Breakfast of memories...

Breakfast of memories...  This morning, as on many mornings, I made myself some hot cereal: a good 7-grain cereal, to which I added dried currants, a little maple syrup, and some of our great local whole milk.

As I ate it, a memory sprang up – of a cold June morning in 2007 near Lassen Volcano National Park, in a cabin I'd rented for a trip I took with my dad.  I made oatmeal for him that morning, because he was cold and wanted something warm inside him.  I had maple syrup and dried currants, and a little half-and-half, all things he loved, so I mixed up a batch and passed it over.  The memory was of his face as he ate it: pure delight in the cascade of flavors and textures.  He wore an ear-to-ear smile, and slurped it all down, loudly – then asked for seconds.

I wish I could share my cereal with you this morning, dad.  I know you'd love it...

Smallest bacteria evah!

Smallest bacteria evah!  With a volume of around 0.009 cubic micrometers, these little beasties are really, really small – about as small, scientists think, as it's possible for a bacterium to be.  How small is that?  Well, a cup would hold about 237 trillion of them.

This got me to pondering just how many bacteria does a typical person have wandering around in their body.  It turns out I'm not the first person to wonder that, and there's a lot of information on the topic out there.  Estimates are that about 100 trillion bacteria live in your typical human.  These bacteria, on average, are much larger than the little beasties just found – and a typical person has about 5 pounds (~2kg) of bacteria in them.  Many of these bacteria are essential for life, not just freeloaders and parasites.  Some, of course, are not so benign.

I knew that my body had a bunch of hitchhikers, but I didn't realize I had quite that many!  And that's just bacteria – things get even crazier when you look at the virus load...

Coding is not the new literacy...

Coding is not the new literacy...  Fascinating discussion of what the “new literacy” actually needs to be.  Hint: it's not coding :)

Invisibility glasses?

Invisibility glasses?  The headline caught my eye, but it's a bit misleading.  The manufacturer doesn't claim that these glasses will actually make you invisible – just more difficult for face recognition technology to identify you.  I'm not so sure that benefit is worth the cost of wearing such an ugly pair of glasses, not even considering the price tag (which is, as yet, unspecified)...

Best explanation of vortices I've ever seen...

Best explanation of vortices I've ever seen...  From “Physics Girl”, and very nicely done!