Archives for August, 2010
The luxury of anti-vaccinationism: Part II
Posted by ERV on August 17, 2010 Part I: HPV Part II: Measles Anti-vaxers are absolutely disgusting. I couldnt possibly care less what other people choose to do with their own bodies. I dont care if guys want to use steroids for cosmetic purposes, any more than I care if a female wants to get a boob-job (or vice versa). I dont…
Genes + Virus + Timing = CRAP!!: Crohns Disease and Noroviruses
Posted by ERV on August 16, 2010 Thanks to BleachGate, this is probably the first time many of you all in the Skeptical Community have heard about Crohns Disease (SPOILER: kid with Chrons gets booted from a ‘support’ forum for speaking out against woo-’treatments’). Crohns is an inflammatory bowl disease (IBD), where your guts do fun things like shrink until your bowls…
XMRV: Not in spooge
Posted by ERV on August 12, 2010 Lack of Detection of XMRV in Seminal Plasma from HIV-1 Infected Men in The Netherlands These folks looked in the semen of HIV-1(+) men for XMRV– because of XMRVs association with prostate cancer, and retroviruses as STDs, and because HIV+ people are more susceptible to infections than HIV- people. 29 homosexual men (not on any…
Not seeing the forest through the trees: Microbiomes and Obesity
Posted by ERV on August 12, 2010 We are fat. We are really, really fat. While some people are overweight/obese for very real medical conditions (thyroid issues, side-effects of medications, etc), the fact of the matter is, most of us just eat/drink too much crap and we live sedentary lifestyles. That doesnt mean that we actually acknowledge this. There is no shortage…
Pseudo-paleovirology
Posted by ERV on August 11, 2010 Paleovirology is one of my favorite topics to read about. Whether its bringing extinct viruses back to life, or finding ancient HIV-1 integration sites, or finding millions of year old viruses in genomes, or studying the modern side-effects of ancient viral infections, I love old viruses just about as much as modern ones. I even…
Star-crossed puppies
Posted by ERV on August 10, 2010 The worst part of visiting my parents is driving home. Yes, I will miss Moms cooking/baking. Yes, I will miss having real food (weird how the totally not organic food we get from local farmers is still good). Yes, Focus on the Family and AFA make a long drive longer (today they passive-aggressively ignored the…
Best. Drive. Home. EVAH!
Posted by ERV on August 5, 2010 I normally dread my drives home to visit my parents. I mean, its pretty– through OK and KS… but there is absolutely nothing on the radio but those crazy Christian talk shows. I can listen to them a while, for limited lulz, but eventually I get so sick of the Creationists and women talking about…
Quasispecies: FINALLY! A great online resource!
Posted by ERV on August 3, 2010 FINALLY! A free paper that explains the basics of viral quasispecies!!! YAAAAAY!!! Quasispecies Theory and the Behavior of RNA Viruses ARG! I have been wanting a paper like this to come out for AGES! I dont back down from explaining complex topics to you guys, but ‘quasispecies’ is just so weird… I am going to…
Chicks can do stupid sexist things too
Posted by ERV on August 2, 2010 Yes, we are very socially aware at ScienceBlogs. But I just did something very, very stupid, and I feel terrible about it, so Im going to confess on the internet so hopefully other people dont make this same mistake. Remember Giant Schnauzer? About a week ago, Giant Schnauzer and his owner moved into my apartment…
Green our vaccines! Part III
Posted by ERV on August 2, 2010 Beet black scorch virus. Family: Tombusviridae Genus: Necrovirus I know you all are thinking what Im thinking. LETS MAKE A VACCINE OUTTA THAT! YAY!!!! A ton of plant vaccine papers have been rolling out on PubMed since I first wrote about them a few months ago. I couldnt resist writing about another cool paper– How…