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Asante sana squash banana, wewe ndugu mimi hapana Which means “Thank you very much, Squash banana, You’re a mandrill and I’m not” in Swahili What other Swahili words do you know? Rafiki is a mandrill but mandrills used to be classified as baboons so here’s some baboon facts. Baboons use more than 30 distinct vocalizations. English as a language uses approximately 44 different phonemes or sounds that are combined into over 170,000 words. Swahili has 37 distinct phonemes! Baboons definitely do eat bananas as well as other plant parts, small insects and meat like shellfish, birds or even small antelopes! Usually baboons live in groups from 50 to 300 related members! The horde of animals that attack Jane in Tarzan are baboons! What other animal facts do you think the new Lion King movie will get right or wrong? Also, shoutout to the @disneyphotopass cast member who made my day by using portrait mode, without asking, after a small child cut me in the queue! #rafiki #lionking #disneyphotopass #DisneyCharacters #DisneyCharacter #MickeyEars #DisneyPins #DisneyParks #TheLionKing #LionKing2019 #AsanteSana #AsanteSanaSquashBanana #Swahili #Simba #DisneyPhotoPass #Disneyland #DisneyScience #AnimalFacts #NationalBananaDay #Bananas #Baboon #Baboons #DisneylandAPHolder

“Let me tell ya ‘bout the birds and the bees And the flowers and the trees And the moon up above And a thing called love” Nine years ago today, Wings of Life, a Disney Nature film was released. It tells the love stories of flowers and the pollinators that spread the love. I enjoyed it, especially because it was like a more up close, more beautiful version of the Living with the Land attraction. There were also great recommendations of how everybody can help pollinators. 🌸Plant wildflowers along highways. These are public lands open to anyone. 🌸Plant window boxes of plants if you don’t have any outdoor space of your own. Try to use native species as much as possible. 🌸Replace grassy space with plants and wildflowers and encourage other people and local places to do the same! 🌸Teach others to appreciate the importance of flowers for human life. Every third human bite of produce is thanks to flowers and their natural pollinators. What’s your favorite flower? I’m partial to any purple ones. These here at the base of the Tree of Life likely are petunias! #FlowersOfDisneyWorld #FlowersOfDisneyland #PlantsOfDisneyland #PlantsOfDisneyWorld #DisneyScience #ScienceOfDisney #DisneyNature #Pollinator #Pollinators #TreeOfLife #DisneyFlowers #FlowerAndGardenFestival #FlowerAndGardenFestival2019 #EpcotFlowerAndGardenFestival #DisneyAnimalKingdom #DAK #DisneyMovies #AnimalKingdom #NameThatFlower

Happy belated birthday to these dinos Before moving to the Midwest for grad school, I didn’t know that chipmunks were real. Or what they even looked like in real life. While many people get confused between the red-nosed, gap-toothed, messy-haired Dale and his chocolate chip-nosed brother Chip, telling chipmunks apart from each other and from other similar species is even trickier. Most chipmunks have a set of stripes on their backs that sometimes continue onto their faces. Ground squirrels have body stripes but no head or face stripes. Tree squirrels usually have longer tails than both and do not have any stripes. Marmots and prairie dogs are also included in the same family as chipmunks and squirrels, but are larger, a bit chubbier and look more similar to beavers than to squirrels in my opinion. Chip and Dale would likely eat the acorns they are obsessed with, as well as twigs, berries, seeds, and leaves. Although Chip and Dale are not dinosaurs, the oldest squirrel family fossil dates back to around 40 million years ago and the squirrel family likely originated in North America! And I guess I just didn’t do enough exploring because chipmunks do in fact live in California. Are you more a fan of Chip or Dale? #ChipAndDale #Chipmunks #Squirrels #Chipmunk #Squirrel #DisneyScience #ScienceOfDisney #Dinosaurs #DinolandUSA #Chipmunkosaurus #DonaldsDinoBash #AnimalKingdom #DisneyAnimalKingdom #PhDLife #PhDStudent #Chippendale #Biology #Fossils #Disneybound #Disneybounding

