My first painting of the month and second in the series on bioluminescence is complete!

This painting is called, Thinking About Bioluminescent Research and is 3 feet by 4 feet. It is acrylic on canvas. 

It is dedicated to Dr Siouxsie Wiles. Thank you Siouxsie for the work you do and for being my advisor and muse for this project. You are wonderful.

This painting is a bit more surreal than my last painting on bioluminescence so I will do my best to explain the symbolism. My opinion however is that people should feel free to find their own meaning in art so do take what information you like and add your own interpretations.

First of all, the text on the side reads:

Bioluminescence is being

used in research in

the search for new

antibiotics and cures

for illness. A

virus is a living

organism and 

can be made to 

glow. If the virus dies, it

stops glowing.

If it spreads

it creates more 

of a glow. This

allows researchers

to judge and track 

the effectiveness

of new treatments

and drugs in the

lab. It hopefully

allows for more

humane treatment

of lab mice, as a 

virus can be detected

and treated even 

before symptoms

reveal themselves.

The glow 

will show

first, giving

scientists

a head

start on

turning

off the

lights of

what threatens

us all.

I painted this as a beach scene because bioluminescence was first discovered and understood by studying ocean creatures like in my previous painting subject, The Crystal Jellyfish. When I polled people on my Facebook about what are people's favorite examples of bioluminescence, a large majority mentioned the phenomenon of glowing ocean waves. This is often caused when dinoflagellates are exited and their bioluminescence is displayed. I was happy to include this as a backdrop since I grew up on the beach and it is an image that plays an important role, not only in scientific research but as symbolism for my place in the world.

I spent a long time trying to decide if the beach should be empty or should have  anything on it. I settled on an open empty, untouched beach as a symbol of the unknowns in this research and that of possibility, stretched far out into the future. It can also serve as testimony to the idea that if we do not find new antibiotics, there may indeed be less human life on this earth, therefor less footprints on the beach.  

I chose the white mouse in the foreground to witness the scene because so much depends on mice in laboratories. They are indeed witness to what happens. Personally, I have ethical issues with the idea of animals being used to test things on, but at least this work presents a more humane approach to dealing with our little furry friends and for that I am grateful. The mouse looks upon the flowers that represent a life cycle. The life cycle of the flower parallels the temporary nature of our human existence and that of the mouse and of the bioluminescent research. Everything is temporary. This further emphasizes the rush to find cures to protect that fragility that is life on this planet.

I often paint black birds in the distance as symbols of hope, wisdom, courage and the passage of time. 

The sun is setting in this image. Another emphasis on time running out.

When the lights go off, the waves near the beach glow, as does the flower when it is alive, and the mouse.

My next painting will be about fiery hot peppers and the chemical that makes them burn. A more straightforward and less dreamy piece than this.

Thank you for being my patron and for supporting the arts. I hope you enjoyed this project.

EDIT 3:46 pm: A note for accuracy. Dr Wiles corrected one mistake in my text, she works on bacteria not viruses. The technique using bioluminescence works for viruses too so that's still correct but antibiotics only kill bacteria not viruses. Her research is specifically to find antibiotics to kill bacteria. Thank you Dr Wiles for that correction. I'm always learning. <3

http://tokenskeptic.org/2015/08/16/episode-two-hundred-and-four-on-national-science-week-at-perthsciencefestival/

As always, thanks to all Patreons for their support - and PLEASE spread the word about the podcast, zip them a Tweet, show some love for the National Science Week by pointing this ep out - it all helps the folks involved with showing how important such events are nationally and internationally. And who knows, maybe it'll help get more tours and interviews in the future?

*****

The Naked Scientists are a team of scientists, doctors and communicators whose passion is to help the general public to understand and engage with the worlds of science, technology and medicine. It's also an immensely popular radio show and podcast, which began even before the idea of 'podcast' was fully formed.

I spoke to Naked Scientists Chris Smith and Georgia Mills - about their show, science communication and the joys of science festivals.

*****

Ben Britton is the face of Nat Geo Wild in Australia and New Zealand.

He's passionate about wildlife, and believes strongly in conservation through education. He has appeared in a number of documentaries and on various television programs throughout his 20 years of professional experience in animal husbandry and wildlife conservation that have taken him across the world.

