Hydroxygenator and the Hydrogenauts, part 1

Biofuels in Unlikely Places

For more hilarity with T-rex, click here.

Fictional Douchebags of Science™: Peter Parker a.k.a. “Spiderman”

The franchise bandwagon of UotH thunders on as we bring you yet another succulent offshoot in the Douchebags of Science™ tree: “Fictional Douchebags of Science™" (FDoS). The mix of scientific progress and popular culture has lead to many exciting and enticing stories, but sometimes it leads to catastrophe, raising false hopes and unrealistic expectations with the general public, i.e. ignorant laymen.

This first edition focuses on the exploits of Peter Parker, also known as the smart mouthed webslinging, wall-hugging Spiderman. Nerdy by nature, Spiderman gets his science on on a regular basis. Ranging from physics to biology Peter is as “homo universalis” as they come. And he has a nice girlfriend. I mean getting your powers from a radioactive spider is one thing, but a scientist with a hot girlfriend? Oh and he sees pure DNA. Douche.

Sassy Bitches of Science: Hypatia

Hypatia is considered the first notable woman in mathematics, living in Alexandria circa. 350-415 CE. She wrote and taught about philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy, and is credited with several inventions. What little information about her life survives indicates that she was an extremely sassy lady.

Though she was herself a pagan, early Christian authors held her as a symbol of virtue. She once even repelled a would-be suitor by showing him her used maxi pads. Despite her reputation, she came to an untimely and violent end at the hands of an angry Christian mob, convinced that she was causing the Egyptian Prefect to reject the Archbishop with her feminine wiles. Whether she was the first "witch" burned at the stake or actually involved in the strained relationship between the church and the state is still discussed, but there is little debate that she is one of the great Sassy Bitches of Science.

The best song about PCR of all time

Thanks, Pablo!

Dutch-bag

UotH welcomes our fourth Unicorn, Michael. Being from the Netherlands, he will head up our European bureau. We hear that there are a lot of douchebags over there.

Adventures in Synthetic Biology

From Nick via a blog via Nature I found a comic book about synthetic biology by the people over at the MIT synthetic biology working group. The comic depicts the adventures of a child learning how to make biological devices with the help of a good looking lady in a lab-coat. I sort of wish I had that awesome DNA injector for my own adventures in synthetic biology, but I'm glad my bacteria don't have eyes.

UotH: The Mission Patch

Michael, our Dutch ambassador here at UotH, has designed a jawsome NASA-style patch for our ongoing mission to design hydrogen-producing microbes. Coming soon the lab coat and flame-retardant jumpsuit of a Unicorn near you.