tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-113392002010-01-28T09:12:30.639-08:00Miscellaneous topics all vaguely related to science.Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-32281551420746498252009-11-24T13:28:00.000-08:002009-11-24T13:28:42.304-08:00

Here's a blast from my past: a piezo-electric hydrophone. This was my very first research gadget that I ever built. I put it together roughly 10 years ago for my senior research project during either my 2nd or 3rd senior year of undergrad. The goal was to listen to predatory whelks feeding on mussels in order to estimate handling time. Because you can't really see the business end (the radula)

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-17356635035395853042009-10-14T15:21:00.000-07:002009-10-14T15:21:34.397-07:00

Hot on the heels of the Biomechanics academic tree (described here) comes the Marine Ecology family tree. Like the other trees being built at Academictree.org, the Marine Ecology tree is a user-generated attempt to create an interconnected lineage of professors, graduate students, postdocs and other folks studying marine ecology, or other related fields.   Above is the (very incomplete) tree

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-83810512685070331652009-09-28T19:25:00.000-07:002009-09-28T19:25:08.834-07:00

Many people have dedicated many decades to studying the biomechanics of trees. Thanks to the people at Academictree.org, the tables have now been turned, and we can finally waste time studying a tree of biomechanics. Visit the Biomechanics Tree The Biomechanics Tree is a database of biomechanics researchers past and present. It is your typical academic family tree, showing lineages from

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-58930583699451548902009-08-20T09:26:00.000-07:002009-08-30T13:43:35.245-07:00

I've spent the last few months assembling a conglomeration of parts to set up a new experiment in lab, designed to assess the effects of altered environmental temperatures on snail performance. The goal is to provide these rocky shore whelks with a set of environmental conditions that is as realistic as possible within the confines of a mesocosm, and then augment the ambient temperatures in a

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-36068718897568913642009-07-06T06:23:00.000-07:002009-07-06T06:32:29.437-07:00

These are the best boots for working on the shoreline. Your boots are stiff and uncomfortable. These boots are pliable and more cushioned than your mattress. You should switch to these boots. It's that simple. I buy them here:Servus Xtratuf Steel toe 16" boot at Seattle Marine.SKU: SRV22271GIf you don't want a steel toe, these are the regular model: Servus Xtratuf regular 16" boot.SKU:

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-66434968886593408202009-06-14T16:59:00.000-07:002009-11-17T09:31:01.383-08:00

My barbecue has its own Twitter account. If you want to follow along when I smoke some brisket or fish, hit up http://twitter.com/lukesbbq. Please understand that this account will send out an automated update every 30 minutes when I'm cooking, so the novelty may wear off quickly. Below is a description of how I set this up. This is my Brinkmann "Gourmet" Electric Smoker. It is a decent piece

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-85582015011270877262009-05-14T13:52:00.000-07:002009-05-14T13:55:10.476-07:00

I made this little animation a few years back when messing around with getting Mytilus californianus to spawn in the lab. Obviously I was successful at some point.

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-79617642086519337592009-04-28T13:15:00.000-07:002009-04-28T13:31:21.264-07:00

Someone warn David Copperfield, because the cat's out of the bag: MAGIC isn't real. Maybe this is all one elaborate hoax propagated just to create amusing headlines, but a Korean research team has had a 2005 article in Science retracted by the journal. It turns out that the paper describing their technique, given the acronym MAGIC (magnetic-based interactive capture), was based on missing and/or

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-50695839936834170002009-02-11T10:38:00.000-08:002009-02-11T10:40:03.785-08:00

So I can find this later: setting up a custom equation in Word 2007 that will generate numbered equations with the equation centered on the page and the equation number in parentheses on the right margin. Office Word Team Blog

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-44726350437919927952009-02-02T08:44:00.000-08:002009-02-02T08:48:14.503-08:00

FYI for the three people in the world that might care about this. I finally got around to asking Affinity Bioreagents what happened to their MA3-001 Hsp70 antibody that was so effective on various molluscs. It was discontinued in 2006. The info from the customer representative: "I checked our product files and was able to find information on the monoclonal antibody to Heat Shock Protein 70, the

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-12223989621509768252009-01-16T14:57:00.000-08:002010-01-28T09:12:30.648-08:00

Edit, Jan 2010: Don't do what I've outlined below without rigorous groundtruthing. Better yet, don't try this at all. The data returned by the camera sensor may be quite non-linear, and therefore not particularly useful. Try it yourself with a gel that has a serial dilution series covering a broad range of a protein quantities. Whereas x-ray film should return a fairly linear fit between protein

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-66596008588739051952009-01-09T13:25:00.000-08:002009-01-09T13:31:39.837-08:00

Apparently cabin fever starts to set in around the start of winter here in Nahant at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center, and weird things start getting posted on the internet as a result. Two videos have started making the rounds (Shifting baselines blog ), one by our own Dr. Long and the other by a group of the Three Seas program graduate students. "You can have what invert you like

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-75727557077706594992008-11-17T09:10:00.000-08:002008-11-17T10:07:25.419-08:00

