Science Fare

if you have a few minutes, this is a great story about Richard Feynman — one of my heros.

snapd outside before work

Cooking some potato salad, listening to the latest Rahn Ramblings mix cd…. of which I”m the only recipient (because I haven’t sent them out yet… oops).

Up comes Tami’s song — “so you had a bad day” is one of the lyrics.

I did not have a bad day. Had one of the best days of my life yesterday.

I had a good day at work.

Walked the dog.

And then… I played the Bach concerto for oboe and violin with Jim. I didn’t think I could do it (but I never admitted that). Jim is also our music director, and he new I could do it. Thank you, Jim!

The orchestra sounded great! Thank you! Thank you everyone who said I did well!

My friends John and Jen and Jen’s date Zachary came. Thank you!

Of course Becka was there! Thank you! Afterwards JZB & I went to Jasmine 26. It’s a Thai restaurant that rocks — might be as good as Chez Thuy. Of course we had Jasmine tea.

And then today we slept late (and sneezed a lot — spring allergies are here), got fresh mango for breakfast, then walked the dog to the neighborhood Indian deli and got two fresh curries for lunch.

What a great start to a weekend!

(speaking of allergies — they didn’t bother me yesterday due to my theory that “you don’t sneeze while being chased by a bear”. Where “being chased by a bear” is anything that makes you excited. The stress hormones–cortizol, epinephrine and norepinephrine–suppress the immune system. Of course the next day, when the bear isn’t chasing you any more… well, you start sneezing again. That’s what sudephed is for!)

Catherine Peichel at the Fred Hutchinson cancer research center made an interesting discovery while studying the stickleback fish in Lake Washington. Over the last 40 years, the fish changed from a freshwater morphology, to a more marine one. This change is linked to a particular gene. She hypothesizes that pollution in the lake has selected for the marine allele, which causes the fish to have more bony armor and may help protect the fish from chemicals in the water.

Link: PDF and also a nice write up by the discovery channel.