I will return with more weird shit I've read about science, like, "why is our blood red?" tomorrow

Ooh! I know this one! Hemoglobin! Right?

I ate latkes, and they were delicious! But there were not enough of them. Though I suppose I didn't really NEED more, the deliciousness prompted me wanting more.

Also, I have been on a medication for two days which they told me might cause me to lose my appetite a bit. And I think that I am TOTALLY suggestible, and that for weight loss I should totally be given a sugar pill and told it will make me less hungry. Because two days in, I really doubt it's actually doing much yet, but I totally am eating less! Or at least, stopping before I'm stuffed.

Ooh! I know this one! Hemoglobin! Right?

Hee, yep! (That was basically my reaction too. I KNOW THIS. [It's a UNIX system!])

Actually I understand why we focus on Earth-like because that could lead to us-like. Though I think that if we can't communicate with a cuttlefish, actual aliens won't be any easier.

But I bet the Earth-like aliens won't be able to communicate with *their* cuttlefish, either. So at least we'll have that in common, and we can bond over that.

Yeah, watch us discover aliens and be unable to talk to them...but the dolphins can. Or worse, the dolphins can talk to their squid...

It all could have gone so wrong. Our primate cousins scare the bejeesus out of me. Especially when their gaze is fixed right on the camera. It's like they're saying, "you guys are such fucking jerks."

I'd be cautious but not overly worried. The gorilla body language in that whole sequence is very nonthreatening. A gorilla, a silverback especially, is certainly strong enough to do major damage, but they really aren't terribly aggressive. I'd be more nervous around chimps.

The other thing I wonder is why we always define the parameters of Places Life Can Exist based on just what we're used to seeing here.

I've often wondered about this too. From what I understand, there are significant reasons why water is really that special. I think it's just possible methane could play a similar role in a different ecosystem, but on the whole, water is hard to replace.

Ooh! I know this one! Hemoglobin! Right?

There's a lizard in Papua New Guinea with green blood. The pigment colours its muscles and tongue and other stuff too. It's a bile pigment, from the breakdown of haemoglobin; in this lizard, the pigment gets retained (and as I understand it, makes it taste pretty foul, which is probably the point).

There are a number of invertebrates, such as the horseshoe crab and most molluscs (including squid), with blue blood. Their blood carries oxygen bound with copper instead of iron (cslled haemocyanin).

There are a number of invertebrates, such as the horseshoe crab and most molluscs (including squid), with blue blood.

Yeah, I just learned about horseshoe crab bleeding! Their blood is MAGICAL!

I'd be cautious but not overly worried. The gorilla body language in that whole sequence is very nonthreatening. A gorilla, a silverback especially, is certainly strong enough to do major damage, but they really aren't terribly aggressive. I'd be more nervous around chimps.

Yeah, a group of gorillas clustering around me would be cause to think "this is so cool!" Chimpanzees would be "please God, don't let them get upset and tear stuff off me!"

My dad has been to a couple of zoos in recent years, and gorillas are apparently fascinated by his wheelchair, focusing on him the whole time he's visible from their enclosure. When you see them up close, they're so gentle and you really get a sense of something person-like looking back at you out of their eyes.

My dad has been to a couple of zoos in recent years, and gorillas are apparently fascinated by his wheelchair, focusing on him the whole time he's visible from their enclosure. When you see them up close, they're so gentle and you really get a sense of something person-like looking back at you out of their eyes.

Whereas when I visited the bonobo enclosure at San Diego Zoo, the reaction I got was a grinning bonobo plastering his erection on the glass. They're complicated animals.

My boss just sent me an email with the subject "pot distribution list". I think pot is an acronym for some sort of physician group, but it is cracking me up.