Science Ain't So Bad

BLOOD TYPES

If you know your blood type it’s probably because you “gave at the office”.

Mister ScienceAintSoBad is proud of you.

If you ever need a transfusion, knowing your blood type may come in handy. A common complication of mis-typed blood is death. If you have trouble remembering whether you’re A, B, AB, or O (or Rh positive or negative), this isn’t exactly going to thrill your pants off but you now also have to know if you are “Langeries” or “Junior” too.

Actually? Hang on to those pants okay? There were already 30 recognized blood types before the new ones came along.

Didn’t know that, did you? Two more blood types brings it to 32.

This is the work of University of Vermont biologist Bryan Ballif (Nature Genetics). And he didn’t exactly “discover” Junior and Langeries. What he did was  get rid of the mystery surrounding them and their genetic structure. Now we know how and why they do what they do.

Your chances of being anything other than A, B, AB, or O are about the same as meeting a Martian on match.com.

(No KIDDING? Well sorry to rub salt into a wound then.)

Ballif’s work is a good thing. First of all, for the small number of people who are in these new groupings this reduces the risk of nasty transfusion reactions. And the proteins associated with these new blood types have some interesting anti-cancer properties which may lead to new therapies. Mostly, this is how science works. One step at a time. Little drama.. Put the pieces together, though, and suddenly things come into focus.

ScienceAintSoBadRating =9. Not bad!

Listen. I don’t want to leave you all worried about this. “Instant blood typing” is common now. So you don’t have to tape your blood type to your nose if you don’t want to. In fact, a team of chemical engineers  at Monash University headed by professor Gil Garnier (Analytical Chemistry) are working on a paper test strip for blood typing. 

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Image credits: Maybe I should have said discredits. This one isn’t exactly inspired. But, anyway, it’s all mine

Facebook? What you need is a dog.

Dear Mr SASB: My so-called friends think I’m a loser. Maybe they have a point. I’m  an uncoordinated klutz. I have braces and zits. Still. I’m like “screw them. I’ll just hang out on Facebook where it’s cool”. My old friends? They totally sucked anyway. My dad says this is unhealthy. He says I should check with Mister SASB who considers himself a frugging expert in almost everything. So? Are you cool with this or what? – EmilyKickMe4

Listen,you little pipsqueak, I AM an expert on everything. Everything that matters.

Teenagers aren’t on the list.

So your real friends think you’re a ditz and treat you like a putz. But on Facebook you ARE someone. A new person with a wall of your own. It’s not real life, but who cares? Whatever works.

Let’s look at the science.

Amanda Forest and Joanne Wood wondered about this exact thing. Can you really slip out of your old skin, slip a social network over your bones, and be better off?

The article in Psychological Sciences says no.

If you have an ” I am pathetic” sticker on your personality it will follow you to Facebook and Google+. Low self esteemers can’t stop putting themselves down. Not even in the digital world . Pretty soon their new online pals start to think of them as dweebs just like the flesh-and-blooders did that they thought they had left behind. Bad as real life is, at least, when people find you annoying you can see it on their faces. Not on Facebook. I know what the name says but those “faces” aren’t real. Just pixelated images which don’t give the kind of feedback that is needed.

The article by Forest and Wood implies you shouldn’t run away from your troubles. You should face them. If you are your own worst enemy, don’t try to make it better on Facebook. Get a dog.

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Image credits go to MISTER SASB (our Luna on the left,  her boyfriend, Bailey, on the right).