Abbie Smith is a graduate student studying the molecular and biochemical evolution of HIV within patients and within populations. She also studies epigenetic control of ERVs.
Im more than usually swamped for time right now, and dont have time to get more deeply into the conversation, but I wanted to post this glimpse into what I am doing in the lab right now:
I am infamous for several of those, plus I would have added "I am going to die here. I am going to die in this godforsaken place", plus I have never said "I should have gone to med school" because I am pretty sure I would have blown my brains out if I had to be an MD (no offense to those who do it, but I dont want to), but otherwise, this is a very accurate representation of shit grad students say.
I also loled at him not wearing a lab coat. People always picture a scientist in a white lab coat, but very few of us actually wear them. I only wear a lab coat when like the university would get in trouble if I were not wearing a lab coat (radiation, BSL-3).
Im glad none of you accused me of joking or exaggerating when I told this story:
A *very* common exchange I have with the general public regarding HIV-1:
Person-- Where did HIV-1 come from? Me-- HIV-1 is related to a virus we can find in African primates, SIV. SIV crossed over from chimpanzees to the human population to make 'HIV' sometime in the late 1800s, early 1900s. This event happened at least three times, giving us the three groups of HIV-1, Groups M, N, and O, however it most likely has occurred numerous times over the course of human evolution, it just never lead to a pandemic like what we have with HIV-1 today. You can go get blood samples from African hunters right now and find viruses not found in any other human. Person-- *makes a face* From eating monkeys? It wasnt from (whispers) having sex with monkeys? Me-- I seriously doubt it. People in other parts of the world hunt and eat monkeys the same way we hunt and eat deer. Technically, I would actually bet it would be easier to have sex with an unwilling deer than an unwilling chimpanzee. Opposable thumbs and like twice the strength of a human and such.
"Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community," he told Michelangelo Signorile, who hosts a radio program on SiriusXM OutQ. "It was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall."
"My understanding is that it is virtually -- not completely, but virtually -- impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex."
As much as I would like to make fun of this guy, and as stupid as his statements were, I have to reiterate, what he said is a very common misconception here in the US. I have to reiterate:
This observation isnt meant as social commentary, but I do think its *REALLY* funny that some people think it is more believable that we got HIV-1 from having sex with chimpanzees, than from eating chimpanzees. Some yall is messed up. LOL!
Messed up, but very common. So let me use that assholes comments as 'a teachable moment'.
Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community
HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, came from a colony of chimpanzees in Cameroon in the late 1800s, early 1900s. The virus was originally introduced into the homosexual community in the US via an unlucky founder event. However in the areas where HIV is an epidemic, and in the US present day, heterosexual women are the group hardest hit.
It was one guy screwing a monkey
People in Africa hunt non-human primates for food the same way we hunt deer for food. Because of our genetic similarity to these non-human primates, zoonotic events where the hunters and his immediate family are infected with a non-human pathogen are relatively common. However human-to-human transmission is more rare. That being said, SIV transferred from chimpanzees to humans at least three times (HIV-1 Group M, N, and O) and from sooty mangabeys at least once (HIV-2). It probably occurred many times, but did not lead to an epidemic due to 1) chance, and 2) lack of a globalized society.
and then having sex with men
The most likely scenareo is that male hunter went to the city and had sex with a female prostitute, who had sex with local men as well as visiting colonists from other countries capitalizing on Africas copper belt, and then it got spread all over Africa and all around the world, thanks to a global society.
It was an airline pilot
No, but humans ability to travel by air did facilitate the spread of HIV-1.
it is virtually -- not completely, but virtually -- impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex
Using condoms decreases the risk. Keeping viral loads low with antiretrovirals also decreases risk. And obviously, those numbers are statistics, not reality. They dont mean a woman can have unprotected sex with an HIV-1 positive partner 524 times and not be infected, nor does is mean that a guy can have sex with an HIV-1 infected prostitute a few times and not be infected. Heterosexuals are infected with HIV-1 all the time.
Men, women, children, of all ages, can and do get infected with HIV-1.
It is not 'virtually impossible'.
People with a cavalier attitude about HIV infection like Stacey are the ones helping HIV-1 spread with misinformation (if they arent spreading it personally themselves).
