Fast As Lightning

It's my birthday tomorrow! The big 21. I am actually pretty unhappy about getting older, I have to admit, and have not really been looking forward to my birthday. However, my amazing aunty gave me some money to buy this dress for my 21st, so things aren't all that bad ;) This pastel purple sweater was such a good find (yep, another one from the op shop that's just a stroll from my house. That store is totally going to empty my bank account...) and I've also been into wearing kitsch badges as brooches lately, after my friend found all these awesome 90s badges for me (like my Peter Pan and Science Museum ones). This hedgehog one is still pretty kitsch, but also suits the pastel colours of my outfit. sweater - Thrifted blouse - Forever 21 shorts - c/o Sheinside socks - c/o Oasap tights - c/o Oasap boots - Asos (similar) See how my shorts have got lightening bolts on them? Well that's convenient, because today I'm going to talk about a new idea of what causes lightning strikes! Running against the most accepted idea for what causes lightning - collisions between ice crystals in clouds and hail stones - a new scientific paper released the other day suggests that it's actually cosmic rays, from far off in the universe, that cause lighting strikes. So we know what lightning is - an electrostatic discharge between clouds and the surface of the Earth (like a 1000x bigger version of taking off a static-y jumper and zapping yourself), but are not entirely sure what causes the build up of electricity in the clouds to occur. Firstly what are cosmic rays? They are streams of high energy particles travelling through space nearly at the speed of light, which come from far away in the galaxy, probably from supernova explosions (when massive stars explode and die). And how can cosmic rays cause lighting? Well, these high energy particles get inside our atmosphere and become ionised (they lose or gain electrons). This leads to a lot of free electrons floating around. When these collide with water atoms in clouds, more electrons are released, which sets off an "avalanche" of high-energy particles that builds up until it discharges into the Earth (read more here). So firstly, I had no idea that we weren't sure what caused lightning. And now it's even more uncertain. It's really cool that we are still investigating the cause of something that seems as everyday as a lightning storm, when we can also make computers and flying cars (yes really) and print organs from machines, and although it can sometimes seem like we are living in the future, we still have so much to learn. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

I Love My Thrift Shop / People Who Don't Perceive Pain

I know I keep going on about it, but I managed to find the best stuff at my local thrift shop the other day, this baby blue sweater and orange blazer included. I really like pairing light blue and orange together, it's one of my favourite colour combinations (after lilac + orange). sweater - Thrifted blazer - Thrifted skirt - c/o Sheinside shoes - Chicory tights - c/o Oasap necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy In psychology the other day, I learnt about a really interesting (and somewhat terrifying) super rare condition called "congenital analgesia". People with the condition, like Ashlyn Blocker, don't ever feel physical pain. Congenital insensitivity to pain is usually caused by a mutation in DNA on what is known as the "SCN9A" gene. The normal function of the gene is to assist in sending signals from nerve cells to the brain. An essential part of one type of nerve cells is to detect and transmit pain signals (so you know to draw your hand back when you touch something hot, for example). The mutation in this gene inhibits the sensation of pain, and so people with this particular mutation don't ever feel physical pain. This is chromosome number 2 (out of 23), and this is the location of the gene on that chromosome. We all have this gene, but in people with congenital analgesia, it has become mutated (image source) At first, not feeling pain might sound like a gift or some kind of superpower, until you consider how important pain really is for our survival. For example, Ashlyn could happily plunge her hands into boiling water, and the first hint she might get that something is wrong  (apart from now having learnt from experience that putting body parts in boiling water is not a good thing to do) is when her hands are totally cooked and melted away. Or, you might know that you're sick and have to go to the doctor when you get really bad stomach pains - but if you have congenital analgesia, you wouldn't get this warning signal that something is wrong. This article tells of a woman with the condition who gave birth, and didn't realise her pelvis had been totally shattered in labour and was bleeding internally until she was physically unable to walk a few weeks later. Although life without pain is actually a lot tougher than you would think, Ashlyn Blocker and other people with congenital analgesia have helped science greatly by providing clues as to what can cause pain signals to go the other way - being over-sensitive and causing chronic pain for no reason, for example - and may be able to help with treatments of these conditions in the future. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Carousel / DIY Science Experiments

