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commandermeg · 2 years

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Everyday Science #1

File name: The Frozen Corn Hypothesis

So because I haven't been able to use my degree or college knowledge for anything job-related yet - I'm going to start taking note of the various things around me that grab my attention and that allow me to stretch my mental muscles.

So basically I'll just be rambling on about things that make me curious, I'll research the thing, and write down what I find + possibly set up experiments in the future.

My family decided to hold a family reunion today, the only day of the month I wouldn't be able to attend. I'm getting the feeling they don't like me. Regardless, I was helping clean out the freezer so we could stash more leftovers when I found a large bag of frozen corn that had been forgotten about since march.

It caught my attention for two reasons: the first being that the corn - once yellow in appearance - had turned blue. ( the fact that the mold is blue leads me to believe the mold is of the Penicillium family) However the second thing that caught my attention was the oddly pudding-like consistency the frozen corn had achieved.

While I only had one sample size - with it being the only bag of ancient freezer-corn I had - my current hypothesis is this: When the corn remained in it's deep-freeze for too long, the water cells within the corn exploded and mixed with the natural starches of the corn kernel - creating the pudding-esque blue monstrosity that...

.... wait.

Did I accidentally create Murf in my freezer?

......

MOVING ON

I will attempt to recreate this at another point in time. I first need to figure out at exactly what temperature it is that the cells burst. I theorize that it wasn't the temperature that caused the water cells to burst (Corn Kernals are typically 14% water, that's how popcorn pops btw) so much as it was the cell walls decomposing, as that corn bag had been forgotten about for a rather lengthy amount of time.

So I'm going to try two separate branch experiments. One will utilize the garage freezer - the one that typically stays at only 0 degrees F. The second one will utilize my fridge freezer, which stays at an average of 10 degrees F because it's a very crappy freezer. However this freezer was where the first bag was located so it could very well make that much of a difference.

I will buy two identical bags of corn, and leave them in roughly the same positions in their respective freezers. My 'Control' corn bag will be situated in a spot where my family won't mess with it, but also where it won't get anything around it all gross. The perfect place, of course, being on this table in the basement where the ambient temperature is a perfect 64 degrees.

I will check on these bags at interval times of 1 week, and make note on what goes down with the corn.

#Everyday Science with Meg #Murf was in my freezer lmao

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95zintheirownworld · 3 years

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thinking of tae saying "lets go for a long time i only have you" and jimin writing "stay hey you are my soulmate for eternity keep staying here"

thinking of jimin saying "i want to live with my lovely taehyung for the rest of my life" and tae saying "ill always be by your side, jiminie"

thinking of tae saying "im always watching you" and jimin saying "my eyes are only on you"

thinking of jimin saying "you're more than a best friend, you're my savior, and i want to be with you even when we're grandfathers" and tae saving jimin's name as blue mold and saying "i can't believe i fought with an angel like jimin"

thinking of tae saying "jimin and the friends" and jimin saying "taehyungie and the others"

thinking of jimin saying "i want to be in the same team as taehyungie" over and over and over and tae saying "lets do this together" to jimin over and over and over

thinking of tae saying "i wish i had a jimin mode on my phone" and jimin saying "i want to do everything with taehyung"

thinking of jimin writing "you are my soulmate" and tae saying "95z is love"

thinking of tae calling jimin "my love" and jimin calling tae "my baby"

thinking of jimin saying "i don't like sharing. i am possessive of my friend" while talking about tae and tae saying "jimin is mine. minnie is mine. jimin is taken."

thinking of tae saying "thank you, can i go back to talking about jimin" when he was complimented by an interviewer and jimin saying "we are the same age so we are very close" when an interviewer asked jimin if he and tae had a crush on each other

thinking of jimin saying "in taehyungs head there's only me. cutie" and tae saying "jiminie didn't you say my part was your favorite"

thinking of tae saying "you're my moon. will you stay and protect me forever?" and jimin saying little star was the song that reminded him of tae and then writing the lyrics "me from the moon you from the stars"

thinking of jimin saying he felt uneasy when tae isn't around and tae saying he feels relaxed whenever jimin is next to him

thinking of tae buying jimin a very expensive gucci sweater when they weren't even earning much, buying him the needle and thread when he'd offhandedly mentioned it and no one else remembered about it, buying him the clock he wanted, buying him (and only him) a snow globe

thinking of jimin saying "im listening to you, taehyungie", "i want to show taehyung the moon", "i wanted to see taehyung having fun", "i want taehyung to never be upset", "i want to hear what taehyung has to say", "taehyungs my top pick", "taehyung was the ultimate of lovely"

thinking of tae clicking the photos to the cover of jimins first solo song and jimin gifting the bears in the cover of taes first english song

thinking of jimin writing Friends and tae writing 4 o'clock

thinking of tae calling jimin his "penicillium", "angel", "one and only true best friend", "best friend like no other", "the warmest person ive ever met in my life", "love", "baby", "beloved", "soulmate"

thinking of jimin calling tae his "baby bear", "baby", "beloved", "precious", "pretty", "lovely", "special person", "best friend", "saviour", "the only one he shares unique memories with", "soulmate"

thinking how mutual vmin's love is and how ill never have what they have.

brought on by: me thinking about the parallel between jimin bringing tae a gazillion balloons and saying "these are for you. this is my love for you." and tae bringing jimin flowers and saying "i collected these flowers for you."

#vmin #vmin quotes #im just emo

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brian-in-finance · 2 years

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Symbolism of everyday objects in Diana Gabaldon's books

One of the things I love about Diana Gabaldon's writing is the way she can take a perfectly ordinary object, something you've seen a thousand times and never really paid attention to before, and turn it into something completely unforgettable.

I first posted a version of this list in 2012. This updated version includes examples from Diana Gabaldon's most recent books and stories. Hope you enjoy it!

* * * SPOILER WARNING * * *

If you haven't yet read GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE, there are spoilers below. Read at your own risk.

1) Strawberries

I can't think of strawberries now without remembering the wonderful scene in DRUMS OF AUTUMN where Jamie and Claire discover the site of Fraser's Ridge:

"It's a rare plant," he said, touching the sprig in my open hand. "Flowers, fruit and leaves all together at the one time. The white flowers are for honor, and red fruit for courage--and the green leaves are for constancy."

My throat felt tight as I looked at him.

"They got that one right," I said.

He caught my hand in his own, squeezing my fingers around the tiny stem.

"And the fruit is the shape of a heart," he said softly, and bent to kiss me.

2) Doorknobs

I don't think anyone who has read LORD JOHN AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE will look at doorknobs the same way again.

Meanwhile, the doorknob--made of white china and slick as an egg--as though to compensate for the loss of the key, was inclined either to spin loosely round on its stem, or to jam fast, both conditions preventing the door from being opened from the outside.

3) Roquefort cheese

The blue mold in Roquefort contains penicillium, which helped to save Claire's life after she was shot during the Battle of Monmouth.

“Roquefort,” I said urgently. “Is it Roquefort cheese? Sort of gray, with green and blue veins?”

“Why, I don’t know,” she said, startled by my vehemence. She gingerly plucked a cloth-wrapped parcel out of the basket and held it delicately in front of me. The odor wafting from it was enough, and I relaxed--very slowly--back down.

“Good,” I breathed. “Denzell--when you’ve finished...pack the wound with cheese.”

4) Oranges, and orange marmalade

Some of you may recall the encounter between Lord John and Stephan von Namtzen in THE SCOTTISH PRISONER. If you read carefully, you'll see references to oranges, and orange marmalade, scattered throughout that whole chapter.

As he followed Stephan from the coach, he caught the scent of von Namtzen’s cologne, something faint and spicy--cloves, he thought, and was absurdly reminded of Christmas, and oranges studded thick with cloves, the smell festive in the house.

His hand closed on the orange, cool and round in his pocket, and he thought of other rounded things that might fit in his hand, these warm.

“Fool,” he said to himself, under his breath. “Don’t even think about it.”

It was, of course, impossible not to think about it.

5) A wooden mallet, its handle wrapped with twine

Even Jamie is bothered by the memories evoked by this particular object, and no wonder!

"Surely ye can make hare pie without looking in the wee book?" he said, obligingly taking the big bone-crushing wooden mallet from the top of the hutch where it was kept. He grimaced as he took it into his hand, feeling the weight of it. It was very like the one that had broken his right hand several years before, in an English prison, and he had a sudden vivid memory of the shattered bones in a hare pie, splintered and cracked, leaking salty blood and marrow-sweetness into the meat.

Just looking at the photo makes me shudder, thinking of Jamie's hand.

6) Pebbles

I thought Jamie's collection of stones, one for each of his family members, was a lovely bit in THE SCOTTISH PRISONER:

A scatter of stones, picked up because of their feel in the hand or a pretty color. He counted them; there were eleven: one each for his sister, for Ian, for Young Jamie, Maggie, Kitty, Janet, Michael, and Young Ian; one for his daughter, Faith, who had died at birth; another for the child Claire had carried when she went; the last--a piece of rough amethyst--for Claire herself. He must look out for another now: the right stone for William. He wondered briefly why he had not done that before. Because he hadn’t felt the right to claim William even in the privacy of his own heart, he supposed.

