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I’m headed back home for a few bittersweet days with family. I’ll get back to the #disneyvillainscience as soon as I can! Scientists don’t have all the answers about why we miss people but our best guess now is that it functions biologically kind of like withdrawal. Spending time with loved ones increases the relative amount of chemicals like oxytocin in the body. Leaving results in needing to adjust to a new normal, lower level of neurotransmitters. What do you miss most about “home”? I miss Disneyland’s shows. Oh and board games with my dad and my mom’s cooking. 😜 #disneypins #pintrading #neuroscience #psychology #disneyishome #disneyhome #familytime #disneypintrading #disneypintraders #disneypintrade #sleepingbeauty #sleepingbeautycastle #makeitpinkmakeitblue #itsasmallworld #smallworld #disneyblogger #disneylandap #apholder #passholder #annualpassholder

Day 7 of #disneyvillainscience: Captain Hook It was actually very unlikely that any pirates actually wore hooks for hands. Although injuries were common aboard pirate ships and hooks were somewhat common as a prosthetic, pirates rarely wore hooks because they put them at a disadvantage while pirating; instead they were more likely to be forced into retirement. It was probably more common for people to have fake hands manufactured from lightweight wood that were strapped not just to the end of the arm, but to the upper arm or over the shoulder. But that’s not quite menacing enough for a Disney villain! Prosthetics have come a long way since the golden age of piracy. Prosthetics are much more lightweight now - new materials like carbon fiber are improving the lives of amputees because they can do the activities they love more easily. It sounds like sci-fi instead of a swashbuckler, but scientists are now re-directing the nerves that previously controlled the nerves in an arm or hand to control other muscles in the body, such as a patient's chest muscles. Attaching electrodes to those same chest muscles that are wired to a prosthetic can then be controlled by thinking about the amputated body part (Kuiken's research at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago). Researchers have also been experimenting with implanting micro-electrodes into the brain to control prosthetic limbs more directly (Nicolelis Lab at Duke University). Unfortunately, some patients (and pirates probably too) still feel pain in their amputated limbs - a phenomenon called phantom pain that is most common if an arm or leg has been removed. Even though the body part isn't there anymore, nerves in the spinal cord are still sending signals to the brain as they adjust to no longer having input from the limb; the brain is believed to interpret this disorder as pain. What is the hardest thing you can imagine doing with a hook for a hand? #pirate #captainhook #piratesofthecaribbean #wewantstheredhead #redd #neuroscience #amputation #hookhand #disneyvillains #disneyvillain #pirates #neuron #phantompain #prosthetics

Bonus #disneyvillainscience post because it’s #indigenouspeoplesday and Columbus is a real-life villain. Some estimates say that 95% of the population of the Americas - about 20 million people - were killed after the European invasion. And smallpox was a big reason for that. Europeans had built up immunity to mutated strains of animal diseases over generations, but the people of Americas had not. Smallpox is a virus. A virus is made up of genetic material (DNA or RNA) covered in protein that must be inside another cell to survive. The smallpox virus replicates in the cytoplasm of cells after entering the respiratory tract, then spreads to the bloodstream, lymphatic cells, and into skin cells. Symptoms included high fever, backache, headache, exhaustion and then a progressive skin rash that turns into pustules. The disease was spread through the air, usually during face-to-face contact with a contagious person. But using bedding or clothing with fluid from other patients can also spread the disease. It was estimated that 3 out of every 10 people who had smallpox died. Thankfully, we have developed an effective vaccine against smallpox but the disease was not eliminated completely until 1968. Now, we do not vaccinate against smallpox. To learn more, search Guns, Germs, and Steel or for the CDC and NIH pages on smallpox. PS. Pocahontas is a deeply problematic film even though it is one of the few Disney movies with a woman of color as a protagonist. For one, Pocahontas was just a nickname. Most importantly though, the movie and the story reinforce white privilege because white people can come away from the movie feeling like the relationship between Algonquians and colonists was peacefully resolved. Because one Native American woman worshipped white culture, colonization was fine. PPS. I could not find a review of Disney’s Pocahontas written by a Native American author. We need to do more work to amplify the voices of Native Americans but cannot expect them to always do the emotional labor for non-Native persons. A 2017 Smithsonian film, Pocahontas: Beyond the Myth seems to be the most-informed version of the story.

Day 6 of #disneyvillainscience: Why are roses red? (Or any other color) ❤️Because I apparently don’t like Alice in Wonderland enough to ever take photos of #queenofhearts related items, please accept these somewhat relevant photos and nauseating Boomerang. 🖤The Queen of Hearts is infamous for wanting to paint the roses red, but paint isn’t how flowers get their color. 🌈The color of flowers is caused primarily by molecules called pigments - specifically anthocyanins(💜💙❤️), carotenoids(🧡💛), and chlorophyll(💚). The ratio of these compounds also determines the color of leaves at different times of year! 🔬We can produce flowers with unusual colors by manipulating the expression of certain genes that will inhibit or promote the production of certain chemical compounds. Specifically, an enzyme called F3’5’H is almost essential for creating rarer blue-colored flowers. 💧The pH of the water in vacuoles in the plant’s cells also affects flower color. A higher pH leads to a redder tint. A lower pH leads to a bluer tint. This is why you can change the color of white petals by changing the pH or giving plants colored water. 🥀Metal ions (especially iron and aluminum) also affect the color of plants. Lower concentrations of metal ions results in redder flowers. 🌹All three of these factors depend on how many hydroxyl (OH) groups are attached to the chemical compounds in the flower petals. 💐🌸🌻What’s your favorite color and type of flower? . #flowers #alice #aliceinwonderland #disneyvillains #disneyvillain #mickeyears #mickeyandthemagicalmap #smallworld #disneypins #flowerscience #flowers #autumnleaves #diymickeyears #angiosperm #disneyblogger #scienceofdisney #plants #plantscience #whiterabbit #roses #painttherosesred #flowerpetals