This gorgeous new dress lent itself perfectly to long, curly orange hair and a big floppy hat. Isn't the print on this dress lovely? I really, really want to wear it to some kind of amusement park, a fair or even to some market stalls. Visually, it would go so well with fairy floss and a big old-school rainbow lollipop. *Sigh* if only I knew people who  were crazy about doing a whole day's worth of themed photo-shoots, and really wanted to use me as a model. I had to take these photos on my own with a tripod, and it's okay because it's just in my backyard, but taking the whole set-up out to an amusement park on my own would be a little bit too daunting (and difficult)! dress - c/o Sheinside socks - c/o Sock Dreams shoes - c/o Chictopia Shop bag - Thrifted hat - somewhere in Osaka wig - c/o Choies I'm going to do a little series on DIY home science experiments! Here's the first: putting a corn starch solution on a speaker. This is how you make it, although I claim no responsibility for ruined speakers. I am so going to try this out soon. First, let this video inspire you: What's happening? Well, this corn-starch solution, called "oobleck", is what is known as a "shear-thickening" fluid. This means when you apply force or stress to the liquid, it becomes thicker, or more viscous. If you threw oobleck at a wall, rather than exploding in all directions like any normal fluid (like water) would, it will instead bounce right off the wall before settling on the ground and becoming a puddle of goop. You can see a cool video of people running over oobleck here. I'm not entirely sure what's happening in the above video, but I guess that the sound waves, which are causing vibrations, apply a small amount of stress to the liquid, causing it to become slightly more viscous as the vibrations move it around, which give the weird temporary moving "monster" structures you saw above. Or something else is going on, because oobleck is a fluid with some really weird properties (if you guys know how it works, let me know!) Also, apparently, lower frequencies work best, so use a song with a lot of bass or deep voices :) Good luck! Let me know if you try it out! p.s. I announced a 1 million pageviews giveaway earlier today, if you missed it! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Stripes, Denim & Science Museums / The World's Smallest Movie

I'm wearing pants! What is this unusual thing? I just counted, and out of all the outfits I've worn on my blog, I've worn jeans just three times. Usually, I don't wear jeans because I feel like they look too casual, and I feel too boring wearing them (I am someone who dresses up even when going up the street to buy bread). However, when I saw these stripey ones on Sheinside I thought I'd give jeans another go, because the bold vertical stripes are far from unnoticeable. My friend Hannah gave me these badges that she thrifted the other day. Aren't they sweet? I LOVE the science museum one, and they go super well with this denim tie-shirt. jeans - c/o Sheinside denim shirt - c/o Oasap badges - Gift from my friend Hannah (thrifted) shoes - c/o Topb2c Did you guys catch this the other day? Using a machine that can move around single atoms on surfaces, and by moving atoms one at a time, scientists at IBM have created "The World's Smallest Movie". The images in the movie are magnified about 100 million times, and the whole thing was captured at -260°C. Each frame features a separate picture, put together using a stop-motion animation technique. The movie itself is not going to win any Nobel prizes, but it shows the kind of awesome things you can achieve if you work in science. And it does raise possibilities for future technologies. Atoms, the smallest "unit" that makes up everything in our universe, including your computer, your chair and you yourself, are so incomprehensibly tiny. I can't even believe that we can see and image them, let alone show off and make a movie out of them. Here's a link to a video about the making of the movie, which is worth a watch, but I've embedded the actual "World's Smallest Movie" below for your viewing pleasure: Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Teapot Dress & My New House

GUYS, THIS DRESS. It's got TEAPOTS on it. I'm pretty sure that this is one of the best prints that I've ever seen on a dress. And you can get it here if you're as in love with it as I am. Oh, and see this new background? I'm at my new house! And I have this pretty new photo-taking spot, and apart from the window behind me kind of making it look like I have antennae coming out of my head, I think it's pretty nice. Anyway, speaking of my new house, it's almost all set up and it's very very pretty and I'm really proud of it, so I'll hopefully get some shots of it up soon (if that's something people would like to see?) dress - c/o Sheinside shoes - Chicory clips - DIY Something amazing happened in neuroscience the other day and I of course have to share it with you. Image Source Scientists from Stanford University developed a technique which can turn biological tissue transparent (they showed this by making a mouse brain completely clear), while keeping it's original shape. This is going to make it so much easier to study cells like neurons,  which are all densely packed inside the brain, without having to make a billion million individual slices of the brain. And the technique can be used on any tissue, not just brain tissue. It's an exciting time to be going into neuroscience :D Read more here. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Panda Bears and Flowers / Clever Hans

