Episode 16: Hobbit Feet

Seeing as I’m currently enjoying the best 28.6% of the week known as ‘the weekend’ I thought I’d post you another little update. Nothing in particular, just life. Life is never boring!

It’s one of those wonderful Saturdays where you have a lie in, leisurely eat your breakfast and drink your tea in your dressing gown and read your book. Then sit wistfully think of ways to pass a pleasant afternoon and decide what to wear for your plans in the evening.

Well I haven’t gotten as far as deciding what I’m wearing out to dinner yet with a fellow Scientista (meaning a fabulous female scientist) but I did manage to make myself some nice wheaten bread and pate and a nice cup of tea in my Snow White mug to have alongside this week’s New Scientist. Feeding the brain and the belly. Today’s a win so far!

 A better day than it was night anyway, my 7kg Miniature Daschund Belle ate two 200g bars of dark chocolate and a bag of marshmallows she stole out of a cupboard which was left open. It’s not just a rumour, chocolate at certain doses is extremely poisonous to dogs, symptoms leading from vomiting to coma and death.

Plain cooking chocolate is the absolute worst, Belle had some Bournville which isn’t great either though, milk chocolate is a lot safer as it has less cocoa. The toxic effects are actually due to Theobromine poisoning. Cocoa beans contain about 1.2% theobromine by weight, so darker chocolates with higher percentages of cocoa solids contain higher concentrations. Humans metabolise theobromine much faster than dogs so would have to eat an unimaginable amount before reaching any levels of toxicity.  However, levels as low as 20mg/kg can harm dogs. The caffeine content is also a problem and can lead to increased heart rate as well as lowering blood pressure.

So not a great night was had by all, staying up on the phone to the vet making sure our fat sausage dog didn’t die, it was like watching a drunk person, hoping they don’t boke on themselves. By some unknown miracle/mystery she is completely fine but we are eyeballing her constantly to make sure she doesn’t end up with pancreatitis from sugar overdose either. I can only think that by eating the whole bag of marshmallows first she has somehow avoided the effects. It’s been about 24 hours now though and she’s running around trying to scrounge food off everyone who is eating so I’m optimistic and the vet said the symptoms would onset quite rapidly. See, life is never boring, if you think your life is boring then get a sneaky sausage dog. Just don’t feed it chocolate, ever, just to be safe.

 

To amuse myself during the evening and night I started reading a new book. I’ve just started a new book series – Game of Thrones – after recovering from the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) hangover. I have heard great things and am enjoying it already so I’ll post an update on here on how it goes if you’re curious.

In other news, I thought I looked acceptable today in a relaxed sort of Saturday afternoon-esqe style...

 

... until mummy said ‘your feet are creepy, you look like a hobbit’. And worse, the sausage looks like she agrees.

 

I’m quite delighted actually, I love Lord of the Rings, I’m glad I could make a subtle tribute with my hobbit sandals. As for Belle's opinion, I'm not going to take fashion advice from someone who has no shame about stealing and eating basically their own bodyweight in sweets.

Episode 15: Face of an Angel

Before I do some backtracking on exciting things that have been happening while I’ve been absent from the blogosphere, I have to have a rant about something that annoyed me today because I’m in the mood for a rant as I have to go back to work tomorrow after 2 weeks off. *sigh* Anyway, I’ve seen so many great beauty campaigns at the minute from companies like Dove Natural Beauty Campaign etc. I feel I need to put my two cents in; everyone is beautiful. Yes I agree, and I would prefer if people didn’t pretend they looked like Beyoncé all the time.  Even Beyoncé doesn’t look like Beyoncé all the time. For example, around 7pm on a Saturday night you start to see these popping up on your Facebook new feed;

  Exhibit A - “LAWL I’m such a mess just getting ready here, Haha state of me...”  

A process known as fishing for compliments. You did not look like that starting to get ready, you looked like this;

Exhibit B - A creature from the blue lagoon. No bra, Christmas jammies on in August, no tan, face mask and straggly wet hair.