But just in case you think this statement was the end of Staceys idiocy... it was not. Behold this golden turd:
"A lot of people trying to gloss over and say it's an every-person disease but really it's just those high-risk people that are most likely to contract or spread that disease. "The odds of a regular man getting it from a regular woman are very low," he said.
We asked, "What do you mean by 'regular?'"
He said, "someone who is not from Africa, someone who is not a homosexual, someone who is not an IV drug user, someone who is not sleeping with someone who is one of those things."
Lets just ignore the fact Stacey is compounding the stigma that HIV/AIDS is a 'dirty' disease that only dirty people get. Lets walk right up the gem Stacey presented us with: "Hi! Im Stacey Campfield! And I want to make it 100% clear that I am really, really racist and homophobic by declaring in a very public way that Africans and homosexuals are NOT 'regular'."
ROFL! I mean WTF, dude! WTF is the matter with you?? Did your mom do IV drugs while she was pregnant with you or something?? WTF LOL!!! And lets just get this out there-- for a TOTALLY NOT GAY guy, Stacey sure spends a lot of timefocused on homosexuality. If only someone had protected you from hearing about homosexuality when you were young, you might not be having these 'dirty' not 'regular' feeling, eh Stacey? Yeah Imajustgonna start this 'Countdown to Haggard Town' clock over here...
Stacey, if you lock yourself in a closet, you probably wont get infected with HIV. But dont be surprised if you call a radio show from your safe closet and people think you are a friggen weirdo.
Just, turn off your brain before you read this post, folks.
If you try to to think about this, Im pretty sure your entire brain will hemorrhage, and I dont want to be responsible for that.
You think I am joking.
I am not.
I actually heard rumors about what Im going to type here today a week ago, but I didnt write it because I thought it was just an internet rumor. It was too stupid to be real life.
And yet, after verifying the info, here I am. It is true.
*blink*
*deepbreath*
Okay.
Companies like Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Trident-- they take their food flavor/food additive/food everything very seriously. Every new flavor of pop or chip or chewing gum you have encountered is the end result science. They used science to determine/create/execute the way the product smells, tastes, feels, packaged, shelf-life, and a gazillion things I have not mentioned because I dont know everything.
Anyway, this 'science' isnt just mixing a bunch of stuff together, taking it to a group of folks, and asking them if it tastes good. Its science, which means it involves PCR and cell culture and kits from Invitrogen and Qiagen and such. Lab work like what I do every day.
One of the cells that I use literally every day are HEK 293 cells (technically, HEK 293T cells). They are great work horses for growing up stocks of HIV-1 to use in experiments, or to grow proteins to radiolabel, hard workers and really easy to manipulate.
Im not the only person on Planet Earth who uses these these guys-- lots of people do. I would hazard to guess that most labs who do any kind of mammalian cell tissue culture use 293 cells. Which means, of course, that some of the labs Pepsi uses, like Senomyx, use 293 cells:
Senomyx is discovering and developing innovative flavor ingredients for the food, beverage, and ingredient supply industries using our unique proprietary technologies. We believe that our novel flavors, flavor enhancers, and bitter blockers will enable our collaborators to improve the nutritional profile of their products and/or achieve a competitive advantage maintaining or enhancing taste.
Cooooool! I actually never thought about a job like this for a career, but it looks freaking awesome, and IN SAN DIEGO, and AWESOME.
AWESOME!
So why am I bringing this up on ERV?
Okay, are your brains off?
I swear to god, you need to turn them off.
Okay...
Im bringing this up because mentally handicapped radical Christian Oklahoma State Senator Ralph Shortey thinks that scientists doing experiments in the lab with HEK 293 cells means there are aborted fetuses in food.
Excuse me, to be precise, NOT ONLY DOES HE THINK IT MEANS THERE ARE ABORTED FETUSES IN FOOD, 'ITS BEYOND THAT'.:
"People are thinking that this has to do with fetuses being chopped up and put in our burritos," Shortey told NewsOK. ""That's not the case. It's beyond that."
It really is. There is relatively no content to the bill, except homeboy wants to ban any food where 293s had any role, no matter how remote:
No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.
If you destroy everything that involves 293 cells, you destroy 40 years worth of biomedical research and centuries of future research, including research going on right down the street of the OK Capitol at OUHSC and OMRF (example: That new fangled gene therapy stuff that has been treating/curing shit left and right? We use 293 cells to grow up the viruses needed for these treatments).
