Guanine

G is for guanine, which means I'm 75% done with the nucleobases.
Now, you might be thinking about some of these chemicals "This is really interesting, but where can I get some?" I'm glad you ask, aspiring amateur chemist! Well, you see, it can be found in many natural forms such as guano, spider excrement (How in the world do you collect spider poop? An answer for another time, probably), urea, and fish scales. Even though guanine was first discovered in guano of sea birds in 1844, the man won't show me any books or techniques on how they did it. I tell ya, it's a plot is what it is! A plot to keep science to the rich elite with degrees! *Cough* Sorry.
Well, I wish I started this post a little earlier, then I could have found some useful information. This should get posted. So this is what I've come up with so far. Guanine is soluble in water, and has a melting point of 220^oC. Guanine crystals is what gives fish scales their shiny colors. You can dissolve fish scales into glue. Now internet, I need your help figuring out the rest of this puzzle, because when you work together, you can be much smarter than the average human. Why would should this information be known? In order to create a whole generation of amueter chemists who can in turn build a new world of science and understanding.
Other Links and refrences:
http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/animal/staff/faculty_staff/sivan_berta/publications/40-Gur-etal-2012.pdf
http://www.chemicalbook.com/ProductMSDSDetailCB3259805_EN.htm

Fractals!!!!

F is for fractal, a mathematical pattern often found in nature. Often, when I tell biologists that coolest part of biology is the fractals and the math, they look at me like I have two heads (sigh). What you see on the left is a Sierpinski triangle that can induce seizures. If your high school math was like mine, then the triangle was first introdution to fratcals, along with that tree.
Have you looked at a Queen Ann's Lace flower? (Looks like hemlock flowers?)  If you study it, you can see the the fractal pattern. Stems break out of the top, and become smaller and smaller, forming that beautiful lace look. It shows up in pine-cones, trees, and even bacterial growth follows fractal patterns. It what got me excited to start working as a mycology lab flunkie. Here's where I got the image. http://curvebank.calstatela.edu/sierpinski/1deposit2sierp.gif

E is for not reading about science today.

Taking a break from the research and the learning from the last few posts to just write something relaxing for my brain. "E" for today has nothing to do with the science and philosophers and propaganda of the last few days, but it poses a personal mystery for me. Why do people from Russia come to this site looking for "the earliest"? The first time I saw it, I figured it was spam. By the third day, I became amused. It's cool to see other people from other countries and cultures reading what you wrote. However, when the post they are coming to see becomes the most viewed thing on my site within two weeks, I become very confused. This definitely goes back to my insecurity of "Why is everyone looking at me?" I talked about on Wednesday.
Isn't it cool though how international this internet thing is? I've spent the first week of the challenge reading posts of people from Spain, India, and the UK. I'm reading things from people all over the country, like Alaska, California, and Hawaii. And using stuff like Skype, you can verbally chat with people in different time zones! I wonder what the world will be like in 20 years as a result.
Если вы ищете России "ранним", а затем привет! Пожалуйста, присылайте мне ссылки на блоги России читать, потому что мой русский плох.

D is for DEATH!

Dihydrogen Monoxide! The Unknown Killer!

Hello, friends! I am taking this A-to-Z post to spread the word about an unknown scourge - DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE! For too long, this killer has been allowed into our homes, our schools, our work places, AND EVEN OUR BEDROOMS! The government does nothing to stop it! Websites and petitions have been created to spread the word, but they are treated like a joke! According to research done by the non- profit group DHMO.org, Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is involved in numerous industrial incidents each year. It is a major component in acid rain, and high levels are found in creeks and streams. Despite recent bans on dumping dangerous chemicals, farms and industry are still releasing into the environment. Legislation won't stop it. The government will not ban it, despite the known risk. It is our job to spread the word!To learn more, visit its Wikipedia page for more links and information: Dihydrogen Monoxide

Did you know?

--->It only takes 5ml to KILL!

--->It causes cancer!

--->It could be in your Home!

C is for more Chemistry! Oh, and I'm insecure too.

