Giant Freakin Robot

Unlike many Americans, I can successfully lie and convince myself that aging doesn’t bother me as much as it does. But where I’m more worried about things like mobility and dementia, many have a mindset centered more on physical features over anything else. Wrinkles and gray hair are the banes of some people’s existence.

Fixing wrinkles seems like a science unto itself, but rest assured that a reversal of graying hairs may be on the near horizon, as European researchers have possibly singled out not only the specific cause of the discoloration, but also a successful treatment. More importantly, it could be a helpful treatment for vitiligo, which affects people who lack pigment in patches of their skin. They also have some ocean-front property if you’re interested. (Just kidding. It faces a lake.)

For the study published in FASEB Journal, the researchers looked at 2,411 people afflicted with two different forms of vitiligo – strictly segmental vitiligo (SSV) and non-segmental vitiligo (NSV). Knowing that hair turns gray due to a hydrogen peroxide buildup within the follicles, they found that both sets of vitiligo were caused by the same oxidative stress that saps the hair’s pigment.

Sometimes in these stories, I’ll talk about being from south Louisiana, usually with a distinct sense of pride in the food, the culture, and the people. But never will you catch me saying this place breeds widespread intelligence, because it doesn’t. I once thought Kansas had it rough, not realizing my own backyard is apparently a cesspool of damaging thoughts. How sad to finally see Bad Astronomy’s mastermind Phil Plait mention my hometown’s name in this respect — or in disrespect, rather.

For years, governor Bobby Jindal’s “Louisiana Science Education Act” has worked to keep giving students the exact opposite of what it calls for, and has allowed creationism to be acceptable study plan material. Despite the inherent nonsense behind the “law” itself, as well as constant opposition from science-minded people, this stupid fucking law will not die, getting its third appeal voted down just last week. And while that itself is boneheaded — and these are bones that will one day go into the fossil record, not the creationism record — one Senator’s reason for voting against repealing the law goes above and beyond to prove why stereotypes exist.

Elbert Guillory (pictured above), a Democrat Senator from Opelousas — the mostly unremarkable town where I spent a third of my life — was able to make his big dumb mouth form the ridiculous words to justify his choice, which was spurred by a spiritual healer correctly choosing which medical ailment Guillory suffered from. As such, he feels reversing the act would “lock the door on being able to view ideas from many places, concepts from many cultures.” I wonder if he was able to get a prescription from that faith healer. Probably not, since they’re not medical professionals, or professionals of any field actually. Except maybe bullshitting influential politicians who care less about their state than mental voodoo. He goes on.

There’s a lot of negative news out there, and a lot of it has to do with backwards-thinking people in government. But every once in a while, positive science news slips through the cracks, and it gets a little easier to remember just how virtuous humankind can be.

At Michigan’s Pinckney Community High School, a student named Nick Torrance is now able to open his locker for the very first time. It wasn’t hidden at the end of a rainbow or anything. Torrance suffers from muscular dystrophy, and attends school in a specialized wheelchair. Amy Uphouse helps the 18-year-old Torrance become more independent in her role as a Livingston Educational Service Agency occupational therapist. It was her idea to formulate a way for Torrance to open his locker, and after an outside search for a method came up short, she looked within the school itself for an answer.

Specifically, she turned to the school’s robotics instructor Sean Hickman. Holy shit, a high school robotics instructor! Two of Hickman’s students, Micah Stuhldreher and Wyatt Smrcka, won first place at the 2012 SkillsUSA national robotics competition, and they’re returning to defend that honor this year. Obviously, they were tasked with the challenge, and after almost a year of trial and error — including switching from a relay device to a computerized one — they succeeded in their goal, and now all it takes for Torrance to open the locker is a wave of the hand. Granted, a wave of the hand is a challenge in and of itself to anyone suffering from muscular dystrophy, but you know what I mean. Check out the device in action below.

The last time I tried to combine science with art, it included making a museum experience a chemical change. The police called it arson, so it’s possible I’m writing this from a small prison cell. But let’s all keep a smile on, shall we, for perhaps one day these cell walls can bear the art of Heather Dewey-Hagborg and her “Stranger Visions” exhibit. Also, I’m not in prison.

Hagborg is a PhD student at New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, studying electronic arts. After taking a crash course in molecular biology at a DIY biology lab called Genspace, “Stranger Visions” began to take shape. Her process involves going out into the street and collecting samples that will provide ample DNA samples, such as chewing gum, hair, or cigarette butts. In other words, she picks up people’s trash — but for research. And she says, New York being what it is, she doesn’t even get weird looks anymore.

She takes a small piece of the sample and puts it through the centrifuge process to extract the purified DNA, before running a polymerase chain reaction on it. The mitochondrial DNA is sent off to a lab to be sequenced, and the results of each give Dewey-Hamborg insight on the person’s gender, ancestry, eye color, possibility of obesity, and around 40 more details specific to facial features. She then enters it into a computer program that designs a 3D representation of what that person could possibly look like, generally around the age of 25. She then goes to New York University, where that image can become a reality using their 3D printer, and out comes one of the most interesting groups of sculptures to ever exist. Below is the cigarette butt sample she used to make the face pictured beneath it.