 1 |
 2 |
 3 |
 4 |
 5 |
 6 |
 7 |
 8 |
 9 |
 10 |
 11 |
 12 |
 13 The Pacific Science Center does a visiting Scientist Spotlight every now and then. It is fantastic - the kids get to see real scientists talk about their work with engaging, hands-on displays. It is WHY I renewed our membership today. This woman works on a vaccine for leishmaniasis, a parasite that can be deadly. |
 14 Some drugs cause damage to the cells in your ears which have the little hairs on them - damaging hearing. She is designing drugs that don't damage these cells. |
 15 Sounds that are safe, and not safe. |
 16 This would block the drug from damaging the ear cells (red target). The Lego bricks would keep the drug from binding to that cell, protecting it. |
 17 Fish are used in the lab to look for genes that seem to be resistant to damage. |
 18 The fish with this pentagon-shaped "gene" retained their hairs even when exposed to the drug. So...what proteins do their genes code for? How can we learn from that? |
 19 The only shape (gene) in common to all the fish with the hair still on was the pentagon "gene." |
 20 An anthropologist talks about figuring out how many people lived at a site based on what they left behind. Very interesting. |
 21 Pulling back layers of dirt to uncover what might have been a cooking site. This turned into a longer chat than you might think - how can you tell how quickly people left? |
 22 This scientist works for a cancer research center. He is a veterinarian as well. Very nice guy. Also liked crystals and rock collections as a kid. Turns out some viruses assume a crystal shape to be able to pack into a space more efficiently. The octahedron is a preferred shape. Sam liked that. This is us invading cells with our viruses. Some cells are easier to invade than others. |
 23 Once in, the virus takes over the cell's machinery and makes more copies of itself. Fascinating and horrible little beasts. Fearsome things, viruses. I love them. |
 24 Did our viruses infect the monkey? Nope! |
 25 Butterfly garden. |
 26 Like a walk through Hawaii. |
 27 We loved this guy. |
 28 Thermal imaging display - very hot forehead! |
 29 Loved reading this! One just never knows. |
 30 This is Ben. My nose is yellow - very cool nose! |
 31 Doing a slide - from basketball. |
 32 On the monorail heading back to the ferry. Boys are just being silly - he looks mad but isn't :) |
 33 Trying to capture sweet shots - ha! |
 34 Uh oh - look where mommy turned in! A cupcake shop!!! |
 35 Yum - a cupcake with a view. I actually showed some restraint and brought one home to Dave, PLUS half of mine. They were good but rather disgusting, even for me! |
 36 Spotted in Seattle, for a friend who loves mustaches! |
 37 The boys love this ferris wheel and all its colors. |
 38 Watercolor effect on camera... |
 39 They just zoned out watching the patterns change. |
 40 We saw a documentary about the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Holy cow the work and the loss of life invested. Unbelievable. Led by two Americans - Van Horn (builder) and Rogers (eccentric surveyor). Really made an impression on us and now we want to take that route through magestic mountains and lakes - Banff, Whistler, Lake Louise... |
 41 |
 42 Couldn't have had a prettier day... |
 43 Even Rainier was out! Third hump past the ball fields. These cranes at rest reminded us of the hard work logging and railway building. |
 44 Approaching Bainbridge now. Daddy is at work, but we had a great day and sent him many pictures. He is happy we made good use of our last weekend on break. I will miss the boys! |