I thought that I would give this month a loose theme, so today is about cytosine (remember, because A was was for Adenine?) Get it? It's also a part of DNA! Which is a part of you! So really, this month, I plan on explaining the four chemicals that make up you, ipso facto I'm explaining you!
Cytosine pairs with Guanine. With Adenine, I just talked about caffeine and sleep, so today, I'll discuss what makes cytosine a nucleotide and a little about base pairing. Nucleotides are made up of one sugar molecule, one phosphate and a base. In that classic double helix structure you've seen everywhere, the sugar and the phosphate make the backbone of the structure while the bases connect with each other. Cytosine, a pyrimidine, and Guanine, a purine, will connect with each other with a weak hydrogen bond. This bond can be easily broken by the Helicase enzyme, which I simply remember with this pickup line - "Baby, if I were an enzyme, I'd be Helicase so I could unzip your genes."

It's also Insecure Writer's Wednesday, put on by Alex J.Cavanuagh. Really, my insecurity comes from everyone staring at me this month. I signed up for this A to Z thing, and I expected to see an increase in views, but I was not expecting this. I guess I'd make a horrible author. "What do you mean people are reading my book? I can't deal with this! I'm going to hide in the mountains."

B is for Bertrand Russell

"If the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself. Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted. He did not do so because he thought he knew." - Bertrand Russell. I was hanging out in a used book store, buying books on math, when it was suggested that I should give Bertrand Russell a try. I found a book called "Mathematics and the Imagination" and was told if I like mathematics and philosophy, I should check him out. I would extend the same suggestion to everyone else, and add that the man had great wit.
The above quote comes from "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish". In it he attempts to find the rationality of man, and only succeeds in finding the folly in everything from the ancient Greeks, religion, politics, secularism, pacifists, aggressive people, and really just about anyone. It is home to many, many good quotes as well. I'm not kidding, this essay is great.

Among some of his gems in the essay is a part about spending time with people who disagree with you. Honestly, so often I forget that people have different opinions then myself. Naturally, I want to stay away from "toxic" people whose opinions just seem to hold me back. These people can be a blessing though. Contrary to what I like to believe sometimes, I am not the greatest thing in the world, or universe, or even the greatest thing in this state. I have flaws, and when others are used correctly, they can help point out those flaws. Other opinions show you that world is dynamic, it is change. Mostly though, it's what reminds that the world is not a figment of my own imagination.

Besides writing essays, he was also a mathematician. He wrote some classics on logic in the early 1900's, including Principia Mathematica, in which he and Alfred North Whitehead attempted to describe a set of mathematic truths in which all of math could be proven. Kurt Godel later prove with his incompleteness therom that this was not possible.

Here is his essay
Here is Principia Mathematica
And here is a dog trying to stay awake

Much Ado about Caffeine.

Wow. I just got my first glance at the first day of the A to Z challenge. There is a lot of diversity out there it seems. So it's time for me to post my A post for the month.
A is for Adenine, a nucleobase that pairs with Thymine. That's right, my first post and it's about chemicals. But wait, this is important! C5H5N5 is it's name, it's a nucleotide that makes our DNA.That is it pretty important in itself, because it makes us exist. It's the quad-decimal code that makes us, us, as apposed to a tree or a duck.
Doing some quick research on the subject though, leads to other things that the chemical is part of. When adenine forms a bond with a ribose sugar molecule, it forms Adenosine. It is also a part of it's own important processes, like energy transfer as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or adenosine diphosphate (ATP). This post need to be short, though, so what I want to talk about is the use of adenosine to promote sleep and caffenine keeping you awake.
Did you know that reading blog posts about adenosine can put you to sleep? It's true! It's mostly a bunch of words you don't understand, written in uninteresting ways. Besides that though, adenosine (abbreviated as Ado^[1]) has been heavily linked to sleeping in ways other articles. A short summary of it is that for every hour that you stay awake, adenosine levels in the brain increase, and attach to the receptors in the brain. This causes that drowsy feeling. Caffeine chemicals look a lot like adenosine, so the consumption causes caffeine to attach to these same cell receptors. It has a reverse effect on the cells, causing them to speed up instead of slowing down. For a more in depth look into sleep and Ado, look here. For those of you that don't speak science, but want to read a little more about coffee and science, look here. And here is a link to some music.