But Ol Ralphie is real pro-life, you see.
*PUKE*
Here is the pure, unadulterated source of insanity from 'Life News':
As recently as May, Pepsi ignored concerns and criticism from dozens of pro-life groups and tens of thousands of pro-life people who voiced their opposition to PepsiCo contracting with biotech company Senomyx even after it was found to be testing their food additives using fetal cells from abortions.
"Unfortunately, there is some misinformation being circulated related to research techniques that have been used for decades by universities, hospitals, government agencies, and private companies around the world. These claims are meant to suggest that human fetal tissue is somehow used in our research," wrote Margaret Corsi, a spokesperson for PepsiCo. "That is both inaccurate and something we would never do or even consider. It also is inaccurate to suggest that tissue or cells somehow are being used as product ingredients. That's dangerous, unethical and against the law. Every ingredient in every one of our products is reviewed and approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration."
Clearly, as an Evil Scientist, Mad Evilutionist, and all around Demon Atheist, I have to now withdraw my support for the Pepsi Corporation. I was under the impression that my consuming Mountain Dew was not only supporting the death of beautiful children of God, but that I was also physically consuming the little angels bodies, if not souls.
Now theyre telling me there are no aborted fetuses in my beloved Mountain Dew? Fuck that shit!
And fuck Ralph Shortey.
Huge wall of text/copypasta from a response he left to a high school friend on Facebook (a Facebook friend who was pissed off about this 'bill'). All emphasis is mine, and my comments are in parentheses:
Non-stick pans, water-proof clothing, stain-proof carpet, pizza boxes, microwave popcorn bags, the air outdoors, the air indoors-- if youve ever been exposed to these things, you have been exposed to 'Perfluorinated Compounds' (PFCs).
Because the most common PFCs have a relatively long half-life (~4 years!), and because weve basically all been exposed, you can find PFCs in the blood of about 90% of us here in the US. Its ubiquitous. And, like with a lot of things, 'some' isnt that big of a deal, but 'more' can cause problems. The questions are where that 'some' to 'more' threshold is, and what kinds of problems can emerge.
A rather unexpected correlation emerged today in JAMA:
Previous research indicated that PFCs had a negative impact on the immune systems of mice. How can we find out if they have a negative impact on humans? We cant inject humans with PFCs and cut out their spleens to study their white blood cells. But mice arent humans-- maybe what they saw was an artifact of 'mice' and PFCs have no impact on humans.
'Maybe' isnt good enough. So, this group of scientists went to a place where the folks eat a lot of fish (a common source of PFCs, so, if youve eaten fish, welcome to the 90%). Then they did two things:
1-- Looked at the immune response of kids (5 years old) to tetanus and diphtheria vaccines, and correlated it with the blood PFC concentration of their moms in pregnancy.
2-- Looked at the memory antibody response (aka how much the kids were protected from the pathogen) two years later (7 years old), and correlated it with their blood PFC concentration.
"When the PFC concentration increases in the body, the immune system gets more sluggish and is less capable of maintaining a defense mechanism against microorganism"
You dont have data to support that statement in your paper. And wtf is 'immune system gets more sluggish'? That is a meaningless phrase. Talk like a grown up, people are not stupid.
Although the findings don't prove the chemicals themselves are harming the immune system, Grandjean said he thought that is "very likely" to be the case.
And Judy Mikovits thought XMRV was 'very likely' to cause CFS. We dont say things to the public without evidence to back it up, Grandjean.
"I don't feel comfortable with the compounds for myself and my family and would rather eliminate them," he told Reuters Health.
*frown*
He added that parents might want to avoid microwave popcorn, and treatment of furniture, carpets and clothing with stain repellants to reduce their family's exposure to PFCs.
What Grandjean has is a very interesting observation. The biochemical and physiological ins-and-outs of that observation are still unknown. He did not do studies with microorganisms-- he did studies with vaccines. Maybe there is some genetic quirk that has a negative effect on processing PFCs that also disturbs immune function. Maybe exposure to PFCs interferes with vaccine adjuvents (it seems PFCs and alum are in the same size range). Maybe there is something else about eating more fish that is negatively effecting vaccine responses (MERCURY!!!!!WARBLEGARBLE!!!), and PFCs are just a proxy measure that have no direct effect on the phenotype. An innocent correlation without causation, while the real culprit goes unrecognized.
