The Science Behind Lotions

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As a girl, I can't live without lotion. I have my day moisturizer, my night cream, my general body lotion then I have things like body cream and body butter. I'm sure boys think I'm speaking greek right now (I've never known a boy to use lotion), but I hate the feeling of tight, dry skin.

We know lotion is needed to add and keep moisture in our skin, but how does it work?

If you've ever had different types and brands of lotions (women, I'm looking at you), you know that some feel oily, greasy, creamy, etc. Well it seems the way it feels is dependent on temperature, the cream's friction and how fast we rub it into our skin. Currently, manufacturers decide how the lotions feel by focus groups that try them out.

Mechanical engineers at Ohio State University have been able to use science to collect qualitative data on how a cream feels on our skin. They use something called a atomic force microscope. Basically this instrument has a sharp point that rubs against the lotion sample and measures its friction. In the overall sense, this sharp point is suppose to represent one point on your skin. The resulting data gives researchers an idea of how the creams work with your skin. Unsurprisingly, they found thicker creams produce more friction, which in turn feels less smooth on your skin.

Companies are now using this information to create better products. Eventually Ohio U. scientists hope to find the exact mechanism in which creams work on our skin.

We Can Totally Solve Global Warming With Space Mirrors

From TIME.com-Can geoengineering help slow global warming?

Global warming is happening.

And scientists are trying to think of ways to combat it before we all suffocate to death. One way is geoengineering which is basically we are going to cool the earth... somehow. Most of the ideas revolve around controlling the solar radiation coming at us.

Method 1: Shooting sulfur particles into the atmosphere with "artillery" (giant cannons??) or airplanes that will thicken the air, therefore blocking some of the sun
Downside: Must be done continuously. Particles eventually will either disseminate or fall out of the sky. Acid rain-We won't be hot, but we also won't have skin. Change in precipitation patterns.

Method 2:Shoot seawater mists at low clouds to reflect the sun. "Relatively" cheap--about $9billion to combat a "century's worth of global warming"
Downside: Salty clouds? Raining fish?

Method 3: Giant space mirrors. No, seriously.
Downside: Unaligned rogue mirror may laser us in half. But at least it would be less hot right?

As you can see, scientists are....getting there. They have yet to have a definitive answer, but at least we are getting creative.

LED light bulb from Salmon DNA

Scientist's have made a LED light bulb from Salmon DNA. Check this article.

Calm down scientists. Is making a light bulb from fish DNA really necessary? Or are you just doing it because you can? This is similar to a hummer. Why, oh why, did anyone ever make a crazy inefficient car that normal people can waste their money on. The car companies knew it was excessive, but they know there are people out there compensating for their lack of life skills with an absurd car. The lab people at the University of Connecticut were like.. hey, we made DNA glow. I'm tired of people not understanding our research, LETS MAKE A LIGHT BULB!

Okay, it is kinda cool. You would have a light bulb with salmon DNA on it and it changes the intensity of LED light? Making DNA florescence has been happening for years. Here's how it works:

There is a protein in jelly fish named GFP, green florescent protein. Basically, when certain wavelengths of light hit these proteins (ex UV light) an emission of light is the product of the reaction (i think its something like when a reaction causes heat to be released). These protein sequences were isolated and now it is used in many ways. They developed a way to tag certain genes with this protein (if the gene creates proteins they then have the ability to glow under UV light once tagged). So to see if a gene is involved in a certain activity, they run an experiment under conditions causing an assumed reaction and see if the now glowing protein is made, and can compare intensities with a control. Basically, it's like in a factory if you put red paint on a roller so that the finished product would get hit with paint as it entered a bin.. you would be able to count the products that came from that roller. Not a perfect example, but it will do I hope.

More to the point these crazy people tagged a piece of DNA then spun it until it became fibrous and then wrapped LED lights in it to be able to change the light intensity based on the dye use. It seems like there should be an easier way to do this. Poor salmon didn't want them to make their DNA all glow-y then used to dim lights.

Moral of the story: shit's wak.