Now on ScienceBlogs: Falling into a Black Hole sucks!
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.
Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.
DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision-making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments I currently attend or attended in the past.
June 29, 2007
Category: Atheism
Matt Nisbet at Framing Science cites an article by DJ Grothe and Austin Dacey arguing the negative: Women, people of color, and GLBTs have consistently faced discrimination that substantially diminishes their basic life prospects-access to housing, health care, education, political...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:36 AM • 23 Comments •
June 28, 2007
Category: Pop culture
It is so exceedingly rare that I get to say something positive about stars. Usually all I have to say is some crap that Paris Hilton did or that Madonna decided to purchase another child from Africa. So I was...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 9:31 AM • 9 Comments •
Category: Women's Health
Madam Fathom has a great piece on the results of fellow Sinai researcher John Morrison's study into cognitive improvement with estrogen treatment. (I would note, however, that hormone replacement therapy is still not recommended for anything other than the acute...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 9:15 AM • 1 Comments •
June 27, 2007
Category: Haha, a funny
I love the comic XKCD. This comic is just exquisite geekiness:...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 12:57 PM • 2 Comments •
The NYTimes has a excellent summary of the progress in the study of evolution of development (evo-devo). Scientists have been surprised to discover over the years that a relatively small number of closely-related genes control the body plan of animal...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 12:54 PM • 0 Comments •
June 26, 2007
Category: Energy Policy
C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer, writing in Foriegn Affairs, summarize the likely effects of corn-based biofuels on the world food supply. Take home message: the biofuel craze has led to skyrocketing food prices which -- along with government subsidies...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 12:23 PM • 13 Comments •
June 25, 2007
Category: TV
So I don't know if other people were into this show, but since college I have been a big fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was a show on Comedy Central and then on SciFi that made fun of...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:50 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Evolution
Science has a fascinating review about the history of cooking and its relation to human evolution. Richard Wrangham, a Harvard primatologist, has been pushing the idea that the expansion in Homo erectus' skull size was the result of additional energy...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:06 AM • 22 Comments •
June 21, 2007
Category: Aminals
Electric fish, Brienomyrus brachyistius, produce tiny electric signals from an organ in their tails that can be used to communicate and convey social status. They can also be used attract a mate, as reported in a study by Wong and...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:42 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Genetics
Two big studies on genetics came out in the past couple weeks, and I want to talk about both. One of them -- the ENCODE study -- was well covered by the media. The other seems to have slipped through....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:06 AM • 4 Comments •