*****

Finally, here's some live audio from the ArtBeat show, from RTRFM! Hosted by Rhian Todhunter, guest hosted by me, and featuring Costa Georgiadis from SBS's Costa's Garden Odyssey and SciTech's Director of Science Partnerships Dr Simon Carroll. Because this is RTRFM's ArtBeat show - we talk a lot about how well art and science compliment each other.

Photo featured is from Costa's Twitter account.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/brutereason/2015/08/17/queer-women-who-have-only-dated-men-are-queer/

This silly idea that who you happen to have dated or had sex with so far is what determines your sexual orientation is going around again, so here's my response.

"Some queer women refuse to acknowledge that there are valid reasons

why other queer women might not have dated any women, or come out to

certain people in their lives. Coming out and living openly as a queer

person is difficult, which, paradoxically, makes it tempting to become

self-aggrandizing and think of yourself as better than those who haven’t

(yet) made the journey. That’s a survival mechanism. But when survival

mechanisms turn into weapons against other marginalized people, it stops

being okay or acceptable.

So here’s a non-comprehensive list of reasons why a queer woman might

not have dated any women, or come out at all, that are not “she’s not

actually queer.""

My painting that teaches a bit about the bite that bites back in chili peppers is complete!

I used the Padrón pepper as my model and muse for this piece because they are my favorite  peppers and I grow them in my garden. 

The Padrón pepper has recently gained popularity in the United States but has long been a Spanish favorite. These heirloom peppers are often picked in their very early stages when they are small, about an inch and half to inches in length and still green. They are then cooked quickly in hot olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt and served as a tapas style dish that is absolutely fantastic with red wine. The fun thing about eating Padrón peppers this way, is that you get play a culinary game of Russian Roulette while enjoying your wine. Most of the peppers will be flavorful but taste mild, but approximately one in every 5 will pack a serious capsaicin punch. It will be very hot- or at least much hotter than the rest! This can turn an ordinary appetizer into an exiting surprise! You never know which pepper will give that endorphin rush!

And endorphins seem to be the key in explaining why humans are so drawn to eating something that actually causes pain. Capsaicin is the chemical in a hot pepper that creates the heat we are so familiar with. Capsaicin bonds with the vanilliod receptor in your mouth causing the often painful sensation of heat. The sensation varies in intensity based on how much capsaicin is present. This is the same feeling you would get if you put something that was actually hot, like fire, in your mouth. The difference being, that capsaicin just causes the feeling and does not actually burn or damage the flesh of your mouth. When the pain of heat is detected either from actual heat or from capsaicin, endorphins (the feel-good, help you deal with pain, opioid neuropeptides) are released to help you cope. It is speculated that the knowledge that the average batch of hot peppers won't actually hurt you, combined with the endorphin rush, is what has made hot peppers a favorite addition to foods across the globe.

As I mentioned earlier Padrón peppers are often picked early to serve as a tapas dish but if you let these little peppers stay on the plant and mature, they turn from green to red and often you can catch them in a beautiful red and green stage like the one in the painting that has been sliced in half. Whether you pick them in the red-green stage or let them go completely red, one thing you can count on is them being MUCH hotter than in their infancy. They jump from mild to medium on the Scolville scale to a much higher stakes game of medium to very hot.

That brings us to the Scoville scale that is represented in my painting. It was invented by a pharmacist named Wilber Scoville. I did some research and I'm pretty sure Wilber had the hottest mustache in town. The reason being is that his scale was, and still is, based on a taste test. It's not exactly scientific and reminds me a lot of homeopathy because the way Wilber determined the heat of a pepper was by diluting the pepper until the heat could no longer be detected by taste. This process is not ideal because there are many variables that can give different results. Tasters fatigue is a thing as well as variables in different people's tolerance to the heat and even, as we have learned with the Padrón pepper, peppers can vary in heat even when picked from the same plant. Other more accurate ways of finding the levels of capsaicin are now done in chemistry labs but the Scolville Scale is a good approximation and has remained a favorite online and in pepper and hot sauce connoisseur communities and so I included it.

Finally, a note on where that heat is coming from. People often confuse the seeds as being the hot part of a pepper but it's actually where the seeds are attached that packs the punch. If you slice open a pepper, as I have done in my depiction, you will see  lighter colored stripes that hold the seed and travel down to the base of the pepper. This is called the placenta and is the gland that produces the capsaicin. Those are the hot parts. Here is a tip, if you eat a pepper that is too hot to handle, drink milk. Milk contains casein a chemical that binds with the capsaicin and helps wash it away.  Water will only make it worse. If you burn your hands cutting peppers, you can also soak them in milk for a similar cure.