Happy Autism Awareness Day! This is one of my favorite pins because it has all four park logos AND it supports a great cause. 1 in 59 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (Autism Speaks) but are Disney parks meeting the needs of these children and their families? The immersive nature of Disney theme parks may be awesome for a majority of guests, but can make it difficult for guests with extreme sensitivity to touch, light or sound to have a magical time. Disney World and Disneyland have special guidebooks for guests with cognitive disabilities like autism. The guides list each attraction in all the parks (except water parks) and whether it includes a variety of stimuli that might be overwhelming for guests with autism. For example, It’s Tough to Be a Bug has warnings about scents/smells, flashing lights, loud noises, periods of darkness, bumps, wetness and several surprise elements. But it isn’t fast, doesn’t lift off the ground, is relatively short, and does not have any kind of restraint. There is also a complementary guide that lists quiet areas in each park that are useful for other guests as well as guests with autism. One of my favorite spots is the seating area behind the flagpoles in Liberty Square! And I had no idea the lovely quiet area between Merida and Cosmic Ray’s was called Fairytale Gardens! But are Disney resorts doing enough? It was announced today that SeaWorld Orlando is a certified autism center. They worked with the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards to develop pre-planning resources that include a more detailed sensory guide than what Disney parks currently provide. They also provided autism awareness and sensitivity training to all of their cast members. What more should Disney Parks do to enhance the experience of guests with cognitive disabilities? #Autism #AutismAwareness #AutismAwarenessDay #DisneyParks #DisneyTrip #DisneyVacationPlanner #VacationPlanning #AutismSpectrumDisorder #DisneyPark #WDWAPHolder #AnnualPassholder #DisneylandResort #SeaWorld #SeaWorldOrlando #CognitiveDisability #PhDStudent #DisneyScience #ScienceOfDisney #DisneyPins

Wishing I could be in the cantina instead of the (Jedi) library My workout top is inspired by gel electrophoresis and I got it specifically because it looks like the books in the Jedi library. And there happens to be a wall inspired by this library in the Star Wars Launch Bay at Disneyland! Instead of books, gel electrophoresis allows scientists to organize DNA, RNA or protein molecules to help them answer questions. And instead of organizing by genre, author, or the Dewey decimal system, using gel electrophoresis arranges the molecules by size and charge. The pieces get arranged by size because the gel is kind of like an obstacle course sieve with lots of holes. The smaller, more nimble molecules can make it farther through the obstacle course than the larger, bulkier molecules. Each molecule of a certain length will collect in a band on the gel, like each glowing blue “book.” And because DNA and RNA have many components with negative electrical charge, they are more attracted to the positive finish line end of the gel than the negative starting line. Molecules with more positive charge will stay closer to the starting point. This library of differently-sized molecules has many applications. One of the most popular is for genetic fingerprinting. Luke Skywalker could have pipetted his DNA (cut into a lot of small pieces by special biological scissors) into a gel in one lane (yes, like for swimming), and Darth Vader’s DNA into another lane. Because Vader is Luke’s father, they would have similar bands of DNA in their lanes. And these two lanes would be more similar than if Luke compared his bands to Obi-wan Kenobi’s bands. Have you ever used gel electrophoresis? If so, for what? #GelElectrophoresis #DNA #RNA #Biology #Genetics #NucleicAcids #StarWars #Jedi #JediTraining #DisneyScience #ScienceOfDisney #StarWarsScience #theforceisstrongwiththisone #MayTheForceBeWithYou #Disneybound #DisneyParks #Disneybounding #Agarose #IAmYourFather #DarthVader #LukeSkywalker

Did you know the Fibonacci sequence was discovered because of rabbits? The sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and so on) is defined by adding the two previous numbers in the sequence to get the next sequence. Fibonacci discovered this pattern to figure out, hypothetically, how many rabbit pairs there would be at the end of one year, starting with the following assumptions: 0.start with one male and one female rabbit 0.rabbits mate at the age of one month so that at the end of its second month, a female can produce another pair of rabbits 0.rabbits never die and each pair always produces one new pair every month from the second month onwards But this does ignore many actual facts about rabbits. This pattern would require a lot of inbreeding that would likely lead to dead rabbits that aren’t accounted for. And male rabbits reach maturity around 3 months whereas female rabbits don’t sexually mature until about 6 months of age. Nevertheless, this sequence has been extremely useful for describing several real patterns found in nature. The number of petals on flowers, branches on trees, and spirals in pinecones and seed arrangements are usually Fibonacci numbers. These arrangements are though to be most optimal for resource allocation and uniform distribution. Furthermore, as the Fibonacci sequence reaches greater and greater numbers, dividing one number by the term before it gets closer and closer to the Golden Ratio. The shape of spirals in snail and nautilus shells and even galaxies like our very own Milky Way follow this ratio. #Fibonacci #Bambi #Thumper #Bunny #Rabbits #BunnyRabbits #Disneybound #DisneyboundChallenge #Disneybounding #MarchDisneyboundChallenge #FibonacciSequence #GoldenRatio #Phi #GoldenNumber #Nature #PhdLife #ScienceOfDisney #DisneyScience #Bunnies #MissBunny #PhDStudent #Mathematics