So now instead of using all the products available to enhance your beauty as you see fit, girls are now pretending it takes absolutely zero effort to look like a beauty queen either. If you really wake up with a perfect sparkling St. Tropez glow, an Estee Lauder face and Cheryl Cole hair then you need to let us humans know how this feat is accomplished on your home planet.

Like when politicians say the science sector won’t be affected by budget cuts, you know it’s lies.

For all those poor men and young impressionable females getting the idea that some girls ‘just look like that’, you need to know;

a) Beautifying for females is harder on maintenance and upkeep than a 1998 Ford Fiesta

b) Girls rooms look like the crash scene on the meteor from Armageddon after getting ready for a night out

c) Any girls actually can look stereotypically “beautiful” if they wanted to, it’s just time and products (watch any reality ‘Makeover’ show on TV – ref. Everything by Gok Wan)

d) Face masks do exist; they aren’t just from chick flicks and rom-coms.

You might think this isn’t about science but it is because it has a psychological effect on women and sometimes men, which is where these beauty campaigns are coming from, they are aimed at women themselves to change this outlook on beauty.

We’ve turned into such masters of camouflage that most straight men have no idea what an unprocessed female in her natural habitat even looks like until they move in together. Don’t get me wrong, I love camouflage, I love fake tan (done correctly), fake eyelashes (done correctly) and all the rest but I don’t pretend I’m not wearing it, or pretend it doesn’t take a long time to get dolled up for a big occasion. There is no point in that; women know its lies and men don’t care.

Seriously though, when you start going out with a guy and they see you for the first time with your hair in a topknot, no makeup, no ‘sucky-in in pants’, no chicken fillets and your old school tracksuit bottoms, do they run away screaming into the distance? In fact do they even blink an eye?? No. Don’t care. Don’t even notice. The good ones appreciate when you make the effort and don't mind when you don't.

Of course, if you did any science in school you will know that teachers always say ‘right, learn this rule it covers everything on the subject’... ‘Oh except for; this, this and this’. Then those things that don’t fit into the logical rule are what you spend the rest of the year trying to learn. Well obviously there are men that don’t fit this general consensus I’ve created;

A recent study asked men what ‘look’ they preferred on women and a few responded ‘Natural – like Kim Kardashian’. I’ll just let that sink in for a minute. Yes, natural and Kim Kardashian were used in the same sentence. These are the men I was talking about that have been bamboozled beyond help by the media and girls pretending they look like the cover of a fashion magazine without making any effort.  As a matter of fact, Kimi K has been estimated to spend between $80000 to over $200000 a year on beauty and reportedly took nearly 5 hours just to get her hair done for a recent magazine shoot, done by professionals may I add, not by herself.

Back to the stupid photo, basically most men aren’t bothered if you looked like exhibit A or B getting ready, they fancy you both ways or not at all. So don’t aim it at men for real compliments and don’t aim it at women because they know it’s staged.

In order to be entirely fair, I’m not judging girls just because they put a lot of effort into their appearance. Everybody should be appreciated no matter how much effort they want to put into their image. I like the tanned look, some are pale and glowing, that’s just fine. Enhancing your assets isn’t a modern phenomenon, ancient Egyptians used black eyeliner to make their eyes look bigger like their Goddess Hathor, who was represented as a cow. People use make up to make their face seem more symmetrical, a trait we subconsciously associate with beauty.

Look however you want, whether that’s a cow or an isosceles triangle. Just don’t pretend you’re a made up fantasy. Unless you’re at Comic-Con then knock yourself out.

Finally, if you see pictures such as these and they make you sad, just remember, even if they did look that perfect in real life (unlikely), its ok to have a healthy hatred of these people. Just help yourself get over it by realising that no one can be that genetically lucky, they probably have something wrong with them that you can’t see. Like really long nostril hairs they have to trim before going out in public.

To conclude, here is an accurate representation of my face when I see people posting things like this and misrepresenting natural beauty;

The face of a Angel... albeit a mighty unimpressed one. 

 

Episode 13: Flat as a Pancake

Unless you suffer from Triskaidekaphobia I hope you’re ok reading episode 13? Not scared of the number 13? Good, please continue.

Hopefully it’s a lucky one? Well for me it’s an unlucky incident I'm afraid. Don’t mess with gravity; it’ll get you down...

