Today, March 24th, is Ada Lovelace Day, a day when the online world celebrates women in science and technology. As many of you know, my wife is a molecular biologist at the University of Arizona who most definitely deserves celebrating. Why, here she is now with the entire Parker Lab:

In case it wasn’t obvious, she’s the one with the red circle around her face. And, yes, they’re dressed in white water rafting gear, which doesn’t have diddly squat to do with their science. It has everything to do with having fun, though.

She often says that the coolest part of her job is that she gets to “add new knowledge to the world.” I’d have to agree. Her work is on protein regulation, which is another way of saying that she’s trying to figure out how our cells decide which proteins to make and why. Here are a few images of her recent results.

Ooooh, pretty.  And no, I don’t know what it means, either.

Well, happy Ada Lovelace Day, everyone! What are you going to do today to celebrate? I’d suggest a party. Everyone enjoys a nice party.

Learn more about Ada Lovelace Day and Ada herself at http://findingada.com/

My wife is pregnant with our first child. To most people who read this, that won’t be news; we’ve already announced it on Facebook, Twitter, the Ten Ton Studios message boards and any other social network my wife and I are members of, on the internet and off.

“So what’s the news,” you ask.

We recently had an ultrasound with super heroic results. Apparently, I have fathered Ghost Rider. Below is the actual image* from our latest ultrasound, where our child (we’re not going to learn the sex) is looking full into the ultrasound wand. That skull is my kid’s!

*Yes, the image is from the ultrasound. Yes, I used photoshop to add flames to my child’s head. Why are you looking at me like that?