According to a 2015 NSF report, only 2% of employed engineers are Latina women. Audrey Rocio Ramirez is the bad-ass teenaged, lead mechanical engineer on the expedition to find Atlantis. She was basically a certified mechanic by age 7. She also knew how to handle Milo Thatch mansplaining boilers to her. Noramay Cadena grew up in LA and moved to Boston with her one-year-old daughter to earn her BS and MS in engineering as well as an MBA from MIT. She then worked at Boeing and founded both Latinas in STEM and Make in LA. She attributes her success to words of encouragement from another Latinx student and an internship opportunity from another woman leader at Boeing. Noramay also says that Latinx parents need role models too. Families are likely to be more supportive of students pursuing STEM careers if they have heard other success stories. Nora Naranjo works as a mechanical engineer in Silicon Valley. Originally from Baja California, Mexico, she advocates for more diversity in STEM because diversity builds better products. And to achieve that? In an interview with Forbes, she suggested working against minorities self-selecting out of STEM. This can be aided by making role models more visible. Several organizations sponsor scholarships and networks of mentors for Latinas in STEM. Check out The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Foundation, Gates Millennium Scholars Program, and the ASPIRA Association as well as SACNAS, the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. #LatinasInSTEM #Atlantis #Latinx #LatinxInSTEM #PhDLife #PhDStudent #Engineering #DiversityInSTEM #ScienceRepresentedXDisney #LatinaScientist #LatinaEngineer #WomenEngineer #WomenInEngineering #Disneybound #Disneybounding #MarchDisneyboundChallenge #SACNAS #MinoritiesInSTEM #AudreyRamirez #MiloThatch #Kida #MechanicalEngineer #MechanicalEngineering

“Grab your snacks, watch your screens, and see what happens. You are no longer in control. I am.” Can we be hypnotized by screens? Hypnosis or hypnotherapy is a trance-like state in which focus and concentration are heightened. It is often used to help cope with anxiety and pain or to help control undesirable behaviors. Unlike portrayals in popular movies like Incredibles 2, you don’t lose control of your behavior or forget what happened while you were hypnotized. Rather, you’re more relaxed, calm, and open to suggestion. Experiments during surgery have shown that hypnotized patients (compared to patients that received standard care) use less medication, experience less pain, and feel less anxious. However, because pain regulation involves multiple mechanisms, how hypnosis causes these effects has not been precisely identified. Studies using fMRI, EEG, and other neuroscience data collection methods have shown different patterns of activation in patients under hypnosis. The patterns of activation seem to depend more on what suggestions are given to hypnotize the patient than on anything generalizable to all forms of hypnosis. So which methods of hypnosis are there? And is there anything like what Evelyn Deavor’s goggles did to the pizza delivery guy or to Elastigirl? Most hypnosis in the real world is done via audio stimulation, not video or images. Patients may be asked to imagine images, but often these are described by a therapist or researcher speaking out loud. I was not able to find any studies that experimentally tested whether auditory or visual hypnosis were more “effective” in any way. I’ll have to look up more about trance-like states induced by looking at screens outside of the literature on hypnosis. But I’ll save that for a later day. Have you ever been hypnotized? What was it like for you? To learn more, see the 2015 review of mechanisms of hypnosis by Jensen and colleagues or the 2013 review of hypnosis apps by Sucala and colleagues. #hypnosis #Incredibles #Incredibles2 #EvelynDeavor #disneybound #Elastigirl #DisneyboundChallenge #ScreenSlaver #PixarMovie #DisneyVillains #DisneyVillainScience #PhDLife #ScienceOfDisney #DisneyScience