I hope this painting has  taught you a bit more about the peppers we love! Now if you will excuse me, I have some fresh salsa I have to make!

Special thanks to chemist, Dr Ray Burks who kept an eye on me while I worked on this project and directed me to reliable information on the chemistry of peppers and specifically, capsaicin. 

And thank YOU for being my patron! I could not make these science inspired paintings if I didn't have your support. Please share this post with others who may be interested in supporting this ongoing project if you can.

More sciart coming soon!

http://tokenskeptic.org/2015/08/22/episode-two-hundred-and-five-on-national-science-week-part-two/

You cannot see colour.

Your entire world is black, white, shades of grey.

And then you investigate the ways of sound, and how different colours in the spectrum are associated with different sounds.

Then you put an antennae in your head so you can always hear colour.

That's the first interview for this podcast. The sounds that you can hear at the beginning are examples of him scaling through all the shades, from red upwards - as he talks about how he trained himself to recognise these sounds, ALL THE TIME.

...And then I goofed off in the studio for three hours with Daniel of the Talk The Talk podcast, which has been a 10 minute segment, then a 1/2 hour radio show for a long time, then a podcast, then to being a one hour show taking up the last third of the RTRFM Tuesday Mag show.

This was for RadioThon, which is pretty much how RTRFM gets its funding for the rest of the year. I'm lucky to get $33 from Patreons, which nearly covers my Libsyn costs.

Imagine trying to get hundreds of thousands to keep an independent broadcaster alive. Not for selfish reasons - but for the whole town and beyond, as it is one of the most popular independent stations in this state.

Anyway, they were kind enough two years ago, as an ARTS AND CULTURE station, to let me in to read the news at 6am. Now I'm an irregular regular host (that doesn't make sense, but fuck it...) for many of their issues shows (Mag, ArtBeat) and with my podcasting background, provide regular content that can stretch their range a bit into the science-y fields. 

So, I'm very grateful to them. The competition in radio is very, very high and there's plenty of younger, more talented (let's face it!) and more qualified journalists coming in every week hoping for a break. And so I keep working hard - for nothing. Because I see this as something worth my time and it's worth contributing to the community.

And that's why I took the stand and made sure that the show reflected Science Week during RadioThon - and why you can hear Dr Siouxsie Wiles on the air.

Big thanks to everyone (Patreons, you rock!) who donated to the RadioThon - I'm sending you some CDs, no matter WHERE you are.

****

In other news, the group I am a member of got FUNDING!

www.soundminds.com.au

We're creating under 10 mins short-form radio, for use ANYWHERE in the country. 

And maybe beyond.

Stay tuned.

Oh god I really need to get some sleep.

I'm Doing Another Snooze Button my time Monday! You know the drill, send me your favourite songs.

And go download the podcast already!

As always, tell folks to consider signing on for the Patreon to support my shows! I don't have the energy in me to do a RadioThon!!

http://www.openculture.com/2014/12/chrissie-hyndes-10-pieces-of-advice-for-chick-rockers-1994.html

http://time.com/4016811/chrissie-hynde-pretenders-rape/

Sorta transcript:

Chrissie Hynde, lead singer of the Pretenders, has a new autobiography out in which she talks about how she was once raped by a guy in a biker gang. Which is horrible, and to make matters worse, she is coping with that memory by telling herself and others that it was her fault. And to make matter even worse still, she expands upon that broken thinking by telling other women that if they get raped, it’s their fault, too.

We’ve been over this territory many times before: telling women, as Hynde does, that if they wear high heels then it’s their fault they get raped because they should have planned to be able to run away from their attacker, leads to more and more ridiculous situations until we’re all in burkas being told that we deserve to get raped because we blinked the wrong way or showed a bit too much ankle.

It’s a pretty stupid thought process, but it IS what we should unfortunately expect from a woman coming out of rock and roll in the 70s and 80s. Unfortunately, to get by in a severely misogynistic culture, sometimes it can seem easier if you have to become one with the misogynistic culture. Become the “cool girl” who doesn’t care if she gets groped or raped, who doesn’t go out of her way to help other women, and who in fact helps enforce the existing hierarchy.