Absolutely, if scientists can turn this observation into a causation, we would then know to keep an eye on PFC exposure and PFC waste in our environment. Of course. But screaming 'WOLF!!!!' when you find a dead goat that may or may not have died from a wolf attack helps no one, and can in fact be a snipe we waste time and money chasing if it turns out the wolf had nothing to do with it. I know youre excited, but be more careful with your statements, Grandjean.
We in the skeptic community like to make fun of naturopaths and homeopaths and all the snake oil salesmen out there. While its a good ol laugh here in the West, if not nostalgic, the damage these charlatans can do in other parts of the world is not funny at all.
Long-time readers of SciBlogs might remember someone named Matthias Rath
Homeboy got rich taking advantage of desperate HIV/AIDS patients in Africa. Gave them some 'magic potion' of Vitamin C to cure HIV/AIDS HE TOTALLY DIDNT SAY IT WOULD CURE HIV/AIDS (except when he did). Men, women, children, he didnt care.
The Guardian described a case in which a pregnant woman newly diagnosed with HIV was visited at home by Rath Health Foundation employees and convinced to stop taking her antiretroviral medication in favor of Rath's vitamins; she died 3 months later.
The good news is, it appears as if African officials are becoming more aware of quackery and are cracking down on their local charlatans. From a few days ago:
Uganda's National Drug Authority recently arrested sales representatives of a company selling a drug that purports to cure HIV; the firm's owners are not licensed to sell medicine and are being sought by the police.
The drug, known as Virol ZAPPER, was being sold in 37-milliliter liquid doses, each costing about US$210; patients were advised to take 10 drops daily. It was being advertised on local radio and TV stations as a miracle cure for HIV.
Uganda - In 2006, the Ugandan government banned the use of a popular anti-AIDS herb remedy known as "Khomeini" , after tests found it provided no cure. Iranian Sheikh Allagholi Elahi claimed the drug - which contained olive oil and honey and cost $1,650 per dose - could cure HIV/AIDS and TB in three weeks.
Gambia - In 2007, President Yahya Jammeh was roundly denounced by AIDS activists when he said he had found a cure for HIV/AIDS and began treating citizens. Shortly after his announcement, Jammeh expelled the most senior UN official in the country for questioning his "cure".
Tanzania - In 2011, tens of thousands of people from all over East Africa flocked to the tiny village of Loliondo in Tanzania seeking a cure for several diseases, including diabetes, tuberculosis and HIV. Ambilikile Mwasapile, a former Lutheran pastor, was charging 500 Tanzanian shillings - about $0.33 - for a cup for his concoction.
Remember this the next time you are laughing at some rich, fundamentally healthy individual mindlessly repeating bullshit about homeopathy or herbal medicine or naturopathy or whatever. Disgusting.
Fetuses (fetii?) and babbies are protected from pathogens, even though their own immune systems have not matured yet. How do they manage this feat? They steal antibodies from Mommy!
Remember yesterday I said the same antibody can have lots of different butt-ends? The same 'business end' that recognizes tetanus toxin or a variant of influenza, but different back-ends-- each different butt has a different skill set.
... Newborn Babbies steal Moms antibodies a different way! IgM and IgA antibodies have a superpower that lets them be secreted-- in tears, in saliva, in mucus, and in breast milk! As long as Babby is breastfeeding, it gets all of Mommys secreted antibodies! Yay!
So, if Mom has been properly vaccinated, she has antibodies to measles, mumps, chicken pox, etc etc etc, and those are transmitted to Babby and protect it, if Babby is directly exposed to a pathogen. If Mom is exposed, her antibodies probably keep the pathogen from replicating/establishing infection at all, so Fetus and Babby are safe if their contact is indirect too.
They came to the conclusion that breastmilk, which is packed with immune-building immunoglobulin A (IgA), lactoferrin, lysozyme, and various other important immune factors, inhibits the vaccine from working.
IgA is not 'immune building'. IgA from Mommy via breast milk to Babby is passive immunity. Its there for a while, but then it goes away.
And it actually turns out, Mommy-->Babby IgA might be the polar opposite of 'immune building': immune retarding:
Again, readers of ERV will totally get this paper and what they were investigating.
