump out of the water, screaming. Not so with botulism bacteria. This deadly little number can survive boiling water. It’s only when the water is pressurized, so it boils at a higher temperature, that botulism dies off.

3. Modify their own genes.

Bacteria gain new abilities by swiping genes from other bacteria they encounter. If humans were able to do the same, it would be a little like being able to grow spots after petting a leopard. The process is called horizontal gene transfer, and it allows the bacteria to gain resistance to antibiotics.

2. Protect themselves from radioactivity and toxic environments

Some kinds of bacteria that live in radioactive areas have worked out ways of defending against taking in heavy metals. Not only is this of interest to biologists, but engineers are working out ways of using these bacteria to harvest heavy metals. Humans shrink from Uranium. Bacteria pick it up and use it as armor.

1. Digest your food.

Yes, you can’t even do that on your own. As thousands of yogurt commercials have no doubt told you, you need bacteria to help you. And while they’re down there, they do things like protect against other types of infection, regulate your immune system, and some, Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, even fight elements that cause cancer.

That’s right. The goop in your stomach fought cancer today. And what did you do? Via The Huffington Post, Wired, Discovery, The Charlotte Observer, Wired, Science AGoGo, Making Your Own Beer, Current.com, Nanowerk, and The Naked Scientist.

"You have to make mistakes to find out who you aren’t. You take the action, and the insight follows:..."

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:12:18 -0500

“You have to make mistakes to find out who you aren’t. You take the action, and the insight follows: You don’t think your way into becoming yourself.”

- Anne Lamott (via paulisakson)

Notions & Notations of a Novice Cook: Making Funnel Cakes

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:44:07 -0500

Notions & Notations of a Novice Cook: Making Funnel Cakes:

peegaw:

This post goes out to infinite—world who made a foodwish for simple sweet snacks. This will hopefully be just one of a string of simple snacks (ones that are more appropriate to bring to a friend’s birthday, as requested) that I’ll be posting soon, seeing as I haven’t had any luck…

Love this stuff!!

when I was a little girl I was happy…

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 23:27:00 -0400

when I was a little girl

I was happy…