“You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn’t care”

~Clayton Christensen

Long story short, there was this big fold up chair leaning against a wall, I was shuffling past, it dumped itself on my right foot. The only reason I knew I wasn’t dead was because I could still feel the pain.

I did however survive to tell the tale, it’s not even broken, as you can see in the picture above that dark shadowy patch on the side of my right foot isn’t a fake tan incident but is evidence of an impact which damaged my underlying blood vessels – a contusion, i.e. a bruise.

Bruises are areas of discoloured skin which are the result of trauma which has ruptured blood vessels (capillaries, or in worse cases venules) which in turn seep blood (haemorrhage) into the surrounding tissues. The seriousness of a bruise actually has a scale;

Harm score	Severity level	Notes
0	Light bruise	No damage
1	Mild bruise	Little damage
2	Moderate bruise	Some damage
3	Serious bruise	Dangerous
4	Extremely serious bruise	Dangerous
5	Critical bruise	Risk of death

I thought mine was a 5 but upon reflection perhaps in the grand scheme of things I would only score a 1. I say 1 and not 0 because although there was no underlying fracture to bones or organs it was painful enough to prevent me wearing heels to work all week.

Thus the photo above, thank goodness there are only 5 days in a work week because I only have 5 pairs of flat shoes that aren’t stinky trainers that could run out the door by themselves. These 5 are my Monday to Friday line up; lady brogues, dalmatian print, cream, gold glittery and appliqué flowers. All bases covered. I quite enjoyed having to make more of an effort with the rest of my outfit to still look professional but am definitely looking forward to sliding back into black stilettos next week!

It has brought to my attention the need to further define the scale of bruises that are specifically found in the foot/leg area;

Harm score	Severity level	Notes
0	Light bruise	The sky is the limit
1	Mild bruise	Platforms possible
2	Moderate bruise	Mummy Heels
3	Serious bruise	Stick to wedges/flats
4	Extremely serious bruise	Trainers/flip flops
5	Critical bruise	Stay in your slippers

This is how I will define my injuries to people in future;

“I hurt my leg”

“Was it bad?”

“It was like a 3, I had to wear wedges out to lunch”

If you fall victim to an impact injury remember the treatment; RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). Luckily (unlike number 13) your body deal with bruises almost immediately as as soon as the endothelium of the capillaries is damaged, endothelin is released which causes the blood vessel to narrow and stem the blood flow to minimise bleeding. Von Willebrand Factor is also released which begins the coagulation (blood clotting process) to block the site of the wound until your tissue and be mended.

The entertaining colour change of bruises is actually due to the breakdown of the component of blood - haemoglobin which is gradually cleared from the area by phagocytosis.

 

Haemoglobin – Biliverdin – Bilirubin – Hemosiderin

Red/blue – green – yellow – golden brown

There you go, next time you see someone with a bruise you can a) inform them what stage it is at depending on the colour or b) recommend what shoe type to wear until recovery.

OR If I’ve disappointed you and you wanted to read about pancakes you can delight yourself with a peek back at Episode 4 for all your fluffy sweet sugary bread needs!

Episode 9: A Chic-y Geek-y Day

Geek and Chic. These two words have become synonymous together as a regularly coined phrase.

The phrase was first used by the fashion industry in the mid 2000s to define the trend of incorporating stereotypically ‘geeky’ ensembles into their shows. It’s a sort of semi-sophisticated style; think retro work wear, high waists and sensible accessories.  It also made glasses an acceptable fashion piece.

Being a geek is not wearing fake glasses but being passionate about your subject.  Someone should conduct a study on the connection between wearing glasses and IQ. Is your brain bigger so it affects your eyes because there’s no room for them? Maybe wearing glasses means your eyes can be lazier so there’s more energy for brain function? I think not. I think the correlation between people wearing fake glasses and being idiots would be much stronger.

I diverge, apologies.

Recently though, it’s actually more of a description than a specific fashion movement. Like someone saying ‘yea they’re kind of geek chic’ really translates as ‘they seem really smart but are actually pretty cool and fun and don’t wear tweed jackets and bow ties either’. Unless it’s in fashion of course, but ‘geek’ has morphed from an insult to a compliment.