Rotavirus infection causes severe diarrhea, thus severe dehydration in kids. In richer countries, those kids have access to hospitals and such where they get IV fluids and are (usually) fine. In lower income countries, those kids die, to a tune of over half a million a year.
The good news is we have vaccines for rotavirus infection!
The bad news is, it doesnt seem to be working as well in the lower income countries that *need* it to work the most. What the heck is going on? Why would a vaccine work almost perfectly in the US, and lose almost half its efficacy in Nicaragua? No sense.
Well, there is something else we have access to in 'rich' countries: Formula.
It seems that moms in low income countries breastfeed their babbies more and longer.
Do you see where this is going?
Babby gets the live attenuated rotavirus vaccine. Babby eats lunch from Mom. Moms anti-rotavirus IgA antibodies neutralize the rotavirus vaccine. Babby never makes its own antibodies to rotavirus, or doesnt make very good antibodies in response to the vaccine. Babby might not be protected from rotavirus when it stops breastfeeding.
The folks in this paper determined:
In conclusion, our findings indicate that the neutralizing activity of breast milk could be one of the many factors that might explain the lower observed immunogenicity and effectiveness of live oral rotavirus vaccines among children in developing countries. These data should encourage clinical trials to investigate whether delaying breast-feeding for a short period before and after giving the vaccine could reasonably improve the immune response and protective efficacy.
Its worth investigating whether giving Babby formula a little before/after the rotavirus vaccine will help protect Babby better. Maybe we can help save some more kids. YAY!
The paper goes on to say that, rather than remove vaccines so that breastmilk can do its job, women should instead remove the breastmilk to allow vaccines to do their job.
... Withholding breastmilk in order to accommodate the rotavirus vaccine, as the CDC researchers suggest, is an absolutely insane notion that will deprive children of vital nutrition and proper immune development.
... But it is ludicrous notions like these that are birthed from philosophies that view drugs and vaccines as being equal, or even superior, to natural food.
... This is how vaccine dogma works, though. The religion of vaccines does not have to offer any solid proof that a vaccine works, or that it is even safe. A vaccine can even cause the very thing it is touted as preventing, and vaccine apologists will say that it works and that it is necessary. And now in this case, these same psychopaths are suggesting that young babies be starved of real nutrition in order to improve the effectiveness of a vaccine.
Go ahead and enjoy that entire piece. Its almost funny its so stupid. But then you realize that what that asshole is saying can kill kids. And then you realize hes just some jackass bitching on the internet. He has no influence in Nicaragua or India. All he can do is write posts filled with indignant righteousness, hyperbolic vilification of his 'enemies', and such extreme idiocy Im assuming he wears velcro shoes, as there is no way someone who writes an article like that can handle shoelaces without harming himself and those around him. He is impotent.
In real life, there are real people doing real jobs actually working to make the world a better place.
And that pisses impotent idiots like Ethan A. Huff off, so he runs to the internet to BAAAAAAAAAAW to his equally impotent and equally idiotic comrades and they all pat themselves on the back and give each other blow-jobs because theyre all so smart and theyre the only ones who really care, you see (see comments).
Wow... If this doesn't tell you how obviously brainwashing agencies like the CDC, FDA, and pharmaceutical companies can be... I don't know what will?
Poor creatures if we parents dont stand up for our rigths and the rigths of our children no one will.
Too many people are so clueless because they've been busy watching Charlie Sheen implode or The Bachelor.
when we were kids people used to have their kids get infected quickly to gain permanent immunity as soon as possible such as measles parties. that was scientifically smart and devoid of all the scary side effects of todays ridiculous vaccines that burn out the immune systemm and overload it.
bottom line they don't give a crap about us at all, all they care about is pushing their poisons.
Refreshing to see so many people here with common sense.
Kids in India are 'poor creatures'. Nice. Jackasses.
But hey, thanks Ethan, for providing me with this teachable moment.
To briefly summarize, Hepatitis C sucks. It has infected lots of people. It kills lots of people. And we have extremely limited treatment options for infected patients. We basically have two drugs, and they make you feel like shit, literally, for the 6-12 month treatment course. To operationally define "shit"-- Its like having the flu for 6-12 months, with the added bonus of 'emotional disturbances', ie, you go nuts.