And if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that Hynde was already playing that role. In 1994, she had some truly shit advice for other women interested in getting into rock and roll, including insisting that they shave their legs. Because nothing says “rock” like spending a lot of time and money conforming to society’s expectations of you, am I right? She also suggests that women don’t sound “hysterical” by “belting” or “screeching,” which is in fact hysterical considering that “hysterical” is derived from a sexist idea that a woman’s over-the-top emotions come from her uterus, and considering that there were a number of amazing female singers who were about to hit it big by belting and screeching in 1994, like Courtney Love and Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney.

Hynde’s first point of advice is the worst by far, though: she says that women shouldn’t “complain about sexist discrimination.” Because again, quietly accepting abuse is SO fucking rock, right? I guess we should just be glad her number one tip for making it as a woman in the music industry was “suck a producer’s cock.”

It actually reminds me of Hilary Clinton, in a way. Bear with me: Clinton has the chance to become the first female President of the United States of America. Her toughest liberal competition right now is Bernie Sanders, who is way more radically progressive, and he’s spent decades maintaining a remarkably unwavering democratic socialist platform. If Sanders were anything but a white male, I don’t think he’d have a chance in hell. Those privileges balance out his radical ideals in the same way that Hilary’s conservative centrist ideals balance out the fact that she is a woman.

In other words, it’s really, really, really hard to be both a member of a marginalized group AND a radically progressive thinker who is accepted by the majority. People like that can kick off movements and inspire generations to come, but they also tend to get murdered.

So Chrissie Hynde worked hard and fought through a lot of sexist bullshit to be a woman in rock for that long, but she wasn’t good enough to do it without throwing other women under the bus. She wasn’t strong enough to do it without telling herself that the horrific things that happened to her were her fault. Because if we believe that something horrible is our own fault, we also get to have the optimistic hope that we can prevent it from happening again. It’s a comforting idea, but I much prefer to understand that shit happens and we should all fight back as best we can, even if we end up pissing some people off along the way. Because that’s truly rock and roll.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/carbon-dating-suggests-worlds-oldest-koran-is-even-older-than-the-prophet-muhammad/

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2015/07/quran-manuscript-22-07-15.aspx

https://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/embed.php?File=dating.html#what

Sorta transcript:

Carbon dating suggests ‘world’s oldest’ Koran could be older than the Prophet Muhammad, states misleading headline crafted specifically to make atheists jizz their pants.

Let me start by saying that Muhammad definitely didn’t get any divine instructions to pass down any message ever, because there is no god. But some people believe that, anyway. Even though they’re wrong, this isn’t the evidence you’re looking for if you want to prove Muslims that their religion is baseless.

The University of Birmingham has a really old Koran, and some researchers there had it radiocarbon dated at a University of Oxford lab. Radiocarbon dating can be really fantastic for archaeologists and anthropologists to place certain organic materials within certain time periods within the past 50,000 years. It’s pretty accurate, but there are still error bars. In this case, the researchers found that the parchment probably dated between 568 and 645 A.D.

Muhammad supposedly got his revelation between 570 and 632 A.D. So right there, you have a lot of overlap that supports the current understanding that the various parts of the Koran were written down after Muhammad’s death. He died in 632, and this parchment could date to around 645. Done.

Even if that overlap wasn’t there, if the carbon dating showed the parchment must have been created, say, before 570 AD, it still wouldn’t prove the Koran was created before Muhammad. A parchment could have been created long before someone decided to write something on it.

And parchment basically means an animal skin. Radiocarbon dating works by measuring the amount of carbon left in something, which allows researchers to count backwards and see when that animal stopped consuming carbon, i.e., when they died, because the carbon isotope leaves the body at a reliable rate. So we know that the animal died between 568 and 645, but we don’t know when that animal was skinned, and when that skin was turned into parchment, which is a pretty interesting and painstaking process.

And then we don’t know how long that parchment was around before it was written on. Testing the ink may get us a little closer to pinpointing the date, but that’s really difficult, since ink only tends to have tiny amounts of carbon and it’s usually going to be co-mingled with carbon from the parchment.

It’s really fascinating how researchers use various techniques to pinpoint dates like this. That’s the story, here, and also the fact that this manuscript may be the oldest portion of the Koran we have. That’s really cool and it helps us form a better picture of how Islam began and grew.

But there is no sense in taking this interesting little finding and forming an atheist circlejerk around it. It misrepresents the scientific research and just makes atheists look like ignorant assholes, and we don’t need another reason for theists to think that about us.

