Ode to the Liver

Oh, hepar, thou art lovely

As thou ridest 'neath my chest.
I need thee, how I need thee,
When by toxins I be test'.

Thou cleanest up the poisons
And make'st a protein stew,
But 'tis easy for me to harm thee
If I takest too much brew.

So I will not be thoughtless
As I go about life's lotto
I will treat thee with the love I owe
And never get me blotto.

Real magic!

The ability of plants to convert the energy from the sun into the chemical energy of food and ultimately into the kinetic energy of life is, indeed, miraculous.

But there is an incredible amount of pseudoscience and just plan witchcraft out there regarding nutrition and food. I hope that I can help my students separate the wheat--nutritious--from the chaff--not nutritious--this session as I teach NUTRITION, HEALTH, & WELLNESS--topics about which I actually know something!

This is your...

...stomach lining!
Pretty, yes?
Be kind to it today!

School's out...

for
a
day
or
two,
anyway!

One way to take a practical....

Down with entropy!

Actually, entropy is always going up!
Scientific illiteracy is rampant and increasing--a form of intellectual entropy.
Political ideology can't change the realities of scientific discovery. How we use science is certainly a social issue, but simply denying what it has to offer is neither helpful nor rational.
Learn some science this weekend!

The "real" stuff of life...

...are proteins.

Arrayed invirtually infinitely diverse forms and functions, proteins are composed of the most plentiful elements in the universe--carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. They are arrayed in four structural layers, and as such compose EVERYTHING in living systems: forms, messengers, storage, all of it. No proteins, no life.
THE ONLY THING DNA DOES is code for proteins. There is no "magic", just a beautifully flexible method of using and converting energy. Be kind to your proteins today.

Sucking and spitting

I can't say how often I have gotten the concepts of OSMOSIS and DIFFUSION confused.
DIFFUSION = the movement of SOLUTE from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower

OSMOSIS = the movement of SOLVENT from an area of lower concentration to an area of higher
or
Diffusion = SPITTING stuff
Osmosis = SUCKING fluid

The map!

Most people beyond kindergarten have heard of DNA.
But what does it DO? It is a blueprint, a code, from which proteins (hydrocarbon backbones with unique nitrogen and other additional constituents) are made--that's all. Structural proteins, messenger proteins, transport proteins, storage proteins...the real components of living things.

There is no "magic", no mysterious "life force"--just proteins that in the right combinations use chemical energy to do work--LIVING!
It's is wondrous and beautiful, yes, but can be understood!
Be good to your proteins today!

So beautiful!

In biology we often glibly refer to the "semi-permeable" membrane. But this seemingly simple entity really separates the prokaryotes from the eukaryotes!
The properties of membranes change based on the job of the cell, and on the proteins with which that cell must interact. This alone is quite a feat, but within that set of properties there needs to rest a system for modification, which in and of itself is highly selective. It is their ability to cross these membranes that allows pathogens and poisons to cause mayhem. BTW, an essential element of membranes if good old fat! Who knew fat was other than evil?
Be good to your membranes today!

Energy

Energy is simply "the ability to do work". It can neither be created nor destroyed (1st Law of Thermodynamics), it always "goes downhill" (2nd Law) and it can never be reduced to ZERO (3rd Law).
Its incredible beauty and mystery, though, is that it can be converted from one form into another, essentially infinitely, and can, as Albert showed, be converted into mass and back again. In fact, mass and energy are simply two sides of the singularity coin. All energy on Earth comes from the energy of fusion (the conversion of H into He) generated in the sun, converted by plants into chemical energy, and then taken for a ride throughout the biomass and back again. Beautiful! Be good to your mitochondria today; they convert oxygen and glucose into your ability to enjoy this lovely day!

Cilia...

...are certainly not silly (ugh).
Probably evolved from a symbiotic prokaryote, ciliated cells line the respiratory tract from the larynx on down, and sweep foreign material "upward", away from the delicate alveoli. An interesting fact is that in three dimensions the cilia "change the direction" of their motion so as to keep the material moving toward the pharynx.
Cigarette smoke kills cilia, ultimately allowing "gunk" to slide into the terminal air sacs and rot there--leading to emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and cancer. Just one more way smoking kills.
l

Ultimate energy

Fission: e = mc2
Matter and energy are the singularity.

Ode to Immunity

Oh, white cells thou art warriors
In my battle 'gainst the dirt,
You recognize what's me and not me
As with pathogens thou flirt.

And when these bugs come near thee
Thou gobble or scoop them up,
And blast them all to smithereens
On debris thou then sup.

I thank thee for thy vigilance
Without which I'd be dead,
And peaceful is my rest to me
When down I lay my head.

Empiricism = Oh, yeah?? Prove it!

This means that you have to try things.
Chemistry is NOT an intuitive science--it is the essential experimental process.
Just because something tastes tart or tangy, for example, doesn't mean it's acidic. Many acids are tart, but so are some bases. And either type of substance can be corrosive. The issue isn't taste, or corrosion, it's HYDROGEN ION concentration, which has to be tested or measured.
Science is for skeptics--people who like to prove or demonstrate stuff for themselves.
In that sense we scientists are all from Missouri--show me!

Ts and Bs

There is probably more pseudoscientific nonsense extant (meaning on the internet and talk TV) involving the workings of the human immune system than there is about any other human body system. The worst include incredibly bizarre and anti-scientific information pushed about "food allergies" and the truly dangerous misinformation about vaccines, but there is much more.
The immune system is beautifully evolved and very logical. The system is at its peak activity from conception to puberty, and it is during this time that the stage is set for how we will respond to foreign bodies and pathogens--as well as to our own tissues!--for the rest of our lives. Contrary to the lies spread by the vaccine monsters, it is during childhood that the immune system is most able to deal with these potential harms, and build up the defense for later. Children who are irrationally kept from vaccination are more more likely to die, and be responsible for the death of others, than those that are vaccinated. The lies that supposedly linked vaccines to autism have been thoroughly discredited. And as for the bogosity surrounding "food allergies"--don't get me started! (Just one example: gluten sensitivity is a genetic disorder, not an allergy.)

"The stuff of life...."

I always cringe when I hear this phrase, as it sounds so sappy...but I suppose in the case of organic molecules it's true. Sort of.
It is true that all of the basic structures of living things are organic--complex compounds composed primarily of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen--but they are not alive in the sense a total organism is.

These are simply the most abundant small, highly reactive atoms in our corner of the universe. Life, something "more" than just molecules, used the existing material to its benefit. But "the building blocks of life"--another commonly used, sappy expression--just like bricks, is no more life than a brick is a house.

It's called "a formal assessment"...not a "test".