This means that only ~half of the people infected with Hepatitis C can even successfully complete the treatment course of the only two drugs we have to help them. Of the people infected with the 'worst' Hepatitis, Type 1, only ~50% of them are cured of the infection.
So, for a simplified illustration, of 100 people infected with HepC Type 1-- 50 can tolerate the drugs. 25 are 'cured'. 75 are still sick.
What can we do to help those people? What can we do to make treatment easier and tolerable for all 100 people? What can we do to up that viral clearance rate?
There is some recent data, small group of folks, that gives us hope that the treatment process for HepC Type 1 could get a *lot* easier:
They took 21 patients who had failed primary therapy. They gave them two oral drugs (vs interferon, which must be administered IV) Daclatasvir and Asunaprevir. Those names might look cryptic, but readers of ERV shouldnt be intimidated-- Asunaprevir is a protease inhibitor and Daclatasvir is a 'replication complex inhibitor', that is it screws up the viruses ability to replicate its genome.
Of the 11 patients that only received the two oral drugs, 5 cleared the virus. Of the 10 who got the two oral drugs PLUS the two standard drugs again, 9 cleared the virus.
Again, this is still very, very preliminary-- I mean, 10 patients, for Petes sake. But of the 10 that got quad-drug therapy, 9 were cured!
I really hope this pans out.
But, just to be Debbie Downer here-- even if this therapy does work out, its success will be fleeting. Those patients that were not cured? They were populated with HepC that was resistant to the drugs.
The Falkland Islands came under further criticism Tuesday for refusing to allow a cruise ship with an outbreak of stomach flu to dock, as passengers complained about their missed travel plans and an expert called the decision an overreaction.
Tourists on the Star Princess told The Associated Press they were forced to cancel long-planned trips when officials in the disputed British territory off Argentina refused them entry Saturday, saying an outbreak could strain the archipelago's medical resources.
Some people are characterizing this as going overboard, and may be politically motivated. It may be disappointing to the tourists, but I cant say I honestly blame the decision of the Falkland Island administrators. Others disagree:
But Norman Noah, an infectious diseases expert at London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, described the Falklands' decision as "over the top."
...
"If you're suffering from vomiting and diarrhea, you probably won't be sightseeing," Noah said. "Chances are you'll be staying in your cabin by yourself."
Thats specious. 1-- People shed virus before they are symptomatic. 2-- People shed virus after they have 'gotten better' and are no longer symptomatic. 3-- People can shed virus without showing any symptoms at all (something like 30% of infections can be asymptomatic). The passengers would be using restrooms on the islands and then eating and using door handles and thumbing through merchandise in shops-- this isnt like a day trip to Antarctica where everyone has to go back to the ship to potty and eat, thus the virus would be contained to the ship population. Norovirus would almost certainly spread from the ship to the population living on the islands.
The population living on the islands is ~3100. The population on the ship was ~3500.
I dont blame the islands for being wary of potentially needing to treat their own population and potentially some of the ships population for complications due to norovirus infection. Antibiotics and IV fluids they would need for other patients.
And then, its not just the population on the Falkland Islands that could be infected by that ship. If the ship infects the locals, when the next ship comes to dock, that population could get infected by the locals, and their trip is ruined too.
The Falklands has defended its decision as being made "in the wider interests of the public and tourism industry," according to a statement from the island's chief medical officer. "An outbreak in the Falkland Islands would put enormous pressure on our limited medical resources and jeopardize other scheduled cruise visits," the statement said.
*shrug* Exactly.
Was that decision a shitty one to make? Yes. But I dont think it was unreasonable, nor do I think it had anything to do with politics. Its just a shitty virus.
We trust each other to perform experiments exactly how we say we did.
We trust each other to report our findings exactly how they turned out.
We *have* to trust each other, or else we just sit in our labs doing the same experiments over and over and over, to see the results with our own eyes.
That is one of the reasons why scientists get so pissed off when experimental protocols are not accurately reported, or worse, when data is not accurately reported (if not outright fabricated).
This article highlights the role trust plays in science from a different angle:
(also here) LOVE IT! WONDERFUL! Hope you all will go over and give Alice Callahan some support-- you know she will need it after the anti-vaxers find that article.
Abbie Smith is a graduate student studying the molecular and biochemical evolution of HIV within patients and within populations. She also studies epigenetic control of ERVs.
