“Love in a Warm Climate” (+)
Man About Town, Spring Summer 2013
photographer: Lachlan Bailey
Cameron Russell
IS CAMERON TEACHING ORGANIC CHEMISTRY? I see some carbonyls…
A previously un-named species of horse fly whose appearance is dominated by its glamorous golden lower abdomen has been named in honour of American pop diva, Beyoncé.
According to the Australian National Insect Collection researcher responsible for officially ‘describing’ the fly as Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae, CSIRO’s Bryan Lessard, the fly’s spectacular gold colour makes it the “all time diva of flies”.
“It was the unique dense golden hairs on the fly’s abdomen that led me to name this fly in honour of the performer Beyoncé as well as giving me the chance to demonstrate the fun side of taxonomy – the naming of species,” Mr Lessard said.
We had to memorize the standard amino acids for Biochemistry earlier this spring, so I learned the structures by illustrating them.
Pictured above is tryptophan. You can find the rest of the set here.
I’d like to make some adjustments— I think switching the blue and yellow will better highlight the variable side groups— but I like it! The illustration process was a fun way to learn about connectivity and the substitutions needed to go from one amino acid to the next.
It was also an efficient process because it integrated different learning styles that work for me in fairly short time— and the result was learning, not just memorization.
I learned about this implant today in Biochemistry. It appealed to my science and design sides— so, naturally, I thought it was the coolest thing and made a note to blog it later.
Companies also are developing noninjection delivery mechanisms. For example, Intarcia Therapeutics is developing a GLP-1 receptor agonist implant, ITCA-650. This small osmotic pump is implanted subcutaneously and delivers therapeutics for nearly one year. In November, the company raised $210 million in financing, enabling global Phase III trials to begin the first quarter of 2013.
The drug delivery process is straightforward:
Intarcia Therapeutics’ delivery system is a matchstick-sized device consisting of a cylindrical titanium alloy reservoir. Once inserted under the skin, water from the extracellular fluid enters the device at one end, by diffusing through a semi-permeable membrane directly into a salt osmotic engine that expands to drive a piston at a controlled rate of travel. This forces the drug formulation to be released in a slow and consistent fashion through the exit port, or diffusion moderator, at the other end of the device.
I’d like to find a summer gig to learn more about the overlap between medicine and product design.
GEN | Magazine Articles: Type 2 Diabetes Drugs Drive Sector Growth
// blogmed
from Disneyland’s “Our Friend the Atom” (1957)
I’ve never seen the figure on the upper-right before, but what a neat way of organizing the elements! Does the figure have a special name?
![Maybe I can find work in Alexander McQueen’s medical devices division after med school? #goals
Andrew Bolton: McQueen made this ensemble with carved prosthetic legs for Aimee Mullins. Mullins is a world-class Paralympic athlete, and she modeled the boots for his 1999 show, No. 13.
Aimee Mullins: They were solid wood, solid ash, so there’s no give in the ankle. So any kind of a runway walk that I had practiced went out the window. And then suddenly they laced me into this leather bodice, and there were some spinning discs in the floor of the runway, which I had, while practicing in these wooden legs, you know … was very conscious of how to avoid them. But now that my neck was secured in this almost neck-brace position, I couldn’t look down. I couldn’t even see where the spinning discs were. And I just remember thinking, “Okay, you’ve done the Olympics. You’ve done harder things than this. You can do this. You can survive it.”
And you know, the fact is, nobody knew that they were prosthetic legs. They were the star of the show—these wooden boots peeking out from under this raffia dress—but in fact, they were actually legs made for me.
His clothes have always been very sensuous, and I mean the full gamut of that. So hard and strict and unrelenting, as life can be sometimes. And then this incredibly romantic swishing of the raffia.
In McQueen’s Words
“When I used Aimee [Mullins] for [this collection], I made a point of not putting her in … sprinting legs [prostheses for running]… . We did try them on but I thought no, that’s not the point of this exercise. The point is that she was to mould in with the rest of the girls.”
i-D, July 2000
No. 13 | Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York](http://25.media.tumblr.com/8735336c5517e2968c977fcaed82ffcb/tumblr_mh12tcyyGT1qzq8zqo1_500.jpg)
Maybe I can find work in Alexander McQueen’s medical devices division after med school? #goals
Andrew Bolton: McQueen made this ensemble with carved prosthetic legs for Aimee Mullins. Mullins is a world-class Paralympic athlete, and she modeled the boots for his 1999 show, No. 13.
Aimee Mullins: They were solid wood, solid ash, so there’s no give in the ankle. So any kind of a runway walk that I had practiced went out the window. And then suddenly they laced me into this leather bodice, and there were some spinning discs in the floor of the runway, which I had, while practicing in these wooden legs, you know … was very conscious of how to avoid them. But now that my neck was secured in this almost neck-brace position, I couldn’t look down. I couldn’t even see where the spinning discs were. And I just remember thinking, “Okay, you’ve done the Olympics. You’ve done harder things than this. You can do this. You can survive it.”
And you know, the fact is, nobody knew that they were prosthetic legs. They were the star of the show—these wooden boots peeking out from under this raffia dress—but in fact, they were actually legs made for me.
His clothes have always been very sensuous, and I mean the full gamut of that. So hard and strict and unrelenting, as life can be sometimes. And then this incredibly romantic swishing of the raffia.
In McQueen’s Words“When I used Aimee [Mullins] for [this collection], I made a point of not putting her in … sprinting legs [prostheses for running]… . We did try them on but I thought no, that’s not the point of this exercise. The point is that she was to mould in with the rest of the girls.”
i-D, July 2000
No. 13 | Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Alexander McQueen, Spring 1999
legs carved out of solid wood for Aimee Mullins (more)
A Look at Orchid Mantes by Scott Cromwell
// disassociativ:thescienceofreality:
In the first three images [found here] Scott Cromwell skillfully captures an “ignorant fruit fly” perched upon a pink Orchid Mantis’ leg before being grabbed up and eaten. In the last image [found here] a white Orchid Mantis is seen trying to intimidate and threaten its own recently molted exoskeleton.
(TED) Michael Pawlyn: Using nature’s genius in architecture
Architect Michael Pawlyn on biomimicry in architecture— using nature as a design tool.
Fig. 1: The famous “Schrödinger’s candidate” scenario. For as long as Mitt Romney remains in this box, he is both a moderate and a conservative.
Fig. 2: A Feynman diagram of an encounter between a Romney and an anti-Romney. The resulting collision annihilates both, leaving behind a single electron and a $20 bill.
illustrations by Rachel Domm
Every 20 seconds, someone dies from tuberculosis (TB), yet it’s been over 40 years since a new TB drug has been approved for use. Why? Because doing so wasn’t viewed as economically viable. Tell that to the more than two billion people—mostly the developing world’s sick and poor—infected with the bacterium that causes TB, a bacterium that is becoming increasingly drug-resistant to current treatments.
Through the discovery of a unique molecular compound, Marvin Miller, the George and Winifred Clark Chair in Chemistry, has made a significant scientific breakthrough in the potential treatment of tuberculosis. Now, in an innovative private-public partnership, Prof. Miller and his team of interdisciplinary researchers from Notre Dame (Garrett Moraski ‘97, Lowell Markley, and Prof. Jeffrey Schorey) are working with partners like the Eli Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative and Hsiri Therapeutics to transition their discovery into an affordable, anti-tuberculosis treatment for patients in underdeveloped countries.
Fighting To Stop Tuberculosis by NDdotEDU
// blogmed