Day 5 of #disneyvillainscience: Women-on-women hate In an era where the patriarchy (especially #whitemaleprivilege) is repeatedly upheld, I needed to take a moment for something other than science, through Disney of course. 👯‍♀️Thinking that conventionally-attractive women are lesser is ugly. 🙅🏻‍♀️Thinking that any woman is lesser is ugly. 🙅🏼‍♀️Women tearing each other down is ugly. 🙅🏽‍♀️Slut-shaming is ugly. 🙅🏾‍♀️Cat-calling is ugly. 🙅🏿‍♀️Calling women bossy is ugly. 🤦🏻‍♀️Blaming “that time of the month” is ugly. 🤦🏼‍♀️Unwarranted comments on a woman’s appearance are ugly. 🤦🏽‍♀️The wage gap is ugly. 🤦🏾‍♀️Exoticizing women of color is ugly. 🤦🏿‍♀️“Boys will be boys” is ugly. . 💁🏻‍♀️Intersectionality is beautiful. 💁🏼‍♀️Believing women is beautiful. 💁🏽‍♀️Voting, especially for female candidates, is beautiful. 💁🏾‍♀️Immigrants are beautiful. 💁🏿‍♀️Feminism is beautiful. 🙋🏻‍♀️Equity is beautiful. 🙋🏼‍♀️Valuing women for traits besides their appearance is beautiful. 🙋🏽‍♀️Being an ally is beautiful. 🙋🏾‍♀️Activism is beautiful. 🙋🏿‍♀️Every woman (or female-identifying person) is beautiful. . Every human shares approximately 99.9% of their DNA with every other human. So why don’t we treat each other as equals? . As for sisters, they can prevent their siblings from feeling lonely, unloved, guilty, self-conscious and fearful (Padilla-Walker et al, 2010). Having a loving sibling also increases the likelihood of performing good deeds. . I haven’t been able to find much research on how this applies to non-familial sisterhood but it probably wouldn’t hurt to be a little more sisterly to each other. . #disneyprincess #women #feminism #feminist #womeninstem #womeninscience #sisterhood #disneybound #evilstepsisters #drizella #anastasia #disneybounding #uglystepsisters #cinderella #womyn #herstory #princess

Day 4 of #disneyvillainscience for #bambi - Why are some forest fires more destructive? 🔥One of the primary factors affecting how destructive a forest fire can be is the density of the forest. The videos I've included are NetLogo models showing the spread of fire in forests of different densities. The more trees that are closer to a fire, the more widespread the burn will be. These models suggest that at around a density of 59% (second video), there is an almost equal likelihood that a fire will be devastating or negligible. Although models can't explain why this critical point is where it is, they suggest that the density of forests should be kept below this critical point. One way to facilitate this is to allow smaller fires or controlled burns because they clear out more trees and undergrowth that, if not burned, could increase the density beyond the critical point. 👩🏼‍🔬But these models don't take into a lot of other factors, like wind, temperature, moisture, material, or topography. Or, you know, firefighters. 🌪Wind affects fires because winds bring more oxygen to the fire. Fires can also create their own winds because they cause temperature differences in the air around the fire, just like what causes tornadoes. Fire vortices increase the spread and speed of the fire because they can launch embers in new directions. 💦Moisture of the fuel affects the rate of the fire because the heat energy of the fire goes towards evaporating water before heating up the solid material. Higher temperatures also dry out materials and prime the fuel to burn more quickly. Unsurprisingly then, fires are usually more devastating in the drier, hotter months and after drought. 🏔These models also oversimplify the problem of fires because they represent the fire as occurring on a 2D surface rather than on a 3D surface like in the real world. Fires spread more quickly going uphill because the heat and smoke rises and dries out fuel higher up the hill. Additionally, winds usually flow uphill. 👩🏿‍🚒The quicker firefighters can cool or moisten the fire, the faster it’ll be extinguished. All this makes science heroic too, right? #disneyvillains #firefighter #wildfire #science