I am SUPER excited to share this project because I have been silently working on it behind the scenes for some time now and I HATE keeping fun art related secrets! 

As many of you know, there is a big trend in the meditation and self-help communities of adult coloring for relaxation, stress and anxiety reduction. As an artist, I have always looked at my work as a way of helping me focus and escape from the stress of the daily grind but could that same feeling be transferred to the non artist? And why do so many people give up coloring as an adult but self-identified artists carry on? Is coloring just for kids? Why? So when this adult coloring trend started showing itself in my social media feeds and on the shelves at book stores, I got intrigued and I got very much inspired!

The first thing I did was start drawing. 

The trend of adult coloring is an offshoot of the popularity of mindful meditation and often uses mandalas with their round radiating, meditative designs as the basis for relaxing meditative coloring. So I took that theme and gave it a bit of my own twist. 

I drew designs based on science and nature, as I do, and then laid them out in radiating designs that are complex and somewhat circular- though different from mandalas. I also have noted that most people are doing coloring books so I thought it would be fun to add the extra benefit to your relaxing coloring sessions, of actually having a piece of art that you can display after! So my designs are all on poster board that can be framed when you are finished coloring. As of the writing of this post, I have completed five of these adult coloring posters but I have many more in the works and I hope to have them all done in time for the holidays. They really are enjoyable for me to make and I hope that feeling transfers to you as you color. Each of my posters, when purchased from my Etsy shop come with a set of 20 markers so they are seriously a fantastic gift too. I will make a separate Patron Only post that has the 5 current designs that my patrons can download and print on regular paper at home for free (cuz I love you guys) and I will give you guys a coupon code you can use in my Etsy shop if you want to purchase the actual 11"x17" poster art with the markers to color for yourself or or for gifts.

The second thing I did was reach out to an authority on the topic of mental health to find out if there is actually any real benefit to adult coloring. Is it all just hype? 

Lucky for me, I know Dr Megan Press, a brilliant psychiatrist who was willing to help me dig through any existing research and find out the facts behind the hype of coloring for stress relief.

Megan Press is a psychiatrist with the Minneapolis VA medical center where she is the mental health medical director for both their community based outpatient clinics and the primary care - mental health integration team. She is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota, teaching both medical students and residents. Her professional interests include psychosomatics, ADHD, PTSD, and integrating mental health care into general medical settings.

Here is what Dr Press has to say:

Adult coloring books currently occupy 4 of the top 20 slots on Amazon's 2015 best-seller list. The gift shop down the street from my house has an entire display dedicated to adult coloring books and supplies. I think this is great, a way to encourage "time-outs" for grownups. Taking time out of a busy day to do something fun or relaxing can be difficult. For many of us, we feel pangs of guilt when we are not doing something productive. Setting aside work and responsibilities for a little enjoyment can be an important component in managing stress, and I like the idea that this concept could become trendy.

But many of these books aren't marketing themselves as one of many different ways you can chill out and have a little down time. They are marketing themselves as a kind of therapy or as a treatment for medical conditions. Some claim that coloring induces mindfulness and has the same benefits as meditation. (For the record, mindfulness is a practice that is applied to an activity. It is not "induced" by the activity itself.) Others make no claims, but include testimonials from people who have colored their way to improved health. A quick internet search brings up page after page of articles claiming that coloring helps manage anxiety and improves mental focus. Quite a few of these pages include quotes from doctors which can create an illusion that these claims are backed by medical evidence.

There are very few studies examining the relationship between art and mental health. Even art therapy, a generally accepted practice, has very few randomized controlled trials assessing its benefit, and those are small studies with very few subjects. I was able to find only one study that specifically examined the potential benefits of coloring. There were 3 groups in the trial, and all of the participants were given 20 minutes to color after an "anxiety-inducing event." One group was given a mandala to color; the second group was given a plaid design (of similar complexity to the mandala); and the third was instructed to color on a blank sheet. The first two groups experienced a drop in anxiety after the 20 minutes, but the free-from coloring group did not. Not a bad first study, but certainly not the final word in coloring for mental health. The authors readily admitted that the study had quite a few shortcomings. All of the participants were college students (roughly the same age and educational status), and the majority were Caucasian. Even a large study with this design would not necessarily apply to people with mental health diagnoses. What one person finds soothing could be overwhelming, overstimulating and anxiety-inducing to someone else.