A couple of useful links for figuring out your field site elevations relative to the tidal datum and nearby National Geodetic Survey benchmarks:NOAA Tides and CurrentsYou can use the search box at the top of this page to find your local tidal station. If I enter Monterey CA, it takes me to the Monterey Tidal Station page:Monterey Station ID #9413450If you click on the "Datums" link on the

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-50707225161794281482008-08-19T13:18:00.000-07:002008-08-19T13:40:29.539-07:00

My study on barnacle feeding habits (Marine Ecology Progress Series v.349 p:227-234) required a relatively small video camera system that could be deployed in the intertidal zone and withstand submersion during high tide. The goal was to leave the camera deployed for weeks on end. Power would be supplied from dry land, and the video signal would be sent back to dry land via cable to minimize the

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-45767956241126921672008-06-11T14:08:00.000-07:002008-06-11T17:40:55.897-07:00

NOAA Coastline ExtractorThis is a page that will generate a line drawing of a section of coast that you're interested in. Very handy for making maps and figures. You just specify the lat-lon area you're interested in, and it will return a data file for use in Matlab or ArcGIS etc, and a line drawing that you can save and use. I found this through a page at Wood's Hole/USGS with a number of handy

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-57878384803923227212008-05-04T17:09:00.000-07:002008-05-04T17:32:23.203-07:00

While trying to format the bibliography of my thesis recently, EndNote managed to hang and crash Word 2007. When I restarted Word, the EndNote tab was nowhere to be seen. The EndNote Cite While You Write Add-in had been disabled by Word due to its malfunction. Re-enabling the CWYW Add-in takes just a few steps. This only applies to Word 2007 for Windows, not earlier versions.Start by clicking on

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-12855273493476324702008-04-26T15:33:00.000-07:002008-04-26T16:20:39.316-07:00

There are certain situations in life where a set of digital calipers or dial calipers just won't cut it. With the advent of cheap digital calipers, it has become more reasonable to take these instruments into conditions where they may get splashed, knowing that they can be easily replaced should you accidentally drop them in a tidepool. Still, in some cases it's nice to be able to use a set of

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-72468023813355226552008-04-19T15:17:00.000-07:002008-04-19T16:02:11.277-07:00

One of the common tools that researchers use to measure temperatures of objects or organisms is the electronic thermocouple. For a few hundred dollars you can have a handheld electronic thermocouple reader and flexible thermocouple leads. The thermocouple readers are quite durable and last for years. On the other hand, the thermocouple wires eventually break after lots of usage. Most people

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-31244075200643320672008-03-19T19:56:00.000-07:002008-03-19T20:21:31.755-07:00

I guess I'm proud to see that I managed to get the only invertebrate on some VH1 blog about animals with drinking problems (number 37):Best Week Ever's list of 50 animals with drinking problemsThe original picture:And here are the others from the set:These were originally shot during the invertebrate zoology summer course offered at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories with

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-73984542021553436142007-10-21T14:01:00.000-07:002007-10-21T14:31:23.542-07:00

Microsoft Word can be easily set up to type in words that you use over and over again automatically. This might be especially useful for things like species names or obscure measurements that require greek characters or other special formatting. The process takes advantage of Word's autocorrect functions. This example uses Word 2007.I have a species name that I need to type quite often, and it

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-5227159113411624702007-08-27T11:56:00.000-07:002007-08-27T12:13:43.609-07:00

Robocopy is a built-in function in Vista that allows copying of the contents of one folder to another folder, either within the same computer or over a network. In my case I use it to mirror the contents of my Matlab work folder to a second hard drive. The second hard drive is then backed up to an external server once a day. You can run robocopy as a scheduled task to automate the backup process

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-62278693726620685282007-08-21T17:46:00.000-07:002007-08-21T17:47:38.823-07:00

This was a fun one to figure out. Maybe it will help someone else. The background: I'm running a heat budget model which steps through seven years of weather data in 10-minute time steps, so there's a bit over 368,000 time steps. One of the outputs is a text file with the elapsed time since the start, and associated temperature predictions at each time step, totaling 368,208 lines. The problem: I

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-54202287820112323372007-08-01T16:42:00.000-07:002009-07-24T08:33:16.607-07:00

Comparing the intensity of bands on a Western blot can be done in a number of ways using software that is commonly found on lab computers or freely available for download. The following document outlines some of those methods.For a long time, the de-facto standard for analysis in labs that didn't want to spring for multi-thousand $$ commercial densitometry software was Adobe Photoshop or one of

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-61318092171200427492007-05-30T13:01:00.001-07:002007-05-30T13:04:21.350-07:00

Someone came along and attached a tsunami warning sign to the existing sign outside our building. Our lab is unfortunately situated below the shore height that has now been deemed unsuitable for surviving a tsunami.

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11339200.post-6877164151372267332007-05-02T11:00:00.000-07:002007-05-02T11:04:10.632-07:00

Calling these things "affairs" makes them seem so genteel. They are thoroughly entertaining though.Publishing nonsense in a sociology journal:Sokal AffairPossibly publishing nonsense in physics journals:Bogdanov AffairRandomly generating nonsense for scientific meetings:SCIgen

Luke Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13054560153678262303noreply@blogger.com