Day 3 of #disneyvillainscience: Why does music sound scary? 👹🎼A tritone - two notes that are three whole steps apart - was known as the "devil in music" in the middle ages and has been identified as the most dissonant or unpleasant to the human ear. For people who know their notes, this would be like playing F and B together, in-between two of the most pleasant intervals in Western music - the 5th and the 4th. 👹⛰It is particularly fitting then, that Mussogorsky's "Night on Bald Mountain", an orchestral piece written to tell the story of worshipping the Russian God of Evil Chernabog, is rife with tritones. Tritones are thought to sound unpleasant because the sound waves of the notes in a tritone chord do not overlap in a regular, patterned way. This contrasts with harmonious chords which, in addition to having patterned sound waves, also elicit release of dopamine in the brain. (Daniel Levitin has some good work on dissonance) 🎺🎻Furthermore, the crashing cymbals, blatted horn ensembles, and screeching string phrases that punctuate Stokowsky's arrangement of "Night on Bald Mountain" used in Disney's Fantasia have elements of nonlinear chaotic noise. This is the kind of noise that baby animals make when they are distressed and want the attention of their parents and is characterized by irregular scratchy sounds. Scientists believe we have evolved to find this kind of noise alarming to be able to care for our young. (Look up Daniel Blumstein's work to learn more) 🧠😲Certain areas of the brain are activated by dissonant music and connect to the amygdala to associate these sounds with fear. Patients with damage to the amygdala rate scary music as less scary than control subjects. But there is also a cultural influence on our perceptions of music that cannot be discounted. Not all cultures rate music as equally scary as people in Western cultures and we likely think some music is scary because similar sounds have been used in scary movies repeatedly. #disneyvillains #disneyvillain #chernabog #fantasia #fantasmic #fantasia2000 #neuroscience #sound #physics #music #musicology #devil #tritone #sorcerermickey #classicalmusic #disneymovie #disneyscience #disneypins

He’s a whale of a whale! Monstro is said to be a combination of a sperm whale and a blue whale but these two whales are actually pretty different! 🐳Blue whales are baleen whales meaning their mouths have bristle-like filters made of the same material as fingernails and rhino horns instead of teeth (and rely on a diet of mostly krill). Blue whales are the largest creatures to have ever lived (yes, bigger than dinosaurs!). The purpose of blue whale vocalizations are currently unknown - they could be for locating prey or for social communication among other whales. 🐳Sperm whales are toothed whales and have the largest brains of any creature on earth. Sperm whales have layers of oil and fat above their skulls called spermaceti which was a valuable substance for lighting lamps and led to them being hunted. Due to the higher density of molecules in this fatty spermaceti, sound waves are transmitted through it really quickly - 2684 meters per second (compare this to the speed of sound in air 343 m/s or sound in water 1498 m/s) 🐳The spermaceti aids sperm whales in making sounds for echolocation and social communication. The fatty substance functions essentially like an amplifier of the sound created when a valve closes in their nasal passages. The sound waves bounce off of the smaller fatty knobs within the spermaceti and add together to make louder and louder sound (such a cool application of constructive interference). This is kind of like an optical lens focusing a beam of light. Once the amplified sound wave reaches the end of the fatty substance, it is sent out into the water at a volume of up to 200 decibels (about as loud as a rocket launch). 🐳When these loud sounds encounter things in the environment, the waves bounce back or echo. Then, the whale perceives these echoes by calculating the small difference in time that it takes the echoes to reach different sensory receptors. This works much like human hearing but is more sensitive because whales likely have more neurons and more brain area dedicated to auditory processing whereas humans have more dedicated to visual processing. Maybe that’s why we can appreciate Disney movies so much. 🐳 #disneyvillainscience

“Her breath will still, her blood congeal.” 🍎First post of my month-long series of #disneyvillainscience so I had to go with the OG Disney villain! 🍎The Evil Queen is notorious for her poison apple. Poison is actually a category that includes toxins and venoms. Toxins are poisonous substances produced naturally; venoms are toxins that are injected through a bite or sting. 🍎Many poisons work by inhibiting biochemical processes. For example, cyanide inhibits the enzyme that makes ATP in mitochondria which essentially inhibits cells - especially in the heart and nervous system - from carrying out many essential cellular processes that require energy. 🍎After ingestion or injection, poisons spread through tissue in organisms via diffusion. You might remember from your science classes that this is the process of chemicals moving from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. The poison molecules aren’t deciding to move to the low concentration area but rather an even distribution of molecules emerges as the molecules spread out from moving randomly. And mathematicians even have an equation - Fick’s Law - to calculate how quickly this diffusion might happen. It depends on the concentration and the distance that the diffusing substance has to travel. This diffusion process occurs when the poison enters the bloodstream and across cell membranes throughout an organism’s body. 🍎Based on the Queen’s description, the poison was intended to stop Snow White’s breathing and solidify her blood in addition to putting her into a coma. This could have been caused via a pulmonary blood clot which would need to increase the concentration of the clotting factor thrombin - not many chemicals do this except some snake venoms. The drugs in lethal injections also perform similar functions - unconsciousness, stopping the heart and the lungs. But neither of these methods are fast-acting through oral ingestion, so the poison apple was indeed pretty magical. Or the Evil Queen sneakily stabbed Snow White with a medieval needle.🍎💉 #evilqueen #poisonapple #poison #venom #oldhag #snowwhite #snowwhiteandthesevendwarfs #disneymovie #disneyvillains #science #scienceofdisney

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