17 things you should know about DNA

You should know them, so don't procrastinate. Plus, maybe sometime, somewhere, knowing one of these facts will get you out of a quandary (one never knows in which kind of quandaries one will get involved in). In any case, at least, you can always show off and burst some of these curious facts out in some social meeting to leave everyone gawking at your wisdom. 

Explore more visuals like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Categories: DNA, english

The smile of the axolotl, or why science

The first time I saw the smile of the axolotl, something terrible happened. A dark feeling was born in me. A feeling that, I am afraid, will stay with me until the day of my death: uneasiness.

I felt an immense distress by thinking about all the things unknown to me that exist in the world. How could I have been so many years living in this world with a being like that, and not know about it?

source

It happened on a sunny spring day, while I was studying for the summer exams. I had the biology notes in front of me, the ones that I had copied from I don't know who, who in turn had copied them from I don't know who (and so on up to the original author, a student who, back in the dawn of time, did a huge favour to all succeeding generations), and read the following: " Some animals retain their larval physical characteristics during part or all their adult life. This is a process known as neoteny. A good example of this phenomenon is the mexican axolotl. " Sorry? What is this animal? I did not know and I got curious, so I did what anyone would have done in my place: search Google. 0,15 seconds after pressing the Enter button, there it was, looking mockingly at me from the computer screen. From different angles, in different poses and colors, but always with his unique smile, and I felt captivated. 

Since then, I live overwhelmed by thinking about all the things that I still don't know. What if there are even stranger animals, from which, like from the axolotl until a few years ago, I have never heard of? Or plants, or natural phenomena? But wait, what am I saying, of course there are, I know nothing about anything! What I know is not even a millionth of all the things that are known in the world. And that not to talk about all the things that still no one knows...Oh God!

That is why I like science, because it is my ally in this mission impossible. I like scientists because they work like little ants in a giant universe to provide us, crumb by crumb, with information of all kinds: The stars, the origin of species, the physical laws that govern the world and the maths that rule it, the molecules of which we are made of and the genes that generate them, the climate, ocean currents and all the specimens that live swimming under the sea, crawling over the land or flying above the clouds. They have even attempted to explain us of which matter love is made of!

The pity is, of course, that life is too short to learn it all.

Categories: axolotl, curiosity, english, science, strange animals

About me

Me, in the galaxy

I was born being a baby in the eighties, years passed with pain and glory and I grew up to become a twenty-something in the financial crisis. As such, I find myself exiled in a remote town in the heart of the Swabia called Tübingen, at the edge of the Black Forest. So remote, that not even the Starbucks has arrived yet. But we do have one thing: Science. A lot, and high class! Also mountains, and some beer. And among the dizzying rooftops of this erudite city there is me, asking myself questions for which I do not always get the answer.

Categories: english

Sobre mí

Yo, en la galaxia

Nací siendo un bebé ochentero, pasaron los años con penas y glorias y crecí para convertirme en una veinteañera en la crisis. Como tal, me encuentro exiliada en una remota ciudad de la Suabia llamada Tubinga, al borde de la selva negra, donde aún ni ha llegado el Starbucks. Eso sí, ciencia hay, mucha y muy buena, y también montañas, y cerveza. Y entre los tejados vertiginosos de esta ciudad erudita me encuentro yo, haciéndome preguntas para las que muchas veces no encuentro respuestas.

Categories: