Category: science

Unconventional Inspiration

Image of an open office door titled Doors: Walk Through Them
Doors: Walk Through Them

Perhaps you’re ambitious, or maybe you just want to get through the day and do the 150 things you need to finish before going home due to layoffs / eliminating positions when people retire.

Your office has a door that goes two ways for a reason, make sure that you use it!

You could go to a coffee shop and sip a cup of tea, or go for a walk and observe the local squirrel population. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you focus on something other than work.

If you take a short break once a day I guarantee that you will feel better and be more productive afterwards. Taking a total break is one of the best ways to inspire inspiration but it’s pretty traditional.? Here are some unconventional ways to find some inspiration.

Play for the Future:

TEDxBG Steve Keil: A Manifesto for Play, for Bulgaria and Beyond

While some might say I take my work overly seriously what many people miss don’t realize is that I’m probably one of the silliest people they know. I just save all my silly for my home life (apologies to my husband for my excessive silliness, but not really because he knew what I was like before we got married). I enjoy silly things and was once told my propensity for being silly was only exceeded by the silly people I gathered around me. One silly friend and I once presented our summer research as a fairy tale complete with chocolate loving witches. No matter how serious I may appear at times, play and fun are just as important to a happy balanced me. Don’t take my word for it, listen to Steve’s talk complete with facts to support our anecdotal belief that play is essential to inspiration, innovation, and a healthy work environment. (This is good I listened to it twice!)

Novel Sources of Inspiration:

The Anthropologist
Although this website is managed by Anthropologie, this site is not commercial. Rather it is a site dedicated to inspiration and imagination. Through video and pictures with captions they tell their stories. Lose yourself in their stories, from the video of the beautifully talented dance of The Little Ballerina, to Urnatur a photo and video journey showcasing the woodland home created by Hakan Strotz, forester, and his wife Ulrika Krynitz, biologist and modern designer.

Exploring Others’ Sources of Inspiration

Etsy

Etsy is a website that features handmade goods direct from the creators. You can buy everything from bath soap to original oil paintings and wood furniture. I always like to see what’s featured on the front page, if you scroll all the way down you can see recently added items in a constantly moving stream. Want to find out what inspires those who sell and create? Check out the Etsy blog, frequently updated with stories about potters, artists, master woodworkers, etc.

What do you do for inspiration? Please share in the comments.

(Comments with links are moderated but approved unless they are spam.)

Simply Brilliant Science: Creating Healthier Eggs for a Healthier You

* Originally posted at the Scientific American Guest Blog on June 7, 2011.

Photograph of many white and brown chickens in garden with green plants and brown soil.
Chickens in the Garden

When Omega Eggs (eggs containing Omega fatty acids) first appeared on the mass market in the early 2000s I had this bizarre image in my head of a semi-crazed scientist extracting the yolk with a giant syringe, swirling it about in a beaker with a neon blue solution to extract the bad fat, injecting it with Omega fatty acids and then pacing it carefully back inside the eggshell.

Of course my next thought was that would be a completely absurd and impossible way to go about making healthier eggs and I labeled the image as a flight of fancy. I dismissed the question of how Omega Eggs are produced as interesting but not a priority and went about my life.

10 months ago I started working at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). The important thing to remember about UNL is that although it is a Research 1 institution it was chartered as a land grant university in 1869 under the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act. Approved under the auspices of President Abraham Lincoln it was titled: “An Act Donating Public Lands to the Several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts”. For this reason UNL is dedicated not only to providing affordable traditional college degrees but also to research, development, and education regarding best practices in agriculture and food production.

Photo of a small blue plate with six white eggs in front of a small bamboo plant and white Japanese lucky cat on a light brown counter.
Eggs

My colleagues anxious to extol the virtues of my new university to me mentioned in passing that Omega Eggs were first sold at the Dairy Store on our East Campus. Omega Eggs have been available for purchase there since 1995. It turns out that Sheila Scheidler, then a poultry scientist with UNL, created a patented system (the university holds the patent and trade mark on Omega Eggs) to efficiently produce eggs high in Omega fatty acids.

You Really Are What You Eat

It turns out that the old saying you are what you eat is really true in the case of the chicken and then eggs. By altering the hens diets to include grains rich in Omega fatty acids such as flax seed (Omega 3 fatty acids), chickens are able to produce healthier eggs. Omega eggs have more omega fatty acids, lower cholesterol, and about half the fat of regular eggs. Two Omega Eggs have the equivalent amount of Omega fatty acids of one serving of salmon.

Omega Eggs v. Standard Eggs

 Type of MeasurementOmega EggStandard Egg
 Size of Egg60g – 1 large60g – 1 large
Calories7575
Total Fat6 grams6 grams
Sturated Fat1.5 grams2.2 grams
Polyunsaturated Fat1.35 grams.90 grams
n-6 Fatty Acids750 mg800mg
n-3 Fatty Acids350 mg60 mg
C18:3250 mg40 mg
C22:6100 mg20 mg
n-6:n-3 Ratio2.613
Monosaturated Fats2.8 grams2.4 grams
Cholesterol180 mg210 mg

Not convinced? Check out this study by Nancy Lewis, (UNL professor of Nutrition Science), Sheila E. Scheidler (UNL professor of Animal Science), and Kim Schalch (a dietician in Lincoln, NE, formerly a UNL graduate research assistant at UNL.

Bizzare Imaginings illustrated by Jeff Deards: a semi-crazed scientist extracting the yolk with a giant syringe, swirling it about in a beaker with a neon blue solution to extract the bad fat, injecting it with Omega fatty acids and then pacing it carefully back inside the eggshell.
Bizzare Imaginings

In a controlled experiment researchers studied 25 volunteers (13 men and 12 women) with high cholesterol (and no other diagnosed health conditions). Volunteers were divided into three groups all of whom ate a self-selected diet. These groups were differentiated by their egg consumption: two Omega eggs per day six days, versus those who ate two regular eggs six days a week,, and those who ate no eggs. The study looked at several factors but the really interesting thing was that there was that those eating Omega Eggs showed no increase in cholesterol while their serum triglyceride levels decreased by 14%. (High triglycerides are bad because they increase your risk of heart disease.

One should, of course, eat all things in moderation; too much of anything is bad for you. But if you’re a big egg fan like my husband, next time you’re in the grocery store you might think about buying those Omega Eggs even though they cost more. They just might help you live longer, and they’re a lot tastier than fish oil pills!

Learn More:

NebGuide G2032: Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids
(Learn about these important nutrients and foods rich in them.)
Published by University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension, Insitute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, written by Lisa D. Fanzen-Castle and Paula Ritter-Gooder

Agreement Makes NU’s Omega Eggs Available at Hy-Vee Stores in Seven States
Published by the Scarlet
March 1st, 2001

Image Credits: 1) Chicken in the Garden by HardworkingHippy CC BY-SA 2.0, 2) Eggs Copyright Jeffrey & Kiyomi Deards 2011 Used with permission. 3) Bizarre Imaginings Copyright Jeffrey & Kiyomi Deards 2011 Used with permission.