My take on Honey Lemon, the stylish Latina with a love of chemistry In the original comics, Honey Lemon’s purse is not a bomb factory where any chemical reaction can be programmed as portrayed in the animated version of Big Hero 6. Her Power Purse is more like Hermione’s infinite knapsack, but with wormholes instead of wizardry. These limitless wormholes allow her to store objects in other universes and dimensions and pull them out when needed. Unfortunately, wormholes are about as real as pixie dust and magical spells. But they have a lot of interesting theoretical physics and geometry behind their potential existence! No known substance in our universe has the necessary ratio between density of material and pressure to support an opening to form a wormhole. And you’d probably still need a time-turner if you wanted a wormhole to help you travel through time. But physicists are researching whether a wormhole could be opened on the quantum level. Right now, they don’t know enough about gravity at the quantum level to be able to do much more than theorize. But intriguing nevertheless. Once we solve that mystery, we would just have to figure out how to replicate the phenomenon on the macroscopic scale to fit things like spaceships or superhero gear. If you want to know more, check out Scientific American’s interviews with three physics professors about wormholes. #HoneyLemon #BigHero6 #Disneybound #Disneybounding #MarchDisneyboundChallenge #DisneyHeroine #Marvel #MarvelComics #Baymax #Chemistry #QuantumPhysics #Quantum #Hermione #TimeTurner #LatinaChemist #LatinasInSTEM #LatinxInSTEM #PhDLife #DisneyScience #ScienceOfDisney #DisneyNerd #DisneyGram #DisneyBlogger #Superhero #Superpower #Wormhole #PhDStudent #DisneylandAnnualPassholder #DisneyAnnualPassholder #DisneyAP

“Oh. How embarrassing!” You and me both, Wardrobe. But at least I’m embarrassing myself for science! Today I investigate mothballs’ role in wardrobes and some alternatives that do the same trick. Moths are primarily a worry when storing animal materials like fur, wool, or feathers (which I don’t personally own) because they eat through these natural fibers. To protect garments from hungry moths and larvae, you could store them in a sealed plastic bag with mothballs. Mothballs are composed of an aromatic carbon-based compound called naphthalene that has the chemical structure of two Settlers of Catan pieces glued together on one edge. This compound sublimates (transitions directly from solid to gas) and produces a gas that is toxic to moths! However, naphthalene has been shown to cause cancer in animal studies and is classified as possibly carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Mothballs can cause serious harm to children or pets who mistake them for edible treats. Alternatively, camphor is found in the wood of trees that primarily grow in Asia. It has been shown to repel fire ants in an article in the Journal of Insect Science. Jury is still out on moths though. Making your closet with cedar, storing small balls or blocks of cedar, or diffusing cedarwood oil amongst your clothes can also repel insects. Cedar and cedarwoods produce aromas that have evolved as natural plant defenses but the exact way that they affect insects is not nailed down. The effects of cedar wear off so must be replaced every so often. A more sustainable yet less effective alternative is to use lavender. Lavender has a pleasant scent and protects woolen materials but the smell is not toxic to moths in any life stage. Lavender oils have also been used to deter mosquitoes! To learn more check out Texas A&M’s City Bugs page, the National Pesticide Information Center and posts on toxicology and sustainability by @wastefreephd and @megmadeup14 What’s in your dream closet? I’ve got my eye on a Mickey overall dress from @cakeworthy #MarchDisneyboundChallenge #BeautyAndTheBeast #DisneyStyle #DisneyFashion #PhDLife #DisneyScience #ScienceOfDisney #Science

#MarchDisneyBoundChallenge - Princess & The Frog Eudora was a highly regarded seamstress. Today, I’m sharing some fabric facts I learned on Walt Disney World’s Backstage Magic tour! Did you know that Disney tests various carpet samples they’re considering for use throughout the resort? They need to figure out which carpets will withstand thousands upon thousands of people walking over it. So, they placed samples in the cast member costuming building behind Epcot because thousands of people walk through there every day. To make all of the costumes worn in the shows and parades (which is over 1000 cast members!), the Textiles department on property goes through 900,000 yards of fabric every year. If you’ve ever wondered what happens to costumes from previous animatronics, like the Great Movie Ride, you can find many of them on display in the Textile department offices! One of the coolest costumes that can only be seen in the offices are the original Rivers of Light performer costumes. They were initially made with leather pieces but were too heavy for the performers. So, they were remade with 3D printed components instead! Although we saw some awesome costumes, we also got to see the people working the sewing machines. And they were primarily people of color who likely were getting paid far less than the two white male cast members leading my tour. #SystemicRacism Check out @hownototravellikeabasicbitch story highlight about fashion and @ajabarber to learn about how the modern fashion industry involves many problematic slavery practices. What’s your favorite Disney costume? #PrincessAndTheFrog #Disneybounding #PATFBound #NewOrleans #Eudora #PrincessTiana #Tiana #Naveen #DrFacilier #DisneyWorld #WaltDisneyWorld #Backstage #DisneyCastMember #CastMembers #BackstageMagicTour #BackstageMagic #BehindTheScenes #DisneyScience #ScienceOfDisney #DisneyFashion #DisneyCostume #DisneyGram #DisneyGrammers #DisneyGrammer

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