Reality is always more complicated than you think.
Profile
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine focusing in Neuroscience. He is due to graduate in 2032. He received a BS and a MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University -- where he spent most of his time drinking heavily and building vegetable catapults instead of learning information that would now be eminently useful. When he is not failing terrifically to perform his sworn duties, he enjoys watching bad movies, ethnic food, and running.
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.
Jake is joined periodically by two wonderful guest bloggers: Kara Contreary and Kate Seip. See the About Page.
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 or those of my co-bloggers. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments we currently attend.
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Biology:
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...
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Posted on May 19, 2008 11:27 AM • 9 Comments •
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...
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Posted on March 14, 2008 5:39 PM • 0 Comments •
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...
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Posted on December 13, 2007 1:36 PM • 6 Comments •
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....
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Posted on September 28, 2007 11:43 AM • 1 Comments •
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...
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Posted on August 29, 2007 10:27 AM • 2 Comments •
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,...
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Posted on August 10, 2007 9:06 AM • 0 Comments •
Saliva, is there anything it can't do? A new painkilling substance has been discovered that is up to six times more potent than morphine when tested in rats -- and it's produced naturally by the human body. Natural painkillers are...
Posted on November 14, 2006 9:41 AM • 2 Comments •
So there is this plant called dodder that parasitizes other plants, but until recently it was not known how it found the other plants. Recent research suggests that it does so by a form of smell. Dodder is in fact...
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Posted on October 3, 2006 10:40 AM • 0 Comments •
Andrew Fire and Craig Mello have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of RNA interference: Americans Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine Monday for discovering a powerful way...
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Posted on October 2, 2006 9:21 AM • 7 Comments •
Wouldn't we all like to know how to control hairiness? Women complain that they have too much, and spend half their lives eradicating the little bastards. Men have too little on the tops of their heads, and, let us say,...
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Posted on August 28, 2006 8:59 PM • 2 Comments •
Surgeons are experimenting with ways to use cryogenics to aid in surgery. If you can put someone in suspended animation, it would make the process of surgery much easier. Here is a description from Wired Magazine about such an experiment...
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Posted on July 15, 2006 4:14 PM • 1 Comments •
That will teach 'em: Social contact helped the Ebola virus virtually wipe out a population of gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, French researchers reported on Monday. A 2004 outbreak of the virus, which also kills people, killed 97...
Posted on July 10, 2006 10:57 PM • 1 Comments •
You remember what you learned in biology right -- or maybe health. A woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have. Well some researchers in Australia are disputing that point....
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Posted on July 4, 2006 11:30 AM • 3 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