But don't let me rain on your coloring parade! Coloring doesn't have to be a therapy to be worth your time. If you find coloring enjoyable or soothing, it could be a fun part of your overall self-care.

So there you have it! The science just isn't there, but that doesn't mean that you won't enjoy yourself while coloring as you carve out a little bit of peaceful you-time in the  chaos that is life. Coloring can be a potentially joyful, quiet-focus-time that many dedicated artists have enjoyed for years. 

I have attached the PDF of the Mandala study that Dr Press references and I will do another separate Patron only post with all of the five completed coloring pages for you to download. Patrons and non-patrons alike can find the actual posters with the free marker sets in my Etsy shop!

I'll post more adult coloring posters as I complete them and stay tuned for my chemistry of the scent of rose painting also coming soon!

Extra special thanks to Dr Megan Press! There is no way I could have done this or understood all of the research without you. You rule!

http://www.ksat.com/news/texas/muslim-boy-14-arrested-for-making-clock-mistaken-for-bomb_

Sorta transcript:

A 14-year old Muslim boy was arrested in Texas this week for making his own clock and bringing it to school. As we all know, clocks are a necessary feature of all the bombs we see on television. If it weren’t for the clock part, we would have no idea how much time we have left to run away, or cut the green wire, or hacksaw our arm off.

The good news is that the boy, Ahmed Mohamed, is getting a huge outpouring of support from the Internet, including from President Obama who invited him to bring his clock to the White House. That’s probably not going to ease the minds of the Texas high school administrators, of course, since they probably think Obama is a Muslim, too, and so he probably just wants to examine the death clock to find out how to put them into large-scale production and use them to take away Texans’ guns. Somehow.

This is all reminiscent of Kiera Wilmot, the 16-year old black Florida girl who was arrested and expelled from school two years ago for creating an unapproved small chemical reaction in a science lab. The reaction caused a “pop” and a bit of smoke, for which the girl faced felony charges.

I know it’s a bit of a done trope to say “in my day,” but seriously. When I was in high school, a chemistry teacher let my friends write their names in a flammable liquid on their tables and then set it on fire. And as I mentioned in a previous video, just prior to my day, when kids could drink at 18, my biology teacher would let seniors brew beer for their final project.

Of course, we also had jarts, aka lawn darts, aka deadly projectiles that you were encouraged to hurl at your siblings for a fun summertime activity. And when I say “deadly” I’m not kidding. Children were murdered by them. Even our “girliest” toys were lethal: Easy Bake Ovens may as well have come with a recipe for baked children fingers, and they were especially deadly when combined with flammable Rainbow Brite sleeping bags. Oh, and of course there were those Snack Time Cabbage Patch Kids that looked like they were eating little plastic snacks, which was super cute until they turned on our very children and began trying to consume their tiny fingers and strands of hair.

Chuckie was a documentary, you guys.

I guess what I’m saying is that things weren’t necessarily better before we had safety regulations, and we shouldn’t be fooled into false nostalgia. But we do have to strive to maintain a really difficult balance, between keeping kids alive and giving them room to make mistakes. Or for Christ’s sake, at least room to make something that looks like a pipe bomb but absolutely obviously is not.

I mean, I’m a person who travels with the Quizotron machine, which looks as close to a bomb as you can get without having a clock attached. If I were a Muslim man, I’d never get through security.

And that brings me to the other bit of bad news in Ahmed’s story: the school followed up with a letter to all the district’s parents in which they didn’t apologize, but instead advised them to make sure their kids say something if they see something. Way to make the racial profiling worse, assholes! How about this: if you see something, ask what it is. Maybe you’ll learn something, like how to make a clock and how to not overreact and end up nearly ruining a kid’s life.

My painting on the scent of roses is complete! The painting is 18"x24" and is acrylic on canvas.

Chemist, Dr Ray Burks was my science advisor on this project and one of the main points she expressed to me is that the volatile aroma chemicals in flowers, the stuff that we smell, is very complex. Something that we think of as a simple scent, such as rose is actually made up of multiple compounds that are often layered upon one another that then give us the familiar experience of what we recognize as "rose."

Some of these aroma chemicals are present in very small amounts and some in large amounts but it is almost never one single chemical that gives us that recognizable scent in flowers.