7) Scuppernong grapes

I can't look at this photo of scuppernong grapes without thinking about what happened to poor Amy in BEES:

“Let’s move,” Brianna suggested. “There are a ton of grapes out here; the ants can’t be in all of them.”

“I dinna ken so much about that,” Amy muttered darkly, but she picked up her bucket and followed Brianna a little farther into the small gorge. Bree hadn’t been exaggerating: the rocky wall was thick with muscular vines that clung and writhed up into the sun, heavy with pearly-bronze fruit that gleamed under the dark leaves and perfumed the air with the scent of new wine.

8) Compass with needle pointing north

I love the compass-needle imagery in "Lord John and the Haunted Soldier", as a metaphor for John's feelings for Jamie:

He dipped the pen again, and saw the slender splinter of metal that lay on his desk, straight as a compass needle, dully a-gleam in the candlelight.

My regiment is due to be reposted in the spring; I shall join them, wherever duty takes me. I shall, however, come to Helwater again before I leave.

He stopped, and touched the metal splinter with his left hand. Then wrote, You are true north.

John simply can't stop loving Jamie, any more than a compass needle can avoid pointing north.

9) Chrysanthemums

Those of you who have read "A Fugitive Green" will remember the chrysanthemums in the scene where Hal and Minnie first meet:

“Oh!” she said, quite loud. She glanced guiltily over her shoulder, then put out a hand and touched the flower very gently. There it was: the curved, symmetrical petals, tightly layered but airy, as though the flower floated above its leaves. It--they--had a noticeable fragrance, so close to. Nothing like the voluptuous, fleshy scents of the orchids; this was a delicate, bitter perfume--but perfume, nonetheless.

“Oh,” she said again, more quietly, and breathed it in. It was clean and fresh and made her think of cold wind and pure skies and high mountains.

I like this, both as a reminder of Hal and Minnie's first meeting, and because I was born in November, and the chrysanthemum is the traditional flower for November.

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Photo: bees on beeswax (Tumblr won’t let me post a 10th image, counting the tweet as the first 🙄)

10) Bees

And last but not least: Many OUTLANDER fans have been noticing bees everywhere in the last few years, ever since Diana Gabaldon announced the title of Book 9, GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE:

“Bees are real sociable,” Myers explained, and blew one of them gently off the back of his hand. “And they’re curious, which only makes sense, them goin’ back and forth and gatherin’ news with their pollen. So you tell ’em what’s happening--if someone’s come a-visitin’, if a new babe’s been born, if anybody new was to settle or a settler depart--or die. See, if somebody leaves or dies,” he explained, brushing a bee off my shoulder, “and you don’t tell the bees, they take offense, and the whole lot of ’em will fly right off.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 13, "What is Not Good for the Swarm is Not Good for the Bee (Marcus Aurelius)". Copyright© 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I love the way references to bees and bee-related imagery are scattered throughout the entire book. I've been having a lot of fun spotting them.

Hope you enjoyed these! Let me know if you find any more examples like these in the books.

https://www.outlandishobservations.com/2022/03/symbolism-of-everyday-objects-in-diana.html

Remember… good. Denzell… when you’ve finished… pack the wound with cheese. — Claire Fraser, Written In My Own Heart’s Blood

#Tait rhymes with hat #Good times #Outlander #Symbolism #Everyday objects #Books #Outlandish Observations #31 March 2022 #Karen Henry #Twitter

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kanmom51 · 3 years

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Not to argue about YM, but there's really no serendipity connection. If anyone has a great case besides Jikook, it's Vmin. 1) It was uploaded on Vmin day. 2) JM placed a Calico Cat on Sleeping Tae. 3) V saved JM as blue mold/penicillium ssi in his contact list, a line related to Serendipity. 4) V Made the blue mold phone case for JM. 5) V sings it all the time, as much as JK. Its either Jikook or Vmin. However it was released on JK's birthday and Jikook have adopted it as their love anthem.

I am most definitely not going to stick my head into this argument.

Besides, there is no argument. Serendipity is JK's. Lol.

#ask #anon

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nelfs · 3 years

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WAIT A MINUTE i just learned that blue cheese is made with a type of Penicillium which is not quite the same as the mold used to make penicillin (same genus) but i am very allergic to penicillin which um might explain why so many of the notes ive taken on the blue cheeses at work include the sentence "this makes my mouth itch :(" LMFAOOOOO

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convivialcamera · 4 years

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Medical Doctor Attempts to Make Penicillin | Outlander Makes

CLAIRE: Hey everyone, I’m Claire, we’re on Fraser’s Ridge and today we’re making .... penicillin!