It is very cool indeed to be a geek. Since everyone has read the humorous breakdown of the comparison of wealth of Bill Gates vs. Michael Jordan (have a laugh at it here; http://imgur.com/gallery/y2Brq) there has been a mental shift to; “Oooh, probably shouldn’t make fun of the physics nerd. Captain of the rugby team as your formal date? Nah, Captain of the chess club please!”

So now that I’ve convinced you that I’m cool..... oh. Right. You aren’t buying it? Whatever. My Glasses are real!! And I quite enjoy my paradoxical life. Running from a Genetics lecture to the launch of the first heat of Miss Northern Ireland is all in a typical Thursday. Quick change from scrubs to stilettos, moving between environments where the scale of image importance ranges from nothing to everything.

Public lectures aren’t really the kind of place you get your photo taken at. If you even asked someone to take a photo of you beside a groundbreaking molecular model of the structure of DNA they would be like why? Did you win an award? So I have a photo for you of the presentation screen and my complimentary cup of tea.

A Miss NI heat is a different cup of tea all together, you get your photo taken beside everything and everyone! And I love both atmospheres; they are social and relaxing for completely opposite reasons which is why I think they complement each other so perfectly. That is the real thing connecting the words Geek and Chic. Yin and Yang, life is all about balance.

You want to hear about my day? Well alright then, seeing as it was a good one!

Work bit – 6am. YES, 6am. Did you think it was all social hilarity and no work?

“For every two minutes of glamour, there are eight hours of hard work.”

~Jessica Savitch

 

 Geek bit – So I worked a little earlier than usual so I could get to a public Genetics lecture at my University, Queens University Belfast (QUB), specifically the School of Biological Sciences.

 I love Genetics even more than I love crème eggs. We had a great introduction to the ethical questions raised by modern advancements in the field of Genetics, entitled Genethics, from Prof. Anne Hughes of QUB.

Since the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003 we have been made privy to a vast amount of data about ourselves. Our knowledge about genetic disorders as well as genetic susceptibility to certain illnesses has given us the potential to unlock personalised medicines and gene therapy. However;

“Knowledge Is Power”

~Sir Francis Bacon

“With great Power comes great Responsibility”

~Stanley Martin Leiber

Described wonderfully as the “50 Shades of Grey” in Genetics it demonstrates the varying shades of grey that people have on opinions of ethical importance, as well as the future problems we will encounter as our knowledge of genetics grows, perceptions of society develop and doctor patient relationships alter.

1.       Do you have the right to know the contents of your genetic code?

2.       And do others have the right to this information?

A potent decision in the near future for many people will be the potential for genetic screening of foetuses. This can include disorders from the mildly interfering to extremely debilitating like Kleinefelter Syndrome, Down Syndrome and Duchene Muscular Dystrophy.

With studies showing that the numbers of women terminating foetuses with genetic deficiencies is directly proportional to the doctor who gives them the news, needs for non-directive counselling is more crucial than ever. If the doctor suggests a termination is a viable option the responsibility is removed from the parents and can swing their decision either way.

Opposite problems also arise in that some parents can ask for attributes in their ‘designer babies’ for example to ensure the child has dwarfism if both parents are afflicted.

Screening of offspring can also implicate their parents. If a person decides to have themselves tested for say Huntington’s Disease as a grandparent has recently died of it, this directly affects their parent because if the test is positive their father or mother must also suffer from the disease.

There is also the potential for the information to be abused, for example by insurance companies.

Currently the UK operates a Freedom for Testing, Freedom from Testing policy.

Some great reads as recommended by Prof. Anne Hughes;

The Genius Factory - David Plotz

Bad Science - Ben Goldacre

 You can imagine that after this mental moral struggle than I needed a cosmo or two;

 

Chic bit – Forget the I’ve-been-up-since-6am hair and makeup, note my Monochrome on Thursday homies. Working the s/s13 trends. Of course that dress is 2 years old but its allllll about style, which is timeless, fashion is not.

“Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”

~ Coco Chanel

I had the absolute privilege of being a finalist in the Miss Northern Ireland contest in 2012 after I won Miss East Belfast. I had never been to anything like that before and just decided to go for it as I was getting a bit long in the tooth, it was always an experience I wanted to have. It was absolutely fantastic, from the heats to the photoshoots, interviews and of course the big finale over 3 days in Belfast and the gala final.

I’ve always loved attending shows like Belfast Fashionweek with all the glitz and fashion, and you don’t get more glamorous than Miss NI. The experience as well as the fun and friends made it one of the greatest weekends!

 Although it took me a few weeks to even look at tan, eyelashes, hair extensions or high heels again...

So I was invited to attend the first heat for the launch of Miss NI 2013 at Cafe Vaudeville in Belfast. Unbelievably I felt more nervous at that than I did even at my own heat or catwalk-ing in a bikini at the final. I think it was mostly uncontained excitement for the opportunity the girls competing will potentially have. It was great to be back though mingling with the girls;

Even if I did jog there from a genetics lecture with hair and make up from 12 hours before, I had half an hour to change into my dress and put on my eyelashes. It’s not easy keeping up appearances! I have to morph from a nerd to a former beauty pageant contestant.

I thought I would include my favourite Geek and Chic moments, do you see something in common in those pictures above? This me rocking at my graduation from QUB and winning Miss East Belfast. Thank you timeless, beautiful dress for two of the best days ever :).  It’s definitely my dress for success!

Episode 8: The Fat Gene

So it’s March and I’m still carrying the winter layers, if you know what I mean? You know what I got for Christmas? Half a stone fatter. I need to return those gifts; it hasn’t rained in approximately 5 whole days in this wonderful land and the temperature has risen by 2^oC so that means it’s spring by our standards.

The birds are singing and the flowers are sprouting, I have been taken by Sunspiration (the desire to be healthier because it’s sunny) and like a spring clean for the body its Detox time!

I attempted a diet only once before in my whole life, by midday on the first day my housemates found me in the kitchen binging on Angel Slices (they are exceedingly good) and a Snickers bar. So I have dealt with my diet phobia by going down another route; detoxification.

1.       Let’s look at some scientific facts that led my decisions;
 

Energy cannot be destroyed; if you ingest more chemical energy than you expend physically it will be stored as potential energy until such a date as it can be converted. You may know this as the layer of insulation around your belly. Fat.

Energy also cannot be created. Fat cannot mysteriously appear unless you ATE IT in the first place.

I love fat food. I love sugar and sweets and the evil refined carbohydrates. Love love love. When I eat those, I get fat and that is my fault. It really isn’t such a big deal to ask myself to put the crème egg down if it’s the 3^rd one that day. Obesity is a disease and I will inflict it upon myself if I don’t keep control, it’s a slippery slope! My mummy has Type I Diabetes and Coeliac disease. She can’t eat anything nice at all, her immune system pretty much rebelled against her. So I can’t bear to hear myself or other people complain about dieting. Boo hoo if I have friends that can eat twice as much as me and be half the weight. Tough. I’m hardly going to die. Although it feels like it as I set the crème egg down...

2.       The Plan;

Above are pictured the main “Trials of Hercules” encountered on my journey, the fiancé always brings me treats, the delights of a crème egg hot chocolate and, of course, ice cream. All ice cream.

Below are a few of the weapons I waged battle with;

The whole idea of a detox ‘diet’ is not necessarily for weight loss but rather this is a happy side effect of following the programme. You cleanse yourself by cutting out sugars, caffeine, alcohol and anything processed. This is supposed to purify your digestive system and thereby improves your general health. Quite like a relaxing spa weekend for your small intestine. As it is quite extreme, you only do it a few times a year.

It generally takes 72 hours to curb cravings once cutting things out of your diet so this is the perfect length of time to trial it out. Once you have gotten over any cravings, it can jump start you into generally following a healthier diet.

Hypothesis – 3 days of eating only natural produce will remove any bloating, digestive issues or sluggishness as well as improving my skin, weight and energy levels.