Another interesting fact about roses is that they have been cultivated by humans and have evolved in the wild in such a way that one rose will smell very, very different from another. And some roses will have no discernible scent at all! So the the famous quote by Shakespeare, "...a rose by any other name will smell as sweet." is not even remotely true from a scientific view. Depending on how many, and what aroma compounds are present, will make a rose smell very sweet, or maybe more like citrus or maybe more musky or maybe it just won't smell at all.

This new knowledge of the scent of roses can open you up to a greater appreciation of all the wonderful varieties of roses out there. Some roses have been bred for qualities such as color and some more for their scent. When you find one that smells in a way that pleases you, take note of the type of rose that is. The next rose you encounter may indeed be very, very different.

For this project I referenced the website Compound  Interest and used the aroma chemicals in my painting that they represented in this beautiful chart linked here to hopefully hint at the complexity of volatile aroma compounds in my piece of art.

The most notable being (-)-cis-rose oxide which has 4 isomers and is most recognizable (in extremely small amounts) to our nose as "rose."

The other aroma chemicals I included in the painting by the petals are beta-damascenone and beta-ionone but as I mentioned there are many other compounds that can be present and that can vary widely amongst different rose species. 

My science advisor made a wonderful 4 minute video that explains the way the scent of roses works and explains how many roses evolved, often with the help of humans, from the traditional Damask rose. I highly recommend you watch it to learn more! Here is that link.

Thanks to all my patrons who have supported this project. Next up is going to be some microbiology drawings that focus on viruses and bacteria! Yay science and art!

Episode Two Hundred And Seven - On Water Found On Mars, Adventures In The Anthropocene and The Science Show!

The chances of anything coming from Mars may still be a billion to one - but the news of salty water being discovered there did get a lot of attention this week.

Images of Mars taken from orbit indicates liquid water on canyons and crater walls, and could help NASA and other space agencies towards finding possible sites for life on the planet and landing areas for future missions.

Tweeting up a live-storm about the news as it happened was Perth Observatory's Matt Woods, who talked to me about the discovery for RTRFM's The Mag.

*****
The most prestigious science book prize in Britain has been awarded to a woman for the first time.

Science journalist and broadcaster Gaia Vince is the first woman to receive the 2015 Royal Society Winton prize for Science Books for Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made.

It takes a look at humanity's pillaging of Earth's resources with research coming from two years of travelling the world. I spoke to Gaia Vince about her book and the impact of her well-deserved win.

You can follow Gaia Vince on Twitter at WanderingGaia

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Robyn Williams AM, is celebrating 40 years as the creator and host of ABC Radio’s Science Show.

A leading science communicator, he has kept Australian audiences informed and engaged with scientific discovery, research challenges and the wonder of the new. The Science Show has always delivered the element of surprise and amusement that has been driven by William’s curiosity and sense of fun.

I spoke to Robyn before his talk at ECU's Inspirational Leader's Presentation.

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Tremendous thanks to the radio station RTRFM, where these interviews have aired previously, especially producer Peter Barr.

Theme songs "Cosgrove" by Pogo, from http://pogomix.net and "Leap Second" by Milton Mermikides, of www.miltonmermikides.com. 

Today is a day to celebrate the podcast – for it is International Podcast Day!

As a keen podcaster myself, I decided to investigate just what podcasting means to people involved in the practice.

Featured Interviews:

Steve Lee – Steve is the founder of Modern Life Podcast Network, Two Thumbs Up Media and the creator of International Podcast Day.




• Daniel Midgley and Ben Ainslie – hosts of the Talk The Talk Podcast, that also features every Tuesday from 11-noon on RTRFM 92.1, Perth, Australia.




• Rodney Gordon – SuperLicense F1 – a podcast hosted by Rodney Gordon and Zachary Priest, in Melbourne, Australia.




• Wendy Zukerman – host of the ABC First run series Science Vs – a podcast that features on ABC Australia.




• Robyn Williams AO – host of The Science Show and Ockham’s Razor – podcasts that feature on ABC Australia.

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Tremendous thanks to the radio station RTRFM, where these interviews have aired previously, especially producer Peter Barr.

This episode is brought to you with thanks to Patreon supporters

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they include: Steven, Finch, Josh, Linley, Gold, Brian, Paul, Dr T,

Iggy, Lukas and Andrew. Thanks to everyone who contributes and please

consider joining to help continue these shows at 

patreon.com/kyliesturgess.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/tokenskeptic/Token_Skeptic_PodcastDay_2015.mp3