PART ONE: WHAT IS PENICILLIN?

CLAIRE: Penicillin has been on my list for Outlander Makes for a very long time, almost since the beginning. It’s one of my favorite medicines. I just love that it can kill bacteria and save lives. It has that unique property of being made from mold, and I think it will be a cool learning opportunity for me because I just love penicillin.

Penicillin is effective against staphylococci and streptococci bacteria, some of the most common bacterial infections seen on the Ridge. It was the first modern antibiotic, which I suppose is relative. But penicillin itself comes from a secretion of molds in the genus Penicillium.

I can’t believe how much Outlander Makes makes me think about my university science classes.

It’s time for my favorite part: reading the ingredients. And wow, this is a short list: benzylpenicillin.

Time to go do some research. All of which is stored in my brain because it’s 1771 and penicillin won’t be officially discovered for 157 years.

Anyways, molds have been used to fight infections since ancient times. There’s evidence ancient peoples in Egypt, Greece and India used certain fungi and molds in their medicine, according to my Uncle Lamb’s research. But penicillin as I know it, in the future, was first discovered in a bread mold in 1928 by a Scot named Andrew Flemming, but then it wouldn’t be used in human medicine until 1942.

So, I think I’m going to start with bread. But the mold spores are just in the air, and there’s no reason another food couldn’t be a growing medium. So we’ll just have to see what works best. I’m excited. I think this is going to work.

PART TWO: HOW DO YOU MAKE PENICILLIN?

CLAIRE: I’ve got a whole bunch of extra bread, so I’m going to tear it up and leave it out and see what it grows. Marsali is also out collecting food scraps from the other settlers, things destined for the pig trough, that we’ll test as well.

I’m tempted to put my samples under glass cloches to keep mice and bugs and other pests out, but I’m concerned that they will prevent mold spores in the air from getting to the bread, so we’re going to try both.

MRS. BUG: She’s gone mad, she has. Up all night baking more bread than the Lord when he fed the multitudes with the loaves and fishes.

BRIANA: Woah. You’re not planning to eat all that, are you?

CLAIRE: No, I’m going to let it go moldy.

MRS. BUG: What a terrible waste.

BRIANA: Please tell me you’re being sarcastic.

CLAIRE: What, me? Never. I’m making penicillin.

BRIANA: Then Mrs. Bug is right, you have lost your mind. You can’t do that.

CLAIRE: Yes, I can. And not just with bread, we’re going to test other food scraps too. Then, we’ll find the right strain.

BRIANA: This is dangerous. What if it messes with some cosmic balance? Or breaks some rule of space and time? Isn’t this playing God?

CLAIRE: I change the future every time I save a life here. And now I’m going to do it even better. So, time, space, history be damned.

See, now all the bread is set up. Marsali will be back soon, and we’ll set up her scraps the same way, and then we wait.

THREE DAYS LATER

CLAIRE: It’s a little dark in here because I wanted to keep the samples out of the sun. The bread and other samples have been left to mold for three days, and now we’re going to check and see how it went. I’m in that delusionally optimistic headspace where I think this might work on the first try.

I’m looking for a blue-green mold, maybe with a white outer ring. I’ve got my microscope and candles ready, so I can examine the mold more closely. What I don’t want is Aspergillus, another type of mold that grows under similar conditions but is very toxic and instead of curing infections would actually … kill my patients faster. So, if we see any fuzzier molds that are green, gray or black, that would be bad.

So, on a few of these samples I very clearly lost the battle against ants and some mice. The ones under the cloches fared better, but there’s not yet anything that looks like mold yet. This is going to take longer than I thought.

In the meantime, I’m going to work on the incubation medium that I’ll use to make even more penicillin once we grow the mold — which, we absolutely will. And for that I need Jamie.

JAMIE: Yes, Sassenach?

CLAIRE: Could you go kill me something I can make into broth?

JAMIE: You canna slaughter a chicken yourself?

CLAIRE: I can, but could you just help out for the common good? And if you don’t want to kill a chicken you could go hunt something else, right?

JAMIE: Claire, what if you waste all this food and you don’t get your medicine?

CLAIRE: I want you to know I can accept zero criticism right now.

JAMIE: Then I’ll be back with some meat for your broth.

FOUR DAYS LATER

CLAIRE: It’s day three! Well, it’s been a week but it’s day three of work. No, there’s no curse. Stop trying to make a day three curse happen.

Jamie shot a goose, and Bree plucked it for me, and Mrs. Bug made it into this broth. I’ve got to check out our bread and food samples and see if any Penicillium molds have grown. And … there are a lot of molds here! Turns out more than one mold can grow on bread. I’m looking for the classic blue-green color, and there is more than just blue-green here. This pie crust did a little better — see the white outer ring, and there’s no black, like on this bread sample. This is promising.

If I remember my textbooks correctly, Penicillium will look like a stalk of wheat with a branched end under the microscope. If the end is more like a fuzzy ball, it’s the killer Aspergillus mold that I talked about earlier. I’m going to make slides and see if I can positively identify any of these as penicillin.

TWO HOURS LATER

CLAIRE: OK, I’m down to the last two slides, and so far it’s a big fat nothing.

ROGER: What is going well right now?

CLAIRE: Nothing. This whole thing is a disaster. If these don’t have the right mold, I’ve wasted this whole week and all this food and will have to start over.

ROGER: Oh.

CLAIRE: Say a prayer, Roger. And…. got them. I was right about the pie crust — that’s definitely a Penicillium colony growing. I love it when I’m good at stuff.

ROGER: We all knew you could do it.

CLAIRE: Bree thinks I’m breaking the time-space continuum, but there it is! That’s penicillin!

So, my next step is to prepare the incubation mediums. I’ve got the broth Mrs. Bug kindly prepared, and I’m going to strain it and then boil it. I also need to sterilize the bowls, so I’m boiling some water for that. And then I have these muslin cloths that I’ve also boiled and air dried as best as I could, which will keep things like insects, bugs, mice and other critters out. It’s nearly impossible to achieve true sterility in these conditions, but it’s important to try.

And then I’m going to use these confirmed Penicillium samples and use a sterilized knife to put them into the broth to incubate. The thing about penicillin is that the mold itself isn’t antibiotic, but the mold’s secretions, so that’s what I’m trying to produce and capture.

So, I’ll leave this to do its thing. We’ll check back in a few more days.

ONE DAY LATER

CLAIRE: WHAT DO YOU MEAN ONE OF THE CHILDREN GOT IN HERE AND KNOCKED OVER ONE OF THE BOWLS?

THREE DAYS LATER

CLAIRE: ADSO! GET AWAY FROM THERE! NO, STOP DRINKING IT!

JAMIE: Are you done with your experiment, Sassenach?

CLAIRE: Noooo. I can’t believe that you can’t sense right now that I am not in a good place.

JAMIE: Oh.

CLAIRE: I guess it’s time to check the remaining bowls and see how incubation went. Like with the bread and food samples, I’m looking for Penicillium’s distinctive blue-green coloring with a white ring around the outside. So, the first bowl: nope, that’s not it. See those hairy, green clumps that look like submerged sea beasts? It could be another mold, bacterium, or maybe a colonial alga, but it’s not at all what I’m looking for.

But this second one, yes, this looks promising. See the colony in there? Looks like Penicillium to me. And, it’s worked in two more of these bowls. Three out of six isn’t a terrible average, even if two of my bowls got canned.

I’m going to have to check under the microscope again to be sure, but I’m, like 98 percent sure that’s it. I’ll strain the broth once more, to get the solid mold parts out. It’s the mold’s secretions you want, not the mold itself.

JAMIE: So what you’ve got there is broth that the mold has pissed in, is that right?

CLAIRE: Well, if you insist on putting it that way, yes. This was so much work, and it’s so unsure. This is a huge advancement in medicine for this time. It was way easier to mix up gentian ointment, or to set up the beehives, but maybe it was less satisfying. Is it better to not work that hard and not be that satisfied or to work really hard and be exhausted and somewhat more satisfied? I don’t know. Basically, there’s no way to win.

PART THREE: HOW TO MAKE PENICILLIN

CLAIRE: Here’s how you make penicillin.

Tear up pie crust and other food scraps, including bread, and leave them out to mold under glass cloches for five to seven days, keeping the cultures out of direct sunlight and away from pests. When the food starts to mold, identify Penicillium by its coloring and then under a microscope, looking for the mold’s distinctive branching pattern. Use a sterilized knife to distribute samples of your Penicillium into sterilized bowls of strained and boiled broth that has been cooled. Cover with sterilized muslin cloths and leave to incubate for several days. To use, check that broth has grown more Penicillium mold, by both the mold’s coloring and by shape under magnification. Strain the mold out of the broth, and use it to treat infection.

#outlander makes fic #Outlander #outlander fanfic #dr. claire fraser #gourmet makes #cracklander

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