Yep, it happened again, I murdered another plush toy to make a cute bag out of it. Inappropriate-guilty-feelings aside, I am actually so happy with this panda bear backpack. And I bought him for $3 from an op shop (yes, it's a male panda bear), so at least there were no sentimental attachments there. If you missed it the first time around, I wrote up some instructions on how to make a DIY plush toy bag here. The only difference with this one is that I added two straps (thrifted belts) instead of one! My pretty floral blouse & red skirt are both from Sheinside! Many thanks to Sheinside for providing them to style! blouse - c/o Sheinside skirt - c/o Sheinside socks - Shop With Romi shoes - c/o Yes Walker bag - DIY hat - c/o Wholesale If you're a casual reader of science stories (or have joined IFLS on facebook) you may have heard people talking about "blinding", or that an experiment was not reliable because it wasn't "blinded" or even "double-blinded". You may have thought, what on earth does "blinding" mean and more importantly, how on earth does anyone know what's happening if no one can see what's going on?? Well "blinding" is one of the most important concepts to science. Human beings, clever as we may be, are unfortunately very susceptible to something called bias - that is, seeing what you want to believe. That's where the story of Clever Hans comes in. Clever Hans was the name of a horse who lived in the early 1900s. His owner claimed that Clever Hans could not only count, but could also do complex maths problems and understand German. His owner would ask him questions, and Clever Hans would answer by tapping his foot. His owner paraded his horse around Germany, showing off his apparent skills. Clever Hans performing in the 1900s in Germany. Also check out all them boater hats - I'd be so trendy if I were to go back to 1906 ;) (Image source) Clever Hans was investigated by veterinarians and teachers. They removed the audience to make sure Clever Hans wasn't getting cues from them, and they even used different questioners (other than the horse's owner) to rule out the possibility of fraud. Then they made a realisation - if the person asking the questions knew the answer to the questions, then Clever Hans would get the right answer 89% of the time. But if the person asking the questions didn't know the answers themselves, Clever Hans was only right 6% of the time. It seemed that Clever Hans was clever in a way, although he didn't know how to count or do maths - he had learnt to tap his foot whenever the questioner expected the horse to tap its foot. Take away the expectations of the questioner, and the horse had no idea. This was a very important observation for science and where the idea of "double blinding" comes from. Now scientists make sure, especially in fields where animals or humans are being measured, that not only does the participant not know what condition they are in, but the experimenter is also "blind" to the conditions of the experiment as well. Only at the end of the experiment, when all the tests have been done, are both the subject and experimenter allowed to know what was really going on. And that's your neat science fact of the day. p.s. I announced another giveaway earlier today! Enter here if you haven't already. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Monochrome / Tadpoles & Colour Vision

How cool are these tights? I'm a bit worried about wearing them about now I'm back in Australia - I've already had some "hilarious" comments from random seedy men about how I accidently put on odd tights HAHA (you're all so original) :| - as people seem to think they're a little bit odd. But then I remember that you should always dress for yourself, and if people find you strange or amusing, well, you're just making the world a more interesting place. blouse - c/o EFoxCity skirt - c/o Sheinside sweater - c/o Sheinside tights - tight store in Japan shoes - Asos necklace and headband - Claire's (Japan) In science news today, researchers in America were able to transplant eyes into tadpole's tails, and through nervous connection with the spinal cord, the tadpoles were able to see. Through their tails. The tadpoles were able to distinguish not only light and dark through their tail-eyes, but different colours as well. The researchers wanted to look at the ways that the brain can adapt to new signals, or signals coming from unexpected places. This is suuuper important stuff in designing prosthetic eyes for people who are blind, or types of blindness where the the eye functions fine but the brain "misreads" the information coming in from the eye. Read more about it here. I hope you're all very well!

Denim Overalls & Universal Studios

For our two-year anniversary date, Luciano and I went to Universal Studios in Osaka. The whole place is full of different themed, amazingly detailed towns and cities including New York, San Francisco and Hollywood, with replica sets from movies lining the streets of each one. I basically feel like I've gone to America now. It was snowing basically all day (and windy), and the really scary roller coaster was closed for maintenance :( but I got to ride in a Delorean so that made up for everything! wearing overalls - Vintage from WEGO sweater - c/o Sheinside headband & necklace - 315 yen store in Harajuku/Namba boots - Asos I can't believe that I have to leave this amazing country in just three days time. Hope you're all very very well,