3.       The Results;

Successful. Or to be scientifically correct, hypothesis accepted.
I don’t weigh myself as that is very counterproductive to body image but after just 3 days of lots of snoozing and grazing on as much fresh fruit, yoghurts, nuts and wholegrain rice as I wanted, I fitted into a dress I couldn’t zip up 3 days before. Winner winner chicken dinner! Which is exactly what I had the day after.

 

Finally, what about that Fat gene?

There is no gene that single-handedly makes you obese. Sorry. You can have genes which give you a slightly slower metabolism or maybe don’t tell your brain as quickly to stop eating. You still have a choice, these genes can be countered 100% by the food you chose to eat and the lifestyle you pursue. In other words, your DNA can contain some potential for over-eating but the environment dictates the outcome. I know, it’s unfair, but it could be worse really.

 “Genes load the gun, the environment pulls the trigger.”

~ Scott Kahan, MD

Although genetic deficiencies are rare, here is a particular protein that can be attributed to a tendency toward weight gain;

BDNF – Mice in which the BDNF gene was deleted in two of the primary appetite-regulating regions of the brain ate more and became significantly heavier than their control counterparts with fully functional BDNF genes. BDNF acts as a satiety signal to the brain, ie, it sends a message to the brain saying ‘we’re full now, stop eating’. However, when their food access was limited to only be able to eat the same amount as the ‘normal’ mice, their weight became equivalent to them. This demonstrates that although the BDNF signalling pathway affects how much you may choose to eat it has no direct effect on how the calories were processed.  

(See Research here or for something a bit more recent have a look here.)

Generally though, our human ‘hunter-gatherer’ style of diet has led us to have a genetic make-up disposed toward storage of fat which would mean better survival during famine or times of hardship, the problem is that now those saturated fats which are so rare in nature are now readily available to us in massive quantities.

Obviously there are multitudes of other issues surrounding obesity (hypothyroidism etc), I’m just telling you, it’s not the responsibility of your DNA.

 Well, the best thing about completing this detox wasn’t just losing some weight but that I did my bit for a bit of disease prevention on behalf of my own body!

Next hypothesis – A crème egg a day keeps the doctor away.

Maybe I won’t test that one. Probably would be counterproductive to the 3 days I just put myself through. But if it’s in the name of science...*sigh*... All I can say is thank the Lord they are only available 6 months a year or I’d have to be cut out of my own sofa.

 

Episode 5: Beauty and the Geek

Welcome to the Day of Love 2013!

Also known as singles awareness day.

Now by all means I should be spending the time alone playing World of Warcraft with some cyber friends a la Sheldon Cooper.  However, I have found a young gentleman who clearly just can’t get enough of the geek. So much so in fact that he sealed the deal a few months ago with an extremely old transparent crystal of tetrahedrally bonded carbon atoms aka a diamond.

Apart from the chemical classification of a diamond, what does science have to do with valentines and love? I’ll give you a multitude of reasons;

St. Valentine’s Day – So what’s it all about? The feast of St. Valentines can be attributed to a number of early Christian saints called Valentinus. Stories range from him being jailed for marrying soldiers to their sweethearts, who were forbidden to do so, to him writing to his own sweetheart during imprisonment. It has also been linked to the Roman feast of fertility Lupercalia. The most important theme throughout all the possibilities is the Romance.  It is the traditional day on which you put all else aside to express your love to those you hold dear. Most of these expressions of love will follow the traditional pattern;

Symbols of Valentine’s day;

Red Roses – The most common rhyme to find on Valentine’s Day starts ‘Roses are red...’ The rose was strongly linked to the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite and the Egyptian goddess of fertility, Isis. Because of this we have developed a very ancient link with red roses as a symbol of eternal love. It appears constantly in romantic literature;

“O MY Luve’s like a red, red rose,

That’s newly sprung in June:

O my Luve’s like the melodie,

That’s sweetly play’d in tune.”

~ Robert Burns

The colour red is longest and warmest ray in the visible light spectrum. It is likened to fire, power, life force and survival. It is the most energising colour and as such as linked to enormous passion. So psychologically both the flower and the colour are the most symbolic representations of the expression of love. However not all expressions of love are desirable, Kissing Disease for example. Your love might be contagious but it’s also infringing upon my immune system.

