Now on ScienceBlogs: Pale Blue Dot
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.
Category: Biology
People are doing biology in their kitchen now, or in rented labs with cheaper equipment: In Cambridge, Mass., a group called DIYbio is setting up a community lab where the public could use chemicals and lab equipment, including a used...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 2:40 PM • 17 Comments •
Category: Biology
Mark this on the list of "things to expect in 2009." Craig Venter and his team expect to create the world's first artificially synthesized organism: One likely announcement, which may happen any day of the year, is of the world's...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 12:36 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Biology
Nicholas Wade (a friend of mine's Dad actually) was on the Colbert Report talking about cloning wooly mammoths. Colbert asks the obvious question: why don't we just staple shag carpeting to an elephant?...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:08 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: Biology
Check out this crazy video of a rare "elbowed" giant squid recorded from a Shell Oil remote operated vehicle in the Gulf of Mexico....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:52 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Philosophy
Steven Wiley, writing in the Scientist, discusses the contradiction of the recent fad for "hypothesis-free" research: Following a recent computational biology meeting, a group of us got together for dinner, during which the subject of our individual research projects came...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:27 AM • 9 Comments •
Category: Biology
I wish I could do this: Scientists exposed 4-day-old sand dollar larvae to fish mucus, a sign that danger is close. They found that the larvae created clones of themselves within 24 hours. "It's the first time we've seen anything...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 5:39 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Biology
This is just too good. All molecular biologists have had a conversation at least once where they try to actually explain what they do with their day to a lay-person, rather than just talking in stale generalities. The problem with...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 1:36 PM • 6 Comments •
Category: Biology
The Scientist has a wonderful article about complimentarity in biology. Complimentarity is the application of two or more different theoretical approaches to a single problem: "Light and Life" is perhaps best known for its focus on Bohr's concept of complementarity....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:43 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Biology
That is so gross, yet also very cool. The cowpea weevil or Callosobruchus maculatus has an arms race that is going between the males and females. This beetle species are promiscuous, and there is a lot of advantage for the...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:27 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: Biology
Scientists have thawed samples of bacteria that were frozen in ice for up to 8,000,000 years in order to figure out whether these bacteria would still be viable and whether their DNA is intact. It turns out they are viable,...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 9:06 AM • 0 Comments •