 Chocolate – For a more physical embodiment of science’s role in love; Aphrodisiacs. Although many aphrodisiacs are probably effective due to the placebo effect, a few actually can be chemically attributed with affecting passion. The King of aphrodisiacs has to be chocolate. It includes anandamine and Phenylethylamine (PEA) which are a psychoactive feel-good chemical and ‘love chemical’ respectively. PEA releases dopamine in the brain and can peak feelings of excitement, attraction and euphoria. It also contains tryptophan which is required for Serotonin production, another feel-good chemical of the brain.

Other foods with apparent aphrodisiac side effects include, asparagus, almonds, avocado, bananas, basil, figs, garlic, oysters and honey. Although links to these foods are probably more due to their actual vitamin and mineral content which are necessary for healthy reproductive systems than any psychological effect. Some of them are also obviously comically shaped...

So if you really want to express your love include these in your menu, a few appropriately placed oysters and champagne wouldn’t go amiss!

I of course included none of these. I’m making my Valentine Chicken wings, Seafood Paella, Pavlova and some Kopparberg because he told me they’re his favourite. No analysis required.

 

Clothing – And not necessarily lingerie you sneaks. A common way now to express love is dressing up and going out to dinner together. Don’t underestimate the power of a LRD (Little Red Dress), as we mentioned before the colour red ignites strong feelings. And he’s not going to take you to the Ritz dressed like a hobo on holiday.

Finally, if your Valentine’s day involved all these lovely expressions of eternal love you may be feeling;

In Love – I’m not even gonna go there. Although experiments show you can base how attracted you are to males on how different their MHC complex (immune system) is to yours [see the facts here - http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/5/668.full] we all know it’s just not like that. Unless you’re a crazy person, Science is going to leave that frontier well alone.

To fall in love you need to have the perfect mix of chemical and physical conditions... with a little bit of pixie dust... take the second star to the right and... head on into infinity and beyond...

Yeah. Disney is better at describing it than Science. Go watch Beauty and the Beast.

Episode 4: Charles Darwin and The Pancake

What do Charles Darwin and a Pancake have in common?? Not the start of a bad joke but today in fact is what they share. Today is both the celebration of the father of modern Biology and of the humble pancake;

-          Tuesday 12^th February 13

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) – ‘Shrove’ means being forgiven for wrongdoings and traditionally people would go to Church to confess their sins before Lent which starts the next day (Ash Wednesday). As Lent is a religious fasting period all luxury foods such as Eggs, Milk and sugar are to be abstained from and pancakes are the perfect way to use them up!

In France and USA they call it Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) which you would think has nothing to do with anything except eating which they’re both great at. Actually though it is the pre-reformation term used for the day in which all the yummy fatty foods are eaten up before lent.

For a personal touch, this is my pancake, which is in fact a pancake-imposter known as a Crêpe, if we’re using the correct nomenclature. As you can see, I like the ‘roll it up, slice it up, eat it up’ procedure.

Shrove Tuesday can fall anywhere between 3^rd Feb-9^th March as it falls exactly 47 days before Easter Sunday and Easter is calculated upon the cycles of the moon. This year it has a happy coincidence of falling on Darwin Day! So we can all celebrate being geeks and getting fat!

Darwin Day – ‘is a global celebration of science and humanity’. It promotes a deeper sense of respect and appreciation of all life and to promote a common bond among all peoples on earth.

Specifically, it celebrates the life and achievements of Charles Darwin, possibly the only naturalist, in my eyes, to be as impressive as David Attenborough in describing scientific concepts to the world. He wrote ‘On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’ in 1859 with over 20 years of documented research.

Even though he gave rise to understanding the importance of genetics in natural selection he chose to marry his first cousin, nonetheless his lifetime contribution to science is unrivalled. One could write multiple theses on Charles Darwin so read more about him and his day here; http://darwinday.org/about/ and spend just a few moments today whilst enjoying your pancakes appreciating the beginning of understanding life.

Finally,

You’re wondering why my ‘episodes’ (sounds like I’m mentally unsound...) went 1, 2, 3a then 4... where’s 3b??  Coming up!